Urban Vegan Tester # 7 - Buckeyes

Here's my latest tester recipe from the Urban Vegan. Buckeye candies got their name because they resemble the nut of the buckeye tree.  Since you don't have to bake these chocolate and peanut butter confections, they are a breeze to make. The hardest part is waiting for the chocolate coating to set before you pop one in your mouth.

Give A Hoot, Eat A Cupcake

This week, I'm being a good girl and getting all my necessary health checkups over with. Dentist, check. Doctor, check. And today -- opthamologist, check. Oh, how I hate that one! My vision was terrible until I had lasik several years ago. I have many memories of visiting the eye doctor only to find out my prescription had gone up yet again. The left eye was always particularly bad. So, naturally, that's the eye Jackson punched me in a couple weeks ago. Not on purpose of course, but Mama got a little too close when he was flailing (I mean, dancing) around like a crazy man! It's still a little blurry, so I thought I better get it checked out, even though I was dreading it.

To calm my nerves before my appointment, I headed into the kitchen. I try not to be too much of a comfort eater, but I admit I am an unrepentant comfort baker! Nothing gets unpleasant thoughts out of my head like sifting, stirring, and scooping.

The result of my attempt at distraction -- owl cupcakes!

I came across this genius idea on Learning Vegan and, since owls are bad-ass, I had to make these cupcakes as a tribute to my favorite creepy, winged forest dwellers.

Fittingly, the eyes were the hardest part. I made them out of mini peanut butter sandwich crackers, which were not as easy to pry apart as I assumed they would be. They also slid around uncontrollably on the frosting, making my owls look slightly cross-eyed, or perhaps hung over.

Of course, I had to sample one of the little dudes after me and my scratched cornea got back from our exam. Nothing says "Good job going to get your wonky eye checked out" like a wonky-eyed owl cupcake.

Seitan Saltado and Coconut Tres Leches Cake

My tummy is sooooooo happy right now. And full. Full of delicious, delicious seitan. For dinner, I made two recipes from Viva Vegan. The entree was Seitan Saltado.

For dessert, if you couldn't guess from the oh-so-creative title of this post, we had Coconut Tres Leches Cake.

These things took some preparation, as many dishes from this cookbook do. When I first got the book several months ago, I decided to go all out and make a feast: empanadas, enchiladas, side dishes, salsas, and the tres leches cake.

It all tasted good, from what I remember, but I didn't read the recipes carefully beforehand. So I'd get a to a point in a recipe where it would say, "Next, add the cold broth." I was like "What cold broth? I don't have any cold broth. Now I have to make broth and wait 30 minutes while it cools?" When I was finally done cooking, I was exhausted! And it kinda put me off the book for awhile.

Still, on our last trip to Mexican Radio in Hudson, Tony had a dish called Carne Asada Fries. It was shredded seasoned beef and salsa on a bed of french fries. He liked it, and I sorta wished I'd ordered their vegan version of it. Then I thought, "I bet I can make it at home. Wait, haven't I actually seen a recipe for something like that, somewhere?"

I got out Viva Vegan, and there it was. And today it was time to give it a shot. I had already made some white steamed seitan loaves on my productive Sunday in the kitchen. While the seitan thawed, I made the french fries and the rice that serve as the base layers. Yes, fries AND rice -- carb fiends take note! Then I shredded the seitan and let it marinate for a couple hours.

At dinner time, all I had to do was stir-fry the seitan with some onions and tomatoes. It was freaking awesome, I don't know what else to say.

And then, the tres leches! I baked the cake the night before, to give the sauce time to soak in. I didn't have any rum, so I used Kahlua in the sauce. Tasted fine to me, ha! Today, I just needed to prepare the "whipped cream" topping. It went more smoothly than the first time I made it (I burned the agar and had to start over), but you still need to have good timing. Have your milk/arrowroot mixture ready when you start to heat up the agar flakes and water. It heats and thickens REALLY fast and you'll want to quickly stir it all together and get it off the heat. Oh, and the book says to blend the tofu and coconut cream in a food processor, but it's such a small amount. If you have a regular food processor with a large bowl, like I do, it's not gonna work. I used a hand mixer, and didn't have any issues with graininess.

Austin, Texas, where I lived for three years, is like the capital of tres leches cakes. Every Tex-Mex restaurant in town serves them, every grocery store sells them. I sampled them all in my leche-consuming days. And this baby is as good as any of them. I predict it will be gone very, very soon.

Now I'm already looking through Viva Vegan trying to decide what to make next. Have you ever bought a cookbook that you had a less-than-awesome experience with, or found too complicated, only to return to it later and be glad you did?

Sweet & Sour Tofu, Mango Oat Bars

I always mean it when I comment on other blogs that a recipe looks delicious and I need to try it. Sometimes it takes me awhile -– I’m also trying to get my money’s worth from my giant collection of cookbooks and work old favorites into regular rotation – but when I finally get around to it, it’s worth the wait.

Last night, we took the babies to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live! I wasn’t sure how the food situation would be at the venue -- plus, it’s a 1 1/2 hour drive. I decided that some “snacky snack snack snack snacks” were needed, and I turned to Averie and Mama Pea.

I typically make savory tofu, but Averie's Sweet & Sour Honey Lemon Tofu sounded yummy. I didn’t have mango chutney, so I used Goya mango jam combined with 1 tsp. dried ginger. The tofu smelled like a Ricola cough drop while it was marinating, ha ha!

And then -- these things always happen when you're trying to get everything together for a trip -- I forgot about the tofu and took the dog out, and when I got back, Tony was pulling a burnt mess out of the oven. Woops! I managed to salvage about half of it. It was quite tasty, but I didn't get a pic. The tofu was so chewy and sweet, it almost tasted like I was eating dates.

Next up was Mama Pea’s Blackberry Oat Bars. I did not have blackberry jam…so I used mango. Was I on a mission to use up that jar of mango jam, or what? I liked the shimmery golden-orange hue it gave the bars. Like little squares of amber.

Note encroaching toddler hand.

Jackson had to sample some before we hit the road.

By the way, Mama Pea’s recipe calls for brown sugar, which I didn’t have, but I know how to make my own: combine 1 cup white sugar and 1 Tbsp. molasses. You want to mush it with a fork for a few minutes to get the molasses to break down and really blend with the sugar. I love little tricks like this! Note -- your 1 cup of white sugar will magically transform into about 1 1/3 cups of brown sugar, so be sure to re-measure out what you need for your recipe.

Have a great weekend!

Scone Challenge

The other night we were sitting around waiting for Mad Men to come on and wondering if Jackson planned on going to sleep anytime soon (yeah right), when Tony randomly said, “You know those vanilla bean scones I get at Starbucks? Could you make something like that?” How could I turn down a challenge to top Starbucks? (Not that I have anything against Starbucks, because they seem to encourage complicated drink orders and don’t laugh when I order a tall decaf soy hazelnut latte...iced.)

Thanks to the Basic Scones recipe in Vegan With A Vengeance, Tony was happily chomping on a scone in less than an hour. I’m not in the habit of keeping vanilla beans around…maybe I should, but they’re so expensive…so I came up with my own easy-peasy glaze.

Super Vanilla Glaze
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 Tbsp. margarine, melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Combine all, and drizzle over scones or...anything, really.

The scones were a hit. They weren’t dry and crumbly like the Starbucks ones, more like soft, lightly sweetened little biscuits. Who wants dry and crumbly, anyway?

Muffins and more

I’ve never really been a muffin girl...if I crave something sweet, I’d rather go all out and eat a piece of cake. But, I had a bag of flax meal that I bought for some unknown reason, and I decided to put it to use in the form of the carrot raisin muffins from Comfort Food Vegan. I love carrot cake, and that’s basically what these muffins are, because they are so moist and cake-like. Very tasty!



Sadly, Jackson was not interested. With the terrible vision that runs in our family, doesn't he know he needs all the carrots he can get! Maybe if I put a little cream cheese frosting on the muffins next time? He is all about the condiments and toppings.

I’ve been eating them for breakfast and, in today’s case, lunch, along with some avocado-topped Mary’s Gone Crackers and steamed kale and chickpeas with Annie’s Goddess dressing. These products were new to me (the crackers and dressing -- I am all too familiar with avocado and kale). Jackson grabbed the crackers off the shelf on our last trip to the health food store. I guess he knows what he likes, because he has been eating them up. When I first tried them, I thought they were too dry to eat without dipping them in hummus or something. But they’ve grown on me, and now I find myself eating them straight out of the package. I bought the Herb flavor. I like the slight hint of rosemary that they have.

The Annie’s dressing was an impulse buy. I wanted something that would be good on kale, and boy, did I pick a winner. This tahini-based dressing LOVES a big plate of steamed kale. Now, it is rather high in fat, so I will have to try out Mama Pea’s lighter version, because I can feel myself becoming addicted!