Daring Bakers Challenge - Tiramisu

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I have never eaten tiramisu. It must be because I’m not a fan of cheese, and tiramisu is all about the cream cheese. It’s also not the least bit healthy nor vegan friendly, and if you avoid soy as I do, it’s even more unfriendly. Nonetheless, I love these challenges and every month they are indeed a challenge!

Another major component of tiramisu is the ladyfinger cookies. Even though I didn’t use the vegan friendly recipe provided in my version of tiramisu, I did make these cookies. I used applesauce instead of margarine to keep them low fat, and although they were not the melt-in-your-mouth ladyfingers of my memory, they did make a tasty cookie.

My healthy tiramisu was quick and easy – half a banana cut in half, layered with almond cream, and topped with cacao nibs.

This is a delicious dessert I can enjoy and never feel guilty eating!

Here’s the recipe for ladyfingers if you’d like to try a vegan or dairyfree version.

EGGLESS LADYFINGERS

(Source: Adapted from Recipezaar.

This recipe makes about 4 long biscuits (3" long and 3/4" wide).

(I made a half batch and got 3 cookies.)

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons/ 55gms sugar

1 teaspoon/ 5ml vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups/ 340gms unsalted butter (I used unsweetened applesauce)

2 cups/ 250gms all purpose flour

1/2 cup/ 40gms coarsely ground almonds

powdered sugar

Method:
Blend all the ingredients well and adding the coarsely ground nuts last. Scrape the batter into a piping bag with a ¾-inch plain tip and pipe into fingers about 3 inches long at 1-inch intervals onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake them in a 300 degree F (150 C) oven for 30 to 45 minutes till they start turning slightly brown at the edges.

Take them out of the oven and cool on tray for about 5 minutes and then move the biscuits to a cooling rack. When slightly cool, roll them in powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container till required.

Assorted Eats and Snow Day!

First things first – it snowed all day today! Of course it didn’t stick because it was 80 degrees on Sunday, but it was beautiful. Such a rare sight for Austin and a great pick-me-up after last week’s pilot suicide attack on one of our buildings.

I’m so proud of myself for remembering to take my camera to work. Scenes from outside my office right in the heart of downtown.

I’m still eating and taking pictures, but with the wedding a month away I find myself away from home a lot and when home, on the phone. One of the best things I made myself was a veggie burger pita. I was extra hungry (what’s new) and put two Chipotle Gardenburgers in one of my homemade pita breads with some iceberg lettuce and tomatoes and onions.

I also made a homemade tomato and spinach soup. It’s not very pretty and it wasn’t all that good now that I think about it.

Spaghetti squash with mushroom sauce.

Leftover casserole of broccoli, spaghetti squash, and soup – the soup was good in this!

Some greens from my farm box, lightly steamed with raw carrots and corn.

Marinated raw veggies – purple cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, daikon, red pepper, zucchini, and green onions – so yummy.

And a spicy homemade slaw with carrots and cilantro.

The wedding plans are all in place. Tomorrow Chase and I are going to pick up his suit and have dinner together. Chase and Cat are moving to their new place this weekend. I’m having so much fun.

And it’s still snowing!

Daring Cooks Challenge – Handmade Pita and Hummus

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I finally made pita bread, something I had wanted to try for a long time. I mixed the dough by hand and also kneaded for 10 minutes by hand. After the dough had risen, I rolled out eight flatbreads. I think I should have baked them a minute or two longer, but since this was my first attempt I stuck to the recipe instructions of three minutes.

I cut one in half to see if I had a pocket, and I did!

As I am so pressed for time these days, I made this recipe in two parts, making only the required elements of pita bread and hummus. I made the pita bread before I started another diet. (I have my eye on a tiny little dress for Chase and Cat’s wedding!) Since I’ve made hummus at least 20 times already, I decided to make a diet friendly, almost raw zucchini hummus. I followed the given recipe, but subbed in three zucchinis for the can of chickpeas and reduced the tahini to one tablespoon.

It’s not creamy like traditional hummus, but the flavor is good and it makes a fantastic salad topper.

Thanks for all of your congratulations on my son’s wedding. It’s such a fun and busy and happy time. And Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lots of Mushrooms and Joyous News!

There’s excitement in the eat’n veg’n family, but first let’s see how mushroom crazy I’ve been lately.

Along with plenty of the fresh variety, I snagged a huge bunch of dried mushrooms from Costco in Alabama. I don’t love rehydrated mushrooms, but they’ll do in a pinch, especially when they’re rather exotic.



I’ve made all these yummy dishes:

Broccoli and Mushroom Stirfry

Snap Peas and Mushrooms

Purple Cabbage with Mushrooms and Pickled Ginger. Isn’t it colorful!!!

In addition to all the mushrooms, I’ve really been enjoying the seasonal produce.

Roasted Cauliflower with Tandoori Spices

I got this beautiful kale in my CSA box.

I steamed it with some green garlic, also from my box.

I’m eating clean these days, pretty much low fat high raw until at least March 27. What’s so special about March 27? That’s the day Chase gets married!!!!! I’m so excited I can hardly stand it!

Vegan Dinner Party!

Hi, everyone! I’m back from my wonderful week of vacation at my sister’s home in Alabama. The highlight of the trip was hosting a vegan dinner party. We spent the whole day cooking and had a blast. Thanks to all of you who offered recipe suggestions. We decided on a Mexican theme because we love it, and frankly, good Mexican food is hard to come by in Alabama. Your hosts/chefs:

For our entrée, we chose the oh-so delicious Bean & Corn Tortilla Lasagna with Avocado from Eat Drink & Be Vegan.

For our sides we made Messy Rice from Vcon and added in fresh cilantro for a Mexican flair, and a tossed green salad. We plated for our guests and the plates were beautiful.

Here’s our table. You can tell which is my seat by the bowl of broccoli.

Yes, those are margaritas next to some of the plates. The meal was fabulous and our guests loved their dinners.

They also loved the TWO desserts we made. I selected recipes from Vcon which I had made before and knew would be a hit. One was my favorite, Apple Peanut Caramel Bars.

The other was my sister’s favorite, Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.

Needless to say, the desserts received rave reviews. After dinner the ladies asked for recipes, looked through the cookbooks I had brought with me, and asked me lots of questions about my diet. They said I inspired them to eat healthier, so I’m hopeful I truly did.

My sister had recently bought a Blendtec blender and received a set of All Clad cookware for Christmas. We cooked and ate a LOT and had so much fun together in the kitchen. And my little nephews are enjoying green smoothies every day! During the week I also made Hide the Lentils Spaghetti Sauce from ED&BV (forgot to take a picture) which everyone liked. And we made two soups. Boy, that Blendtec really makes some creamy soup. One was a butternut squash (not vegan because it was made with chicken broth).

The other was Potato Leek Soup from Urban Vegan. (Sorry for the steamy picture.)

Now I need to get off the sweets and back on my diet… again!

Daring Cooks Challenge - Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I made this challenge the day after coming off my detox. The only requirement to this challenge was to marinade, so I took that quite literally. I chose to prepare Portobello mushrooms in the marinade recipe given (without the oil). I put my mushroom in a big plastic bag.

I made the marinade.

And then I poured the marinade into the bag and let it do its thing in the fridge for a couple of hours.

I didn’t skewer the mushrooms, just pan seared them.

Before I got the mushrooms in the pan, I made myself a side dish of Swiss chard. First I cooked the stems with a bunch of onion.

Then I added in the whole bunch of greens.

Those brown mushrooms needed some color. The final product was beautiful and delicious!

I’m posting from my sister’s home in Alabama so if this format looks weird I apologize. I still want to hear your “must make” recipe ideas for our vegan dinner party!

Detox Success

The 7-day detox went quite well. The goal was to shed a few pounds and get the sugar out of my system. The sugar cravings are gone, my appetite is down, and I lost 9 pounds. And I feel great! The first couple of days I was a little tired, but the rest of the time I had so much energy I could hardly sleep. The detox diet was strictly raw fruits and veggies. The hardest part was no salt. The next hardest part was no hot food during the coldest weather in 25 years. And I missed cooking. I really wasn’t ever hungry until the final day. Here’s what I ate in one form or another last week.






The seasoning is Bragg's salt free blend. I alway tossed very well before digging in!

These berries are defrosing and were delicious when ready. Some fresh fruits I ate were apples, pears, blueberries, and bananas.

Wednesday my mom and I leave for Alabama to visit my sister and her family for a week. I will be in charge of healthy vegan dinners. I will also be cooking for at least one, but possibly two dinner parties for omni guests interested in becoming vegan. I would really appreciate your recommended recipes – your own or from cookbooks – to wow my family and friends. I’m packing Vcon, Urban Vegan, and Dreena’s books to take with me.

PS: I’m still trying to catch up with all of your blogs. I’m doing the best I can while going to work and packing!

PSS: I just clicked on the new Go Vegan blog in the Foodbuzz box and it crashed my computer. Did this happen to anyone else?

Happy New Year! Time to Detox

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. After finally finding some time to sit at my computer, I need to catch you up on my holiday eats, so here goes.

Christmas Eve Chili with beans, butternut squash, carrots, corn, peppers. So good we even served leftovers for Christmas dinner.



Christmas dinner contributions – mashed potatoes

Shredded Brussels sprouts with cranberries and pecans (Alton Brown recipe)

Tuscan Braised Beans from Urban Vegan (completely awesome)

And treats – gingerbread men (from leftover house dough)

Cherry and Pecan loaf

Mint chip cookies (obviously not vegan)

Banana Oat Bundles (from Vive), half with dried cranberries, half with mini chocolate chips

And my New Year’s Day dinner – blackeyed peas with brown rice, bok choy for greens, and broccoli because I always eat broccoli for dinner.

I enjoyed way too many treats during the holidays and found myself in serious need of a sugar detox. So I signed on for a Seven Day Detox with The Raw Divas. I began Saturday and feel so much better – yay! I’m eating only raw fruits and veggies. It’s not difficult, but I do miss cooking. I moved my mixer off the counter and replaced it with the blender to make green smoothies. Oh, and salt. I do miss a sprinkling of flavored sea salt on my veggies. I mentioned on my last post that I got a new camera for Christmas. Now even my boring salads can look yummy.

Or a handful of almonds.

See you next time with lots of salads….