Food Finds Friday: Fall Favorites

First, I would like to apologize for so much alliteration in the title. It was just so perfect. Alright. So, first of all, dear vegans, Fall is coming, and with it, the jealous lusting after pumpkin spice lattes that still aren't vegan. (Though, if you have seen those ingredient list things circulating the internet, you're probably a lot less jealous now.) I'm sorry to say that I have yet to come up with the perfect vegan pumpkin spice latte. I'll work on that. But I have found some delicious things that will make it all better. (Hopefully.)

First, Archer Farms hot chocolate. I'm pretty sure it's available at Target exclusively. I haven't checked all the flavors they have, but FYI, not all of them are vegan. I do know that the dark chocolate, peppermint, and coconut macaroon flavors are vegan though. I like making them with either coconut milk or almond milk, which makes them super-creamy and wonderful. If you're a fan of Mayan/Aztec hot chocolate, you can add a VERY SMALL dash of cayenne pepper to your dark chocolate powder to give it that tiny extra kick. Be SUPER careful though. The only way to fix it if you add too much pepper is to make a ton more of the hot chocolate, and mix them all together until it's diluted enough. (Then you'd probably have to store the rest in the fridge and reheat it when you're ready to drink it.) So, while it's not a pumpkin spice latte, I hope this is a fall beverage you'll enjoy.



The other find I have for you today actually IS pumpkin spice. However, it's not a drink. Pumpkin Spice WAFFLES, everybody. These are gluten-free, AND vegan. On top of that, they're made with super-healthy things like quinoa and flax. OMG. I cannot express in words how delicious these are. My little sister, who is neither gluten-free, nor vegan, ate an entire box of them while I wasn't looking. This might be my new answer to "If you were stranded on an island with only one food, what would it be?" Last time I checked, Whole Foods had them on sale. Try them! You will like them! You will see! I think I'm going to go clean out my freezer so I can just load up my freezer completely full of these. (Perhaps I should just come up with a gluten-free, vegan pumpkin spice waffle recipe on my own. OMG SO YUMMY.) This is fabulous as breakfast or dessert. Or both.



Do yourself a favor, and go try both these things. After you've tried them, I'm betting you won't miss the PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) at all. VEGAN PUMPKIN POWER! Let me know how you like these in the comments below! Also, If you have found any other fabulous pumpkin things, let me know! I want pumpkin all the things.

Food Finds Friday: Faux at Trader Joe's

I love Trader Joe's. It's a cute grocery store, it has lots of gluten free and vegan products, and it's inexpensive. We got one in my city a few years ago, and since then, I've fallen in love. While I could go on for ages about the wonderful things I've found there, this post is going to focus on only faux dairy products.

 

First, they have some amazing soy coffee creamer. (Not to mention amazing coffee.) I love this stuff. It's delicious, and it helps me survive mornings.

Next, I've found the most wonderful vegan cream cheese there. You may recall a post I wrote a while back that compared different vegan cream cheeses. Oh my. If I'd found this stuff then, I would have included it. This is the most delicious vegan cream cheese I've ever tried. The texture isn't 100% like the real stuff, it doesn't taste 100% like the real stuff, but guess what it is 100% of? BETTER!  Oh my goodness. I make whatever excuse I can to eat it. It's amazing. Love at first bite.

My last favorite to mention now is maybe not really faux dairy, because most sorbet doesn't have dairy anyway, but if you think of it as fake ice cream, I think it counts. Trader Joe's mango sorbet is divine. I adore this stuff. In moderation of course. My sister on the other hand, would eat the whole carton while I'm not looking if I'm not careful.

I hope this has been helpful! There are so many other wonderful things at Trader Joe's, like vegan yogurt, tofu, vegan hot dogs (they're also gluten free by the way,) etc. And I plan to write about more amazing finds from there soon. Have you find anything wonderful at Trader Joe's? Let me know about it! Leave a comment, and share with your friends!

Food Finds Friday: Chocolate Edition

As I've mentioned recently, I've found some pretty impressive things in grocery stores recently. REALLY impressive. For any chocolate lovers out there, (this should be just about everyone in existence,) I've found some absolutely DELICIOUS ready-made chocolatey desserts. (Are you drooling yet?) I'm going to be sharing 2 items that are both gluten-free, and vegan. Both can be found for sure at Whole Foods, and probably several other health food stores. Are you ready?

Set?

LET'S GO!

1. Zen Pudding



This pudding if so rich, you'll forget you're a poor college student. Or maybe that's just me. This stuff is really great though. I totally enjoyed it. I had to make myself ration it out, or I would have eaten the whole pack of four in one sitting. They have several flavors, including chocolate, vanilla, chocolate and vanilla, and chocolate almond milk (depicted above.) It is a tiny bit more on the expensive side though. While I really enjoyed it, I probably won't buy it often, especially when there are several Vegan College Cookbook recipes for chocolate pudding, such as Break-Up Pudding! If you make the pudding yourself, there's more to go around. So, my final verdict is: it tastes great, but the price is not right.

2. The Piping Gourmets Whoopie Pies

For the love of everything beautiful in this world, thank you for existing. So far, I've been able to try the first 3 flavors from the left. Let me tell you: they are amazing. If I had to choose between being rich and famous and having a lifetime supply of these, it would be a pretty tough toss-up. They come frozen, and personally, I think they taste best thawed, but they taste fine frozen too if you really cannot wait. If you're cooking dinner though, and you get one out to thaw while you're cooking, it'll be ready for dessert. These are so rich, and so yummy. It's very difficult to describe them with words. If you spoke whoopie pie, I'd get one out and roll it around on the keyboard so you'd know. . . These taste perfectly real, except for that they're so good, it's unreal. They don't have that I'm-an-allergen-free-version-of-a-delicious-food taste to them. I have no idea how to make something this delicious! I'm perfectly happy to buy them. I think this is love. Final verdict: Oh, kale yeah.

Alright, well I'm going to wrap this post up now, because I want to go eat another whoopie pie after talking about them so much. I hope these product reviews were helpful! If you have any products to suggest for review, leave a comment saying what I should try!

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(Vegan) Cream Cheese Comparisons

A thousand apologies everyone, for somewhat vanishing this past semester. College is a lot busier than I expected it to be. Being an art student, I don't have the luxury of plain and simple homework that you just have to get done. Art homework, such as sketches, and also in my case, apparel construction (sewing), takes a long time. I just didn't have a lot of time to blog. I probably would have died of never sleeping if I had. Anyway, I'm going to try to post a lot over the break, and get more posts ready to post during next semester. Today I am not blogging about a TVCC recipe, but instead offering a bit of insight for choosing between brands of vegan cream cheese, as the title suggests.

Seeing as a lot of holiday recipes call for cream cheese, like dips, or cheese balls, or cheese cake, or marble brownies, or cheese danish, etc. and presumably, my wonderful readers might want to veganize their classic recipes, I would like to offer you a bit of insight as to what brands to choose for what. Here are my top 3 favorites.

#3: Go Veggie!

This cream cheese is a good one for recipes. The taste is just fine. There is just something off about the texture. It doesn't have the real cream cheese feel to it. The texture is what gives it away as fake. If you can get over the weirdness about the texture, then feel free to enjoy it spread on whatever you like, but I just would only use it for cooking or baking recipes where the texture gets lost in the other ingredients.

I must say though, I can totally get over the texture to put the strawberry cream cheese on gluten-free, vegan English muffins. I know strawberry-flavored stuff doesn't really taste like strawberries, but I'm a sucker for it anyway.

#2: Daiya

 

Alright, so I haven't tried the strawberry version of this stuff yet. That is on my list of things-to-do. However, as far as the plain goes, it's pretty good. The texture, while not 100% perfect, is at least MUCH better than Go Veggie's. The taste is also pretty good, though I find it a little on the salty side. It tastes like they used the same base as they use for their vegan cheeses. So basically, it tastes a little bit like a cheese spread and not cream cheese. Really though, it isn't bad. The flavor is really growing on me. I think it is best in recipes that are more savory. I haven't tried it in any dessert recipes, but again, it is  more on the salty side, and I'm afraid of a recipe not turning out right because of that. But I'm sure it would be great for holiday dips and spreads, cheese balls, etc. It would also taste pretty good in vegan sushi, or roll-up and wrap sandwiches.

#1: Tofutti

 

I gotta say, this stuff is still my ultimate favorite. It gets the flavor extremely well, and the texture is PERFECT. It is great plain, or in whatever kind of recipes you want to use it in. It also tastes great with cinnamon-sugar on toast by the way. If you've never tried it, you need to. This is my go-to for vegan cheesecake too. OMG. That is amazing. (Last year I posted about vegan eggnog cheesecake that I'd made with this stuff. Check it out!) I really really really love this brand. For example, in high school economics class, we had a project in which we had a fake budget and spent our fake money on stocks and managed a stock profile and stuff, and this was a company that I kept on my stock profile. By the way, if anyone is looking to buy stocks in vegan food companies, Tofutti's stocks tend to be pretty steady. They don't always grow that much, but you at least won't likely lose a lot of money. (That tip was free, by the way.) And who knows, if everyone starts using this amazing stuff more often, maybe it will grow in stock value. Whatever. The only thing that isn't amazing about this stuff is the package design. I think that the package looks a little bit outdated based on the colors and design scheme, but hey. Don't judge by outward appearances right? The package doesn't make it taste any less amazing. 

Okay. I hope that was helpful to everyone! If you make any recipes with vegan cream cheese, I'd love to hear your thoughts and see your pictures! Who knows, maybe if I like your stuff, I'll feature you! I'd love to do some features on this blog, so go ahead and impress me. I love vegan cream cheese recipes. Good luck everybody, and Happy Christmas!

CTTVCC: Georgia Peach Cobbler

I apologize in advance for the unexpected, and thus, unannounced hiatus from my blog. There has recently been a series of unfortunate events in my life. . . More like tragedies actually. A girl who used to go to my school was murdered by her boyfriend, one of my cats passed away of old age, (Rest in peace, Arwen.) and my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital. I've been rather busy. But enough sad stories, let's get to talking about yummy food!

This scrumptious, and not-completely-bad-for-you dessert is located on page 295. This is a great comfort food, especially for those times when you have already eaten a whole pan of brownies, and you still need some comforting. This fruity goodness just wants to give your tummy a hug. I don't know about you, but I crave chocolate during the winter, but during the summer, I tend to want fruity desserts. Perhaps that's because subconsciously, I know that summer is the season of fruit, and that's why I want it more then. Anyway, this is something you should try next time you're feeling down. This relatively healthy, light, fruity dessert will make your tummy (and hopefully you,) happier in no time!

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (15 ounce) can peaches with syrup
• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup corn flakes or granola
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

I used generic peaches but I made sure to get the kind that's in light syrup. This recipe would probably still work even if you got peaches "in their own juice" if you want to be extra-healthy. 

I used generic quick oats, cinnamon and brown sugar. Because I love cinnamon, I used a whole teaspoon of it. Cinnamon is great for you though, so I don't care if it's not exactly following the recipe. Speaking of not following the recipe exactly, I kind of went a little crazy with the oatmeal and granola layers, and ended up using twice the amount of the mixture then it called for. Oh well.

Here is my finished cobbler:

As you can see, the fruit to oats ratio is way off. It was still delicious. This is one of the simplest dessert recipes that I've ever made, and it's extremely satisfying. If I hadn't already decided not to remake recipes for myself until I'd gone through that recipe's whole section in the cookbook, I think I would end up making this 50 times before I finished everything else in desserts. I also would totally eat this for breakfast as well because it's got fruit, granola and oatmeal. That makes it breakfast food too, right? Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy this recipe just like I did!

CTTVCC: Wicked Good Wafflewich

This recipe is found on page 71. Is this dessert or is it breakfast? Who cares? Not me! It's delicious. It was not as messy as it seemed like it was going to be, and it was really tasty. I am not quite sure it could really claim to be good for you, but it's not really bad for you either. This seems like a really good comfort food though. Bad test? Bad day? Bad breakup? I could see myself going through a stack of these.

The recipe calls for:

• 2 vegan waffles, toasted
• Vegan chocolate chips, to taste
• Peanut butter, to taste
• Maple syrup, to taste

I used Van's original gluten-free, (also vegan) waffles. They're pretty good. If I didn't know they were gluten-free and vegan, I wouldn't think they were. 

I used Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips, generic peanut butter, and I used agave nectar instead of maple syrup. I think that the taste of the agave was actually better than it would have been with maple syrup, because it is a light flavor, and allows you to enjoy the chocolate and peanut butter without their flavors being overpowered.

Here is my finished breakfast:

Like I was saying, this recipe is great. It's indulgent, yet it won't forever ruin your figure, I'm sure, you know, with moderation and all that stuff. Whatever. It's definitely got a great flavor and it's so simple! I don't think I would have come up with it on my own. I wouldn't have put peanut butter and syrup (or agave) on the same wafflewich, and I don't think I would have put the chocolate chips on. I would have probably been boring, and used something like, I don't know, jelly. I hope you all enjoy this recipe!

CTTVCC: Pink Princess Pie

This cool, refreshing, summery dessert, found on page 314, is absolutely to die for. The combination of flavors is just phenomenal! It's tangy, yet sweet; soft, yet crunchy; ice cream, yet pie. It has a scrumptious flavor that makes every single bite delicious, yet a single slice was satisfying. I mean, how does this cookbook do that? Most of the time, cooking dessert goes down like this: Cook dessert. Eat entire thing. What's up with this? I mean, is it trying to show you that portion control might actually work? Sneaky, sneaky.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (12-ounce) can pink lemonade concentrate
• 2 1/2 cups soy ice crream
• vegan graham cracker pie crust

I couldn't find pink lemonade concentrate for the life of me. Finally, I just gave up and bought regular, store-brand, lemonade concentrate. When I was mixing all the filling ingredients together, I added two packets of pink raspberry crystal light water-mix-in-powder-stuff to the filling to make it pink. Now, one of the coolest part about this recipe, is that you could mix in whatever flavor of water-mix-in-stuff that you want. You could put fruit punch, grape (which would be awesome, because grape lemonade is delicious,) or whatever your heart desired. You could also use orange juice concentrate instead of lemonade concentrate, or whatever flavor of concentrate that you wanted! I am actually thinking about experimenting with different concentrates in this recipe.

I did use soy ice cream for this recipe, simply because the containers for the soy ice cream at my grocery store are bigger than the containers of coconut ice cream. In my opinion, coconut ice cream tastes closer to regular un-vegan ice cream. By the way you all, I think the recipe means for you to assume vanilla ice cream. Which, yes. Use vanilla ice cream, unless you wanted to experiment with flavors such as chocolate with orange juice concentrate. Would it taste like chocolate oranges that people always buy at Christmas? Hmmm. . . it's a good thing that this recipe is so simple, because I have a feeling that I will be making a lot of it in the future. Anyway, I used So Delicious Creamy Vanilla.

Alright. I was completely unable to find gluten-free, vegan graham cracker pie crust. I couldn't even find gluten-free, vegan graham crackers to make my own pie crust! I ended up using cookies to make my own pie crust. I used a combination of Enjoy Life Sugar Crisp cookies and Dr. Lucy's Cinnamon Thins, but I would have bought the Dr. Lucy's sugar cookies if I'd been able to find them. I also used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks to make the crust. 

Here is my finished pie:

The crust got a little bit crispy as you can see. Oops! It still tasted great. When you accidentally burn sugar, it just tastes like caramel.

Don't you just wish I could hand you a bite of this through your screen? Mmmmmmmmm. So yummy.

This recipe is now gong to be one of my "go-to" recipes. It's so delicious and easy (especially if you don't have to make your own crust.) You absolutely have to store it in the freezer though. My dad moved the last slice of mine into the refrigerator, and it turned into a puddle and disintegrated the crust. So sad. Really. It was very sad. Rest in peace, piece of pink princess pie. (Try saying that 5 times, fast.) This stuff is great. I will definitely make it again, for any excuse I can come up with. Got your tonsils taken out? Here. I'll bring over one of these pies, and I'll eat most of it for you. How does that sound? Great!

CTTVCC: Crumb Bum Breakfast Cobbler

This recipe is on page 33. This is another breakfast recipe that could double as dessert. It would probably be one of the healthier desserts you could pick too. Okay, I don't know about that, but it would probably be better for you than downing a tub of vegan chocolate ice cream. This recipe could easily become one of my comfort foods. I mean warm fruity goodness is much more comforting than anything cold, in my opinion anyway.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 (16 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can pear halves, drained and sliced
• 1/3 cup orange juice (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat granola cereal

I don't know how many cans of peaches my family has. I don't even remember a time when there weren't an army of canned peaches in the pantry. I just pulled out some generic peaches, and we also had a few cans of pears. Both were in no-sugar-added juice instead of heavy syrup. I never have been a big fan of heavy syrup. I admit I cheated a little bit with the pears though. I didn't use pear halves, I used sliced pears. I ended up dicing both the peaches and the pears though, but you don't have to.

I am declaring the orange juice definitely not optional. It helped cut a bit of the sweetness so it didn't just taste like I was eating fruit-shaped sugar. I heard once that drinking orange juice in the morning before a test/quiz will help you remember things you've studied better. I try to keep orange juice well-stocked during the school year.

I used Peace Cereal French Vanilla granola again. It enhanced the flavor as well in my opinion, since it's a non-fruit flavor, and therefore doesn't clash.

Here is my finished cobbler:

Okay, the first piece fell apart ingloriously, but the second piece stayed pretty much in tact. Until I ate it of course!

Not only was this cobbler delicious, but it made my kitchen radiate the delicious smell of peach and orange. With a hint of French vanilla because of the granola. (The pears don't really have a strong smell.) I made the entire recipe instead of only half or something, but part of me wishes I hadn't. The only thing that kept me from devouring the entire breakfast cobbler was the fact that I promised I'd save some for my mother. (It might be easier to save some on rushed school mornings though.) I hope you enjoy this breakfast brain-food dessert!

CTTVCC: Fake Blondes

The natural habitat of this phenomenal recipe is page 294 of TVCC. How many girls wouldn't kill for instant brownies? Guys, I'm sure you can win the heart of any girl with these babies. Girls, I'm betting this recipe will be going on your list of favorites. This is pretty much as close as I've ever seen anyone come to successful instant brownies. Not to mention vegan, gluten-free (I'm my case anyway) brownies. These were a delicious, satisfying, easy, don't-have-to-have-much-patience, rich, relatively not bad for you, amazing chocolate fix. They were good enough to eat the entire batch, yet rich enough to be perfectly satisfied with one serving. When has that ever happened before? How about NEVER.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

I used Earth Fare brand sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and Earth Fare brand sugar-free applesauce. I would advise trying to find applesauce without high fructose corn syrup. A lot of name brand apple sauce sneaks that in there and it makes your food not as good for you. Just a tip, I have found that when you use applesauce as an ingredient in baking, your food won't stick to the sides of the container you bake them in. In fact, there's always a bit of a gap between the edge, and the baked item. My super-scientific guess is that the water in the applesauce mostly evaporates, and when it does so, the food slightly shrinks, pulling it away from the edge of the pan/bowl/whatever. It makes sense to me, but hey, I'm not a chemist . . or a professional chef.

My mother absolutely detests canola oil, so I didn't have any around the house. Instead I used Earth Fare brand extra-virgin olive oil. I was a bit nervous when I was putting the mixed batter in the microwave because I could still smell the olive oil a bit, but once they were completely cooked, I couldn't smell it or taste it.

Since I'm gluten-free, I obviously didn't use whole wheat flour. I used Jules all-purpose gluten-free flour. I think the gluten-free flour made my fake blondes a bit chewier than normal brownies, so anyone who used normal flour (you non-gluten-free humans out there,) please let me know how the consistency turned out. I am super-curious, but obviously, I can't try it out myself.

For the coca powder, I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder because I LOVE dark chocolate. I'm sure non-dark chocolate works great too though.

Lastly, I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, and I cannot tell a lie, I didn't measure them. I had a mostly used up bag of them, and I figured there was at least half a cup, and that if my brownies had extra chocolate, then Vive La Chocolat! (Pardon my french.)

Here is my delicious finished product:

This is actually the surface of the moon. They lied. It's not made of cheese. It's made of Fake Blondes. Just kidding. But seriously, the moon would be a lot cooler if it was made of this and not fancy rocks.

Ahhhhh! Don't you just want to bite your screen? Mmmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmake these now. They're so yummy.

One thing I must say is that they weren't very blonde. Perhaps they have gone back to their natural color? Haha! I was expecting blondies though, because of the name, but these were definitely brownies. Or maybe that's why they're "fake" blondes. . . because they're really brunettes? Eh. . . I don't know. I do want to make blondies with this recipe now though. (As soon as I'm done not sharing the other 3 servings of these things.) By the way, these taste best when they're at least warm, if not hot, with a side of your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream.

P.S. I like your natural hair color best!

CTTVCC: O Baby

The recipe for today is on page 86 of TVCC. (I feel all fancy having my own abbreviation for this!) The only thing that could make this recipe better would be if you didn't have to let it cool in the fridge before eating it. I mean really, microwaves heat stuff practically instantly. Why don't we have instant cooling devices? Come on, science! Anyway, I think this recipe would work great for parties. It would also work well for hanging out with just one friend. (Especially if it's a over-nighter, particularly the kind where you don't sleep.) This could be a dessert or a snack. It's in the Spotlight on Peanut Butter section, so it doesn't really say what classification of food it's supposed to be. Heck, eat it for breakfast. Most of the ingredients are breakfast foods anyway.

The recipe calls for:

• 3 1/2 cups O-shaped vegan cereal 
• Handful vegan chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

I used Nature's Path Organic Whole O's Cereal, which is gluten-free and vegan. I understand that there are vegan O-shaped cereals out there that are not gluten-free for those of you who can eat wheat. (Watch out for the Vitamin D3 though. Apparently some brands use animal-derived D3.)

I really love Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips which are gluten-free, soy-free, and vegan. This brand also makes chocolate chunks that would probably work fabulously in this recipe as well. Those of you with big hands are lucky, because my handfulls are smaller than most people's. That is why I ended up putting a few extra in my O Babies.

Here it is with the ingredients so far:

I used generic maple syrup (which was still vegan) because that's what my family had in the pantry. Feel free to use the fancy stuff in your recipe if you'd like.

One thing I must say about the peanut butter for this recipe is: Use creamy if you can help it. I used crunchy which has less actual peanut butter in it because of the peanut chunks. If you use crunchy peanut butter, use a bit extra so that there is enough peanut butter to coat all the other ingredients.

Here is how it turned out:

 It was hard to get a square (or rectangle, rather,) that didn't fall apart because of the crunchy peanut butter not having enough actual peanut butter to it, but here is one little piece I managed to snag:

 

My little sister oh-so-helpfully ate over half of these when I wasn't looking. Oh well. At least she's eating vegan food when she eats my food. I'm sure it's better for me that she stole my dessert. Oh well. Obviously though, this stuff is really good. It's so tempting to make more of them right now, but I've got other desserts in the cookbook to make first. This is definitely going on my list of go-to recipes. Were you as impressed with these as I was?

CTTVCC: Broke-Ass Cinnamon Rolls

Open your cookbooks to page 40. This is another breakfast recipe that could be eaten anytime. Or all the time for that matter. I'm not even kidding. I made one, and then proceeded to make two more because I just couldn't get enough. These were the first cinnamon rolls I've had for as long as I can remember. There aren't many pre-made vegan cinnamon rolls that I've found, and I haven't found ANY gluten free, vegan cinnamon rolls. At all. Until these anyway, because the ingredients are so customizable.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 slice of white bread (or 5, ya know. In case you're addicted.)
• vegan margarine, to taste
• cinnamon, to taste
• sugar, to taste

I used gluten-free bread from a local bakery. Cutting off the crusts, and then smashing it flat reminded me of the good old days, way back in elementary school, when we did that to our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the cafeteria. Good times.

For the vegan margarine, I used original Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread. Then I put on a very generous amount of cinnamon, (Because I absolutely love cinnamon,) and sprinkled a bit of raw sugar on top of the cinnamon.

Once I finished microwaving it, I rolled it up, and decided I was too impatient to cut little min-cinni-rolls out of it, so I just ate it as it was. I did that with the other two as well, except for that they began to fall appart as I was rolling them, so I stacked them on top of each other, and rolled them up together. Then I decided that was much better, because it was the perfect bite size. Aren't they just adorable though?

I hope you all loved these as much as I did! This recipe is definitely an A+ in my book. You know it would probably be great for baby-sitting. and by baby, I mean toddlers or older. Because aside from accidentally getting cinnamon all over the whole kitchen if your cinnamon decides to explode, It's not that messy since it doesn't have any of that sticky sugar-paste-sause-stuff on top.

CTTVCC: Not-Just-For-Hippies Granola

Welcome to the first recipe of my cook-through of the Vegan College Cookbook! You can find it on page 36. As you can see from the title, this is a breakfast recipe. Or a snack or dessert too, I suppose. The book calls it breakfast though.

The recipe calls for:

• 1/2 cup vegan granola
• 3 tablespoons rasins or chopped dates (optional)
• 1 tablespoon almonds or nut of your choice (optional)
• 1 (6 oz container) soy yogurt (your fave flavor)

For the granola, I used Peace Cereal brand in french vanilla, which already has almond slivers in it, so I didn't add any additional nuts. It's gluten-free for those who have that limitation.

I don't really like raisins, and I didn't have dates, (except for tonight! ;P just kidding.) Anyway, so I used craisins. which I do like. Very much. Though, to be honest, I didn't measure them. I just kind of tossed them on top. But that's the thing about this recipe, It's super-customizable, and because it's not actually baking anything, the proportions don't matter quite as much.

For the yogurt, I used blueberry flavored Amande brand vegan yogurt, which is made from almonds instead of soy, but like I said, who cares? I've kind of been watching the amount of soy I eat anyway because too much soy can cause problems, kind of like too much of anything can cause problems, and sooooooo much vegan food is soy-based. (Besides, my favorite health-food grocery store has been running sales on the almond yogurt.) Amande Yogurt has live culture bacteria, (which are NOT animals, don't worry. They're in a totally different scientific kingdom.) Anyway, the live cultures are really good for your digestive system, and supposedly consuming live culture bacteria helps your body respond better to stress and recover from stress faster.

So here is the finished concoction:

 
I am declaring this rather delicious. I'll probably end up eating the rest of the box of granola this way because I don't love eating granola in just milk without anything else. It's like trying to eat crumbs with a spoon. It doesn't really work for me. Actually, I hadn't even meant to buy granola when I picked this up last week. It was on sale, and I just grabbed it thinking it was flakes with a little bit of granola to make it not boring like the brand's other cereals do. But good thing I had it, that way I could make this recipe, right?

I hope you all enjoy this recipe! Got feedback? I'd love to read your comments!

Vegan Snickerdoodle Fail

So, normally, I have only amazing things to say about anything PETA-related. Today though, I tried the vegan snickerdoodle recipe from their Holiday Survival Guide, and I was really not impressed. At all.

 They looked amazing. They smelled amazing. They tasted like Play Dough. Well, Play Dough with cinnamon-sugar on the outside, but Play Dough nonetheless. I was so immensely disappointed by them. I remember thinking, as my sister and I were measuring ingredients, that the recipe called for a lot of salt, ( a whole teaspoon for a batch of 20 cookies!) but I followed the recipe anyway. I would like to make the recipe again, but I would only put in 1/4 teaspoon of salt next time. I'm sure that, other than that, the cookies would be fine.

I haven't tried any of the other Holiday Guide recipes, so I can't say whether or not they're any good. Maybe I'll get around to making them later.

Lemony Vegan Eggnog Cheesecake Recipe

This is my second eggnog recipe in one week. I don't know if that's enough to count as a streak, but here it goes. Earlier today, I was browsing the boards at Peta2 and I stumbled across this post which had a link for vegan eggnog cheesecake at the bottom of it. 

Now before I went vegan, I was an absolute sucker for cheesecake. I started making them for any celebration or excuse I could find, and people started ordering them from me and I was making some pretty good cash. I stopped making them as much when I found out I am lactose intolerant. Then when I went vegan, I stopped making them altogether. That was one thing that I did kind of miss, though I got used to no cheesecake pretty fast. It didn't occur to me until recently that I could make vegan cheesecakes with vegan cream cheese! However, I haven't really had the time, so this vegan cheesecake is the first one I have ever made! I'm pretty excited about it. SO excited, in fact, that I forgot to take any pictures as I was going.

So, the recipe at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen called for a pre-made graham cracker pie crust or an oatmeal pie crust that she has a separate recipe for. I'm not a big fan of oatmeal stuffs, and my past cheesecake-making days told me I could do way better than a pre-made graham cracker crust. Now, my sisters are girl scouts, and they always get more cookies then they can sell, so we have plenty sitting around the house, and since the recipe also calls for lemon juice, I figured I could make a crust with Lemonades Girl Scout Cookies, which are vegan. (And delicious.) 

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 - 2 boxes of Lemonades Girl Scout Cookies (Thanks-a-Lot Girl Scout Cookies work too if you want chocolate instead of lemon, or you could use any other 8.5 oz package of crunchy vegan cookies, preferably a relatively plain cookie, or it will distract from the flavor of the cheesecake.)
• 6-7 tablespoons of vegan butter (Earth Balance brand works well.)

To Make The Crust:

• Empty a box and a half of the cookies into a gallon zip-lock bag and zip the bag shut. If you prefer thicker or higher crust use the entire second box. 
• Use a rolling pin, tenderizer, large baking spoon or whatever large hard-to-break kitchen utensil you can find, and take out all of your days frustrations on those cookies! Beat the cookies with your utensil of choice, until the crumbs are finely crushed. 
• Empty the bag of cookies into a medium bowl, and set them aside. 
• Put vegan butter into a microwaveable container, and heat for 30 seconds. Most of the butter should have melted, but should there still be any unmelted, stir for a few seconds until all the butter has turned to liquid.
• Pour the butter into the bowl of cookie crumbs and stir until all the crumbs are evenly coated with the butter-stuff. (If you want, you can use your clean hands to mix the butter and crumbs.) It will begin to clump. That's okay. 
• Scrape the mixture into a meduim (9") springform pan. With clean hands, (or formerly clean hands now slightly coated in vegan butter and cookie crumbs,) press the crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and along the sides of the springform pan. Make sure there aren't any holes in the bottom of your crust. 
• When finished, set the pan aside.

I followed the original recipe for the most part, except for a few ingredients and some of the preparation. I didn't want to use brandy or rum because that's unnecessary calories, and I can't buy any for myself anyway since I'm under-aged. So I was going to use imitation rum flavoring that we already had in the pantry, except when I checked it, I didn't have enough. So I used extra vanilla and I think it turned out just fine. I also simplified a lot of the preparation, so there are fewer steps, and it works better for a blender than the original instructions.

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm silken tofu (Use a light version for fewer calories.) 
• 1 8-ounce package vegan cream cheese (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese works well.) 
• 3/4 cup vegan sugar 
• 1/2 cup vegan eggnog (Silk Seasonal Nog, which I used in my Vegan Nog Waffles, works great.) 
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice 
• 3 tablespoons vanilla 
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon cinnamon 
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch 

To Make the Filling:

• Preheat Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• Drain tofu. 
• Crumble tofu into blender or food processor (I used a blender.) Add the package of vegan cream cheese, vegan eggnog, lemon juice, and vanilla. Blend or process until you have reached a uniform, creamy consistency. 
• Add sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cornstarch, and blend until sugar and cornstarch have dissolved, and cinnamon and nutmeg are evenly suspended. 

Final Preparation:

• Pour filling into crust. Filling may fill the pan above the top of the crust, which is perfectly fine. 
• Place springform pan on a cookie sheet (To prevent dripping melty vegan butter from making a mess all over your oven,) place it in the oven, and shut the door. 
• Bake for 50 minutes, though I'd recommend checking the cheesecake at 45 minutes just in case it is already starting to brown. The center should still be slightly jiggly. 
• Remove the pans from the oven with oven mitts or potholders etc., and place the pans on a cooling rack. 
• Leaving the cookie sheet on the cooling rack, place the springform pan with cheesecake in the refrigerator to chill. Allow to cool for at least an hour before serving. 
• To serve, remove outer edge of springform pan, and if you are brave, slide the cheesecake onto a serving dish. If you would rather avoid potentially making a huge mess all over your kitchen, throwing away your cheesecake, and having to bake a second one, just place the whole bottom of the springform pan on a serving dish, or just eat the cheesecake now off of the pan without getting an extra plate dirty. 
• Enjoy! 

So, if you try out this recipe, let me know what you thought of it! I would really love to have some feedback, and I would be happy to try out any variations that you all come up with. Have fun baking!

Vegan Nog Waffles

Well it's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize for that. I've been getting way too busy for my own good, but that's beside the point. Since today is Christmas, I figured I'd give you all a quick holiday food post!

Making waffles for breakfast today was kind of an excuse to try out the Ener-G Egg Replacer that I bought for recipes. It was also an excuse to use up a partially empty box of Belgian Waffle Mix from my family's overstocked pantry. I also just got back from a trip to northern Vermont, and you can't leave Vermont without buying at least one kind of Maple Syrup. We picked up Raspberry, Cranberry, and Chai flavored syrups, (the Cranberry is my favorite,) but I couldn't find them quickly because we hadn't unpacked them yet. (I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I used light Agave Nectar which I had also bought for the first time recently and haven't had a chance to try yet.) I basically followed the directions on the box, which are going to be pretty similar but could vary depending on what brand of mix you get and how many you're making.

In a small mixing bowl, I mixed 1 1/2 tablespoons of egg replacer mixture with 2 tablespoons of hot water with a whisk until a uniform consisteny was reached. In a medium-sized bowl, I mixed 1 1/2 cups of waffle mix, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 3/4 cup of Silk Nog (instead of milk or water), a dash of nutmeg, a dash of cinnamon, and added the egg replacer mixture (instead of eggs obviously), stirring until I reached a uniform consistency with no lumps.

I poured half the mixture onto the center of my non-stick waffle iron and closed the lid to cook it. When it was ready, I put it on a plate, and as soon as I took a picture of it, I opened a few Christmas presents while the iron was heating up enough for the second waffle. Then I scraped the rest of the batter into the iron with a spatula, and let it cook. When it was done, I set it on top of my other waffle and poured a generous amount of agave onto them and dug in. I could only finish half of them, so I shared the rest with my sisters who thought they were delicious even though none of them are vegans.

You may have noticed from the picture that my waffle isn't really square. That's because I've had too many experiences with waffle batter dripping down the sides of the hot iron and making a huge mess that I have to clean up later. So, I just make slightly less visually attractive waffles that mean I don't have to clean up so much after myself because I'm sort of lazy. Okay, really lazy. But hey, it would be wasting perfectly good waffle if I made a mess.

By the way, I was really impressed with the Ener-G Egg Replacer. I've tried some other ways to replace eggs in the past, like flax seed for example, and those were less-than amazing in waffles. The Ener-G stuff didn't alter the taste of the waffles to make them taste like some horrible gruel, it kept them light and fluffy, and they're only 15 calories per replaced egg! (Eggs are 70 calories each.) I can't wait to try the egg replacer in other recipes.

If you try my little recipe, let me know what you thought of it, and if you made any other variations. I'd love to try out anything you all come up with. Personally, I am going to be trying something similar with some gluten-free mix that I found, though I don't know if I'll be using vegan nog. Maybe I'll try my vegan chocolate chips. . . Well anyway, happy holidays everyone! I hope this season has been wonderful and relaxing for everyone! Happy New Year!

P.S. Nog is a really funny word. Makes me want to laugh every time I say it.

CTTVCC: Breakup Pudding

Well, I haven't been in any relationships lately, but I tried the "Breakup Pudding" recipe from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook when two of my friends were dumped by their boyfriends within a week of each other.

I have made it twice now, but both times, I've had a few variations from the original recipe. 

First off, I used light tofu. Now, seeing as tofu is usually considered a diet food, I thought it was particularly interesting that there was diet tofu. I'm not even kidding. The light tofu has half the calories per serving. It has 45 calories vs. regular tofu which has 70-80. I chose to make it with light tofu, because I didn't want my friends (or myself) to gain weight because of some stupid boy. (No offense guys.) I consider it a guiltless indulgence.

The second variation I had was that, because I have a cheap blender, I had to add a splash or two of unsweetened alternative milk to get the blending process working. I suppose you could use a regular sweetened alternative milk, even a vanilla flavored one two give it a bit more flavor. I just keep regular unsweetened milks at my house to cut down the amount of calories I consume when I use it in cereal.

The last alteration I had was using dark chocolate cocoa powder. When I was at the grocery store, a lot of the regular cocoa powder I found had some milk derivatives in it, and personally, I like dark chocolate better. Here's how I see it: if I'm going to eat something, like chocolate for example, I want to eat the real stuff. I mean, the chocolate I eat is practically baking chocolate, which if any of you ever tried as a kid when your mother wasn't looking, is pretty bitter. I guess it's an acquired taste I developed because of some of the other bitter things I consume, like coffee. That, however, is a story for another time.

Anyway, I really like this recipe, and now that I actually OWN a copy of this amazing book, I don't have to make it off the website, or using the recipe cards I've gotten in various activism packs I've ordered from PETA and Peta2. Even my non-vegan friends and family members love this recipe. When my (non-vegan) mother tried it, she said:

"This pudding is so good, it would definitely be worth breaking up with someone for."

 I would definitely recommend trying it, maybe even with my little twist on it. I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what you think of the recipe in the comments!