BREAKFAST AND DESSERT

Today I Made:

HOME FRIES and LEFTOVER 'FRONCH TOAST' WITH AVOCADO SLICES for BREAKFAST.

Twice cooked yellow potatoes, red bell peppers, and onions.

Recipe from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

I saved a little bit of the leftover "FRONCH TOAST" batter from yesterday and a few slices of La Brea Wheat bread for today's breakfast.

I love pairing together sweet and savory, especially with breakfast.

Ketchup from the potatoes and maple syrup from the fronch toast.

And it's even better when you add a few slices of avocado.

Yesterday I Made:

CHOCOLATE-GLAZED PEANUT BUTTER SCONES for DESSERT.

Recipe from My Sweet Vegan by Hannah Kaminsky.

I've made a huge mistake.

I over-cooked them.

They turned out way too dry and hard.

The only thing that saved them, was the chocolate glaze.

I have to give them a second try and make them again.

SPICY VEGETABLE SOUP WITH LIME

Yesterday I Made:

SPICY VEGETABLE SOUP WITH LIME and AVOCADO TOAST for DINNER.

Recipe from Karina's Kitchen: Gluten-Free Recipes.

This is an amazing soup filled with zucchini, carrots, cabbage, fire-roasted tomatoes, roasted green chiles, and lime juice.

It's really one of my all time favorite soups.

If you like spicy soups, YOU HAVE TO MAKE THIS SOUP NOW!.

You can throw all the ingredients in a slow cooker or stove top.

Either way turns out a great soup.

For the toast, I bought a loaf of organic wheat toast from La Brea Bakery.

Lightly toasted with simple avocado slices.

BLUEBERRY CAKE

Yesterday I Made:

BLUEBERRY CAKE for DESSERT.

Recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking Cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.

This is basically a blueberry coffee cake.

There are three components to this dessert:

1. The cake (I used whole wheat flour instead of AP flour).

2. The blueberries (plain).

3.The Streusel topping (sugar, earth balance, flour, and cinnamon).

The recipe itself is pretty easy to make and also to make substitutions with the berries.

It bakes for 50 minutes and then you can either let it cool or serve warm.

"FRONCH TOAST"

Today I Made:

"FRONCH TOAST" for BREAKFAST.

Recipe from VEGAN WITH A VENGEANCE by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

I've made these a few times and we still can't get over how similar they are to the real thing.

And all the recipe calls for is soy milk, corn starch, and garbanzo bean flour.

Amazing texture and taste.

Make sure you use 3 day old bread for added crispiness!

They go great with plain maple syrup and sweet organic strawberries ( and coffee of course!).

KABOCHA SOUP WITH SPICED PEPITAS

I made this delicious KABOCHA SOUP WITH SPICED PEPITAS for DINNER last week.

Recipe from VEGETARIAN TIMES January 2009 issue.

I love to order squash soups at restaurants, but whenever I try to make it at home, they always turn out too thick and not so tasty.

THIS recipe has changed it all.

It has THE perfect consistency and it's full of flavor.

It also calls for a few simple ingredients:

-Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin, but you can use any other type of winter squash.)

-Onion

-Garlic

-Smoked Paprika

-Bay Leaf

-Vegetable Broth

The recipe also calls for Dry Sherry, but my husband doesn't care for ANY alcohol in any recipe, so I omitted it.

And it really doesn't need it.

The spiced pepitas are pumpkin shells roasted with olive oil, agave nectar, salt, and cilantro.

I paired the soup with leftover Toasted Quinoa with Raisins and Slivered Almonds from the previous day and Spicy Spinach with Minced garlic.

SAMOSA MASHED POTATO PANCAKES, TOASTED QUINOA WITH RAISINS AND SLIVERED ALMONDS AND GOOD OLD FASHIONED PEAS

Yesterday I Made:

SAMOSA MASHED POTATO PANCAKES, TOASTED QUINOA WITH RAISINS AND SLIVERED ALMONDS AND GOOD OLD FASHIONED PEAS for DINNER.

Samosa recipe from VEGAN BRUNCH.

Toasted quinoa recipe from THE VEGAN TABLE.

Samosas filling without the dough, formed into cakes and lightly panfried.

The filling is basically mashed potatoes with onions, carrots, garlic, peas.

Spiced with mustard seeds, turmeric, cumin, red chili pepper flakes, and fresh ginger.

You make the dough, refrigerate for a few hours and form into patties, then panfry.

I didn't make a sauce or chutney to go with the samosas, as suggested in the book.

Instead I used chipotle sauce and drizzled it over the pancakes.

The toasted quinoa turned out to be the perfect side dish.

Seasoned with fresh ginger, cardomom, coriander, cumin, and cayenne.

And for added crunch and sweetness, raisins and slivered almonds were added to the mix.

As far as the peas, all I did was steam frozen peas with 1/4 cup water for 3 minutes.

Drained and added Earth Balance, salt and pepper.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE TART **UPDATED**

As I mentioned in my original post, this tart was a little bit bitter and not really sweet at all.

So, I thought and thought about how to sweetened it up and then it finally clicked: RASPBERRY SAUCE.

Sometimes I make a simple blueberry sauce for our morning pancakes.

A simple sauce made up of frozen blueberries, water, and cornstarch to thicken it up a little.

As I was searching the web for a raspberry sauce, I realized that I could use the same technique as the blueberry sauce with just a few changes.

So here goes my nonrecipe recipe:

RASPBERRY SAUCE

-1 bag frozen organic raspberries

-1/4 cup filtered water

-2 teaspoons sugar

-2 teaspoons cornstarch

-1/4 cup filtered water

In a small heavy bottomed saucepan on medium heat, add the frozen raspberries and 1/4 cup water.

Cook until raspberries have broken down and are heated thru, stirring often.

Remove from heat and strain using a fine sieve.

(I save the seeds and use them in smoothies.)

Add the liquid back to the saucepan.

Add sugar, stir and cook on low-medium heat.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water with a small whisk until mixed.

Add to raspberries and stir until completely mixed.

Let cook until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring often.

Remove from heat.

Adjust sweetness to taste.

*Since I needed it to be sweet, I had to add another teaspoon of sugar.*

Let cool completely before adding it to chocolate tart.