Black Bean Tofu Cakes with Pineapple Mango Salsa

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I made these around Christmas as a veggie alternative to my mom's pork roast which was accompanied with the same salsa. They are a little hard to flip and might benefit from some more bread crumbs but they were good.

Saute a combination of diced vegetables. I used mushrooms, zucchini, peppers. Add garlic, cumin and coriander to taste. Meanwhile blend 1/4-1/2 cup bread crumbs and extra firm tofu, salt and pepper in food processor. In a bowl fold together 1 can black beans, tofu, and vegetables. Form into patties and cook in EVOO about 3 minutes on each side. TIP: wait until one side is brown to do the flip. It's hard to do but easier if one side is firm. You can keep these warm in an oven at 200 until ready to serve.

Salsa:
1/2 cup pineapple diced
2 mangoes diced
1 avocado diced
1/2 jalapeno seeded and diced
juice of one lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
salt to taste

Vegan Brunch

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By oldest and bestest was in town this week from L.A. and I thought a ladies brunch would be a great way to celebrate seeing her. It was a great morning with old friends just drinking coffee and soy hot chocolate while the snow came down outside!
Fruit and yogurt parfait-layer vanilla soy yogurt, strawberries, granola, yogurt, slivered almonds and drizzle of agave syrup
Fruit Salad
Salad with pears, walnuts, and cranberries. dressing here.
Sausage-Saute pieces of field roast apple and sage sausage and serve with mustard
Crescent rolls with jam
Roast potatoes with vegetables-Saute onions, peppers, zucchini and broccoli in pan while you roast small potatoes in oven. Mix together and bake before serving. You could also add field roast sausages to this mixture.
Pumpkin pancakes-Pancake recipe here. Substitute pumpkin pie filling for the apple sauce in this recipe. We actually ran out of soy milk and used some soy eggnog as well. The spices in the nog worked out really well.
Bagel Sandwiches-Mini whole wheat bagels, spread with hummus and layered with vegetables

Happy Birthday to me!

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I guess I lied when I said no more cupcakes since I had to make some for my birthday last night!

Strawberry Almond Cupcakes:
1 box yellow cake mix (Duncan Hines)
1 container strawberry soy yogurt
1/4 cup softened vegan margarine
2/3 cup water
1 and 1/2 tsp ener-g egg replacer mixed into the water above
2 tsp almond extract
1 cup diced strawberries

Pre heat to 375. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Fold in strawberries gently. Bake 18 min.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 container tofutti cream cheese
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
zest of lemon
1 TBS lemon juice
one drop red food coloring (optional but awesome)
16-18 half strawberries for decorating

Sweet potato chilli and scallion corn cakes

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Chili:
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
2 red or orange peppers
2-3 cups kale leaves torn into bite size pieces
1 can black beans
2 small cans tomatoes and chillies or fire roasted tomatoes and separate can of mild green chillis. (just use whatever combination you want)
2-3 chipotles in adobo sauce
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli powder

Cut potatoes into small squares. saute in EVOO until soft. Add diced onion, peppers until soft. Add chipotles and spices and cook with veggies for a minute. Add canned tomatoes, chillis and beans and cook for 20-30 minutes until thickened. 15 minutes before serving add kale and make corn cakes. Optional Toppings: hot sauce, guacamole, soy sour cream, cilantro, scallions, black olives

I used the veganomicon corn bread recipe here and added a handful of frozen corn and 4 chopped scallions to the batter and then used the batter like pancake batter to make 8 pancakes to go on top of chilli.

Chickpea Cutlets

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These cutlets are from Veganomicon and are delicious with roasted potatoes and peppers and a light salad. Just wanted to share the recipe and picture:

Cupcake craziness!

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The month of October should have just been re-named cupcake month in my life. I made 52 cupcakes for my Halloween party and I made cupcakes on at least 3 other occasions! The best part about these cupcakes is that their are a lot of short cuts out there. Below I have listed some cake mixes that are vegan and how to replace the ingredients they tell you to add with vegan ingredients. This makes cupcakes an easy option that everyone loves! Above is the picture I took of the Halloween cupcakes, chocolate, vanilla, and apple spice (I colored those orange to be festive). I am bummed I don't have a frosted picture because they looked very cute decorated with orange, black, green, and purple for Halloween but everyone was too busy eating to take any pictures! I frosted them with Duncan Hines home style vanilla and chocolate fudge frosting which are vegan but in no way healthy for you =)

There are a bunch of mixes that are vegan-PETA's website lists Duncan Hines chocolate devils food, traditional yellow cake, and some other flavors. Just double check the ingredients as some varieties do contain milk ingredients. Cherry Brook Kitchen makes a gluten free mix and a vegan mix, but they cost like $6 a box, I also found an organic mix at whole foods. Based on what the box wants you to add this is what I would do:

Milk=soy milk
Egg=ener-g egg replacer for 1 egg and 1/4 cup soy yogurt additional eggs Ex: Duncan Hines wants 3 eggs replace with one ener-g egg replacer egg and 1/2 cup vanilla or plain soy yogurt
Oil=Oil or applesauce or combo OR melted smart balance
Butter=Smart Balance
Water=obviously you can use water but in the apple spice cupcakes below I replaced this with apple cider-yum!

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:
Mix together one box yellow cake mix and add 1 TBS molasses, 1 tsp each ground cloves, cinnamon, and allspice, and two peeled and diced Macintosh apples. Bake according to box directions and frost with cream cheese frosting (1/2 container tofutti cream cheese, 1/4 cup icing sugar, dash vanilla extract)
Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting:
Mix one box chocolate cake (I like Duncan Hines devil's food) and add 1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips into the batter (it would be great to find non dairy peanut butter chips too but I haven't found any yet). Bake according to package directions. For frosting either use Duncan Hines home style fudge frosting (this is horrible for you BUT it's a cupcake so RELAX!) mix about 1/2 the container with 1/4 cup of peanut butter and frost away! OR make some peanut butter frosting with 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter, 1/4 cup icing sugar, and 2 TBS tofutti cream cheese. I'm sure there is a way to add melted chocolate and make a chocolate/peanut butter concoction but I am definitely not a frosting expert-yet! I brought these to my friends birthday party and again I was too busy eating to get a picture but I can say that with soy vanilla ice cream OR fresh from the oven, these bad boys are delicious!

So that was my adventure into the world of cupcakes which I will put on hold for awhile as I try out more pies and cakes for the holiday season. Cupcakes are fun and the combinations seem endless. Post any of your fun cupcake ideas or anything you would like to add to my thoughts here!

Black Bean Chipotle Soup

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Great soup for cold weather. Uses up leftovers from your fridge and is a nice twist on chilli. Serve with corn bread or good bread for dipping or flax seed tortillas as I did here.

Ingredients:
Box of vegetable stock/broth
1 can black beans
1 small can diced fire roasted tomatoes or diced tomatoes and green chilles
1 red onion
2 ribs of celery
2-3 carrots
1 zucchini
2 cloves garlic
2 chipotle peppers
1 TBS cumin
1 tsp coriander
1tsp chille powder
3-4 cups kale leaves
1 cup frozen corn
2-3 small potatoes cooked (I had some leftover baked potato)
cilantro and scallions for garnish
salt to taste (note about salt: make sure to salt each layer of the dish so it is not over or under salted. ie. salt veggies while cooking, then add liquid, taste, and salt again if needed, cook then taste salt again and so on. I find if you salt components as you cook them you wont need much when liquid is added and remember the more spice and flavor the soup has the less salt you need.)

Saute onion until soft, add diced celery, carrots and zucchini. Add garlic and cook together for 5 min. Add chipotles, salt and spices and cook for an additional minutes. You can do this sauteing in EVOO I like to use just a little and if pan gets dry add some of the canned tomato liquid. When all veggies are soft add broth, tomatoes and beans. Bring to a boil and cook together for 30min. Add cooked potatoes, frozen corn and kale 15 minutes before serving. You could also put pasta in here or really any veggies you have on hand. Spinach, peppers, squash, sweet potato and peas come to mind! Happy fall!