Pizza Bagel Faces

Late one night Jared and I needed a midnight snack, so after raiding the fridge we decided on Pizza Bagels.

Earlier that morning we bought some everything bagels from Beans and Bagels (2601 W. Leland Ave) and they made the perfect base for our late night treat.   

We cracked open a can of organic tomato sauce and slapped some of it on each half of the bagels.  Then we seasoned each one with garlic powder, oregano, red pepper flakes and salt.

Next, we covered each one with mozzarella style Daiya cheese, sliced tomatoes and onions.

We gave them each cute little oniony faces, which of course made them much more fun to eat!

2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma

Sticking with the theme of soup, Jared and I made 2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma.  

Okay, okay, okay... this dish was not really soup.  It was actually an Indian curry filled with tons of vegetables including red onion, cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, carrots, peas and tofu for some extra protein. It was seasoned with curry powder, garam masala, cumin, coriander, and of course ginger and garlic.  Everything cooked together in vegetable broth and at the end light coconut milk and agave were added to sweeten the deal.  

We ate this flavorful dish over brown rice and enjoyed every healthful and tasteful bite.  

Arabian Lentil & Rice Soup

When the weather switched from nice to cold again, it put Jared and I in the mood for soup.  We started our soup craze off by making Arabian Lentil & Rice Soup.

This Lebanese inspired soup made with onion, cumin, coriander, carrots, red lentils, brown basmati rice, lemon zest, vegetable broth and topped off with freshly squeezed lemon juice, was a breeze to make and  incredibly delicious.  It was the perfect meal for a cold spring evening.

Vanilla Gluten Freedom and Chocolate Cherry Crème Cupcakes

April 2nd was Liz's Birthday and since she is one of my favorite people in the world, I decided she deserved a cupcake tower.  I made Vanilla Gluten Freedom Cupcakes with Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Cherry Crème Cupcakes.

The Vanilla Gluten Freedom cupcakes had Corn Flour, White Rice Flour, Tapioca Flour and Quinoa Flour.  These were four different kinds of flour that I have never tried baking with before.  

  

I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but they looked just as good as any other vanilla cupcake I have made in the past.

I topped these little guys off with Blue Vegan Buttercream Frosting and Birthday Sprinkles!

The Chocolate Cherry Crème Cupcakes started off with your basic chocolate cupcake

After coring out each cupcake I filled them with homemade cherry filling topped with vegan buttercream frosting.  I replaced the cake that I removed and topped THAT off with more frosting and shaved dark chocolate.

They couldn't have turned out more perfect. 

Liz LOVED the cupcake tower! 

I was a bit worried that the gluten free cupcakes would be less delicious than the chocolate cherry crème cupcakes.  Although the chocolate ones were a gourmet decadent dessert the gluten free ones were just as delicious.  I  have to, embarrassingly, admit that  Jared and I made sure to steal a couple of them to take back home with us before the night was over.

 I had a great time celebrating with Liz and was happy to have been able to share my love of baking with one of my bestest friends on her birthday! 

Meals with My Honey

It's been a while since my last Blog post.  I have been busy with school as usual, but my spare time has been spent on Cloud 9 with my main squeeze.  Over Spring Break we spent everyday together snuggling, listening to music, and laughing until the sun came up. Amidst getting to know each other, we also spent some time cooking together in the kitchen.

Since Jared wasn't a vegan, I wanted to impress him with how delicious vegan food can be, so I made my famous Orange Tofu.  He loved it and I as expected, this dish excited his taste buds.

After days and evenings spent either forgetting to eat because we were having so much fun, I decided we needed something healthful in our tummies.   We made Pasta de los Angeles and Chili-Lime Rubbed Tofu.

This was just what we both needed.  Angel hair pasta loaded with shallots, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, tomatoes, lime, black beans and spinach.

The tofu was rubbed with chili powder, and salt and soaked in a sauce made of olive oil, lime juice, soy sauce, garlic and lime zest.  After it was flavored up we baked it and it created the perfect side for the pasta.  I could eat this tofu all day!

On one of our last nights of Spring Break, we wanted dessert, so we made Chocolate-Rum Pudding Cake.

This delightful cake was spiked with Bacardi and filled with chocolatey goodness.

The only thing it was missing was a giant scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream.  

I love spending time in the kitchen with Jared.  He picks up where I leave off and everything seems to come together faster with him there.   After 10 days of cooking and eating vegan food together, he decided to make the big switch and is now beginning the process of becoming a vegan.  Either he really likes me or he just really likes to eat my food.

Peanut Butter, Jelly and Agave Cookies

A couple Sundays ago my niece Olivia and I had another baking date where we experiment with healthy cookie recipes.  This time we made Peanut Butter Agave Cookies.

This week Olivia added everything to the bowls herself.

She of course had to sample each ingredient as it was added.

It's always fun to bake with unrefined sugar.  It makes me feel less guilty about eating the final product.  This dough was made of: Agave nectar, brown rice syrup, canola oil, peanut butter, almond milk, ground flax seeds, vanilla extract, almond extract, all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda and salt.

Olivia had a blast making cookies and is becoming a champion at shaping them herself.

As we began forming the dough into cookies Olivia decided that peanut butter cookies could not be complete without jelly. So, we made half of the cookies jelly filled.

These cookies were very tasty, but I must admit that the jelly filled ones were the better of the two. I am so lucky to have such an inventive niece working with me in the kitchen.