Vegan Vanilla Stawberries and Creme cupcakes

Vegan vanilla strawberries and "creme" cupcakes... golden vanilla cupcakes filled with sweet gooey frosting and macerated strawberries, topped with fresh strawberries and sweet frosting. This was a big hit at Gaby's birthday party last night and were recreated today because we had leftover macerated strawberries and creme :)
This recipe is sort of a combination of two berry-based vanilla cupcake recipes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

Ingredients
1 cup soymilk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups macerated, thinly sliced strawberries (in 3 Tbsp of maple syrup)
3 cups "Creme" - recipe/method follows

Cupcake Method
Add maple syrup to thinly sliced strawberries and set aside for at least 30 minutes for strawberries to get really soft and release their juice.

Preheat oven to 350F. Pam your muffin plan/cupcake liners.

Whisk the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes to thicken up a bit.

Sift and mix the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.

In a separate large bowl, combine oil, sugar, vanilla and almond extract, and soymilk mixture.

Add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients, mixing well. Keep mixing until no large lumps remain.

Fill your cupcake pan cups about 2/3 full. Bake 20 to 22 minutes (until toothpick comes out clean from a cupcake). Set aside to cool on a wire rack. Make sure they're cool before you frost them!

Creme Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1-3 Tbsp soy milk

Add vanilla extract to powdered sugar. Add 1 Tbsp of soy milk to powdered sugar at a time, mixing until the consistency looks like thick cake batter. Make sure its not too runny.

Cupcake assembly
Using a paring knife, carve out a cone shaped hole about an inch into the cupcake. The best way I found to do this was to stab the cupcake while it was still in the muffin pan, and rotate the cupcake in muffin pan while sort of sawing with the knife. Remove the cupcake cone and set aside.

Fill the cupcake with about 1/4 tsp of creme frosting. Then gently fold and shove macerated strawberries into the cupcake, I usually managed to get about 2-4 slices in, depending on how deep I cut the cone.

Take the cupcake cone and gently, but firmly, squish it back on top of the cupcake. Take additional stawberry slices and decorate the top of the cupcake (over the now replaced cone to cover it up) and generally dribble creme frosting over the strawberry slices.

Repeat with all cupcakes. Store in fridge or cool area so frosting doesn't get runny. Enjoy!

Vegan Queso Dip - Not Unhealthy!

Last night was fajita night, and my roomates and I made a delicious feast with peppers/veggies, black beans, guac, cilantro lime rice, and ... vegan Queso! I used this recipe because it was the "healthiest" I could find, most of the other ones used a good amount of margarine. So, I haven't had queso in awhile and I thought that my judgment might be skewed, but everyone (including 3 omnivores) really liked it! The "cheesy" flavor comes from the nutritional yeast, and the melty texture is thanks to the cornstarch and ground cashews. I used the whole foods 365 brand hot salsa, but just use your favorite type. Everyone agreed that it doesn't taste exactly like queso, but that its a really tasty cheezy dip (and is much healthier!). If you make it, let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk (not "plain," which is still sweet)
2 t. apple cider vinegar
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. tumeric
1/4 t. mustard powder
2 T. tahini
1 jalapeno, finely chopped (or more to taste)
1/2 cup prepared spicy salsa, draining excess juices
1/4 t. salt (or more to taste)

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl, combine the soymilk and vinegar and allow to rest for 3-5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Mix in cornstarch, stirring to dissolve. Set aside.
2. In a blender or food processor, process the cashews until finely ground. Set aside.
3. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, spices, salt, jalapeno, and tahini. Stir in ground cashews and soymilk mixture until well blended. Stir in prepared salsa and salt. Cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat, and then put on low heat; it will thicken as it cools. Add more salt to taste (if you want, I didn't)
4. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold with tortilla or pita chips, or use as a sauce for tacos, fajitas,or burritos.

Vegan Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

This was the first time EVER that I have made cupcakes, and on top of that they are vegan cupcakes. I got the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" for Christmas/Solstice... and its awesome. I made these cookies and cream cupcakes for our friend Kristin's birthday on Saturday. The tops are not oreos, but newman-os! They were a huge hit, in the "I would have never ever guessed that they are vegan, why does the frosting taste like delicious sweet butter?!" kind of way. I highly recommend the book!

Healthy Cookies

I don't really eat much dessert because it's unhealthy, has no nutritional value, and usually too sweet for my taste. So I've been searching online for healthier alternatives to overly sugary and buttery sweets (although most people find that to be the best part). I usually replace most of the sugar content in baked recipes with Splenda, but then again, artificial sweeteners can't be that great for you either. I prefer natural ingredients.

Here's a great cookie recipe I found online. I made a batch today and it tasted pretty darn good, although the texture isn't as firm as a real cookie. Maybe I'll try to bake it longer next time. The original recipe did not include chocolate chips, but I just had to add one "bad" ingredient :) I think this recipe would also qualify as vegan-friendly (do chocolate chips count?)

BANANA OATMEAL COOKIE

2 mashed ripe bananas
3 cups oatmeal
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup choc chips

2 packets of Splenda (if using unsweetened applesauce)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl till everything is uniformly moist. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet. The dough will not spread, so flatten it to desired cookie thickness. Bake for 15 minutes. Eat warm or after cooling.

Cooking with Ruchi

Ruchi and I cooked some pretty awesome Vegan and Vegetarian dishes last week. I didn't think I would be able to go 9 days without meat....but I did! Okay I cheated once and made Ruchi drive me to McDonalds. But I really didn't miss meat too much. Thanks to Ruchi, I learned about various vegan options such as Flax Seeds, Nutritional Yeast, and Soy Ice Cream (yum!). I also learned to cook vegetables I've been to scared to try out like Spaghetti Squash, Butternut Squash, some green leafy vegetable looking thingie (I forget the name). Squash is really not hard to prepare at all. I use a huge butcher knife now to cut through the squash and takes less than a minute. Then pop in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-40 mins, and you can literally eat it straight out of the oven on its own. The 3rd picture is Ruchi's butternut squash risotto.

The second picture is a random side dish I made with what I could find in the fridge. It's kinda like Eggplant Parmesan, except that I used Feta Cheese instead. I lightly cooked slices of eggplant in some olive oil, seasoned it with salt and pepper, then transfered it to a casserole dish. I layered some left over marinera sauce on top of the eggplant and topped it with chopped basil, panko bread crumbs, feta cheese and chili flakes. Baked it in the oven at 350 degrees. The feta/eggplant combination turned out really good!

Vegan Risotto with Butternut Squash, Peas, and Capers

I adapted this recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen. We added some butternut squash that I had from the farmers market and also Doz purchased some capers when we went to Kroger (because she played hookie from school today for prior insomnia related reasons).

You can really add any veggie of your choice to this recipe, like fresh or re-hydrated dried mushrooms, whole cloves of roasted garlic, chopped sauteed spinach and olives, chunks of pre-cooked pumpkin or other squash.

The fun vegan ingredient here, which is optional and could be replaced with Parmesan cheese, is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a deactivated yeast, usually Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is produced by culturing the yeast with a mixture of sugarcane and beet molasses, then harvesting, washing, drying and packaging the yeast. It is commercially available in the form of flakes, or as a yellow powder similar in texture to cornmeal, and can be found in the bulk aisle of most natural food stores. It is a complete protein, a good source of vitamins, and is naturally low in fat and sodium. Many brands of nutritional yeast are fortified with vitamin B12. The vitamin B12 is produced separately from bacteria and then added to the yeast. Nutritional yeast has a strong flavor that is described as nutty, cheesy, or creamy, which makes it popular as an ingredient in cheese substitutes. It is often used by vegans in place of parmesan cheese. Another popular use is as a topping for popcorn. It can also be used in mashed and fried potatoes, as well as putting it into scrambled tofu or eggs. Some movie theaters offer it along with salt or cayenne pepper as a popcorn condiment.

Vegan Risotto with Butternut Squash, Peas, and Capers

Ingredients
4 cups vegetable stock (or mushroom stock)
3-4 cups water
1 medium onion, finely chopped (or 4 Tbsp onion flakes)
1/2 head celery, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (or more if you like it spicy) cherry pepper, finely chopped (or thai pepper or jalepeno pepper or other spicy pepper you'd like to try!)
2 cups arborio rice
3 Tbsp capers, drained
1/2 cup peas (or edamame)
1 medium butter nut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups dry white wine (We used cheap Sauvignon Blanc from Kroger, yay)
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. olive oil
Fresh basil, chopped, for sprinkling on top
1 Tbsp (or more to taste) Nutritional yeast, for sprinkling on top

Directions
1. Heat stock in saucepan to near-boiling.
2. Peel squash, and remove seeds. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add squash and peas and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cover. Cook until squash is tender but still holds its shape, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.
3. Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion, celery, garlic, and hot pepper. Cook until soft, 10-15 minutes. Add rice, salt and pepper, cook one minute, or until rice is slightly translucent, stirring constantly. Turn up heat to medium high.
4. Add wine and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly. Stir in a pinch of salt.
5. Add 1/2 cup ladle of stock, cook until absorbed, stirring constantly. After stock is absorbed, add another ladle full. This process should take 15 minutes or so. Add capers and sauteed peas and squash thee quarters through going through all the stock. Taste some rice, if it is still under cooked, then add 1/2 cup of water, cooking until absorbed and stirring constantly. Repeat until rice taste cooked and al dente (slight resistance in the center when the pasta is chewed -- not mushy!).
6. When all the stock/water is absorbed, turn off the heat, put on the lid and let it sit for 3 minutes. Then take off the lid and stir in the rest of the olive oil. Stir and serve with chopped fresh basil and nutritional yeast (optional) sprinkled on top.

Your Mouth Will Thank You...

Yes, I'm a dork. My first official blog will be about dental hygiene! Don't worry, there will be many more to come on topics ranging from how to balance a baby in one hand and a glass of wine in the other all the way to what types of air purifiers are best for your home! But for now...it's all about the oral cavity. Let me preface this by first saying that I do NOT work for Listerine nor do I get any sort of benefit from them! Listerine as a new product called Listerine Total Care which I am a huge fan of. They finally listened to dentists and created one rinse that encompasses both anti-bacterial properties for gingivitis and also fluoride for your enamel. It's all in one, and I love it! I recommend it to all my patients...one mouthwash that kills germs, inhibits bacteria growth, reduces plaque, and now strengthens enamel with fluoride. Your mouth will thank you.