White Pizza

Level of Difficulty: reaaaalll simple
Pots/Pans Used: 1!

Ingredients

NUTRITIONAL YEAST***
3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup Earth Balance
2 TBL flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp onion powder
pizza dough
Daiya mozzarella cheese
Gardein seven grain crispy tenders, chopped

***I'm sorry to anyone who already made this, I made this pizza today and realized I forgot to say to add nutritional yeast. Add it after the milk. I would say to start out with a couple tabelspoons at a time until it reaches the desired texture. If it gets too thick, no worries! Just add some more milk!

The fact that I can't even look at the pictures I took of this pizza without letting out little shrieks and groans of longing speaks volumes to how GOOD THIS IS! Before I was vegan, I loved white pizza with white sauce. Until my friend, Tess, made me the pizza the other night it had never even crossed my mind to veganize it. Considering there are like... no vegetables on this pizza you might wanna make a super veggie-heavy side dish because the last thing you wanna feel while eating this is guilty. Seriously, it's just too good to not enjoy to the fullest extent. But by all means, pile the veggies on. It's entirely your call!



Preheat oven to 425. In a saucepan on low-medium heat melt the Earth Balance. Then while whisking, gradually add the flour. The flour will soak up the butter and begin to clump up. Then add the almond milk gradually and then the nutritional yeast until it becomes the consistency of a thick cheesy sauce. Roll out your dough so that it is the desired size and then spread the white sauce on as if it were tomato sauce. Top with mozzarella and the chopped crispy tenders. (I microwaved the tenders for a minute and then chopped them). I baked mine on a pizza crisper and it took about 15 minutes or so. I don't think the time would be affected that much if you're using a baking sheet but just keep an eye on it and REMEMBER to oil the pan first otherwise the pizza will be impossible to get off. I am speaking from experience. And the last thing you want is deliciously smelling ooey gooey pizza that you can't eat because it has conjoined with a large metal rectangle. And if you can believe it, I think it actually tastes even better the second day.

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Simple Smoothie

Level of Difficulty: Anyone (with a blender) could do this!
Pots/Pans Used: just a blender

Ingredients

1 banana
1 cup strawberries
the juice and flesh of one grapefruit
1 cup ice
2 tsp agave nectar (optional)



I happen to love smoothies but rarely make them. Contrary to what the photo makes it look like, this is not a rose-infused smoothie (although that's an interesting idea I should work on)... the roses I had in my apartment were just too pretty to not utilize in the photo. I decided to make this really simple smoothie because I had some fruit that only have a few days left and needed to get put to good use. The great thing is that you can really mix it up and add whatever you have. You could add some spinach and make a "green" smoothie, do whatever. If anything, this is just a reminder of how simple and awesome smoothies are.



All the effort required is blending all ingredients. Ideally, I like to use frozen fruit so that I can bypass using ice. Usually the ice never breaks down enough and so you're left with little chunks. If your fruit is frozen, usually that's enough texture to thicken up the drink. Now go and get your smoothie on.

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Fancy Cake

Level of Difficulty: Some assembly required!
Pots/Pans Used: two-ish

So it looks fancy, but it's actually really easy. I figured this would be a good post for anyone going to a party that wants to bring something impressive. Whenever I go to a party where I'm asked to bring something vegan (usually because there will be very few vegans there and they want to make sure I'll be able to eat something) I admittedly like to go all out. I see it as an opportunity to break the stereotype that vegan food can only be cardboard. So, if you have something coming up, offer to bring the cake and then show up with this! They'll think you slaved over it when in reality it takes minimal effort.



So this isn't my original recipe, but you can find it here. If anything, this is more of a cake decorating tips post. The original measurements were for a loaf pan, so the only thing you need to change is to double all the measurements so that it fits perfectly into two basic 9" round cake pans. While the cakes are in the oven, you can start making the chocolate covered strawberries. I used baker's chocolate to melt but you can use chocolate chips or whatever else you can come up with. Place the chocolate-covered strawberries on wax paper and set them in the fridge to set up.



Once the cakes have cooled, layer the cakes on top of each other so that you can trim some off the top tier until it's the desired size. Cut each layer lengthwise down the center. Spread some frosting on one side and add some sliced strawberries. Top it with the other half. Do the same thing to the top tier. This helps to infuse some strawberry flavor into the chocolate cake and add another texture. Frost the cakes (which in my opinion is probably the hardest part... it never looks perfect!! But don't worry, Once you're done decorating, you won't notice any frosting mistakes). Then all you do is pile on the chocolate-covered strawberries how you see fit and sprinkle on some chocolate shavings.



On a more personal note, I specifically made this cake for my best friend of almost fifteen years, Ms. Tess Bath who is moving to New York. Any of you NY followers, feel free to say 'hi' if you see her out and about since I cant anymore (tear). She'll be the mega-hottie with the hot pink backpack. Now I'm going to get a little sentimental and share some BFF moments with you. I know I don't usually put up personal pictures, but I know I always like it when people do that on other vegan blogs I read so I figured why not...







Good luck in New York, Tesser!!! <3 xoxoxo

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Banana Muffins with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Topping

Level of difficulty: average as far as muffins go
Pots/Pans Used: 3 bowls!

Ingredients

1/2 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
1 tsp molasses
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cup flour

Topping:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup & 1 TBL maple syrup
1/4 cup & 1 TBL unsweetened soymilk
1/4 cup flour
mini chocolate chips

Basically, I was watching Cupcake Wars on the Food Network and avoiding my sculpture project when the need to bake came over me. I had some super ripe bananas and very little baking ingredients so I improvised. The reason I call these muffins instead of cupcakes is because they came out much more dense than I was expecting. I'll probably try and tweak this recipe to get a more fluffy cake, but these were yummy enough that I decided I might as well share them with you. And if you're not a fan of peanut butter, the muffins are good enough by themselves!



Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine your flour, baking soda and powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients (agave, vanilla, veg oil, molasses and mashed bananas). Then fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Lumps are okay, don't over mix! Next, fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 25-27 minutes, until they are cooked throughout. Let them cool. They will probably sink a little, but no worries!

As for the topping, combine all ingredients in a bowl and either whisk or blend to combine. The reason I added the extra TBL of maple syrup and soymilk is because that's what gave me the texture I wanted. But you can always start out with the 1/4 of each and see if you want to add more. Top the muffins and sprinkle some extra chocolate chips on top. If you want to make them look extra impressive, just melt some chips and then drizzle some chocolate on top and garnish with sliced bananas. Now demolish them!

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Fresh Tacos and... Potatoes?

Level of Difficulty: easay
Pots/Pans Used: 2

Ingredients

Tacos:
1/2 onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
romaine lettuce
avocado, sliced
tomato, diced
1 can black beans
1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
olive oil

Roasted Red Potatoes:
3 red potatoes, diced
2 TBL Earth Balance
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil

"Sour Cream"*:
1/4 cup veganaise
1/4 cup cream cheese
s & p

*- Just know that I made this sour cream because I wanted to use what I had on hand. However, you can certainly just buy Toffuti's Better Than Sour Cream instead of buying the ingredients to make this version.

So I made this the other night when I had no tortillas, but I originally got the idea from raw taco recipes I've tried which use the romaine in place of a wrap. Obviously this version isn't raw but you could certainly tweak it if that's something you are interested in. This is just a jumping off point. Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand. I couldn't believe how full I got. In fact, it took all my will power to just finish the three of these. So you kinda get two recipes in one with this one. I had these red potatoes in my fridge so I decided to make them into a side dish. They were delicious with the sour cream on top! Keep in mind, this would be a good recipe for anyone who is gluten-intolerant.



Empty the black beans into a medium-sized sauce pan and turn up to low-medium heat. Let the beans heat throughout and then add all the spices from Cajun seasoning thru red pepper flakes. Let them simmer a bit and let the spices combine. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a saute pan with the four cloves of garlic over medium heat. Add the onions and let them caramelize. Once they're done, set them aside and move on to making the red potatoes using the same pan...



Melt the Earth Balance in a medium-heat saute pan and add the remaining garlic (yes, this is a very garlic heavy meal). Once fragrant, add the potatoes and let them saute until they are cooked completely. At some point, go ahead and toss in the basil. If you choose to make the "sour cream"-like condiment, just combine all ingredients together. Serve up in romaine lettuce leaves and pile on all the toppings!

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