I am trying out some more recipes from other people. This being a Coconut Heaven Cupcake out of Vegan with a Vengeance. Oh, heavenly indeed. I didn't have as much frosting, as I was short on a few ingredients and I had to sub shortening for the margerine as I am cutting the soy out of my diet (my diet only, my kids still eat it). I didn't put coconut in the frosting for my 7 year-old would not eat them. He is ok with the coconut in the cakey part or "hidden within", so to speak. But, he would not forgive me for being so blatant as to put coconut in or on his frosting! Because, I used shortening in my frosting, I put some extra coconut extract so it wouldn't be gross.

Well, here is a picture from a recipe that I tried out of one of my new cookbooks. For my birthday, I received La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer. Pictured are the Wolffie's Peanut Butter Cookies. These got rave reviews from the family. As for me, I like them well enough. I am just more of a ginger cookie gal :D These barely lasted a day(my fiance is a cookie hog) and next time, I will double the recipe. I have tried two recipes out of the book, so far. I also tried Karen's Mexican Burrito Pie, which even my avocado hating 7 year old ate just fine. It also gets a thumbs up.

Mmmmm gyoza dumplings.I love them. I get the skins at the asian market. I have never seen vegan skins in my grocery store. The filling is kale, shredded carrot, jicama, green onions, ginger, and garlic that I drizzled with sesame oil and a little vegetarian oyster sauce. Normally, I would use soy sauce, but I think I am having some troubles with soy, so I am trying to cut it out for a while, at least. Then, fill the skins, seal with water on your finger tip. Then, there is a variety of ways in which to cook these. You can deep fry them or steam them in a steamer. I chose to fry/steam them. First, put about one tablespoon of vegetable(or peanut, or canola, etc) in a pan. Heat it up and add the dumplings seam side up. Fry them on medium until the bottoms brown (anywhere from 5-10 minutes). Then add a 1/3 cup of water and cover the pan. Steam the dumplings until water is gone from the pan (usually about 10 minutes). You can hear the sizzle change. Then they are done. I made a dipping sauce out of veg oyster sauce, a little water, and hot garlic chili sauce. Delicious!

Mmmm...another favorite snack: The Smoothie. Yes, my kids and I love smoothies. The one pictured is strawberry, banana, orange with flax. We just take about 1 to 1and a 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries, 1/2 a banana and put them in the blender. I add to that enough orange juice to go 2/3 way up the berries (I don't know how much that is.) Then I cover the berries with an additional type of juice (100%of course, sometimes for the kids I will use fortified rice milk). Add about 1 Tbsp of agave nectar and 2 tablespoons of flax. Blend until smooth, adding more liquid if necessary. This is two small servings or one very very large one.With there being so many of us, I usually have to do multiply. More of my favorites include: the avacado smoothie and tropical smoothie (with coconut milk!!)

mmmmm A fudgie Chocolate Chunk brownie. These are delicious! I promise that I will post a recipe tomorrow. But, now I must wrangle my family up and go rent some movies.
ETA: the Recipe

Mmmmm Chocolate Chunk Brownies

1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 c maple syrup
1/2 c Florida Crystals
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
chocolate chunks to sprinkle on top before baking. I just chunked up some bittersweet dark chocolate.

Grease an 8x8 pan. Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Add wet to dry and mix well. Pour into 8X8 pan and sprinkle chocolate chunks over the top and pop into the oven. Bake for 15-16 minutes. Let these cool completely. I store these in the refrigerator (I like brownies cold!)

We call these P-nut butter balls. These are a favorite of Liam's (aka: I love chickpeas boy)

P-Nut Butter Balls

1/2 cup cereal, crushed ( I used Raspberry Ginger Peace cereal, we vary what we use a lot.)
3 Tbsps agave nectar
1/4 cup natural p-nut butter
1/4 powdered soymilk

Set aside 2-3 tablespoons of the crushed cereal to roll the p-nut balls in. In a small bowl start working the p-nut butter and agave nectar together. Then add in the soymilk powder. This should be a pretty dry yet stuck together mixture. If it doesn't stick together add a little more agave nectar. If it is too wet add a little more crushed cereal or a tad bit of soymilk powder. Form into 1/2 inch balls and chill for 1 hour. You can make them any size really, we like big balls!

No, that's not sauerkraut on a tortilla! I've been contemplating snacks recently. We love to snack! Everybody loves snacks...right?? Anyways, I have been compiling my kid's favorite snacks in order to share them! This snack is a favorite of my daughter, who has a bit of "hippy" in her, I think. This is just a small wheat tortilla spread with natural peanut butter and sprinkled with shredded apple, and hemp granola. Then it is rolled and cut. If we are feeling really "crunchy" we will add some nutty/seedy trail mix.

Ooooh. If I never post again you will know that I went into a sugar coma after dessert. This is just a wacky cake with a frosting that I am still perfecting. But, it is sooo good.There is a layer of smooshed and lightly sugared raspberries and some chopped almonds. I didn't have enough to decorate the outside though. I wish I did, a few raspberries would really break up all that darkness. I also replaced the vanilla in the frosting and cake with almond extract. I also added some weird choclately lace things that is just some bitter chocolate with veg shortening piped onto wax paper.
Edited to add recipe:

Cake- This is a basic "wacky" cake recipe. So, I can't take credit. I just changed a few ingredients. I replaced some of the oil with applesauce and changed vanilla to almond extract.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 Tbsps cocoa
2 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup veg oil
1/4 cup applesauce
2 Tbsps vinegar
2 tsps almond extract(or vanilla)
2 cups cold water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make three "holes" in the dry mixture. Put oil/applesauce, vinegar and almond extract each in a separate hole. Pour water over top and mix well. Pour int2 - 9 inch round pans or 19X13 pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. Do not check until 30 minutes is up. Test center with toothpick or wooden skewer. Make sure the center is done, though. Let cool a bit before removing from the pan. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
1/2 cup melted earth balance(or other margarine)
1/2 cup cocoa
2.5 -3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup coconut milk(chilled, do not shake can, use thick white stuff)
1 tsp almond extract(or vanilla)

Add melted margarine to the cocoa. Add coconut milk and almond extract. Add powedered sugar a little at a time and beat until mixture is desired consistency.

Layer fillings- for this cake I used 1/2 cup of chopped roasted almonds. I also took 3/4 cup of raspberries and sprinkled them with sugar. I let them set for about five minutes. I then smooshed them a little.

To assemble the cake, I took the first layer and put some frosting on it, then the raspberry mixture and nuts. I put the next layer over the top and frosted that and then the sides. I stored this cake in the refrigerator. I did that mostly because we LOVE cold cake and I thought the frosting and raspberries would taste better that way.

Sheesh, I didn't do anything even remotely creative this weekend! I'm working on it though. I am looking for something to make this week.

Ginger Peach Muffins

1 cup white all purpose flour
1 cup wheat flour
1/3 cup bran (oat or wheat)
3/4 cup brown sugar (I use Florida Crystals)
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1/4 to 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup plain soy yogurt
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce
1 ener-g egg
1 tsp vanilla
4 tsps of molasses
1.5 cups chopped peaches ( I used frozen, thawed. Could use canned, drained as well)
at the very end: 1/4 to 1/2 milk of choice ( I used rice milk)

Prepare muffin pans by either using liners or greasing and flouring muffin pans.

Next, in a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl mix wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well. Fold in peaches. Add in the soymilk 1/4 cup at a time, if necessary. It should be a thick, yet moist batter. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

*Note: I have also added some chopped walnuts to half the batter. (Only half because one of my kids really dislikes walnuts.)

Ooooh, holy sweet tooth batman! Mmmmm, so after much testing. I believe this will be the final version of my German Chocolate Cookies. The cookies are very light and cocoa-y on the inside and then the frosting on top gives you the nutty sweetness. Mmmm, some of the cookies have some bittersweet chocolate chunks in them. I will post this recipe after I bake one more batch. I adjusted the cookie so much that I want to make sure that I am reading my corrections correctly. So, by sometime next week, I should have it up.

I had a child turn 13 this weekend! I feel old! Anyways, he requested that I make him some cupcakes. The cake recipe is one that I have had forever...I have no idea where I got it, so I don't know if I will post that. But, I can give you the frosting recipe.

Coconut Frosting
1/4 cup Earth Balance
2 cups (or so) of powdered sugar (which can be made in your food processor)
2 Tbsps of chilled coconut milk (the thick white stuff, do not shake the can before opening)
1 tsp of coconut extract (can use vanilla, or less coconut if you like a milder coconut flavor)

In a bowl mix together the margarine and some of the powdered sugar (I use my mixer for this, but I am sure you can beat them together without one.) Add the coconut milk and beat some more. Then add the sugar a little at a time until your frosting is the desired consistency.

I did top a few of the cupcakes with coconut for my daughter and I as we can't get enough of the stuff.

This is a picture of some creamy, thick tomato vegetable soup w/some croutons . It was delicious! No recipe, sorry. I am going to try and keep up around here. But, I had a bomb dropped on my personal life and I am not sure how things will be right now. Stay Classy Vegans :)

Sorry, no pics to update yet. But, I'll get right on it later or tomorrow. It will probably be a soup recipe and picture, maybe a recipe. I have to take the recipe out of my head first. I am working on a few things, mainly spicy fudge cookies (chocolate and hotstuff makes me happy) and German Chocolate cookies (mostly deciding which cookie formulation that I like better). Talk to you later :)