Vegan Easter Awesome

I always remember Easter as being a pretty fun time when I was a kid.  Easter meant egg hunts, chocolate, and decorating eggs.  This year, with my niece about to turn two, the fun times can start again.  My mom and I orchestrated her first egg hunt, which she was super good at!  We figured two was a little young for egg decorating, and let's face it, it isn't exactly a vegan tradition.  So I came up with a better idea.  A way better idea.  Let's decorate egg-shaped cookies!  Not only are they vegan and less fragile, but once you're done decorating, you get to eat them!

I made the sugar cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, some simple icing, and I had purchased a whole lot of fun sprinkles from bulk barn.  I taped some parchment paper to the coffee table, and handed her some freshly iced cookies for her to sprinkle at will - and sprinkle she did!  As you can see, they are masterpieces! :)  The cookies were delicious (albeit crunchy with the copious amounts of sprinkles), and I think I've just found myself a new Easter tradition.

My family had our celebration on Good Friday, and we discovered at the last minute that my sister-in-law, who is catholic, cannot eat meat on Good Friday.  Good thing there's a vegan at the table!  I made the vegan quiche from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, and put green onion, red pepper, and broccoli in it instead, and topped it with cheddar style Daiya shreds.  It was super yummy, and my sister-in-law thought so too (she even asked for seconds!).  Definitely omnivore approved! This quiche tasted just as good (possibly better?!) the next morning for breakfast, and I am going to start making it regularly as an easy make-ahead breakfast that is fast and nutritious for busy mornings.

What holiday would be complete without cupcakes?  These cute easter cupcakes are super easy to make.  First you take your basic vanilla (or chocolate if you prefer!) cupcake and fluffy buttercream icing from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.  Then you colour some shredded coconut the spring colour of your choice, and roll the cupcakes in the coconut to form a "nest" around the outside (leaving the middle un-coconuted).  Then stick some mini-eggs in the middle, and ta-da!  Bird Nest Cupcakes! I know mini-eggs aren't vegan, but they make the perfect decoration (I gave mine to my mom to eat).  If anyone know of any vegan mini-eggs or something that would take their place, let me know so that next year they can be truly vegan, decor and all!

Beans are Neither Musical, nor Fruit.

But they do make a damn fine salad! Nothing quite says bbq season like bean salad! Ok, things you actually barbecue probably say it better, but still, you need to have something to serve with your grilled veggie burgers, don't you? In my family, this is one (often two or three) of the following 4 salads: coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, and bean salad. Of these, only bean salad comes pre-veganized. It just so happens to be my favourite of these summer staples.

Here in Canada, last weekend was the Victoria Day weekend, which means we got Monday off! This year I spent my long weekend visiting family. My mom and I went to my brother's place for a bbq, and since he has a month old baby (as of tomorrow!) we brought all the food. Naturally, we made bean salad. Despite the extra day off this weekend, I somehow haven't managed to find the time to blog about it until today!

The original recipe calls for white vinegar, but I have updated it slightly by using cider vinegar instead. I also find the recipe quite sweet, and would normally only add half the sugar this recipe calls for, but my mom and brother like it that way. You be the judge! We usually make it with canned beans (for ease), but I'm sure it would be delicious if you cooked them up yourself.

Classic Bean Salad

Makes a lot! Great for pot-lucks, or a week's worth of bean salad!

1 can each: Red kidney beans, Chick Peas, Cut Yellow Beans, Cut Green Beans

1/2 cup chopped bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

2/3 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar (see what I mean? a lot right?)

Rinse and combine beans. Toss in veggies. In a separate dish, whisk together vinegar, oil and sugar. Pour over beans, mix well. Refrigerate and let marinate several hours or overnight.

Would you believe, with all that salad, that I forgot to take a picture of it? I'm sure you can imagine what it looks like, colourful and delicious.

Salad Challenge Countdown

Salads made: 20 Salads left: 32

Pancake day!

Today I found myself on Facebook, as I often do, while procrastinating and watching Olympic curling. I noticed that a lot of people were posting messages about pancakes, more specifically, about pancake day. I had never heard of this, but it sounded like a delicious idea. Wikipedia informed me that what these people were talking about was "Shrove Tuesday", aka Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras. It's the day before Ash Wednesday, which I can only assume is a day created to celebrate my birth, since I was born on a Wednesday, and my name is Ashley, but they seem to have their seasons all wrong.

Evidently in the UK, and by extension Canada and our other commonwealth cousins, celebrate Shrove Tuesday by eating pancakes. How, in 26 years of life, I had never heard of pancake day is beyond me. I'm no fan of religion, but when it involves an excuse to eat pancakes for dinner, you're darn tootin' I'll be jumping on that bandwagon!

I had pancakes just a few days ago for breakfast, so I needed to do something extra special to celebrate the day before my holiday. In my research on this flap jackin' holiday, I learned that in Sweden they celebrate by eating a pastry called "semla" which is a decadent little pastry bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. This sounded pretty awesome and I wondered if there was some kind of almond based vegan whipped cream. Instead, I came across this recipe for vegan whipped cream, which would be more appropriately named whipped coconut cream. Sold. I made this recipe and added a spash of almond extract and vanilla extract to give it a little extra somethin'.

This whipped coconut cream was HEAVEN! It had a decadent fresh coconut taste and just the right stiffness. Unlike the recipe said I only left the cans of coconut milk in the fridge for about 2 hours, and whipped it using a chilled metal bowl and beaters and it came out perfectly. It also stood up well to the heat of the pancakes, better than real whipped cream I'd say. It might not be your first choice on a hot summer day, but it served me well today.

I served this whip on a stack of pancakes with lots of sliced banana, which made for a fresh tropical taste. I also made a side of Yves veggie breakfast links since pancakes aren't the most nutritious of foods. I was pleasantly surprised, they were quite tasty! I had tried Yves veggie bacon before and wasn't overly impressed, but I would buy these sausages again. Even my mom, who fears fake meats of all kinds, said they weren't bad.

Then I celebrated Ash Wednesday by eating leftover pancakes this morning with strawberries and coconut whip! MMmmmmm..... And as you can see it kept well in the fridge overnight, came out exactly as it was when I put it in last night.

Thanksgiving and Glorious Mornings

Well I've done it again! Over a month has gone by without a post, though I've been thinking about blogging all the while, alas, I never found the time to get on here and write about the delicious foods I've discovered since our last meeting.

During my absence, Canadian Thanksgiving came and went. Holidays often pose problems to vegans and vegetarians, especially when their families cannot conceive of celebrating a holiday without the slaughter of millions of unsuspecting turkeys.

Factoid: According to PETA over 45 million turkeys are killed each year at Thanksgiving(I assume in the USA), and over 22 million are killed at Christmas time.

But fear not, fellow herbivores! There are many delicious foods that you can make that you and your family will enjoy. During holiday season I like to make VegCooking.com's Cashew Nut Roast. The nut roast is very rich and takes the place of turkey well. I like to add a bit of poultry seasoning to it as well, and I make it all in one instead of adding the stuffing layer in the middle. Even my staunchly omnivorous brother once said "It's not bad". I'll take that as a good review from him! Served along side my mom's stuffing and the usual veggie sides, this will be a dinner you can really give thanks for!

Thanksgiving dessert in my family has always been pumpkin pie. We always use E.D. Smith's canned pumpkin pie filling, which always turns out delicious and perfectly spiced. However, the recipe calls for evaporated milk and an egg. This year I decided to go out on a limb and veganize this classic. I know there are many vegan pumpkin pie recipes out there, but I really wanted to make a version so that my family would not even notice the difference. So I made my own evaporated milk by simmering soymilk in a saucepan until it was reduced by half, and putting a couple of tablespoons of ground flaxseed into the pie instead of the egg. I put it in an all vegetable shortening pie crust, and voila! vegan pumpkin pie from a can! I expected it to be runny and not set properly, but no, it was perfect! It was just like the real thing. I don't know why anyone would go through the fuss of making tofu pumpkin pie!

Another exciting event that occurred during my absence was the opening of a new coffee shop beside campus, the Green Bean. Better yet, they have a few delicious vegetarian options that are easily veganized. One of my favourites is their Morning Glory breakfast wrap. It is a simple recipe you can easily make at home, but something that had never occurred to me before trying it there. It is sinfully delicious, and one of my new favourite foods.

the Green Bean's (veganized) Morning Glory wrap

1 tortilla

1 banana

Peanut Butter

Granola

Honey (or agave, maple syrup or other non-honey syrupy sweetness if you're anti-honey)

Spread a generous amount of peanut butter on your wrap of choice. Slice bananas and arrange on top of peanut butter. Sprinkle a handful of granola and drizzle honey on top. Roll up tightly and you have yourself an easy, nutritious, and filling breakfast that you can take with you on the bus, in the car, or on your walk to school or work!

Note: I advise wrapping wrap in some waxed paper or something if you are taking it on the run so you don't end up with honey dribbling down your hand or into your lap!