Tonight was vegan madness around here.
I made a mushroom and whole wheat pasta dish with green beans and lemon pepper seasoning on the side for dinner. I used a cookbook called The Essential Best Foods Cookbook which talks about some great foods in the first chapter and then the rest of the chapters use recipes that focus on those foods - some are: broccoli, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, berries, kiwi, whole wheat, salmon and yogurt. They talk about why these foods are good and some basic prep methods. I used their recipe to make a mushroom ragout with shallots and garlic and white wine. They recommend putting it over grilled polenta, but I went with a whole wheat pasta. It was delicious. With steamed green beans on the side that were colorful and crisp, it was a great meal.
To reward myself I then made some vegan cupcakes. I have the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and have been looking forward to making one of these recipes to see if they taste as good as the authors say they do. I chose to make the basic chocolate cupcake recipe and buttercream frosting. I didn't need any crazy ingredients, I did have to pick up soy milk and apple cider vinegar. The cupcakes were amazing! I hardly let the cupcakes cool before trying one of them plain. The chocolate cake was so good and I didn't miss the eggs or butter in the recipe at all. I whipped up the buttercream icing after they cooled. I won't lie, there was a moment where I was a little worried about the frosting, but after it whipped up for several minutes (as per the directions) it was so light and fluffy. It's not a dense icing, it's very light. It has a great taste and once again, I don't think anyone would realize that there was no butter in this buttercream. Keeping in mind that vegan doesn't exclude sugar, it's not that this is exactly a health food. Just non dairy and egg free. And delicious. I'm glad I could make a treat and still have some willpower. Just watch out if you ask me to bake for an event, you may end up with vegan cupcakes and you'll never even know it!
I'm so glad you found a good substitute for treats that fits into your vegan ways! However I must admit I'm rather amazed they tasted like the "real" thing -- especially considering you had to by apple cider vinegar!! Guess this answers my question about what kind of birthday cake/cupcakes you'll be serving at your big b-day bash :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment about my hair! I've been wearing it curly a lot more lately--sooo much easier in the mornings!
ReplyDeleteYay for vegan cupcakes!! I'm not vegan, but, I really do enjoy finding and using vegan baking recipes because I love all those delicious things like cake (!), but hate all the butter and eggs that are usually found in them.
I am intrigued and confused about the cupcakes.
ReplyDeleteI really want you to have a 'cake wrecks' bday cake for your bday by the way.