Archive for July, 2010
Pecan-Date Truffles (raw)
There has been a few times recently that I needed to make a dessert or snack for a potluck or trip to a friends house. I was always delayed in figuring out what to make and before I knew it I had to leave for the event in less then a half an hour! One option when that happens is just to head to Whole Foods and pick something up. The other option, my favorite, is to make Raw Truffles. From start to finish they take maaaaaaaaybe 10 minutes and what’s even better than that is that I ALWAYS have the ingredients for them. The ones above are made by throwing a handful of raw pecans in a food processor and pulsing them until they are broken down a bit but not too much. I then add about the same amount of pitted medjool dates, a few dashes of cinnamon, a few tablespoons of raw cacao powder and a tablespoon or two of water or juice and blend away until all the ingredients are combined. If it’s not blending well or the ingredients keep getting stuck I just add more water or juice to help get it going again. Once everything is done I take a small cookie scoop and scoop up some of the dough into my hand and roll them into balls and place them into mini cupcake or candy liners that should be ready and waiting on a serving plate. Once all the truffle making is complete cover them with some plastic wrap and stick them in the fridge, taking them out 5 minutes before you are going to serve them. OR if you are anything like me lately just cover them while your running to your car hoping you won’t be too late for the vegan dessert potluck you just made these for!
Now if you have all the time in the world to make these and want to make them extra decadent you can dip them in chocolate and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet tray, stick them in the fridge to set the chocolate and then drop them into individual liners. YUM!
July 31st, 2010
Zucchini Muffins (Vegan Brunch)
When your garden gives you an over abundance of zucchini you have to come up with different ways to use them all up. I’ve been making lots of raw zucchini crackers, shredding them into rice and beans to get extra veggies into Reno and sauteing them all different ways. I’m basically turning into a giant zucchini. The other day I needed to use up some more zucchini and didn’t want to do my usual tricks with them so I opted for Zucchini Muffins. The recipe is from Vegan Brunch and I’m so happy I made them. Peter and Reno were pretty happy too. It was a nice change from our usual breakfast or snack. Easy for Peter to grab one (or two!) on his way out the door to work in the a.m. and then maybe he ate another one on his arrival home. They kept really well for a few days individually wrapped and let in a bowl on our dining room table. Thankfully the cats didn’t try to eat any of them.
On Tuesday I pulled the last of my zucchini out of my garden. Sadly all of my zucchini and acorn squash plants were afflicted with squash vine borers that were killing all the plants. Last year I didn’t get a single zucchini. This year I was able to grow and eat a few dozen of them so even though I won’t have anymore for the rest of the growing season I’m still considering this a success. One of the last zucchini’s I harvested was literally 2 feet long and would feed a Duggar size family. I’m not even kidding the thing is huge so it looks like more zucchini muffins will be coming out of my oven real soon!
July 29th, 2010
Kidney Bean Tacos
I love tacos. I won’t make them for awhile but when I do make them I end up making them a lot. Like a lot a lot. Then all I think about is when will I get my next taco fix. I really really like them.
My favorite filling is the simplest thing in the world, which I also explained in my Taco Burrito post. Its 2 cans of kidney beans, drained and rinsed, sauteed in a small bit of oil and then I dump in some taco seasoning mixed with water and cooked until it’s nice and creamy. It is obsessive. I’ll also cooked chopped seitan or a mixture of seitan and beans the same way for taco night.
Lately I’ve been enjoying my tacos in hard shells with some fresh made salsa and slices of avocado. Its perfect summer food.
I’ll be posting another taco post in a few days about Raw Tacos! Which I’m just as obsessed over.
July 27th, 2010
We are currently on vacation. Yay! I’m posting from Ocean Grove, New Jersey on my iPhone thru a Wordpress app. I hope it shows up ok.
Right now Reno and I our sitting on the porch of a rented house enjoying our new favorite smoothie. It simply consists of organic strawberries, organic frozen bananas and some vanilla oat milk. It’s so good! It is also a great way to get extra nutrition into Reno. I wish I had brought some ground flax seeds or some sorta protein powder stuff to add to it for her (and me). She will just have to do with me forcing peanut buttered toast down her throat. She’s just so excited to be on vacation that she doesn’t have time to eat. All she wants to do is stay on the beach. It’s all I want to do too but we have to still eat. I’m thrilled that this house came with a pretty kick ass blender so I can make more of these for us this week. I’m now thinking I might try to track down some cocoa powder in this town to make us some chocolate peanut butter dessert smoothies.
July 20th, 2010
Raw Chocolate Chip Cheezecake Swirl
It’s been hot as balls here the last 2 weeks. Hot. As. Balls. Chocolate is melting, plants and trees are wilting, people are cranky and cooking is just impossible. One Saturday my sister threw a BBQ with a couple of friends and I decided to make dessert but refused to turn on the oven too do so. Then I remembered a dessert my friend Dianne made for a vegan dessert potluck we attended. It was Ani Phyo’s Chocolate Chip Cheezecake Swirl. I had all the ingredients, it’s raw which means the oven didn’t need to be used so it was decided that this is what I was making.
There are 3 parts to this, not including the raw cacao pieces aka..chips: the crust, which is super simple to make. You are just processing medjool dates and nuts and pressing them into a spring form pan.
the cheezecake layer made of cashews, lemon and a few other things well blended
chocolate sauce, which again is just about 3 recipes blended in a blender.
Now I don’t own a Vitamix. It is my ultimate dream product to own. I had to rely on my weak blender to blend up the cheezecake layer. My poor blender was really suffering through the whole process but it managed to do a semi decent job. It wasn’t as smooth as a Vitamix would have made it but it was passable and no one complained about the slight chunkiness of that part of the cake.
Once it’s all assembled you just pop it into the freezer and take it out about 20 minutes before you are going to serve it. If it’s hot as balls out you can take it out 5-10 minutes before serving because it will start to get really soft and melt a a bit. We had about 9 people at the party who ate this and there was still 1/2 a cake left. Its very rich. You can’t eat a huge piece of this which is great if you need too make a dessert for a large group of people. I really can’t wait to make this again!
July 17th, 2010
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