A couple months ago I was fortunate to meet Annie Shannon through mutual Facebook friends. I quickly realized we shared a mutual love of fashion, had a passion for animals and more importantly, an immense love for FOOD! When Annie started her blog ‘Meet the Shannons’, I was beyond stoked! It was a relief to know I wasn’t the only one who could strangely relate to the movie Julie and Julia.

As I read through her recipes, of course, the Caramel Sticky Rolls stood out. The challenge was on!

I followed the majority of the instructions on Annie’s blog for the most part.

I found the dough to be much tougher when kneading it than the dough I’m used to working with. However, this made the dough very easy to handle as far as rolling went. Skeptical, I pressed on.

When it came to making the caramel sauce, I realized I was out of powdered sugar. Crap. I substituted regular cane sugar instead. The first time I boiled it and let it cool, the margarine separated from the sugar. I boiled it a second time and it blended just fine. I also added a half teaspoon of Madagascar vanilla bourbon extract for extra flavor once I removed it from the heat. YUM.

Much to my dismay, I realized I was out of cranberries for the filling as well. I ended up using a half cup of crushed pieces of sweet, candied pecans instead. I also found that the brown sugar filling wasn’t enough to cover the area I was working with (about 10″x15″). I added an additional 1/2 teaspoon on cinnamon and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

After they were baked, it was judgment time! They came out much softer than I had anticipated but also much more flakier than I’d hoped. I guess I had expected them to be more chewy since the dough was tougher than I’m used to. Overall, they came out really good. They were evenly baked, soft, not too much filling and just the right amount of sweetness.

The caramel sauce? OMG. This stuff is no joke! I made the mistake of drizzling the sauce over the rolls while they were still hot resulting it 90% of it sliding down the sides and forming pools on the parchment paper. Thankfully, once the sauce had cooled, I was able to scoop it up, lay it on top of the roll again and watch it form a perfect shiny glaze over the top.I think next time I may even melt a few chocolate chips into the sauce.

I definitely recommend you try this recipe!

Thank you Annie for sharing your blog. You are an inspiration to those without a clue how to veganise “normal” food. If you ever decided to put out a print version of your recipes, reserve me 5 copies!!!

As it turned out, I ended up taking the day off work on Friday. I figured since I had the day off, I would just make the cake myself. I went through a couple recipes and found a chocolate raspberry ganache one that had been given to me about a year ago.

You can see the full recipe HERE. Thanks Karen!

For the filling, I folded a carton of fresh raspberries into the raspberry butter cream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

The cake came out really moist and dense. Just like I like it. It was super chocolatey with just the right amount of raspberry kick to it. My husband said it kind of reminds him of a classic dessert from Vienna called Sachertorte. It’s been 3 days and we’re still raving about it!

Mission birthday cake, accomplished!

My next mission? Tackling my own version of the infamous Vegan Treats peanut butter bomb! YUM.

Meet the Shannon’s

‘The Betty Crocker Project’ is a “veganizing” cooking project that was started by Annie and Dan Shannon. Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia, the Shannon’s cook their way through the Betty Crocker cookbook  and “veganize” each recipe.

If you haven’t come across this blog yet, I’m here to give you 5 reasons why it’s awesome.

1. The picture above. Duh.
2. Who doesn’t love Betty Crocker? Seriously. Even if you hate the recipes, the marketing team behind Betty Crocker is genius. Who would have thought that by making a pre-made mix and adding your own single ingredient, that it would make housewives all over the world feel like they are actually cooking from scratch?!
3. The Shannon’s are afreakindorable!
4. The movie Julie and Julia is like a mirror image of my life today. My next tattoo is going to be a giant portrait of Julia Child and Meryl Streep high-fiving each other across my stomach.  I LOVE this movie!
5. The Shannon’s have been getting tons of press regarding their blog which I think is important to shatter the myth of how difficult it is to adapt a vegan diet. Their blog demonstrates that you can take almost any recipe and substitute it with cruelty-free, and generally healthier products.

I highly recommend adding this blog to your list and bombarding your friends, family, and co-worker’s email boxes with daily recipes to try. I also recommend delivering the leftovers to my house directly.

Last weekend my husband and I were invited over to a friends house for lunch. My friend Radhika is from Fiji and makes the most amazing Indian food I’ve ever tasted. As a grateful guest, I offered to bring dessert.

What to make? That was the question. I knew she liked tropical fruit so I tried to think of an “island-y” recipe to make. After spending an entire day being indecisive, I decided to get in touch with my blogger friend Taymer for advice. Being an islander, I was sure she’d have some recommendations. Granted Barbados, where Taymer is from, is nowhere near Fiji, I was pretty sure she had better island type recipes than anything I could find in any book. Luckily for me, she did!

She gave me a sneak peek at an amazing coconut bread recipe from her new cookbook coming out.

D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! I think I made myself sick by devouring over half a loaf in just one sitting! It took me about a week to recover and sure enough… the cravings came back. Sadly, after all the stores had closed for the day, and I discovered I was out of half the ingredients Taymer’s recipe called for.

My solution? MODIFY. I was going to have to work with what I had on hand.

I decided to use one of my favorite muffin recipes and cross my fingers it came out OK. An hour later, I was not disappointed!

• 2 “eggs” (we use Ener-G Egg Replacer)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1 2/3 cups AP or bread flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

HEAVEN.

That’s what you’re seeing above.

A few years ago (during my pre-vegan days), my cousin brought over a plate of strawberries and cream for Easter. After just one bite, I was hooked. Whatever magicalness was in that pile of white fluff, might as well have been crack.

When I asked what the recipe was, she said it was a block of cream cheese and a jar of marshmallow puff. That’s it.

Hella healthy.

I never actually got around to making it and over the years, it was eventually forgotten. Until this weekend.

I decided to try mixing Tofutti cream cheese with Dandies marshmallows in my food processor to see if I could achieve the same results.

It tastes exactly like the original version.

With summer just around the corner, this is a great little dish to bring over for a summer BBQ or get together. Especially if you hate to cook. And trust me, people will thank you for it.

Ingredients

• One 8oz container of Tofutti cream cheese
• A half bag of Dandies marshmallows (or a little more depending on how sweet you like it)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

Directions

• Combine the Tofutti, Dandies and vanilla (if using) in a food processor.
• Whip the hell out of it for 30 seconds to 1 minute. 
• Say goodbye to all willpower you thought you had.

We’ve had our new pup for a week now and yes, I’m still being super obnoxious about him. I want to take him everywhere, talk in a really high-pitched, squeaky voice, kiss him all over his head, dress him up in cute little sweaters… Yes… I’m THAT lady.

And of course, being a bake-a-holic, I wanted to bake him his very own badass treats. So… I did!

Awesome, right?!

Want to make your own? Check out the recipe here! *We substituted regular milk for soy milk.*

• 2 loaves white bread  (dried & cubed)  * you may not need to use all of the bread *
• 2 Large onions (finely diced) 
• 1 head of celery (sliced – remove strings with potato peeler) 
• 1 cube non-dairy butter 
• Vegetable Broth  
• 2-3 Tablespoons of Bell’s Seasoning 
• Salt & Pepper 
• All the crazy other stuff I mentioned earlier is optional
  

• Dry the bread out by spreading it out on a table or counter (if you have kitties or kids with wandering hands you might want to spread it out – whole slices – on a few cookie sheets and put it in a 200 degree oven for a bit). When the top feels dry, flip the bread over to dry out the other side. NEVER use prepared/packaged bread cubes. They taste totally different.  
• After the bread is dry, break/tear the bread into pieces about 1 inch in size. We usually don’t use the ends; personal preference. Put bread cubes in a large bowl. 
• Melt ‘butter’ in large stockpot. Sauté the onions and celery in the ‘butter’ until soft, approximately 5 minutes. 
• Add Bell’s Seasoning, salt & pepper. Adding the other crap I mentioned is also optional at this point. Mix well. 
• Scoop mixture over dried bread cubes and mix well. 
• Put ½ of the bread cubes in a large bowl and add some celery/onion mixture to it. Add a little vegetable broth for moisture. Mix, add a little more of each, repeat. Stuffing should be wet but not soaking wet. It needs to be moist but you don’t want it too mushy. 
• Spray muffin pan (regular or jumbo size) with non-stick spray. Fill with stuffing. The tops should be rounded so they look like cupcakes. 
• Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

 

• 3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 3 cups cane sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 6 teaspoons Energy Egg Replacer
  
• 8 tablespoons water (mix with Egg Replacer)
• 1 1/2 cups of organic blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl mix together oil, water, apple sauce and sugar until well blended.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg replacer and the water until it’s foamy. Add to wet ingredients.
4. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly then add to wet ingredients. Mix together until well blended and pour into prepared pans.
5. Place 2-4 blueberries on top of each muffin to decorate.
6. Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Muffins are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

It’s the first rain storm of the season!

My neighbors are probably ready to shoot me and my obnoxious wind chimes that I’ve been too lazy to take down. I did manage to make time to bust out my big comfy blankets and start suffocating everyone in my house with chemically soaked Duraflame logs though. It’s a winter tradition in my family.

Thanks to all the fantastic CA drivers and their confidence in rainy weather driving, I opted to stay home where I was safe and mix up a batch of banana bread last night. That kinda turned into banana muffins…which then turned into mini banana cream-filled cupcakes!

They came out AMAZING! If I had to describe them it would be something like perfectly sweet, super soft, creamy little pillows of deliciousness dancing in my mouth. Otherwise known as totally effin’ awesome banana cupcakes.

If you like banana, you have to try these. They were the perfect ending to a cold night by the fire and even better the next morning for breakfast.

Strap on those uber sexy ear muffs and rain boots! It’s time to get that Fall baking started!

Message me for the recipe.

At last! My mini-donut pan arrived!

After an excruciating hour long hike with my fellow boot campers last night, I decided to collapse in my kitchen and whip up a batch of lower fat, baked, chocolate glazed, holy-shit-these-are-good-ignore-the-pain donuts.

I played around with a couple recipes that I found online as well as the ones in the magazine. After 3 tries (of which none of the ‘bad’ batches went to waste) – this is the one I liked best.
  
Mini Vegan Donuts 
(Inspired by Yegan Yum Yum)

Yields 24

Dry Ingredients

• 1 Cup Good Quality All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Evaporated Cane Sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Allspice

  Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Soy or Rice Milk
• 1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 3 Teaspoons of Ener-G Egg Replacer mixed with 6 Tablespoons of Water
• 4 Tbs Earth Balance

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Dance around and sing loudly to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” for a minute or so.
• Grab a medium size bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk. 
• Mix Egg Replacer.
• Combine wet ingredients in a medium sauce pan over low heat and mix until earth balance is just melted. Add Egg Replacer. 
• Dance your way from the counter to the table singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” using the mixing spatula as a pseudo microphone.
• Scoop out one tablespoon of dough into your ungreased nonstick mini-donut pan. Make sure batter is evenly distributed and smooth. Each donut mold should be a tiny bit more than half full.
• Lick the hell out of your fingers then lick whatever is left in the bowl like it’s your last meal.
• Bake for 12-13 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. They should NOT be anywhere close to brown. 
• Proceed to make your glazes while they bake.
• When they are finished, loosen edges with a butter knife, turn pan over onto a cooling rack and pry the suckers out CAREFULLY.
• “Accidentally” break a couple and shove them in your mouth. No big deal if they happen to fall into the glaze or the sprinkles.
• Dip in glaze, coat them completely, then throw pretty stuff on them. Set on a wire rack until awesome. 
• Finish by shoving a whole one into your mouth and simultaneously singing Queen’s “We are the Champions” as loud as possible while flinging chocolate across the room.

Glaze and pretty stuff!

• 1/2 Cup lump free Powdered Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Soy or Rice Milk
• 1/4 cup of whatever decorative pretty thing you want to use. I used sprinkles.

Directions

• Whisk milk and powdered sugar together. 
• Dip half of the donut into the glaze being careful not to get it everywhere, or not, then dip glaze-side down into sprinkles. 
• Set on a wire rack until awesome.

For chocolate covered donuts…

•  Melt a bag of good quality chocolate chips over a double boiler. Make sure no water touches it! Or, you could be lazy and microwave it like I did stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.
• Set donuts on rack with something easy to clean under it. I used a plastic rolling mat. Slowly pour over donuts trying not to waste much of the chocolate and swearing like a trucker when you do. The other way is to hand dip them once they have cooled completely. I had no patience for this and ended up crumbling 2 of them into the melted chocolate. Which I then ate.
• Dip in the pretty stuff immediately after.
• Set on a wire rack until awesome.

Once your master mini-donut creations are complete, sit back and enjoy your disaster of a kitchen and try not to feel sick from all the test pieces you consumed. Pawn them off on everyone around you and wish you’d found restraint during the baking process so that you could have enjoyed a completed one with your friends.

Seal in an air tight container and try one the next day once you’ve recovered. Enjoy!