5 weeks ago
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Yay! A new veg in our family perhaps?
So my aunt text me today to ask me for suggestions for faux meat products. She said she would like to try going vegetarian! I am beyond excited and can't wait to help her with her journey! Yay for veggies!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Coconut-macadamia cheesecake
So I thought I would share the recipe for the coconut-macadamia cheesecake that I made for Christmas dessert. I got it from Robin Robertson's cookbook Vegan Planet. My whole family loved it!
Disclaimers - the recipe calls for vegan cream cheese which I would have been more than happy to use but I ended up using real cream cheese. I figured, since there was already tofu in the cheesecake my family might be sent over the edge if there was vegan cream cheese. Plus my sister is an absolute freak about cream cheese so I wanted to make her happy. As you'll see the recipe says to put ground macadamia nuts into the crust - I omitted this part from mine because my brother in law can't have nuts. So let me know how it is! Here we go!
Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons ground macadamia nuts
1 1/2 cups vegan graham cracker or vanilla cookie crumbs
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup soy margarine, melted (I prefer Earth Balance, it tastes so buttery and good!)
one 16 oz package firm silken tofu, drained
one 8 oz package vegan cream cheese
1 cup sugar or natural sweetener
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 teaspoon pure coconut extract
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
1. Bring the ingredients to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9 inch springform pan. **If you don't have a springform pan, I strongly suggest you get one. I previously made a different cheesecake in a pie pan because I didn't have a springform pan and it just didn't hold together as nicely as it did using a springform pan. Trust me on this one people! You will thank me later - it makes life so much easier.**
2. In a large bowl or food processor, combine the 2 tablespoons macadamia nuts, the crumbs, maple syrup, and soy margarine until well blended. Transfer to the prepared pan and press the mixture against the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.
3. Place the tofu and the vegan cream cheese in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add the sugar, coconut milk, and coconut extract and process again until smooth. Pour into the prepared crust and bake on the center oven rack until firm, about 40 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake inside for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours before serving.
5. To serve, remove the pan sides, sprinkle the top evenly with the 1/2 cup macadamia nuts and the coconut, and cut into pieces.
Side note - You can toast the shredded coconut in a dry skillet which is how I did it. You want to toss the coconut every minute or so to prevent overbrowning. The cookbook says to stir frequently over low heat but I found that the coconut wasn't toasting that way so I let it sit for about a minute or two then kind of flip/tossed the coconut in the pan. I also had the heat cranked up. **Or you can brown the coconut on a baking sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!
Disclaimers - the recipe calls for vegan cream cheese which I would have been more than happy to use but I ended up using real cream cheese. I figured, since there was already tofu in the cheesecake my family might be sent over the edge if there was vegan cream cheese. Plus my sister is an absolute freak about cream cheese so I wanted to make her happy. As you'll see the recipe says to put ground macadamia nuts into the crust - I omitted this part from mine because my brother in law can't have nuts. So let me know how it is! Here we go!
Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons ground macadamia nuts
1 1/2 cups vegan graham cracker or vanilla cookie crumbs
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup soy margarine, melted (I prefer Earth Balance, it tastes so buttery and good!)
one 16 oz package firm silken tofu, drained
one 8 oz package vegan cream cheese
1 cup sugar or natural sweetener
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1 teaspoon pure coconut extract
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted
1. Bring the ingredients to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a 9 inch springform pan. **If you don't have a springform pan, I strongly suggest you get one. I previously made a different cheesecake in a pie pan because I didn't have a springform pan and it just didn't hold together as nicely as it did using a springform pan. Trust me on this one people! You will thank me later - it makes life so much easier.**
2. In a large bowl or food processor, combine the 2 tablespoons macadamia nuts, the crumbs, maple syrup, and soy margarine until well blended. Transfer to the prepared pan and press the mixture against the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.
3. Place the tofu and the vegan cream cheese in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add the sugar, coconut milk, and coconut extract and process again until smooth. Pour into the prepared crust and bake on the center oven rack until firm, about 40 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake inside for 30 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours before serving.
5. To serve, remove the pan sides, sprinkle the top evenly with the 1/2 cup macadamia nuts and the coconut, and cut into pieces.
Side note - You can toast the shredded coconut in a dry skillet which is how I did it. You want to toss the coconut every minute or so to prevent overbrowning. The cookbook says to stir frequently over low heat but I found that the coconut wasn't toasting that way so I let it sit for about a minute or two then kind of flip/tossed the coconut in the pan. I also had the heat cranked up. **Or you can brown the coconut on a baking sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
False advertising!
Sometimes being a vegetarian is a royal pain in the ass. Not that I want to eat innocent animals, I'm just merely pointing out that it would be nice not to have to read too much into everything I put in my mouth. Case in point - Mark and I ordered dinner tonight from a new Italian restaurant down the street. I ordered the linguini vongola which was described as linguini with shallots, basil and garlic wine sauce. Yum. So we get our food back home and I take out my dinner - it has clams in it. WTF? The menu did not state that there were clams in this meal! Damn. I was pretty bummed. I would have picked out the clams if they had only been in their shells, but there were also little bits of clams scattered in the dish so it would have been nearly impossible to get all of the clam bits. Thankfully my husband ordered a veggie panini so we traded. Failure averted! I would have died if he had ordered the hamburger that he originally thought of ordering. So today I won, but it could have easily been an epic failure for me!
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Way to start off the new year!
Gotta love when the new year starts off with a fight. My loving and adoring husband is now on my shit list. Since he thinks its ok to turn up the volume on the radio when he doesn't want to hear me talk. WTF? He must have a death wish or something.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Soap Shout-out
Alright all you cleanliness freaks out there! I have to recommend the most totally awesome soap that I tried tonight. If any of you like soaps that have a good lather to them like my clean-freak husband, try the Whole Foods brand soap. We got it in the grapefruit mint scent but there are several others for your smelling pleasure. This soap had the best lather of any natural soap I've tried. I was so soapy that I felt almost like I was taking a bubble bath in the shower! My husband is so excited about this soap and that is saying something because ever since we met I have been slowly weaning him off of his chemical laden cleaners/soaps/shampoos etc. (I'll consider my job done when he stops using Tide, until then, I have tons of work to do!)
On a side note - do any of you ladies out there have husbands/boyfriends that INSIST on wearing underwear and socks with holes in them? My most annoying/endearing husband wears his underwear and socks with holes so big, well, I won't go there. Lets just say he could pee without removing his underwear. And his socks? Well he might as well not wear them at all. Anyway, I can NOT get him to throw them away. He claims that they are still in perfectly acceptable wearing condition. I even tried tattling on him to his mother (I know, I'm evil!) to get him to throw them out. She went out and BOUGHT HIM NEW UNDERWEAR, yet he still hasn't thrown out his crappy holey boxers. WTF? Am I crazy or is this just plain annoying?????
On a side note - do any of you ladies out there have husbands/boyfriends that INSIST on wearing underwear and socks with holes in them? My most annoying/endearing husband wears his underwear and socks with holes so big, well, I won't go there. Lets just say he could pee without removing his underwear. And his socks? Well he might as well not wear them at all. Anyway, I can NOT get him to throw them away. He claims that they are still in perfectly acceptable wearing condition. I even tried tattling on him to his mother (I know, I'm evil!) to get him to throw them out. She went out and BOUGHT HIM NEW UNDERWEAR, yet he still hasn't thrown out his crappy holey boxers. WTF? Am I crazy or is this just plain annoying?????
Happy New Year!
Happy new year everyone! It is officially 2010. It seems like just yesterday my mom was stocking our "Y2K cabinet" with food in case the world ended and we were hibernating in our basement. Can you believe that? I mean, really, what did everyone EXPECT was going to happen? Anyway, I hope everyone had a wonderful night last night. I'm sad to see 2009 go because it was such a good year for me but I hope that 2010 will be good to me too. Namely, buying a house. Our condo is just too small for us! Also - and I'm dreaming big here - I would like to see the Red Sox win another World Series!
This year I hope to become a better cook and improve on my baking. I like feeding veg food to my friends and family and seeing them LOVE it! My next goal is to make vegan red velvet cupcakes but I need to find the perfect recipe. As you can see, I really set high goals for myself. Ha ha!
This year I hope to become a better cook and improve on my baking. I like feeding veg food to my friends and family and seeing them LOVE it! My next goal is to make vegan red velvet cupcakes but I need to find the perfect recipe. As you can see, I really set high goals for myself. Ha ha!
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