Day 8 - Monday January 12

This week has been a little rushed, so it's not terribly exciting. But, Here's what today looked like....

Breakfast - yucky shake
Second Breakfast - apples and peanut butter
Lunch - Salad from the salad bar at work.  Of special note here, I resisted any salad dressings and went with oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper
Snack - clementines
Dinner - left over sweet potato with spicy black bean salsa
Water - some, unmeasured

Day 7 - Sunday January 11

Well, here it is, my first big cheat day.  I was invited to a small family gathering, and in order not to be rude and make a scene I was forced to eat cake.  And Orzo!  It was delicious.  Although, I will say that my tummy was a little bubbly later that night.

Day 6 - Saturday January 10

So, the amazing part of today was not in a new recipe I tried, it was in making it through Chipotle as best I could.  It was a test I wasn't ready for, but I think I passed!


Here's what today looked like....
Breakfast - yucky shake
Lunch - left over zoodles
Snack - clementines, a banana
Dinner - Chipotle Salad with black beans, tofu, pico, and guacamole
Water - some, unmeasured
Other - I had popcorn.  And didn't even think about it at first.  I was a compromise to ice cream, but as I was eating it I realized I don't know if this is allowed.  I did some reading, and it seems that popped corn is slightly "better"** than unpopped, and since we didn't use prepackaged microwaved popcorn with fake toppings, I say it's ok!


**Some of the things I've read that talk about the problem with corn is that it has high phytic acid, which can chelate (fancy chemistry term that essentially means, adds a metallic ion to a compound) many minerals and prevent their absorption.  So while corn itself doesn't provide much along the way of nutrients, it can prevent others from being used! However, heating it for popcorn reduces the phytic acid by over 50%, making it "not as bad"! Hooray for popcorn!

Day 5 - Friday January 9

The 24-hour flu turned into a few extra days of being sleepy and stuffy, which sort of derailed my posting, but I'd like to catch up.  Please just accept the incomplete holes in my details.  I stayed home from work on Friday, which afforded me the chance to take a 3 hour morning nap, and make these "date balls" I had been wanting to try.  Turns out, they were easy and delicious, and gone within 2 days!  I had a leftover collard green wrap for lunch, and made zoodles with tofu and veggies and pesto.  My boyfriend called as I was mid-zoodle maing, so when it was all cooked I packed it up and the date balls and brought dinner to his house.  He's a meat-eater, but has seconds of the zoodles every time!

Key Lime Coconut Date Balls
I followed this recipe, and it couldn't have been easier - thanks in large part to my Ninja food processor.  The hardest part was removing the pits from the Medjool dates - which I bought at Trader Joe's.  My method was to slice it in half, and pull out the pit.  Very technical. Once I had pitted a cup and a half of dates I was ready to begin.

Put half a cup of cashews and half a cup of almonds in the food processor and finely chop, but stop before they become a paste.  Add the cup and a half of dates, and then 5 tsp of key lime juice.  The recipe calls for fresh key lime juice and zest, but I used bottled key lime juice and added it until it tasted limey.  Mix this up in the food processor a little, and viola, you're almost done.  Roll the mixture into small balls, and then roll in unsweetened coconut to coat the outside.  They were so easy, and so tasty.  I've already bought more dates to make batch two!

Here's what today looked like....
Breakfast - yucky shake
Lunch - one mashed chickpea and avocado salad collard green wrap from yesterday
Snack - clementines
Dinner - zoodles with pesto veggies
Water - some, unmeasured

Day 4 - Thursday January 8

I was really excited to share some new recipes with this post, but this particular day was a little derailed by a 24-hour flu complete with fever high of 103!  I did manage to make something new though, I used collard green leaves as the wraps for...well...wraps!  I filled my wraps with a chickpea and avocado smash.

Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Salad
This couldn't be easier.

Combine one can of chickpeas, rinsed, with one sliced avocado and smash with a potato masher. Add chopped green onions, and cilantro (I used parsley, because that's what I had), and lime juice, and some salt and pepper.

I put this on the collard green leaves, topped with some tomato and yellow pepper, and wrapped them up.  I was able to eat one for dinner and it was mighty tasty.  The collard leaves were huge, and good for rolling, and tasted refreshing and light - not at all heavy or bitter as I feared.  I will definitely be using collard leaves more!

Here's what today looked like....
Breakfast - yucky shake
Second Breakfast - apples and peanut butter, eaten slowly between the hours of 11 and 4pm
Snack - clementine and a banana
Dinner - one smashed chickpea and avocado salad wrap

Water - some, unmeasured
Other Notes - the day was overcome with mostly sleeping and taking my temperature, eating was a distant secondary chore.

Day 3 - Wednesday January 7

I think I've got this breakfast thing figured out a little better.

I tried a new recipe for dinner, a baked sweet potato with black bean salsa and avocado.  It was really simple, and pretty tasty.  It turns out though, while I love sweet potato wedges (which are simply cut up sweet potatoes baked until a bit crispy) I don't love baked sweet potato.  I think I need it more crunchy and less mushy.  I may cook the potato differently the next time I try this.

Sweet Potato with Black Bean Salsa
I used this recipe for the inspiration, although I left out the lime cream in favor of the "dairy-free" aspect of my whole30.

Heat oven to 400, poke a lot of holes into the sweet potato and bake for 55 minutes or so - mine was a big potato, so it required a few more minutes to be cooked through.

Combine canned black beans, rinsed, and store bought pico de gallo (because, why chop tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, etc when someone else can do it for you) in a pan on the stove top.  I added cajun seasoning, 2 tsp of lime juice, and some other spices, and heated it until it was warm and combined.

Slice the baked potato, top with black bean salsa and a sliced avocado.  Garnish with cilantro or parsley as desired.  A healthy delicious dinner!

Here's what today looked like....

Breakfast - Yucky shake
Second Breakfast - apple, banana and peanut butter
Lunch - Leftover risotto and asparagus
Snack - clementine, extra yucky shake
Dinner - Baked Sweet Potato with black bean salsa and avocado
Water - 70 oz

Day 2 - Tuesday January 6

Today was much better than yesterday.  I wasn't starving right off the bat, maybe it was the snow or the fact that I packed several more substantial snacks for myself today.  Yesterday I told someone that I was doing this grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, meat-free thing and they kind of looked at me and said, "What's left?" and I agreed that it sounded terrible.  But, when I explained that I had grilled up some asparagus, cauliflower, and tofu and thrown it in with some of the left over lentil marinara sauce for dinner we both decided that sounded delicious!  It was.

I tried a new recipe, it was a hit.  I based it off of this Cauliflower risotto recipe, but changed it up a bit (mostly to get rid of the mushrooms).  The recipe get talking about getting all the liquid to boil off early on, but I didn't have that much liquid.  Here's what I did.

Butternut Squash Cauliflower "Risotto"
In a food processor chop up the florets from a whole head of cauliflower until they are small like rice, and set aside.  In a blender combine a can of white beans, some chunks of butternut squash and a cup of vegetable broth, blend until smooth, and set aside.  Chop half an onion and sauté in a frying pan with a small amount of oil on medium heat.  Once they are translucent and fragrant add garlic, salt, pepper and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.  While stirring, increase the heat to get rid of some liquid.  Then add the bean/butternut squash puree and bring to a simmer.  Decrease the heat, add the cauliflower "risotto" and cook for abot 10-15 minutes, until the rice is a desired tenderness.

It was a really good and easy dish.  I put some parsley on top but think it could have used more flavor, perhaps more pepper or some other spice addition.  With some grilled asparaus on the side this was a totally tasty clean dinner!





Here's what my day looked like....

Breakfast - “Yucky shake” before and after workout (Todays was kale, avocado, banana, blueberries, raspberries and pineapple)

Second Breakfast - sweet potato wedges, banana and almond butter

Lunch - left over grilled cauliflower, tofu and asparagus with the last of the lentil sauce

Snack - apple, apricot

Dinner - Butternut Squash Cauliflower "Risotto"

Water - 70 oz.  

Missteps - yep, soda.

Other Notes: I was so much less hungry this morning, so much better! On the soda front, what I had yesterday was like 1/3 of what a normal day would have been. And today was slightly more than half of yesterday. So, I'm consuming much less than normal, by far. Just not none. Yet.

Day 1 - Monday January 5th.

It’s coincidental that this is my 1-year Crossfit anniversary, although fitting.  I’m documenting this as part motivation to keep me going, but part to share some recipes that I’ve found (will find) along the way.  I mean, that is what we do here.

So for today, the recipes I used were….

Green Smoothie

In August I did a 10-day Green Smoothie Cleanse and it was actually really great.  I’ve kept up my morning green smoothies since then.  My boyfriend has been having these for breakfast for years, and calls them “yucky shakes” so that his kids won’t drink them on him.  They are, actually, quite delicious.  My recipe is simple, flexible and dependent on what I have in the fridge.  Now that I have a Ninja blender, they are also a lot easier.  Basically it starts with greens, one or two handfuls, my favorites are kale spinach and spring mix. Then some water, like a cup, maybe more. Then a banana.  Or an apple.  Or both.  Then some protein powder - my last protein powder was hemp protein in an attempt to be animal friendly and cut down on soy overload.  I think my current protein powder might be whey (gasp!).  And then whatever frozen fruits I have.  Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, Peaches, Pineapples, Mangos, any and everything.  Blend it up!  Couldn’t be easier!

Zoodles with Lentil Marinara Sauce

Don’t know what Zoodles are?!  They are delicious and you need to make them immediately.  Essentially, they are noodles made out of zucchini.  As an avid noodle lover, and I mean LOVE-ER, I cringe a little when these are called “noodles”.  They don’t taste like pasta at all.  I mean, it’s zucchini.  But, like pasta, on it’s own there is very little flavor, and so the trick is in the sauces and toppings you can put on.  I use the Veggetti spiral slicer and slice up the zucchini (I don’t peel it first, although you could).  Then you simply sauté the zoodles in a pan with oil under your desired tenderness.  Easy peasy.

My friend Katie sent me this recipe for lentil marinara sauce, and it was great and easy on top of the zoodles.  I chopped and sautéed an onion and garlic.  Then I added some canned tomatoes and tomato sauce.  I made sure that there was nothing extra added in my cans of tomatoes, deeming them “clean”, and added oregano and salt and pepper.  Towards the end I added in some Trader Joe's precooked lentils, and when it was all warm, I dumped it on top of the zoodles.  It’s definitely a keeper!

Here’s what my day looked like…..

Breakfast - “Yucky shake” before and after workout (Todays was kale, banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and pineapple)

Snack - apple, apricot, mini cucumber

Lunch - left over Zoodles with Lentil Marinara Sauce

Snack - mini cucumbers, kiwi

Dinner - grilled cauliflower, tofu and asparagus with the last of the lentil sauce

Water - 80 oz.  (By far the most water I’ve ever consumed on a non-pre race day in years!)

Missteps - I did have soda.  It was necessary. MUCH less than normal. Oh, and did you see how much water I had!  I’ll try again tomorrow.

Other Notes: OH. MY. GOD. I was starving after my workout. So hungry.  Normally I eat a PB&J sandwich.  Today I had an apple.  Not the same.  It made the morning excruciating and I sat plotting all the ways I could quit.  I talked myself down from the ledge, allowed myself a soda, and re-committed to the cause. Tomorrow, you'll see something better in there.

New Year, New Blog!

Can we just pretend 2014 never happened, blog-wise?  I mean, it appears it hasn’t.  So, moving on to 2015!  I am terrible with New Years Resolutions, mostly because I think that these things take time and consideration and somehow I’m never quite ready as the clock ticks over to jump right in.  And, then I’m already behind.  Heck, it was four days into the year before I even ran a mile...so it’s clear I’m not doing any kind of “run a mile a day” challenge.  What I am going to do is 12 (hopefully) month long resolutions/challenges, because that seems attainable.  I had a fun time making a list of resolutions, which include things like "add $1000 extra to savings" and "teach Turtle [my dog] two new tricks" and "make 10 new recipes". At the end of each month I will select the challenge/resolution to do for the following month.  This month I selected a Whole30 challenge to start off with.  Nothing like jumping in head first!

I’d like to preempt this by saying, I am going to make this my own adaptation of a Whole30 challenge. I’m still not going to eat any meat.  And this isn’t some weird paleo, culty, crossfit thing.  Because of this, I’m going to add back in beans and tofu and lentils and various things that will give me protein (because I still think eggs taste gross).  Since I’m bringing in the beans, peanut butter can stay, too (who doesn’t love legumes).  Also, I’m well aware that there are going to be missteps, “cheats”, and things that just don’t work.  But, I think that’s what this month is about. In all honesty, my diet isn’t all that “unclean”.  I cook most of my own dinners, my lunches when bought are mostly salads (although there is the delicious yoga-mat infused Subway quite often as well!), and there’s tons of fruits and veggies.  What I think this month is about for me - and I will remind myself of this often - is figuring out how to tackle some of the places where my eating habits aren’t top notch.  This is about fighting off the mid-afternoon cookie, or the chocolate bar I (apparently) always buy myself at Trader Joe’s.  It’s for the poptarts I used to eat for breakfast because they were easy.  It’s about finding a way to make some new habits so that making a better choice doesn't seem so overwhelming.  I’m not going to be bread-free for life, and dear god I already want to get some cheese back in me.  But, if at the end of this I have a better diet, great.  If I’ve lost a few pounds as I head in to marathon training season, well that’s fantastic.  Because I hear it’s way easier to run a few pounds lighter.

We can consider that I’m starting today.  But, I’ve barely figured out what that means - and I haven’t gone grocery shopping at all yet.  So maybe this is day 0, where I will try and figure it out.

For the fans!

Our one reader commented to Melanie and I that our blog was...well, lacking.  It has, in fact, been dead silent for over a year.  So, here to revive it, I bring you tonight's dinner!!

I came home and felt like I had nothing to pull together for dinner, but then a few things hit me.  First, there seemed to be the edge of a plastic bag in the veggie drawer, which tipped me off to the fact that I might have some "need to be used now" veggies in there.  Indeed, I found one zucchini, one yellow squash, half a red pepper, half a green pepper, and two tomatoes.  Of that, the yellow squash, green pepper and one tomato were put immediately into the compost pile. The remaining zucchini, red pepper and tomato were diced up and sauteed in a pan with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Then I remembered that I had made some Green Goddess Herb Pesto a few months back and had frozen the leftovers.  (This was from my snow-day grilled cheese extravaganza, which I need to retro-blog someday soon, for sure!)  So, I dumped the frozen pesto into the sauteed veggies. As it defrosted and coated the veggies I decided, perhaps I could make a fake creamy sauce, so I simply dumped in a little soy milk and sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top. The I just stirred it all together, and heated it so it thickened slightly.

Add some linguine.

And, viola, it turns out that I did have something to make for dinner!  Let's call this Zucchini Red Pepper Creamy Pesto Linguine.

Yum-o!

Salad doesn't have to be punishment

Here's my new-ish favorite salad recipe that was inspired by my friend Lisa. We made it when I was at her house one day for lunch. It's really simple yet oh-so good. Of course it starred two of my favorite things in the world (tomatoes and avocados) so it was an instant hit. Scott would call it one of my "crazy Armenian salads without lettuce" -- but there isn't much Armenian about it so I beg to differ. I added a few things to kick it up a notch, and no, one of those things wasn't mint. . . though that's not a bad idea.

Mix the following together in a bowl and enjoy! You might want to chill it a little first, but it IS best eaten the same day that you make it:

-1 package of cherry or grape tomatoes (because I'm a little OCD I definitely cut these guys in half)
-2 ripe avocados, cubed/chopped
-finely diced red onion (scallions would be good too, not too much though, maybe 2-3 tablespoons)
-14.5 oz can black beans or chickpeas or kidney beans, whatever you like
-juice of 1/2 a lemon
-drizzle of EVOO
-a few healthy dashes of garlic salt
-freshly ground black pepper
-several dashes of dried dill weed

Vegan Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

I did it! I veganized one of my favorite Ina Garten recipes. . . SO exciting (and yummers!!) Just one note, I've only made it once so I'm still a little unsure as to the exact amount of milk I used. I would start with 1/4 cup and then probably add up to an additional 1/4 cup, so have 1/2 cup ready to go just in case.

-18 oz peanut butter (I used 365 brand creamy organic. . . it was one of them that you don't need to stir that has both salt and sugar in it. In the original recipe, Ina recommends Skippy or some other commercial brand because it generally works/mixes better than the "all natural stir it yourself" kind)
-1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
-1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil, whatever you have
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup white sugar
-2 tsp vanilla
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt (kosher or whatever you prefer)
-1/4-1/2 cup of your favorite non-dairy unsweetened milk (I used original rice)

-10 oz raspberry fruit spread (or any that's not clumpy)
-peanuts (raw or roasted, salted or non, whatever your preference) to sprinkle on top

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9X13 pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, applesauce, oil, sugars, and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup milk. You might need to get your hands in there if it gets too difficult to use a spoon/fork. The consistency should be sort of like cookie dough. If it sticks to your hands too much it's going to stick to the roof of your mouth, so adjust accordingly! (I'll try to remember to update this recipe when I make it again with more precise measurements).

Press about 2/3 of the dough as evenly as you can into the pan -- no need to go too crazy though. Spread the whole 10oz jar of jam evenly over the top. Spread the rest of the dough on top of the jam (and by "spread" I really mean take small clumps of it, flatten them a bit, and place them pretty close to each other, covering as much as the jam as you can -- don't worry it will all come together in the oven). Sprinkle the peanuts on top and try to press them into the dough a bit with your hands or a spatula.

Bake for about 40 minutes, I think. . . until slightly brown on top. This isn't a bar that will be hard and crispy when it's ready. It stays pretty soft and fluffy, so more like a blondie or lemon bar than, say, granola. It's amazing when warm from the oven but WILL break apart pretty easily so you should probably wait until they're kinda cooled to cut them. And then enjoy! And remember, you're eating peanut butter, so it's not all that bad for you ;)

CRACK MAC

I've made numerous vegan macaroni and cheese recipes over the past year and a half (NUMEROUS, I mean, you remember how much I use to love cheese, Jenni) . . . this is my new favorite and I had to share it. I like to refer to it as Crack Mac because, well, in my opinion, it's just that good. . . not that I know what crack is like or anything.

This recipe is my own adaptation from Vegan Vittles' Incredible Cashew Cheez Sauce. It's really easy to prepare, delicious (duh), low in fat, and pretty high in nutrition!

-3 cups vegetable broth
-1 cup water
-1 1/2 cups raw cashews
-1/4 plus 1/8 cup (so I guess about 1/3 cup) nutritional yeast
-1 1/2 tsp. salt (this amount was good if you're using 3 tsp. Better than Bullion like I've done. . . otherwise you might need to adjust the amount
-1 Tbs onion powder (which, when mixed with the tomato, reminds me of my childhood slash spaghettios)
-3/4 tsp dry mustard
-1/4 plus 1/8 tsp garlic powder

-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes in sauce (preferably no salt added), don't you dare drain this

-1 lb box of your favorite casserole pasta (I'm a big fan of cellentani and campanelle but medium shells or penne are always good choices)
-panko bread crumbs (I don't measure these)
-Earth Balance or your favorite non-dairy buttery spread (you don't need to measure this either)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and get a big pot of water boiling on the stove.

Combine the vegetable broth, water, cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, mustard, and garlic powder in your blender or food processor. Blend for a few minutes or until completely smooth. Transfer this mixture to a medium saucepan (3 1/2-4 quarts), add the can of tomatoes, and cook on medium heat until thickened and creamy. This might take about fifteen minutes, but keep and eye on it and stir pretty often. You don't want it to boil, but a small simmer is okay. If it starts getting out of control and looks thick you can go ahead and shut it off. Meanwhile, I hope that your water is boiling and you're cooking the pasta (in salted water of course!)

Drain your pasta and transfer it and sauce to a greased casserole pan. Yes, you want to use all of the sauce. It will seem like a lot but trust me you want it all -- it keeps it moist even when you re-heat the leftovers, if you're lucky enough to have any. Remember this IS Crack Mac that we're dealing with. I usually put the pasta in the casserole first, then pile the sauce in, using a spoon to slightly spread it around evenly. You can mix it in a large bowl first though if you want. I just see it as one too many things to clean at the end. . .

Sprinkle as much or as little of the bread crumbs as you wish over the top and then dot with a little Earth Balance here and there. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until your preferred readiness. Enjoy! And share with friends, if you dare. . .      

Faux Egg Salad

I know that both Melanie and I have made this, and it's really good - and easy for lunches! It came from How It All Vegan, but we've both altered the recipe a tad, to make it less...intense. Here's the closest, I think, to my recipe.

1.5 pounds firm tofu, water pressed out, and crumbled

1/2 cup soy mayonnaise

(a bit less than) 1/4 cup relish

1.5 Tbsp dijon

2 stalks green onion, chopped

1 small green pepper, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp tumeric

4 Tbsp parsley, chopped.

In a bowl, combine ingredients. Mix together well & chill before serving.

When I make a sandwich, I un-vegan it with a slice of cheese, some spinach, and maybe some avocado, cucumber, or other addition I have in the fridge. Delicious.

I should also remember that this makes almost more than I can eat in a week, so I should cut this recipe in half!

Is this thing on....

Turns out, moving across the country and starting over with your kitchen appliances, tools and gadgets makes cooking and baking tough. But, I've definitely been up to more than I've let on. Here's a little something to tide you over. Unfortunately, I do not recall which vegan chocolate cupcake recipe I used for these cupcakes - I think it may have had avocado in it - and I totally cheated on the frosting. I cough *bought* cough it. I was pressed for time, and I didn't want to risk it.

I made these for a new co-workers birthday, which also coincided with our lab meeting. Yum, brains!!

Clear-Out-The-Cupboard Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can count the days left in this house on one hand (ACK!) which also means, it's my job to use all the food left in the cupboards, or it gets thrown out. I have a full bag of Ghiradelli chocolate chips, and I WILL NOT throw those out. So, tonight I set out to make chocolate chip cookies.

Step 1: check your ingredients!

Flour, yes. White sugar, yes. Butter, yes (well, soy margarine). Baking soda, sort of (if we count the fridge box). Eggs, no. Brown sugar, no. Vanilla, no. Measuring cups and spoons, no. Baking sheet, no.

Step 2: gather substitutes!

Aluminum foil, silken tofu, maple syrup, snack-pac of unsweetened applesauce.

Step 3: go for it!

So, I preheated the oven to 350. I creamed one stick of Willow Run with what I estimated to be about 1/2 cup of white sugar. I was also without a mixing bowl, so this took place in a large tupperware container with a fork. When it was creamy (or, I was tired), I added what I estimated to be 1/4 cup of maple syrup. To me, the maple syrup replaced both the brown sugar and vanilla I was missing. Then I added in applesauce and a little silken tofu, to replace the egg. After combining this well, I added about 1 cup of flour, a tsp of baking soda, and some salt. Can't forget the Ghiradelli chips that started this whole process. At this point I crafted a cookie sheet out of 3 layers of aluminum foil and dropped teaspoon sized cookies onto the foil. I baked them for about 10 minutes, and let them cool slightly.

The result, actually, quite delicious. Good to know, because I have enough ingredients to do this again tomorrow. Who wants cookies?!?!

Added bonus, they are totally vegan!

Top Secret Operation Step 2: Cake Carving and Crumb Coat

After the Vegan Cakes were made and frozen, I need to carve them to the right shape, and put on a crumb coat. In order to keep this Top Secret, I can't reveal yet which shape I carved it to, but let's say the people in this house can tell what it is without being told! I used a template printed from a google image search, and traced it with a knife onto the top layer, and then began slicing away pieces until my two layers resembled the shape I wanted.

Once that was done, it was time to make these cakes decidedly un-vegan with some Buttercream Frosting. I just made a simple buttercream, with butter, shortening, confectioners sugar, and a splash of milk. I put a generous bit between the two layers, and then began a thin "crumb coat" around the whole cake and sides. The point of the crumb coat is to catch all the crumbs from the cake so it won't ruin the look of the finished cake. Once the thin crumb coat is on I put the cake in the fridge for an hour or so, to really let it set.

The rest of the house has been enjoying the cake remains and extra frosting, pretty tasty!

Top Secret Operation Step 1: Vegan Chocolate Cakes

There's a top secret project going on over here, it was started yesterday. I baked some vegan cakes. They weren't intended to be vegan, although to be honest most of my baking is vegan these days. The first snag in baking my normal cake recipe was the lack of flour in my house. However, I found some cake flour I forgot I had. But then, there were no eggs. So I tried a new-to-me chocolate cake recipe. It was totally easy, and smelled delicious.

Cake Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour (I used about 3 Tbsp extra because I was using cake flour)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add water, vanilla, oil and vinegar and stir to combine. Pour into greased pan(s) - the recipe said 8x8, I used two 8 inch rounds. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cake tested come out clean.

Admittedly, my two layers were a little thin at first, but they rose a bit and seemed ok when they came out of the oven.

For my top secret project, I let these cool, wrapped them in plastic and aluminum foil, and put them directly into the freezer.

Next step, cake carving....

Baked Tofu

Here's my new favorite thing. I've been keeping it a secret for a while, mostly because I've been too lazy to write about it. Baked Tofu! I guess that's what you call it. It's like fried tofu, but there's no frying, only baking. It's super simple, and pretty tasty, and easy to make any way you want and throw in to any dish you want.

Basically, you cut up the block of tofu. I've been using the firm tofu, and I haven't squeezed out much water. You could maybe press a little out. I've generally sliced it up in to squares about 1/2 an inch thick. Then you coat it in your breading mixture. This is where you can get crazy. I usually have used 1 part flour to 2 parts cornmeal and added in a variety of spices. One time it was paprika and some cajun spices. One time it was oregano and rosemary. One time I left it plain. But really, you can go as all out as you want.

I had some trouble perfecting the baking of it though. I've found that I line a pan with aluminum foil, and coat it with either cooking spray or olive oil (depending on which I have). I lay them all done and bake for like 10 minutes at 400 degrees. I flip them once and keep baking. The first time I think I took them out too early, they could have been crispier.

At this point you can do what you will with them. I've added some to salad, I've had them with couscous and veggies, I've put them with some beans and rice and made a burrito. The possibilities are endless....

Vegan Mocha Fudge Cake

My first vegan cake!

This cake was. . . delicious. The recipe came out of a cute little cake cookbook that my mother in-law gave me for Christmas called 500 Cakes. The original recipe is simply called Chocolate Fudge Cake, but I made it with the mocha fudge cake variation, one of five takes on the original. Both the cake and the frosting have instant coffee in it. And if you like chocolate and coffee as much as me then you should go make this right now. Jenni, are you drinking coffee yet? 'Cause ya should.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

(for the cake)

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
4 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup water
4 tbsp. vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar would also be fine, or even lemon juice)

(for the frosting)

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp. boiling water
1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda, and cocoa into a bowl, then stir in the sugar and make a well in the middle. Pour the oil, vinegar, and water in to the well and stir together quickly. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

To make the frosting, put the oil, cocoa, and boiling water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir to combine, then gradually stir in the sugar and mix for about 2 minutes until thick and glossy. Add a drop more water if too thick. Pour the frosting over the cake and let it set for a few minutes before serving. [I just whisked it all together, didn't sift the confectioner's sugar or bother with the double boiler, and it was fine. . . ]

A few variations:

Chocolate & Orange Fudge Cake: Prepare the basic cake recipe, using orange juice instead of the water, and adding the finely grated zest of 1 orange with the oil and vinegar. [Note: If you make this you must invite me over to sample. Holy holy.]

Mocha Fudge Cake: Prepare the basic cake recipe, adding 1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water with the oil and vinegar. For the frosting, dissolve 1 tablespoon instant coffee in the boiling water before mixing with the sugar.

Chocolate Rum Cake: [I want this one too] Prepare the basic recipe, adding 1 tablespoon rum with the oil and vinegar. [Why stop at 1 tablespoon?]