Picking Stawberries With the Kids
Mother's Day Vegan Lunch
It felt so good cooking with my family and giving my mom the gift of vegan food on Mother's Day. We made portobello lasagna, macaroni & cheese, kale salad and cheesecake.
What she said about each dish:
Kale salad-It was her 1st time having it and she said it was delicious
Mac & cheese-commented that it looked like conventional mac & cheese but didn't taste like it to her. She did say it was good but her taste buds expected a more "cheesy" flavor since it looks like traditional mac & cheese.
Cheesecake-loved it!
Lasagna-She called it her favorite of the 4 dishes and asked for the recipe to make it later.
Success!
Watch us cook here...
Recipes:
Kale salad- I added nutritional yeast to the recipe in the video
Cheesecake
2 tubs of vegan cream cheese (16 oz)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of ½ lemon
1 tbsp vegan margarine
9-inch pre-made graham cracker pie crust
Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl until well combined. Pour into pie crust and bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool on the counter for a few minutes. Place cake in the refrigerator for 2 hrs to firm or in the freezer for about 1 hour.
Letting Go.... For Now
I've written before about making the decision to let my kids eat what they want when we dine out. I'm willing to compromise since they enjoy a mostly vegan lifestyle at home. I know I can make the decision for them, but the truth of the matter is, I'm tired. I'm tried of nagging the kids about making the right food decisions at restaurants.
Why should I have to sell them on the idea of veganism? I have to let the food and my compassion for them speak for itself. I want them to enjoy eating out without mom breathing down their back and making them second guess all of their food choices.
Adults often can't and/or won't make vegan food decisions, so why should I expect my children to?
Over the weekend, we celebrated a birthday with the hubby's family at a buffet-style restaurant. Theo and I walked to each station grabbing vegetables noodles, french fries, and fresh fruit. There was an abundance of seafood, beef, and chicken and we almost made it back to the table without him questioning it, until he saw fried drumsticks. He asked for one, and I allowed for him to have it.
He enjoyed his meal and headed back up with his cousins and my aunt for dessert after he spotted a man eating an ice cream cone. My aunt bought him back to the table with a cup of chocolate ice cream, two small pastries, and Jell-O. *Sigh*
He liked the pastries and ice cream but said the Jell-O was weird (I never gave it to him before) and played with it instead. Woohoo at him not being a Jell-O fan. Here's why I care.
The point of this post is to focus on celebrating our success instead of harping on why I'm such a crappy mom for allowing my kids eat in a way that I don't agree with.
I want to start focusing on the fact that my kids now indulge in vegan food and cooking.
How they ask questions about animals and expressed interest in visiting an animal sanctuary.
How they now understand why mommy doesn't eat meat or dairy.
How they beg for green smoothies and couldn't imagine a week without oatmeal for breakfast.
How when the server asked my 7 year old what he wanted to drink, he had no problem ordering water with lemon.
Maybe 2 years from now, my boys will automatically order vegan when we go to eat out. For now, I'm letting it go.
Chocolate Cupcakes & Chocolate Cookie Cream Frosting
Full printable recipe at the bottom of this post
My baby turned 9 last weekend and asked me to make him chocolate cupcakes. I decided to put a spin on traditional buttercream frosting by adding chocolate cookies.
I did a little research and discovered that Oreo cookies are vegan (I read this article on PETA). Plus, when I checked the ingredients at the store, I didn't see any dairy byproducts listed.
I've never been much of a fan of chocolate cupcakes because they tend to be quite dry, so used a little more oil and soy milk to make this recipe. They came out moist and delicious.
To make the egg replacer:
I added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and soy milk in my blender and blended for a few seconds. If you don't have a blender, use a whisk and allow the "egg" to sit for about 10 minutes to curdle.
The consistency should be similar to the picture above when you're ready to add your other ingredients.
The first picture is right after adding the dry ingredients to the wet ones.
Second picture-Don't over mix the batter-just continue until all ingredients are combined.
Fresh out the oven-Recipe makes 12 cupcakes
Now to the best part-the frosting!
I had Theo help me out with crushing the Oreo cookies.
This frosting came out fluffy and not overly sweet. I ate a few teaspoons of the leftovers. There's no shame in my game. lol
Chocolate Cupcakes and Chocolate Cookie Cream Frosting
by Brown Vegan
Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 30
Keywords: bake dessert
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Ingredients (12 cupcakes)
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup soy milk
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup cacao powder (or regular cocoa powder)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
Cookies & Cream Frosting
- 1/3 cup vegan margarine
- 1/2 vegetable shortening
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup almond or soymilk
- 6 chocolate cookies with cream filling, crumbled
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
Preheat oven at 400 degrees and line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners.
Put soy milk and vinegar in a blender and blend for a few seconds. If you don't have a blender, whisk these ingredients together in a bowl and sit aside for 10 minutes to allow to curdle.
In a large bowl, beat together the soy milk mixture, vanilla extract, sugar and oil.
In a separate bowl, sift in flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder, and cacao powder.
Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, beating the batter until well combined.
Add 1 1/2 tbsp of batter to each cupcake liner and bake for 15 minutes.
Cool completely before adding frosting.
For the Frosting
Beat together the margarine & vegetable shortening
Slowing add in powdered sugar and continue beating for about 2 minutes.
Add in soymilk and vanilla extract and beat until fluffy.
Fold in crumbled cookies with a rubber spatula or spoon.
If you try this recipe, let me know what you think?
What's your favorite type of cupcake?
Song playing while I baked...
MAZE ft Frankie Beverly- Joy & Pain