Party Time Vegan Cupcakes

YOU GUYS. These cupcakes are so, so good. I used this cupcake recipe and this frosting recipe. (Both from the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook.) And I am never going back to buying store-bought frosting. And I am never going to stop licking frosting off of spoons. I brought these to a party and everyone got super blissful expressions on their faces as they ate them. I know because I stood in the corner behind the food table and creepily spied on people, okay?

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (I just used white vinegar)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract (I used almond extract and it really did add a nice hint of almondy flavor. Definitely worth it.)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-processed or regular
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

 First off, add the vinegar to the soymilk in a bowl until it curdles. I KNOW, this is gross. Don't even worry about it.

I too was skeptical of a recipe that starts out with curdled soy milk, but seriously, these cupcakes are amazing.

Then stir in the sugar, oil, and assorted extracts. Meanwhile sift together the dry ingredients in another bowl and then add them to the wet ingredients and stir until all the big lumps are gone. Pour the delicious batter into 12 cupcake cups and bake for 18-20 minutes. Lick some batter off your finger.


Frosting ingredients:

• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated shortening (This is the first time I've ever bought shortening! It made awesome frosting so that's cool)
• 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated margarine
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup plain soy milk or soy creamer
• Optional: some crushed-up cookies to make cookies n cream frosting! I used the Meijer store brand of chocolate Teddy Grahams. They are Dinosaur Grahams which is obviously way better.

 Cream together the shortening and the margarine until they're blended. Then add the powdered sugar and beat it for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and soy milk and keep beating for 7 minutes. (Says the recipe. I gave up earlier because I don't have a mixer and my arm hurt.) Add crushed cookies at the end if you want. And you DO.

Mmm, frosting.

Cookies n cream frosting! This is like 30 dino grahams mashed up in here.

Then after the cupcakes cool, frost them! The frosting recipe makes enough for probably 50 cupcakes. So if you don't make that many cupcakes, you'll have plenty of delicious frosting, which you can put on dino grahams, pretzels, or fingers.

The worst part about this recipe is that it only makes 12 :(

A Spinach Feta Couscous Affair

Oh hello! I made this recipe a few days ago and it was good.

Ingredients: 

• 1 12 ounce box couscous (about 1 1/2 cups)** I used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat couscous and I feel like it was really heavy on the couscous. I might cut it down to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup (and the appropriately scaled down amount of broth) if I make this again.
• 2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bunch fresh spinach (I buy my spinach in a big box so IDK, I just used 4 handfuls. I'd maybe use even more next time.)
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (I added these because some of the recipe reviews said this was kind of bland. It was good but surprisingly hot. Next time I might use slightly less. Don't use any if you don't like spice, duh.)

Anyway, boil the broth and put in the couscous. Cover it and turn off the heat. (If you've never made couscous before, read the package. It's easy though, just cover it in boiling liquid until it absorbs all of it, like 5-10 minutes. Fluff it with a fork when it's done. Eat it all the time. Get the whole wheat kind.)

Meanwhile cut everything that needs to be cut. Sautee the onion, mushroom, and garlic. Add the oregano & lemon juice (& red pepper). Then put the spinach on top until it wilts. Toss all that stuff in with the veggies and then finally add the feta! MMM.

Dessert & a movie: The Social Network

For The Social Network (which I liked, by the way, although I don't think it quite lived up to all the Best Picture of the Century hype), we went with a fancy college food theme. We had a salad and a delicious homemade pizza, which I unfortunately didn't take pictures of. And for dessert, I made Vegan Milanos from the Post-Punk Kitchen! I was a little afraid they would be above my skill level, but they turned out pretty well. If I do say so myself, they were a hit. Not as big of a hit as Facebook, of course, but if I had a bigger kitchen 500 million people might want to eat these cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup rice or soy milk (I used soy)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• Scant 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (I didn't use this but I bet it would make the cookies even awesomer)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use chocolate chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease two cookie sheets.
2. Mix the sugar, oil, milk, vanilla, and zest.
3. Add half of the flour, along with the cornstarch, baking powder and salt and mix well.
4. Add the remaining flour and mix until you have a soft, pliable dough.
5. Set aside a little bowl of flour and dust your hands before making every cookie!
6. Take a small spoonful of dough and roll it into a log in your hands. Then squish it flat until it's like, the shape of a Milano.
7. Keep making Milanos until you use all the dough, then bake them for 10-ish minutes.

8. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate. I use a makeshift double-boiler of a small pot inside a slightly larger pot of boiling water. If you don't melt chocolate often, let me stress... stir the chocolate like there is no tomorrow or it will burn and be horrible! Also don't let any water splash in there or it will also be horrible.

9. OK, so the recipe advised you to dip each cookie facedown in the chocolate and then push them together to make a sandwich, but I was afraid I'd drop the cookies or something. So I just dropped about a spoonful of chocolate on a cookie and then squished another one on top of it.

10. Put them on a tray in the fridge for an hour or so. Then let them get back to room temperature before serving them.
11. Hurrah!

Vegan Garlic Lentil Thing

A friend of mine raved about this Salmon with Lentils recipe from Ina Garten, so I decided to make it. Without the salmon. And leaving out ingredients I didn't happen to have lying around.

• 1⁄2 pound green lentils (it called for French lentils, but I am a patriot)
• Olive oil
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 tsp thyme (it called for fresh, but I used dried)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
•  4 chopped carrots (it called for carrots and celery but I didn't have celery, so I just used extra carrots)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (Ina specifically called for "good red wine vinegar," but I didn't have any red wine vinegar. Also, I'm not sure if my balsamic vinegar is good. It's probably just "average.")

This was pretty cheap vinegar, but it does appear to have survived a volcanic eruption.

 Anyway. First, soak the lentils in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, start cooking the onion with the oil, thyme, and salt & pepper until the onion turns clear. Then throw in the garlic for 2 more minutes.

Then drain the lentils and add them to the pan. Then add everything else except the vinegar and simmer for 20 minutes.

Finally, add the vinegar and take it off the heat.

I ate this over brown rice, but if you are interested in serving it over salmon, you can consult Ina Garten.

I find that I don't really have the photography skills to make lentils look appealing, but this was easy to make and really good! The vinegar gives it a really good flavor kick.

Spinach Smoothie

I've read on multiple food blogs that you can put spinach into smoothies and you can't even taste it. So, I decided to try throwing a handful of baby spinach & greens mix into my regular smoothie recipe, which is just:

1 thing of yogurt (I think it's 6 oz)
1 yogurt-thing full of soy milk
1 handful of frozen berries
(In this case it's raspberry yogurt and frozen raspberries, but sometimes I mix it up.)

Blend until it looks, you know, smooth.

Anyway, I could taste the spinach, but not really in a bad way. Just like an extra bit of, uh, earthy flavor? Honestly it probably tastes slightly better without the spinach, but I'll keep adding it when I make smoothies, since it's such an easy way to eat more spinach!

(Sorry if this post is super obvious to everyone, but I only recently learned how easy it is to make smoothies at home. And only recently-er did I try adding greens.)

Dinner & a movie: The Birds

Another exciting dinner and a movie night! With The Birds. And what do birds eat? Human flesh? NO. Sunflower seeds.


So I made this awesome sunflower seed spread and pita chips!

I adapted it from this recipe which I found from a Google search for "sunflower seed recipes." It was SUPER DELICIOUS and the hardest part was cleaning out the blender afterward.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water

I made it with raw sunflower seeds from the local co-op, but some of the reviewers on AllRecipes said they used salted & roasted ones. Also, following the advice of the AllRecipes reviewers, I dropped the onion and celery from the originally posted recipe.

1) Toast the seeds in a frying pan on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly until the seeds turn they brown.
2) Mix the seeds with the tahini in a bowl. Then, spread the seeds out on a baking sheet and let them cool to room temperature.

3) Meanwhile mix the garlic and lemon juice and set it aside.
4) After the seeds are cooled, put everything in the blender or food processor and blend it!!

Seriously! So delicious! It's kind of like hummus, but nutty and savory-er.

Also by the way, last year I learned how easy it is to make pita chips! Did you know how easy it is to make pita chips? All you do is cut the pitas into triangles, spritz a baking sheet with olive oil and then spritz the tops of the pitas with olive oil, and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Sometimes I put garlic salt on them, but I just did plain ones to go with the sunflower seed spread.

Potato Soup

Yo do any of youse guys have a good vegetarian creamy potato soup recipe? I made this one and it was gross. I ended up adding a packet of onion soup mix, some garlic, some dried chives, and some sour cream and that made it palatable, but there's got to be a better recipe out there. Right?