Friday, April 23, 2010

More SUHweets!

             I really want to make some more real food, but these recipes are just so tempting! I got the recipe for the peanut butter cups in The Kind Diet again but I had to alter it a little because I'm a cheapo and didn't want to buy everything. The recipe called for graham cracker crumbs but all we had was the chocolate ones so I used those, which was still good. And I didn't use the maple sugar because it was a whopping twenty dollars! Yeah, so I just used turbinado sugar which I haven't tried them with maple sugar, but I'm sure it was a similiar taste, its still sweet right?! BUT while I was at the health store getting the ingredients, they have a little cafe where they have vegan chocolate chip cookies that have oats and almonds in it too and I couldn't resist. It was seriously the best cookie I have ever eaten. So yummy. So heres a picture of that and my try at the peanut butter cups! 


Some interesting things about the peanut butter cups...
Like I said I'm cheap and thought we had muffin tins had home so didn't get any. We didn't. So I made them with parchment paper. 
Second thing was I couldn't get the chocolate to spread on the melted peanut butter so I just plopped the chocolate in the middle and called them inside out peanut butter cups!                      
I snuck one before I took the picture! :)


Sunday, April 18, 2010

Impromptu dinner

              I came home starving from work with little to work with so I cooked some whole wheat penne next to  my mother's sweet and sour chicken and her saying how yummy it is. But I think what I came up with was pretty good!

Whole wheat penne pasta
1 small tomato
1/4 cup tofutti cream cheese (I have the garlic and herb one right now)
a handful of toasted sunflower seeds
cilantro leaves to make it look pretty

Cook the penne as usual. Chop the tomato. In a seperate little bowl mix the tofutti and the tomato and the sunflower seeds. When the penne is done add the mix to the penne and put the cilantro on so it looks and tastes delicous!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

the first one!

           I've been vegan for almost two weeks and I already know this is the right way for me to live. I'm so excited to continue this journey and learn more as I go. With all this excitement I have to channel it somewhere and so that is what I'm going to do here! There are so many great vegan bloggers out there I have fallen in love with that have encouraged me and inspired me to start my own. I've spent a lot of my time looking at all the amazing vegan recipes there are online and all I want to do lately is cook so I guess for my first blog I should give some of my reasons why I'm going vegan and second, share some of the recipes that I've made.

           So that's mostly what this is going to be, my continuing experience of living as a vegan, the lessons I learn from it, and the yummy food I make!

Here's Why...
My first one (well two) is love and care. Love and care for the world around me, and for myself. Love for the animals that are tortured solely for my benefit, love for the earth that God so beautifully created, and love for myself by taking care of me.
That was a little bit of all of the reasons why I decided to change but there are some that came after I had been for a little while. I was vegan for about a month on a fast thing but went off it for about three weeks. During those three weeks I just wanted to go back on the fast because I felt so much better during it. The more I looked into the health side of being vegan the more I understood that plant based diets are the way to optimal health and the way to prevent the majority of the diseases that plague so many people today. Feeling good from being healthy is one side but then there's also the peace and joy I feel by knowing that I didn't cause harm to any living thing and that maybe I'm making a little but of difference. I feel more centered and comfortable in my own skin. That might sound crazy but the most important thing I've learned is that what we put in our body and how we treat it really affects the way we feel and therefore how we live, and for me, I want a life filled with peace.
So there's my reasons in a nut shell. Now for the yumminess! 

The first thing I made were the peanut butter rice crispy treat things from Alicia Silverstone's "The Kind Diet", which were really tasty! And then I made chocolate chip cookies that I found the recipe from vegweb.com They were called "Happy chocolate chip cookies" except I made them with whole wheat flour. Here's a picture!

 My Brother didn't like them but I thought they were a perfect fix for a chocolate chip cookie!
                                                  (That's soy milk)
Today I made some tapioca pudding. I'm not really a fan of the squishy pearls, but we had everything to make it and I wanted to give it a try. The pudding part was good but I didn't like the tapioca, so if you're a fan this is a good recipe! Its also on vegweb.com under "Tapioca Pudding"
So there's my first one! I hope to be cooking a lot more (and not only sweets) and sharing on here the awesome journey that I have begun!