Trail Mix Cookies

Our usual Saturday plan is to take the dogs to the dog park and then go to the open air market.  Our favorite bread maker had something new this week, a delicious granola mixture with oats, coconut, wheat germ, nuts, and sunflower seeds.  I had to pick some up and sense we usually have smoothies for breakfast I needed to figure out what to do with this granola.  Then the trail mix cookie was born, and it is delicious!


Ingredients:
• 1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups your favorite granola mixture
• 1/2 cup nondairy butter
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsp egg replacer disolved in 4 tbsp of warm water (the equivalent of two eggs)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
Directions:
Heat oven to 350.  Comine the sugars, butter, oil and vanilla set aside.  Next combine the flour baking soda, baking powder cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together.  Mix the wet ingredients with the dry well then add the egg replacer.  Add the granola mixture and rasins, combine but do not over mix.

Here is the mixture ready to go

Place a tablespoon at a time on your cookie sheet and cook for 12 to 14 minutes.

on the cookie sheet!

they won't last long.

yum and done!

Salsa

This is a pretty simple recipe.  It can be modified to make it more spicy, as the recipe stands it is a mild flavorful salsa.  Perfect for the hot weather!  The salsa is best when it has set and the flavors have mingled, after made let rest for at least two hours, over night if you can wait!

Ingredients:

• 8 medium Roma tomatoes, diced

• 2 scallions, diced in different small sizes

• 1 medium shallot, diced fine

• 1 lime juiced

• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

• 1/2 jalapeno diced (optional)

• 1/2 tsp black pepper

• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Toss all the veggies together then add the lime juice mix well.  Then add the salt pepper and cayenne.  Mix well and taste, add more of each if needed.  Let chill for at least two hours. Then enjoy!

Yum and done!

Quinoa Salad

This is a delicious summer salad the vegetables I use can be modified to fit any tastes.  This salad is inspired by a salad in the deli section of Whole Foods, their quinoa salad uses a sesame based dressing and they use different veggies.  But that delicious little number is where the idea of mine came from.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups dry quinoa (this will be prepared via package directions and cooled)

• 1 cup lightly steamed kale chopped

• 2 cups cabbage chopped

• 1 cup scallions diced

• 1 mango diced

• 1/2 to 2/3 cup Annie's Green Garlic Dressing

• pepper to taste

Directions:

Prepare quinoa, drain well and cool at least one hour.  Prep your other ingredients.

Ready to go!

Place quinoa in large mixing bowl and add the mango and vegetables, mix them well before you add the dressing 

Quinoa ready to be mixed

After all the ingredients are mixed well slowly add the dressing.  I add it in about thirds mix then add the next third.  Let rest for at least a half hour before serving, this will allow the flavors to mingle! 

Yum and done!

Fried Tofu Sandwich

I love quick delicious meals in the summer.  So sandwiches are a great alternative, to a heavy complicated meal.  This was one of the best sammies my husband and I have ever made!  You can complete them with any veg you like but we go traditional here!Ingredients:
(for two sandwiches)
• 12 ounces of tofu sliced in four slices (two for each sandwich)
• Your favorite bread or bun
• various veggies, we used lettuce, tomato, onion and pea shoots• 1 avocato mashedFor the frying of the tofu you need:   • 1 cup water or soy milk
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
Directions:Slice tofu into four slices, mix the last four ingredients and batter the tofu.  Heat about 1'' to 1 1/2'' of oil on medium to high heat.  Place the tofu in the pan and brown on both sides.  When removing the tofu from the frying process place on paper towels to remove extra oil.  Dress your bread of choice and serve with your favorite side, in our case it was fries, but it should have been a side salad.  :)
 

yum and done!

Different cakes from the past two years

I am getting my cake portfolio together and needed to have a good cross section of pictures of what I have accomplished so this particular post is dedicated to my cake creations in the past couple of years or so.

 The first two pictures are of a Día de los Muertos inspired cake.  The base of the cake was decorated using buttercream with a basket weave pattern, there are also a modified shell pattern around the edge the roses are buttercream as well.  The skull was baked using the wilton skull cake pan.  The skull top was supported by skewers to prevent it from sliding.

These two photos are another skull cake, I wanted to make it more macabre, so I did a basket weave on the top and made a very thin butter cream and covered the skull in it for the white skull look.  I also used some confectioners sugar and water to drizzle for the "blood".  It was the centerpiece for a halloween party!

 This was a cake I made for my Parents, it is a mixture of buttercream and royal icing.  The cake base is frosted in butter cream, the daffodils (my Mothers favorite flower) are royal icing the leaves are butter cream and the tractor was my very first fondant creation!

This was a holiday wreath cake.  Also with a mixture of butter cream and royal icing.  The flowers are royal icing and some of the leaves are as well.  I also made a base layer of leaves in buttercream to make the wreath look fuller.

This cake is decorated using fondant.  The flowers were sculpted by me.  The leaves were made using a leaf shape cutter, but then embellished with texture by hand.

This cake was huge!  It was done in fondant, and the bee hive is a stacked cake. There are five tiers in all!  I sculpted the bees and hung them by floral wire.  Upon transporting this the fondant got a bit soft and the bees started to tear at the fondant on the hive I patched the spot over with another daisy!

I was really curious to try bunting on the cake made for my Mother-in-law, it is a three tier cake the individual tiers are very small only measuring 5'' each,  it came out great!

These are mini pudding pies I did although it is not necessarily cake decorating I really enjoyed the

arrangement of the fruit!

 This is a cupcake tower I did for a party the cupcakes are orange chocolate and pistachio rosewater.  I love the M1 swirl, it makes such a great design.  This was done with buttercream.

This is a halloween party cake.  Again with my skull pan but also with sculpted fondant.  The Zombie theme came out great.  Although the eyeball was a bit hard to master.

Vegan Cheesecake

There are a lot of birthdays this week in our house.  My first on June 11 our companion Vivian, on June 12 my husband Zack and on June 14 our companion Posey.  So rather than making one cake for the dogs and one cake for the husband I made a low sugar vegan cheesecake with a fresh strawberry topping.  The crust is a basic graham cracker crust but I feel by doing a basic crust it enhances the flavors of the actual cake.
Ingredients:
• 16 ounces of vegan cream cheese
• 12 ounces vegan sour cream
• 1/2 cup unrefined sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp egg replacer dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp lemon zest
Directions:
Prepare a 10'' spring form pan by adding 1/2'' of the crust then line the sides with wax paper.  Preheat the oven to 300.  The spring form pan will need to be submerged in water when baked, I usually use a cake pan and fill it about 1/3 the way with water and place the spring form pan in that for baking.  By placing it in the water when being baked the cake bake more evenly and have less of a chance of having any burnt bits.
Mix the first four ingredients well. If using a stand mixer use a medium speed and whip until creamy. Next add the vanilla beat again, then add the flour 1/4 cup at a time, add the egg replacer water mixture next beat again find finally add the lemon zest.  Pour slowly into pan and bake for about 90 minutes or until center is set.
Allow the cake to cool and then place in refrigerator over night do not unmold until the next day.

Yum and done!

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower 'Wings'

This recipe was posted on the Peta site today . I just had to try it.  I love love love spicy food and this was completely amazing.  Although I must admit that we made to much so now I have leftovers for tomorrow!  This was completely delicious and we paired it with a salad.  On the Peta site they suggested vegan blue cheese but we used ranch instead.  

Ingredients:

1 cup water or soy milk
1 cup flour

2 tsp. garlic powder
1 head of cauliflower, chopped into pieces
1 cup buffalo or hot sauce
1 Tbsp. melted vegan margarine

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Combine the water or soy milk, flour, and garlic powder in a bowl and stir until well combined.  Coat the cauliflower pieces with the flour mixture and place in a shallow baking dish. Bake for 18 minutes. While the cauliflower is baking, combine your buffalo sauce and olive oil or margarine in a small bowl. Pour the hot sauce mixture over the baked cauliflower and continue baking for an additional 5 to 8 minutes. 

yum and done!