Vegan Easter 2016

Hello everyone! Zach and I hosted a vegan Easter dinner this year, and it was pretty fun! For a snack before dinner, we had two Miyoko's Creamery cheeses (garlic herb & chive) with three different kinds of crackers, but I forgot to take a picture!

For dinner, my dad made Easter vegetable soup... 

My mom made roasted red potatoes and green beans... 

Zach's mom made cinnamon butter crescent rolls... 

And I made agave-glazed kielbasa (ingredients: Tofurky kielbasa, olive oil, agave nectar, cinnamon, orange juice, and brown sugar), asparagus and saffron and garlic aioli, and au gratin potatoes...

My plate :)

For dessert, I made chamomile lavender cupcakes. I've made them before, but they turned out looking a bit weird this time (I think the problem was too much coconut oil), but they still tasted good. I made another batch of the cupcakes last night (minus the icing), experimenting with some changes: grinding the lavender, chamomile, and 1/4 cup sugar (then adding the 1/2 cup remaining sugar); only 1/8 cup melted coconut oil; combining the coconut oil thoroughly with the lavender/chamomile/sugar before adding the coconut milk (instead of almond milk); 1 ¼ cups flour; and 3 T of the final batter for each cupcake. And they turned out much better this time... 

In other news, tomorrow starts the Phoenixville Vegan Pledge (by Peace Advocacy Network); this will be my fourth year being a mentor, so I'm excited!

Peace. :)

Aram's Red-Velvet Cupcakes

Hello everyone! Today's prompt is "Reach out! Make a new vegan friend & tell us about it," and I have the perfect Veganlist post for it...  

Aram's Red-Velvet Cupcakes

[from The Blacklist, "The Longevity Initiative" (No. 97) (Season 2, Episode 17)]

First off, let's discuss my favorite Blacklist friendship/friend"ship" (yes, I mostly "ship" characters as friends, haha) – Liz and Aram. They work so seamlessly together, there's a trust between them that's never been broken, and they always have the other's back. Any scene with the two of them together is a good scene. Now, I identify a lot with Aram's character. He's socially anxious and doesn't like being in the middle of the action; he stays back, helping from his computer instead of going out into the field with the others. However, his awkwardness and inexperience only serve to illuminate how much he cares about people, how he never wants to hurt anyone. Of the team, he shows the most hesitancy during (and regret after) the post office is breached. His concern when others are in danger is extremely genuine. He's very sweet, and he values the relationships he has with his co-workers. And in the episode featured today, he shows such sincere excitement for Liz's birthday, bringing in cupcakes for her and the rest of the team. He is so absorbed in celebrating and wanting to make Liz's day great that he gets distracted from the case at hand.

Liz: (on phone) Hey guys, what you got?
Aram: A birthday card and 31 red-velvet cupcakes. Uh, well, uh, 30. I couldn't resist. When are you coming back?
Liz: Aram, the suspect.
Aram: Work. Right.

I used this recipe to make the cupcakes (I think it's originally from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz). I couldn't find chocolate extract, so I just added ½ tsp of both vanilla and almond extracts. Oh, and I tried cherry juice as a natural red food coloring, so the cupcakes didn't turn out quite as red as might be expected, but the cherry flavor was worth it! 

For the frosting, I halved the recipe. 

With today's theme of vegan friendship, I wanted to give a special shout-out to everyone who has commented on my posts so far this MoFo: Jessica, Emil, Bonnie, Jill, Elyse, Hannah, Amber, Kimmy, Jenny, Jennifer, and Tea and Sympatico. There's enough cupcakes for all of us; the recipe made 12, and I've already eaten mine... I couldn't resist. ;) 

Bonus screenshots (aka Red's a bit more cynical about people than Aram): 

P.S. Be sure to hop on over to Evolution of Jill. She's had lots of awesome posts so far, and for her post today, she tried out one of my Veganlist recipes from last year's MoFo! :D

Here's a pic of Buttons and Leela working on being friends... 

"close enough"

Peace. :)

Easter Recipes

As mentioned in my last post, I tried out two new recipes for Easter: Chickpea “tuna” salad (a modified recipe from the PAN Vegan Pledge) and chamomile lavender cupcakes (recipe from Banana Curl, Vegan Girl). 

Chickpea “Tuna” Salad 

 
Ingredients:
--1 can chickpeas
--1 small carrot, diced
--1/2 stalk of celery, diced
--squirt of mustard
--1 T vegan mayonnaise (I used Just Mayo)
--a few drops of Bragg liquid aminos

Directions:
Drain & rinse the chickpeas, mash them with a fork, and then add the rest of the ingredients, mixing everything together. Serve with crackers.

Chamomile Lavender Cupcakes 

 
I pretty much followed the recipe as is, though I left out the lavender extract (because I couldn't find any) and I tried using blueberry juice as a natural purple food coloring for the icing (didn't work out too well, though, haha). And instead of using a food processor for the sugar, chamomile tea, and lavender, I hand-ground them, with some help from Zach. The cupcakes turned out really well, quite delicious and moist, so this is definitely a recipe I will make again. 

Today's been a bit of a dreary day, so here are pictures from a month ago of Buttons & Leela being sunshine kitties. 

Peace. :)