Vegan Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes

I love birthdays and holidays because it's the perfect excuse to bake something yummy.So for my moms birthday this past Monday I decided to make her vegan Pineapple right side up cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.They turned out awesome,very moist and with just the right sweetness.

 

Martins also began carrying daiya shredded soy cheese.I had heard awesome stuff about its melty and tasty goodness.I found that Its melt-ability was the best I've seen in fake cheese, It bubbled and browned much like regular cheese would but the taste did not do it for me.It had a creamy, very almost too gooey texture for me.I know that the legend of a fake cheese that taste and acts like real cheese is just that,a legend, and I dont miss cheese at all any more but I still wanted to try it out.

diaya soy cheese and mushroom pizza

In non-food related news Sean and I had a nice anniversary revisiting our teenage selves.We spent the day on Yorktown Beach where we first kissed and got married (aww I know) nothing like drinking playing some hacky sack and listening to good music with the one you love.

Thanksgiving Feast

So after a few arguments with my mom they decided to cut ham out of their holiday meal!!This Thanksgiving was the best one I have had (in memorable history anyway).
At my parents home Sean and I had mashed potatoes,sauteed green beans and spinach,biscuits,seared tofu,stuffing with gravy to cover it all.It was all topped off with an organic vegan cherry pie for desert.

Seans mom bought us a Tofurky, now the only fake meat we ever buy are these chicken patties or chicken pot pies because for one we have no desire for meat and two they generally taste like crap.So I was surprised that the Tofurky tasted very much like turkey (coming from someone who hasn't eaten meat in 7 years).Im not sure if we will have one for every holiday but its not out of the question.

In other news Sean and I will begin volunteering at Heritage Humane Society soon, super excited =).

Blah Blah Blah

So while wasting time last night Sean and I came across what seems to be the ultimate vegan cheese.I freaked out when I saw this, melty gooey vegan cheese has long been a myth to me, we currently use vegan gourmet which does melt but nothing like what teese seems to do. So on our trip to Norfolk for our 4 year anniversary we will be picking some up and seeing if it is as good as it looks.

We found Teese thanks to links on Farm Sanctuary . What they do is so beyond amazing so check them out and donate if you can (I donated $10 of the last $20 I had till next Friday, so Im pretty sure you can spare some $$ as well)

In other news it seems like I will be starting college in the summer =) It's taken way too long but thanks to Sean I now have the confidence and support to do so.

Fried rice topped with spinach

Being that tomorrow is payday ( not like that really means anything, this whole check is going to bills) our refrigerator and pantry are quite bare. I intended to make a typical asian stir-fry but we had about a tablespoon of soy sauce left and no veggies. We did however have spinach that I didn't use for the spinach pockets I made for Halloween.I decided to fry the rice with the little bit of soy sauce we had as well as with a little bit of garlic,crushed red peppers,garlic powder,pepper and salt. I then sauteed the spinach in olive oil with the same seasonings. It was pretty delicious =)

Vegan Spinach & mushroom pocket/Vegan Marbled cupcakes

Yesterday I had a few friends over for Halloween, good times to say the least.I struggled with what to make for omnivores.I didn't want to make anything that was trying to be like a non-vegan dish (cheese pizza or whatever) I found a pizza pocket recipe but I decided to do a few things differently.For starters I made the dough from scratch, when I looked at the ingredients for the pilsbury pizza dough it says to use I saw some questionable ingredients.However I am happy to report that everything was pretty much gone by the end of the party.




Pizza dough

2 Tablespoons of Dry Active Yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 cups of Lukewarm water
3 Teaspoons of salt
6 Tablespoons of Olive oil
3 Cups of all purpose flour
Seasonings of your liking (I used basil,oregano,garlic powder & pepper)

Filling
I did not measure the ingredients I used in the filling so this is my best guesstimate, you are your best tool, fill it that way you'd like.
1/2 a clove of garlic,minced
1 bag of baby leaf spinach, chopped slightly
1/4 of an onion
A small container of sliced mushrooms


Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and let sit.Put the flour in a large mixing bowl and mix in seasonings & salt. Mix in oil and water/yeast mixture.Let sit for 5-10 minutes covered with a damp towel.Roll out on a floured surface,I worked with about half of the dough at a time.Cut off the edges so that it forms a large rectangle,cut this rectangle into 2 and roll out each rectangle so that the dough is thin enough to work with and cook through but not so thin that it rips.cut your two rectangles in halve so that you have a total of 4 rectangles.Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil on the entire surface of the dough.Sprinkle salt and pepper then add diced onions,mushrooms,garlic and spinach to on side of the rectangle making sure to lave an edge.Pick up the opposite side and cover the filling rolling the ends in.Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown.This made about 11 pockets.


For my cupcakes I resorted to vegan cupcakes take over the world, in my opinion an essential recipe book for every vegan.

Personal

It feels as if i could scream and scream and scream till my voice was long gone and no one would hear a single thing.Helpless.I feel helpless.Its that feeling when your dreaming and the person you love more than anything dosnt love you and you cry and cry and cry and you feel it even though your dreaming and it isnt real and you tell yourself it isnt real, you have to sit there and tell yourself it isnt real.And I wonder if im normal, I dont think the majority of people in modern society would think im normal.And I feel like physically grabbing passer bys and shaking them yelling WAKE UP! WAKE UP!I feel like I cant breath like im locked inside and I can see the light bulb on the ceiling but its far to high.I dont know what to do. I care too much and everyone seems to care too little.Its all because I cant do anything to save their lives and they die every minute of every day and Im screaming PLEASE WAKE UP!

Just a rant

It seems that every decision we make, even something as simple as what we choose to eat, has a increasingly higher impact on things we dont even stop to think of.Where we shop, what we buy carries a weight that no one seems to comprehend. When did we start eating food with ingredients we couldnt even pronounce?Why do we belive these things are good for us when the propoganda that says so Is funded by the very industry that produces it?When did we all become so gulible, the disconnect is infuriating. We give our babies sugar rich foods, fucking soda in a sippy cup. We've become so lazy that most people eat a few fast-food meals a week(even then how many of the other meals are really homemade and not over processed, nutrient lacking, prepackaged crap)Look at the American diet today compared to 50 years ago, look at over-all health of then and now. The saddest part is that people are throwing up their hands and saying oh well. Will they say oh well when they out live their children?Find a back bone, get off your ass, learn some simple facts about good nutrition.Do it for your family if not for yourself. When I see people going to burger king at 10:30 at night I cant help but think where did we go wrong, when did this become acceptable.

  I have been vegan for almost 2 months ( and this time im making sure I get all the things I need) and I have never felt healthier in my life, I have never felt so comfortable in my own skin.