Seriously...

Could he be any cuter? The best part is that he calls me 'aunt' - I love it!! :)

Appetizers

Basilica e Pomodoro Rolls

Step One: Roll out Puff Pastry Dough, slice into thin strips, spread tomato sauce and sprinkle with fresh basil and Vegan Rella:

Roll them up
Bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes until crispy

These are fantastic and very easy to make - Prep time about 5 minutes, total time under 45 minutes

This Week's Brunch...

Banana Muffins!

There is something warming about banana muffins.


I love to cut them in half and grill them lightly with some margarine before serving!

So Pretty

My mom put this together with fresh flowers from her yard. Don't they look antique? It's setting on an antique tool box that belonged to my grandfather....

Tostadas

Tex-Mex is one of my favorite food genres -- here I made my own Tostadas


Tostada shell, sour supreme, refried beans, TVP with chili seasoning, guacamole, tomato, lettuce with lime juice, and cheddar Follow Your Heart --- Ole!

Chocolate-Boston-Cream Cake?

I don't know what this cake is called, exactly, here's what it is...
Chocolate cake, covered with chocolate ganache, layered with chocolate fudge pudding, topped with chocolate fudge and vanilla whipped cream, dusted with dutch cocoa.

Oodles of cupcakes

I love making cupcakes, I've been making 1 1/2 inch cupcakes lately, they're so cute and bite-sized!

Cooling on the rack
Topped with white cream and lime green nonpareils


Pink nonpareils
These have chocolate pudding on the inside and chocolate mousse topping drizzled with my homemade mocha syrup

Melted Bocas

These have a combo of Mozarella and Cheddar style Follow Your Heart cheese:

Kinda Gross

We shaved Good Girl, sheesh! Lots of hair!

This Week's Brunch...

French Toast Bake with blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries.

This dish turned out to be freaking fantastic! It was so good that I made a second batch to take to work and it was a HUGE hit with all the omnivores!!

It's really easy to make, you put together the ingredients the night before and then bake it in the morning.

I paired it with fresh strawberries and soya whipped topping.



Here's how you make it:

1 loaf white bread, cubed (I used a generic 'whole wheat' white loaf from the supermarket)
1 lb mixed berries (if you freeze them first they won't stain the bread when you mix it)
2 cups vanilla soymilk
1/3 cup sweetner
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon

Wisk together soymilk, sweetner, flour, cinnamon until smooth, pour over the bread cubes and mix well, adding more soymilk as needed. GENTLY fold in fruit, spoon mixture into a 9x13 pan, cover, and refrigerate over night. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 the following morning.

Top with fresh fruit, syrup, soymilk, and/or whipped cream.

S'mores

I used Sweet and Sara Marshmallows to make my own version of s'mores...

Base: Chocolate Chip Cookie
Top: Sweet and Sara Marshmallows & Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips

Pet Food Recall

Check this link to see if your brand is affected:

http://www.petcare.mars.com/

To the Beach!

I love sandwiches on the beach - these are Tofurky Hickory Smoked and Italian Deli slices with Veganaise and fresh basil on rosemary-olive-oil-sea-salt-bread.



What's a sandwich without some Tings! and Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Flea Market Find

This was a great flea market find, all these cute 'collector' spoons for $1. I cleaned them up and displayed some on my printer's shelf and have used the others for serving spoons, so cute!

Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made my own ice cream sandwiches, they were so refreshing...

Peanut Butter Cookies and Temptation Chocolate Soy Cream:

Barricades

We watched my parent's puppy and in an attempt to barricade her in the kitchen (where we have impermeable hardwood floors, if you catch my drift...) I concocted this tower...


It took her less than 3 minutes to break it down...

*sigh*

Salad for Dinner!!

Frannie makes these crazy salads and drops them off for us from time to time... Tonight's salad, Spring Mix Lettuce, Celery, Red Onion, Grapes, and Artichoke Hearts.

This Week's Brunch...

Sweet Crepes...

I guess I only took pictures of the Strawberry Cream Crepes, but I also made Banana=Peanutbutter Crepes, and Raspberry Crepes.

The Strawberry Cream Crepes are made by folding strawberry puree into soya whipped topping and adding a small dollop of Tufutti Better Than Cream Cheese:



The raspberry crepes had a layer of sweetened cream cheese and fresh raspberries, the banana were made by lightly frying 2 sliced bananas with sugar and margarine and then adding peanut butter to the crepe before serving.

My Crepe Recipe:
1 cup flou
1 cup Silk
pinch baking powder
pinch salt
1 tsp sweetner

Mix and fry lightly on both sides. Serve immediately.

Petit Hors Devours

I'm not sure what made me think to pair these, but the outcome was savory and fresh.

Base: Corn Fritter
Middle: Red Beans and Rice
Top: Cilantro, Sour Supreme, Follow Your Heart Cheddar



They were a perfect one-serving appetizer. The sweetness of the corn fritter paired with the beans and fresh cilantro was fantastic.

Horizons, again....

Another trip to Horizons...

Bibb Salad
Bruschetta
Strawberry Lime Cheesecake - the mixture of the strawerry and lime flavors was light and refreshing
Creme Brulee with almond biscotti - this creme brulee is the closest to the 'real' thing I think I've ever had, it's made with a coconut base which turns me off a bit (I dislike coconut), but the topping is nice and crispy and the biscotti lend a nice complement.

Iced Mojito - layes of cake, lime sorbet, and coconut cream with mint... light and refreshing but again, I'm just not a fan of coconut!

Restaurant Review: R.J. Gators

When we heard we were going to meet some friends at R.J. Gators, http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
we were hesitant, to say the least.

When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find Original Boca Burgers on their menu. I got mine with avacado, tomato, and lettuce with a side of sweet potato fries -- gotta love the South!

MPG

I've been trying to keep my MPG above 33mpg -- This was my first time above 35mpg -- that's right, 37.4

I was so excited I had to take a picture!


Last week I actually got it up to 39 but didn't have a camera with me!

Try-It-Out Tuesdays: Teeccino

Teeccino - Maya Chai flavor

This product is a naturally caffeine-free hot beverage mix. It's supposed to taste like coffee but be healthier for you as it does not contain coffee or cocoa beans.

I boiled a cup of water, stirred in the packet and gave it a try...I was not very impressed...while admittedly I'm not a huge coffee drinker, this beverage tasted too weak to be considered coffee by any stretch of the imagination. I think on it's own, not trying to compare it to actual coffee, I guess it's a nicely flavored hot beverage, but I just wasn't that into it. It had a full flavor and chickory overtones and did not need much sweetener.

Restaurant Review: Horizons

My friend Matt visited and brought with him my favorite significant other!

First, we made a stop at Vegan Treats. We wolfed down Chocolate Encased Strawberry Shortcakes and Caramel-Fudge Brownies (and doughnuts!)

Next up, Horions Cafe.
We waited at the bar for a table to open...
So cute!
Horizons makes the best virgin-mojitos in the world!

The Jamaican BQ wing appetizer is tasty - it's sweet and tangy with a juicy seitan interior!
Chilled avacado and dill soup -- it's okay but it doesn't hold a flame to Blasasia's version!
I ordered my usual - grilled seitan with mashed yukon potatoes, spinach and their combination of sauces.

If you have never eaten at Horizons, you have to know that they make the best fake meat I have EVER tasted. It's perfectly seasoned, moist, and tasty!
I think this is the crabcakes with enchiladas...



We didn't get dessert, since we had Vegan Treats earlier we were good!

This Week's Brunch...

Tofu Scrambler...


I've been using Fantastic Foods Tofu Scramble mix. Of course, I doctor it up a bit with some garlic salt and nutritional yeast, but it can stand well on its own.

I paired it with some fresh berries and rosemary olive oil sea salt sourdough bread.