Yule Love This French Log

It's time to introduce this month's Daring Bakers Challenge!

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.

They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. 

This multi-layered frozen dessert features six elements:  Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake), Mousse, Ganache, Praline (Crisp), Creme Brulee, and Icing.  We were given a lot of leeway in terms of flavours this time, and I have to say that my favorite part ended up being the mousse.

I chose to make a maple mousse, which was actually quite simple.  I used one box of mori-nu silken tofu and 1/2 cup maple syrup.  Blend in food processor for 2 minutes.  That's it!  It's so light and full of flavour, I wanted to eat it all on its own without adding it to the yule log but instead I resorted to licking the spatula ;)  It was well worth the wait though, because it is absolutely delightful once it's frozen.  I think this summer I might toss this in the ice cream maker and see how it fares as "ice cream".

 Also, since I've pretty much had enough chocolate over the holidays to last until next year, I went with a vanilla ganache.  My vegan creme brulee was more like a blanc mange (vanilla pudding) but at least I kept with the french theme?!  With all of the vanilla and maple layers it's hard to distinguish one layer from the next other than the almond cake and chocolate praline, but they each have their own flavour that blend harmoniously with the other layers.  It takes a bit of time to put this together but it really is a nice dessert to serve if you have guests over.  

You can find the original (non-vegan) recipe posted at Florilege Gourmand.

Two uses for Vitasoy Holly Nog, and a munchin in a Christmas Tree....

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays.  I haven't had too much time to catch up on everyone else's blogs to see all of the goodies that are being serving up, but I hope to check them out over the next few days.

 

In the meanwhile, how about some Rum and Holly Nog? with a little sprinkle of cinnamon.  This will warm you inside and out!

For Christmas morning breakfast I whipped up some corn bread from La Dolce Vegan and subbed in Holly Nog because, whoops, I forgot to buy my usual almond milk when I went shopping the other day.  Even my friend's dad who is very skeptical of any soy/tofu/alternative food liked it!

Well, it's time for some late snacks and a movie with the girls (and some more rum & Holly Nog!) so I'll catch up with you later!  Merry Christmas :) I'll leave you with one last photo, of our little munchkin.

Holiday Yummies

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you prefer.  I wish all of you a joyous holiday season and may you be blessed all year with good friends, family and yummy FOOD!

I've had to miss a couple of days of work due to some bad weather.  In fact, my flight to be with my family for Christmas was cancelled, so I'm spending the holiday with friends and hoping that my rescheduled flight on Boxing Day doesn't get cancelled. 

On the bright side, being snowed in and stuck at home leaves lots of time to bake some old favorites for our guests. 

I made a batch of Almost Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies subbing in almond butter...

And I made some of Dreena's Chocolate Mint Melties.  These are soooo good.  If you've never made them, you must find any excuse to do so.

And I also made a carrot cake.  I had an abundance of carrots from my weekly produce bin (Green Earth Organics) so carrot cake was the perfect way to use some of them.  I used a recipe from Martha Stewart's website and made a few substitutions.  You can refer to the original recipe here, but I'll list it with my substitutions below:

  

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tbsp ground flax + 6 tbsp water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 cup finely shredded packed (about 2 medium) carrots 

Quick Glaze, or confectioners' sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil an 8 inch round baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk flax/water, sugars, almond milk, and oil until smooth. Gently mix wet mixture into dry ingredients until moistened; mix in carrots. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes (if browning too quickly, tent cake with aluminum foil). Cool in pan, 15 minutes. Turn out of pan, remove paper, and cool completely on a rack, right side up. Apply glaze, or dust with confectioners’ sugar. 

 Right now I've got a batch of Lavash baking, and I'll be making some lemon-dill hummus to go with it.

Monday Lunch

I went shopping today and spent about 6 hours on my feet walking and trying on clothes, so I feel like I kind of worked off that caramel cake.  But I really want to get back to healthy eating for now! Here's my breakfast/lunch for tomorrow, clockwise from the left:  Nature's Path Agave Plus granola, followed by unsweetened Almond Breeze, a salad of chickpeas, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, cilantro and some smoked garlic chipotle salt instead of dressing, an organic apple of some variety, a persimmon, and in the very middle there is a packet of acai berry tea.

(Vegan) Caramel Cake With Caramelized "Butter" Frosting

No, that's not a giant donut.  It's this month's Daring Baker's challenge from author Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater and her signature caramel cake.  The challenge was hosted by Dolores, along with Alex,  Jenny, and alternative baker Natalie.  If you have the need to satisfy a sweet craving, this recipe may well cure you of that forever.  It is S-W-E-E-T!  Too sweet for me, actually.  I mean, I'm always trying to cut sugar out of my recipes, and here I am eating it by the pound for this challenge.  I stopped counting the sugar after the first 4 cups of it!  Here's to hoping it doesn't go straight to my hips or butt ;)

I had to make a few substitutions like Earth Balance instead of margerine, ground flax instead of eggs, and almond milk instead of dairy milk.  I've never made caramel syrup before, it wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.  But I have to admit, I was wearing heavy oven mitts after reading the disclaimer about having a bowl of ice water ready to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin. 

Once it was all said and done, I gathered up some girlfriends and we dug in.  Everyone thought it was fantastic, though we all felt naughty eating it because it has about, oh, a zillion calories.  I'm gonna work those calories off tomorrow at the mall doing some speed shopping...or trying to, anyways. 

Spreading veggie love on Helium.com

During the summer I wrote an article on Helium.com on a whim, it was not a topic that had been covered by anyone thus far, and they have thousands of articles.  The article is called "Vegetarian 101 for parents" and it was meant to be some suggestions on what a parent can do if thier child announces they want to be a vegetarian.  I was so suprised when I learned that my article is now featured on the Helium home page!  It seems as though they are focussing on a vegetarian theme as there are several other veggie related articles featured.

Yay!  One more step in the veg movement.  Already today five more writers have written articles using my Veg 101 subject.

*Update:  It appears that they change the featured articles after just one day so I'm not on the home page anymore.   You can still read my article here.

Meals for busy people

Eek!  It's been two weeks since I last posted.  I  got  an exciting new job at an advertising agency, so between that and my other job, and  taking care of the baby, I'm sorry to say  I've been putting together some pretty boring meals that don't really seem blog-worthy.    But maybe a healthy quick meal is just what someone else might be looking for.  I'll probably be posting a lot of these easy to prepare meals for the next little while until I get used to my new routine.

So here you go, a dinner that is quickly tossed together at the end of a long day:  a big heaping bowl of steamed veggies with pan fried tofu and brown rice in a spicy peanut sauce! Yes, brown rice takes a while to cook, but while it's cooking is the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with the baby.

And while I'm at it, how about taking a peek at tomorrow's lunch?  Well, it's actually breakfast and lunch.  Clockwise from the left I've got 2 slices of sprouted grain bread with hazelnut butter, an organic gala apple, Enjoy Life sunbutter crunch bar, brown rice avocado rolls sprinkled with sesame seeds, a small container of Braggs soy sauce, and some plump organic raspberries.  Sushi really isn't difficult to make at all., and  I needed to do something with the extra brown rice I had left from my dinner tonight.  Much to my suprise (and delight) the brown rice didn't fall apart like I thought it would.  I ate one of the ends of the roll because 1.) it wasn't pretty and 2.) I wanted to know if it tasted good.  Yep, it tastes yummy.  I can't wait to have lunch tomorrow!