funfetti cupcakes

It's been far too long since I've made a fun, healthy, creative meal. When work gets busy, and the groceries get sparse, it's always the dinners that fall by the wayside. A person can eat only so much pasta.

Last night I had the pleasure to host a birthday dinner for one of my favorite ladies, Kelly. We ordered in Chinese food, drank far too much wine, and devoured some vegan funfetti cupcakes. That's right. Vegan funfetti. Now, when you buy the funfetti cake mix, the instructions tell you to add oil and eggs, but my friend Christy and I vegatized it!

So here it is, super simple. For every egg that the recipe calls for, replace it with a little over 1/4 cup of applesauce. That's it! The cupcakes turned out super moist, cakey, and delicious. Our frosting skills are seriously lacking, but more importantly, the sweets were tasty.

Making a recipe vegetarian or vegan is actually surprisingly easy. Here is one of my favorite articles on vegan baking substitutes from the Post Punk Kitchen. Vegan baking is great, because your meals will be delicious, and you'll feel good about eating them too! Highly recommend you try it out :)

lettuce wraps

Driving home tonight, I had a mad craving for Morningstar Farms' sausage patties. Omg if you've never tried them, stop everything you're doing and go buy a box right now. The taste is phenomenal, the texture is dead on,and they're good in everything- quiche, burritos, scrambles, breakfast sandwiches, and now apparently lettuce wraps. I definitely wanted some veggie sausage tonight, but I was in the mood for something light. Enter, lettuce wraps! Kind of like the ones you find at PF Chang's, but way better :)

Stuff you need: 1. Onion 2. Bell Pepper 3. 2 Veggie sausage patties 4. Lettuce- iceberg or romaine, either will do

First and foremost, gently defrost the sausage patties in the microwave, just enough so you can cut them up into bite-sized pieces. Meanwhile, dice the bell pepper and onion, and throw them into a skillet for a minute or two. When the sausage is ready, add it to the skillet as well, with some garlic salt and any other spice of your choosing.

When the veggies and sausage are warmed through, and spiced to your liking, take a piece of lettuce and spoon some of the mixture into the middle. Continue filling lettuce leaves until you're out of the veggie/sausage mix. Grab. Wrap. Consume.

Voila! That's all there is to it. The entire process took me less than 20 minutes, and the outcome was spectacular. It was exactly what I was craving, but better! Not only does this make a nice light meal, but I'm positive it'll be an awesome appetizer or snack too. Vegetarian lettuce wraps- total success.

spinach pesto

Oh ho, what's that you say? Pesto is made with basil not spinach? Well let me rock your world. I still have an excessive amount of spinach from the soup party a few weekends ago, and tonight I wanted to make sure it got used before it went bad. Enter Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson (omg my vegan idol). I've had this cookbook for a while, but life got busy, and tonight I decided to try my first recipe from it! The dish is traditional pesto, but she suggests replacing the basil and pine nuts with spinach and walnuts. Holy shit, I may never eat regular pesto again.

This was the first time that me or my roommate had ever had alternative pesto, and let me tell you, we're obsessed. It was so creamy and fresh, with the perfect amount of lemon and garlic flavors. It was also way cheaper and healthier than the normal pine nuts and basil. I just wish that I would've made more for lunch tomorrow! Seriously, if every recipe in the cookbook is this good, I may have to try making EVERYTHING!

Oh, and on another creative thought. Have you ever tried putting fruit preserves or jam in your oatmeal? Try it. It may change your life :)

quick & simple spring rolls

Ever since I went to Uoki last week with my friend Jenna, all I want to do is eat Asian food. I had the stone bi-bim-bob, and I'm totally hooked. All I can think about is reproducing that recipe and eating it every night! Instead of acting on my new obsession, purely because I'm too lazy to walk one block to the store, I dug in the pantry and made something that would satisfy my cravings for now.

Stuff you need: 1. Spring Roll Skins 2. Veggies for the inside 3. Your favorite Asian-themed sauce

Start by cutting all your vegetables into matchsticks- aka julienning. I used carrots and spinach since that's what I found in the fridge, but you can use anything you'd like. When all your vegetable filling is cut, fill a pie pan, or any large flat receptacle with warm water.

Take one of your spring roll skins- it'll be hard and brittle- and soak it in the warm water. When it's nice and soft, pull it out of the water bath, place your vegetables in the middle of the wrapper, and roll it up like a burrito. Don't forget to tuck in the ends!

Keep rolling until you're out of vegetables and your plate is full. I put my sauce directly into the rolls, but if you prefer, you can have it on the side for dipping- dealers choice. Soy sauce is great, hoisin is my favorite, but tonight I discovered this peanut sauce hiding behind the mustard.

They look all fancy and stuff at the restaurants, but seriously, these are so simple to make. Cutting included, this took me maybe 10 minutes. It's a great snack or appetizer, and it's ridiculously healthy to boot!

valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! Today I'd just like to share a few things that I'm loving right now:

First and foremost, big kudos to Qdoba today. If you haven't done it yet, find a participating store, grab a friend, and get to kissing for some free food! It's no candlelight Chick-fil-a dinner, but hey, it's still pretty spectacular. I'm pleased to say I took advantage of this delightful offer with my boyfriend tonight. Best V-Day meal ever.

Also, I'm absolutely obsessed with these free downloadable Valentines from Samantha Hahn. I spent far too much time this morning, downloading them, and e-mailing them to my friends! I thought my 3D hologram dinosaur valentines were pretty cool, but I adore these.

I also adore the phenomenal candies from fahrenheit goods. My boyfriend got me orange and olive oil caramels from this store and they are ridiculously delicious! Everything there is handmade with natural ingredients, and I love that it's locally made too- yay Denver! He couldn't have picked out a better gift for me. I just hope that he liked the nutella bacon that I made for him. Who knew a veggie-enthusiast and a carnivore could get along so well :)

Finally, my parents sent me this article a few days ago from the Denver Post. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has recently acknowledged how beneficial a plant-based vegetarian or vegan diet can be for you!

"The new guidelines devote two full pages to vegetarian and vegan diets and the health benefits of following these eating patterns. They point out that these diets provide nutritional advantages and reduce obesity, heart disease and overall mortality."

I love it! Articles like this provide more information and better awareness, which will hopefully some day lead to healthier, happier people all over! A healthy, happy Valentine's Day to you & your loved ones! :)

sweet potato and peanut soup with spinach

Tonight I am pleased to say that I attended a soup party. One of my best friends' older sister always hosts amazing, food-themed parties, and tonight was no exception. The challenge was to bring a soup that was delicious, creative, and if possible, New Kids on the Block themed. Check out her blog. She is great.

My roommate and I selected sweet potato and peanut soup with spinach from Robin Robertson's book 1,000 Vegan Recipes (omg Robin Robertson is totally my vegan idol. If you like vegan food, check out her cookbooks because they're tasty, affordable, and do-able. Love it). We called our concoction "good all knight sweet potato and peanut soup with spinach."

I won't give away all her published secrets, but I'll tell you our modifications. After the onions were all cooked up, and the sweet potatoes were tender, we used our magic bullet to puree most of the soup in small portions to give it a thicker texture that we were looking for. We also added more veggie stock, peanut butter, and spices, to make it go farther at the soup party.

It didn't win best soup overall, but we did get quite a few votes for most creative! Definitely not a classic soup that I would make all the time, but it still tasted great, and was an interesting blend of flavors that I would have never put together before. I hate peanut butter, but I didn't hate this. Surprising? Yes. Delightful? Also yes.

chocolate mustaches

Last Friday was my friend Sam's birthday. I work with Sam and he is an awesome guy with awesome facial hair. Of course, this meant that his birthday treat had to be equally as awesome- which was no simple task.

This was my first attempt at chocolate art, and it's not much of a recipe, but I'm sharing them, because I'm super proud of the outcome, and Sam liked them too! :)

Stuff you need: 1. Cupcakes (homemade or lazy-style & store bought like me) 2. Plastic bag or melting bottle 3. Candy melts (but I think melted chocolate would work too) 4. Wax paper lined cookie sheet

Take your candy melts and put them into your melting bottle. I lost the cap to my bottle, so I had to use a ziplock bag instead- a little sloppy, but it did the job. Run the bottle under hot water until the candy melts have turned to liquid- make sure all the candies are properly melted, otherwise you have to deal with big clumps and it sucks.

Snip the end off your plastic bag (or just take your bottle) and squeeze out some chocolate mustaches onto your wax paper lined cookie sheet. Work fast so you can use all the chocolate before it begins to solidify again!

When all your handlebar mustaches are created, pop the cookie sheet into the freezer for a hot second while you clean up. They only need about 5 minutes before they'll easily pop off the paper.

And here is a picture from Sam's superior camera phone:

Since this was the first time I'd ever tried this, and I used a messy plastic bag, it took me quite a few batches to get the mustaches right. Luckily, after a few attempts, I managed to find 6 good looking 'staches in chocolate and peanut butter. Finally, I sunk the mustaches into the tops of the cupcakes and presented them to the birthday boy.

For my first adventure in chocolatiering, I'm very pleased, and am totally excited to try it again! Most importantly, Sam loved them and had an awesome birthday. Yayy!