When you dip, I dip, we dip!

Firstly, who gets the song reference? Hooray for 80's kids! 

Moving along.....PIZZA!!! Now that Pizza Nova has vegan mozarella, at a reasonable price no less, I can once again embrace my inner (ok; maybe outer  too...) fat kid and eat my feelings via take-out! 

The one thing they don't have is a vegan dipping sauce. My fave FAVE dip was the Cheddar Jalapeño dip that most pizza places carry. So creamy, and cheezy and with a nice bite.

When you order pizza that you're too lazy to get dressed to drive and go pick up, it leaves a 40 minute void. Mostly, this time is filled with peeking through the curtains brimming with hope that THAT car has your pizza, contemplating getting dressed to exchange money for carbs (but ultimately deciding against it) and/or swearing and wishing that they would just HURRY UP WITH MY PIZZA damnit!!

Maybe I'm maturing, because I spent my 40 minute void concocting dipping sauce! Truth be told, I ordered pizza on several different occasions which gave me the opportunity for trial and error. There wasn't a lot of error, per se, but I did find a great recipe that tastes amazing and is easy peasy.

Without further adieu, VEGAN CHEEZY JALAPEÑO DIPPING SAUCE!!! 😁

1 cup vegan mayo (I used Nayonaise)

1/4 cup nooch (or more if you want it really cheezy. Always add more nooch!)

2 tbsp hot sauce (for both added heat and colour)

1/2 a jalapeño, finely diced

Add all ingredients into a blender and purée until it's a nice saucy consistency. If it's too thick for your liking, add a bit of liquid. Water or unsweetened, unflavored milk will do. 

Enjoy!

Baked smashed potatoes!

I'm tired and cranky. The kind of tired and cranky that only starch can fix. Bring on the potatoes! 

I bought a few bags of those little mini potatoes. They might have a real name, but I already said I'm tired. After boiling them, I arranged them on a parchment lined paper and used a wooden spoon to smash them. 

You can really garnish them with anything you want, but I used:

- Earth Balance

- Sea salt 

- Fresh minced garlic 

- Scallions, chopped finely 

Pre-heat the oven to 375 and bake for 35-45 minutes. Then, eat all of your feelings and hopefully be a little less cranky! 

Pierogi!

Starch fried in (vegan) butter may as well just be called HEAVEN! 😍

Oddly, not everyone agrees with that. As you may have gathered from previous posts, my other (better) half doesn't like a lot of my favourite things. Like bread, sandwiches, pierogi. Basically, if it's starchy and or fried, she wants none of it. She likes her food to be nutritionally complete, where I like mine to replace feelings and cause bloat. I know, I'm not sure how we make it work, either. 

So I wanted to try something that kind of met half way. Let me have my fried starch while being (somewhat) nutritionally complete. So I thought, why not use processed chick peas in lieu of potato, add a ton of nooch and some other good stuff? Win win? I think so!

To make the pierogi shell, I googled and came up with this:

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup sunflower oil 

1 cup warm water

Blend flour and salt in a food processor, then add oil and water and mix until combined. Hand roll into a ball and set aside while you make your filling.

For the filling I used:

- 1 large 28oz can of chick peas, rinsed and puréed in the food processor

- 2 medium white onions, finely chopped

- 1 tbsp fresh minced garlic

- 1/2 tbsp ground sriracha (aka THE GREATEST SPICE EVER!) 

- 1/2 tsp turmeric

- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

In a large frying pan, sauté the onions and garlic. Then season with sriracha (or other spice with a nice heat) turmeric and nutritional yeast. Lastly add in the chick pea mix and combine well. 

On a floured surface roll out the dough to desired thickness. Use a cup to make the shapes for your pierogi. Spoon one tbsp of filling onto the centre of the shell. Pinch near the middle to seal and then continue along both sides until you have a crescent shape. (See photo for detail)

Once they're all formed, crimp edges with a fork and get ready to boil. Do not overcrowd the pan; only boil 3-5 at a time and then set aside. When they are all done, preheat a large frying pan and sauté in vegan butter until lightly browned on both sides. 

Top with your fave vegan sour cream (or not) and enjoy! 

Nacho Cheez!

I'm back! Two weddings, three events and the general chaos of life has subsided (kind of) and I'm back to the blogosphere! Yay!

Nacho night is one of my fave nights. I bought Yves new soy free veggie ground round with pea protein and figured the best way to try it out would be spiced into oblivion with veggies from our garden. And then I had a hankering for nacho cheez sauce. You know the kind that you see at the 7-11, except minus the plastic-y look. Without further adieu...

Nacho Cheez Sauce

1 cup hot water

1 cup raw cashews

3/4 cup nooch (nutritional yeast)

1.5 tsp salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp pimento, drained

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp smoked paprika 

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp tapioca starch

1 whole jalapeño, diced 

Blend well in a high powered blender with nut blade attachment and voila! Creamy, tangy, spicy cheez sauce!

 

Toffee Apple Pie!

Every fall I bake a billion apple pies. Every year I say I'm going to learn to make my own crust and NOT use those oh-so-convenient pre-made, ready to roll crusts. This year, I actually made my own!

I'll include the recipe, but truth be told it is finicky and may need alterations to make sure it's the right consistency. 

For the crust:

2 cups of unbleached, all purpose flour 

1 cup of vegetable shortening 

1/2 tsp salt

1-3 tbsp cold water

Combine salt and flour. Using a pastry cutter, add in 1 cup of shortening. Once combined well, knead with your hands and start sticking it together into a giant ball. Add cold water 1/2 tbsp at a time until your dough is moist enough not to crack, but not too sticky that it is too doughy. (I told you, finicky!!) 

Once it's in good form, split into two and roll out onto a well floured surface. Place the bottom into your pie plate and roll out the next half for the top. You'll need to cut it into strips to make a lattice top. Mine is ugly, yours can be too. You need the lattice top for the toffee. 

Peel, core and slice the apples and fill the pie plate. Make it nice and tall because it'll cook down a lot. You don't need to add anything to them. Add your lattice top and set aside while you make the toffee. 

Preheat oven to 425. 

For the toffee:

1/2 cup of earth balance

3 tbsp flour

1/4 cup of water

1/2 cup unbleached cane sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

In a saucepan, melt earth balance. Add flour and whisk until smoothe. Add in water and sugars and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. 

Using a large spoon (I suggest silicone) spoon the toffee over the lattice of the pie. You'll want to take your time because you want the mixture to seep into the middle. Make sure all of the lattice is covered and as much of the crust as you want. 

Mine always looks messy because I like the mix of the sticky crunchy toffee with the soft crumbly crust. 

Place in the middle of the centre rack and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce head to 350 and bake for another 35-45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

What you should now have is a crunchy, chewy toffee apple pie! Let cool before serving. Enjoy!

Maple Smoked Tempeh Facon!

I know very little about bacon other than the obvious. It comes from pigs (😔), the smell is so strong it's nauseating and overwhelming and it is really, REALLY popular. I have never eaten it and I don't really get it. 

I bought some tempeh at the grocery store and decided to make one slice (literally) of tempeh facon (fake bacon). My wife is always my guinea pig for these types of experiments and she immediately asked for more. I played around with different marinades, different thicknesses of tempeh slices and different baking temps and times. What I came up with is this little slice of facon heaven...

Warning: There are literally NO measurements, sorry. (Kind of) The measurements will depend on how much facon you're making. It needs to marinate in a single layer and you want the marinade to cover the top. I suppose you could use something more small and shallow but I havent tried that so I cannot confirm or deny... Moving along! 

Marinade:

A generous pour of olive oil

A half as generous pour of cider vinegar

An equal pour of maple syrup 

A medium sized splash of liquid smoke (I used hickory)

A medium sized splash of tamari 

A good amount of smoked paprika 

A good amount of cumin 

A healthy dash of black pepper 

A healthy dash of salt 

Mix all ingredients in a large shallow dish and then add in your sliced tempeh. You can cut it to whatever thickness you prefer.) Cover tightly and refrigerate for 24 hours. 

When you're ready to bake your facon you'll need to preheat the oven to 300 degrees. On a parchment lined sheet lay each slice of tempeh side by each and bake for 7-10 minutes or until they're toasted nicely. Keep a close eye though because the maple can make the edges burn quickly! 

Once done, remove from the oven and let cool. Once cooled, crumble on salads, add to sandwiches or just eat on it's own! Enjoy!

Chocolate? Peanut Butter? Pretzels?

No one is going to believe me anymore that I don't like sweets. Especially if they just saw me make sweet eating love to this cupcake. 

This all started when I saw waffle shaped pretzels on sale at the grocery store. The only thing I love more than salt is a good bargain. Salt on sale? SOLD!

I've been doing lots of chocolate lately so I guess you could say it's been on my mind. Then it happened. Chocolate dipped pretzels. Before I knew it I was melting away over a double boiler and dipping away. To be clear, I'm not sorry. I'd do it again. LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIES! 

So in the fridge they went and back to life I went. The idea of un-hinging my jaw and dropping the whole tray in crossed my mind, but I thought that they were too pretty to devour in such haste. 

So naturally, I thought of cupcakes. Vanilla? Caramel? Chocolate? YES! Chocolate! But what about icing? I thought about the same old; chocolate, vanilla, caramel.  And then I remembered my old friend Reese's. Peanut butter! 

Once I have my mind set, I just DO. So when I came home from work today I whipped up a quick batch of chocolate cupcakes so that they could cool while I was a hollering soccer mom and be ready to ice and decorate. 

While it did take some prep work and planning these are SO worth it. Without further adieu, the recipe to the best of my recollection! 

For the pretzels: 

1-1 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips

1/2-1 tsp coconut oil 

Melt over double boiler (or microwave in 30 second increments in a microwave safe bowl), dip and lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Move to fridge to set and voila.

Chocolate cupcakes:

1 & 1/4 cup unbleached flour 

1 cup organic sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cacao powder

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water 

1 tsp vanilla 

1/3 cup vegetable oil 

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Mix your dry ingredients, add your wet and combine. You can do this in two bowls if you insist, but one is just fine so long as you whisk the dry ingredients first and create a divot in the middle. 

Bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes or until a test stick comes out clean. Then set aside to cool and start your icing!

Whipped peanut butter icing:

Ok, sorry to my measuring friends but this is LITERALLY a 2:1 recipe. I used approximately...

1/2 cup earth balance

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1 cup powdered sugar 

Splash of almond milk

It is ridiculously hot today. 40+ Celsius with the humidex. It's gross, but it did make icing prep easy! Combine the earth balance and peanut butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Add a splash of milk until the icing is thinned out but not watery. Then using your electric mixer go to town. 

When you're ready, pipe the icing onto the cupcake and then angle the chocolate pretzel on top. 

Make sure you have friends to share with or you may eat them all. Enjoy!