Mixed Berry Fruit Smoothies

Whenever we have a light dinner, we usually chase it down with a a couple of smoothies. Lame, I know, but we're both not too in to alcohol, and sorta watch what we eat. I normally don't eat a lot throughout the day, so it wouldn't hurt to have some extra fruit. I love smoothies, but the mass market ones can also be chock full of sugar and stuff I don't want to ingest. Our smoothies are frozen fruit and juice, nothing else!

These smoothies are great for a morning pick me up. This is a great base for any add-ins such flax or any other boost you may want.

I get aggravated sometimes when we use our mugs and tall glasses for smoothies. They're not really equipped to keep something cold for a long time. When I saw that the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program was offering Tervis tumblers up for grabs, I jumped at the chance! I've heard such great things about them, but I've never actually used one before. I wish I had got one sooner because this thing is awesome! I filled the Tervis with the smoothie and it kept it cold til the last drop. Because of its double insulation, it didn't sweat on the outside and my hands stayed dried. When I get a chance, I'll probably get a few to use at home.

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Mixed Berry Fruit Smoothies

ingredients:
1 cup frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries)
1 cup frozen mangoes
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice

directions:
Add all ingredients into a blender. Blend until combined. If the mixture is too think to pour, add a little bit more juice to thin it out.

Makes 2-3 servings

disclaimer:
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a complimentary Foodbuzz Tervis tumbler. All the reviews and opinions are my own.

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Vegan Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

Did you know today is World Vegan Day? I didn't but it's just a happy coincidence that I'm posting this today! Today marks the start of a month long vegan celebration. I guess I celebrated early, since this past month has been primarily vegan recipes!

As I mentioned, I made 2 different cupcakes for our birthday get together. The other one I made was this chocolate mocha cupcake also from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I was set to make a chocolate cupcake, but the notes in the book also had instructions on turning the chocolate cupcake into a mocha one.

I think these turned out pretty good, as a chocolate cupcake. I didn't taste too much coffee in the cupcake, and only slightly in the frosting, even though there was coffee in both the cupcake batter and the frosting. I missed the part where it said to dust with cinnamon or nutmeg, so I think that would have made a difference as well. I also made the mistake of putting too much vanilla in the frosting while halving rest of the ingredients. It didn't taste off, but the extra liquid made the frosting a bit too thin while piping.

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Vegan Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes
adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

ingredients:
cake
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP cold strong brewed coffee

frosting (half the original recipe)
1/4 cup non hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup vegan butter (rec: Earth Balance)
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP cold strong brewed coffee
cinnamon or nutmeg for dusting

directions:
make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix to combine.

Beat together the milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla extract and coffee in a large bowl. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until no large lumps remain. (batter will be thin)

Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

prepare the frosting:
In a stand mixer, beat together the shortening and butter until light. Add sugar a little at a time and beat for 3 minutes until no lumps remain, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Add vanilla and coffee and beat for another 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy.

Scoop frosting into a piping bag or heavy duty zip top bag and pipe from the outside in. Dust tops lightly with ground cinnamon or nutmeg.

Makes 12 cupcakes

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Vegan Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

These past few weeks, a few friends and I hit a huge milestone. We all turned the big 3-0! While most people see it as a big deal, I didn't see it that way. I really am one of those that feel like 30 is the new 20, and my life and adventures have only just begun. If anybody looked at Gary and I, we definitely don't look like we're already in our 30s! These are the same folks I celebrated 2 years ago at the sausage fest party.

A bunch of my friends are ones that I've known since elementary school, as early as kindergarten. I think it's great that we've still kept in touch all these years. Even though we've all hit 30, we decided to go do something fun and kiddy - Laser Tag! I've never gone before, so better late than never!

We went out for an early dinner at a Shanghai Restaurant and I brought cupcakes. I made two flavors, this vegan vanilla one being one of them. I actually bookmarked this recipe a while ago, and I decided to make it for this occasion since I had almost everything on hand. I didn't have many eggs left, and I had some soy milk to use up. I didn't have to go the vegan route, but I did. To be honest, I think vegan cupcakes are pretty easy to make, and seem less messy.

If you think there's no way these cupcakes can stand up to regular ones, well they can! Nobody knew they were vegan until I told them!

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Vegan Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Fluffy Vanilla Frosting
adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, as seen on their blog

ingredients:
cupcakes
1 cup unsweetened soy milk (or almond milk and omit the almond extract)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 TBSP cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped

frosting (half the original recipe)
1/4 cup non hydrogenated shortening
1/4 cup vegan butter (rec: Earth Balance)
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBSP soy milk

directions:
make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk the milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to curdle.

Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix to combine.

Beat together the milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla bean in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain. (batter will be thin)

Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

prepare the frosting:
In a stand mixer, beat together the shortening and butter until light. Add sugar a little at a time and beat for 3 minutes until no lumps remain, scraping down the sides as necessary.

Add vanilla and milk and beat for another 5-7 minutes until light and fluffy.

Scoop frosting into a piping bag or heavy duty zip top bag and pipe from the outside in.

Makes 12 cupcakes

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White Chocolate Pumpkin Kiss Ice Cream

Just because it's a little chilly out, doesn't mean the ice cream goes away. It's a great time for the fall flavors to come out. Since I'm not a huge ice cream person, I mostly make dairy free ice creams for Gary. The ice cream maker investment has paid for itself through the cheaper quarts of ice cream I can make him.

I on the other hand have only made ice cream a handful of times for myself. Although I love pure vanilla and pistachio ice creams, The crazy flavors are the ones that get me all riled up. If only this Dexter ice cream were real, I'd be all over it! :D

With that said, I had some heavy cream and some Hershey's pumpkin spice kisses on hand. The pumpkin spice kisses are a funny thing. Once you try one, you either love them or you hate them. I for one love them, and I wanted to use both up, but I wasn't sure how. Heavy cream would be perfect for ice cream, so I wanted to integrate the candy somehow.

I decided to ask a few of my cooking buddies to get an idea of what ice cream would pair well with pumpkin spice kisses. White chocolate won by a landslide! I'm glad the consensus was white chocolate. It was a recipe I wanted to try already and it didn't have any added sugar to make it overly sweet. Since the kisses have a white chocolate taste and consistency to them, it worked well together.

Although I only chopped up some candy to mix in, I might end up melting some next time to see if making a swirl would work. If you don't like the pumpkin spice kisses, leave them out! The white chocolate ice cream alone is well worth it as well.

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White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Kisses Ice Cream
ice cream base adapted from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book

ingredients:
1 cup whole milk (I only had 1¼ cup heavy cream, so I upped this by ¼ cup)
2 large eggs
12 oz white chocolate, chopped (or white chocolate chips)
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup roughly chopped pumpkin spice kisses (about 20)

directions:
In a medium saucepan on low heat, bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from heat and slowly pour and beat it into the eggs in a medium bowl.

Pour entire mixture back into the saucepan and whisk over low heat with a wooden spoon, until you feel that it's thickened slightly (do not bring to a boil or the eggs will scramble).

Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Mix well until the chocolate melts entirely.

Strain the mixture into a large measuring cup using a fine sieve colander. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.

Cover and refrigerate until cool, or overnight.

Pour custard mixture into ice cream maker and freeze per the manufacturer's directions. Transfer ice cream to a bowl and fold in the chopped kisses. Freeze for a few hours until ice cream has firmed up.

Makes about 1 ½ quart.

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Vegan Multigrain Waffles

Lately when Gary isn't asking for pancakes, he's heating up a few frozen waffles for breakfast. His latest addiction is quinoa waffles. He loves the nutrients and protein it gives him, and it gives him more energy for whatever he needs to do. I haven't found a quinoa waffle recipe yet, but if you have one let me know.

I did decide to make this multigrain version to try out as an experiment. You see, I "borrowed" my sister's waffle maker a while back, and I don't plan on returning it anytime soon :). These came out great, and I liked the wholesome nutty taste the oatmeal added. Overall, this recipe is a keeper as a basic waffle that will fill you up all morning.

This was an easy recipe to whip up in the morning. My 15 yr old waffle maker heated each batch up in about 7 minutes.

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Vegan Multigrain Waffles
source: Vegan Visitor

ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup ground flax seed meal
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 TBSP white sugar
2 cups soy milk
2 TBSP vegetable oil

directions:
Preheat waffle maker according to your manufacturer's directions.

In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients (flour through sugar). In a mixing cup, add the oil to the soy milk. Whisk the milk into the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined, and most lumps are gone.

Spray or brush the waffle maker with oil. Pour enough batter into waffle maker and cook per the waffle maker's instructions. Mine took about 7 minutes each batch of 2 waffles. Repeat until batter is used up, spraying/brushing more oil as necessary.

tips:
*make sure you don't cover after removing from the waffle maker, otherwise it will get soggy
*toast the waffles to make them extra crispy
*store leftovers in a freezer bag and reheat in toaster for a quick morning breakfast!

makes about 8 waffles (more or less depending on your waffle maker)

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