Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

If Gary didn’t have to eat dairy-free, I probably wouldn’t be as conscious of other people’s intolerances. When he first started getting stomach problems, he cut out different things from his diet to try to find the culprit.

The first thing he tried cutting out was wheat and gluten. I didn’t even know there was such a thing! He next tried cutting out dairy, and he felt like he was a new person. I knew about lactose intolerance, but I didn’t know there were actual milk allergies. He’s eating wheat again, but has completely cut out milk from his diet.

His new revelation has opened my eyes about other people’s dietary restrictions. I look at labels more carefully and make sure there aren’t any allergen triggers. It has made things a little harder in the kitchen, but it’s becoming second nature to me.

Since I’ve started cooking dairy free, I’ve taken into consideration of the treats I bring to work. I have a coworker who is lactose intolerant, who’s birthday just past. I wanted to make cupcakes for her, because she’s a sweetheart and is usually forgotten about when anybody brings treats in. Many times, I’ve brought in treats and she says, “I can’t have that”, and I quickly respond, “Yes, you can! It’s vegan/dairy free.”

After making this recipe, I ended up eating a spoonful of leftover frosting straight up. It was definitely a bad idea to do that, but it was good! I let Gary eat one before I brought it to work and he approved! This is going to sound stupid, but I was really grossed by the frosting and the way it looked on top of the cupcake. Someone suggested adding sprinkles to it to make it look better. I think it helped somewhat. ;)



Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with “Buttercream” Frosting
adapted from: Go Dairy Free

printable recipe


ingredients:
for the cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 TBSP vegetable oil (scant 1/3 cup)
1 TBSP white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cold water or chocolate milk alternative (I used water)


for the frosting:
1 cup dairy free margarine (or 1/2 margarine & 1/2 shortening, or all shortening)
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt (optional)
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (omit for vanilla frosting)
2 – 4 TBSP plain milk alternative or water


directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients: flour through salt.

Make 3 small wells in the flour mixture. Place oil in the first well, vinegar in the second, and vanilla extract in third. I used the bottom of my measuring cup to make the wells.

Pour water or milk all over and stir well to combine.

Pour about 1/4 cup batter into each cup. Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 12 cupcakes. I doubled this recipe and got 24.


Frosting:
In a large bowl, cream the margarine. Beat in vanilla and salt. Add sugar and cocoa, one cup at a time, beating at low speed until combined. Turn the mixer to medium or high and whip the frosting for about 2 minutes. Mix in milk to thin out to desired consistency.

Allow cupcakes to cool. Place frosting in a thick ziploc bag. Snip of the corner of the bag, pipe frosting from the outside in.

Add decorations as desired.

Review: Go Dairy Free

I recently entered a giveaway contest to win a free dairy free cookbook. I was surprised to hear that I actually won a one! I never win anything!

Alisa from One Frugal Foodie contacted me with the good news. She also asked if I wanted to review her book, Go Dairy Free as well. I used her website religiously as one of my dairy free resources, so I was happy to review the book.

I started reading the book once I got my hands on it. Not only does the book include tons of recipes, but lots of facts and info on living a dairy free lifestyle. She includes other blogs, websites, and books that she has used in the past.

I love the recipes to make dairy free alternatives from scratch. Her book is a good guide for someone who is thinking about going dairy free for health or ethical reasons. My only gripe was that the font was a bit small and condensed to read, but I think if she made the font any bigger, the book would be twice as long as the 288 pages it is already.

Crockpot Vietnamese Chicken

Sometimes, when I don’t make something for a while, Gary requests it. Like a crockpot meal for one. He actually said, and I quote, “We haven’t had a crockpot meal for a while. Why don’t you make something”. Well, if it were only that easy. He remember an orange peanut chicken recipe that I made probably 2 or 3 years ago. It was super simple crockpot dish that I found on Yahoo one day, tried it, and it was delish. It was super simple because it required about 5 minutes time, and only 5 ingredients…but I couldn’t remember that last ingredient. Of course, I couldn’t find that recipe again anywhere, but while typing this post, I decided to search Yahoo again, and of course I found it! I don’t know why I didn’t think of searching Yahoo first…duh!

Well, since I didn’t find it in time to make that recipe, I decided to look for something else that would involve chicken. This recipe for Vietnamese chicken was so easy and flavorful. I’ve been meaning to make it for a while now, but I forgot about it because I never had fish sauce on hand. I also hadn’t defrosted any chicken, so this was the perfect recipe to use up the chicken in my freezer.

The original recipe called for adding foil balls on the bottom of the crock to make it similar to roasting the chicken in an oven. I didn’t add the foil, so I let the chicken cook in the marinade.

Crockpot Vietnamese Chicken
adapted from: A Year of CrockPotting
printable recipe

ingredients:
4-6 chicken thighs (I used 2 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts)
1 1/2 TBSP soy sauce
1 1/2 TBSP fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 cloves chopped garlic
1 TBSP canola oil

directions:
Place chicken on the bottom of the crockpot. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and mix to combine. Pour sauce over the chicken.

Cook on low for 6 hours or 3-4 hours on high. I checked mine at 5 1/2 hours on low, and it was fully cooked already.

Serve over rice.

Edited 12/7/09: I made this again with 2 leg quarters and it was a lot better. The meat was juicy and just fell off the bone.

1 Year Ago Today

Exactly 1 year ago, today, I started this food blog. Happy blogiversary to me!

To be honest, I didn’t know how long I would keep this up when I started blogging. Most hobbies I attempt to start end up sitting half done on a shelf somewhere. However, food blogging has given me a whole new perspective on food and health concerns.

If I didn’t food blog, I may not have researched and found all these different dairy free recipes for Gary. I may not have opened my eyes to what different types of food are out there for us to start trying. I might not have started cooking religiously until I was unhealthy and broke.

Since I’ve started, Gary has also joined me in the kitchen. We have learned to cook and appreciate the meals we have together now. I think we’ve come a long way since our TV dinner days.

I think if someone like me (who’s messed up Jell-O before) can cook and come up with meals on the fly, anybody can. In one short year, I’ve learned so many tips and tricks. I don’t see this blog ending anytime soon.

On a side note, these next few months may be sparse because of my long work hours and minimal time in the kitchen as a result. I do have many recipes to come from my birthday party next Saturday!

Product Review: Better Than Milk Soymilk Powder

I don’t know if you’re like me or not, but I can never finish a carton of milk. Whether it be regular cow’s milk or soymilk, or any other alternative milks. I mostly use milk for baking, so if I don’t bake for a while, the cartons of milk I buy go to waste.

Sure, I can freeze it, but I’d rather not. My freezer is full, and I’d rather not have a carton of milk in there. I work fairly close by to a Whole Foods market, but I don’t go very often. We would buy the quart tetra packs of soy, rice, or almond milks. I found that I would use maybe a cup or so for baking, then I would leave the pack in the fridge then let it go bad.

Then I found this powdered alternative to soy milk.

I always thought…there’s regular nonfat and whole milk powders, why not for soy or rice? I thought it was ingenious. Not only would I only make enough for the recipe, it also means less packaging, and it was cheaper per carton. That’s a win-win for me!

So far, I have used this in various recipes that called for soy milk (or any non-dairy milk), such as avocado ice cream, Mexican chocolate snickerdoodles, blueberry buckle, healthy blueberry muffins, and much more. We don’t use much milk for drinking, but I have used it in cereal as well.

I also mainly bought this to make my own whole wheat sandwich bread. We’ve been reading labels and many store bought breads have nonfat milk powder listed in the ingredients. This is a great product to stock in a dairy free kitchen.