Recipe Lust

I spent a lovely afternoon today searching through the VeganBaking.Net site. Gah, so many of my favourite things, veganized and ready to try! Puff pasty, pain au chocolat, condensed milk (for a Brazilian dessert that I'm told I have to try), vegan butter, french toast, pancakes, crêpes, chocolate-hazelnut cheesecake…that's only the sweet stuff, too!

So, on that note, I'm going to write out the ingredients for the brigadeiro before I forget. I was simply relayed this verbally, with no real instructions, so I actually have no idea how to truly create the dessert…only what's needed to do so.

1 can condensed milk (how much is this, anyway…?!)
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons cocoa

…That's it. Really.

Cramming

So, a month. All too often I seem to be doing the 'it's been too long' speech…so I'll leave off it this time. I do feel like a general update is in order, though.

I recently switched to veganism, after nearly two years of vegetarianism. I found it was no longer ethically enough to soothe my conscience. Research into it—how chickens are the worst treated animals on the planet, for instance. Or how 'they' get that dairy cow to produce your 2%. Or what the fashion industry does to foxes for the one piece that is desired for a finished product.

It's sickening. Compassion and empathy over profit and greed, any day.

What else? My family is moving, so while I have my semi-permanent home on my university campus, they'll be hauling all of their things hours northwest of here to settle in a tiny town of four hundred people (that jumps up to nine hundred in the summer).

Wow. Crazy, yes?

I've fallen in love with the uni lifestyle—definitely something I'm glad I did. I'm currently on a break, and (shh!! Don't tell my folks!) visiting my hometown. I'll swing by my old place on Sunday, surprise them all.

Speaking of surprises, yesterday I had a delivery made to my Mommy (the librarian I used to work for, and who I've adopted…) that was me, with a bow stuck to my face, carrying a pen. She was surprised, and we spent about four hours or so together, going out for supper, looking at photos, and talking, talking, talking! (Turns out local pizza is way better than chain! So much flavour!)

A friend of mine put me up last night…at his grandmother's. I know, ridiculous, right? We had to get out of town by 0730h to be on time for his 0830h class, and I had set my alarm for 0630h. It didn't got…. His grandmother, lovely woman, came down at about 0705h, asking if I was going in with N today, and if so, I better get up!

Needless to say, I rushed through my toilette, and was ready and waiting by 0730h. (He was a few minutes behind.)

Now I'm sitting in the café in his (used to be mine, too!) college, waiting for the Winners to open so I can spend the gift card that I can't at home, and then go to Fabricland for the same reason. A crazy day ahead of me, that's for sure!

Blueberry French Toast

(I forgot to post this last night…so I'll do it now!)

For breakfast today, I made French toast, trying to get in the continental feeling.

I made the recipe to serve one, so it's nice and easy to make.

1 large egg

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon Stevia (natural sugar alternative; equals about 8x sugar; two teaspoons worth)

pinch of salt

2-3 slices bread (slightly old is better)

butter/oil for frying pan

preserves (I used blueberry (yum), but anything else would work. I want to try with pumpkin!)

Beat first five ingredients in a shallow bowl until mixed fluidly. Soak bread in it, making sure to put both sides down into the mixture.

Heat butter in a frying pan/skillet, and slowly heat each side of the bread until it's golden-brown.

Transfer the toast to a plate, drizzle hot butter over it. Top with generous scoops of preserves.

First bite…mmmm!

Pesto Parm Pasta

Oh, how I love alliteration! Pesto-Parm-Pasta. Mmmm, sound good simply saying it!

Another picture-less recipe, but it's what I've got. This is what my lunch is for the next few days—I bought five re-useable containers to use for lunches/ to-go suppers, so this is one of my first pre-made sets.

Spaghetti Bean-olegnes

Well, I promised this recipe…so here goes. It's approximate, like all mine really are, but this is my best guess as to what went in.
Sadly, no photos…all of this is either eaten by now, or congealing in a fridge, waiting for me to take it as a to-go meal. Yay, leftovers!

Postponed

I promised my cousin I'd post a recipe tonight…instead, I'm postponing it. It'll be up tomorrow!

Cent-est

So I realize this is my hundredth post…and I thought I ought to do something to celebrate it. So, today's post will be a recipe…and a contest. The SixAwesomeCanadians member who can come up with the best name for said recipe will get the power to have me write a post about whatever they choose.

Ready?

Here goes!

Tomato-Eggs

Look good? Wanna make some? Great! Grab some tomato sauce and eggs, plus a few add-ins, and let's get started!

'Nooch' Mac & Cheese

The friend that was supposed to come over today wasn't able to, so I shelved that recipe for another time…and came up with this!

For my first experiment with nutritional yeast (or 'nooch,' as I've read it called!), it's pretty good!

I cheated a bit this time, and added dairy cheese to it, but next time I think I'll try without, and go fully vegan that way. Recipe after the jump!