Experimenting in the Kitchen

Friday we decided to put two delicous treats together to make one super delicious treat....cookie cake! We made up some cake mix as well as some chocolate chip cookie dough. After spraying the pan we spread the cookie dough along the bottom of the pan. Next we dumped the cake mix over the dough. In less than 20 minutes in the oven we had the finished cookie cake. We had extra so we also made some cupcakes in the same manner, as well as cupcakes with cookie dough balls hiding inside.

I think we were both pleased with the result. I shared with some friends and they were speachless....mostly because their mouths were full of some sweet goodness.

its starting to smell fishy

Another childhood food memory of mine is eating fish sticks. And believe it or not, I've been wanting some lately. So after searching through some recipes I found one that seemed easy and tasty enough. I found this recipe at:

http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/2006/01/tofu-fish-sticks.html

We had to use a few substitutes as we went along. The first was for the kelp granules. We searched for this at a couple stores and only found an empty container for kelp powder. So as a substitute we crushed up nori, seemed to work just fine. Our second substitute was that we did not have a blender or food chopper on hand. So what better way to compromise than to throw all the dry ingredients into a bag and blend by hand.

This also made it easy to cover the tofu pieces with the mix. We just dipped them into the soy milk, tossed them into the bag, shook it up, and wham!

The recommended width for each fish stick, or piece of tofu, was just under 1/2 inch. Try to get as close to this as possible. If the pieces end up a bit thicker just keep them in the oven for about 10 minutes longer. We did 15 minutes for each side, a little longer for the thicker ones.

These really tasted like fish sticks!!! So good. I'm a ketchup gal myself and use ketchup with everything, so that's what we dipped them in. Use whatever sauce you'd like with these tasty sticks.

Since we were in the kitchen we decided to fry up some corn dogs as well. We used the small smart dogs for this.

Can't say I'd change anything about these bad boys.

childhood memories

Everyone remembers the junky snacks we used to eat as kids...and maybe some of you still eat! Zingers, ding dongs, snowballs...and of course we all tried twinkies!!!! Funny enough, I was never a huge fan. However, most things are better vegan, so here we go! This was just my first try at twinkies and cream. So I know a few adjustments I want to make. But in the process I did come up with a super yummy vegan custard. (expect to see it in my donuts!)

On to the twinkies! These are actually a perfect sized snack. Springy, light and filled with deliciousness. Making these definitely makes me want to try my hand at some ding dongs and such.

Today my favorite gal pal and I headed out for lunch. We went to a local vegan restaurant, Green. We always always get the fries when we go. I have not met anyone who hasn't thought they were delicious! We also got the spicy wings and the green burger. The food at Green is so filling, we ended up taking some to go.

cupcakes!

This weekend cupcakes were up for order. I've been updating recipes so that I'm using less egg-replacer. As many of you know, it's not cheap! I'm also trying to use little to no oil. I find apple cider vinegar to be an awesome addition to recipes, using it with water, soymilk, and baking soda/powder. The only issue I came across was the cupcakes sticking to the paper cups. Spraying the inside of the paper cup with a little evoo spray will do the trick nicely.

Be on the lookout for twinkies!

Birthday Brownies

The Vegan Oven is always happy to supply yummy goodies for birthdays. This time the request was walnut brownies. With some soymilk or coffee these treats are the perfect snack. I have found that by experimenting with the amount of soymilk, evoo and baking powder/soda used in the recipe you can make these fluffy or more dense like the ones in the picture. Everyone has their preferences :) I always throw in some chocolate chips as well. Biting into a chewy chip every now and then is always welcomed.






















And after baking and cleaning up I think everyone deserves a nap..

Entertainment while baking.

The Exorcist is one of the many movies that keeps the bakers happy.

Canada or bust!

Tomorrow the VO will be shipping a variety of donuts to Canada. Someone has a rad friend that bought them some for their birthday! I think any vegan would be more than happy to receive some vegan treats on their special day.