Vegan with a Vegeanance!

I received the book about two weeks ago from my lovely cousin/best friend; a belated birthday/ Christmas present. I’ve been really into baking lately, mainly making recipes from The Joy of Vegan Cooking, so tonight I broke in VWAV a bit. I’ve made the Best Pumpkin Muffins – my dad ADORES them, I need to make another batch. I added raisins, too, and switched out 1/2 cup oil for 1/3 cup applesauce. This made them extra moist. I also made the Lemon Gem Cupcakes. I made them mini – 36 mini cakes as opposed to a dozen regular sized. These I wasn’t the biggest fan of -they didn’t stay together well.  I subbed out 1/3 cup of the sugar for 1/3 cup calorie-free sweetener so perhaps that’s why. After sitting a few days, they got more lemon-y. I did not frost them.

Anyway! Earlier, I pressed a block of firm tofu. I’ve only prepared tofu myself once and it went terribly, so this was pretty scary. I cut it into slices width wise, then halved them, then sliced the halves into triangles. Then, I marinated it in Isa’s Italian Marinade, baked it for 30 minutes (flipping after 20) and it turned out pretty good – EXTREMELY flavorful, pretty chewy, and pretty crispy. 

My mom made chicken for the rest of the fam and ‘smashed’ red potatoes, seasoned and with Earth Balance & soy milk (gotta love her for veganizing an old recipe!). Right before I was going to steam two pounds of Brussels Sprouts, my mom blew up our microwave! VWAV came to the rescue – in fifteen quick minutes I whipped up the Roased Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Garlic. I love how long & fancy the name is when it is really the simplest recipe. 

Please excuse the terrible cell phone picture! I didn’t have my camera on hand. It was all much more appetizing to look at than this picture leads you to believe.

I ended up eating half the tofu, maybe less, and had seconds on the mashed potatoes. I forgot how filling tofu is – all that damn protein. 

My walk today was lovely – an hour of about 4 mph walking up hills and all around my town. It was the perfect temperature and I enjoyed myself so much! 

Watching the Oscars and getting sleepy – waking up at five am for school tomorrow…Oh, I’ll probably have a Lemon Gem mini cupcake (mine came out to be 60 cal each) or a little teeny ice cream cone with Soy Delicious – chocolate peanut butter flavor! Or…both. ;] 

Aw, I love Anne Hathaway.

Au revoir!<3