Making | Kat eats local in Toronto

Raw vegan cookie dough ice cream

By: Kat

28-04-2013

Not long ago, I was having one of those days where when a recipe for raw vegan cookie dough shows up in your Google Reader (ahem, yes, still haven’t switched), you get up and go to the kitchen and make it. I used macadamias and pecans instead of cashews and walnuts and added a bit of honey because my banana was slightly underripe, and the result was delicious. It also made a ton, so I decided to freeze some. And then I had a brain wave – cookie dough ice cream.

It’s easy – make the cookie dough, then freeze some into little chunks, about the size you would want them in your ice cream. Then when you make banana soft serve or your favourite other ice cream, toss the chunks in right at the end, so they get chopped in a little – or just stir them in.

Next up? I’ll have to figure out a new version of dulce de leche ice cream.

Creamy vegan cranberry almond smoothie

By: Kat

21-02-2013

Making

Guys, I just made the best smoothie. It’s a variation on the date-almond smoothie, which is my go-to pre-workout snack-slash-meal. Dates always give me extra energy for exercising, and the almond gives the smoothie staying power.

This time, I tossed in half an avocado, and I’m glad I did – it upped the creaminess factor while adding in some healthy fat and fibre. Here’s the recipe, though forgive me – the amounts are just rough guidelines.

• 1 banana
• 1 cup frozen cranberries
• 1/2 avocado
• 3 dates
• 1-2 tbsp each almond butter, hempseeds, coconut oil, protein powder (I like Vega)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 cup water, or as needed

Blend and enjoy!

Emergency vegan chocolate recipes

By: Kat

05-02-2013

Making

Hello, neglected blog!

In need of a chocolate fix (and it’s “feels like minus 10 outside”, as in I don’t want to leave the house anymore today), I was searching for some emergency chocolate recipes, and figured I’m not the only one. But some of the recipes I found that were labelled emergency included chocolate (not cocoa) as an ingredient, which confuses me: if it’s a chocolate emergency, wouldn’t you just eat the chocolate instead of baking with it, if you had any?

My usual is banana with quick chocolate sauce. The sauce, easily adaptable, is a blend of coconut oil, cocoa powder and maple syrup in near-equal amounts, with a touch of vanilla and salt if you like. Whisk together and pour over the banana, either freshly sliced or – if you’re feeling fancy – sliced lengthwise and fried in some coconut oil until gooey and delicious. (Use butter if you want.)

But here are a few other options, some of which I’ve made and some I’ve just pinned:

• Chocolate Frosting Shots
This genius recipe is super simple and only requires that you have thick coconut milk hanging around. In my more ambitious states, I keep a can or two in the back of the fridge to use for emergency faux whipped cream, too, and those will do just fine. It doesn’t matter in terms of flavour if your coconut milk is a little runny, it’s more a texture thing, and chilled is nice. I jazzed mine up tonight with a touch of espresso powder.

• Frozen Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Bites
Uses chocolate chips, which isn’t something I keep in my house due to eating them, but the peanut butter part is genius, and I bet you could adapt my sauce recipe above for this. If you try it, let me know.

• Raw Cacao Pudding
Uses irish moss gel, which means it only counts as an emergency recipe if you happen to have any in your fridge. But I’m dying to try this.

• Chocolate Chia Pudding
Delicious. She says to let it sit for one to ten hours but honestly, I’m sure I’ve eaten it after 15 minutes or so.

I’ve never had tons of luck with the cake-in-a-mug recipes I’ve found, and I’m still hunting for a recipe for a single chocolate cookie. Do you have any others to add?

This weekend I made bread

By: Kat

18-01-2012

Making

Black bread with carrots in it, from this recipe from 101 Cookbooks. Delicious. It makes a huge loaf, you could easily split it into two. Good with chili.

Photo essay: Local-inspired quesadilla

By: Kat

20-12-2011

Making

101 Cookbooks is one of my favourite blogs, and this super-easy egg quesadilla recipe (like many of her posts) is one of those things you wish you’d made up yourself. Instead, I made it local with some awesome ingredients.

First, ox-eye daisy capers I picked up in Quebec:

An egg from Hope Eco-Farm, picked up at Karma Co-op, with a corn tortilla and sprinkled with Monforte hard sheep cheese.

Folded up deliciousness.

Served with a dollop of yogurt.

An afternoon macaron lesson

By: Kat

30-10-2011

Making

Today my dear former coworker Sonya of Frost Cake Co. was kind enough to come over and teach me the art of macaron-making. I can’t say I’ll be able to reproduce today’s efforts (for one thing, I don’t have enough Silpats or baking trays) but it was fun to get the experience and now I have a starting point to play around on my own.

Ready to go in the oven:

Peeking through the oven door:

Freshly baked:

Matcha filling:

Matcha macarons:

And blackcurrant filling (we also did chocolate and salted caramel):

Thanks, Sonya!

Creamy vegan orange-mango smoothie

By: Kat

20-10-2011

Making

The only thing even close to local in this one is the hemp seeds – and the rainy fall weather that inspired it.

1 banana
1 cup frozen mango
3 oranges, peeled and cut at least in half
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/4 avocado
1/2 cup water
protein powder and other add-ins to taste (this time of year, drops of vitamin D go in all my smoothies)

Acorn squash smoothie

By: Kat

27-09-2011

Making

Another post with no picture. The other day I roasted a couple of acorn squash (cut in half, seeds removed, face down – no added oil or sugar) and had them left over in the fridge as we didn’t end up eating them. I threw two halves in the blender (skin on) with a frozen banana, half a cup or so of yogurt, some water, some coconut milk (can you tell I’m cleaning out the fridge?), maple syrup and blackstrap molasses for sweetness and a spoonful of protein powder. The result? A sweet, thick smoothie that’s reminiscent of pumpkin pie.

Roasted peach and matcha smoothie

By: Kat

26-09-2011

Making

Every August and September, I buy basket after basket of Ontario peaches. And every September, I know that one of those baskets will be the last good basket – but you never know which until you get the basket after the last good basket. If you know what I mean.

Last week I bought that basket – the one where the peaches had been in cold storage too long and just didn’t ripen up nicely. A little mealy, a little mushy, they no longer taste like summer. The easy solution? I roast them. Just slice in half, remove the pit and put in a 375F oven for about 25 minutes. The flavour comes back, and as an added bonus, anyone with oral allergy syndrome (an itchy mouth from eating fresh peaches, as well as other fruits or nuts) can eat them after they’re cooked.

This morning I made a really tasty smoothie with these roasted peaches. My approximate recipe is below, though of course you can adapt. (They would be really good with grated fresh ginger and blueberries, for instance.) I didn’t take a picture because the truth is, it’s not the prettiest smoothie – it’s a little brown. But it tastes like summer.

Roasted peach and matcha smoothie
8 roasted peach halves, with skin
1 – 2 bananas, preferably frozen
2 teaspoons matcha powder
2 tablespoons hemp seeds (optional)
1 cup yogurt (use canned coconut milk + water to make vegan)
water as needed
maple syrup and protein powder to taste
vitamin D drops if needed/desired

Blend until smooth. If you have a cheaper blender, you may want to consider removing the skins from the peaches.

Photo from Flickr by FrancescaV.com

Vegan, soy-free oatmeal (raisin) cookies

By: Kat

30-07-2011

Making

This is an adaptation of a recipe my Dad has always made, which itself is an adaptation from Betty Crocker. It’s a very flexible recipe. If you hate raisins, substitute dried cherries or chopped dried apricots. Add chocolate chips if you like. Or coconut. Use your favourite blend of nuts and seeds. Increase or decrease the spices.

It’s a big recipe (double the original) but the cookies do freeze well. I think the vegan ones are a little crumblier than non-vegan so be careful when carrying/shipping them.

I cut the sugar quite a bit from the original already. You could probably cut slightly more depending on your sweet tooth. The raisins do add a lot of sweetness.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups coconut oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 T ground flaxseeds + 6 T water
1/2 cup water
2 t vanilla
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1 t nutmeg
1 t allspice
1 T dried ginger
2 cups raisins
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup wheat germ
6 cups rolled oats

Heat oven to 350F.

Mix flaxseeds and 6 T water in a small bowl; set aside 10 minutes.

Mix thoroughly coconut oil, sugars, 1/2 cup water and vanilla. Add flaxseed mixture when ready.

In separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients except rolled oats. Add to web mixture and mix thoroughly. Mix in oats. (It can be easier to add the oats in two or three parts – the last addition will be hardest to mix in.)

Using your hands, create packed cookie shapes (dropped spoonfuls might work instead, or might not hold together) and bake 12 to 15 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched with finger.

Or – add raw dough to banana soft serve for cookie dough ice cream. (I didn’t do this but should have.)

— Kat eats local in Toronto

Raw vegan cookie dough ice cream

Creamy vegan cranberry almond smoothie

Emergency vegan chocolate recipes

This weekend I made bread

Photo essay: Local-inspired quesadilla

An afternoon macaron lesson

Creamy vegan orange-mango smoothie

Acorn squash smoothie

Roasted peach and matcha smoothie

Vegan, soy-free oatmeal (raisin) cookies

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