Get my recipe for a divine burger alternative here.
The email notification pinged on my Blackberry. It was a message from a reporter, seeking information on local vegans for a piece she is doing on veganism for a lifestyle magazine. Would I be interested in participating? You bet your sweet potato, I was interested!
I dialed the reporter’s number from the passenger seat of the car while Mr. Wright drove around, running errands. She thanked me for calling, and asked me questions such as, “What led you to follow a vegan diet?” and “What advice do you have for those who’d like to try a vegan diet?”
The answers came easily, and for once, I expressed myself eloquently with just the right amount of humor balanced with emotion, intellect and compassion. I was brilliant!
She asked me if my entire family followed a vegan diet, just as Mr. Wright pulled into the high school parking lot to pick up Pepper. No, I explained, the rest of the family is omnivorous. However, the meat in our freezer is either hunted by Mr. Wright, or raised by extended family under humane and hormone-free conditions.
“I really think there’s more integrity in the meat my family eats than in that found at the grocery store meat counter,” I said. “The animals didn’t live a life of suffering, as is so common in commercial farming. They existed in nature, or in a compassionate, well-monitored environment.”
I was on a roll, driving home my point that, although veganism might not be for everyone, we can all make conscientious decisions about our food. Did I mention I was brilliant?
At that very moment, Mr. Wright made a sharp left turn into the drive-thru of an establishment which represents the very antithesis of the point I was making. I won’t name names, here, but suffice it to say all my credibility on the ethics of eating was destroyed when he rolled down the window and started rattling off, “I’ll have a cheeseburger, Quarter Pounder, Big Mac and a McChicken… Pepper, do you want anything else?”
Have you seen the movie Pulp Fiction? Never have I more desired to resurrect the classic line, “…I’m hanging up the phone! Prank caller! Prank caller!” I asked for the entire incident to be stricken from the record, but… I’ll have to wait, with the rest of you, to see what the final article includes.
By the way, do you know why divorce attorneys are so expensive? Because sometimes, they’re worth it.
We're halfway through Vegan MoFo, and still going strong! Have you found something deliciously new this month?
Before I forget, please, please, pretty please go to this link and VOTE for my blog in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Food Allergy Moms blog contest! No registration required -- just a click! Remember, you can vote once EVERY 24 hours. The contest is winding down, and as a late nomination, I could use some help getting into the Top 25. Thank you!
Princess came home for her birthday weekend. I couldn't be more proud of that young lady... She's anxiously waiting to hear back on her applications to vet school, working, finishing her senior year at university with a major in Wildlife Ecology. It's a marvel to me that I had a hand in producing this amazing human being!
Anyway, for her 22nd birthday, I asked her what kind of cake she wanted. "Chocolate!" she said, which wasn't a big surprise. That girl loves her chocolate. Who doesn't?! "And," she added, "could you make that peanut butter cream frosting you did that one time?"
Ah, yes... That one time. See, it was The Dude's birthday, and our family was spending the weekend at Birch Bay. Our hotel room had a kitchen, so I'd packed everything I'd need to make a fabulous cake and frosting -- with the exception of the vegan margarine, which I didn't want to hassle with chilling during the several-hours-long drive. I figured I'd just pick some up at the local grocery when we arrived.
Except... none of the local groceries HAD vegan margarine. How was I going to make a creamy vegan frosting, with no margarine? I scanned our grocery booty, and spotted the creamy peanut butter. Hey, I thought, margarine is basically just fat, and peanut butter is full of fat. I wonder... It didn't have the exact consistency I wanted, but it worked well enough to cover the cake.
This time, I solved the consistency problem by adding a bit of margarine to make it even creamier and "buttery."
I was all prepared to mix up two layers of chocolate cake when inspiration struck. What if... What if I put peanut butter IN the cake?!
The result was a zebra-striped peanut butter and chocolate cake, and it was divine. The technique to produce zebra stripes in the cake is easy-peasy, and you can find many, many tutorials online, if my photos and description leave anything to be desired.
Happy baking!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Zebra Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Frosting
Peanut Butter Cake Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 c. cane juice crystals or natural sugar (I use Zulka)
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. fine sea salt
1 c. cold water
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
1 T. vanilla
2 T. lemon juice
Chocolate Cake Ingredients:
1 2/3 c. unbleached flour
1 c. cane juice crystals or natural sugar (I use Zulka)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. fine sea salt
1 c. cold strong coffee or espresso or water
1/3 c. canola or olive oil
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Cream Frosting
1/2 c. vegan stick margarine
2/3 c. creamy peanut butter
1 lb. vegan powdered sugar
1/8 - 1/4 c. vanilla soy milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl or with your stand mixer, combine the following Peanut Butter Cake ingredients: flour, cane juice crystals, baking soda, and salt, stirring until well-combined.
Blend in cold water, peanut butter, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat until light, airy and creamy.
Set aside batter and begin Chocolate Cake:
In a large mixing bowl or with your stand mixer, combine the following Chocolate Cake Ingredients: flour, cane juice crystals, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, stirring until well-combined.
Blend in coffee or water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat until light, airy and creamy.
Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.
Tip #1: Spray pans with non-stick cooking spray and use a paper towel to evenly disperse the spray over the pans' surfaces, then dust with flour.
Tip #2: Cut two waxed paper circles just smaller than the bottom of the pans, then insert into bottom of pans before pouring batter. Make sure to smooth out any air bubbles before filling. The waxed paper will ensure easy removal when the cakes are turned out.
Pour 1/4 cup Peanut Butter Cake batter into the center of the first pan, and 1/4 cup Chocolate Cake batter into the center of the second pan.
Pour 1/4 cup Chocolate Cake batter directly on top of Peanut Butter Cake batter in first pan, and 1/4 cup Peanut Butter Cake batter on top of Chocolate Cake batter in second pan.
Continue adding 1/4 cup of alternating batter into each pan until all batter is dispersed, and the batter has "smooshed" out to fill the edges of the pan.
On a flat surface, spin each cake pan to push the batter even farther out to the edges. The center of the cake tends to rise more than the edges, so this will help produce a more even cake top.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until cakes pull away from edges of pan and a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
While cakes are cooling, make your frosting:
With a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together margarine and peanut butter until smooth and creamy.
Add powdered sugar, turning mixer down to low speed, and blend in. The mixture will be a bit dry and crumbly -- don't freak.
Add 1/8 cup soy milk and blend in. If you want your frosting softer and lighter, blend in soy milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until frosting reaches desired consistency.
Return to cooled cakes. Remove wax paper (if used) from bottoms of cakes and flip one onto a serving plate or covered cake circle. Using a serrated knife, carefully level the cake.
Fill a decorator's bag with frosting and pipe a thick border around the top of the leveled cake. I use a Wilton #21 star tip for this.
Spoon out a generous amount of frosting into center of cake and spread a thick layer to the piped border. This will be your cake "filling."
Flip the second cake and place directly on top of first cake. Using your serrated knife, level off the second cake.
Cover the entire cake with a crumb coat and chill for 30-45 minutes.
To cover the cake, I used my Wilton #21 star tip and a decorator's bag to pipe random scrolls onto the top and sides of the cake. Note: I actually ended up using one-and-a-half batches of Peanut Butter Cream frosting.
Princess picked out her own candles. I must say, I agree with her selection, as she's certainly a STAR!
I'm cross-posting this from Sexy Vegan Mama, because it's simple enough that anyone can do it, and cute enough to share! Happy Vegan MoFo!
Let's make one thing clear... I'm NOT one of those crafty moms who scrapbooks, decorates my house for every season, turns vintage suitcases into shabby chic conversation pieces, or makes masterpieces of boxed lunches.
I'm just not.
What I AM is a mama who's always looking for fun, easy ways to get food into my kids' bodies, while acknowledging our entire family's hodgepodge of food restrictions:
I'm vegan, Pepper has digestive issues (we're still working on identifying those -- she's heading toward a referral to a GI specialist), Curlytop and Snugglebug are allergic to Red Dye 40, and poor little Snugglebug can't have fruit if it's juiced or dried due to the change in sugar concentration.
(Oh, by the way, please go VOTE for this blog in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Food Allergy Mom blog contest! Sexy Vegan Mama was a late nomination, and there are only a few days left of the contest, so I have a lot of catching up to do! You can vote once every 24 hours. Thank you!)
I also don't have a ton of time on my hands, so when I see those crafty moms cranking out cute-as-a-button bentos, I'm absolutely floored that anyone, anyone would spend so much time creating a meal that's going to roll around in a backpack for a few hours before its precious owner gets around to eating it.
Still, there's something to be said for a cute lunch when you're a pigtailed princess in kindergarten or the first grade... So I made a quickie little bento that's so simple, even a caveman mom of seven can do it.
About the bento boxes -- I picked them up in a Tokyo hotel gift shop, and I'm sure I paid too many Yen for them, but they're adorable, and they've held up well over the past couple years, with just a bit of scratching to the adornment on the top lid. I haven't found the exact same ones online yet, but these are similar in design, except they include a spoon, rather than chopsticks. Plus, they're less than ten bucks. Woohoo!
They have a shallow tray on the bottom with a lid that fits snugly inside the edges, then a deeper tray on top, with removable partitions and a snug-fitting lid. On top of all of it is a clear, shallow, hard plastic top which creates a storage area for small plastic chopsticks (included in the set) or other tiny utensils. (I'm fond of keeping and reusing for lunches the diminutive plastic forks which come in Simply Asia's Sesame Teriyaki noodle bowls (they're vegan!), which I pack when I'm traveling to places where I'll be cooped up in a hotel room or where vegan options are hopeful, at best.)
Anyway, to make this bento, I:
Cut vegan whole wheat bread slices with a bear-shaped cookie cutter (that link goes to the exact one I use)
Made a sandwich with PB & J (no "J" for Snugglebug, as she can't digest the sugar, and if your kid's school has a "no nuts" policy, you can use tahini, or make whatever sort of sandwich your progeny will eat)
Used a wooden skewer to pierce the bread where the eyes, nose and bow tie would be to help the "decorations" stay put better
Placed a dried currant in each of the holes for the eyes and nose (I had to take Snugglebug's currants out before sending her off to school... She said, "Mom! Are you trying to make me sick? You know I can't have RAISINS!" I tried to argue, "They're currants, Honey, and they're just for the pictures," but... Cue dramatic meltdown.)
Placed two dairy-free chocolate chips, point-to-point, at the bear's neckline for his bow tie
Tucked cut broccoli florets around the bear
Used an inexpensive cupcake paper to line the small compartment, then filled it with slivered almonds and dairy-free chocolate chips (I know they make fancy, colorful bento liners, but I'm cheap, and I always fail to plan ahead. Cupcake papers work fine.)
Filled the bottom tray with baby carrots, garbanzo beans and fresh peas
That's it! Is that the simplest bento ever, or what?!
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