I am surprised that reflecting on previous and future years has been something consistent on this blog. I am not blogging as much as the past, but I want to try my best to stick with it because I know that I WILL have more time in the future. You know? If you are interested here are my old posts: 2015 | 2016 | 2018
But for now let’s reflect on my goals from last year-
Workout and Run More Often – This was a massive fail, as Wolfie hasn’t been into stroller that much anymore. I would get a few runs here and there but nothing long or consistent.
Photograph More Another massive fail.
Have a Cup of Tea Every Night I think I did pretty good with this. I didn’t have a cup of tea every night, but I think I have been drinking more tea, and I am also kind-of just admitting I just really like having only a few different types of teas. So I have been trying to get rid of the 10+ teas I do have and have it be a select few to choose from.
Get a New Job I got a new job and left it. I found that I probably won’t get one until certain things have changed in our living situation, things that are mostly out of my control for the time being.
Try and Lose Weight Another fail. I did not loose my pregnancy weight.
Read 20 Books Not bad, I was short one book (my goal was 32, 12 cookbooks, and 20 regular) but sadly most of the books were comics, sooo… not the best.
Bake at Lest ONE Successful Cake a Month Didn’t accomplish this, but I was happy with my posting from Vegan Mofo for 2018 though.
More Cookbook, Restaurant, and Recipe Reviews I did pretty well with this. I did a bunch of recipe roundups and cookbook reviews. Not so successful with restaurant reviews, it’s hard taking photos with a toddler guys.
Be More Patient with Wolfie as with anything, some days are better than others. I have been doing better with just going with his flow, letting him do his own thing and following along.
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This year most of my goals are centered around self image. I just want to feel better, eat more healthfully, and take better care of myself. It is really easy as a mother to give up certain things in your life, and as Wolfie becomes more independent I want to carve some time for myself.
Workout 3-4 Times a Week
Towards the end of 2018 I started to get the hang of working out again. I found that just doing a barre workout with Wolfie in the room way managable. Yes, sometimes he tries to stop me, or cries, but he is learning that it is a time that he has to play by himself. I want to try and get into the habit of doing it three or four times a week since it helps me feel better.
Reach 600 Read Books For Wolfie
If you have a kid and love the library you might of heard of the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge. It is pretty easy, just read 1,000 books before going to school. It makes sense why it should be easy, if you read 1 book before bed each night, you should be able to hit the target no problem. We read at least 3 books each night, and some during the day, so I decided to make my life harder and read 1,000 DIFFERENT books before kindergarten. We reached 200 before 2019, so I want to reach 600 before 2020. It is a stretch, but seeing how the year has been going so far, it isn’t impossible.
Loose the Last Baby Fat
When I made my goal last year to loose weight I think I was honestly at my original weight. But a lot of my motivation is that I would like to fit in my old clothes rather than buy new ones, and I liked how I felt when I ate more healthfully and worked out. So I might WEIGH the same, but I am not the same size nor feel the same. So I am begrudgingly actually dieting in the new year. I would like to loose MORE fat, and GAIN more muscle. We will see how it goes, because truthfully, restricting my food intake can make a grouchy Mom. Putting my happiness or my families happiness on the line for a smaller waistline isn’t an option.
Eat More Meals with Wolfie
I hate when people assume that vegan kids aren’t picky eaters. I mean sure my kid will eat some thing other kids will snub their nose at, but uh, I can’t get him to eat what I serve him ALL THE TIME. So I think it will help if I just sit down and eat almost the same meal with him.
Read 20 Books
I always try and set a goal for books and in general I want to read more books. 2017 I read 4,637 pages, only one was a cookbook and three were comics. 2018 I read 6,000 pages but eight were cookbooks and twelve were comics. So sure I read more, but I didn’t read as much that was culturally enriching.
Goodreads: 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009
Update This Layout
NO EXCUSES! I gotta get this done. I really need to nag Jon to help me with this.
Dress Up More
It is so easy to put on some leggings and a junky shirt with Wolfie, but it can be a little depressing. I am sure anyone who works from home will agree, you just feel better when you look nice. Although I might not look great 24/7, I would like to put on some cute clothes when heading out for the day, even if it is just grocery shopping.
Dye My Hair a Fun Color
I recently JUST cut my hair since I don’t know when. Okay, well the last time I remember cutting my hair was before getting married, which has been many years ago. I am thinking about going to Talking Headz and bleaching my hair, then dying at home. I already have some dye picked out, but Talking Headz specializes in coloring hair and they use vegan products.
Any goals or challenges for 2019?
Every year I always stumble over the same vegetables from my CSA. I never really know what to do with them, and somehow, I have a hard time finding recipes for them as well. If I search in pinterest I get the same old recipe repeated over and over.
So I wanted to remedy that. Start a list of recipes I want to try out, or at the very least gives an interesting way to use the ingredient. Right now my fridge is getting overrun by radishes. I get keep getting them, and not using them by the end of the week. I pick up some more and now at this point I really need to use them us I can’t figure out the difference between them and turnips (sometimes)
Salads
Croatian Radish Salad
This dish seems simple and easy. Naturally I am a little interested in the fact there is some tradition going surrounding the dish. It technically isn’t vegan but is easy enough to sub with Just Mayo.
Herby Black Rice Salad with Radishes and Ricotta Salata
I am not sure what is speaking to me about this salad, but it is. Maybe it is the black rice? Or maybe it is because it just seems so different from any other recipe I’ve found. Whatever the reason this is another technically not vegan dish that might be easy to veganize. I think I would just swap the ricotta with a tofu or maybe even just a vegan cheese.
Sides
Braised Red Radishes
Well, I’d probably halve this recipe. 40 radishes seems like a LOT. Maybe not. But sometimes I forget that you can simply cook a vegetable and serve next to something else. It would give me a good excuse to make some baked tofu.
Moosaengche Radish Salads
I would love to make this little side dish to eat with Szechuan Beefless Strips or Beefless Tips. Maybe paired with some sauteed greens and rice?
Pickled
Vegan Dumpling Bowls with Quick Pickled Radishes & Almond Miso Sauce
There are SO many recipes on pinterest that are for pickled radish. That’s great, but what to use them for? Sure, toss them in salad, wraps, whatever really. But I like how Gina makes a recipe specifically for pickled radish. She gives a recipe for a quick pickle, but you could use any pickled radish really.
French Breakfast Redishes with Nori Tamari and Avocado
This is a dish that I loved so much that I had to share again on here. These radishes are quickly pickled, wrapped in nori, and served on a bed of mashed avocado. I would LOVE to make this again, but it works best with spring radishes. So I’ll patiently wait till next spring.
Soy Pickled Radishes with Jalapenos
These might not look the prettiest, but I’ve made a similar recipe in the past. They are very salty and very umami. It makes a great side dish with dinner.
Meals
Chickpea Scramble Breakfast
I might not eat this as a breakfast, but it would be a nice lunch that I can meal prep. Maybe. It seems pretty simple, chop and roast the veggies, cook a grain, and scramble the chickpea flour. Save the rest and heat when you want to eat.
Vegan Wild Mushroom + Daikon Radish Cakes
I’ve made a radish cake from the V Street cookbook. It was yummy, but I like the idea of the more traditional recipes where you steam the cake then fry it, to get a crispy edge. Sure it makes my house smell like farts, but it is pretty tasty.
Inspiration
Radishes with Burrata
This is a pretty simple dish- just thinly sliced radish with a cheese (pretty much a fresh mozzarella). I would love to use Miyoko’s Fresh Mozzarella and I feel like it is so simple that you could do lots of different things. Like maybe a little pesto, stacked, maybe in a sandwich. Lots of options here.
Mooli – Indian Radish Raita
My biggest fault with Indian cooking is that I never make any raitas, or chutneys. I’m just lazy. But this might be a nice one to make, simple easy, and getting rid of more veggies. Clearly it isn’t vegan, but I just need to get a vegan yogurt.
Steak Tacos with Cilantro-Radish Salsa
Clearly there is a lot I would need to modify about this recipe. But I like the idea of a simple radish salsa. I am thinking about replacing the steak with “refried” black beans, and maybe a cashew cream sauce.
Is there any radish recipes or dishes you guys like? Anything else I should be checking out?
Vegan Treats
1444 Linden St, Bethlehem, PA 18018
website | facebook | flickr | instagram | twitter
I mentioned briefly before that I kind-of went MIA from the blog because I started to work for Aldi’s…. then I stopped working there. It wasn’t enough pay and we were getting sick for long periods of time too often. But any employee from Aldi’s needs to go to a welcome day for their region, and the meant a 2 1/2 hour drive for me. This was REALLY annoying, but kind-of nice because it meant I got compensated $80 for drive, but I was also told the wrong time, and had to wait an hour before the welcome day. *sigh*
But I figured if I was going to make long drive up, I would go out of my way to visit Vegan Treats, only a 15 minute drive from the Aldi’s headquarters, but apparently added like an extra 45 minutes to my drive home (how?! and why?!) You might of heard or seem Vegan Treats before, they are one of the first successful vegan bakeries. They provide vegan treats for a lot of different coffee shops and restaurants, even delivering foods to places in Philadelphia! Heck we even considered having them bake our wedding cake. If you haven’t been to Philly, but go to a lot of vegan fests, you might of seen a long line for their shop to get some baked goods. Or perhaps you have seen their very popular spooky chocolate sets.
What are the chances you will be making a trip to Bethlehem? Maybe slim. It is the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, and it placed 88th on a list of “100 Places to Live” by Money. I vaguely remember the area when visiting Lehigh University for my older sister. It is a cute older town, that I bet looks beautiful during the fall. Luckily, Vegan Treats is not in an old part of town, where parking can be a pain. I was able to find a spot, no problem. They are located on a corner, so you may see the sign on one street, but the entrance will be around the corner.
Their set up isn’t about setting up a hip calming dining experience as say Papa Ganache, but they remind me more of the older styled bakeries (er… at least in the states) where you grab your desserts and go. There are some punk rockabilly decor, and an open kitchen so you can see the hustle and bustle of the kitchen. If you can’t make it, you might be able to find them (as stated before) at various shops in the Eastern Pennsylvania area. They USE to (I think) list all the locations that they provide baked goods for on their site, but they stopped.
So enough TALK! What the heck did we eat?! Well, I DIDN’T eat those beautiful unicorns. I wanted to get a confetti cake, but they only sold them in vanilla flavor and my husband wouldn’t of been down with that. Nor I for the most part. But I did get their salted caramel soft serve. I ate it mostly in the store because driving with ice cream is a pretty bad idea. lol. Fun fact, I was actually listening the history of ice cream by Stuff You Missed in History Class on the way up, so I was REALLY craving that stuff! If you are visiting this place, PLEASE GET THE ICE CREAM! It is glorious!
On the way home I got stuck in rush hour traffic, and there was a lot of hitting the brakes harder than normal going on. Sooo my cheese cake got a little damage making it not so photo-worthy. Plus the cannoli got it’s photo taken pretty late at night, so whoops on my blogging responsibilities. lol. Sadly, since this I I went, several months ago, like a quarter of a year ago, I can’t FULLY remember the flavor. It was cheesecake, it was blueberry, and it was AWESOME! I vaguely remember there being a little white chocolate decor on top, which was yummy as well. My cheesecake loving husband deemed it yummy and would eat it again.
As for the cannoli… hmmm. I got it knowing that it probably wouldn’t meet my expectations. It is hard enough to find a good non-vegan cannoli, what are the chances I find a good one veganized? It tasted pretty good, the shell was crunchy and clearly filled that day. The filling tasted like any other filling that I find so-so. It was still a nice treat, since I haven’t had any in years. But I wish there was a little bit more of that complex cheesy-nutty flavor that you would find in mascarpone cheese.
Aside from the mild cannoli flop, I love this place. I love their cookies and cream cake, which I would eat at The Last Drop (not sure if they still use Vegan Treats as a supplier) and I oogled all the treats at Govindas (again not sure if they still use Vegan Treats) They also travel pretty far for Vegfests. Heck they traveled all the way to DC! But it is still worth making a trip out to their brick and mortar store, you skip the lines, get tons of options, you can buy store merch, and even get some soft serve ice cream.
My goodness. I think this is the most popular cake I’ve made in a very long time. I’ve been asked three different times for the recipe, and I even debated posting this recipe BEFORE vegan mofo. Clearly I didn’t. Mostly because I never got my act together getting photos. I’ve made it for three different birthdays, making it perfect todays prompt- Birthday Bash. So what flavors should you expect with a Hummingbird Cake? Some floral notes? A super sweet syrup? What makes it “humming bird”? Well, it is actually pineapple and banana flavored cake with a cream cheese frosting.
As for the history of the cake- well that’s where things get messy. There are LOTS of theories, which is pretty common with any type of recipe. The most popular answer is that the cake originated in Jamaica. It is named a “doctor bird cake” because it is a common name for a Jamaican hummingbird.
Then there is the idea that this cake is naturally Southern in origin (er… Southern USA that is.) Any cake historian (is that a real job?) will agree that this cake was widely popularized by Southern Living in 1978. The recipe was submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina. But here’s the thing- there might not be a L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro. Heck, even Southern Living is admitting this. It seems that there are many variations of this cake before 1978 where tropical fruit appear in a spiced cake in a tube pan. The idea of serving this styled cake in three layers with cream cheese frosting might of been a first.
American Cakes subscribes to the theory that Jamaican Airlines came up with the cake. Supposedly the airlines came up with a press packet that included a recipe for this cake. Why hummingbird? Well, their logo is of a hummingbird! Duh!
Whatever the history is, this cake is a classic in the South. It is Southern Living’s most requested recipe, and man is it delicious. This was a pretty easy cake to veganize, just sub the eggs for some aquafaba and that’s it. It took a little time to figure out the portions of the cream cheese frosting. The recipe below is JUST enough for 3 layers. If you want to make more, that’s fine. It is also worth noting that if you are making this vegan cake and aren’t vegan yourself, you can avoid by “fake” vegan food by buying mainstream accidentally vegan cream cheese frosting in a can.
When I first tackled on my American Cakes challenge last year, I was overwhelmed with excitement. Ideas where flying through my head on what to try, and I was excited to learn more about American classics. I quickly started to learn more about our history than just cakes. Sure there were a few pies in the book, including a shoo fly pie, but I was learning about green tomato pies and vinegar pies. I am hoping to make these this year, but it got me thinking, what other desserts are very American? And that’s when I swallowed my fears and looked up a recipe for Ambrosia Salad.
Let’s be clear- this is hardly a salad. At the very least, not a salad by any modern sense. The word salad was used more loosely in the past than it is today. So loose that it was often used for various aspics using vegetables. Heck, even the term Jello Salad comes up as type of dessert on Wikipedia. So I will swallow my pride, and delve into this piece of American cuisine, and besides, I remember these desserts always tasting better than it looked.
Unlike a Jello Salad, Ambrosia has no gelatin, but it kind-of gets clumped together. The origins of this dessert seems much more classy. The original recipe from 1867 was pretty simple- grate fresh coconut and toss with some sugar. Layer the coconut with orange segments and serve in dessert dishes. The name came from Greek mythology, as ambrosia was food for the gods, and they would grow weak without it. The dish would most likely be served during the winter, and I could see this simple dish tasting refreshing and sweet after having no fresh fruit for so long.
But times change, and so did fruit production. The United States started to increase it’s production of citruses, making them cheaper. Canned fruit became much more common and cheaper for people, so using canned fruit became more common place, and naturally, pineapple started to make an appearance. Some recipes asked for whipped cream, booze, or just tossed with heavy cream. And by the 1900s, various different fruit started to get mixed it, ranging from strawberries to bananas to cherries.
This was around the time when ambrosia started to become a Christmas thing. Let it be known, not all American make ambrosia for the holiday season. I never even heard of this until now, so don’t ask your American friend if they got their marshmallows for their yule tide salad. This is mostly a tradition in the South, and by 1930s, it became common knowledge that this is a Southern tradition.
As time went by tropical fruit became less special. As mentioned earlier, canned fruit became more common place and cheaper. So it didn’t take long before we added more sweets to the dish- marshmallows. The earliest recipes called for marshmallow fluff to be added, before marshmallows became commercially available. But once machines were invented to mass produce marshmallows, it didn’t take long to add them to recipe in late 20s to 30s.
Today, the dish has a million variations. Heck there is a recipe in How It All Vegan that uses tofu, orange juice, and a whole basket full of fruit. Some people stick to it’s very traditional fruit salad roots, and some people make a molded dish with it. There are recipes for a baked salad, and some recipes use mayo. The dish has gotten quite a bad rep, coming up in the ranks with fruitcake. So many chefs are trying to reinvent ambrosia. Some are simple enough, using fresh fruit again, some involve a very loose interpretation of soup, and one person it means “fresh grapefruit and navel oranges, chopped celery, avocado, and cucumber flavored with fresh basil and jalapeno and tossed in a buttermilk-lime dressing with two tablespoons of shredded coconut.” Too much of a stretch to me.
So what the heck am I making? It seems the common thread with this dish are usually tied to these ingredients- whipped cream, marshmallows, pineapple, coconut, and oranges. So that’s what I did. I ditched the shredded coconut and used coconut milk as the whipped cream. Sadly, I can figure out HOW to get coconut creme to whip up. No clue what I am doing wrong. BUT that is okay, having a sweetened coconut coating is still yummy. I also ditched the canned fruit and used fresh. It’ll cost you more, but totally worth it.
Now, if you can’t find mini marshmallows, leave them out. But I figured if Alton Brown includes marshmallows, then dang it, they stay in. Luckily I only us HALF a bag of marshmallows, so that won’t be TOO expensive. The downfall is that this salad doesn’t last too long. The coconut milk will slowly soften the marshmallows, making it yummy, but wait too long, it’ll make it mushy. So I suggest making this the morning of, perhaps for a potluck or family get together. I honestly think it won’t last long, but if you have leftover, gobble it all up the next day.
This week is budget week, and this is indeed a budget cake. Most of the ingredients are cheap ingredients that most people have in their pantry. The only “expensive” ingredient is the vegan butter that you put on the top, and the vegan milk of choice. But I used some homemade oatmilk, making it only cost pennies.
What I find really interesting about this recipe is how information changes from the American Cakes book when I start googling things. The book described this as a coffee cake, to much confusion to the international audience. No- there is no coffee flavor to this cake. Rather this is a cake you would have with your afternoon coffee, much like a teacake is for when you have tea. Most American coffee cakes are usually unfrosted, and have crumb topping. This cake has a crisp sugar topping instead of the crumb, which I haven’t really seen before. But some quick googling shows that most people describe this as a breakfast food. It might seem far fetched but makes sense, it is quick to make and by today’s standard of donuts and danishes, it isn’t so bad.
All the recipes that came up have an interesting marbling effect. Well, this is because the photos in the book doesn’t quite portray this, so I didn’t understand the recipe. I kept the slices of butter near the top and very thin. Most people I think put bigger chunks and dunk them deep into the batter. So I will give directions for my way of making this cake, but you can easily dip the butter further down the batter.
Many people say it is a variation of a Swedish Flop Cake, which seems like a stretch. There are many people describing the cake as having an Amish background. This seems really plausible. A recipe from American Cakes that I’ve been dying to try is the Moravian Sugar Cake, which seems to have similar buttery dimples in it.
So why is it a Cinnamon Flop? As Anne Byrn puts it
Could this coffee cake be named because the cook forgot the eggs and thought it would be a flop? Or was “flop” a corruption of the word “flap”, and could this have been an early breakfast recipe like flapjacks (pancakes) except without eggs? Webster’s dictionary says the first use of the word “flop” in America was 1728, a year after the Amish arrived.
It’s November 25, 1783, and the last of the British troops leave New York City. Washing crosses the Harlem River and settles in Manhattan. This the Evacuation Day, the bookend to the Revolutionary War. I could describe it, but I swear my brain can’t process information regarding wars. Washington strutted his horse down Broadway and ate at Fraunces Tavern, supposedly eating this cake. Today the Tavern still stands, and is a historical landmark. If you ever visit New York City, it would be a interesting visit as it looks like the place is steeped in history and isn’t your normal tourist place (at least in NYC.) It even has a restaurant still open, but it is very much NOT vegan.
This cake is the first one for me to hit some roadblocks. Mostly because I wasn’t really thinking. I thought okay, replace the eggs, sub the butter, BAM DONE! I didn’t notice that there wasn’t any baking soda or powder. The cake would normally rise because it uses a creaming method that we see in pound cake- using sugar, butter, and eggs. Every vegan pound cake I’ve found uses baking soda or powder. I ended up with a cake that’s texture felt under baked.
So it was back to the drawing board. I tweaked the recipe, added baking powder or soda (I can’t remember now) and it still didn’t work. Yikes. I was getting really discouraged, although the flavor was really good. I was just trying to figure out how to balance the baking soda and oil with the existing recipe.
But then I made my Martha Washington Great Cake. The creaming method works with aquafaba! Amazing! I was over the moon from the news. I went back into the kitchen and pretty much just copied the cake from the book using the aquafaba, and wham bam! Done! No sweat what-so-ever! Crazy. But to add insult to injury, I re-read the description of the recipe, apparently an oil based recipe using baking soda has been floating around for years. In fact, you can try it right here, just sub the eggs.
So what makes this carrot cake (MY carrot cake) worth your time? Well, it is VERY different from most carrots cakes we eat today. Most modern carrot have a grated carrot in the mix, and almost always has cream cheese frosting. A style that is very American in it’s own right, and a recipe like this appears later in the book. But this cake uses boiled carrots that pureed, and folded into the batter. This gives the cake a beautiful color and flavor. Plus, Natalie Brown from Buzzfeed apparently fucking loves this cake.
I hope you take a chance on this cake as it is really yummy. Boiling and mashing 4 carrots take very little time, and it doesn’t need to be a perfect puree. And I specify Earth Balance butter since I am unsure how well this creaming method stands up to different styles.
Soda and cake is a match made in heaven. Perhaps you were on a diet, and used it in a recipe with diet soda to cut down on calories from sugar? Maybe you were in college and only had soda instead of eggs on hand? Or we vegans know from PETA– you can use a can of soda in your cake instead of eggs. Now, YouTube is filled with “vegan cake mix hacks” videos but this drink is fairly old.
Nope- before cola and cake meant a drunk college girl is trying to make a cake with her new vegan phase it was known for two words. Church and the South. Yes, any respectable Southern woman would make a coke cake for their cake walks and Sunday socials (or whatever people make cakes for church functions.) Perhaps it is because Coca Cola is called Southern Champagne, or that the company is a heavy part of Atlanta’s identity.
Now you don’t have to use Coca Cola. You can use Pepsi, or perhaps any other cola out there. There are many “boutique” brands that make colas, at least in the United States. I strong recommend two things before buying. 1) Buy what you know you will drink. If you aren’t much of a soda fan, look around for a place you can buy one bottle. Doesn’t do you any good if you don’t want to drink the remaining 5 bottles that come in a six pack. 2) Avoid sugar-free versions. I made mine with diet store brand cola, and you could taste a hint of aspertaine in the cake. I am sure you would be able to taste the stevia in Zevia brand cola. But hey, go ahead and try it out. Why not?!
What are some fancy pants brands out there? Well, I always find that store-brands work just fine. But some organic and vegan options are Blue Sky, Jones, Maine Root, Boylan and Fentimens. And remember go nuts! Play around with sodas you find. Wanna try it with Birch Beer? Sounds good to me. Maybe Spruce? Or Sarsaparilla?! Maybe with that Chai Cola!? I don’t know, I don’t have time to make and EAT all this cake. But they all sound yummy to me.
I can’t remember when my sister first made these. I remember I was near the end of college or was just out when my sister first made these. They were pretty simple, just crushed up oreos and cream cheese. I was pretty skeptical of them, but they were really yummy. She made them every christmas and birthday party for several years, but not so much anymore.
This recipe is fairly new, but dates earlier than 2009 when I got out of college. AllRecipes has a recipe for Oreo Truffles, and the earliest review I could find was 2003. It is clearly a favorite treat, there are over 800 reviews of the recipes. Most everyone loved the ease of the recipe, but complained that it was too sweet. All Recipe has a simple ingredients list, oreos, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and chocolate for coating.
It isn’t a surprise to see why people love this recipe. They are practically just a cake pop but made with a premade cookie. So they can easily be decorated and if you use white chocolate, the skies the limit. It is pretty easy to customize as well, just use mint oreos, or peanut butter. If you cut down on the cream cheese you just use the speciality flavors. Some people stuff cherries or marshmallows in the middle.
But I wanted to try and make this as accessible as possible to everyone. You can use ANY creme filled cookie sandwich that is vegan. Sorry to all the UK readers who don’t have vegan oreos. Store brands are fine, hydrox check, Newman O’s if your fancy. I also made a homemade “cream cheese” that is a mix of silken tofu and cashews. I made a special post the other day about it. I explain why in the post. But don’t worry, you can just use a container of tofutti if you really want to.
This vegan mofo has been a little ambitious. So many sweets, so little time. I feel like I will have to eat salad for the next month to give my body a break from all the sugar. But many American recipes rely on some pantry staples. I’ve read so many recipes that use a container of cool-whip or a block of cream cheese.
Yes you can find vegan versions of these things, but I know for some international readers this implies paying a lot for imports. Or maybe you just don’t feel like shelling out $3+ for a container of cream cheese. And sometimes the homemade versions just don’t give the same texture.
So here I am sharing this quick little cream cheese recipe. It isn’t my favorite for a bagel topping, despite the photo, but it works perfectly in the recipes needed this month. All you need is a box of extra firm silken tofu, cashews, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar. Super simple recipe.
