Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! For Easter I had a lovely dinner at my parents'. My cousins' girlfriend is from out of town and is visiting, so she was there too. In total there were seven of us, which for our family dinners really isn't that many people! The rest of my family eats pretty much anything (although Dad tries to avoid gluten) so they had a turkey. Other than the turkey and turkey gravy, our entire meal was vegan. I've trained them well. ;)

We had: mashed potatoes, vegan mushroom gravy, peppers roasted in balsamic, sweet potatoes with a candied pecan topping, dressing (cooked out of the turkey), creamed peas in a vegan roux, and I had maple garlic tofu steaks. It was awesome!  The gravy recipe is amazing, but unfortunately it's at my parents', where I no longer am. I will try my best to remember to ask Mom for it and post it!

Yesterday Bestest and I made chocolate cupcakes with a vegan butter cream. We made little nests, flowers, and grass out of Wilton gum paste. I used vegan jelly beans (thank you Bulk Barn!) and she used chocolate mini eggs to fill the nests. We each took our cupcakes to our respective family dinners. I just love how cute they are!

It was really nice to have a day with my family. We played some cards and shared a great meal. And Mom conveniently got me some 85% chocolate - I'd just run out! I love holidays where we come together for a big meal, and I love it even more now that we've figured out how to make it vegan. :)

Gomen + Whipped Coconut Cream with Blackberries

Over this past term, I've worked at Langano Skies Ethiopian Restaurant, which burnt down in a tragic fire on April 7th. As I've been there I've grown absolutely attached to Ethiopian food, which I already loved before I started there. I've been really missing having a delicious meal before every shift. I figured, though, instead of complaining, I should make some! I decided to make gomen, which is a dish made with stewed spinach or collard greens and spices. Normally it should be eaten with injera, but given the difficulty of making good injera that's a project for another night! I had mine with brown rice instead. It really hit the spot. I had it with a glass of Bolthouse Farms Mango Smoothie. Mmm.

For dessert, I had whipped coconut cream with fresh blackberries. The gomen was good, don't get me wrong, but as soon as I bit into dessert my mouth died and went to heaven. I LOVE coconut whipped cream! Every vegan ever should try this. It's so easy and so amazing. Take a can of coconut milk and leave it in the fridge for a couple hours. Don't shake it! The clear liquid will have separated out to the bottom. Scoop out the white solids on the top and either get rid of the liquid or save it (like for rice or to flavour a stirfry). Then you just add powdered sugar and vanilla to taste and whip it like you would normal whipped cream. Amazing!

Produce!!!

I am so so ready for summer, you have no idea. The sun is finally shining, the snow is melting, and I wore a dress today. It's awesome! I've been eating a lot of produce as of late because I'm so darn excited for summer. This morning for breakfast I had half a cantelope, half a pomelo, and a left-over pancake. When we were kids Dad always cut the cantelope so that it stayed in its dome shape: I'm quite impressed I managed to replicate it! The pancakes I made for breakfast yesterday. They're whole wheat with cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and chocolate chips. So so good! I also had a cup of sweet tea I brought back from a monastery in China. Perfect way to start a morning. I'm in the midst of term paper writing, hence the giant textbook stack.

For lunch I had left over stir fried bok choy in garlic sauce, tossed with bean thread noodles. I then had a handful of pistachios after class before heading to the grocery store. Right before I left I chopped up some tofu and marinated it. I cheated and started with a pre-made teriyaki sauce, which I added soy sauce, sesame oil, and brown sugar to. I left it to sit while I got my groceries and when I came back I made a giant salad, with green leaf lettuce, cherry tomatoes, avocado, roasted red pepper, the marinated tofu, and sesame seeds. I used the left over marinade as dressing. It was fantastic!

In the spirit of summer I also bought some Good Karma Rice Divine Coconut Mango ice cream because it was on sale. I'm going to hold off, though, and have a mango for dessert. :)