Me: Vegan

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter, creamy
1/2 cup unrefined (organic) white sugar
1 1/2 cups of vegan chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 paper muffin cups

Directions:

Cut the top half of the muffin cups to where they are about half the original height.

Microwave the chocolate chips for about 2 minutes at 50% power in a glass or microwaveable bowl.  Stir until creamy, you might need to microwave them a little more.  Make sure you do not overcook them.

Using a spoon or paint brush spread the chocolate evenly within the muffin cups making sure you fill the crevices on the sides.  Place the coated muffin cups in the freezer so that the chocolate hardens.  BUT!  be sure to keep the layers really thin, trust me, thick is not better in this case.

In a separate bowl combine the peanut butter and salt and fold in the powdered vegan sugar.

When the chocolate cups have hardened put the peanut butter mixture into the microwave for 1 minute.  Wait 1 minute for it to cool and then bring out the chocolate cups.

Spoon the peanut butter into the chocolate cups leaving a little room for the top layer of chocolate. You have the option of putting the top layer of chocolate on now or after the peanut butter has hardened in the freezer. Both ways work just as well in my opinion.

Place the cups in the freezer and wait an hour (or as long as you can).
Serves: 12
Preparation time: 1 hour

Speaking of num nums!!!  Today’s recipe I  tried out for the first time was home made pesto with cashews.  Oh, wow!  Seriously yummie

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh basil, loosely packed

2-3 cloves garlic

1  1/4 cups raw cashews

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cups nutritional yeast

Directions:

Blend all ingredients, except olive oil and nutritional yeast in food processor for approximately 1 minute, or until smooth.  Add olive oil and nutritional yeast and blend until smooth and creamy.  I recommend popping in into the fridge as I serve it raw, and thus want it nice and cold.  But it is suuuuuper tantalizing served hot on pasta.

Enjoy!

Last night’s dinner was one of my more memorable ones.  I come from a Ukrainian background, so I am a big fan of perogies, sausages and onions.  I decided to conquor this childhood delicacy which was, fortunately, simple and quick.  The meal started with a trip to SuperStore, a place I generally avoid like the plague for it’s crowds, low quality standards, and ocasionally selling shark fin soup in tins.  I do make the trip out from time to time because of their low prices on a few of my favorite organic items, and they are the only store I’ve found that sells Vegan parogies, No Name brand Potato & Onion stuffed (1kg for $2.10!!)

I picked up a bag of parogies, then headed back to my neck of the woods, to my friendly neighborhood organic grocer, Drive Organics (1045 Commercial Drive) to pick up a package of tofurky sausages,  3 small red potatoes, two large onions, some garlic, and a leek.  I thawed the parogies, then fried them for 20 minutes with one chopped onion in some cooking oil.  After the first 10 minutes, I added in the Tofurky sausage.  In a separate pan I began frying the 3 cubed potatoes for 5 minutes, then added in the other chopped onion.  I let them cook for 8 minutes while stirring both pans often.  Finally, I added the leek, and the garlic and let the veggie mix cook for 5 more minutes adding just a dash of salt and pepper.

I ate it all together, and the only thing I would have added would be tofutti sour cream, though it was all absolutely delicious anyway!

I hope you try this, and I hope you find it as tasty and affordable as I did!