Tres Leche Cake (Vegan Recipe)

I have a rich, decadent and indulgent dessert today, Tres Leche cake or 3 milk cake. I made as a part of Mexican lunch I had with some of my blog buddies last weekend.

My husband is not a big fan of desserts like these, but I love them a lot. Since I can't make them for myself, I'm always looking for opportunities to make them. So when I decided on the Mexican theme for our blogger's lunch, I knew this Latin American dessert would be a great addition.

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Mango Nog (Alcohol free - Kid Friendly recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Mango Nog

My theme for this week's blogging marathon is 'Kid Friendly Holiday specials'. This is for Valli's Kid's Delight event being hosted this month by lovely Sandhya. For the first day, I have an alcohol free, kid friendly version of a holiday special drink, Eggnog.

Eggnog is a sweetened dairy based drink usually consumed during Thanksgiving and Christmas in Canada & US. It is traditionally made with milk and/ or cream, sugar and whipped eggs to give it a frothy texture. Brandy, rum or bourbon are often added. It is served with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon or nutmeg. It is also known as egg milk punch.

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Bavarian Dumplings/ Dampfnudel (eggless recipe)

This month's host of International Food Challenge, Saraswathi Tharagaram (Sara's Yummy Bites) is taking us on a culinary tour of Bavaria region in Germany. Germany is located in Western Europe. The topography of the country is varied, and includes regions of deep forest and high mountains, as well as a wide valley surrounding the Rhine, Germany's largest river. The highest mountain peak, the Zugspitze, lies on the border with Austria. Less than 3 percent of Germans are farmers, and the country must import much of its food. Apples, pears, cherries, and peaches, as well as grapes for wine production, are important crops in Germany. 
German regional cuisine can be divided into many varieties such as Bavarian cuisine (southern Germany), Thuringian (central Germany), Lower Saxon cuisine or those of Saxony-Anhalt. For this month we going to try Bavarain cuisine from Southern Germany. 

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Roasted Chestnut Donuts (Vegan & Eggless Cake Donut Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Street Food from Around the World

Dish: Roasted Chestnut Donuts from NYC

I was thinking  hard to decide which country's street food to make for the 3rd day of BM# 37. I shortlisted a few dishes to try, but then I realized that I live only a few miles from the greatest city with amazing street food and it would be unfair to try anything else. I'm talking about New York city. Watch this video with 50 different street foods in NYC in 60 seconds.
NYC is home to hundreds of food trucks and countless food carts. I have never had food from either till now. I always want to try but usually end up eating somewhere else. I love the smell of food around these food carts.

I took a Vegan Donut making class in ICE and our teacher, Adam Sobel is the owner of a vegan food truck called Cinnamon Snail. He showed us how to make 4~5 different vegan donuts. I wanted to make the recipes at home for a long time, but didn't get a chance until now.

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Self Saucing Chocolate Cake (Vegan recipe)

Happy Valentines Day to everyone.

After posting the Mango custard yesterday, I thought I should also post something with Chocolate for Valentines day. Valentines day without chocolate is probably unthinkable for some, but history channel says that this association happened only recently even though the roots of Valentines day go all the way back to Roman era. Chocolate is a well known aphrodisiac, but the main reason for chocolate being the center of this holiday could be the candy companies marketing strategies. Whatever it might be, here's another reason to enjoy our beloved chocolate.
I saw this recipe in King Arthur's catalog and made it the other day for my son's afternoon snack. It is super simple to put together and tasted absolutely a.m.a.z.i.n.g. The warm cake with chocolate sauce served with ice cream is just too irresistible.

Recipe is supposed to be made in 8~10 oz. ramekins or oven safe mugs, I didn't have either, so used 7oz. mini ramekins. Also I veganized the recipe by using soy milk, canola oil (instead of melted butter) and egg replacer (instead of an egg).

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Apple Pie Smoothie

I make sure that I take a copy of 'Chop Chop' magazine from my kid's pediatrician's office. It is a fun book with some very simple to make recipes and activity ideas for kids. My son loves to read this book cover to cover and really enjoys doing the word scramble and kid quizes.

Today's recipe is a simple smoothie from that book. I asked my son to pick a recipe that we can make together and this was something he thought he would like. He didn't really care for the texture of oats in the smoothie and I tried to explain to him the health benefits of oats. All in all this is a very healthy smoothie and is great as an after school snack.

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Eggless Christmas Plum Cake (Vegan recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked recipes
Dish: Eggless Christmas Plum Cake
Here's wishing everyone a very merry Christmas.

This holiday season has turned out to be the best so far with family and friends around. We have family visiting us for the holiday and everyone is just having a blast. It's now past 12:00AM on Christmas morning, gifts are placed under the tree and cookies and milk left out for Santa and carrots for the reindeers. Kids are sleeping, but I'm sure they are dreaming about the presents that Santa's going to leave them. 

I planned to make fruit cake for this Christmas a long time ago, but as with everything else I kept it till the very last minute to make it. The reason being I found Dassana's recipe that doesn't need cakes to be soaked in booze for days and I decided to make it just 2 days before Christmas. So I soaked the dry fruit and nuts in orange juice and rum on Sunday and baked the cakes on Monday.

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Oatmeal with Honey & Dates

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: BM# 32 Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Quick Oatmeal with Dates & Honey by Sreevalli

We start our last and final week of BM# 33 for this month and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked recipes from BM# 32'. This was probably the hardest theme for me this month. I had a very tough time selecting 3 dishes to make from more than 550 dishes.

Finally after a lot of deliberation, I decided on 3 dishes based on the ingredients I had in my pantry. So for the first day I made this quick, simple and healthy Quick Oatmeal with Dates & Honey from Sreevalli's Ammaji's Recipes.

This was one of the recipes that I knew I would make right away because I love oatmeal and keep trying new recipes. The combination of dates and honey sounded very appealing to me and I wondered why I didn't think of it earlier.

Sreevalli made it in the microwave and called it quick oatmeal, but I made it on the stove top which takes a few more minutes than microwave. Either way this is a very quick and healthy breakfast that gets done in less than 10minutes. I generally use soy milk in my oatmeal, but any milk or even water (for a less creamy oatmeal) can be used.

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Basic Vegan Chocolate Cupcake

After these Vegan Vanilla cupcakes, the other cupcake recipe that is made quite often in my house is this vegan chocolate cupcake. This recipe is also from 'Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World'. I tried other eggless cupcake recipes, but this recipe has always given me consistent results. The cupcakes are moist and fluffy and they hold up to butter cream frosting.

I made these cupcakes for my son's birthday and sent them to school. His class has kids who have very severe peanut allergy, so I always make sure that all the ingredients I use are peanut free.

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Basic Vegan Vanilla Cupcake

Today's post is for 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge', an event started by Valli @ Cooking4allSeasons. This basic vegan cupcake is my go-to recipe and I was surprised that I haven't posted it here yet. I have made these a number of times and they have never failed me. Recipe is from 'Vegan Cupcakes take over the World' by Isa Chandra & Terry Hope.

I made these recently for my son's birthday and took pictures to post them. This is a multipurpose, no-nonsense cupcake that is great to bake for birthdays, bake sales and baby showers.

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Banana Rose Milkshake (Bloggers' Buzz Photography Assignment)

This is our first assignment for Bloggers' Buzz Photography Club (#BBPC). We are required to take a photo of any food item using diffused Side lighting. Here's my attempt at doing it. Since this is a food photography assign post, the actual post is really short with  lots of pictures, so please bear with me. Thank you :0)

This is Banana Rose Milkshake that I made at least 3 times a week this summer. I saw the recipe on Hari Chandana's blog and loved it so much that I bought a big bottle of rose syrup from Indian store just to try this milkshake. Like any milkshake it is super eay to make and it tastes oh-so-good. I love the girly pink color and the aroma from the rose syrup is just too good. 

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Banana Nutella Nut Milkshake

I wrote about my son's love for chocolate a lot of times. His mom is obsessed with everything related to cooking and eating and he is obsessed with everything chocolate. The other day when he had to pick between vanilla and strawberry ice creams, he told me very seriously that he doesn't like vanilla. I couldn't help myself from laughing out loud because I wasn't sure if he knew why he didn't like vanilla. My guess is he thinks he shouldn't like vanilla because he loves chocolate :-)

Well anyway, chocolate actually makes him eat bananas, because he eats bananas drizzled with chocolate syrup. Not the best way to eat a fruit, but I'm happy he's at least trying it. I believe in baby steps and I'm sure one day he'll get better at trying and tasting different foods.

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Banana Bread Oatmeal

Blogging Marathon# 25: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Breakfast on the Run
Dish: Banana Bread Oatmeal

If you had asked me to eat something sweet for breakfast about 12 years ago, I would have said "No.. thank you". But in the past dozen years or so that have lived in the US, my tastes have definitely changed a LOT. I think I've become more open to tasting and I want to try a flavor combination before actually deciding whether I like it or not. 

This oatmeal is sweet, but not overly so. Actually it totally depends on how sweet you want your oatmeal. It is super simple and fits perfectly in the Breakfast on the run theme. Also the add-ins are totally customizable to your own taste.

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Overnight Steel Cut Oats

VeganMofo Day 28: We are bracing ourselves for the super storm, Sandy. Hopefully we will have our electricity and internet connections intact. Last year we had the untimely snow storm around the same time and Halloween parades were cancelled as a result. My 5 year old has his costume picked out and he's been talking about Halloween since the beginning of October. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that the storm is not as bad as the weather department is predicting.

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Vegan Hot Chocolate with Soy Creamer

VeganMofo Day 19: It's been raining and chilly the whole day today. I'm not a big fan of rains because I don't like wiping water from my glasses and I definitely don't like getting my feet wet. So I prefer to stay home when it rains (whenever I can), which is what I did today.

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Waffles with Chocolate Malted Syrup

Going back to work after a long weekend is quite an effort. Weekends always seem to be so short, but I'm happy that I got to do some cleaning and arranging things around the house and make some dishes for the blog. We also watched "Men In Black 3" in the theater, an evening show with our son for the first time. We took him to the afternoon shows since they are less crowded, but this time we took a chance. He slept after watching the previews and may be about 15minutes of the movie (oh. well......)

I was raking my mind on what breakfast to make for blogging marathon this morning and I asked my son if he wanted pancakes or waffles. He said he wanted chocolate waffles and added that he would help me make them too. 

A quick google search landed me on this recipe from Williams Sonoma, I had all the ingredients on hand except for semi-sweet chocolate, so I used a combo of unsweetened and milk chocolate. Waffles came out perfect and the chocolate sauce is to die for. I'm looking forward to use the sauce on ice-creams, pancakes, bananas,.....

I added half a measure of whole-wheat pastry flour and used Vanilla soy milk instead of regular milk.

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Banana-Cocoa Smoothie

Hurricane Irene is causing major destruction in the east coast this weekend. As I type, I can hear the wind blowing and the pouring rain. They say there are thousands of people without power due to fallen trees. I can see a big tree limb from a neighbors tree in our backyard. I just hope my tomatoes and bottle gourd survive the hurricane (I know I'm being a little wane, but can't help thinking of them).

So for today I have this very simple smoothie that I made for snack time the other day. If you have frozen bananas this is a snap to make. I have been storing my over-ripe bananas in the freezer, so they can be used in some way or the other rather than throwing them out.

Smoothie has only 5 ingredients and is very filling. I had it with some pita chips and hummus.

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Café Con Leche Flan

Vegan Mofo Day 26:

Did any of you (in the US) go out for shopping today? I woke up my husband 7:00AM and asked him if he wanted to go, he said he's too busy sleeping, so I dozed off too for another hour of sleep. Well we did end up in Walmart around noon to buy toothpaste for our little one and it looked like a carnival in the Electronics section. Every cart we saw had a flat screen TV, my husband was tempted to buy one, but knowing our three year old, who talks to TV and hi-fi's it as if it's his friend, we thought of waiting for another year.

Coming to the recipe for Coffee flan or Café con Leche flan. I don't remember ever eating a flan before though I remember seeing it in many parties. My husband loves coffee, so I decided to make this. Recipe is from Viva Vegan by Terry Romero.

I bought Agar powder from our local Asian market, each sachet was $1.99 and the last time I checked Whole foods, they had Agar flakes for about $10.00. So check your Asian markets before heading to Whole foods or other health food stores.

Ingredients:

Caramel Coating:

Granulated Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 3tbsp

Lemon/ Lime juice - 1 tsp

Flan:

Water - ½cup

Agar powder - 1¼tsp (if using Agar flakes - 2½tsp)

Vanilla soy or Almond milk - 2cups (I used Original Soy milk and it tasted awesome)

Arrowroot powder or Cornstarch - 2tbsp

Coconut milk (lite or regular) - 1 cup

Granulated sugar - ½ cup

Brown Sugar - 2tbsp

Instant espresso powder or Instant coffee - 2tbsp

Vanilla extract - 2tsp (I forgot to add this, but it was still yummy :-))

Method:

• Caramel: Have 4 - 6 individual clean, dry glass or ceramic ramekins or 2 larger 2-cups serving bowls.
• Terry has a recipe for microwave caramel that I followed and it was done lickety split with no worries: Pour sugar in a microwaveable 2-cup or 4-cup measuring cup. Add water and lime/lemon juice. Stir well to combine. Microwave on high for 5-6 minutes; DO NOT stir again.
• At about 3½ - 4 minutes mark, sugar will be melted and rapidly bubbling. Soon after that it will turn pale golden, then increasingly amber. Once the browning starts, it will continue to do so very rapidly, so keep a very close eye. My caramel reached the required dark amber color around the 5 minute mark. Stop the microwave and using oven mitts carefully remove from the oven. Alternatively caramel can be made on the stove using David Lebovitz's method.
• Once the caramel is very hot and ready, pour it quickly into a thin layer onto the bottoms of the ramekins. Gently tilt the ramekin and let the caramel reach about ½ inch up the sides. Set the molds aside and let cool. Prepare the flan.
• Flan: In a large sauce, combine the water and agar powder and bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.
• In a small bowl, combine ½ cup of soy milk and cornstarch and set aside.
• After most of the agar has dissolved, add the rest of the milk, coconut milk, granulated sugar, brown sugar and instant coffee. Mix well.
• Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat again.
• Whisk the soy milk-corn starch mixture and stir rapidly into the simmering coconut milk mixture. Cook and stir constantly until the mixture thickens slightly and the cornstarch is completely cooked (the mixture should taste smooth, not chalky), about 6 to 8 minutes.
• Stir in the vanilla and remove from the heat.
• Pour into the caramel lined molds, leaving a minimum of ½ inch from the top of the molds.
• Cool for 10 minutes, then allow to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
• To serve the chilled flan: Gently run a knife along the sides of the flan. Invert the ramekin onto a serving plate and the flan should slide right onto the plate.

Serve the flan within 2-3 days of preparing. It tastes amazing with the slight bitter coffee taste complemented by the sweet caramel. I'm sure coffee lovers would love this one, my husband did.

Quick Weekday Breakfast: Swiss Oats

I don't like making elaborate breakfasts on a weekday morning. The maximum I can do is toast some bread and make peanut butter & jelly sandwich or a nutella sandwich (which is my absolute favorite). So 90% of the time, our breakfast consists of bread in some form or the other. On the other 10%, I take a small bottle of soymilk with me to work to have it with cereal (I have a ziplock bag with cereal always at work for breakfast or snack time).

When I saw this recipe on Zonya Health Bite on PBS, I wanted to make it right away, its so easy that there is zero cooking or microwaving time. The effort you put into it is EATING it. I'm going to make it sound a little bit more complicated than it really is, just so I can feel better posting this r.e.c.i.p.e. :-D (Its like filling some extra pages in your exams, so your teacher thinks you have answered the question right!!!!!!)

Ingredients (1 Serving):
Old Fashioned Oats - 1/2 cup
Soy milk (any milk would work just fine) - 2/3 cup
Honey or Maple sugar - to taste
Ground Cinnamon - pinch
Berries
Dried fruit/ Nuts
Method:

• Night Before: Mix oats and all the other ingredients in a small bowl. I mix them in the same container I'm going to take to work (less clean up). Cover and refrigerate.
• In the Morning: All you do is take the oats out of the fridge, add fresh fruits (berries or bananas) in summer or dried fruits and nuts in winter. Mix well and take to work. By the time you are ready to eat, oats are cold but not tooth-aching so and the fruit release their sweet juices and its almost like having a dessert for breakfast.
• All this should technically take less than 10 minutes total, 5 minutes each at night and in the morning, but the end result is soooo yummm..
  

Soaking the oats overnight makes them soft and delicious almost similar to cooked oats but without the gloppiness and of course the cooking time. Do try these uncooked oats recipe, I'm sure you'll fall in love with them.

PS: I have updated the A.W.E.D: Morocco announcement with the logo. Please check it out and don't forget to send your entries by Oct 2nd.

Soda Bread Scones

I don’t make elaborate breakfasts. Breakfast to me is something quick and easy, nothing fancy and not more than one dish to clean (which happens to be the dish I ate in). But this weekend, I made an exception and decided to make something special for us.

I made some Soda Bread Scones and we had them with some vegan butter and homemade mango-raspberry jam. I found the recipe in Vegetarian times magazine. It has vegan with no-fat what-so-ever and is quick and easy to make too.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times
Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour – 2½ cups
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Ground Cinnamon – 1tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Soy milk – ¾ cup (and a little more if needed)
Maple syrup – 3tbsp
Raisins – ¾ cup
Raw sugar like turbinado – 8tsp (optional) (I used demerera sugar)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450°F. Spray baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
  
• In a large bowl, whisk in flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
  
• In a measuring cup, mix in soy milk, maple syrup and raisins.
  
• Stir the soy milk mixture into the flour mixture until soft dough is formed. Add more milk if needed.
  
• Transfer to a floured surface and shape into 8” round. Cut the round into 8 wedges.
  
• Transfer to prepared baking sheet; and sprinkle each wedge with 1 tsp of sugar, if using. Bake 20 minutes or until browned.
  

These breakfast beauties are off to Vaishali’s IAVW: Britain and to Madhuram’s Whole Grain Baking event. Soymilk can be substituted with buttermilk to make non-vegan scones.

Notes: Leftover scones can be wrapped in aluminum foil and kept in the refrigerator for upto 3 days. Microwave for about 30secs and enjoy the scone while still warm.

Mango-Raspberry Jam: I made this jam when we had an abundance of mangoes and raspberries and I had no clue what to do with both the fruit before they go bad. Then I decided to make a jam with both and I’m glad I did. I got a total of 4 medium size bottles of jam that we have been enjoying thoroughly ever since. I bought sugar with pectin from Sweden and I used in this jam.

Method:

• Microwave chopped Mango and Raspberry until almost cooked, about 6-8 minutes. I microwaved Mango for about 5 minutes before adding the raspberries.
• Add the fruits to a saucepan along with Sugar. Cook until sugar melts and starts to thicken, about 25-30 minutes.
• Store in a air-tight jar in the refrigerator. I sterilize my jars following DK's canning 101 tutorial to the T.