Cardamon Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips

So I was in LA recently and I really, REALLY wanted to get some cupcakes, but time was tight and I didn't get the chance. So instead I baked some today to satisfy my cravings. So I am NOT a vegan, but I do own the Sticky Fingers new cookbook, which is FANTASTIC. I found the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting and made a few changes here and there to come up with my own version.

Cardamon Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup soy flour

1.25 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup stevia/sugar blend

1/2 cup Earth Balance margarine

1 egg

3/4 cup soy milk

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate pieces

Frosting Ingredients:

1 stick of Crisco vegetable shortening

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil

2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp ground cardamon seeds

2 tsp water

So first I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. In the mixer, soften the  margarine and add sugar. Add egg and continue to mix. Slowly add the milk and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and make sure its all mixed well. Fold in the chocolate. Spoon the mixture into a 12 cup muffin tin (make sure you greased it ahead of time) and bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely once they're baked.

For the frosting, first I softened the shortening and coconut oil. I then added the sugar slowly. Once incorporated, add the vanilla, then cardamon and water and make sure everything is mixed well. Now frost however you like. I go old school and spoon all the frosting into a Ziploc bag and cut a corner (I don't own fancy pastry bags).

I'm so telling you, these cup cakes are yummy. You HAVE to try them out.

It must be an ice cream thing...

Thanks to my girl for that recipe below. It looks so delicious. Today I made some simple butter cookies (using canola instead of butter and Vegenaise instead of eggs) and in between two cookies I scooped some plain frozen Lifeway Kefir. Next I fanned out some strawberries to decorate and get in some fruit in my dessert. It was indeed tasty.

Pistachio Ice Cream

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while but a lot has been going on the past few months. All good stuff though! One of those good things is a Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment KStead gave me for Christmas. For my birthday he gave me a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream recipe book. Who's a lucky girl?

The first recipe I made from the book was actually the blondie brownies. I incorporated macadamia nuts and brought them to a football watching party. They were an absolute hit! I'll probably have to blog about that another time. The ice cream recipe I made was pistachio ice cream. This wasn't in the recipe book but I used the sweet cream base which is the staple of a Ben and Jerry's ice cream. When I was cooking the base on the stove the last ingredient was vanilla. As soon as the vanilla hit the heat I knew it was going to be a good ice cream. It smelled so deliciously good!

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 3/4 cup unsalted shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Instructions

1. Finely grind 1 cup pistachios and 1/4 cup sugar in processor. Bring milk and ground pistachio mixture to boil in heavy large saucepan. Remove from heat. Mix in vanilla extract.
2. Whisk egg yolks and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in hot milk mixture. Return custard to saucepan. Cook over low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes (do not boil). Strain into large bowl. Chill until cold, about 2 hours.
3. Stir 1 cup whipping cream and chopped pistachios into custard. Process mixture in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to container and freeze. (Ice cream can be prepared 3 days ahead.)

Silly Rabbit, Carrot cake is for grown-ups!

So I was going through this, "I need carrot cake" phase the past weeks. Why? I have no idea. Thinking about the good ol' days and the family parties, where, for some reason, Indian people think American dessert is symbolic by carrot cake (I'd rather have apple pie... hmm, apple pie). So anyway, I started googling healthy carrot cake recipes and I found one that is was healthier, but I didn't have all the ingredients so I made some modifications with the recipe and came up with my own. It turned out pretty alright. I did not use whole wheat flour, because in all honesty, its nasty. Really, it is. I rather oat flour or soy over whole wheat. So I used enriched white as that is what my dad carries in his kitchen. The recipe wanted oat bran, which I also did not have, so I used flaxseed. They also asked for egg substitute, and I don't believe in fake foods so I used real eggs. I also used stevia because I'm sure Splenda is powdered cancer (or so says my friend Di).


So anyway, here's Lulu's Carrot Cake Recipe
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup flax seed
1 cup stevia
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 package of shredded carrots
1/2 cup crushed pineapple 
1/4 oil


I just dumped everything in the kitchen aid and let it swirl away. Once mixed well, place in two round cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 32 mins (it just seemed right in my oven). Once the cakes have cooled and are removed from the pan, they are ready of assembly. To make the frosting I whipped up 4 oz of tofu (silken) with 8 oz of cream cheese and a dash of vanilla, a small carton of heavy whipping cream and a cup of stevia. The first thing is whipping the heavy cream and stevia. Then slowly add the remaining ingredients. I decorated it with raisins.

Lulu's Redo Chocolate Chip Cookie

So I decided to take a twist on the chocolate chip cookie and this is what I came up with. Its healthier than your average cookie. Its soft and chewy, and well, its yummy too.

1.25 cups white all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 bag of Ghiradelli white chocolate chips

2 bananas

1/4 cup brown sugar

6 oz plan Greek yoghurt

2 oz canola oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

So first preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Then mash the bananas and mix well with the sugar, yoghurt, oil, and vanilla. Once completely mixed, add all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips. Once well mixed and the chips. This recipe makes 12 LAGRE cookies. Spoon the batter on a cookie sheet (not greased) and bake for 10 minutes. All the cookies to cool down and enjoy!

Jamie Oliver's Cheat Sponge Cake With Summer Berries And Cream

So as I was planning this week's menu, I grabbed my Jamie Oliver cookbook for some inspiration. Flipping through the dessert section first, as it is the most important meal of the day, I found this beautiful cake with almonds around it and raspberries and chocolate on top. So of course I had to have it. Well, making my grocery list, I jetted to the market only to find that the strawberries and raspberries were over priced, and there was no panettone in site. Well, so I modified. I bought some blueberries, used the banana I got from temple earlier that day, and baked an angel food cake in two cake pans to compensate for the missing ingredients. Well, I won't lie, I'm pretty delighted with my end product.

The original recipe can be found in Jamie's Food Revolution, but recipe is pretty simple.

Cheat's Sponge Cake- REMIXED!

One box of angel food cake mix

I cup of blueberries

1 banana

24 oz of heavy whipping cream

4 oz of dark chocolate

few tbsp of sweet white wine

1pk of sliced almonds.

So first I made the cake according to the box directions and baked in two separate round cake pans. Once the cake cooled, I cut the edges to make sure the two cakes would fit nicely on top of each other. Place the bottom layer on a plate and cover it with sliced bananas. Place the top layer and drizzle with white wine so that cake soaks it up, but not too much that wine is floating on top. In a mixer, whip the cream until its stiff and then frost the cake.  While the cake was baking I had toasted the almonds on the stove top on low heat (be careful not to burn them). Once done frosting, pat the almonds on the sides of the cake. Top with blueberries and chopped or shaved chocolate.

Butternut Squash Pie

So I decided that this Christmas I wanted to make a different dessert. The pops and I were heading to Madison to visit family and see my cousin's new baby. Since they were making dinner (which included a very yummy goat curry), I decided, even though I was post-call and exhausted because the stupid pager was going off all night, that I would make dessert. So after Googling online for various pie recipes, I found one I liked @ a blog called Farmer's Daughter, and made a few changes to make my own and this is what I came up with:

Lulu's Butternut Squash Pie

Ingredients:

Pie crust (frozen)

1/2 butternut squash

1.2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 banana

2 eggs

In the oven I baked the squash @ 325 degrees for an hour. I then let it cool and scooped out the squash from the skin and placed it into my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl. I added all the remaining ingredients (except the pie crust) and mixed well until everything was well combined. The oven was preheated to 425 degrees. I rolled out the pie crusts (I used two) and placed them inside a 12 x 8 baking dish (something like that) as I didn't have a round pie pan. I then filled the crust with the squash filling and placed the pie in the oven for 10 mins. After the first 10 mins were over I decreased the temp to 350 degrees and continued baking the pie for another 50 minutes. Once the pie was done baking I took it out to cool, et voila! The pie was a BIG hit at dinner. There was only two pieces left by the end of the night because I had to steal them before anyone else tried as I wanted some for breakfast the next day. I really hope you guys give this one a try.

Christmas Pear Custard Pie

This Christmas, KStead's sister, who lives in Milan, Italy, sent us a Harry and David gift. The Taste of the Valley basket consisted of Royal Riviera Pears, smooth Red Pears, award-winning Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue cheese, buttery Havarti and a walnut-handled spreader, this uniquely designed trivet made of sustainable bamboo unfolds into a pear-shaped basket. KStead engulfed a few pears and they were so juicy. We decided to make a pear pie since I had a frozen pie crust in the freezer. I wanted a recipe that didn't require me to leave the house, so I found a custard pie recipe from Martha Stewart. The pie turned out great! I usually don't eat seconds, especially with desserts, but I kept on going back for more.

Pear Custard Pie

• 3 Royal Riviera or Red Pears, peeled, halved, cored, and sliced
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; Prick pie crust with a fork and cook for 5 minutes.  
2. Peel, halve, and core 3 pears; slice 1/4 inch thick lengthwise. Arrange slices, overlapping slightly, in crust.  
3. In a blender, process 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter, 1/3 cup each granulated sugar and all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 3 large eggs, and 3/4 cup milk until smooth.  
4. Pour batter over pears; bake until golden and firm to touch, about 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Oh Canada!

So recently, well like two weeks ago, I went back home to Montreal to take care of some business and visit old friends. Well, there's nothing as amazing as the food in Montreal (except the shopping, and night life, and the hockey!). So my first day there I travelled down to Boul. St. Laurent for breakfast @ Cafe Sante Veritas which is a health food cafe that caters to both meat eaters and vegetarians. Everything is cooked to order (except the muffins and cookies, but they're baked fresh). ATTENTION NON-HEALTHY PEOPLE: they don't serve soda. By the way, why are you drinking soda anyway? Its so bad for you. All that sugar, artificial sweeteners, food colouring. I mean, is water that frightening to you? But if you're not into water, they have a wide range of fresh fruit juices, Odwalla smoothies, fresh smoothies and coffee and tea. So anyway, breakfast, right. I had the Belgian Porridge which was delicious! Porridge with oats, mixed nuts, raisins, apricots, and apples topped with soy milk, its just a bowl of happiness.

But if you're not in the mood for oatmeal, they have the fluffiest egg white omelettes you'll ever see (I think they whip up the egg whites in a mixer first) with all sorts of mixings like sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach...

Cafe Sante Veritas

480 Boul. St-Laurent

Montreal, PQ

514.510.7775

So later that evening I needed to find somewhere to have dinner. Well, unfortunately they rain decided to show up during my stay so that night I decided to have dinner @ the Petit Opus in the Omni Hotel (where I just happened to have been staying). Well, like most hotel restaurants, vegetarian options are usually hard to find, but this one, most likely because it is in Montreal, and a really nice vegetarian stir-fry dish with tofu. What I really liked about this dish was that the sauce wasn't thick and didn't over power the meal. A lot of times I have found that restaurant chinese food is drenched in sauce and that the sauce is usually too sweet and over powering. Sprinkled with some black sesame seeds, the Omni's Petit Opus satisfied my appetite and my vegetarian diet.

Omni Mount-Royal Hotel

1050 Sherbrooke St West

Montreal, PQ

514.284.1110

Well my last night in Montreal I had to go to my favourite Italien restaurant growing up: Wienstein & Gavino's. I knew right away what I was going to have: Risotto Con Pera (risotto w/ pear). OMG! It was the best risotto I have had in the longest time (and had me set on a risotto cooking escapade when I returned home). So creamy topped with warm slices of pear. every bite was just bliss. Unfortunately, the dish was a a la carte item so it may not always be there.

After my fabulous risotto dinner I had to go for some gelato. I mean, how can you leave Montreal without having dessert? So the waiter brings my friend and I this HUGE cup that contained two scoops and vanilla gelato and two scoops of chocolate gelato. I'm sure she have one scoop and I completed the other three scoops. It was so good though, I couldn't let it go to waste.

Wienstein & Gavino's

1434 rue Crescent

Montreal, PQ

514.288.2231

Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake

So its my puppy's first birthday and I wanted to make him a beautiful birthday cake for us adults to enjoy :o) but its ok, my baby got some treats and presents to enjoy. So I decided to make a cheesecake since it seems to be the cake of choice in my family. I thought at first, how about Hershey's website for a cake recipe? I LOVE chocolate. I wanted to make a chocolate cheesecake. There was one, bit it looked a lil' too simple so I thought: GODIVA! And that's where I found a beautiful chocolate cheesecake recipe. Well, my family members have some dietary restrictions so I decided that I would take the liberty to adapt this recipe to my family's needs. For instance I made a few changes to the crust, I used Splenda (R) instead of sugar and a few other minor changes. In the end, I got a beautiful, HEALTHY version of the Godiva Cheesecake.

Godiva Cheesecake
Crust:
1 cup dates
8 Enjoy Life Double Chocolate cookies
Cake:
2 packages of fat free cream cheese
1/2 cup coffee
1 cup Splenda
11.5 oz Godiva Milk Chocolate chips melted
1 cup egg whites
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Greese a springform cake pan (mine is 10") and wrap the bottom in aluminum foil. In a food processor, mix the dates and cookies into a paste and then pat into the bottom of the cake pan and refridgerate. In the processor beat the cream cheese. Slowly add the sugar while mixing. Add the egg whites. Dissolve the salt into the coffee and then add the coffee to the cream cheese mixture and mix again. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and mix well. Pour the cream cheese chocolate mixture into the cake pan and place the cake pan into a roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water so that its half way up the cake pan and then bake 60-70 mins (when cake is set). Turn the oven off, hinge open the door and leave the cake alone for an hour. Remove the cake from the oven and cool. Once cooled, cover the cake with foil and refridgerate at least 6 hours.

Soy Delicious

Ok, so I never product reviewed before, but its food so I'm gonna talk about it. I LOVE THIS STUFF! Wow, so I was craving ice cream for a very long time, but I knew buying a tub I'd just sit there with a spoon and temporarily have portion control amnesia so I decided to go with an ice cream bar. Well now there are TONS of choices when it comes to ice cream bars, but this one caught my eye as it was only 70 calories and 3.5 grams of fat and, umm, COCONUT! I love coconut (is it because I'm brown?). Yes, the coconut flavour is strong, but with the mild chocolate coating on top, its just the perfect balance of sweetness. Give it a try, I'd love to know what you think.

xo

Pop Rocks Chocolate Lollipops

Take your childhood candy plus chocolate and whoa-la! MyMy Bijoux adapted these lollipops from the Top Chef finalists' Bryan and Michael Voltaggio. These pop in your mouth with the fantastic taste of chocolate. If you want to order these in milk chocolate, dark chocolate or both, email My My Bijoux at mymybijoux@gmail.com.

Tropical Oatmeal Brownie Cookies

So I'm off to visit some people in Phoenix tomorrow and I wanted to take them a thank you gift. I could buy something local like pralines, but I think the best gifts are homemade (when giving food. Fellas, never give your girl something homemade when you can get her diamonds!). So I decided to make some oatmeal cookies (because I am craving oatmeal for some reason), but I wanted to make them different. How? How can I make them different? Well. I scrambled through my cupboards and pulled out everything I could find and see how I could add them into a cookie. Well here's what I cam up with.

Tropical Oatmeal Brownie Cookies
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup agave nectar
2/3 cup oat flour
1 cup old fashion oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dried chopped tropical fruit
1/2 cup coconut
1/3 cup Hershey Dark Chocolate cocoa powder
1/2 cup soy milk
Preheat the oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper and lightly grease it. 
In a mixer, beat the eggs white until they peak then add the agave and vanilla. Continue to beat for a few more seconds to make sure the ingredients are well mixed.
In a separate bowl add flour, oats, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Stir well then slowly fold in the egg white mixture. Add the dried fruits and coconut and stir well. Slowly add the milk- I add the milk last because maybe 1/2 cup can be too much. It just depends on your batter. You want it to be moist, but not runny. Once everything has been incorporated, grease your hands slightly and make balls out of the batter (I get a dozen cookies out of this recipe). Place the cookies on the cookie sheet leaving about an inch between each cookie and bake for 10 minutes.

Why did I use oat flour? Well, certain people that will be enjoying these yummies has a wheat allergy. You can totally use white flour or brown (when using whole wheat flour remember to do half white. This is because whole wheat flour can have a bitter taste).

Cranberry Chocolate Cheesecake

Yes, that's right. I made a cranberry chocolate cheesecake. Simply, I used the recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake from Vegetarian Times and replaced the can of pumpkin with a can of cranberries and instead of 3 eggs I used 3/4 cup silken tofu, and dark chocolate instead of bittersweet. For the crust I used one package of chocolate GoldFish graham crackers and I used Earth Balance instead of butter. Oh, I used fat free cream cheese and cottage cheese as well.

Birthday Cupcakes

My birthday is in a few days and E Lo gave me a nice surprise...CUPCAKES! She had these delivered to my door today and I had 2 tonight they were so good. These cupcakes are from Free For All Cupcakes located in Fairfax, VA owned by 2 sisters. As soon as I opened the box the smell of the chocolate cupcake and buttercream icing leaked through the air. Thank you E Lo for a great bday treat!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake- Veganized!

So my friend N sent me this email for a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. Well, it was fabulous, but as I've decided to give this vegan diet a try, I was now faced with the challenge: How to make this cake vegan... and taste good? Oh, and I had to make it healthy because I am on this never ending quest to lose 5 lbs (the same 5 lbs I've been trying to lose my 27 years of life). Hahahaha, Lulu is the next Iron Chef! Well I did it and I'm going to show you how.

Chocolate Chip Cookie dough Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Filling-

Vanilla extract

Mori-Nu soft silken tofu

1/3 cup agave nectar

2 T flour

32 oz Tofutti "cream cheese"

Crust-

1 pgk of Joseph's Sugar free Pecan Walnut Brownies (bite size)

2 T Earth Balance "butter"

Truffles-

1/4 cup agave nectar

4 T Earth Balance "butter"

2 cups flour

1/2 cup Sunspire non-dairy chocolate chips

1/4 cup soymilk

1/4 cup Mori-Nu silken tofu

1. Make the truffles but combining all ingredients in the food processor and MIX WELL. Put the dough in an air tight container and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours. After 3 hours roll the batter in mini balls and lightly roll in flour so they're not too sticky.

2. Preheat your oven at 350 and combine the brownie bites and Earth Balance together in the food processor to make the crust. Press the mix tightly on the bottom of a spring-form pan (preferably 9") and bake for 10 minutes.

3. While the crust is baking, mix the filling ingredients in a mixer or food processor (I just find it easier to rinse to food processor each time instead of using so many bulky appliances). Drop in 3/4 of your truffles and stir into your batter. Then your batter into the cake pan and drop the oth

er truffles in.

4. Bake 45- 60 minutes (the original cake is for 90 minutes, but vegan cream cheese cooks faster so keep an eye on it and watch for cracking).

5. Cool overnight.

So I like to slice my cake into 16 slices because it is sweet and creamy so a small piece definitely goes a long way.

I hope you enjoy!

Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Today marked the start of blizzard 2009. What else is there to do stranded in a condo but BAKE! I had all the essential ingredients to make a simple dough. I looked on Foodgawker and found a recipe from America's Test Kitchen, Chocolate Chip Cookies. Although, I didn't use chocolate chips. The only thing I had in the pantry close enough to chocolate chip cookies were Trader Joe's Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.


The recipe makes ~30. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Trader Joe's mini chocolate peanut butter cups

- Fold the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed or in KitchenAid mixer on level 2 until combined, ~ 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly mix in the flour mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Mix in the mini chocolate peanut butter cups until incorporated.

- Working with 1/4 cup of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls and lay on two parchment-lined baking sheets, spaced 2 1/2 inches apart. Baking until the edges are golden but the centers are still soft and puffy, 15-18 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool and then serve.

Chocolate Cake w/ Mint Whipped Cream

Like most of you know my now, I'm trying to cut out as much animal product out of my daily diet because I'm doing my best to live a healthier lifestyle. So today I decided to experiment with chocolate cake on my venture of making my favourites healthy. I've to admit it totally took well.

Lulu's Chocolate Cake

• 2 1/2 cups of flour sifted with 1t salt
• 3/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vanilla silken tofu
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 T dark cocoa powder
• 1 t baking side
• 1 cup milk
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
• 1 tub whipped cream
• 1 t vinegar
• 1 t pure mint extract

Preheat oven @ 350 degrees. In a mixer, combine the apple sauce, sugar, and tofu. Then add cocoa powder. Once mixed well add the flour/salt mix alternating with the milk. Next add the vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar.
Pour mixture into a cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Once the cake has cooled cut it in half. Add the mint extract to the whipped cream and mix well. Use 1/2 the tub of whipped cream and spread over bottom layer. Put the top layer of cake on and then top with remainder of whipped cream.

I'd love for you guys to try it out and let me know how it goes. And if you have any suggestions (like, frosting suggestions, or toppings or different flavours...). I'd love any new cake recipes to try out too. Thanks much!!!

Lulu's Vegan Attempts- Turned out pretty nice :o)

Ok, so for reasons explained log before, I've been cutting meat out of my diet. Well I'm trying to take the next step and cut out animal products. Now I'm not saying I'm going to be a devoted vegan, but I'm definitely going to do my best when possible. So today I made my first vegan banana cheesecake and granola (well that's always vegan though).
So here are my recipes. ENJOY!

Lulu's Banana Cheesecake
Ingredients:

• two 8oz Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 box of silken tofu
• 2 mashed bananas
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 pack of graham crackers
• 2 tbsp Earth Balance melted

Set the oven at 350 degrees. Make crumbs of your graham crackers and mix well with the melted Earth Balance. Press in the bottom of a 9" greased springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes. In a food processor mix all the other ingredients until its creamy and well blended. When the crust has cooled down pour the batter in and bake again for 90 minutes. Let the cake cool down before cutting into it.

Lulu's Granola
This is just so simple. In a bowl I added 3 cups of rolled oats, 1/4 cup craisins, 1/4 chopped dried apricots, 1 chopped up apple, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 1/4 oil. Mix it all together and spread it onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Put in the oven for 18-24 minutes @ 350 degrees stirring it occasionally. Cool down and place in an air tight canister/container.

1/2 a cup of granola with some milk make a great breakfast! I hope you guys try it out and if there are any vegans reading it, I'd love your feedback. Thanks bunches.

Thanksgiving @ Lulu's

So I hope everyone had a fabulous time yesterday filled with good food, football, holiday movies, family, friends, and WINE :o) There's nothing like a glass of red wine to go with that turkey. So like I promised, here are the yummy goodies that were set at my table. First I'm going to start with what I believe was the best part- THE CHEESECAKE. Mmm really what's better than dessert? I found this recipe for pumpkin-chocolate swirl cheesecake from vegetariantimes.com.

The ingredients were pretty easy to find:

I love using Libby's Pumpkin filling because there are no preservatives or added sugar. Just pumpkin.

The crust was graham cracker crust with melted butter. I couldn't find chocolate graham crackers like the recipe asked, but hey, regular ones are just fine. I baked the crust for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I mixed the remaining ingredients (minus the chocolate) in the Kitchen-Aid. I used fat free cottage cheese and cream

cheese because I knew there would be people at the table (myself included) that'd be like, "oh no, calories I can't eat dessert. At least not a whole slice". So I tried to take care of that problem. I also used brown sugar rather than white.

I took about a cup of the batter and mixed it with chocolate, which I melted in the microwave. After that I poured the non-chocolate mixture over the crust and then the chocolate mix was spooned onto and swirled around with a knife.

And the finished product was FANTASTIC and DELICIOUS and just a party of itself in the tummy of me and my guests :o)

Ok, so what else did we eat? Well I saw this broccoli with pecan brown butter recipe on Down Home With the Neely's and decided to make this as one of the sides.

So I couldn't get a picture of the turkey because it was torn up and inside people's belly before I could pull my camera out. So the other sides? Because broccoli isn't enough. I made stuffed acorn squash. Kima actually emailed me this recipe. Stuffed Acorn Squash:

In a 350 degree oven bake a squash cut in half (pulp and seeds removed) for 30 minutes in a baking dish filled with 1/4" water cut side down

In a bowl mixed 1-2 chopped apples (skin removed) with 1/2 cup dried cranberries, some cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste and two tbsp butter (chopped up in pieces makes it easier to mix).

Remove the squash and fill each half with the apple mixture then bake for another 30 minutes or until cooked.

Et voila...

We also had steamed asparagus, green beans with fresh cranberries and potato wedges. And in the end, it was one of the tastiest Thanksgivings I've ever had. I hope you guys give these recipes a try, and I can't wait to see what Kima had on her table yesterday.

xox Lulu!