My Birthday

The week before my birthday I kept getting asked the same question about my birthday party; "What can you eat?" My family was trying to plan some sort of dish that Stu and I could eat while they were having hot dogs and hamburgers. I share my birthday party with my nephew Nick, who turned 4 this year. The theme was Iron man! I finally told everyone not to worry, I would bring myself a GFV cake and have salad.  But two days before the party I ended up in the hospital Emergency room for excruciating pain and found out I have fibroids. So needless to say I was not feeling up to baking a cake. 

When I arrived at my parents house, my sisters and niece were so excited to show me that they had made me chocolate covered strawberries with vegan chocolate chips and a GFV chocolate cake! I could not have been more proud of their efforts and they were too. We laughed as they shared the whole experience with me of them venturing into whole foods not quite knowing what gluten free was, and looking for Gluten free, wheat free and "vegan free" cake mixes! lol.. Until a kind shopper overheard them discussing the matter and gave them the rundown of what gluten free means and what vegan means, She helped them pick out the cake mix and egg replacer and they even made the frosting. I smiled ear to ear because the thought really does mean alot and the cake was delicious.

We also had a beautiful salad for lunch. All in all they went out of their way to make it special and it was.

On my actual birthday at home, Stu surprised me with a vegan gluten free version of my favorite dish: Panang! I used to eat chicken panang from every Thai restaurant we went to. But his version was amazing and included unexpected ingredients like sweet potato and kale. While unexpected, they seemed to belong in the dish and really complete it. I will find out which recipe he used and post it. 

GFV Panang

Once the kids left to their dad's last night, we finished out my birth week with something we have not had in a long time. Dirty Martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives. On his way home from work, Stu picked up some vegan blue cheese and some Belvedere vodka. He stuffed the olives while I mixed the drinks. While the texture of the blue cheese was not the same, we found that the longer it sat in the drink the more it tasted like the real thing. Verdict: more dirty martinis tonight :) Cheers!

Spring Rolls

 I was getting my pedicure done when a man walked into the nail salon with a huge tray of spring rolls for the staff. I immediately began craving one so not long after I left the salon, did I head for the nearest grocery store to get my supplies.

My sister in law used to make lumpia, which are Filipino spring rolls so I had a basic idea of what I needed. I wasn't too sure whether I wanted raw spring rolls or cooked ones so I made both!

For the raw filling I used :
1 red bell pepper
1/2 green cabbage
handful of grated carrots
large bunch scallion
handful of bean sprouts
6 cloves of garlic
grated ginger
cilantro
basil

I squeezed lime juice over it along with some sesame oil,  tamari sauce and a small amount of chili sauce called sambal oelek. After soaking the rice paper in warm water for a about 15 seconds, I wrapped them over some filling and served it with sweet chili sauce. I do not think this recipe can be messed up as it is basically throwing in the things you like, as little or as much as you like!

 Then I used all the same ingredients but I wilted it down in the pan and added extra tamari and extra sesame oil. This was the fun part because we tasted as we went along . When we were happy with the taste, we rolled up more spring rolls and popped them in the oven. I served it with THIS very simple sauce, but I changed out the soy sauce for Tamari to make it gluten free. I also used apple cider vinegar because I did not have rice wine vinegar and added a little grated ginger as well. It was amazing!

Chocolate cake anyone?

I came across this Gluten free chocolate cake recipe on Ginger Lemon Girl's blog. I have to say it was so amazing that it was gone in two days.  I added a handful more of the vegan chocolate chips than the recipe called for and it was enough to satisfy any rich chocolate craving a person could have. Next time I will use canola oil instead of the coconut oil because my son Ryan does not care for the flavor of the coconut oil that much. I also took her tip and used Pillsbury Chocolate frosting as it is vegan and gluten free and drizzled some over the top with powdered sugar. It could not have been easier!

Last Night's Dinner

We love roasted veggies but last night we had them with a little twist. I was not feeling well so Stu took over the dinner making. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to have Daiya shredded pepper jack cheese on the broccoli and cauliflower. So tasty and so easy.

Lentils

A few weeks ago, I attempted making lentils for the first time. I did not follow a recipe but just took a little bit from everything I read online. However, I did not follow one piece of advice I read about : "Do not mix newly purchased lentils with ones you already have at home as they will be more dried  out and cause them to cook unevenly." 


I will just cook them a little longer I thought, who cares if they are overcooked, right? Wrong! Some of the lentils were a bit under-cooked and I learned my lesson! At least they were two different colors so I could easily pick them out. I am proud of myself for trying something new, which seems to be a regular thing lately!

Gluten free vegan meatloaf

I used this recipe , using the gluten free substitutions. I also added chopped garlic and green pepper to it because of course I have to have garlic in "meatloaf"! For the topping I just used what I used to make for regular meatloaf, a mixture of ketchup, brown sugar and liquid smoke. Stu absolutely loved it. He couldn't get over the flavor and we were blown away by the texture. The recipe is from the book Let Them Eat Vegan so I actually want to buy the book now and make some more amazing dishes!

GFV Red Velvet Cake

So my guy was secretly busy in the kitchen last night making me stay in my room as to not see what he was up to. I smelled him baking something. He said it was some kind of oats cake with raisin glaze. I will admit I smiled but was not enthusiastic over the sound of that at ALL. When he was finally done I was so surprised! We each ate a nice sized piece. It was so goooood. But after eating clean wholesome foods for the past 6 weeks, the ingredients in this cake made us both feel terrible shortly after. (Shortening being a main ingredient). We decided we would not have any more of it but it was delicious and I was very touched that he went through all the effort to make something like this. I will find out where he sourced the recipe and post it later.