Stuff Poblano Peppers

For our Anniversary a few years ago we decided to go to Garden Grill in Epcot. They are always changing the menu every few months so we weren’t sure what was going to be offered at that time.  We were told the veggie option was all you can eat Stuff Poblano Peppers and our choice of sides (note: this contain dairy).  It sounded really good so we were excited to try it out. The  Poblano peppers were AMAZING absolutely amazing!!!

I started thinking about how good that meal was and then I got a really strong craving for them so of course we had to make them our version and vegan style. I was thrilled to see how easy they are to make and how delicious they tasted. Poblano peppers are a bit on the spicy side (at least to me who is a wimp when it comes to spicy) so you can always use regular bell peppers for this as well if you’d like.

I think this is going to be a must make all the time now. Yes it’s that good.

Ingredients:

4 – Poblano peppers

1 Can – Black Beans (Drained)

1 Cup Dry – Quinoa

Vegetable broth for Quinoa

½ large Cucumber – Diced

2 Tablespoons – Finely Chopped Cilantro

2 Drops Lime Oil or 2 Limes Juiced

2 Slices – Follow your Heart Smoked Gouda Cheese – Diced

2 Slices- Follow your Heart Smoked Gouda Cheese – Halfed

1/8 Cup Oil –  We used Tuscany Herb and Rosemary Infused Oil

Seasonings – Seasoned Salt.

Preheat Oven to 375°

Cook your quinoa in vegetable broth per directions on bag.

Slice tops of peppers off. Mix oil and seasoning together and coat pan and peppers. Once coated place peppers in pan and put in oven for 15 minutes.

Mix together drained black beans, diced cucumber, cilantro, 2 slices of diced cheese and lime oil together in a bowl.

Add Quinoa to bowl and mixed.

Stuff peppers with mixture.

Place peppers in pan and slice top to form a V. Fold back V slice and add ½ slice cheese to each pepper. Fold V back unto top of cheese.

Place in oven for about another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!!!

Vegan at Disney.

Since we don’t live to far away we like relaxing our worries away at the greatest place ever….DISNEY!!!!

Disney has a lot of fun things to do for everyone in the family. Rides, shows, shopping and food….well food can be complicated for some of us with food allergies or food choices.We normally bring our own food most places we go, including Disney, because it can be hard to find something vegan and filling. I know most people say “they have salad” but sometimes a salad just won’t work for me.

So I was happy to find a lot of vegan options now sprouting up all over Disney. I’ve been following Vegan Disney World on facebook and was thrilled to see all she was posting about yummy new foods available for us. So next time we went to Disney we kept our eye out for them and spoke to the Chefs to get extra yummy food care.

Our trip started out wonderful. We were invited to an HSN Tea Party for breakfast and movie preview. They had a huge spread of foods but we weren’t sure what we could eat. They brought out the chef for us and he told us the fruit and potatoes we could eat and he made us Vans vegan waffles!  He also brought us some goodies for dessert. Enjoy Life cookies. They were AMAZING!!!!!  He was super nice and more than willing to help us get our bellies full.

We went to Disney Music Resort for dinner. The chef there was so thrilled to help make us something special. We decided on a veggie burger (it was cooked in the back as to not get meat juices on it) and chips. This meal hit the spot. The burger was so flavor full and the bread was awesome.

For breakfast at the hotel we were made mickey waffles. The waffles are normally made with milk but if you ask the chef they can make them with water. Mickey waffles just taste better than regular waffles .. ..they’re Mickey shape!!!

We went to the new Art of Animation resort  to walk around, which is awesome by the way, and ended up eating there. They had a build your own salad.  They use new bowls with each order and add whatever you’d like in it. They even had tofu. They didn’t have any dressings for us so we just got oil and vinegar with a little salt. The bowl was enough for us to split and be full.

The night we left we decided to go back to the hotel for dinner again. This time the fabulous chef made us a veggie burger wrap with rice and veggies. On the side was spicy sauce. This was one of my favorite meals there.

We noticed all over every hotel we went to (we walked around a lot of them to check them out) they had vegan dessert items. The Enjoy life cookies (which is what we had at the HSN Tea Party) in a couple different flavors, Enjoy Life chocolate bars and Surf Sweets gummie candies. It was so nice to be able to control our sweet tooth.

Most chefs are more than happy to make you something special with whatever allergy you have. Just remember that it does take longer to get your meal this way so be prepared to wait a bit, but trust me it’s worth the wait.

Let us know about any vegan foods you know and like at Disney!

 

Vegan Jello Shots

The name says it all. Jello Shots….Vegan!!!!

Their awesome if I do say so myself and really, really easy to make. Best part, they only need to stay in the fridge for about 1 hr before you can enjoy them. So they are easy to make for last minute parties! I found the recipe years ago at this blog spot . She used vodka and different amount of water/alcohol ratio than I do. My recipe is below but you should check her’s out as well.

Ingredients

Whiskey or Rum (3 oz)

Water(8oz to boil and 5oz cold)

Vegan Jello (I use Bakol Jel Desserts, which our local walmart and publix sells it!!)

(Pretty simple ingredients huh?)

Directions

Check out her blog spot above for directions.

Just some tips from me:

The picture shows me using mini plastic cups but I perfer to use mini silicone cupcake liners. The jello pops right out of them and easy to clean as well.

These start setting within minutes of removing from heat so make sure to have your cups ready and pour quickly.

They will last in the fridge for about 3ish days before they get a funny texture.

For 4th of July I jazzed this puppies up and made Firecracker Jello Shots. You follow the directions above but add alcohol infuzed maraschino cherries to each shot. Just soak your cherries in alcohol for 30 mins to overnight (depending on how strong you’d like them) and add them once the jello starts to harden some (otherwise they sink right to the bottom).

Cowboys Cake

My husband and I made this for my Dad’s birthday last year. It came out AWESOME!!!! Much better than I thought it would. I was very pleased with it and he seemed to like it as well.

Ingredients

2 – Chocolate Cupcake recipe from what else than Cupcakes Take Over the World.

1 – chocolate Frosting (Same Cookbook as above)

1 – vanilla Frosting (Same Cookbook as above)

Coconut

Fondant

Yellow, Green, brown, gray and Blue Food Coloring

Directions

Make 2 square cakes and cool. Once cool place side by side and frost with chocolate frosting.

Color the coconut with green food coloring and place on top of frosting.

Color the fondant blue and make the end fields, helmet and star.

Color the Fondant gray and make the other star and laces on helmet.

Color the brown to make the football.

Place all fondant pieces on top of cake.

Color some of the vanilla frosting yellow to make the lines by the end field.

Color some of the vanilla frosting silver for the COWBOYS name.

With the remaining white frosting add the lines and numbers.

Place pipe cleaners as the Goal Posts.

Vegan Pizza Dip

So there is this great stuff my sister always makes….so now I do too.

It’s pizza! Not your normal pizza though. It’s a dip make with sour cream, cream cheese, sauce, veggies and cheese and served with chips. It’s a great thing to bring to parties, or movie night at home or just when you want something great to eat.

Ingredients

1  – Tub Cream cheese ( I like Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative by Follow Your Heart but any is good)

1 – Tub Sour Cream ( I like Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative by Follow Your Heart but any is good)

1 – Jar Pizza Sauce

1 – Pre-cut peppers (or 1 Cup Peppers cut)

1 – Pre-cut Onions (or 1  cup onion cut)

1 – Bag Mozzarella Cheese  or provolone or jack ( I like Daiya)

1 – Bag Corn Chips

Directions

Turn oven to 350

Place cream cheese into 8×8 baking dish. Place in oven for about 5 minutes or until soft.

Add sour cream to cream cheese and cover the bottom of baking dish.

Add pizza sauce, then onions and peppers.

Place back in oven till warm about 10 – 15 minutes. Add cheese  and place back in oven till melted.

Enjoy with chips!

Vegan Cookie Filled Cupcakes

YUM is all I can say to this. Really look at these pictures.

What can you really say to make them better than they already look? Nothing that’s what. My mother-n-law said these are her favorite so far out of everything she has had.

So once again 95% of this recipe came from a cook book. A wonderful cookbook so if you haven’t gotten it yet you really needs to.  It’s call Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It’s totally worth buying since all the recipe’s I have tried from it have been oh so good and I use it a lot.

Ingredients:

1 recipe of Vanilla Cupcakes (From the cookbook)

1/2 recipe of Cookie Dough Balls (From the cookbook)

1 can Pillsbury Frosting – Chocolate

1 Nifty Cupcake Holer my Lovely Daddy got me.

Directions:

Make Cupcakes and Cool

Make Cookie Dough Balls and place in piping bag or Ziploc bag.

Take cooled cupcakes and punch a hole in the center of each. Don’t forget to taste test all the cupcakes parts you took out 🙂

Fill with cookie dough

Top with frosting. (Since the cookie dough is sweet I didn’t put too much frosting on the top and I also had some leftover cookie dough so I put some on top. )

Total perfection!!!! Enjoy!!!

Vegan Dirt Cake

For my birthday this year (back in June) I decided I wanted dirt…cake..dirt cake that is. I mean I’m a vegan so of course I like the taste of dirt…and sweet dirt is the best. I’ve been loving this cake for as long as I can remember.  So I check out some things online because I couldn’t find my mom’s old recipe I used to use and I didn’t like what a lot of people said how to make it so I decide to make my own, Then half way to work I remember where I put my mom’s old recipe!

Dirt Cake

1 1/2 package Oreo’s

1 Tube Cream Cheese ( I used follow your heart brand)

1/2 – 1 cup powdered sugar ( I used 1/2 cup)

2 boxes vanilla pudding ( Some people say chocolate but I have never done it that way)

4 Cups Milk for pudding

2 cups whipped topping (I used 1/2 box of Healthy Top by Mimic Cream)

Make the pudding according to the directions and place into fridge over night (You need the pudding cold so that’s why it needs to be made a day before the rest).

Crumble cookies into small pieces. You can place into blender to do this but I like putting into bag and smacking it. This way the chucks are all different sizes.

In medium bowl blend cream cheese and powder sugar until smooth.

In a small bowl make your whipped topping according to the directions.

In a large bowl blend the pudding, whipped topping and cream cheese mixture until smooth and combined.

In a large clear bowl (or flower-pot or sand castle pale..or anything really. I like clear because then you can see the different layers) place a layer of cookies, then cover with 1/2 the pudding mixture, another layer of cookies, the rest of the pudding mixture, then the rest of the cookies. You can also add gummy worms (vegan ones) on top or throughout the cake. It gives it more of a realistic dirt feel with the gummy worms. If you use a flower-pot you can always place a plastic flower it in too.

Happy Birthday Cake!

CHOCOLATE Cake!!!

So my sister birthday just past in September. She turned really really old 🙂 just kidding she turned 29! I wanted to make her a super special birthday dessert. I ask her what was her favorite dessert that I have made or anything she wants and she said my chocolate cake with ganache filling. I told  her to forget I ask so it would be a surprise.

I gotta say it is my favorite cake now. See this is one of my favorites because I don’t like normal chocolate cake. It’s always just to bland and dry to me. I’ve always been a fan of vanilla but this cake changed my mind on chocolate cake. It’s one is my ultimate favorite now and my go to recipe for a lot of things.

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake I used is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It’s the “Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake”  recipe. I  made half the recipe because I only made 2 mini springform pans. It was the perfect amount.

Chocolate frosting I used “Chocolate Buttercream Frosting” from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Again I only made half the recipe because it was a perfect amount.

Ganache it’s my homemade recipe (see below).

Directions:

1. Make 2 mini cakes and cool
2. Make Frosting and place in a bag (I just used a Ziploc bag and cut a little of the corner)
3. Make ganache and cool slightly.
4. Take the 1st mini cake and place on a plate. Take your frosting and go around the edge to make a holder for your ganache. Add the ganache.
5.  
6. Top with the 2nd mini cake.
7. 
8. Take you frosting and frost the rest of the cake.( I just squished it out of the bag and used a knife to make it smooth.) If you have any frosting left in your bag add designs around the sides to pretty it up.I had some ganache left over so I just drizzled it on to the top for added prettiness and topped with sprinkles.

Ganache :

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 tablespoon milk ( I like Almond Milk)

1 1/2 tsp shortening

Mix all together and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and repeat until melted. Add more milk a tiny bit at a time if it’s too thick. Let cool a little bit before putting in cake.

Dump Cake

DUMP CAKE!!!

Sounds completely nasty but oh it is good.  My grandma gave me the recipe and I veganize it :). I remember when she told me what it was it looked great but the name didn’t sound great. Forget the name it’s worth making. I’ve made it for our apartment warming party and our BBQ and everyone has loved it so far. I mean what’s not to love pie filing and cake in one dish. Sign me up I’m trying it.

Items needed

Cake Mix (either homemade, recipe below or store-bought)

2 Cans Different Fruit Pie Filling (My favorite is peach and raspberry but we used Blueberry and Strawberry in the pictures)

2 sticks vegan butter (I used a new one I found in Publix but I’ve also used earth balance too)

Directions

• Preheat Oven to 350
• Dump 1st can pie filing into 9×13 pan and flatten out to over the bottom of pan.
• Dump 2nd can pie filing onto 1st one. Smooth out to cover as much as you can.
• 
• Dump cake mix on top of pie filings and make sure it covers pie filing completely. 
• Slice butter thinly and place over cake mix. Make sure when you place the butter the slices touch each other. You want the whole cake mix to be covered with butter. ( you can see in the pictures mine were not touching and you could tell once the cake was done)
• 
• Cook in oven for 45-50 mins or until cake looks cooked.
• Cool 15 mins and enjoy.
• 

Homemade Cake Mix (no liquid)

1 1/2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

1 1 /2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

Mix all ingredients together really good. Use as listed above.

BBQ Vegan Style

Since the weather here has been super lovely out (rainy mostly but hey that’s Florida) we decided to invite my sister and her kids over for a pool day.  Then my husband said he wanted to grill up some burgers at the pool. Then we invited more people and more people and more people. So BBQ at the pool became BBQ at our apartment and then pool afterwards. It was too much to carry down to the pool and by the end it was just Hubby and I who made it to the pool.

Vegan BBQ?? Most people would think that means cardboard tasting food but it does not at all. Our food is amazing tasting. I was really super excited that everyone tried our burgers and it seemed like they enjoyed them too. We don’t force our lifestyle on anyone but when people come over our house they either 1 bring their own food if they want meat or 2 eat ours.  I’m glad people try ours and I love there honest opinions. I want people to tell me if our foods sucks or what they think so I know for next time what too have or not to have.

 

Here are some highlights of our party and what we had.

 

Burgers – Vegan Boca and Gardein black bean and chipotle burgers. (We get both at our local Bjs. They  just started stilling the Gardein ones. soooo good)

Buns (We get Cobblestone because they confirmed to us that they are vegan)

Chips and Salsa

Pita Chips and Hummus

Pickles, Tomatoes, Lettuce, Ketchup and Mustard.

Watermelon

Dump Cake for Dessert ( will follow in another post)