never met a cupcake i didn't like

seems like a harmless little thing, right?

it's a cute enough little cupcake with a sad lopsided heart of cocoa and cinnamon/ nutmeg mixture. all it wants is some love.

desperately craving homebaked cupcakes after enjoying a lovely chocolate-mint one on sunday afternoon during tea with kim, i ventured to my local public library and found vegan cupcakes take over the world. i took it home with dreams of making some delightful cupcakes. after consulting with paul i decided to try the chai latte ones, page 109. no sooner did i arrive home from work on wednesday afternoon and i was in the kitchen baking up a storm! it all seemed to be going so well!

after scarfing down dinner in anticipation of those spicy little cupcakies i was terribly disappointed to bite into a tough, doughy little puck. blech! so very, very blech.

i didn't even eat it. in the garbage they went...all 11 of them (paul politely ate one). i have a few ideas of where i may have gone wrong. that doesn't help ease the pain of throwing away a batch of cupcakes though.

sadly, these vegan cupcakes did not take over our world.

soup for a winter cold

hi! i'm back!
hopefully for awhile, although i've come to the realization that i'm not the most um...consistent blogger. (no kidding, right?) but acceptance is the first step. and so here i am to try again.

after making it through a very long while without a cold or flu to speak of (haven't had one yet this school year), i finally felt something coming on yesterday. i started mega-dosing on cold-fx, which i swear is a wonder drug. and then today after a nice long nap after work, i made a lovely, hearty, and delicious soup that i think is going to help me kick this cold in the butt!

i modified the "miso soup for one" recipe in la dolce vegan.
here's my recipe:

Krissy's Kick-Your-Cold-in-the-Butt Winter Soup

2 c water
1" fresh ginger, peeled and cut in chunks large enough to fish out later
1/2 tsp veggie bouillon
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
handful frozen shelled edemame
small handful dried wakame (seaweed)
5 cubes dulp pock (puffy tofu)
2 tbsp miso

Boil water with chunks of ginger. Throw in chopped carrots and celery and cook until softened. Add veggie bouillon to water. Throw in frozen edemame and dried wakame and cook 3 minutes. Add dulp pock and cook a few minutes, just long enough to heat through. Remove from heat and stir in miso. Let stand 3-5 minutes. Stir well and enjoy! (Don't forget to fish out the ginger as you eat!)

Mmmmm...

Also pictured: 2 steamed vegetarian bbq pork buns.

yummy dinner #3

this was a great meal we had earlier in the week. i made these tofu & rice balls from the garden of vegan, another sarah kramer cookbook i use on a regular basis. these balls (tee hee) are extra yummy with mushroom gravy, which i just buy in a can and warm up quickly on the stove. a nice big salad with sunflower seeds was the perfect side.

yum.

yummy dinner #2

tonight's dinner was from my most favourite of all my cookbooks, la dolce vegan by sarah kramer. i swear i use this book a minimum of 3 meals out of the 5 i cook during the week (paul's in charge of sat & sun dinners). this was my first attempt with this recipe and it was soooo yummy!

tonight i made butternut squash & lentil soup with ginger. we had it with fresh 9-grain rustic bread from brick bakery, drizzled with olive oil.
sadly, this photo does not do justice to the soup. it was such a flavourful and slightly spicy meal. the generous amount of fresh ginger really added a nice flavour.

rating: 10/10

yummy dinner #1

i've always been really inspired by bloggers that post delicious-looking meals they've made. one blog i miss dearly is dinner daily. i used to get lots of quick and interesting meal ideas from her.

anyhow, i'm going to give this a try myself mostly to have a record of meals i've made and enjoyed. i'm not sure how long this will last as i'm often in too much of a rush to start eating. running to find the camera (and working batteries) before digging in can be a bit of a hassle. but here goes attempt #1.

this is what we had for dinner tonight.
penne with chickpeas, baby spinach, and sundried tomatoes from quick fix vegetarian

it was so easy to make and turned out really yummy. basically it's just a quick sauce made from minced garlic, canned (diced) tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, chickpeas, a bag of baby spinach, and s&p . i sprinkled some sunflower seeds on top for some crunch.

the verdict: 9/10