Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I was staying at a friends place and she pulled out the cutest mini loaf pan. I said something along the lines of "I have to have this pan" and she replied "it's yours - as long as you promise to use it". Best day ever!!! So to keep my promise I adapted this recipe from the Half Assed Kitchen to make these absolutely delicious zucchini cakes.

 

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2-1/2 cups fresh zucchini, grated, peeled
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup canola oil
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup of dark chocolate cut into chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine zucchini, bananas, oil and vanilla. Stir well. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients except chocolate chips. Add wet ingredients to dry, stir thoroughly and fold in chocolate chips.

I was worried that the loafs would stick so I cut rectangles of parchment paper and placed them into the mini loaf tin with enough overhang to wrap the loafs afterwards.

Bake mini loafs for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes our clean.

Peach Glazed Salmon with Fresh Peaches and Garlic Scapes

I threw this dish together at the last minute but it turned out really yummy. We don't have a BBQ but I bet it would be really tasty cooked on one.

Peach Glazed Salmon
4 fillets of salmon
1/4 cup of peach jam (I used no sugar added variety)
2 tsp soy sauce
1 small onion cut into very thin rounds
1 fresh peach, chopped
3 radishes, thinly sliced
1 lime, cut into wedges

Mix the jam and soy sauce in a small bowl. Place the salmon on a baking sheet and brush on jam mixture. Top with thinly sliced onions and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. When salmon is cooked place on a bed of garlic scapes (See recipe below) and top with peaches, radishes and a squeeze of lime.

Garlic Scapes
1 bunch of garlic scapes
1 Tbsp of oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add garlic scapes and cook until tender. I like them with a lot of colour so i let them cook without moving them around to much. When they are ready add salt and pepper to taste.

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad

This is a super easy and refreshing salad for hot summer days. The fennel and cucumber came from our CSA basket while the mint came from our patio herbs.

Grapefruit and Fennel Salad
1 fennel bulb
2 grapefruit
1/2 cucumber
Handful of fresh mint
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice the fennel thinly using a mandoline if you have one. I chopped some of the tops to add to the salad but this isn't neccesary.

Zest grapefruits then peel and segment each one. Squeeze out the remaining juice from the left over pulp and reserve the liquid.

Chop cucumber and mix in a bowl with fennel and grapefruit. Chop mint finely and add to salad. Mix grapefruit juice with olive oil to make a dressing. Pour over salad and add salt and pepper to taste. Finally garnish with grapefruit zest and enjoy.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

These cookies are really yummy. I like to use super dark chocolate for some bitterness. I brought these to a work event and they were devoured. The recipe was adapted from Sarah Kramer's Vegan a Go-Go. Make a double batch!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Egg replacer to equal one egg
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup sucanat (or use regular sugar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup vegan dark chocolate cut into squares


In a food processor or large bowl, blend or mix together the egg replacer, margarine, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, coconut and chocolate chips. Add the margarine mixture and stir until well incorporated. Roll dough into balls, lay on cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Let cookies cool 5 minutes before removing from sheet.

Herbed Turbot with Fennel, Apple and Peach Salad

I felt like a little piece of fish tonight and we received beautiful fresh fennel in our CSA basket this week - this is what came out.

Herbed Fish
6 fillets of white fish {I used Turbot}
1/4 olive oil
2 handfuls of fresh herbs {I used chives, oregano, basil, sage, lemon thyme and tarragon - all from our patio herb garden)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt

Mix oil, herbs, lemon and salt in the blender until all herbs are broken down. Place fish into an oven safe dish and pour herb oil over fillets. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily.


Fennel, Apple and Peach Salad
1 fennel bulb
1 apple
1 peach
2 radishes
3 Tbsp peach jam
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Using a mandoline slice the fennel bulb, apple and radishes thinly. {I also cut my apples into matchsticks but you could leave them whole}. Cut peach into wedges and put all ingredeints into a bowl.

Mix jam, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to make dressing. Add to veggie mixture and serve with a helping of fish.

Moustache Love

I know they are everywhere right now but here is a little round up of super cute moustache {mustache} stuff.

1. Mustache buttons from Londontierney 2. Mustache print from ErikDWhite 3. Mustache Party invitation from Damask Love 4. Mustache love ring from Isette 5. Mustache throw pillow from bambina 6. Bearded lady print from TheBruisedPear 7. Mustache pocket mirror from SarahVonKim

Vegan Sugar Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

P's 13 year old cousin came to visit us for the weekend which was awesome. We had a great time playing games, going to the amusement park and of course eating ice cream sandwiches. My last batch of ice cream sandwiches went over pretty well so I decided to do it again.

Cookies waiting for ice cream

First make the cookies. I added an extra 1/4 of flour and rolled them out and cut out circles with a cookie cutter for more even shapes.

Perfect Vegan Snickerdoodles
Recipe by Kreeli

1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp soy milk whipped with 2 tbsp cornstarch
3 cups unbleached white flour  (Plus an extra 1/4 cup if you want to roll them out)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp tapioca starch or cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 300 F.

In a large bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together until smooth. Add the vanilla, and the cornstarch/soymilk mixture, and beat until well-mixed.

In a smaller bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and tapioca/corn starch. Stir this into the wet ingredients and combine well.

Begin rolling the cookie dough into balls of about 3 tbsp each and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Using the bottom of a glass, press down on each ball until they are about an inch thick. (Or do it like me and roll your dough out and cut with cookie cutters) Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, and no more. The cookies should still seem very soft when you remove them from the oven. Let cool on the pans for about 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire baking rack and let cool completely.

To Assemble

This time I let the ice cream soften and spread it into an even layer about an inch think in a pie plate. Then I put it back into the freezer to set while I made the cookies. 

I used the most delicious ice cream to fill the sandwiches -  Luna and Larry's Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge and Cappuccino flavour.

Once the cookies are cool take your ice cream out of the freezer and using the same size cookie cutter, cut circles out of the ice cream. Lift them out using a small spatula and place the ice cream circle between two cookies. Press down slightly and put into an air tight container in the freezer. Continue until all cookies and ice cream are used.

I found this method to be less messy than just spooning the ice cream between two cookies.