Marisa’s Babies Blessing Party
21 Mar 2012 7 Comments
in New York Highlights, Raw Desserts and Treats, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: Angel’s Nachos, Apple Cranberry Pie, avocado, Babies Blessing, Baby Shower, Black Bean-Pumpkin Seed Burger, black beans, Brunch, Candle 79, Cannoli, chipotle, chocolate, Coconut-Mint Frappe, comfort food, dessert, entertaining, Guacamole Timbale, Home-Style Pancakes, lemon-caper sauce, Live Sweet Potato Parfait, maple, oyster mushrooms, Party, polenta fries, quinoa, raw, salad, seitan, Seitan Picatta, Steamed Dumplings, Stuffed Avocado Salad, vegan, Vegan Baby Shower, vegetarian, Wild Mushroom-Squash Risotto
Candle 79 is one of the best restaurants ever as far as I am concerned! It’s on the UES so a bit of a hike for us, but makes the ultimate date night spot. Romantic, Cozy and deelish!! Check out my review from 2009.
But I went there for a very different reason recently. I had my fabulous Babies Blessing Brunch Party there. SO much fun, a bunch of beautiful girlfriends and the best food to celebrate the almost arrival of our little kiddos 
Benay, the manager, was amazing in helping me set up this event and everything went super smooth. The food of course was deelish!
My mom made fabulous favors: Super cute planters all prepped with organic soil and seeds and a super cute flower on top So perfect!!
Thanks ladies! Such a great day to celebrate!!!
We had a great menu!
APPETIZERS
Guacamole Timbale
chipotle black beans, caramelized onions, cucumber-jicama salsa, tortilla chips, ranchero sauce
Steamed Dumplings
seitan, shiitake mushrooms, baby bok choy, sesame-soy-ginger sauce
Angel’s Nachos
corn chips, mozzarella, tomatoes, refried pinto beans, chili-grilled seitan, guacamole, salsa, tofu sour cream, romaine lettuce
ENTRÉE
Stuffed Avocado Salad
baby greens, quinoa, zucchini, cucumber, radishes, black beans, toasted pumpkin seeds, grape tomatoes, chipotle-avocado dressing
Black Bean-Pumpkin Seed Burger
mixed lettuces, avocado, polenta fries, chipotle ketchup
Home-Style Pancakes
seasonal fruit, cranberry butter, gingered maple syrup
Wild Mushroom-Squash Risotto
cashew cream, pumpkin seeds, fresh herbs, frizzled leeks
Seitan Picatta
creamed spinach, grilled potato cake, oyster mushrooms, lemon-caper sauce
Check out my version of this famous dish
and then Dessert
Live Sweet Potato Parfait
nut granola, huckleberry ice cream
Cannoli
vanilla cream filling, coconut-chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate sauce
Apple Cranberry Pie
toasted oat crumble, french vanilla ice cream, berry
coulis, candied almonds
There were lots of fabulous beverages going around. I was super happy to have ordered the Coconut-Mint Frappe avocado, coconut water, agave, mint, lime. AMAZING!! I have been craving this drink ever since!
Like this:
Vegan Peanut Butter Mousse
15 Mar 2012 1 Comment
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: agave, banana, banana bread, breakfast, chocolate, chocolate chips, comfort food, cookies, cream, cream cheese, dessert, entertaining, granola, mousse, non-dairy cheese, peanut butter, pudding, quick and easy, silken tofu, snack, strawberry, tofu, Tofutti, vanilla, vegan, vegetarian
Addictive does not even describe how good this is! You are lucky if it makes it out of the blender to serve. Have fun with this and change up the toppings or get super creative and make a pudding pie or cake with the mousse.
This one is so super easy to whip up but be careful, not sure we should have mousse EVERY day ENJOY!
Vegan Peanut Butter Mousse
1 cup peanut butter
16 oz firm silken tofu (not the vacuum packed kind – I used Nasoya)
1/2 cup agave
1/2 cup vegan cream cheese
1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Blend tofu and peanut butter in blender or food processor until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend more, scraping down the sides. Add agave and vanilla and blend again.
Assemble with toppings or just enjoy alone (maybe even straight out of the blender )
Toppings Ideas
bananas
strawberries
other fruit
granola
banana bread crumbles
chocolate chips
Like this:
Yummy Protein Goo Ball Bites
29 Nov 2011 10 Comments
in Raw Desserts and Treats, Raw Vegan Recipes, Superfoods, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: agave, almond butter, artisana, breakfast, Brendan Brazier, chocolate, coconut, coconut butter, coconut milk, dessert, honey, life tim protein, peanut butter, quick and easy, raw, snack, superfood, vega, vegan, vegan protein powder, vegetarian
I have been doing my best to get as much protein as possible lately. (Thank goodness for Brendan Brazier’s Vega Bars!) I have made many versions of this snack throughout my life, but never added protein powder before and it really was such a perfect addition! I made both vanilla and chocolate versions to enjoy Awesome!
These were so super fast to whip up and even faster to eat haha so make sure you make some extra for the perfect on the go snacks.
Yummy Protein Goo Ball Bites
Chocolate Version
1 scoop chocolate protein powder (as I mentioned above – I love Brendan Brazier’s products from Vega and his Shake & Go Smoothie Chocolate is amazing!!!!)
2 tablespoons Artisana coconut butter (this is the best stuff ever!)
2 teaspoons honey or agave
1 heaping teaspoon organic peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/2 cup unsweetened dried shredded coconut
1/4 cup light coconut milk
Vanilla Version
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (my absolute favorite vanilla powder - Life Time Lifes Basics Plant Protein)
2 tablespoons Artisana coconut butter
2 teaspoons honey or agave
1 heaping teaspoon organic peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/2 cup unsweetened dried shredded coconut
1/4 cup light coconut milk
Combine all ingredients. You might need a little more protein powder or coconut if too wet or some coconut milk if too dry. Roll into balls in your hands.
Optional add ons:
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- Extra shredded coconut
Melt chocolate over a double boiler and dip the bites in the bowl. Then sprinkle coconut over and freeze until firm.
Like this:
Vegan Peach Cobbler Pie
03 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: agave, Cobbler, comfort food, dessert, earth balance, flour, nutmeg, peach, pie, snack, soymilk, sugar, vanilla, vegan, vegetarian
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Toss the peaches with the agave and the nutmeg in baking pans and set aside.
- Mix all the sauce ingredients together until smooth and pour over peaches.
- Combine the crumbles ingredients into a crumbly dough with your hands. Sprinkle on top, completely covering the peaches and sauce.
- Place in the oven 35 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle another tablespoon of sugar onto both pies. Place back in the oven for 7 more minutes.
- Remove, let cool, and enjoy!
Vegan Fudge: Soy, Tree Nut, & Gluten Free
19 Jun 2011 3 Comments
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: chocolate, coconut milk, comfort food, dessert, quick and easy, snack, vegan, vegetarian
Thanks so much Averie for this recipe! OMG! This one “magically” dissappeared fast out of the fridge over the week. 
I don’t normally make these kind of desserts to keep in the house, but it was Birthday Week so I thought we could have this special treat. SO good, So fast (to make AND to eat!!). YUM!!!!!! It’s rich, decadent, fudgy, wonderful.
Vegan Fudge–Soy, Tree Nut, & Gluten Free; and a 10 Minute Recipe
Recipe from Averie
1 Cup Vegan/Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 box Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
2 Tablespoons Dairy-Free Margarine (Earth Balance)
1/2 Cup Regular Coconut Milk *DO NOT USE LIGHT Coconut Milk*
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- In a large bowl, combine the chocolate chips, sugar, and cocoa.
- Separately, place the margarine and coconut milk in a small saucepan, and stir together over medium heat.
- Cook the mixture until the margarine has melted, and bubbles just begin to break at the surface.
- Remove it from the stove, and immediately pour the liquid over the dry chocolate & sugar mixture.
- Let everything sit for a couple of minutes (and if you wait too long and it hardens up on you, feel free to nuke it for 15 seconds at a time or until melty), and then stir vigorously to melt the chocolate and incorporate the dry ingredients.
- Continue stirring until a completely smooth mixture forms.
- Mix in the vanilla, and quickly pour everything into your prepared pan, a lightly greased or cooking-sprayed 8×8 pan (or another similar size)
- Let cool completely before cutting into squares.
I'm surprised any of this made it into the pan It was so good! The ultimate spoon licking dessert!!
Ready to Chill
Vegan Dessert Bars
30 May 2011 2 Comments
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: baking, chocolate, comfort food, cookies, dessert, entertaining, snack, vegan, vegetarian
These are amazing! I have been making and impressing people for years with them!!! And we all know that I rarely repeat a recipe so these must be amazing hahah
Vegan Blondies / Dessert Bars
25 squares-ish
- 1 5/8 sticks of Earth Balance, melted (Love that they make the sticks of Earth Balance!!)
- 1 pound light brown sugar
- 3 vegan egg replacer
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 3/4 cups white flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped nuts (I use half pecans and half walnuts)
- 1 12 ounce bag vegan chocolate chips
- In a bowl, combine melted Earth Balance and brown sugar. Let cool.
- Pre-heat oven to 350F.
- Add the egg replacer and the vanilla, mix well.
- In another bowl, add the dry ingredients together, mix and then add to the liquid mixture. Mix everything thoroughly.
- Spread into a greased 13″x9″ pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and cut into squares, and enjoy!!!
All Gone!!
Kim’s Vegan Sugar Cookies
28 Apr 2011 2 Comments
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: almond milk, comfort food, cookies, cream, dessert, Ener-G, entertaining, guest post, snack, soy, Tofutti, vegan, vegetarian
My wonderful friend and reader, Kim, has shared some really great recipes with me in the past. I am super excited to have her Guest Post here These cookies look absolutely amazing!!!! I think these would be great for any holiday or event as they are so versatile!! YUM!!!!
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So I always find family holidays a bit tough because they always revolve around candy and sweet baked goods. So every year I usually try out a new recipe of some sort to see how it comes out and to test it on my family. My goal is to find the perfect vegan holiday recipe that not only will I enjoy, but my family will as well (and they are picky eaters). So I found this recipe in VegNews and decided to give it a go. Not only did it come out fantastic but my family can’t get enough of them. My Grandmother and myself were up to our elbows in cookies for Easter, with frosting everywhere. We spent a good amount of time trying to design the perfect cookie to be photographed, but got so tired by the end of the night that we only shot a few cookies and decided that we would just slap some frosting on the rest for the family. They are so delicious that we didn’t think the family would mind or notice. Hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as me and my family does.
Vegan Sugar Cookies
For the cookies:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegan margarine, softened
3 teaspoons ener-g egg replacer, mixed with 1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup vegan sour cream
4 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the frosting:
1/4 cup vegan margarine
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons soymilk (I use almond milk)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
(for the frosting I think they messed up the amount of milk. It makes
a crumbly consistency so i usually follow it and once it’s mixed I
slowly pour in more milk until it becomes a nice smooth frosting)
- To prepare cookies, preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl cream margarine and sugar until fluffy. Add egg replacer, vanilla, and sour cream and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry mixture to wet
- Mix for 1 to 2 minutes or until combined then roll dough into large ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes
- Remove dough from fridge and roll out 1/2 inch thick on floured board. Cut using cookie cutters. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until golden. Allow to cool before frosting.
- For frosting mix all ingredients with mixer on medium speed until creamy and soft (will need to add more milk I have yet to calculate how much I usually add so just eye it)
- This makes a lot of cookies and I usually put the dough in the freezer while each batch is in the oven so that while your waiting the dough doesn’t get too soft ( just don’t leave it too long or else you will have iced cookie dough)
And be warned these are addicting, be prepared to eat at least 5 before you even offer them to anyone else because they are that good. My grandmother ate at least 2 handfuls by Easter and she doesn’t usually eat that much sweets.
My 30th Birthday!
19 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in New York Highlights, Raw Desserts and Treats Tags: cake, chocolate, cookies, dessert, entertaining, snack, vegan, vegetarian
I LOVE Birthdays and I turned 30 last week! SO of course a fun reason to celebrate!
On Friday Night we celebrated at Friday Night Yoga Social! FNYS is an AMAZING class I teach with two unbelievable, inspiring and beautiful teachers and friends; Mimi and Angie. It was so perfect to be able to celebrate with many of our students and friends, such a special night as always! If you are ever in NYC on a Friday Night, come to our fun class!!
Saturday was more fun party time And of course since this was my party, there had to be yummy vegan food!
Terri’s delivered their SUPER YUMMY sandwiches. Michael and I LOVE all their Vegan sandwiches but seem to never get enough of the Vegan Bacon Cheddar Chicken Ranch sandwiches. See my review here from when they first opened. It was great to see all these non-vegans Loving these scrumptious sandwiches too, always fun of course! Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures. But go there yourself and try these sandwiches out, so good!
I also had a crudité platter from Whole Foods. Of course a crudité platter would not normally get a honorable mention but this one was special because it had a super yummy Vegan Caramelized Onion Dip. The catering guy at Whole Foods Union Square, Mark, was Super awesome and so helpful! We went around the whole store to score the best vegan dip for the platter. Perfection!
I love my sweets and since it was a birthday party, there had to be a cake and then of course some more desserts I brought the deelish vegan brownie bites, chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies from BabyCakes. And the cake, oh the cake…. one of our faves, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bomb Cake from Vegan Treats… we bought it at Atlas since Vegan Treats is in PA, but they sell their AMAZING cakes and treats all over the city so thank goodness not hard to come up with. (pic below)
Then on another night Michael took me to Pure Food & Wine to celebrate just the two of us YUM!! And of course this meal had to end with the amazing Mint Sundae. (pic below)
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with me and who sent Birthday Wishes!! Lots of love all around!!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bomb Cake
Ugh Oh! This is a dangerous cake to have leftovers of! YUM!!
Mint Sundae from Pure Food & Wine
5 minute Tofu Chocolate Pudding & Whipped Cream Pie
17 Mar 2011 1 Comment
in Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: cake, chocolate, cocoa, comfort food, cream, dessert, entertaining, quick and easy, snack, soy, tofu, vegan, vegetarian
Recently I needed a fast dessert to bring to a party. I didn’t really have time to make something, and not that there is anything wrong with buying something to bring, it just really isn’t me. So I needed to improvise My mom had recently sent me a 5 minute recipe for a Tofu Dream Pudding. (Thanks Mom!) I figured why not use this recipe to make a quick pie.
The pudding was incredible!!! We could have just eaten this on its own but it was super deelish as a pie filling as well.
It is easier to slice when frozen, but even more deelish when defrosted!
Tofu chocolate Pudding & Whipped Cream Pie
Pudding
Recipe adapted from food.com
- 2 boxes of firm silken tofu (the asceptic type…One brand is Mori-Nu…not the water packed kind!)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder (good quality)
- Simply blend tofu, cocoa, sugar, vanilla in a food processor or blender until smooth and well blended.
- Add the almond extract in a little at a time, and adjust to taste. (optional)
Pie
- vegan pie shell (I chose chocolate…see picture below)
- vegan whip cream (I used Soyatoo Soy whipped cream and was not so impressed, buy Hip Whip instead)
- chocolate bar
- Pour pudding into pie shell
- Decorate with whipped topping and then grate chocolate over it.
- Either serve immediately or freeze. (freezing made it perfect for travel! But it tastes best defrosted)
Pie Shell
Just the pudding in the pieshell
The pudding was amazing just on its own!
Party Time! Fun Vegan Snack/Apps Ideas
21 Jan 2011 1 Comment
in Home Cooking, Vegan Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes Tags: comfort food, cookies, dessert, dip, entertaining, h'orderves, quick and easy, raw, snack, vegan, vegetarian
I am super excited about the Jets game this weekend!!! I wanted to share some past ideas for fun snack ideas to serve for the big game (or really any party ) I know that sometimes we can end up at a party without any good vegan grub (potato chips don’t count!) so I like to always be prepared and bring something fun with me
Have a great weekend! Go J-E-T-S!!
Cheesy Baked Penne with Cauliflower and Crème Fraîche VEGAN Version! SO GOOD!
Sweet Potato Fries with Raspberry Dipping Sauce
Beet Ravioli with Herb Cheese Filling
Vegan Eggplant Pecan Pesto Dip
Chocolate-Covered Katie’s Banana Butter
