Vegan S'mores Bars

I made these tasty treats for a bake sale back in August, "Goodies for the Gulf." Once I saw a non-vegan recipe for these, I couldn't get them out of my mind. After a couple attempts and few modifications I came up with the recipe below. They are so delicious I promise they won't last long. I recommend waiting at least sampling a taste about 20 minutes after they come out of the oven. The chocolate will still be melty, gooey and oh so yummy!

Vegan Smores Bars

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup "butter" (I used Earth Balance Buttery Sticks)

2 Ener-G Replacer "Eggs"

2 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cups crushed graham crumbs

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1 bag of Dandies vegan marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 8 inch pan with parchment paper. Cream together sugar and margarine until fluffy. Add vanilla and "eggs" and beat well. In a separate bowl mix together graham cracker crumbs, flour, and baking powder. Slowly add dry mixture to the wet until well combined. Separate the dough in half. 

Roll out the first half of the dough with a rolling pin to line the bottom of the pan with the graham cookie crust. Next, layer the chocolate chips over the cookie crust, and then layer with marshmallows. Lastly, roll out the remaining dough to layer on top. Bake in oven until golden brown, about 25- 30 minutes. Let bars cool completely before serving. To speed up the process, wait 15-20 minutes after removing the bars from the oven and then place it in the freezer for half hour to an hour.

Hint: to create a smooth crust, make graham crackers crumbs in a food processor so they are nice and smooth.

Simple Animal Cupcakes: Pigs and Chicks

I made these cupcakes to bring to a friend's birthday party. You don't need to be an expert to make these, they are simple to execute. Here is how: bake up your favorite cupcake recipe, and vegan buttercream frosting. If you are looking for a recipe check past posts for a good one. For the chick, color 1-2 cups of coconut with yellow food coloring, sprinkle a thick layer on top of a frosted cupcake. Use two semi-sweet chocolate chops for eyes, a split orange gum drop for a beak, and a gum drop rolled out into a wing shape (or check the store for some already shaped that way). For the pigs, color the frosting pick, use semi-sweet chocolate chips for eyes, pressed pink gumdrops for ears, and pink dyed marzipan for the nose. Use a frosting tip to add dots for the pig's nostrils.

First Bon Fire with Vegan S'mores

We finally broke in the fire pit in our back yard this year. It has only taken us 3 years, but in our defense we've had a baby to take care of each summer or been pregnant since living at our current home. The kids had themselves a blast. They particularly loved the vegan s'mores. Evelyn liked hers as a sandwich and Elliott ate each ingredient singularly in true 3 year picky fashion. Most importantly, they followed directions and stayed away from the fire and no one got hurt. We're planning on another one for Labor Day weekend. Hopefully the weather cooperates.

The Seven Year Itch

2010 marks the year my hubby and I have been together a decade! Seven of those years we have been married. In honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd post a quick link to the article about it, which was published in VegNews way back when.

http://swenconn.powweb.com/wedding6.html

We had a vegan wedding, which is detailed in the article above. It is hard to believe it has already been seven years, yet here we are now. Just thinking about the food and cake from that night, makes my mouth begins to water. It has turned into my "seven year itch" to re-create the food from that night.

Roasted Kale Chips

Think your kids won't eat greens, think again. We've cooked these up a few times, and the kids consistently ask for seconds and even thirds. Part of the reason I think they go over so well is all in the name. For some reason, simply calling them "chips" was enough to get our kids excited. It probably didn't hurt to see and hear us gushing over how tasty there were the first time we made them.

My friend first posted about making these on Facebook and they sounded so delicious we had to try it out. It is unbelievably easy to make and can be used for other types of greens. We've also made baby spinach chips that were great too.

Roasted Kale Chips
1 bunch of kale
1-2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt to taste

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash kale well and remove center rib. Tear into small pieces. Toss in bowl with oil and salt. Spread out kale evenly on large cookie sheet. Roast in oven until it starts to brown on the edges and is crunchy (about 6-8 minutes).

Fresh from the Yard

This summer is the first we've been able to start thinking about gardening. We planted some raspberry and blueberry bushes, and we're so excited to see how much we were able to harvest in the first year. It was a great opportunity to teach the kids about where food come from and learn some basic plant biology. Here are some of the blueberries we picked.

The kids loved to pick and sample them. We also started a garden this summer, and hope it will help to foster an appreciation for the work required to grow food. Maybe it will help the kids to venture out and become fans of other types of vegetables they have shied away from in the past. It did work with some crookneck squash we grew. Elliott was so excited to pick it and normally wouldn't eat that (he prefers butternut squash), but he specifically asked from some on his plate. Still working on fresh greens. So far all they'll eat is kale and spinach chips.

End of the Sabbatical

Sorry for disappearing for so long. It had been a busy summer, and we've had a continuous string of things happen. It started with our 1 year old in a cast two weeks, a death in the family, a visit to Children's ER, and then two weeks of high fevers. It seems we have a break for now, and I'm hoping it lasts.
I've missed sharing some things, so I'll spend this week catching up on our summer shenanigans. We celebrated our son's 3rd birthday in June and here is a picture of him enjoying the cake we made for him.

Last year he had a digger cake, and this year he was still very much into construction machines. He wanted a construction site cake. We were able re-use decorations from last year it worked out well. Here is a closer picture of the cake.

It was a combination of two types of cake. One side is marble with vanilla frosting in between, and the second half is white chocolate cake with raspberry filling.