February's Daring Bakers Challenge...Flourless Chocolate Cake

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I made these into flourless cupcakes for Valentine's Day. The recipe I used was an Alternate Bakers Challenge recipe which was a combination of the Black-Eyed Pea Cake from the amazing BitterSweet blog and a recipe I found floating around on how to make Black Bean Brownies.

Overall I would have to admit that I do not think anyone would miss the flour from these cupckaes. The taste is so rich and fulfilling.

The ice cream I served them with was a plain Vanilla which was amazingly smooth and creamy. The recipe was based on the one found in Veganomicon with a few changes.

I regret to inform that I did have a completed picture for this challenge of both the flourless cupcake and ice cream put together but it accidently got deleted from my camera :( I will certainly be more careful in the near future.

I cannot wait to see next month's challenge!

Bow Tie Pasta and Salad

Tonight we had some bow tie pasta with Basil Tomato sauce with onions, carrots and chopped up Tofurky Sun-dried Tomato sausages. I put a little Sheese on top because I got a few more containers today and could not wait to use it. We had a nice salad and fresh bread on the side.

Fajitas

We had fajitas for supper tonight. I bought some Yves Veggie Ground Chicken while it was on sale. It looked quite interesting and I have to say the taste is not bad. I prefer it over the original ground round. I sauteed some onions, red peppers and grated carrots then added the ground "chicken" with some fajita sauce and water to thicken it. They were served on warmed flour tortillas with tofutti sour cream, salsa, shredded romaine lettuce and black olives. These were just the right amount of spice and I loved tasting the veggies sauteed to perfection. We had chocolate pudding with bananas for dessert but none of those pictures came out in focus.

Quiche

I was really craving a quiche tonight and had the ingredients on hand so decided to give it a whirl. The recipe is loosely based on the one found in Veganomicon. I used a rice crust for a base for the quiche. The filling has navy beans, carrots and spinach in it topped with tomato slices. DH politely put it that if this meal was based on appearance it would fail miserably but then redeemed himself by saying it tasted good. I was not overly impressed with it and it did not curb my craving so I will have to try again next week. I think part of the problem was my pie plate was not big enough....

Back with a Sunday Dinner

We had a real traditional Sunday dinner tonight. I had been craving my favourite unturkey dinner with all of the trimmings. I decided to give the Tofurky roast another try since I found it for 10% off at Sobey's. I have not had one of these since the first Thanksgiving I became vegan over 4 years ago. I have to admit it was not bad. A little pricey but there was enough for 2 meals for the two of us so overall not too badly priced. I roasted it with some red potatoes and carrots. I made a side of homemade cranberry sauce (cranberries, maple syrup and water) and homemade stuffing (bread cubes, celery, onions, veggie stock, fresh thyme, fresh rosemary and fresh sage) and a simple gravy (veggie stock, flour, earth balance and miso). This really hit the spot!

For dessert I made a cake and pudding. The original recipe comes from the green vegan cookbook from Sarah Kramer I believe. On the side I made homemade vanilla ice cream. I have to admit this was the best ice cream to come out of my Cuisinart ice cream maker. It was so simple to make and probably cost under 4.00 for the whole batch. The recipe was based on the one in Veganomicon (1 can of coconut milk, 1/2 box of silken tofu, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla)

Here is what is left of the rich and yummy ice cream.

Later in the evening we could not resist making Root Beer floats since we could not remember the last time we had some. The taste was so smooth and creamy. Definitely going to bed with full bellies tonight... :)

Sorry everyone...I promise to be coming back soon :)