It’s the end of another busy weekend for me, gearing up for a week ahead in Vancouver! Next week will be a bit different post wise for me, you will be seeing lots of ‘shared’ meals as I plan to cook for my family and friends – I can’t start a food blog without sharing it with those I love 🙂
I’m tallying up the votes from the “Pick the Recipe” challenge – and can’t wait to make it for a girls night this week. It was originally scheduled for Taco Tuesday, but I will have to push it now to Taco Thursday… thank goodness it still fits the taco theme 😉
I’ve made some amazing recipes this week, WOW. I am so excited for the next week ahead and some of the other Oh She Glows recipes I’ll be testing out. A word of sadness first though, I think I broke my food processor on the sunflower seed butter fiasco (see here to get the details). It is still under warranty so hopefully I can get it figured out, but I am also keeping my eyes out for a higher end one. But even BETTER news… I just found a Kitchen Aid Architect Series 13 Cup Processor used… AND IT’S CHRISTMAS IN APRIL! Stay tuned as I test various things on it. Us foodies need our good tools!
Okay, time for my reviews…
First up, the Crowd Pleasing Caesar Salad, combined with the Marinated Balsamic Tempeh (I made it with tofu) found in the Oh She Glows Cookbook. I really wanted to find tempeh, but I can find no where in Victoria that stocks just plain jane tempeh without spices added. If any fellow Victorian’s know where to get it, let me know! The closest I found were the green cuisine veggie tempeh burgers, but still have soy sauce added…
I wanted to show you a before -ish picture of the tofu so you get an idea on how much it gets dyed by the marinade. For those that stick their noses up from tofu, I feel like this dish may change you!
The longer you let it sit in the marinade, the darker it gets. As you can see I had it in a smaller container to bake… that didn’t go as fast as I wanted it to, so I threw everything into a large frying pan on heat #6 and it worked perfect. Sizzled up nicely and the marinade turned into a sort of balsamic reduction. It was glorious
The nut and seed parmesan cheese was equally as exciting. It tastes the closest it will get to parmesan, without having a spec of dairy. This is saying a lot since those who know me know I’m obsessed with cheese.
One more nice and close so I can make you drool your socks off…
Okay, I digress, here is my overall score for the meal (with the detailed review here)
Over the last few days I have been snacking on the Lightened Up Raw Pecan Pumpkin Butter. Velvety and smooth with the perfect hint of pecan and pumpkin, this dip is the perfect mid-day snack with sliced apple, banana, bread or cookies if you want to go all out. I was going to make the buckwheat crispies with it but this week got a bit intense with cooking (and the food processor fiasco) so I decided on skipping that one for now.
Here is my review overall, detailed one found here
Lastly, the wonderful Strawberry Shortcake with Coconut Whipped Cream Gluten Free Pancakes. I made these with a full on head cold on Saturday, but nothing was stopping me after I saw the photos for these. I was determined. I also made some Strawberry chia seed jam (from the Oh She Glows Cookbook) and smothered that in between layers of pancake and whipped cream. Pure decadence it was really. If this can’t shake away a cold, I don’t know what can!
The presentation isn’t as good as I would have hoped, but I was too hangry to wait… and as you can see the whipped cream was melting…
DEVOURED!
Highlights of this recipe: It was super filling, easy enough to whip up and tasted delicious
Lowlights: buckwheat flour is not the best thing to make first thing in the morning (noisy) so plan in advance! Also, next time I would blend the bananas as opposed to chopping them up… I just didn’t care for the consistency it made and the pancakes easily stuck to the pan because of it.
You can see my detailed review here
Okay, that is all folks! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, reviewing the Thai Veggie Burger and the Classic Hummus.
xoxo H