Lots of Yummies

I have lots of yummies to share.

We had some nicely Roasted Beets on Thursday night, served with my favourite Pumpkin Burger. I also got around to trying out PeanutButter Cups. Oh My God. They were just too good. They are perfect little one bite wonders, curing all cravings for anything and everything all at once. Last night, sticking with the peanut theme, I made a Spicy Peanut Sauce that I used for two purposes - as a dipping sauce for the Tofu Stuffed Rice Paper Wraps and as a sauce for a really, really yummy Soba Noodle Salad. I fell in love with the salad the minute I started chowing down - a perfect salty, spicy, nutty combo.

Twice Cooked Herbed Beets



4 huge farm fresh organic beets
olive oil to coat
dried herbs of your liking (I did a mix of basil, oregano and thyme)
walnuts
balsamic vinegar

I wrapped the four oversized beets that we picked up on Wednesday from the La Ferme Hoste market stand (they do all local/organic yummies and the farmer is super sexy. You can actually go and stay on the farm if you are looking to do an agro-organic holiday) in some enviro-unfriendly aluminum foil, and tossed them into a 400 preheated oven.
I left them for about 1 hour, waiting until I could pierce them with a fork. I then went through the annoying task of peeling the big guys, which I did under a cold water plunge to make sure my fingers didn't singe off. Once they were washed and cut into cubes I heated up a cute new skillet that I bought and threw them in with the remaining ingredients. I loved the vinegar and walnut inclusion - really complimented the roasted sweetness of the beets. Perfect side dish.

Organic PeanutButter Cups



2 bars of dark organic chocolate
2 cups of organic peanut butter
1/2 cup of confection sugar
splash of vanilla
mini muffin paper cups or confection cups

This was my first time and I looked through loads of vegan and non-vegan recipes, and decided that they all included some of the same things - p.b., chocolate and the willingness to get a little dirty in the kitchen. Despite the multistep process, it was actually quite easy and broke up my mobile making on Friday afternoon.

I started out by making a double broiler with a glass bowl atop a boiling pot of water. Inside the glass bowl, I plunked my two bars of chocolate and let them melt down. I then took a paint brush and coated each of the little muffin papers with a layer of chocolate - bottom and sides. Next time, I will only go half way up I think. I let this thin layer of chocolate dry for about 20 minutes. Step one done.

I then added the p.b., vanilla and sugar to a pan and warmed it through until it was gooey and liquidey. I added about 1 inch of the pb mix to each cup, allowing this time to cool as well.

Finely, after reheating the chocolate one last time, I topped off each of the cups with the remaining chocolate. They set in about 1 hour (without fridge time), and they were perfect.

As this was my first attempt at confection creation, I was going for the "I did it" moment, next time I will concentrate on prettiness and getting it to look a little less DIY.


The Soba Noodle Salad that I made last night was excellent! I loved it and could have put away the whole thing on my own if it wasn't for that pesky Kevin needing to eat dinner too. It was dead simple and incorporated many of the ingredients I had pulled out for making the rice wraps. I boiled the soba noodles, tossed them into a cold water bath, and then coated them with sesame oil, and a tablespoon of the peanut sauce - mixing for about a minute to ensure coverage. I then threw on top some grilled tofu, yellow pepper and mango. I plopped the bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes, and it was nicely chilled when we were ready to chow down.


I wish everyone in vegan land a happy start to your week - and I am trying to be much better about updating my vegan mummy blog.