A Very Vegan Valentine

Don't clog your valentine's big, pretty heart:  Give them a delicious plant-based treat to show just how much you love them!

This recipe was inspired by the C'est La Vegan blog.

I give you - Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes!

Here's what you'll need:

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 Tbs. baking powder

½ tsp. salt
¾ cups sugar
½ cup cherry soy
½ cup vanilla (or plain) soy milk
½ cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract
10oz. frozen cherries (or fresh cherries, but the frozen are pitted & cheaper!)  I chopped the larger cherries in quarters & halfed the smaller cherries.

Sift all dry ingredients except the sugar.

Why do we sift?

Because we don't want clumpy cocoa in our yummy cupcake!

Now we're ready to mix...

Preheat oven to 350 (F).

Mix the sugar and soy yogurt until just blended.

Add about 2/3 of the sifted mixture a few big spoonfulls at a time.

Then add your milk/oil/extract mixture...

Add remaining dry ingredients & then remaining wet.  Adding the ingredients this way ensures a firm moist cake.  ;o)

Do not over mix ingridents, mix until just combined:

You don't want your cake to be chewy!
Scrape sides & beater, fold in any unmixed parts as you fold in the cherries...

I mean, if you don't want to eat this right now, you should consider talking to a therapist.

Line muffin tin with papers (pink & white here for the holiday) & fill 1/2 - 3/4 full.



Pop 'em in the over for 20-25 minutes.

In the mean time, you can start on the Butter Cream Frosting...

You'll need:

4oz. Vegan Cream Cheese

1/2 stick vegan butter

2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese until thoroughly combined (maybe 2-3 minutes).

Add powdered sugar & vanilla until combined.  Check the consistancy, if you want it thicker, add more powdered sugar.

Frost your cupcakes & voila!

I topped mine with some organic truffles I picked up at Earth Fare.  I wanted to make little chocolate hearts, but I got started late & it just wasn't in me.  I guess I'll have to make something chocolatey soon.  Oh, the horror.

Happy Valentine's Day, Ya'll!

It's Nada Enchilada!

I love Mexican food more than Speedy Gonzalez loves his sombrero. I could eat it at least twice a week, probably more.

This recipe was inspired by an Amy’s frozen dinner:

I saw it in Earth Fare over the weekend and it looked sooo good; the price tag, however, did not. One of these little frozen entrées runs around $3.99. My thrifty side kicked in & I figured out I could make four to six servings for around $8.00; granted not all the ingredients I used were organic (as Amy’s are).


So, here’s what I used:

1 small can chopped green chilies
1 small can sliced black olives
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans (soak ‘em if you got ‘em…I was in a hurry & hungry!)
8 corn tortillas
1 medium can red enchilada sauce
1 medium onion; diced/chopped
1 Jalapeño (if you likey the spicy)
2 tsp. taco seasoning (from this blog)
Pepper Jack Almond Cheese...Don't forget the cheese!!

Sauté diced onion with about 1 tsp oil for about 2 minutes. Add taco seasoning and jalapeño and sauté for a good five minutes.

Add green chilies, black beans and half the enchilada sauce and cook until heated through (this is when you should taste it to see if you’d like more seasonings).

Meanwhile, mix remaining enchilada sauce with refried beans (I microwave them for about 30 seconds so it mixes easier).

Just be a grown up and get over how it looks.

Heat oven to 350 degrees (F) and begin to layer your ingredients: Tortillas, bean mixture, Sauce/Veggie mixture, olives and cheese. Repeat. That’s how I layered, but you can do it any way you like.

Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.

While it’s baking, you can prep your garnish:

When 20 minutes is up, uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.

When you take it out, let is set for at least 5 minutes.
There ya go.

And if $2 per serving isn’t exciting enough, see how this little creation stacks up to the meatier versions:

Now, you could shave off a even more fat and calories if you left out the cheese and black olives. I l♥ve black olives and this brand of almond cheese really melts and tastes great. You could also sub Mexican rice for the refried beans. I thought about doing that, but the hubby has a “thing” about Mexican rice.  It baffles me.

So, play with it and let me know what variations you come up with!