BabyCakes NYC Plain Donut Recipe (Gluten Free and Vegan, of course)

I was finally able to collect all the unusual ingredients and different gluten free flours in order to try to bake the famous gluten free vegan plain donut from BabyCakes NYC. And I have to say - they came out excellent! I've been baking vegan desserts for the last two years, and this was my first time trying vegan and gluten free. The process was pretty quick and simple. Donuts turned out perfectly. Warm and fluffy inside, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, tasted like a perfect fall afternoon in your mouth! (Yes, that does exist!  :) ha ha ha)

 [Photo taken with Canon T2i DSLR and Canon 100mm L lens, final edit in onOne Software]

Instead of making the regular size donuts, I used small/baby donut size pan. I overfilled the molds little too much, and had about 21 of the baby size donuts. I am quite sure if I had filled the molds properly, I would be able to get two dozen of those babies. I know what books I'm getting for Christmas - BabyCakes Cupcakes and Donuts will definitely have a spot on my bookshelf. Can't wait to experiment more with vegan gluten-free baking! It's just so much more fun!

For the recipe for Gluten Free Vegan Plain Donut from BabyCakes NYC click here, you will be redirected to Epicurious website. Also check BabyCakes NYC for more information about the bakery.

BBQ TOFU BURGER

Here is the easiest and by far the fastest vegan burger you can imagine. Ok, maybe it's not exactly a burger, it's more like a thinly sliced, and char-grilled BBQ tofu sandwich. Load tofu on your favorite bun, top with smashed avocado and raw onions - and here is the tonight's winner! 

All you need is:

1 block of tofu, extra firm, drained
your fav vegan BBQ sauce

Thinly slice tofu, I usually get about 14-16 slices out of a Trader Joe's Firm Tofu. Drench the slices in BBQ sauce and put on the hot grill, about 350-400 degrees, for about 5-6 minutes per side. The tofu should be charred on the sides.

The Best Vegan Quesadillas

One of my all-time favorite quick dinners belongs to quesadillas, vegan of course. At first that sound weird, queso – means cheese, so how do you make a vegan quesadilla? Well, right now on the market there are few good cheese substitutes that melt pretty well. My fave is Daiya pepper jack, soy and gluten free melts perfectly. For this recipe you actually don’t need to use any vegan cheeze at all. I promise it tastes amazing just the way it is.

The original idea for the quesadillas came from one of the vegan cookbooks I own. And it was pretty good, but I decided to make it even better by loading it with more fresh ingredients. And make it more suitable for a dinner entrée. I think I ate this for a week, every night – that’s how yummy, quick and easy it is.

This is what I do, first I prepare few essential items that go into the quesadilla and then just assemble and heat up on the pan. First thing first – a must mix – red onion, scallion and cilantro. Something that is pretty easy to chop up on a whim and keep in the air tight container in the fridge for a few days. You can put it on anything!

1 medium red onion, chopped,

10 scallions (green and white parts) chopped,

small bunch of cilantro (depends on your personal taste preferences) chopped

Mix all in a jar or plastic container, cover and store in the fridge for few days.

Ingredients for Quesadillas:

Flour tortillas (I use Trader Joes Chile and Onion flour tortillas)

1 can of rinsed organic black beans (or other beans of your choice)

1 package of chipotle hummus (from Trader Joes, if you don’t have it, just add a ½ tsp of taco seasoning to a small container of roasted red pepper hummus)

1 tomato, diced (or fresh tomato salsa)

Onion/scallion/cilantro mix

Taco seasoning

Avocado (or guacamole)

Ok, so first thing first – pre-heat a nonstick skillet with a tiny drop of olive oil. Take 2 tortillas, and spread a decent amount of hummus on each of them. Take one and gently placed on heated skillet hummus side up. Start loading – black beans first, tomatoes, onion/scallion/cilantro mix, and be generous with all the ingredients, you want this to be a hearty dinner! Sprinkle some taco seasoning and cover with the other tortilla, hummus side down. Let it sit on the skillet (on a medium low) for about 3 minutes on each side, until golden and warmed up inside.

Transfer to a plate or cutting board, make two cuts with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, to have 4 quarters. Load up each quarter with avocado (or guacamole), sprinkle with more tomatoes, the mix and some lettuce. Take a bite! See what you think… I bet you’ll love it!

Now, if you are craving something more cheezy – you can add Daiya pepper jack before it covered with another tortilla. Keep it all the same, just at some point add some cheeze to the middle and cook a minute longer to make sure the cheeze melts. This recipe is so versatile, you can add whatever you want there. Chopped bell peppers, spinach, chick peas, refried black beans, vegan chili… whatever you want.

Red White and Blue Berry Trifle Veganized

This picture and recipe comes from Martha Stewart. I just fell in love with the image and the idea of veganizing this recipe. This has not been tested yet, so if you decide to make it – it’s on your own risk. The ingredient volumes might require adjustments, as we don’t want the white fluff mix to be to runny. If I make it before Wed July 4^th, I will repost my photos and the actual recipe. But for now, here is how I would try to veganize this recipe, and hope for the best:

Original recipe ingredient list:                               Veganized recipe ingredient list:

1 ½ pound raspberries and strawberries                    1 ½ pound raspberries and strawberries

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar                                       ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ cup fresh orange juice                                          ¼ cup fresh orange juice

10 oz. mascarpone cheese (1  1/3 cup)                      10 oz. vegan cream cheese (1  1/3 cup)

1 ¼ cup cold heavy cream                                        1 ¼ cup well-chilled full fat coconut milk

½ tsp. pure vanilla                                                   ½ tsp. pure vanilla

Pinch of salt                                                             Pinch of salt

20-24 ladyfingers                                                     20-24 vegan ladyfingers

2 ½ cups fresh blueberries                                        2 ½ cups fresh blueberries

In a medium bowl, combine raspberries with 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar and orange juice. With the back of a fork, lightly mash berries to release their juices and let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together vegan cream cheeze (mascarpone) and 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar until smooth. Whisk in coconut milk (cream), vanilla, and pinch of salt and whisk until softer peaks form, about 4 minutes. Gently mix in the vegan cream cheeze mix and whipped coconut milk.  

Cut one or two pieces parchment 1 inch taller than side of an 8-inch spring form pan and line inside of pan. Place half the ladyfingers in pan and top with half the raspberry mixture. With a small offset or rubber spatula, spread half of the fluff mix (whipped cream) over berries. Tap pan gently on counter to remove air bubbles. Repeat with remaining ladyfingers, raspberry mixture, and fluff mix (whipped cream). Top with blueberries and refrigerate for about 3 hours (or, tightly covered with plastic, up to 3 days). To serve, unmold trifle and peel away parchment.

[Image source: Martha Stewart.com]

Weekend Photostream

Finally, the iPhone made it to my hands! After 8 months of waiting to become eligible for a new phone (thanks a lot AT&T) I made the big purchase on Friday, June 1st, 2012. I am obsessed with the camera and the photo apps that are available for the iPhone 4S.

To share my photos I will be posting a Weekend Photostream with my faves of the week. No rules, just fun of taking pictures and seeing them through a variety of photo apps! :)

We spent this weekend in the city, enjoying the weather and our rooftop deck. On Friday Tim met me downtown for lunch and iPhone shopping. After that we got on the train at Madison and Wabash and took the "L" home. About a week ago, our newly build Morgan Station was finally open, after 2 long years of construction, and we got to enjoy the quick train ride home. The station is state of the art, modern steel sculpture build into the old tracks. It's truly amazing!

Rest of the weekend was just like a "lazy stay-cation", which we both needed. Kodie enjoyed his long walks to the park every day. He loves the park. We can't say the word PARK anymore, because he goes crazy, starts following me around super excited :) Few Skinnygirl Margaritas finished off the weekend and before we knew it was Monday again.

Road Trip Recap - Day 6 - Cades Cove and Abrams Falls

Ok, I really need to finish recapping the GSM road trip before I forget everything. Today, as I was thinking about this post I started to wonder what we did on the sixth day... was it still Smokies or did we get to Nashville by then.

Day six was our last day in The Great Smoky Mountains. The sky was little overcast and I think there was rain in the forecast. So far we had amazing weather so even little rain wasn't going to ruin what we had planned for the last day.

[Our little friends on a last day in the Smokies]

We followed the drive from Gatlinburg through Little River Road and Laurel Creek Road to Cades Cove Loop. As we drove trough the little River Road, we noticed a congested area with a lot of cars parked on the side of the road and a cluster of people watching something. I was really excited and jumped out of a car with my camera. OMG - it's a BEAR! Super handsome black bear with super shiny fur was roaming the woods near the road. It was an amazing sight! Black bears are so pretty. They are not as big as grizzly bears, adult american black bear weights between 150-300 pounds. I was trying to snap few photos, but I was too excited and I missed most of my shots. The bear was quick, and it seemed like the crowd was little overwhelming for him. Here is one photo I was able to manage:

We got to the gates of Cades Cove Loop, back in 1800's that area was a tiny village with about 700 people living there. Park kept some of the old buildings along the cove loop, preserving them and keeping them open to the public as part of the history.

The highlight of the day was a hike to Abrams Falls. The sky was looking darker and darker by the hour. The beautiful scenery of Cades Cove looked sad and dark, covered with low hanging rain clouds. At this point nothing was going to stop us, we packed the rain coats and umbrellas and followed the 2.5 mile (one way) trail to see the falls. I've heard that people spot black bears in the Cades Cove, so we were on the lookout, but of course we did not see any on the trail.

The hiking to the falls was not difficult. Trail had a slight incline at first, leading us to the top of a mountain, and the second part was getting down the side of that mountain to the valley. Part of the trail was along the mountain stream nesteld in the thick woods of Smokies. It was very relaxing to hear the water running through rocks and boulders as we followed the trail. We arrived to our destination, and I have to say, the water fall was little bit smaller than I expected, but the veiw was beautiful. Surrounded by rocks and autumn trees, two streams of water was hitting the rocks below creating this wonderful and peaceful sight. We took some time to enjoy it before few drops of rain reminded us of another 2.5 mile hike back to the car.

I have to admit - we got really lucky! As it seemed like it was going to pour the whole 4 hours we were hiking, the real rain did not start until we were about 100 yards from the parking lot. The rest of the afternoon we spent in the car, driving in a traffic jam through Cades Cove Loop with 1764 gazillion of other cars in the pouring rain.

 [Great weather for "smooth water" waterfall shots, no ND filter, no tripod, resting the camera on the rock in the middle of a pool of water, I did have a polarizing filter on the lens]

Next morning we were leaving the Smokies. We were sad to leave, but we had an amazing few days filled with sunshine and amazing beauty of southern Appalachian. We decided to end the trip in Nashville, TN, but that's a story for another post.

Blackberries for Breakfast and Beauty Detox Solution Book

Blackberries, delicious black fruit, composed of many little drupelets, each like a small berry with a tiny seed inside. Each drupelet contributes extra skin, seed and pectin with high dietary fiber value, and that makes blackberries one of the highest fiber and antioxidant content plant in the world. Blacberries are low in calories, carbohydrates, and fat, making them one of the best fruits out there for a balanced diet.

Let's stop here for a bit and concentrate on the so popular antioxidants. Why are antioxidants so important? Well, antioxidants are known to protect your cells against the effects of free radicals. Free radicals on the other hand, are molecules produced when your body breaks down food, or by environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Blackberries have the highest content of fiber and antioxidants out of all the berries, but all other berries like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cranberries have super high content of fiber and antioxidants in comparing to apples, bananas and other fruit.

 Just one cup of fresh blackberries contains half of the daily recommendation of the antioxidant vitamin C, which protects the immune system and may lower the risk of developing certain types of cancer.  One cup of blackberries contains over thirty percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber, which promotes healthy digestion and aids in maintaining bowel regularity.

Eating blackberries, along with other berries and other antioxidant rich fruit first thing in the morning, on empty stomach, ensures quick digestion and maximizes absorption of all the nutrients. After reading Kimberly Snider's book, The Beauty Detox Solution, I have been trying to maximize my energy during the day by eating light to heavy meals during the day. And by heavy I don't mean McDonalds!

Every morning I have a good size bowl of fresh fruit with a 8 oz. glass of organic carrot juice. That keeps me from being hungry until lunch. By eating light in the morning, my body doesn't spend all it's energy on digestion, I don't feel tired or sleepy. I don't drink coffee or tea or any other energy drinks. I have enough energy to concentrate on my day and by lunch I am ready to inhale a huge, also light lunch. Kimberly Snider's book made me realize how important it is for your body to eat in right order. Heavy breakfast will slow you down, your body will concentrate all its energy on digestion right from the morning, then you add lunch on top of it, and you create a intestinal jam. Doesn't sound good, does it? If you're interested in learning more about your beauty energy and eating right check out Kimberly's website here and purchase her book here. I am not affiliated with Kimberly Snider in any way.