Roasted Cauliflower and the Raw Food Breakfast of Champions: Or, Way to Go, Momma Mo!

Much congratulations and high-fives are due to my good buddies Maureen and Joe, who - in addition to being just overall awesome individuals - have generated new awesomeness with the birth of their son, Leo. Ha zah!

Leo and his parents are still navigating the new family thing, so Tony, Heather and I decided it'd be a great idea to provide Mom and Dad with some homemade treats for an evening. Heather made a stunning Jambalaya Lentil dish (a recipe I will be poaching at a later date) while I brought a Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Salad with Orange-Olive Oil Dressing.

Tony did his part and for reasons I have yet to figure out joined Joe in an episode of "Kipper."

Kipper, if you haven't seen it yet, is the latest British import focused on brainwashing your children, much in the same vein as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, or those demon-spawned BooBah. Except this time, it's a cute little dog and his equally adorable friends. Parents and their expendable incomes beware!

The other culinary treat to which I've been introduced this week is the Small & Mighty. I'm not much of a breakfast person - unless coffee counts as a meal. I can barely function in the a.m. and I'm usually just not that hungry. So coming across this recipe was a serious find.

It takes all of 30 seconds to put together and depending how you top it, it tastes like peanut butter-banana ice cream. While Katie over at Yes, I Want Cake prefers cinnamon, I've opted for the chocolate syrup route, with plans to explore grape or strawberry jelly in the near future.

Trust me - if you dig cold treats during sweltering heat waves (I'm looking at you, Baltimore...) - or just need something easy to get your through the morning that didn't come in plastic wrap - you'll love this stuff. I'm already hooked!

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The Small & Mighty

(Courtesy of Yes, I Want Cake)

1 frozen banana

1/3 cup raw rolled oats

1 tbsp peanut butter

Optional toppings: chocolate syrup, nutmeg, cinnamon - just go nuts

1. Make life easier on yourself and slice the banana and place it on a baking sheet. Slip the sheet into the freezer and let the pieces harden. (It's easiest to take care of this step the night before.)

2. Place the banana, oats, and peanut butter into a food processor and blend until smooth.

3. Add your toppings of choice and enjoy!

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Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Salad with Orange Olive Oil Dressing

Courtesy of Herbivoracious.You can check out the recipe on Michael's blog here!

Dark & Stormy Cupcakes: Vegan Version 2.0

Happy Summer Solstice, people! And happy belated Father's Day to all you dads and dads-to-be out there. Here in our little corner of the city, I decided to take a stab at some vegan baking to commemorate another great event: our friend Meredith's birthday.

Meredith, bless her, has been abstaining from both alcohol and baked goods this month, so I decided to let her indulge in both by tweaking the Dark & Stormy cupcake recipe from this month's baby shower. This was followed by a LOT of prosecco and some so-so tapas at 13.5 in Hampden.

(Just a quick note: Egg replacer can seem like a pain to dig up, but any store that carries vegetarian-friendly or gluten-free foods should carry some. I prefer Enger-G myself.)

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Vegan Dark & Stormy Cupcakes
(Adapated from Gosling's Rum)

(NOTE: Go ahead and double the recipe. This version makes approx 8 cupcakes.)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup ginger beer
1/4 cup Vegan butter (I used Earth Balance), at room temperature
2 tablespoons dark rum (Goslings) or 2 teaspoons rum flavoring
1 1/2 tsp egg substitute, or equivalent amount equal to 1 egg
2 teaspoons ground roasted ginger*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour or line 6 wells in a cupcake pan. In a large bowl, cream together vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg substitute, rum, and ginger beer beat well. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until the batter is light and fluffy. Fold in the ginger. Fill each well 2/3 of the way. Bake approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the middle cupcake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Frost with dark & stormy frosting and top with a slice of candied ginger.

*McCormick makes it. Look for it in the spice aisle.

I went a little freehand with the frosting. Basically, I took some vegan-friendly vanilla frosting (Cherrybrook Kitchen makes a good-sized jar), and then doctored it with roasted ginger and about 1/4 cup of rum. Then I added vegan butter and powdered sugar, to make it more of a buttercream frosting.Frost the cupcakes after they've cooled completely. Top with some a light dusting of ground ginger and some pieces of candied ginger. Enjoy!

Serious Online Goodness

This isn't my Conan update, but rather an announcement about some serious online awesomeness.

Sweeteeth (the confectioner I mentioned in a previous post) has opened their online shop! You can actually buy some A'Chocolypse and Cinnapsis bars of your very own!

DO IT!! Do it now!!

[And remember to thank me for it later :) ]

Seriously, check it out at https://sweeteethchocolate.com/shop.

Enjoy!