Chocolate Tofu Mousse Cake

To celebrate my 30 days of being vegan I made myself a cake!

Tofu? In a cake? Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but who cares when it tastes great. And I don't have to feel bad about fulfilling my chocolate addiction.  My next challenge should probably be a month without chocolate, now that would be a tough one.

3/4 c Oats, 1/2 c Flour (I use spelt), 1/4 c Applesauce, 1 tsp Baking powder, 1 c Water

These are the ingredients for the crust.  I wanted to the crust to be as calorie/fat free as possible so instead of using 1 1/4 cup flour, I grinded up oats.  I also replaced oil with applesauce, but you could definitely use coconut oil or vegetable oil instead. Instead of 1 cup of water you could use 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk.

Pour the crust into a pan. I used a springform pan, but that's not necessary.

Bake the crust in an UNpreheated oven at 420 degrees for about 20-25 min.

In the meantime you can prepare the mousse ingredients.

1 package firm tofu, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 2 tbsp almond milk, pinch of salt, 3/4 truvia, 1 tsp vanilla.

The almond milk is from yesterday's post :)
This is also my first time using truvia, decided to buy it instead of agave syrup.  It's a natural sugar alcohol with zero calories and doesn't affect blood sugar levels.  Plus, you only need a pinch of it to sweeten foods.

Melt the chocolate chips. Add to broken up tofu and the rest of the ingredients.

I just melted the chocolate chips in the microwave by using 30 second intervals with mixing in-between.

By now your crust should be done and out of the oven, so spread your mousse on top.

Sweet. Now stick it in the fridge to harden up.
I left mine in overnight. (That's what he said?)

Next day.

Cut yourself a piece of healthy mousse.

Feel free to top with coconut flakes, chocolate chips, powdered sugar, etc.  I didn't feel like getting fancy.
Honestly, the only healthy tasting part about this was the crust...but then again, I didn't use oil.
I could easily eat a bowl of the mousse, but then that may defeat the purpose of it being healthy right?

If I make this for a crowd I'd use a regular pie crust and then surprise people when they find out that the main ingredient is tofu.

Credit goes to ChocolateCoveredKatie for the mousse part.  I adapted her recipe by cutting out some chocolate chips and adding more cocoa powder to lower the calorie count.

8 servings = 180 calories/slice
16 servings = 90 calories/slice

Making Almond Milk (Vegan Day 29)

I meant to post more vegan recipes in the past couple of weeks....the whole challenge has been surprisingly easy.  I don't even crave meat (okay maybe once or twice I craved a burger).  It's more of a social burden having others feel obligated to cater to my needs, although I fully appreciate the curtesies.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day of my 30 day vegan challenge.  I'm debating whether or not to continue the whole vegan thing but I don't have much reason to...

I should have eaten more vegetables this month.  Instead, I have to admit that for a week or so, peanut butter and dairy-free chocolate were a not-so-healthy staple to my diet.  However, this had a direct relationship to lack of exercise, and these go hand-in-hand, whether I'm vegan or not.  On the bright side, my skin looked a bit fresher and I never lacked energy.

As a result, I am influenced into cooking/baking more dairy-free and meat-free meals.  And unless there's loads of sugar in the food, this generally means healthier meals.

So without further ado, I present how to make one of the most important vegan staples I've had in my diet...the ever-versatile and helpful almond milk!

Soak a cup of raw almonds overnight in water.

Add soaked almonds + 2 dates (for sweetness!) + 1tsp vanilla to a blender.

Add 4-6 cups of water.  Add another cup or so if you prefer more watery almond milk or are poor and need to stretch out the most bang for your buck.  I used 5 cups.

Place a cheesecloth or muslin cloth over a strainer over a bowl and pour the milk into the cloth.
Wring that milk out.

Pour the milk from the bowl into a pretty pitcher. This is only 1/3 of the amount I made.

Yay I made almond milk!

This is called "almond meal".  It's the leftover almond that didn't get strained with the water. 

This is a little time-consuming, but I believe it is less expensive than constantly buying almond milk.
I'll soon be posting a recipe that uses the almond meal because I can't have that go to waste!

Chia Pancakes with Coconut Cream (Vegan Day 2)

Happy February! Where it's almost 60 degrees outside. Amazing.
So all of the recipes I'll be posting this month will be vegan.

This morning I started my day with some pancakes....chia style!
Chia seeds are extremely rich in omega 3-fatty acids (important for heart and cholesterol health, and even weight-loss).  They provide antioxidants, energy, and no added taste, making them extremely versatile in recipes.

Ingredients for Chia Pancakes: 1 1/4 c spelt flour, 1/2 c oat flour, 1/4 c chia seeds, 3 tsp baking powder, 2 cups almond milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp canola oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, sea salt, coconut oil (for frying pan).

Buying oat flour is a waste of money.
I made my own by blending a little more than 1/2 c of dry oats in the Magic Bullet.

Ground up oats = oat flour.

Ch-ch-ch-chia! Okay...I had to get it out.

Mix all of the dry ingredients very, very well.
It works better if you wear your favorite plaid pjs too.

Mix all of the wet ingredients.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix, and let sit for a few minutes before spooning onto pan.
Don't use a spoon, like I did, use a fork to mix. 

Add a little bit of coconut oil on a heated pan and then some pancake batter.

Now, while I was making pancakes, I multi-tasked with the coconut cream.

Left this can of unshaken coconut milk opened in the fridge overnight.

The "cream" will rise to the top.

Scoop out the solid cream part. Mmm.

Add an additional tsp of vanilla.
Mix really, really well.

This is how much cream I stopped out...about 1/3 of the can
Probably could have gotten more if it were out for 2 nights.

I was NOT ready to take these pictures.
As soon as I topped the pancakes with coconut cream, it started melting.

Coconut cream waterfall.

Lopsided. Kinda looks like cookies!

Made 9 pancakes.
One is missing, aka in my belly.

I topped my serving with some shredded coconut.

I forgot to show the inside of the pancake.
Luckily I had about two bites left before I remembered!

Verdict:

Nice and spongy.  Really, really filling (after 3 pancakes).  My mom put strawberry jelly on hers, and then took it on-the-go.  I still have 5 more pancakes left so it's good to know that I can top them with anything....chocolate syrup? peanut butter and jelly? banana cream? more coconut cream?

I was really craving blueberries in these though, this morning.  Get in season already, blueberries!

Adapted from Dreena's Vegan Recipes.

Cauliflower Bean Alfredo (Vegan Day 1)

Today I began Day 1 of my 30 Day Vegan Challenge.  I had to add one day since the month of February has 29 days this year.  This has been something I've been looking forward to doing for a few weeks now.  I had to mentally prepare myself and saved a ton of vegan recipes.  I have never even tried to be vegetarian before, so this is going to be a bit of a leap for me.

Reasons why I'm going vegan for a month:
- Self-determination, no one's telling me or forcing me to do this
- Seeking a challenge
- Want to test my energy levels during/after this month, I'm still exercising frequently
- Forces me to eat more vegetables
- Forces me to stay away from more processed/artificial crap
- Going vegetarian is too half-assed, and I'm not doing this for animal rights reasons
- Want to see how the elimination of dairy affects me
- Putting myself in the shoes of vegetarians, vegans, and those with food allergies

What my Day 1 groceries looked like.
Many of these ingredients will be a staple for the next 30 days and I plan on making everything as delicious as it can be.

And so, for dinner tonight, I used cauliflower and cannellini beans to make a creamy-tasting "alfredo" sauce.

1/2 head of cauliflower, spinach leaves, 1 cup almond milk, 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 cup cannellini beans, 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes, whole wheat macaroni (or any pasta), nutmeg, salt & pepper, and onions

I use this to help speed up the boiling water!

Follow pasta instructions.

In the meantime, boil cauliflower for about 15-20 minutes.

After the cauliflower was done, I poured it out and quickly browned some onions in 1 tbsp of olive oil in the same saucepan.

Add the cauliflower, cannellini beans, almond milk, 2 tbsp oil,  and a dash of nutmeg.

Use an immersion blender (or regular one!) to blend everything to desired smoothness.

Pasta with crushed tomato, spinach leaves, and topped with cauliflower sauce

Add salt & pepper.  After this picture was taken, I added italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper.

The cannellini beans added a nice creaminess.

This was yummy.  I'm going to make this sauce again for sure.  I saved half for tomorrow's lunch, but I'm going to skip the crushed tomato.  Sun-dried or baby tomatoes would go better, as to not overtake the taste of the cauliflower sauce.

Recipe adapted from Cupcakes&Kale

Mint.

I'm really starting to like pastels.  I used to be annoyed with the palette and preferred only bold colors, but it's no surprise that my tastes are changing.

Bought a similar dress at Forever 21, which I plan to pair with a skinny belt and white pearl necklace.

Classy. (She looks like the female version of Robert Pattinson)

NastyGal.

Okay done. This color is making me hungry.