Shooting Star Pops

I got these great Shooting Star Popsicle molds for my birthday, made by Tovolo. They are so cute, I just had to give these a try. Take a peek:


Now aren't those great? Here is what I used for my first pop concoction:
1 peach
1 1/4 c. mango nectar

I cut up the peach and threw it into a food processor until they were cut into really small pieces, but not pureed. I added a little over a cup of mango nectar, and voila!


You pour your filling into the molds, which very neatly and cutely snap onto the provided star shaped base. Just make sure to leave some room at the top, once it is in the freezer, it will expand.


Throw those babies into the freezer, try and wait for about 4 hours...I couldn't wait that long and tried one after about 3 hours and they were good to go.

I think this is the perfect way to experiment with different flavors and textures, getting just the right combo that you crave and might not be able to find. Also, you know exactly what is going into your delicious frozen treat, leaving behind all those artificial flavors and additives!

In this case, the power of the popsicle wins every time!

Vegan Fettucini Alfredo Rosa

Once in a while, I will get a craving for something way back when from my teenage years (prevegan) that I simply must make. That day. As soon as I get home. Well yesterday, I got hit by a need to make a creamy alfredo sauce with pasta that included tomatoes and artichokes. After work, I went directly to the store to get all the things I needed. Yes, I was that motivated to make this a reality. So, I came up with this recipe and it is pretty darn good I must say!

Here is what you need:

I medium onion - diced
2 tomatoes - diced
5-6 cloves of garlic (adjust to your taste)
1 c. roughly chopped artichokes
2 c. unsweeted soy milk
1/2 c. water
1/3 - 1/2 tub tofutti (i used chive/herb kind)
olive oil
2 tbsp. flour
2 1/2 tsp. Braggs liquid aminos
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
salt/pepper/herbs to taste
nutmeg optional

I started with cooking down the diced onions is some olive oil, and let them soften while I chopped my tomatoes. Add the tomatoes to the onion, and begin to chop up the garlic. Add to onions and tomatoes. Season with a bit of salt/pepper.

While this cooks down and simmers (i let mine stay on medium low), start making the sauce. Begin by making a roux for the sauce. Add about 3 tbsp. of oil to your pan. After it gets a bit warm, add the 2 tbsp flour and mix it up with the oil. You should get a nice creamy paste almost, this method helps in preventing yucky flour clumps in your sauce.

Add the 2 c. unsweetened soy milk and stir to desolve your roux. This might take a few minutes. You should also notice your soy milk start to thicken up a bit too. Add the tofutti, begin by adding about 1/3 of a tub and stir into the sauce. Keep adding the tofutti until the sauce reaches a thickness in consistancy that you like.

Add your onion/tomato/garlic mixture to your sauce. Season with salt, pepper, herbs and add 1/2 c. water and 2 1/2 tsp of Braggs to your sauce. Let this simmer together while you give your artichokes a rough chop. I bought ones that were quartered already, and just roughly cut them into more managable bit size pieces. Add to sauce.

I added a small sprinkling of netmeg over my sauce, and I also had some Vegan Parm, which I sprinkled over the sauce as well.

This makes enough sauce, maybe more for about an entire 16 oz box of fettucini pasta.

Eat and Enjoy! I apologize for the slightly drab photo, I was just so hungry at this point, I wanted to eat and not add any styling to the photo.

Thanks, and happy cooking!

Vegan Herbed Focaccia

I had a surprise day off on monday, so I was thinking about what I could do with my day, something a bit more challenging and something new I haven't tried yet...so I decided upon some yummy herbed focaccia bread.

I started out making the poolish for the dough Sunday night, and let it get all crazy and bubbly while I slept. The next morning, I finally took a closer look at the steps I needed to take to achieve this deliciousness...little did I know I was getting into a 6 hour project!!! But don't let that scare you off....most of the time it is just sitting there, rising, you just have to tend to it several times every half hour. And then, let it rest for 2 hours (which is when I proceeded to that that time to go to the gym!)

I came back and put the huge lump of dough into the pan, and drizzled over the herbed oil I had made earlier, and it looked something like this:

Of course, focaccia being the needy bread that is it...it was not yet time to put it into the over, this gently dough had to rest about another 15 minutes before getting the chance to go into the oven.


Alas.....after all of this, it was finally done, and I successfully had a HUGE rectangle of super delish focaccia bread! I was really surprised how pretty it looked, with all of the fun bubbles. It had a great texture! When I took mine out of the over, I sprinkled it with some sea salt and vegan parmesan.


MMmmmm....here are some nice little pictures showing off the fun texture that all that hard work made possible! I had some leftover herbed oil I had made...using my own herbs from my little garden!


I took the basics that were explained for focaccia on VeganYumYum's blog, and I am glad I did! Not something I will be making all the time, but highly recommended if you have a day with not much going on, and if you want to go one step beyond your basic bread. Now.....off to eat more focaccia!