Cheater Sauce n Meatballs & Hint of Chocolate Zucchini Pancakes

 I call this cheater sauce because I used a jar of Classico as the base, it's just too hot out to make a sauce from scratch. You could add any vegetables you like, I used carrot and zucchini because I seem to have an abundance on hand. I wanted to use walnuts as the "meat" in the sauce but wasn't sure how that would work out so I decided to try this recipe instead and they turned out quite well. I halved the recipe and froze what I didn't eat at dinner. Make the meatballs first, while they are baking in th oven you can start on the sauce. Hope you enjoy this simple meal as much as I do!

Cheater Sauce

1 16oz jar Classico, Tomato & Basil
1 large carrot, shredded or finely diced
1/2 large zucchini, cubed small
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1/8 cup water

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add carrot, zucchini and Italian seasoning. Stir and cover with lid for 5 mins.  Add a 1/8 cup water to generate steam and speed up the cooking process. Let sit for 5-10 mins. Remove lid, turn heat down to low, add nutritional yeast and let simmer for a few minutes. Serve overtop your favorite noodle and top with meatballs.

Hint of Chocolate, Zucchini Pancakes
makes 4-5 small pancakes

1/2 cup flour (I used all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
1/2 cup zucchini, shredded
1 tbsp cooking oil or magarine

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Shred zucchini and pat dry with a tea towel or paper towel. You want to get as much moisture out of the zucchini as possible so your pancakes cook through properly, otherwise they won't cook very well inside. Mix the zucchini into the dry ingredients and coat evenly, then add almond milk and stir well. Heat oil or margine over medium-low heat in skillet. Spoon 1/8-1/4 cup of batter into pan. Cook over low heat (3) until the pancakes bubble, flip and cook the other side until golden brown. Serve with your favorite syrup!

*If you wanted a deeper chocolate flavour, add 2 tsps cocoa powder or 1/8 cup vegan chocolate chips.

Bakemania! Vegan Mofo 13 in which I use too many !!!

I intended on getting up nice and early this morning but a bad dream kept me in it's trance for too long :( I finally dragged my butt out of bed around 9:30, the boyfriend and I hopped in the truck and headed to our friend's place! While the men worked on their trucks, us ladyfolk had a funfilled day of baking! It's been a long time since I did any baking since I am on this whole no sugar dealy, but I figured one day of fun with sweet treats in the kitchen wouldn't kill me. On the agenda, rice krispie Treats[plain & chocolate covered], snickerdoodles, chocolate peanut butter pillows and carrot muffins. We wanted to do oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as well but we ran out of time. First up are the rice krispie treats, originally the plan was to do a nice chocolate drizzle on one batch but we kind of failed at the drizzle aspect and ended up making a thin layer on top instead.

These are always a crowd pleaser and a no brainer since the recipe is right on the box! The only substitutions you need to make them vegan are dandies (or any other vegan mallow) and vegan margarine. With only 4 ingredients total and minimal time needed these are a nice quick treat! and here are the choco treats!

Next up are snickerdoodles, my favorite cookie of  them all! I first discovered these when I was 13, my Dad's wife used to make them all the time! These too are super easy to veganize, we used this recipe.
Here they are all ready to go into the oven! I like to leave out the fork smush, I find they are fluffier that way.

All puffy and ready to eat!

Next up are the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows which I have made a number of times! We used Isa's recipe, pretty sure it is the only one (that matters anyway).

We also ended up making a chocolate peanut butter sushi type roll with the leftovers, it cracked and broke a little but still tasted great. Unfortunately the photo does it no justice so I shall leave that to your imagination :)

Last but not least our carrot muffins that turned into carrot, apple, pecan, raisin muffins topped with coconut! We used this recipe (omitting the oil, using 2 cups of applesauce, 6 rounded tsps flax powder for the egg replacer, 1/2 cup pecan peices, 1/2 cup golden raisins, 3 cups carrot, 1 large granny smith apple). They turned out beautifully!

Of course what baking date is complete without a picture of your fabulous bakers!!! That's me on the left and Kayla on the right :) Sweet dreams >.<