Banana Soft Serve Extravaganza.. or.. Finishing Foods in the Freezer!

On Monday I will be saying goodbye to my residence.  It's been a nice place to live, but I am so excited to move into a new apartment with one of my sisters who is moving to Toronto! 

Our lease starts a few days after I need to move out, so I will be going home for a couple of days before we start living in the new place.  Because of this, I wanted to minimize the amount of fresh and especially frozen foods I have left, so that it is easier to transport my things.  When I discovered how our moving timing would be working out, I also discovered that I happened to have A LOT of frozen fruits and vegetables!  While my meals have mainly involved cooking up a medley of frozen veggies (well..sometimes cooking.. does anyone else like to snack on their green peas while they are still frozen?) with whatever else I had left, the abundance of frozen bananas, as well as various other frozen fruits, meant that I got to experiment with a lot of different banana soft serves this week!  Here are a few of the highlights:

Banana Soft Serve Extravaganza

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflowers Appetizer

As I mentioned before, I am in the process of moving out of my residence and preparing to move to an apartment (with one of my sisters!). :)  Between packing and going to the clinic to do my research, I haven't had much time to post in the past couple of days.  (I've also been trying to finish up odds and ends in my freezer, so my meals haven't been too creative lately.)  However, I do want to share with you a recipe I made a few days ago that turned out pretty nicely!  I've seen a few similar recipes for Buffalo cauliflower "wings" going around recently, but I was first inspired by this one.  I haven't bought cauliflower too often, but as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to try it!  I didn't have cashews in the house, but since I've been in a zucchini phase lately (and I always like adding more veggies!), I also whipped up a slightly different twist on the dip. 

 

Spicy Buffalo Cauliflowers with Cool Zucchini Sunflower Dip

More Zucchini! Mango Soft Serve

After trying out chocolate zucchini soft serve, I decided that maybe zucchini should be invited into some of my other "regulars" for banana soft serve.  One of my favourites involves mango and banana, so today I tried adding zucchini in with the usual ingredients.  Wow!!!  This was probably my favourite soft serve recipe so far!  The texture turned out amazingly, and I found that the subtle mango flavor was not so overpowered by the banana - which is one thing I often find whenever I use banana as my soft serve "base".  Is this because of the addition of zucchini?  I'm not sure, but I would definitely make this again!

Mango Zucchini Banana Soft Serve

Chocolate Zucchini.. Soft Serve?

Especially in summertime, it is so nice to enjoy a cold and creamy treat.  If you've read any other vegan blogs, or have vegan or lactose-intolerant friends, you may have come across banana soft serve - an amazingly simple and yummy frozen dessert - all you need are frozen bananas and a food processor or blender!  You can also add many other ingredient combinations, such as other fruits, nuts, chocolate, or spices.  I almost always have a large container in my freezer dedicated to storing ripe bananas, so that I can whip up this delicious treat for dessert.. or snack.. or breakfast.. any time!

As an experimenter, I am always trying new combinations for banana soft serve, but until tonight, I'd never thought to add veggies.  However, I'd just recently been looking at a bunch of different ways you can use mild veggies such as cauliflower and zucchini in vegan recipes, and when I saw that I had half a zucchini in my refrigerator, I wondered if soft serve could be added to the list..

 

.. and it can! :)

Chocolate Zucchini Soft Serve

Stir Fried Sesame Noodles

Since I need to move out of my residence in two weeks, I am trying to use up some of my dry items that have accumulated over the course of the year.  One of these was a box of pasta which I bought a while ago, but as I don't really cook pasta much for myself, I had used only a tiny bit of the box.  I was bringing a veg dish for my Bible study dinner on Tuesday though, so I thought it was a great opportunity to use it up. 

 

Since I would be making it the night before, and taking it to the clinic with me the next day, I knew my dish would need to be cold, and as soon as I thought of a cold noodle dish, I thought of one of my favourite Korean side dishes, 잡채 (japchae)!  My resulting dish is definitely not 잡채, which is typically made with 당면 (dangmyeon) - Korean sweet potato noodles, (which I would use so much more than regular pasta if I had them, mmmm they are so yummy!) but it does have the sesame oil and thinly sliced veggies typical of the dish, and I think it still tastes pretty good. :)

 

 

Stir Fried Sesame Noodles

Pink Lemon Bulgur Salad (+ some notes on gluten)

It has been a very full and wonderful weekend!  As I mentioned in my last post, I went to a vegan potluck last Thursday.  It was really fun to spend an evening having interesting conversations and lots of delicious vegan food! 

 

I brought my savory red velvet cake, and those who came brought so many amazing dishes, including chickpea bread, several yummy curries, vegan waldorf salad, vegan chocolate cake, scones, and hempseed muffins!  As you can see, we had quite a feast.  :)

Savory Red Velvet Cake!

 

 

This evening I am going to a vegan potluck, and as my contribution, I decided to make red velvet cake!

 

 

But not just any red velvet cake.  Hummus cake!  This cake is actually an appetizer, not a dessert.  I had the original inspiration for a savory, hummus-iced cake like this from this blog, and since I am interested in most things that involve hummus, I decided I'd like to make a vegan version.  Adding beets gives the cake a beautiful, natural fuchsia pink hue, perfect for a red velvet theme, and I think the creamy colour of my lime navy bean hummus complements the cake colour well too. :)

Savory Red Velvet Cake 

Hummus!!! Lime Navy Hummus!

Given my blog title, you would reasonably expect hummus to make an appearance at some point.  And those who see my meals each day at the clinic where I do my Master's research can attest that a day rarely goes by when my favourite food is absent.  But it has already been almost a week, and so far there is no hummus to be found!  This shall be remedied presently. :)

Technically, hummus is made with chickpeas, but there are so many types of legumes with different textures and flavours that work well in this form.  Today's recipe uses one of my favourites - white navy beans, which are really creamy and mild tasting.  I also like them because they blend very easily, which means that the hummus-making process is faster. 

Usually, hummus gets its tangy taste from lemon juice, but I have recently discovered that navy beans also pair amazingly with lime!

Lime Navy Hummus

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse

 Sometimes when I discover a new ingredient, I go a little crazy with experimenting with it.  Such has been the case with agar agar - you may have seen it already with my sunflower-seed tofu cheeze, and it's making an appearance again with this mousse.  This was another first-time experiment, but I thought it turned out pretty well! 

 

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse

Lupini Napa Salad

After a lovely two weeks at home teaching swimming lessons and spending time with my family, I am back in Toronto!  As I was out grocery shopping today to replenish my refrigerator with fresh fruits and veggies, I started talking with a guy who was thinking about reducing his consumption of animal products, but seemed concerned that that might mean only eating salad.  I was able to reassure him that plant-eaters can indeed eat much more than salad!  However, I don't know if I would really mind that so much anyway - vegan salads can be so diverse, filling, and delicious!  Take, for example, the lupini bean and napa cabbage salad I made for dinner this evening:

 

With crisp napa cabbage and shredded carrot and beet, smooth avocado, crunchy lupini beans, and a creamy tahini lemon dressing, this salad was filling, nutritious, and very yummy! 

 

Lupini and Napa Salad

Lemon-basil and Watermelon Frosty!

Yesterday's post may have seemed complex, but this morning I made a very simple, but very delicious recipe with only 3 ingredients - lemon-basil, watermelon, and ice (does that count as an ingredient?).  This drink is so refreshing!  You may not have access to lemon-basil, in which case you can substitute regular basil, which still complements the watermelon well, but if you can find it, the lemon-basil adds an amazing citrusy tang that pairs with the watermelon so nicely.

 

Lemon-basil and Watermelon Frosty