Cake Doughnuts & Glaze [Vegan]

I could not tell you the last time I had a doughnut before this recipe. The fear of sugar, carbs, and fried foods kept me from consuming this amazing treat. But when I was searching for more things to make for breakfast (the meal I never eat and therefore hardly cook) I was reminded how much I missed this guilty pleasure. And since I don't feel as bad about eating unhealthy foods, if I make it, I decided to make doughnuts for the first time in my life.

Doughnut Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup vegan sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup plain vegan milk
1 egg replacer
Oil for frying

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix in butter until crumbly. Then stir in milk and egg replacer until smooth. Gently knead then place on a lightly floured surface. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness. With a cookie cutter, or something round (I used a peanut butter jar lid)cut doughnut shapes out of dough. With a smaller cookie cutter, cut hole in center of doughnut round.

Heat oil in a pan (or use a deep fryer) and place a few doughnuts and donut holes in hot oil. Turn after 3 minutes or once the side of the doughnut is golden, and fry the other side till golden as well. Allow to cool before you glaze.

Glaze Ingredients
1/4 cup vegan milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Combine milk and vanilla in a saucepan and heat over low heat until warm. Stir confectioners' sugar into mixture. Add food coloring if you choose and whisk until combined. Remove glaze from heat. Dip doughnuts into glaze, one at a time and set on a draining rake with paper towels underneath. If using sprinkles, add before glaze cools.

These turned about pretty good. They didn't feel as heavy or as sugary as doughnuts from a shop. The glaze was light as well. Adam enjoyed these and we managed to finish them off in only a few days.

Pea Pesto [Vegan]

This is a delicious take on traditional pesto sauce. I created this when I was craving pesto but didn't have enough basil to make a batch big enough for two. I did have a freezer full of peas though. The sweetness of the peas actually blends really well with the basil and noodles. This is a great recipe when you want to add a little more veggies to your meal.

Ingredients
1 cup fresh sweet peas
1/2 cup basil leaves
1 tbs grapeseed oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp lemon juice

Combined all ingredients in a food proccessor and blend until well mixed. It's ok to have a few chucks of peas and basil. This is not meant to be a liquidy sauce. Mix with 3 cups cooked pasta. You can top it with some parmesean cheese [making it nonvegan] or even add the cheese during the processing.

Smokey Cheese Spread [Vegan]

My Grandpa always had a container of Wisconsin Smokey Cheddar Cheese spread in his refrigerator. I grew up loving it. Whenever I would visit, I would raid the fridge and eat most of his supply. I created this recipe because I missed one of my favorite cracker toppings. It's crazy how easy it is to make.


Ingredients
8oz Vegan Cream Cheese
2 cups Vegan Cheddar Cheese, shredded
1 tbsp Liquid Smoke

Mix all ingredients in a food processor until creamy. Tada! That's it!

This is lighter and creamier than most store bought cheese spreads. This the perfect dip for entertaining people as you can easily make a large amount and it tastes great. Nonvegan would never know it's not made with real cheese.

Buffalo (Joe) Mac & Cheese [Vegan]

It's a long running joke in my family that mac and cheese is all I eat. I suppose that I did eat it a bit too often as a child. But that's because cheese was always my favorite food. My friend Joe shares my love of cheese. Being from Buffalo, he also loves him some buffalo wings and blue cheese. So he cleverly came up with a delicious buffalo style mac and cheese. It was amazing. But since I do not eat cheese anymore, I can not enjoy his wonderful dish (or many of his other creations for that matter). After turning vegan, I knew that this was one of the top things I had to transform into an animal free food.

Ingredients
1 pound Elbow Noodles
8 oz shredded Vegan Cheddar Cheese
8 oz shredded Vegan Montery Jack Cheese
2 cups Soy Creamer
1/2 cup Franks Hot Sauce
3 tbsp Vegan Butter
2 tsp Mustard Powder
2 Tbsp Flour
4 Celery Stalks (finely chopped)
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp grapeseed oil (or whatever you use)
4 oz shredded Vegan Blue Cheese
Breadcrumbs (however much you like)

Preheat oven to 350. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add elbow noodles and cook until al dente. Drain and set aside.
While noodles are cooking, begin cooking celery by placing in small sauce pan, along with oil and garlic powder. Cook over medium heat until soft, and set aside.
In a large saucepan, melt 3 tbsp butter with 1/4 soy creamer. Mix in dry mustard and flour until well combined. Add remaing cream and the hot sauce and stir. Whisk the shredded
cheeses (minus blue cheese) into the sauce until melted and sauce has become thick. Lastly add celery.

In a large bowl mix pasta, sauce and 1/2 of the shredded blue cheese . Lightly coat a 13x9 baking dish with butter, oil, or spray. Pour pasta mixture into baking dish
and top with breadcrumbs and remaining blue cheese. Cook for 40 mins.

If you like to use vegan meats, you could add some chik'n strips in with the celery and cook it with about 1/4 of the hot sauce. I not a big fan of fake meat (or real meat for that matter) so I omitted it from this recipe. But it would be easy to add in.

This was pretty hot but the celery had a nice cooling effect. The crunchy breadcrumbs and blue cheese on top was my favorite part. This was absolutely amazing and something I would make for others to showcase how good veganism can taste.

Alfredo Sauce [Vegan]

This is the first in a series of pasta sauces that I've attempted to make vegan. Nonvegan alfredo sauce is mostly dairy products, so recreating it without using ANY dairy, can seem daunting. But, it was very simple and required hardly any ingredients. And, it was so yummy that Adam and I both agreed that nonvegan alfredo is not something we will miss.


Ingredients
1/4 cup Vegan Butter
1/2 cup Vegan Cream Cheese (I love the one from Follow Your Heart)
3/4 cup Soy Creamer
1/2 cup Vegan Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Garlic Powder


On low heat, melt butter in a small to medium saucepan. Add cream cheese and wisk while it melts. Mix in garlic powder amd creamer. Lastly, wisk in parmesan cheese and continue cooking for a few more minutes. Remove pan from heat and and allow sauce to thicken.

We poured this over 2 1/2 cups of cooked pasta and mixed in some sun-dried tomatoes. It was incredibly delicious. Broccoli or asparagus would be other great additions.