Mint Chocolate Mousse

When I first went vegan, I cried for weeks because I would never have my mum’s delicious chocolate mousse again.

….So maybe that’s not strictly true. Maybe the truth was that I was so excited about all the new things that veganism brought into my life that chocolate mousse wasn’t really something I thought about too much. Or at all. Until, of course, someone made a delicious Mousse au Chocolate and it wasn’t vegan and I was sad and cried and ate a whole loaf of bread with tartex, because that was all we had back in those days…..

I seem to be having a bit of a dramatic day today. I have never in my life eaten a whole loaf of bread in one go. Before I start making up more sad and fake stories, I’ll just say that I was experimenting with vegan chocolate mousse, and this came out, and I liked it.

Recipe

In a blender or food processor, combine:

200g tofu (I used plain old cauldron)
4 tablespoons cream of coconut
2 tablespoons vegan sour cream (optional, but gives it a nice tangy note)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 tablespoons agave nectar (to taste)
1/3 cup chocolate chips, melted (measure first, then melt)
1/2 teaspoon mint extract

Mix until moussey (hah), fill into glasses and refrigerate for about 8 hours, any less and the mint flavour won’t come through very well. I garnished mine with flowerpaste mint leaves that I cut with my fancy new 2-in-1 leaf cutters and embossers, which you can purchase here.

Serves 4 if you use very small glasses and comes in at 200 kcal each. If you’re greedy, like me, it serves 2 at (you guessed it) 400 kcal each. Enjoy.

Lovely Things in May

I haven’t done a favourites post in a long while, but as uni is over for the year, I though it might be time to pick it back up. For the first half of May, I spent nearly all my …

Diet Pear Muffins (adapted from Weight Watchers)

Hello again!

After doing what I do best for a while ( by that I mean neglecting this blog, not focussing on my studies, which I was also doing), I’m back with newfound energy, motivation and a recipe. Like I said, I was focussing on my studies as it was the end of term and exams and essays were getting in the way of everything else. If you are or ever have been a student, you know that this time of year almost always means junk food. While that’s perfectly fine and understandable, it has left me feeling heavy, sluggish and bloated and I’ve decided it’s time to cut back for a little bit and let my body regenerate. As well as taking up more exercise – I’ve started going for runs, it’s quite the sight…. – I’m trying to keep my eating as simple and healthy as possible. So far, so good, but how do you implement this plan if you have a slight cake problem, like I do? With diet baking, of course!

Firstly, I don’t endorse any kind of fat-free, sugar-free, anything-free diet. I believe that everything in moderation is fine. Meaning I’ll still eat normal cake. Hah. Just in small amounts. I’m merely trying to cut down on unhealthiness.
I was looking for a low-fat recipe to use up all the pears we got in our veg box, since neither of us are particularly keen on eating them as they are, and I stumbled across a Weight Watchers recipe, which you can see here. I veganised it and changed a few things, like pureeing the fruit to act as egg replacer – and to get rid of fruit chunks because I’m secretly two years old and don’t like chunks. It pretty much resulted in an entirely different recipe, so I decided to share it here.
Now, down to the recipe. If you’re aiming for a really healthy kick, leave out the glaze and use wholemeal flour, although you’ll want to reduce the amount a bit as it absorbs more flour.

4 pears (pureed)
1 dash cinnamon
2 tbls agave nectar
1/2 cup soya yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tbls ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 180˚C and grease your muffin tins. Believe me, you don’t want to use liners. As you can see in the picture, I made that mistake and they are impossible to get off, resulting in us having to eat them nose-first. Not an elegant sight.
In a large bowl, mix the pear puree, cinnamon, agave, yoghurt and vanilla. Sift in the flour, flaxseed, baking powder, bicarb and salt and stir until just combined. Spoon into muffin tins (don’t worry about the strange texture, this is because of the fruit puree) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, depending on how good your oven is.
Let them cool for a few moments and then dip them in the glaze.

Glaze Ingredients

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tbls almond milk (add more if the texture is too thick)
1 splash vanilla extract
1 dash cinnamon

Mix together and dip the muffins in the mixture. Make sure that you spread some kitchen towels under your cooling rack, as this will drip as it dries and it’s soooo sticky.

These come in at just under 150 kcal per piece, so as glazed muffins go, you could be doing a lot worse. If that’s too much for you, hey, there’s always carrot sticks ;P

 

Lovely Things in February 2013

This is a tough post for me to write. Last month was hard work and no play, so I didn’t have much energy or time left to look for nice things, which means that this post will be painfully short. Now that spring is coming, however, I’m sure the next few months will be much better.

One of the things that did really get me through the gloom of February was a new favourite nail varnish. NYC In A New York Color Minute in Lincoln Square Lavender. A lovely purplish-pink that added some colour to the grey weather. You can buy it here.

My other saving grace has been my kindle. I got it off ebay because I’m a bit odd and worry about eco footprints a lot, but it’s in great condition and has been in use a lot. My favourite books at the moment a most certainly Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, which are too brilliant to describe. I recommend you read them.

Sadly, I have to say that’s all for this month. I’m now off to do some spring cleaning. Yeehaw.

x

I-Want-Summer Pasta Salad

Sometimes you just need summer. Immediately. Unless you have several thousand quid and the time to hop on a plane and jet off to Australia, summer can’t always be achieved easily. But sometimes, you can bring summer into your food. That’s what we tried to do with this salad.
Frankly, I don’t know why cold pasta with vegetables is called a pasta “salad”. If it were warm, it would just be pasta with vegetables. The world is a crazy place. But I digress. For many of us, summer is a time of picnics. I remember going on picnics in the park when I was waaaaaaay younger, and they were great. Partially because of all the cool food, and partially because there was an old (banana?) tree that all the children were allowed to climb about in. It was the encyclopaedia definition of summer. Over the next few months, I shall be on a quest for the ultimate picnic foods. Here is the first:

For three portions:

100g of pasta, cooked and cooled (weighed before cooking)
1 avocado
2 large tomatoes
1/4 of an average-sized cucumber
1/2 of a red pepper
1 tabelspoon olive oil
1 tabelspoon balsamic vinegar
a dash of salt
a dash of pepper
a pinch of oregano
a splash of lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl. Transfer to a tupperware container and eat from re-uesable plastic plates on a gingham blanket. Perfection.

Lovely Things in January 2013

Last month was cold. Wet. Snowy-rainy-slushy-gross. Sometimes it was absolutely lovely, and sometimes it was so disgusting that you didn’t even want to poke your head out from under the duvet, let alone get up and get on with life. …