I ate at One World Vegetarian Cusine* ...

in West Covina last Friday and had their vegan cheesecake for dessert. OMG, it was delicious, so the next day I was craving more of it, but that place is just too damn far* so I decided to make my own.

*It's a casual place and they have a lot of different types of food. I had a "quail" with vegetables and rice (very good), "egg" rolls (pretty good), bf had teriyaki "beef" (okay [fake beef doesn't really go over well with me, it's all about the fake chicken]), and then the cheescake for dessert (awsome!!). The restaurant is decorated nicely and still has great prices, so it's DEFINITELY worth the trip. I can't wait to go back and try some other plates.

Anyway, I sorta followed this recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. Except I used soy milk instead of eggnog and I omitted the brandy/rum because I didn't have any. Also, Trader Joe's didn't have any silken tofu!!! :/ So I used regular tofu.



Everyone that has tried the cheesecake says it's good, but I don't think it compares to One World's creamy...and slightly gelatinous version. That description might sound gross, but I swear it was good. It was light and fresh yet still cheesecake like, I don't know how they did it. I think you can taste the tofuness in mine a little too much, that might be because of the type of tofu I used though.

Strawberry Pie...

So my dad brings home 3 boxes of strawberries. Not the little basket ones, the larger plastic containers. OK, I love strawberries, BUT NO ONE IN MY HOUSE HELPS ME EAT STRAWBERRIES AND THEN THEY JUST GO BAD SO I FEEL BAD. :( I usually wash most of them and then freeze them for smoothies. This time I decided I wanted to make a strawberry pie.

I made a pie crust and baked it in the oven. My crust was hideous. I suck at pie crusts. :( Probably because I insist on trying to work a little bit of whole wheat flour into the crust in an attempt to make it healthy or something. Anyway, my pie crust dough was too dry and cracked while I was rolling it out, so I got cranky and wadded it up into a ball and then slammed it against the countertop... and then started calmly over again. The damn thing shrank in the oven though. :/

While the crust baked, I sliced a bunch of strawberries and kept the outside slices for decorating the top of the pie. I tossed the inside slices in a pan with about half a cup of sugar and a little bit of vanilla and cooked them for a bit. Then I tossed that into the pie crust (minus the juice), and attempted to make it look pretty with the fresh bit of strawberries. Drizzled some of the juice on top to make the fresh strawberries look glaze-y.

And voilà. Don't look too closely at the crust. :(

"Simple Apple Yogurt Cake"

I was craving a cheese danish a few nights ago so I hopped on the internet and searched for yummy vegan danish recipes. Then I found out that they took forever to make and I wanted sweetness now, but luckily I found a different recipe to satisfy my bread craving. I made what Susan, from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, calls a "Simple Apple Yogurt Cake." But of course I was missing half of the ingredients so I made a bunch of substitutions, but it came out okay. I wasn't too crazy about how I could taste the brandy (the recipe actually called for rum, but I had none so I figured brandy was kinda the same thing...). I also ended up replacing the apple sauce with mashed bananas, the apple juice with soy milk, the plain soy yogurt with regular strawberry yogurt, and I skipped the raisins altogether because yuck.

Here's a picture:

Not much to look at, I know. The white patches, in case you are confused, are apple slices. I probably wouldn't make it again, but my Mom liked it and said I should. Hmm.

EDIT: I MADE THIS FOR EASTER, WITH THE SAME MODIFICATIONS AS BEFORE EXCEPT I ACTUALLY USED PLAIN YOGURT THIS TIME. I ALSO USED SOME WATER+SOY MILK IN PLACE OF THE APPLE JUICE. IT WAS MUCH BETTER. :)

mmmm, I made Banana Bread!

I used the PPK's Banana Bread recipe and made a few minor [changes]:
-I skipped the apple cider vinegar because all I had was red wine vinegar and that didn't seem very banana-bread-like.
-I sprinkled raw sunflower seeds and flax seeds on top of the loaf before baking and it made the top part supper yummy.
-The suggested baking time of 60 to 70 minutes was a little bit too long (for my oven at least); I cooked it for ~57 minutes and it was a tad bit overdone on the bottom.

Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup margarine, at room temp
3 very ripe bananas, mashed well
2 cups flour [I used whole wheat]
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk, mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar [I totally skipped the vinegar but added a bit more soy milk]
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice [I used pumpkin spice instead, 'cause I obviously don't have a well stocked spice rack]
1/2 teaspoon salt
[raw sunflower seeds]
[flax seeds]

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 8x4 bread pan with non stick cooking spray, or lightly coat with margarine.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

Cream together the margarine and sugars. Add bananas, soy milk and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix well. Pour batter into pan. [Sprinkle with sunflower seeds and flax seeds]. Bake for an hour to an hour 10 minutes. [55 minutes for my oven].

Overall I give it a 4.5 out of 5 and will definitely make it again next time I have a bunch of rotting bananas. :)