Apple + Cinnamon + Toastie = snuggly deliciousness. Oh, and it's gluten-free! Bonus!


This is my first recipe from the Babycakes cookbook. Are you familiar? Babycakes is a famous bakery in NYC that is vegan, gluten-free, and mostly sugar-free. Their cupcakes are award-winning, and the author, Erin, has been on Martha Stewart's show. I think that's pretty cool for a vegan chef! I just love when any vegan chef gets some press and makes veganism so people-friendly! We're not scary! Just... restrictive ;)


I checked the cookbook out from the library first, and had one of those moments where I just wanted to make every last recipe in there, and got so excited and immediately set out to find all the ingredients. I even ordered coconut flour online, which I've never done before... errr, ordered food online, not ordered online. geesh! How old do you think I am? (shut it.) Anyways, when I went to buy the book for myself, I read the reviews, and they were just awful! It seemed like everyone had total failure when they made the recipes, felt the ingredients were too pricey, and basically felt like the whole thing was a big sham and waste. I was so worried to buy it! I had only made the apple cinnamon toasteriffic, so what if I just got lucky? In the end, I decided that all those people must suck, and I'm fab, so I bought it, and I have yet to be disappointed.


Welllll, that's not entirely true... In the library edition, the banana bread called for 6 bananas. Now, at the time I thought this seemed exorbitant, but alas, this is slightly different baking since it's gluten-free and all that, so I trusted the recipe. That, in fact, was a mistake. It was a hot mess. Literally. I took it out when I thought it was done and when I flipped it out of the pan it was a big blob of half-cooked smushy nanner bread. I looked on the website, and it turns out this happened to others, and they corrected the error. They apparently were under the impression that we'd be cooking with bananas from the land of Oz, farmed for minature people. In my newer edition book that I purchased, this has since been amended to 1 1/2 cups of banana. I remade the bread before our Asheville trip, and it came out lovely and tasty. All is forgiven, Babycakes!

This is a super bread, kind of dessert-y, and extra awesome when it's served warm.

Apple Cinnamon Toastie

1 cup garbanzo-fava bean flour
1 1/4 cups raw sugar
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup arrowroot
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. xantham gum
1 tsp. salt
2 T. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 T. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups hot water
1 cup roasted apples

Preheat to 325. Lightly grease a 7 x4 x3-inch loaf pan with coconut oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 cup of the evaporated cane juice sugar, the potato starch, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xanthum gum, salt, and 1 T of the cinnamon. Add the oil, applesauce, vanilla and 1 cup of the hot water to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth, then fold in the roasted apples. Transfer 1/4 cup of the batter to a small bowl, and add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 T. of cinnamon, 1/4 cup hot water. Stir until creamy.

Pour the apple batter into the prepared loaf pan. Carefully drizzle the batter from the small bowl down the center of the loaf. Use a spoon to swirl the topping into the loaf pan, moving the spoon up and down. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with evaporated cane juice sugar.

Bake the toastie on the center rack for 25 minutes, remove from the oven, and brush the top with a generous amount of coconut oil. Return to the oven and bake another 15 minutes, until crunchy and toothpick comes out clean.

Let the toastie stand in the pan for 20 minutes, then invert the cake onto a board. Turn right-side up and cut and serve warm.

Roasted Apples:
1/2 lb. granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced into 1-inch cubes
1/2 lb. pink lady apples ( I just used all granny I think)
1 T. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. In a medium bowl, toss together the apples, cinnamon, agave, and lemon juice. Spread the mixture over the prepared sheet. Bake the apples on the center rack for 35 minutes, rotating the sheet after 20. The apples will be soft. Let the apples stand for 30 minutes, or until completely cool.

Enjoy!

Last week the hubs and I hopped in the car to drive south to Asheville, NC for a few days of fall foliage and funtastic food. While we were about a week early for the loverly colors of the season, the city totally delivered on the food. kudos, AVL!

When we arrived, we checked into the most adorable Bed and Breakfast, The Lion & the Rose, and decided our first destination would be the place I had been dreaming about since we planned our vacation... Barley's Taproom & Pizzeria!


What's so special about this place, you ask? They have soy cheese pizza on their menu! ON their menu! Not like you have to ask and they do it special, or I have to order a regular pie without the cheese and then sprinkle my own fake cheese on it. Nope, none of that. I ordered it up, and it came piping hot and gooey. It was fantastic. Joe and I decided to pretend we were training for a marathon and ordered a large pizza that would have been better suited for twice as many people, but you can never be sad about pizza leftovers! We chose the whole wheat crust that was really tasty - firm outside, chewy inside (just how I like my men... wait, what?) with fresh spinach. yum. check it out:









Now, no trip to a vegan foodie wonderland would be complete without dessert! Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. rar! We took a coconut cream tart home with us from Laughing Seed, and it was really amazing. I plan on scouring the veg-web for a similar recipe, and then I'll share MY version. The other dessert we picked up was on our way out of town. We picked up a couple cupcakes from a bookstore/coffee shop, made by Take the Cake! I chose the vegan vanilla with chocolate frosting, and it was fan-freaking-tastic. I felt like Stephanie Plum with my own personal birthday cake. It was delicious. It was swoony. It was something I shouldn't have eaten in the car because I almost drove us off the road. ha!

So I know what you're thinking.. you're like, "Hey, you stayed at a B&B! What about the breakfast?" Well, this was awesome. The Lion & the Rose happily accepted my dietary restrictions and served me up a special vegan brekkie each morning, and each one was really delish! I will say my favorite was the cornmeal and soymilk waffles with sauteed apples and pomegranate syrup. Yup, you read that right. I would have taken pictures, but we ate breakfast with the other vacationers, and I do have some moments of social paranoia where I don't want to be perceived as weird as I *really* am.

All in all, the trip was a lot of fun, and it was refreshing to have so many uncompromising food choices in the city. It was a great reminder how awesome it is be vegan, and how freaking delicious it can be. It's also so great to see such a thriving city with such a big vegetarian and organic population... if only more cities could be like this!

and if only more pups could be like this! Check out Joe and Cedric, the resident pooch at the B&B.

oh, and freaking delish sweet potato fries. word!


When I decided I was going to post this recipe this week, I realized I haven't told you guys about my new vegan goddess! outrageous! If you're an avid Food Network viewer like I am, you might even know who I'm talking about. She was a winner on Cupcake Wars. If you haven't seen this show, let me recap it for you. It's a cupcake competition where 4 cupcake makers compete for 3 cupcake eating judges, and they give the cupcake competitors little cupcake challenges to compete to see who has the best cupcake. They all say "cupcake" about a bajillion times. I love watching this show, but you pretty much want to banish the word from your vocabulary by the end of the hour. When they do the contestant interviews, and he/she is saying what they are going to make, they always say it with the word "cupcake" like, in case we didn't know. For example: "I'm going to be making a red velvet cupcake with a cream cheese frosting, a lemon cupcake with buttercream icing, and a chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing." I know you're making a cupcake!! sheesh. Now, whenever cupcakes come up in conversation with Joe and I, I go on a tangent coming up with as many cupcake flavors as I can, listing them off like I'm a contestant. He loves it. (not really.)

ANYWAYS. You should watch the show. It's fun. So my new vegan goddess won on her episode, and she's just the cutest little thing ever! Her name is Chloe Coscarelli. Check out her site! She has great recipes on there, and um, well... she's adorable. This burger and fries recipe is actually on her site, and it's freaking delicious. I couldn't believe how closely it resembled a regular burger, but it is even better because it has guacamole (sweet, sweet guacamole), and this unique sun-dried tomato and mango sauce. It's without a doubt one of my favorite dishes I've made, and really good for you! yay!

Black Bean Burgers
1/4 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, small dice
1 14-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small carrot, finely diced or shredded
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 tsp. sea salt
1/4 bunch cilantro
1/4 cup water
1 T. chili powder (to taste to your spicy level)

In a large skillet, saute onions in 2 T of the olive oil over medium heat until tender and slightly carmelized, about 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, use a large spoon to mash together beans, carrots, cornmeal, breadcrumbs, chili powder, salt, cilantro, water, and the carmelized onions. If mixture is too dry to hold together, add more water 1 T at a time.

Using your hands, form your burgers to the size of your buns (regular or mini).

In a large non-stick skillet, heat 2 T of olive oil over med-high heat and fry patties. Let each patty get browned and slightly crisp on each side (about 3 minutes on each side).

Mango Sauce
1 mango, peeled and cut
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, whole or sliced
1 garlic clove
1 T. vinegar (apple cider, but any kind will do)
1/8 tsp. sea salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. ta-da!

Guacamole
3 ripe Haas avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled
1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 cup salsa fresca
sea salt and black pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mash together the avocado and lime juice, then fold in the salsa fresca. Season with S&P.

Enjoy!