Food Friday...uber delayed

voila! Thursday night i had Coconut Heaven Cupcakes from Vegan with a Vengeance. i borrowed the book from Lacey, after learning that a co-worker of mine loved coconut cupcakes...and on top of that, it was her birthday! she mentioned that her most favorite cupcakes were from a bakery in Baltimore and you couldn't get it anywhere else. so i took the challenge and after reading the first line from the recipe:

"These are a must for the coconut lover in your life: dense coconut cupcakes topped off with fluffy coconut icing to die for, thus the name Coconut Heaven Cupcakes."

i used the book for recipe, but i just found one here. the only difference from all of this was that i used sweetened shredded coconut. i cut down the confectioner's sugar (because i ran out) and added 1/4 cup of vegan cream cheese because my icing turned out runny. the results were pure bliss. i loved the icing with the hint of cream cheese. Elia loved it too. she even said that it was better than her favorite cupcake from Baltimore. sweet!!

Food Friday

 hi! i , cooked! finally! it was my roommate's birthday, but she was bed ridden with migraine. she had previous plans to cook dinner with another friend of ours, but i saw a recipe for Portabello Stroganoff that Mellow Moods had posted on their facebook and i could not for the life of me, stop wanting to eat it! so i took the bulls by the horns and started to make it...luckily, my roommate felt better and we sat down for a nice quite dinner.

Portabello Stroganoff (recipe via Mellow Moods)

1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup unflavored yogurt
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dried or fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste
pepper to taste
6 medium portobello mushrooms (5 to 6 inches in diameter; 1 1/4 pounds total)
2 tablespoons butter or margerine
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2-3/4 cup vegetable broth

**We like to serve over noodles (egg noodles, veggie bow tie noodles, rigatoni, etc.)**
So put some noodles on to boil before you start the rest:

1.) mix sour cream, yogurt, mustard, dill, salt, and pepper. sit aside.
2.) slice mushrooms into long thin strips (1/4 inch think or so)
3.) In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion; cook, stirring, until soft, about 6 minutes.
4.) Stir in flour until absorbed. Stir in the broth to deglaze the pan. Cook, stirring, until broth boils. Stir in sour cream mixture. Cook, stirring, about 1 minute longer.

Serves:4  Prepare time: 15 minutes.

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i had to improvise and made it vegan with coconut milk because i forgot to pick up some yogurt. those of you who know me, know that i'm pretty skeptical about vegan food at first, but it turned out really well, although it took me more than 20 minutes for me to make (because i am slow and i get frantic when i cook). the girls liked it, but the true test is if the real vegan, Lacey, approves. i gave her some leftovers for dinner today, but i have yet to her from her. we will see what she thinks!

Food Friday

every once in a while, i like to take photos of what i eat. Lacey, is really good at that. but me? i'm just shy of mediocre. but when it's just too pretty to dig in without evidence, i whip my camera out. for instance, my breakfast from the other morning.



and speaking of food photography. here's a look at what i baked last night...



that, my friends, is a piece of cookies n cream Oreo fudge brownie. you can thank my roommate, Meg, for that. she was the mastermind and found the recipe from KevinandAmanda.com. (Meg has just found StumbleUpon and she's been sending me food and photography links left and right.) as soon as i saw the recipe, it was over. we hopped over to the store, grabbed the ingredients, and whipped up a batch...oh my goodness was it tasty! i'm not sure if i had undercooked it (like how i like to bake most of my brownies so it's really gooey on the insides) or if it's because of the extra fudge added into it...wait! did i tell you there was fudge AND cookies 'n cream ice cream in the batter itself?? oh yea, and we used double stuffed Oreos. it's so rich i could only handle eating half of a piece...so maybe a nice glass of cold milk would help wash it down.

thanks to Kevin and Amanda (and their cute Bostons!!!!) for this divine recipe...

Cookies ‘N Cream Oreo Fudge Brownies
1 box Brownie Mix
eggs & oil (as called for by the brownie mix)
1 heaping half cup (6 oz) Cookies & Cream ice cream
1/4 Cup hot fudge topping (chilled or room temp)
Preheat oven & spray an 8×8 baking dish generously with cooking spray. Combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil as directed on the back of the box, but do not add the water. Add ice cream and hot fudge to the brownie batter and stir to combine. Pour half of the brownie batter into the baking dish, layer with Oreos, then top with remaining batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes or as directed on the back of the box.

YUMMMMMMM...