Easter Dinner

For a family dinner, I was in charge of bringing the dessert (technically I volunteered to bring dessert because I wanted to make this recipe again) and I decided on making Strawberry Tall Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. (http://www.theppk.com/books) If you have never heard of this cookbook or even the author,  Isa Chandra Moskowitz, you need to make your way to your local library and get yourself educated! I love her books such as Veganomicon and Vegan Cookies Take Over your Cookie Jar.

I decided to bake these cupcakes because they are not too sweet and they look fancy without trying too hard. 

Here is a picture, pre-assembled; I made the golden vanilla cupcakes in the morning as they needed to be completely cooled before I assembled them. I also make buttercream icing and cut up strawberries that were sitting in a pool of maple sugar.

( I am still learning about how to work with the lighting in my kitchen)

This is what they looked like after they were assembled:

I took some dark chocolate and shaved it on top of the cupcakes to give it a little oomph!

The cupcakes were well received by my family. The only ingredients that were 'odd' was the Earth Balance butter. It is very important to purchase this specific brand because I have made the mistake of purchasing 'lactose free' and my icing was extremely runny. You can find Earth Balance at the Grant, Regent and Bison Superstore locations for $4,99. It is not an ingredient that I use often so the downfall is that it does take up space in your fridge. You can also find this at Organza and Vita Health but it is more expensive. 

I was in a cooking mood so I decided to make a casserole for the week. This particular casserole is time consuming, requires many ingredients and lots of dishes to wash. When you don't have a dishwasher like me, you sometimes second guess whether making this dish is worth it. (Trust me, it is!)

This is the Red and White Cauliflower Bake from another one of my favorite cook books, Vegan Yum Yum (http://veganyumyum.com/). My life partner, M., on a whim decided to purchase a vegan cookbook for me for Christmas which completely worked out because this cookbook ended up quickly becoming my favorite! I love it when that happens. For this particular recipe, I asked him to help me which shaved off 30 mins of prep time.

There are three separate components to this recipe that you assemble together. Here is the marinara sauce:

The steamed cauliflower and white sauce:

And tofu mixed with Italian herbs spread out at the bottom of this casserole dish and then I added a layer of the cauliflower mixon top and then placed the marinara sauce on top. On top of the sauce layer is Panko (tempura/ breadcrumb mix). 

I love this dish because not only is it nutritious but it is also filling without it being too heavy. When you are on the go, it is easy to just grab a piece and run out the door! There are no funny ingredients in this recipe except for nutritional yeast. I cannot remember the cost as I've had it awhile but I found it at my local Safeway. For Panko, if you have not heard of it, it's a form of tempura that I use to substitute for breadcrumbs because it doesn't become mushy and gives the dish a crunch. Panko can be found in any Superstore, Bulk Barn and Organza. 

What did you make this Easter?

(Please note that I will post recipe's shortly)