Chocolatey Goodness

Here are a few pics of some desserts we've been eating lately. As many of you know, I was on a major cupcake kick for the biggest part of a year. While I still love cupcakes, and plan to be baking them again soon, I thought it was time indulge in my other favorite sweet treat for awhile....Brownies!!

Until now I've been quite disappointed with vegan brownies. Don't get me wrong, I've made and eaten them. They tasted fine, OK, they tasted good. But they just didn't' have that satisfying, moist gooey goodness that I love in a brownie. I've found most vegan brownies to be dry or cake-like, and to be honest, just too darn healthy. I love health food, I even have strange cravings for it at times, but when I eat a brownie, I don't want it to be health food, ya know?

Flipping through Vegan Planet one day I fast forwarded to the dessert chapter, and saw the recipe for some sort of peanut butter swirl brownie. It really started the brownie craving, but a) peanuts are forbidden in our house, and b) I don't like things mixed into my brownies. Lo and behold, the recipe had an option to leave out the peanut butter. Lucky me, I had all of the ingredients and went straight to work. This brownie recipe is both delicious and gooey. As a matter of fact, best I can remember, it's just like its non-vegan counterpart. I am convinced that what does it for this brownie is the chocolate chips melted in canola oil. This is what lends that gooey brownie goodness. Most brownies call for cocoa powder, which in my opinion just makes them cake. Anyway, if you are a brownie lover, get this book and make these brownies STAT!!


Next up is another recipe that I can't quite remember the exact name of. It comes from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. The name of it goes something like this, Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies. Really though, the name's not that important, what you people want to know is, are they good. Good, you ask......these are delicious!! I didn't have enough dark chocolate to chunk, so I combined chocolate chunks and chocolate chips for these cookies. The chocolate and spice is a perfect combination as we finish out these last few weeks of winter.

Speaking of finishing the last few weeks of winter..........I can't wait!! I can't wait for my CSA to begin. I can't wait to get some things planted in the garden. I can't wait for the grocery store to be full of fresh, local produce. I can't wait for the days to get longer. I can't wait to have natural light when I photograph my food!!

To take some of the burden of all of that waiting we are taking the girls to Disney World for Spring Break in a few weeks. We are staying in a cabin at Fort Wilderness, so a lot of our meals will be cooked by me there. But, I am excited to check out our vegan options throughout the park. We have one special dinner planned with the princesses, and when I told them we were vegan and had food allergy issues with Stella the chef from the restaurant called me and assured me that we would all have plenty to eat. I'm also under the impression that both Rice Dream ice-cream and Tofutti ice-cream are available at the ice cream shops in the parks!!! So, expect a Disney review coming up here in a few weeks!!