heartyspoonful

Having lived in Canada for more than a decade, I can honestly say I feel rather Canadian now because we never run out of maple syrup. Once I see our stock run low, I'll buy another can of maple syrup a.k.a. the syrup to end all syrups. That's what keeps me sleeping like a baby at night, knowing we won't run out of maple syrup. (I'm joking, obviously, but I think I'm making my point at how much I love this thing.) 

Pancakes weren't a foreign concept to us growing up in Asia. However weird that may be. Whenever my grandmother would visit us from California, she'll whip up stacks of pancakes for me and my brother and she'd drizzle a lot of maple syrup to the point that our pancakes look like islands about to sink down an ocean of syrup. Gone were the days I didn't worry about sugar contents. Our school cafeteria, priding itself to cater the wants of students from different cultural backgrounds, started to offer hotcakes for breakfast or early morning snacks... But that syrup was anything but maple. I'm sorry to say this, but corn syrup just sucks. Obviously, once I set foot in Canada, the land of BeaverTails, famous Ryans and hockey, I just needed to take a shot or two of maple syrup. (No, that didn't happen, although I think I overate pancakes because I wanted more syrup.) 

I've moved on to French toast since then. I even use maple syrup as a substitute to sugar. Heck, my favourite marinade for tofu and tempeh is maple syrup based. I got a thing for maple and it just won't stop. 

But let's go back to French toast. Obviously, being vegan, the eggs and milk have go to go. And I'm also all for making recipes healthier, but without having the flavour suffer. You can have the best of both worlds, in my honest opinion. This recipe is pretty great if you don't want your boring (but delicious!) ol' PB&J sandwich and you're feeling pretty adventurous. You can't mess it up! 

Oh my lord. 

Easy Vegan French Toast for One 

Makes 1 French toast sandwich

Ingredients: 

Back in my teenage years, I took up baking because I wanted people to like me. Honestly. My Mama made the most delicious banana bread and always got lots of compliments. I guess for a change I wanted people to compliment my skills in the kitchen rather than how well I was doing in school. 

One day, my mum had enough ripe bananas to make banana bread, but due to a migraine, she decided there could be no harm in letting me play in the kitchen. Mind you, at this point, I could barely toast a slice of bread the way I like it. After a successful first try, I had enough courage to look at other recipes of cakes, breads and breakfast fare. Soon I was learning about how important accuracy is when measuring ingredients (nothing sadder than a sponge cake that feels anything but spongy). Apart from cheesecake (I'm lactose intolerant), I was rather scared to bake carrot cake. The cake itself is easy enough, but with all the preparation of ingredients, the amount of oil and sugar, that's all enough to scare the 18 year-old me. I also couldn't enjoy that classic cream cheese frosting so why bother, right? 

But of course one day, I did have enough courage to bake a very non-vegan carrot cake with cream cheese  frosting for my dad's birthday. Everyone raved about how delicious it was and I couldn't have a slice. A few years later, I started to incorporate apple sauce in my vegan baking, learned about the versatility of cashews, and all is well with the world again. 

This vegan carrot cake recipe is all you need to pair up with the joy of Spring! I always say, chocolate is for winter, apples and pumpkin for autumn, berries for summer and a big slice of carrot cake for spring. I'm sure you'll love this recipe. Now get your oven going and start grating those carrots. 

Come to Mama!

Vegan Carrot Cake with Cashew-Maple Frosting

Makes 1 9x5 pan

Wet Ingredients:

Do you want to know a secret? I actually adore pizza. I used to endure tummy pain just to enjoy slice after slice of cheesy pizza. Funnily enough, all I wanted as toppings were pizza sauce, cheese and green pepper. I would remove everything else. My brother has always been a die-hard fan of Hawaiian pizza with lots of pineapple chunks. Since my parents never liked his temper tantrums, we were stuck eating that pizza, which I didn't particularly enjoy. But, hey, pizza is pizza. Right? Or not.

Maybe you're the type who like all the toppings imaginable. Maybe, you prefer simplicity, like pizza margherita. Perhaps you prefer it New York style. Or Chicago with a deeper crust. You might even be the type, who likes the crust with hot dogs folded in. Shame on you. You might even say cauliflower pizza is pizza so I'll just go to the left. (Sorry, guys, but as much as I like cauliflower, that's just not a dough.) But however you like your pizza, I think it's a good idea to know how to make it homemade. You know, for days when you feel like you need an arm workout. Or when you're too anxious to make that call for delivery. Or if you're feeling healthy and want to know all ingredients that go into your meal. Or if you're vegan and a vegan pizza delivery simply doesn't exist in your city. Whatever your reason, it's time to learn to make easy pizza dough. 

I may be a feisty little lady, but I ran away, scared to the bone, when a recipe calls for dough. You don't see me baking pie, do you? Bread? I only bake bread when I have expert hands helping me out. I made pizza from scratch with my dad whenever he visited, but to be honest, he did all the work. I also don't like working with yeast. I don't mind the kneading, but what I do mind is the smell of yeast. Just what even! I'm also a very impatient in the kitchen so if I have to leave anything to rise, I don't even both starting the recipe. 

This is where this easy-peasy pizza dough recipe comes in. Not because I didn't have much in my pantry. (I didn't. I barely had enough flour to be honest.) It's for anyone who still isn't very comfortable with handling dough or who's rather impatient to wait for dough to rise. This recipe is perfect to practice on, in my opinion. It makes 1 dough = 1 pie so if you do screw up (I promise you won't), you won't feel too bad wasting half the flour you have available to you. No funky smell in here. I might add, I mention below that it should make 6-8 slices, but it's really up to you. It could be 8 slices or 6 slices or 4 slices or 2 slices. Heck, you can eat the whole pizza. No big deal.

Also, I'm calling this recipe "poor woman's" pizza because at the time of baking, my fridge was almost empty. I had a small container of mushroom, one green bell pepper, leftover tomato sauce, some frozen corn, a few carrots, strawberries and tapioca pudding. Maybe if you're a kitchen genius, you could make do of all of those items, but I'm a simple vegan girl so I kept this recipe as bare as possible. But you have all the right in the world to go crazy.

Ready?

All is well with the world. 

Poor Woman's Easy Vegan Pizza

Makes 6-8 slices 

Ingredients (Dough):

Once you're able to form a round dough, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave to sit for at least 10 minutes. When ready, punch out any air and begin shaping with your hands. Spread dough with your fingers until you're satisfied with the shape. 

Using a fork, poke the dough and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and be creative with your toppings. 

Place in oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. The time will depend on how thickly or thinly you rolled the dough. Also if your oven is crazy hot. 

Topping Choices:

It's not always that I'm inspired to bake scones. Or sCONES. Whichever way you want to pronounce this word.  I think I've only baked scones twice in my lifetime, this time included. I remember baking those gingerbread scones that were partially burnt, but were still just so delicious. Sure, I think I had to scrape them off the pan and slice off the burnt bits, but it was all well worth it. (Psst, my oven has anger management issues so yes, it does burn off a lot of the food you try to bake.) 

I was rather tempted to bake those gingerbread scones again, but since I was running low on medjool dates and didn't have molasses on hand, banana scones had to do. To be quite honest, I'm still uncertain as to how scones' consistency should be. Are they supposed to be crumbly? Hard? Not too hard? Sweet? Not too sweet? Should they be round? Or is a triangle okay, too? I simply don't know. Funnily enough, since I can't have any clotted cream, I've never dared to try them when I visit England. (Also because of the fact that I am now vegan.) 

At least, in my book, my creation passes as a scone. Perhaps a more North American version of a scone. Veganised at that. Although, I reckon, when they're quite hard, they can be used as a weapon. (Please, no violence. I don't support this, but it does sound like a yummier choice.) 

Completely clueless, I did a bit of Google search to try to find a banana nut scone recipe that 1) wouldn't bore my taste buds and 2) wouldn't be too sweet. I needed that fine balance. I found this wonderful recipe from Cookie & Kate. I just didn't use the maple glaze from that recipe since I was running low on maple syrup and I didn't have powdered sugar in the pantry. FYI, I don't like powdered sugar at all, which is why I do sometimes just completely omit icing on cakes I bake. This time around, unwilling to leave my scones buck naked, I made a peanut butter frosting and a chocolate glaze because banana goes so well with PB and chocolate. Just my two cents. 

* Note: The recipe below already includes my modifications. Please visit the original recipe here if you want to check it out.  

Vegan Banana Nut Scones with PB Frosting & Chocolate Glaze (adapted)

Makes 8 scones

Ingredients:

We run and eat and read.

New York, New York, how I never tire of you, but I suppose, you'd easily just swallow me alive and throw me up. Through it all, the dirty streets and loud noises, my inability to easily fall asleep and the constant need to be "doing something," I still love to return to this city. 

If you've browsed through this blog, you probably would've already stumbled upon my post on my vegan NYC guide. I visit this city at least once a year. I tell myself it's because I want to hang out with my friends, but really, it's mostly because I want to try out more vegan spots. Sshh, don't tell them that. 

Run Your Heart Out

This year, I return to New York with the goal of completing a half marathon. Without any expectations, I joined the half marathon lottery and I was surprised to receive an e-mail stating that I was selected. Boy, oh boy, that was in December, and with the cold winter months, I wasn't quite sure how my training would go. 

To make a rather long story short, there barely was any training involved. Sure, I continued to run at least 3 times a week in January, but because of the snow, I only managed to do at least 7km to 10 km each time. My longest run was 11 km, just half the total distance I needed to run in New York. February was a total disaster, where I only covered 31 km in total. Yes, it was bloody frigid and the roads were covered in ice. Why not run on the treadmill?, you ask. Eh, I couldn't because of my knees that felt more inflamed than normal when I force myself to run on that machine. Three weeks before the half, I worked on my speed and I guess that helped, too. 

I was not at all in my best running shape when my Mama and I landed in NYC. My right knee was a bit painful a few days before we left Montreal and I was concerned. But, miraculously, the pain went away and didn't show its ugly head during my run. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to push myself past 11 km. Perhaps because of experience and also pride, I was able to push through.

The first half wasn't so bad at all. I ran 10 km in 50 minutes, but by the 16th km, something went wrong. My left foot was in so much pain, it felt like the Hulk about to rip its clothes apart. My toes were ready to burst out of my Mizunos. I had to slow down by a lot and I already knew my goal of 1h55 was out the window. I had to stop twice to fix my shoe and even walked a bit of the last kilometre to gain some feel back on my left foot. Seeing that 400 metre banner was a huge sign of relief. Finally, it's  almost over and I can freeze the pain away. But hey, it's done and I'm glad I didn't abandon at all. 

Did I also mention how cold it was that morning? Waiting in our corral, a few of us were shivering. We tired dancing to feel a bit of warm, do butt kicks and walk around a bit, but all to disappointment. It was windy and cold. I had to buy a thicker long sleeves running top to have some warmth. I wore two layers of long sleeves and a vest, but it was still cold. Bravo to those runners in shorts and short sleeves. Warriors, you are. I managed to lose my gloves along the way. The dryness of my hands was no joke at all and my upper lip bled as well. Small price to pay, I say. 

Were there any other fun stuff during the half? Sure. A man didn't expect the water to be so cold, he ended up throwing the paper cup full of water and accidentally hitting another running, who was not amused. Hmm, you're right, that's not so funny. A spectator kept on taking my photo, mistaking me for her friend. At least I smiled. A man beside me kept on muttering, "Three more miles. Three more to go. Just three. Come on. Cooommmeeee onnnnn." This other guy also told himself numerous times, "You did it, you did it. It's done. Oh my God, you actually finished it." One man, I actually thought, was having a heart attack. He wasn't breathing well and the sounds were weird and quite scary. He was fine, though. An old lady kept on following me after the run and when I finally asked her what's up, she told me she was following me to the subway. (I didn't take the subway. She wasted her time.) One of the photographers at the finished line told me to come back because she wanted to take my photo. Girl, I really needed water and the blood out of my mouth.

All in all, it was a great experience and I'm glad I talked myself into it. As with any experience that proves to be physically uncomfortable, our minds would surely try to persuade us to stop and turn around. It's all about getting passed that and proving to yourself that you can do it. It feels heavenly to cross that finish line.

Get In My Belly

Of course a trip to New York isn't complete without food. The vegan foodie in me needed about 6 stomachs to be able to consume everything that's available. But since I was traveling with my Mama, who wasn't necessarily as much of a walker as I was (and she really has a hate/hate relationship with NYC subway), I had to take into consideration all the locations of the restaurants.


First stop was one of my favourite breakfast and brunch place, The Butcher's Daughter. Sure, it's pricey for what it is, but you always leave satisfied. The food is healthy and rather tasty. The ambience is on point as well. My Mama felt quite "hip" and comfortable when we headed there for a late breakfast but too early to call brunch. In her own words, it was "exactly what [she] need[s] after an hour of sitting in traffic." No joke, all the road works made what should've been a 20-minute cab ride into an hour long waiting game. No wonder we were both exhausted and hungry.

My mum isn't vegan, so she ordered a bagel sandwich with eggs and an orange and carrot juice whilst I chose my favourite coconut yoghurt with fruits and granola. I think I had to tell myself to take deep breaths to slow down. I guess that's what happens when you've been awake since 3 am to catch your 6 am flight and all you've had that morning was a big cup of coffee. If you've never been to The Butcher's Daughter, please do yourself a favour and head there right away! No regrets.


We didn't really have an itinerary. My Mama and I went with the flow and the turn of weather to guide us with what we should be doing in the day. Since it was rather chilly, we spent a lot of time indoors, mostly in small cafes, drinking coffee or tea. I've done a bit of research, too, for vegetarian/vegan restaurants that I haven't tried before. Terri was one of them. I think there's a few locations in Manhattan, but we stopped by the Chelsea location. We were both so tired so it was rather sad when we found out there wasn't really a place to sit and eat our food. I had our wraps on take away and we headed to the nearest cafe we could find. It's fun sneaking in "outside" food and trying to not get caught. Is it just me?

Mama chose the Thai "chicken" wrap, which was actually very delicious and I highly recommend it. If you want to die of happiness hummus overload, choose the hummus and avocado wrap. I fell in love! We ate slowly, telling ourselves along the way there's no way we'll finish it all. But when you've walked 15 km already and it's only 2 pm, you know you're bound to eat anything in sight. And so that's what we did.


By now you should know that thought I love my city, I do contemplate on moving to another city that has Whole Foods. I'm serious. I can handle the snow, all the bipolar weather, terrible roads, and all that jazz. But the fact that there's no Whole Foods close to me makes my heart break. So I happily dragged my mum to Whole Foods when Lovely Day told us there was an hour wait for the next available table. (My tummy waits for no one...) Obviously, we went crazy. My Mama and I bought fresh fruits like banana, oranges, strawberries and blueberries, we grabbed some coconut yoghurt, and then we ran straight to the salad bar.

I think we ate at Whole Foods three times. There was one close to where we stayed so it was easy to be lazy and skip the other vegan restaurants to head here instead and be creative. I usually always take baby spinach and top it off with everything I find savoury. Tofu is always a must. I'll add some couscous or quinoa. Maybe some roasted potatoes because, come on, I'm on vacation and calories don't count. Right? Not the biggest fan of their falafels, but heck, I'll take some, too. I just loads up on a lot of their roasted veggies like sweet potato, squash, courgette and broccoli. Yum!


When you're wandering around East Village, you'd think the next food stop is a Ukrainian institution. But alas, no, Angelica Kitchen, or as I like to nickname it "Heaven," is a favourite spot of mine. The food is just like home. The portions are pretty big, too so we always have a doggie back whenever we visit. It's the first time I ate here for brunch and since 1) I missed having pancakes and 2) I was telling myself I'm carboloading before my half marathon, I ordered the buckwheat pancakes and tried to be sensible so I added some roasted veggies, too. Mama went for their brunch special of huevos rancheros. (She highly recommends this!)

Let me tell you something, I thought I'm an experienced pancake eater. But, nay, I was slaughtered by those pancakes. I think I ate one and a half and asked our server to pack the rest. I didn't skimp on the maple syrup though because YOLO. Then, after cleansing our tummies a bit with green tea, Mama and I shared what I must say was one of my favourite cakes ever, their Tres Leches cake. I still dream about that cake. I swear, if I do get married, I would like that as my wedding cake. The groom has no say.


After my half marathon, I wanted a nice sit-down lunch so I can just stretch my legs under the table. But since my actual stretching took a long time, our original plan to have lunch at Blossom had to be rethought. (FYI, it closes at 2:45 and reopens at 5 pm). Since Mama and I were at Chelsea anyway, we decided to head to Blossom Du Jour instead, which is their take on fast food. You know what? I think it was a happy ending.

We got there, exhausted and hungry. Mama knew right away what she wanted: a cold, sweet shake and their beet burger. It took a while for me to decide. Should I go with a salad? The burrito? Or that quinoa burger? The latter ultimately won, and we threw in onion rings for good measure. Comfort food at it's finest without make you feel like you need to do a 2-hour workout right after. Sure, I did run a half marathon that morning, but I definitely would eat all this even if I just sat on my bum. The only downside is, if you're quite thirsty, which I was, best to bring your own bottle of water or order a full drink. That cup of water just made me thirstier. But hey, I still dream about those darn onion rings.

We visited a few more places and even had some vegan baked goods from Union Square Park. I do think that if you're vegan, you do have a lot of options. Had we stayed another day, I definitely would've dedicated that day to food.

If you've reached this part of the post, then oh my goodness, you're a trooper. Here's to more running and food adventures for us all!

xx

I'm a dessert girl. Like big time. I rarely ever turn down a good plateful of dessert. Even when I've had a hearty dinner, my brain and heart will whisper, "Go on, girl, eat that cake." Thing is, I don't always reach for chocolate. 

Some of my friends are veritable chocoholics. They'll have a bar of chocolate or prefer a big slice of chocolate cake. I, on the other hand, don't really like all-chocolate anything. Please, don't stone me just yet. It's not often that I'll buy a bar of chocolate and eat half the bar. My dessert of choice isn't always a chocolate cake, unless of course that's the only vegan dessert on the menu, then please, I'll take a big slice. Mostly, when my body craves chocolate, it's either a) it's PMS or b) I'm emotionally off-balance. Weird? Perhaps, but it is what it is. 

My go-to dessert choice is medjool dates, a banana and tablespoonful of peanut butter or almond butter. I always have this combo as my dessert every night. Of course, I bake a lot of cookies and brownies as well, and I do eat the desserts that I make. Trust me, I do find myself standing in my kitchen, holding two slices of brownies with no regrets in the world. I'm only human after all. 

On a rather cloudy and sad-looking day, I found myself reaching for chocolate. No, excuse me for the possible TMI, but it wasn't because of PMS. It's emotional, you see. I'll admit that I'm currently not in the best emotional state. I'm all right, but I have too many emotions quelling inside that, I suppose, I'm trying to silence. That's not always the best way to go. I'm working on it. If chocolate can appease some of my worries, then so be it. I just have to feed my soul for it to shine again. 

Spot the odd strawberry. 

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter & Tahini Balls

Makes 11 balls

Ingredients:

Sometimes, I end up being boring or bored, and my creative juices run dry. That's usually when I spend a lot of time on Google, searching for random things. I mean, one time, I ended up discovering this website: LOLMyThesis, which is a website dedicated to summarising thesis using funny and honest one-liners. There's just about a website for anything. Anything, I tell you! 

*Another favourite of mine when I'm bored is 9-Eyes just because, man, you think you're weird and you can hide it, but you can't. You really can't.

This time around though, I think I searched for "medjool dates," "oatmeal," "vegan," and "cookies". Bam! I found the following recipe from Oh She Glows and I was beyond excited of course. As mentioned in my previous post, my aunt bought too many medjool dates, if there's such a thing as too much. I'm not trying to get rid of them or anything, but since my Mama doesn't really eat dates on their own, I have to find creative and delicious ways to incorporate dates in my baking. So, there we go, these turtle cookies with medjool dates and chocolate chips by Angela from Oh She Glows fit the bill. 

I should perhaps also tell you now that even when I'm inspired by another recipe, I still end up making modifications. It's not because I'm fussy or anything like that, it all just depends on convenience. Do I have the ingredients on hand? Will it be too sweet? Is the consistency how I like it? Is it too taxing? Sometimes, I'm just lazy and I want to take shortcuts. Other times, I don't like certain ingredients so I try to find alternatives. Obviously, it can either be a hit or a miss. But, you see, as with anything else in life, baking is about practice and gaining knowledge. Not any other thing is a good alternative, you know.

Not-Your-Boring Oatmeal Cookies (Adapted from Oh She Glows)

Makes 16 cookies

Disclosure: The recipe below already includes my modifications to the original recipe of the Turtle Oatmeal Cookies from Oh She Glows. If you want to see the original recipe, you can click the link above.

Ingredients:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Add walnuts and 1 cup of oats into the food processor and process until there's still some coarse bits. Don't overprocess to the point that the mix is all powdery. 

In a big bowl, mix together the nut and oat mixture, the remaining oats, flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together maple syrup, coconut oil and almond milk. Pour wet into dry and mix until incorporated. 

Fold in medjool dates and chocolate chips. Once incorporated, shape into balls. There was enough for 16 cookies for me. Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Let cool and enjoy! xx