Baking

It's a quiet Friday night. My dog is curled up on her bed. My boy is asleep. My husband is reading. (Yes, we're very exciting, aren't we?) And I just finished making breakfast for tomorrow morning... gingerbread waffles. First of all, they're vegan so this is the first time I've made waffles without eggs or milk. Second, the recipe for these bad boys calls for molasses. I've never cooked with molasses before so when I opened the bottle and started to pour, I thought it smelled nasty. "How on earth are these going to taste good with this stuff in them?" I thought. Well, ten minutes of preparing and a waffle iron later, I was taste-testing some very yummy waffles. They literally taste like a gingerbread cookie so if that's your thing, I highly recommend making these! You don't even need syrup or honey on them. I'm just going to top them with some fresh strawberries and add a couple veggie sausages (Smart Links) on the side in the morning. Here is a link to the recipe... http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/recipes/gingerbread-waffles.aspx

Earlier in the day, Christopher helped me make a batch of vegan pumpkin muffins for a Halloween party we are going to tomorrow night. At first, I was thinking that if they didn't turn out so great, we would just bring a side of fruit or something but they actually turned out well. (Chris, upon sampling a muffin fresh out of the oven said, "Yummy in my tummy." The seal of approval!). Here is the recipe we used...
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/breakfastrecipe1/r/pumpkinmuffins.htm

My very first try at vegan baking came several weeks ago when I made peanut butter cups using a recipe from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Life. When I ate the first one a couple hours after baking, I gave the creation a "so so." After a couple days in the fridge (and then a couple more in the freezer) I was definitely impressed! http://www.thekindlife.com/post/chocolate-peanut-butter-cups

I know this blog is all about health, but it's always important to throw in a little fun food every now and then, especially when it's completely plant-based!