HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND FIRST ANNIVERSARY! BLACK SWAN EXCLUSIVE

Last year I got married to my best friend on Halloween. I am not going to go into the deets but it was honestly the best celebratory day of my life. We were surrounded with friends, love, family and shared it with our daughters.

It is a bittersweet time though because 4 days before our wedding we had to say goodbye to our dog Alley. It was extremely hard and our anniversary will always forever have a twinge of sadness because Alley was so close to us and on the day we decided to symbolically join all of our lives together she was absent.

This Halloween, Alley in our thoughts always, we went back to our old Ottawa stomping grounds to trick or treat (the Babes's first ever). After the debauchery, not really, we left the Babes with the G-units (grandparents) to have Pumpkin Chai Soy Lattes and Hot Apple Cider.

So Happy Halloween and Anniversary!

Oh and I was the Black Swan if you couldn't guess.

IRON CHEF CHALLENGE 3: MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO COCO-CHOCO-LOCO-NANA ICE CREAM

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

COCO-CHOCO-LOCO-NANA ICE CREAM

This is a simply simple recipe!

Ingredients:

2 cups of Frozen Bananas chopped

2 tbsp of maple syrup

3/4-1 cup of So Delicious Coconut Milk

2 heaping tbsp of shredded coconut

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a food processor, combine the bananas and maple syrup.

2. While blending, do a monkey dance and add the milk until reach the desired consistency.

3. Mix in the coconut, walnuts, chocolate chips and dance a little loco again.

To be eaten immediately or freeze a little for after dinner while making dinner.

2-4 servings.

ETSY HOW TO (SDAY) VEGANIZED: MICHELLE OXTON

MICHELLE OXTON NECKLACES

As written on her shop:

"I'm a dog lover and rescued is my favorite breed." The vegan necklaces she makes combines well her love of animals and photography. She can earn a living doing what she loves and donate to animals in need.

I love what she does. It is beautiful and amazing that she speaks her passion of animals through art.

You can shop here.

THANK YOU VEGAN MOFO!, WEEKLY BLOGROLL, ZOMBIES

[source]

Thank you so much Vegan Mofo for profiling (well placing me in a large list with other greats) my little blog again. You really don't know how many warm and fuzzies I have right now.

Again, here is the weekly blog roll.

My Vancouver Vegan Kitchen

My Vegan London

My Zoe-trope - Art

Naked Veg Lunch

Oh Lady Cakes

Play with my food

Robotic Whimsy

Hope you are having a good start to the week. Also, Vegan Mofo posed a contest question about a Zombie Apocalypse. I didn't answer it because I would then be entered in the draw. So I pose to you the same question:

What are your 3 pantry items for a possible (well likely) zombie apocalypse?

I will reveal mine tomorrow!

IRON CHEF CHALLENGE 2: DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CAFFEINATED MONKEY MINI CHEESECAKE

When I saw this week's Iron Chef Challenge, I got uber excited and knew instantly what I was going to make: A CHEESECAKE. The great thing about this is that it incorporates your fave vegan cookie recipe.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE CAFFEINATED MONKEY PUDDING CHEESECAKE

Cookie Ingredients:

All the ingredients to make your fave 12 cookie recipe. For this recipe I used Kathleen's Chocolate Cookies from The Garden of Vegan on page 181

Cheesecake Ingredients:

1/2 cup of vegan cream cheese

1/3 cup of vanilla soygurt

1/2 cup of firm tofu

1 cup of sugar

1 tbsp of agar agar

2 tbsp of flour

2 sprinkles (about a tsp) of coffee

1/4 cup of chocolate chips

1/4 cup of chopped banana chips

Step 1: Bake your favourite cookie recipe and place in a muffin tin lined with muffin liners-> SUPER IMPORTANT...Follow the same cookie directions. My cookies ended up shaping the muffin tin so it resembled a cookie bowl

Step 2: Freeze the cookies for only 5 minutes. Take out of the freezer and set at room temp.

Step 3: Hand blend all the wet ingredients including the agar agar and flour.

Step 4: Mix in the coffee, chocolate chips and banana chips.

Step 5: Cook the cheesecake mixture in a well greased glass pie plate for 40 minutes at 350 degrees

Step 6: The gross part: SCOOP out the cheesecake mixture on top of the cookies in the muffin tins and let set in fridge until desired. I like to let it go a bit longer.

The recipe is a bit thrown together and may need working out the kinks...so please give me some feedback.

xoxox

AUNTIE LOO'S ANNIVERSARY PARTAY

I'll be missing this today. But Mandi was the first vegan cupcake chef in Ottawa. And she made our wedding cake. So if in Ottawa today, please visit The Bronson Centre or her blog about reflecting on 2 years.

SIMPLE SMOOTHIE RECIPE

{source...this girl looked cute and was holding a sweet drink, cuz guess what my camera isn't working either)

Oven still non-operational so here is a quick smoothie recipe:

BANANA CRANBERRY SMOOTHIE

1/4 cup of FROZEN cranberries

1/2 a FROZEN banana

enough milk to cover the frozen bits (about a cup)...I usually start with less and add more depending on the thickness I am looking for

1/2 tsp of flax oil

2 tbsp of maple syrup to offset tartness of cranberries

BLEND ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER and ENJOY!

Happy Weekend! We are off to the city tonight for some Halloweeny shopping and visiting.