Cafe Blossom

Hey people!

Recently we strolled on over to Cafe Blossom......A totally VEGAN restaurant on the West Side! The food was ah-mazing!! I ordered a Southern Seitan sandwich, fries, and a SOY ice-cream no-milk-shake.

HIGH POINTS:

-Delicious food.

-Super friendly staff (when my shake wasn't cold enough they took it back and gave me a whole refill all nice and icy!)

-The take-home containers are made out of corn-starch

-The decor is awesome!

LOW POINTS:

- No baby changing station in the bathroom (my poor mother learned this the hard way)

- A bit overpriced, seeing as we all could probably make that stuff...But hey, eating VEGAN out at a restaurant? Can't beat that.

Overall I give Cafe Blossom Five Carrots (my version of stars!!)

http://www.blossomcafe.com/

Manhattan

466 Columbus Ave, New York NY

10024, USA - Upper West Side

1-212-875-2600

Agave tropical cut-out cookies!

Hey!

For any of those with little sibs, or who just have a sweet tooth for chewie banana flavored cookies, this is the right recipe for you!! It's easy, it's delicious, it has no refined sugar, and its a great chance to use all your favorite cookie cutters!

Ingredients
2c all purpose flour
1/4t salt
1/4t baking powder
1/4c virgin coconut oil

¾ cup agave syrup
1 banana
1t vanilla
Instructions
whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a seperate bowl,cream together the agave and coconut oil, add the banana, and vanilla and mix well. Should look pretty smooth so make sure the banana is blended in well. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until it is well blended.Wrap and chill at approx. 2 hours before baking.Dough should be pretty stiff.
Preheat oven to 375(f). Roll out on a floured board and cut out shapes. Place shapes on parchment lined (or lightly oiled) cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Don't let the cookies brown.Cool on racks.

Don't be afraid to use some of your favorite vegan frosting and some sprinkles, but trust me, plain is great! I used really small cookie cutters and this recipe made close to 40 cookies. These are best the first day...so invite all your friends to enjoy!

Mouth watering cupcakes!

Hey!

These cupcakes are a personal favorite, they taste amazing with the frosting (a few natural sprinkles won't hurt either)!!

Cupcakes:

2 cups all purpose flower

1 cup sugar

3/4 Ah.Laska organic hot chocolatte mix (my secret ingrediant)

1/2 cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

Egg replacer

1 cup cold brewed coffee (if it has coffee you know it has to be good)

1 cup ricemilk

2 teaspoons vinegar

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flower a 9x13 inch pan

2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, Ah.Laska, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in egg replacer, coffee, rice milk, oil and vinegar. Mix until smooth, batter will be thin. Pour into pan you greased earlier.

3. Bake in the preheated oven 35 to 40 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Okay, while that cools make the frosting:

2 cups Spectrum all vegetable shortening

8 cups Woodstock farms powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoons salt (be very light when adding the salt, I've learned the hard way with very salty frosting)

2 teaspoons flavororganics vannilla extract (spice it up with mint extract, or cocoa powder, or to give your frosting a dazzle with SEELECT food coloring)

As needed up to 6 fluid ounces of Silk soy creamer French vanilla flavor

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1 Cream shortening until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and continue creaming until well blended.

2. Add salt, vanilla, and Soy creamer on low speed until moistened. Add additional creamer if necessary. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

Okay, now decorate those cupcakes and serve!!

Cheese-less cheesecake

Hey!

Finnaly, a real vegan treat! This cheescake is 5 stars hands down! Okay, okay, I used a vegan graham cracker crust, but I'm in 8th grade! I have schoolwork!! Here's the recipe:

Two 8 oz containers vegan cream cheese (I use Tofutti Cream Cheese)(16 oz total)

1 cup unrefined sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

3-5 tablespoon lemon juice (to taste)

2 tablespoon arrowroot powder

vegan graham cracker crust (I used Arrowhead Mills)

1/2-3/4 lb. fresh strawberries, cut in half lengthwise

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a food processor or blender. Add lemon juice one tablespoon at a time, stopping and tasting in between, to taste (I find this to be about 4 Tbsp, but I grow some sweet lemons...). Finally, add the arrowroot powder. Pour into the crust and bake for 45 minutes, or until the cheesecake is completely puffy (it will deflate when it cools, but oh well). Let cool, and once room temperature or below, arrange the strawberries on top. Refrigerate some more until you want to eat it, which is probably now Serves: 8-10

This cheesecake is amazing, serve it to anyone and everyone you know!

Adapted from vegweb.com. Next time I'm going make half chocolate and that make it marble, mmmmm, stay tuned!!

Trick or Treat

Hey!
Halloween's around the corner, and whether your handing it out, or dressing up for it, bags of candy are going to be involved, but guess what? Some stuff in that candy is really spooky. Thanks to PETA kids this is a list of what you do NOT want to find in your candy (aka loot)


Casein—Whey’s cousin, casein is made from curdled milk. Yuck!
Gelatin—Rhymes with "skeleton." Coincidence? I think not. Gelatin is a protein made by boiling cows’ and pigs’ skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones. Jell-O? Heck, no!
Honey—Sure, honey tastes sweet, but you’ll get a bad taste in your mouth when you learn how it’s "harvested."From a former beekeeper: "Typically, beekeepers are gloved and netted to avoid stings (nearly every bee who stings will die due to her entrails being pulled from her body attached to her stinger.) Then the hives are opened as quickly as possible and the bees are ‘smoked.’ Smoke from a smoldering fire carried in a ‘smoker’ is pumped into the hive and the bees are ‘calmed.’ In spite of this, the combs are pulled quickly and many bees are crushed in the process. When a bee is hurt, she releases a chemical message that alerts and activates the hive members who proceed to attack the intruder—giving their lives in the process."
Lard—Lard is such a gross word, it almost makes you wonder why they just don’t call it what it is: "Fat from hog abdomens."
Pepsin—If the thought of eating lard turns your stomach, stay away from pepsin, a clotting agent from pigs’ stomachs, used in some cheeses and vitamins.
Rennet—Certain words just make you cringe, like coagulate, congeal, clot—which is what rennet, an enzyme taken from baby calves’ stomachs, is used for in cheese production.
Stearic Acid—It may sound less gross than "lard," but stearic acid, which often rears its ugly head in chocolate and vitamins, comes from a fatty substance taken from slaughtered pigs’ stomachs—or from cows, sheep, or dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters. Still want to chew on that piece of Fido?
Cetyl Palmitate—Check your head if you’re using margarine that contains cetyl palmitate, the fancy term for the waxy oil derived from sperm whales’ heads or from dolphins. "I can’t believe it’s not " oh, wait. It is" Whale head wax"?
Urea—Urea comes from urine and other "bodily fluids." It’s used to "brown" baked goods, like pretzels. Um, yeah. And the oven is for ??


Wow, gross right? X* Luckily PETA kids also has a list of all the vegan treats you can trick for or hand out!

Airheads taffy
Atkins peanut butter bars
Blow Pops
Brach’s Cinnamon Hard Candy
Charms lollipops
Chick-o-Sticks
Cracker Jack
Cry Babies
Dem Bones
Dots
Dum-Dums
Fireballs
Goldenberg's
Peanut Chews
Hubba Bubba bubblegum
Jolly Ranchers (lollipops and hard candy)
Jujubees
Jujyfruits
Lemonheads
Mambas
Mary Janes (regular and peanut butter kisses)
Now and Later
Pez
Ring Pop lollipops
Smarties (U.S. Brand)
Sour Patch Kids
Super Bubble
Swedish Fish
Sweet Tarts
Tropical Source mini chocolate bags
Twizzlers
Zotz


Yum, I know I'll be handing out Blow Pops this year!

Delicious way to start your day!

Morning!

Okay, okay, so I don't only make treatz, this morning I cooked up a batch of vegan French toast served with organic grapes and a drizzle of Agave syrup, yum! Taste test is 10/10!

RECIPE

2 medium bananas
2/3 cup soymilk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

4 slices bread, I used French Meadow organic flax and sunflower seed bread.
Blend bananas, soymilk, maple syrup, cinnamon, and arrowroot powder until smooth.
Pour into a flat, shallow dish and soak bread slices 1 minute on each side.
Transfer carefully to a skillet, which has been oiled. Cook first side until lightly browned and crispish, about 3 minutes, then turn and cook second side until browned. We kept our griddle on 375, 400.
Serve with fresh fruit, fruit preserves, or maple syrup.

I doubled the recipe and got enough batter for you and all your teen vegan (or non vegan) friends for a brunch on the weekend. Get creative, serve with powdered sugar, cashew whip cream, maple syrup or agave syrup, and strawberries!

Bon appitiet

Adapted from Food for Life, by Neal Barnard, M.D.

Welcome!

Welcome to Vegan Treatz, my blog all about veganism! From recipes, to companies, and whats really in those nasty dairy by-products! Who am I? I'm a teenager in the big apple, I've been a vegetarian all my life (thank you hippy parents) and a vegan for 4 1/2 years. This is great blog for vegan teens who, like me, don't just blindly shove a Pop-Tart into the toaster (do you have any idea whats in those things?) But for teens who love cooking and baking vegan goodies. If I bake it and I love it the recipe will be here before the diary-free cupcakes cool.
Veganism is the diet of the future. And we teens are the next generation. So read, bake, comment, and enjoy.

'Till next time,
Wild Spice.