Recipe Round-Up: Bake and Destroy

Bake and Destroy by Natalie Slater is a very fun book, with fun recipes. The first recipe is the dessert chapter! I've posted about it a few times before, once in a round-up of its own, but it has also appeared in several bake sale posts because there are some really fun baked goods in it. You can see those previous posts here.

Chick-O-Cheesecake: Once upon a time I made this cheesecake for my friend Amy. It doesn't use vegan cream cheese, but it also doesn't use bananas (which Amy hates and which appear in a lot of Pie In The Sky cheesecake recipes). Instead it uses a blend of cashews and silken tofu, with a smidge of coconut oil. Normally I would sub this, but as at the time I had some kicking around and I was baking this for someone else I used it. The fun part of this cheesecake is that it uses crushed up Chick-O-Sicks both in the base and in the topping! I also enjoyed that this baked and set really well, I have had issues with other cheesecake recipes never seeming to set. I did of course have a piece, and it was pretty good! I couldn't even taste the coconut oil, which was nice. It does have shredded coconut and coconut extract in it, which is my prefered coconut experience.
Rating: :)



You Don't Know Jack Hash: This was delicious! A sweet potato and nut hash (the recipe called for walnuts, I used pecans), topped with smoky jackfruit and avocado. This says it serves 4-6, but we got three serves. Highly recommend this recipe! And, great news, I found this recipe on her blog so anyone can try it! Recipe is here.
Rating: :D



The Early Bird Special: In the book, this is a pretty doughnut topped with a beautiful nest of cripsy bacon. As you can see, mine doesn't look so pretty. The doughnuts are pancake-inspired in their flavours, to create presentation twist on a classic breakfast combination. I made a half batch of doughtnuts, and as I wasn't eating them all with breakfast I added some chopped walnuts to half of them (as suggested in the book). My doughnuts were a bit smooshy, so maybe the needed to bake a bit longer. I used some precious Upton's bacon that had been languishing in my freezer after I brought it home from a US trip. All drenched in maple syrup, and served with some mandarine.
Rating: :)



Banana Carrot Cake Doughnuts: These baked doughnuts are full of mashed banana, grated carrots, walnuts, and lots of nice spices. The batter made a lot, so my doughnut pans were quite full that led to some messu baked tops when they came out of the oven, so I flipped them over. The recipe for the pineapple coconut glaze calls for cream of coconut. I made it a cream cheese glaze by using Tofutti cream cheese instead of cream of coconut. I gave the doughnuts three dips each in the glaze, which ended up being pretty sticky, but they tasted good. I took these to a bake sale, and I wish I had sprinkle them with some crushed nuts to look more fancy!
Rating: :)



Breakfast Pizza: Of friends, this was so good! The crust is more of a biscuit dough that a regular pizza dough, it is topped with some gravy and then some tofy scramble (complete with broccoli and carrot for some veggies). This combination is SO GOOD! And the biscuit base was particularly delightful.
Rating: :D



Dan's Drinking Kale: This green smoothie recipe was a bit meh. I don't love kale in smoothies, so I used baby spinach instead. I also decreased the dates from 1/2 cup to just a single one, as 1/2 cup of dates in a drink make it far too sweet for me. Perhaps that is where the flavour is meant to be?
Rating: :|



Candy Bar Smoothie: This is more rich and not so much sweet. It has banana, shredded coconut, almond butter, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon in it. It kept me full for a long time after! It says to add milk as needed, I added a bit more than I originally though otherwise it is a bit too thick to drink!
Rating: :)



Yeah, It's A Green Smoothie: This is a much better version of a green smoothie, and so refreshing. I used all spinach rather than a mix of spinach and kale. It also has banana, pineapple, ginger, mint, and lemon in it. And the liquid is coconut water. This is a fabulous way to rehydrate after a hot yoga class! Not that I do bikram yoga anymore, but back in the day.
Rating: :)



Taco Lasagna: This is a fun recipe, and easy to make, using tortillas instead of lasagna sheets. It is layers of tortillas, salsa, and a very quick mushroom, black bean, and corn mixture. I added some spinach as well for fun and because I had some to use up. I made a half recipe, using a 20 x 20 cm casserole dish, but I needed to use the full amount of salsa to get decent coverage. I made this very recently, so used some store-bought guacamole rather than avocado due to issues with getting decent avocados in deliveries.
Rating: :)



Chicago-Style Sammich: This was a messy but yummy sandwich. It is a mix of onion, mushrooms, spinach, and tomato sauteed, then added to a roll with mustard, pickle relish and cheesy sauce. I left off the optional sport pepper. I actually have no idea what a sports pepper is, but given that it is a pepper, and therefore my enemy, I didn't bother looking into it. The sautee is seasoned with celery salt, which I didn't have, so I used a mix of salt and celery seeds instead.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



My depression has been pretty bad over the past few days. Hard to motivate myself to do anything, fighting the overwhelming urge to just lie down and sleep. But I've still had to go to work and be that smiling, delightful person. I am so grateful that I have this little baby to come home to, to sit on my lap, to get me up to feed her or take her for walks, to just give me a reason. And yes, please admire my aweome unicorn PJs. I love them.