Foodie Friday! Broccoli Alfredo Lasagna!

Deliciousness on a plate!

This recipe for Broccoli Alfredo Lasagna was created by my own brother, The Meaty Vegan.  Eric has a doubly challenging task in that he, his wife and their toddler son are not only vegan but gluten-free as well.  

Dr. D. and I had this a couple of weekends ago and it was very good! There are a couple of things I feel I need to point out.  You will need nine (9!) cloves of garlic for this recipe; five for the filling and four for the Alfredo sauce.  Do not skimp!  All that garlic makes this dish taste amazing!  Also, the recipe calls for two boxes of lasagna noodles but I found one to be sufficient.  

Eric created this recipe for a contest for Follow Your Heart vegan cheese but you can substitute any kind of vegan cheese you prefer (I love Daiya!).

This will be a dish you make for company and bring to potlucks to prove how fantastic vegan food is!  Check out the recipe on the Meaty Vegan blog here. Tell my brother I sent you.

Foodie Friday! Rich Mocha Cake!

I made this cake for dessert recently and was so pleasantly surprised by how delicious and easy it was!  No need to get out the mixer for this one; just use a whisk or spoon.  It's so moist!  I even heard you can substitute the oil for an equal amount of applesauce to cut the fat content.  You will get lots of compliments on this scrumptious one-layer cake!

A slice of vegan heaven!

Mocha Cake 
(adapted from a recipe in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table)

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup nondairy milk (I used vanilla flavored almond milk)
• 1/2 cup black coffee of your choice
• 1/3 cup canola oil (or 1/3 cup applesauce) 
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8- or 9- inch cake pan. 

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl until mixed thoroughly. It may be necessary to sift the cocoa powder to make sure it is very fine. 

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk, coffee, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

For the icing, I improvised using a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Isa Does It.  Bring 2/3 C. almond milk to a boil, add 2 Tbsp. real maple syrup.  Reduce to a simmer and add chocolate.  

I didn't have vegan chocolate chips on hand so I chopped up 6 oz. (2 bars) of Wegmans Dark Chocolate with Raspberry Flakes and added it to the milk mixture.  The recipe calls for 8 oz. of vegan chocolate chips but the 6 oz. I used was perfect.  I let it cool for about 15 minutes and then gently poured it on top of the cooled cake.

This cake will please vegans and non-vegans alike!  Enjoy!