Vegan Family Picnic

Vancouver’s weather has finally decided it is time for summer and the sun is out! To celebrate this beautiful time, I invited my parents out for a picnic dinner. I told them it would be healthy, organic and mostly local food.

I didn’t tell them it would be vegan.

Now, when I originally invited my parents, I hadn’t planned on a picnic. I bought groceries and made recipes not expecting a picnic. So most of the meal would probably taste better hot, but I served it cold.

For the Thai Coconut Brown Rice:

You only need 2 cups of brown rice, Happy Planet‘s Thai Coconut Soup and 1/4 cup of cornstarch. I didn’t use instant rice which worked out well, the 50 minutes it takes to cook the brown rice is enough to prep everything else. While the rice cooks, pour all of the soup into a sauce pan and heat it on a medium setting.

When it starts to get warmer, add the cornstarch to thicken. Stir really well and continue to heat until it reaches a thicker consistency. Set aside to wait for the rice. Once all is said and done, mix the rice and the Thai Coconut mix together and serve warm or cold.

Left overs are good for a couple of days. In fact, I’m eating some now for dinner.

Then my “Steak” was a new dish, not only for my parents but for me as well. It was really tough for me to find a good meat substitute that would look like meat to help hide my secret from my parents.

It wasn’t so good cold, but man was it delicious when I tried them hot!

They come frozen and all I did was spread them on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

I just wish they came with more sauce, I thought they were a little dry.

But what topped the meal off for me was the bread I bought. I love A Bread Affair breads. Local, fresh, organic…what’s not to love?

Some of the best breads I have ever tasted.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, it was my mom that had the hardest time with the vegan meat. I knew my dad would eat it, I just thought he’d mock it more. But mom had a really hard time with the texture. To quote her, it was “all in [her] head” and I’m proud she did so well with it.

Fathers Day {Or The Night I was Introduced to Hosting a Family Dinner}

Happy Fathers Day to all the wonderful Dad’s out there, though none are as awesome as mine.

This year, in my new apartment with my newly acquired culinary skills, I hosted my first family dinner alongside my partner in crime. It was a three course meal for eight people and barely any time to prepare. Much to my happiness, it was a success! The food tasted great (unless you talk about the cookie dough dip with my father), the apartment looked fantastic thanks to my mad cleaning spree four hours before hand and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I put a lot of pressure and stress on myself over this dinner. I love to host and this was my first major family dinner. Years from now I will be hosting Christmas; one day I’ll have children and the dinners I host will create their wonderful family memories my mom helped create for me. I felt like this dinner would set the tone for the dinners to come as I become my own adult person.

Crap. I now have a lot to live up to. Not that I’m bragging or anything.

The night before was devoted to shopping for food and preparing certain dishes ahead of time. One thing I quickly learned: I have no clue how much food is required to feed eight people. The good news is, I ended up buying more than enough rather than less. Of course, this meant I ended up spending a lot of time preparing a lot of food. Namely, fruit. I don’t think I’ve ever owned so much fruit. My fridge has never been so full. Of fruit.

{a small portion of the fruit purchased for the night}

As I said earlier, I spent about four hours cleaning every inch of my apartment starting the moment I crawled out of bed. The great thing about this is that I got a great workout from it and my apartment is so pretty and clean now. After I was satisfied with how I’d be presenting my home to those who mean so much to me, I got ready as quick as a bunny and finished up the appetizers. Unfortunately my timing was a little off and the fam-jam had arrived before I finished preparing everything. After a momentary stress moment, a small slice on my thumb and a lot of help from Connor (who arrived with my parents), the appies were served and looking pretty.

{a light and refreshing ice tea to start with}

We served David’s Tea Goji Berry iced tea, a fruit and veggie platter with Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip (which I’ve modified since the original post, to update later), an attempt at Apple Cupcakes and Connor served his hand made seven layer dip (which was delicious!). There was so much food but it all seemed light enough to enjoy while not filling up before dinner. Also, it introduced more vegan delights to my carnivorous family which most enjoyed.

{colourful and healthy appetizers}

To make the Apple Cupcakes, make sure you have a well thickened pudding, unlike mine. You only need three ingredients: apples, pudding of your choice and chopped almond slices (or coconut or another “sprinkle” you would enjoy). I cut the apples in half then cored them, which I don’t recommend. Maybe just take out the middle but leave a bottom and warn your guests. My attempt to fill the hole left by the core (by stuffing with other apple bits) mixed with a liquidy pudding did not work. Otherwise, after you cut and digg out the core, put a heap of pudding on top of the apple as if it were icing on a cupcake. Sprinkle with almond topping and you have a cute, healthier cupcake snack or appetizer.

Connor and I were able to sit and enjoy for a bit before we went back to work in the kitchen. Which, by the way, we proudly managed to keep clean while preparing and serving all these dishes.

{couldn’t have pulled it off without this face}

Most of dinner was already prepared before the appetizers were even on the table, except for the chicken and the steamed vegetables. Connor prepared a Southwestern Salad that paired surprisingly well with my Brown Rice and Bulgur salad my parents just love. We also had steamed snap peas and carrots with wine to drink. Our main dish was a Light-Lemon Sesame Breaded Chicken. The original Betty Crocker recipe called for frying the chicken but as we had eight breasts to make and I don’t own a skillet, that wasn’t happening. So we breaded the chicken in a sesame seed-bisquick mix and baked for thirty-five minutes. The sauce was super easy to make and very versatile. It would be perfect for a salmon or other sea food with its sweet lemon flavour. Top off with some green onions and our meal was complete.

{the brown rice and bulgur salad, a super healthy WeightWatchers recipe newly popular in my family}

I set up a tea bar with my various kinds of tea for the family to pick from. I am pretty determined to get my family as excited about tea as I am, though I don’t think it will happen. No one seemed to understand my way of thinking for the set up. I didn’t care, I was pretty tired by this time. Besides, I was able to show off my tea collection and enjoy me some Birthday Cake before dessert.

{my tea bar idea to be refined}

We then served cheeseburgers and pizza for desert. For real. Connor made delicious and beautiful Cheeseburger Cupcakes and I served a Spring Fruit Pizza. This pizza uses a sugar cookie crust: Betty Crocker’s bag recipe, except you basically make one big cookie. Let the crust cool then mix whipped cream and cream cheese icing in a bowl and spread on top of the crust. I let it sit in the fridge overnight and I think that made it taste a million times better — like how left over lasagna is better than the first serving. Top with your choice of fruits and cut up like a pizza. A light, sweet dessert for a variety of taste buds.

Family is super important to me. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family. I was so excited to prepare and host my first family dinner and three days later I am still bursting with excitement over its success. It was also a great reminder to take the time in our busy lives and appreciate those who mean the most to you.

And enjoy some delicious grubb.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

I’ve often thought I would like to ditch my current career plans to open a flower shop with some sort of social good twist. Obviously I would use social and environmentally responsible  flowers, but I would somehow turn my little, imaginary flower shop into a socent (jargon alert: socent is a hashtag (#) used on twitter to signify social entrepreneurship and innovation). These days I have begun to add and grow my flower shop to include a vegan, healthy bakery/cafe/treat shop of sorts. Now I’m questioning if I’ve become a hippie but I think this is a shop with some potential in a place like Vancouver (please nobody steal my idea, it would make me sad). The reason for the addition probably has to do with my recent foray into vegan experiments in the kitchen.

Like this current work in progress. I’ve noticed cookie dough dips have become popular online and I wanted to try my hand at making a recipe. I got the general idea of what is required through my research and I wanted to make a recipe that could be done with what I currently have in my kitchen, which isn’t a lot. Oh, and it has to be WeightWatchers friendly of course.

I’ve only attempted one batch so far and I know there’s a lot of improvement to be made. And if you have ideas on how to make it better, I wouldn’t turn down any suggestion (except coconut, I despise coconut).

Ingredients: 

• 1 package of silken tofu
• 4 Tbsp light peanut butter
• 2 Tbsp or less sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1/2-1/4 cup vegan dark chocolate chips

{you’ll need about 10 oz of tofu to make a large enough batch to blend}

Instructions:

In a food processor (or blender) combine all but the chocolate chips. Process/blend until all mixed and smooth, scrape down the sides as much as you can to make it right. Pour into a bowl and add chocolate chips. Mix well. For a chunkier texture, add half a cup of oats to the food processor/blender also.

I foolishly didn’t use silken tofu but just soft regular tofu. It caused a lack of thickness with my dip and I will not make the same mistake twice. Because of this, I used more peanut butter than I would have liked and it’s given my dip a strong flavour. Good for us who love peanut butter but don’t be

afraid to use less than four tablespoons. I’ve also stuck my dip in the freezer to thicken a bit more. Don’t use more than two tablespoons of sugar but if you want it a little healthier snack, this is an area that can be cut back. Be careful on the salt because I started with way too much and it was gross.

Originally, I wanted to make a batch half this size, but as I began to blend I realized there wasn’t enough ingredients to actually mix. I would also love to have a food processor.

Another area for possible improvement is the peanut butter. I would like to try making this with an almond butter. Or chickpeas instead of a tofu.

The dip will go with a variety of foods, from fruits to crackers to a spoon. Good as a snack or a dessert.

{to help prevent eating the whole thing in one sitting, I dished out each serving in a mini mason jar}

This recipe provided six 55g servings which are 4 points each with WeightWatchers.