Ohhhhhhh the noms!!  The noms to be had!!!!!!!  I’ve been on a healthy streak lately, and consequently I’ve been trying to include more vegan and raw vegan foods in my diet.

Cheesecake is on my mind.  Just always.

Since the gluten- and dairy-free lifestyle was thrust upon me, there have been so many double whammies I’ve been craving for:  pizza, mac and cheese, grilled cheese… Most of those are easy to convert, but not my beloved cheesecake.  I realize it’s not “healthy,” but a raw vegan version has to be better for you than one you’d buy from the grocery store, right?

I thought to myself, “Self, there must be a way around this.”  So I pulled out my mini food processor and went to work, and friends, the result is so delicious.  You will not want to share.  The first time I made it, I ate the whole thing in one sitting.

This recipe is easily customizable.  Throughout this post I’ll give you some little notes about why I use what so you can take my recipe and fly with it.

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1/4  cup raw almonds
• 8 pitted dried dates

If you want a thicker crust, double those.

For the “cheese”

• 3 plump strawberries
• 8 pitted dried dates
• 1/2 cup raw walnuts
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp agave nectar (if you’re not raw vegan, you can replace this with 2 tbsp sugar or 1 tbsp honey)

Tools

• food processor (I got mine at Target for $7)
• 9×9″ container with cover

Step 1:  Throw your almonds and 8 dates into the food processor and BLENNNNNNNNND.  If you have a not-so-great food processor like me, it helps if you process the almonds first and then throw in the dates and process them.  Just keep on processing them until the mixture starts getting sticky and building up on the side as such:

The reason we use almonds for the crust as oppose to other nuts, is that almonds have a lower fat content than nuts like cashews and walnuts.  They’re a little dryer so they can hold the shape of the crust and make it a little stiffer.  The dates are incredibly sticky.  Dates are great to use in any vegan sweet when you need a little glue to help things stick together.

Step 2:  After that’s all blended up, scoop it out and put it into your container.  Use your fist to press it down firmly.

Step 2:  Chop up your strawberries and throw them in the food processor with the walnuts.  BLEND!

Step 3:  Add remaining dates, lemon juice, agave nectar, and vanilla extract.  BLEND!  (Sensing a trend here?)

Step 4:  Spread you yummy blended mixture on top of your crust, toss it in the freezer, and wait two hours for it to chill.  I got a little fancy for the photo shoot and added some chopped walnuts to the top.

Step 5:  Enjoy!

Feel free to get creative with my recipe!  What would you do differently?

The only hard part it not eating them all before you’re done making them.

My mom made some cake balls for Easter yesterday, and they looked so good that I wanted to make some, too, but Annie-friendly style.

Things you need:

Foods

• Betty Crocker Gluten-free Yellow Cake Mix (which needs water, margarine, gluten-free vanilla, and eggs)
• Vanilla frosting
• White or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Materials

• Cake pan
• Mixing bowls (one large, one small)
• Spoon
• Wax paper

Step 1: Make your cake according to the directions on the box

Step 2: Gather materials for innards

Step 3: Throw cake into large mixing bowl

Step 4: Crumble it up

Step 5: Add 1/2 can of frosting

Step 6: Roll into balls and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Step 7: Put chocolate into smaller mixing bowl and melt

For those for you (like myself) who don't know how to melt chocolate in the microwave without burning it, microwave it for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until totally melted.

Step 8: Roll the cake balls around in the melted chocolate until totally coated

Step 9: Put them on the wax paper to dry. I stuck them in the fridge to dry the chocolate faster

Step 10: ENJOY!

A bouquet of roses made of bacon?!  AND instructions on how to make them?!

A vegetarian’s worst nightmare and a romantic carnivore’s dream. This is quite possibly too good to be true.

What are your thoughts?

Click the picture for instructions on how to make them!

*OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM*

I needed some bread, and I found a mix by Gluten Free Pantry (which I believe is owned by Glutino) that was about the same price as the pre-made loaf. Everyone knows homemade is better. The mix was super super easy, a packet of yeast was included in the box, but the mix DID contain milk and whey, so if you’re allergic to casein, it could be a problem. Totally ok for the GF-only crowd though!

I forgot my camera so these are via my crappy phone camera:

SO TASTY

Betty Crocker came through for me again!  I haven’t had chocolate chip cookies since I became allergic to gluten and dairy, almost a year ago.  Last night I made a batch, and there is no way any of these will be left by tonight.

Now all I need is a big glass of soy milk

ENJOY SOME TASTY PICTURES

This is a gluten-free blueberry muffin from udi’s, which apparently I’ve been pronouncing wrong for the last year or so.

Delicious?  Obviously.  I mean.  Look at it.  Think it took me more than sixty seconds to eat this thing?  Absolutely not!  I had the chocolate muffins while I was home for break too.  Suuuuuuper good.

My main problem with gluten-free living is not how hard it is to find things that taste good, it’s how expensive all of the mildly edible things are.  $8 for four muffins?  Really udi’s?  Your demand curve is THAT inelastic?

Grrrrl plz.

These were pretty decent. In hindsight, I would have added some vanilla to the cookie dough. I also would have told myself that making yourself believe that baking soda and baking powder are substitutable does not make it true. And I would have used regular salt as opposed to popcorn salt.

Someday, when I’m done being a college student, I will have big kid ingredients in my apartment.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (for dairy-free, replace this with margarine)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs (to make this vegan, replace this with 2 TBSP flaxseed and 6 TBSP water)
• 2 3/4 cups flour (to make this gluten-free, replace this with 2 3/4 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour)
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix butter (or margarine), 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs (or flaxseed and water) thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Combine flour (or gluten-free flour), cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Scoop 1 inch globs of dough into the sugar/ cinnamon mixture.
8. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
9. Place on chilled ungreased cookie sheet, and bake 10 minutes.
10. Remove from pan immediately.

Lettuce, tuna, red pepper, green peppers, black beans, onions, Tabasco sauce, and chipotle mayo.  Probably the best combination I’ve come up with at the salad bar on campus.

I’ve also been getting a lot of (dairy-free!) Horchata because it’s cold out, and every time I drink it I think of this song.

Side note: When I get bored at work I photoshop either myself or people I know.  Today I photoshopped my friends’ faces onto dinosaur bodies.  Enjoy.

Bet this picture makes you wish you could grab it out of your computer screen and eat it.

*drool*

I made some gluten-free cupcakes using a Betty Crocker mix from the grocery store.  They were pretty good!  The cakey part sticks to the wrappers more than regular cupcakes, and it wasn’t very sweet, but the icing was enough sweet for me.  I’m not really into super sugary stuff, so these were perfect!

Also, my awesome cow, dinosaur, dolphin, and teddybear sprinkles were a wonderful finishing touch.

yummmmmmmmmmm

I found these store brand gluten-free pancakes at Trader Joe’s today.  THEY ARE DELICIOUS.  I was craving pizza, so I got a little creative and put my soy cheese on the pancakes, kind of mimicking Pannekoek (aka dutch pancakes – yummm).  The particular soy cheese I have actually tastes like mac and cheese though.  It was interesting, but yummy.  I think if I were to do this again, I would try to get a sharper cheese, like cheddar-flavored.  I also had some honeydew melon sitting around in my fridge.  MY FAVORITE.

For a treat I took my coffee from this morning, shook up some vanilla soy milk to make it frothy, and poured it in.  Mmmmmmmmmm…

Fall something and the blue one is caramel

UPDATE:

My former suitemate and her mom stopped by to give me these gluten-free macaroons from Sweets Bakeshop.

Click here for a dollar off that yummy gluten-free udi bread I recommended in a previous post :]

Don’t know where to find it?  Whole Foods has it for sure.

• I get a “sandwhich” in a box (all the sandwich fixin’s in a to-go box) and tell the workers that I can’t eat bread because I’m allergic to gluten almost every day.
• On September 25th I posted about how much I love udi’s bread.
• On September 27th my cafeteria began offering udi’s bread.

Coincidence? I think not.

udi's gluten-free bread

My mom’s friend suggested this particular brand of bread, and it was actually really good.  It tastes like regular bread and has the same texture as sourdough bread.  It was super tasty with a slice of chicken and some roasted pine nut hummus.  And for the side?  Chips and mango peach salsa.  *NOMNOMNOMNOM*

roasted pine nut hummus & mango peach salsa <3

But it can refer to some pretty crappy food.

For those of you who don’t know, I have a gluten allergy* (not Celiac’s) and a dairy allergy (not lactose intolerance).    These allergies are only recent, as of this past January, so I’ve been trying to adjust.  With twenty gluten-and-dairy-filled years behind me, I have pretty high standards for this new food, and I’ve been let down quite a bit.

For example, yesterday I made these brownies with a gluten-free brownie mix from Trader Joe’s (which I LOVE)

Despicably deceiving baked goods.

The familiar smell radiating from my dorm oven was intoxicating, and the brownies themselves looked to-good-to-be-true when I finally pulled them out.  And they were.  I followed the directions exactly (except replacing the oil with applesauce and the egg with flaxseed, both healthier and tasty common alternatives).  The fact that they have almost a gummy-chewy consistency didn’t bother me, but the brownies tasted like nothing.  There is a faint chocolate taste, but nothing to justify the 1,200+ calories in the little 8×8 cake pan.  I didn’t even bother to finish eating them.  I just threw them out.

I’ll probably start posting some of my better recipes, most of which are things I create out of what my school’s cafeteria has to offer.

*Because I don’t have Celiac’s, things like seasonings and vinegar don’t normally bother me.  If you have Celiac’s, you should double check anything I write about before eating it.