VEGAN THANKSGIVING!

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Lunch & Dinners


tg (Medium)

Thanksgiving can be celebrated with friends family and good food… without hurting any of our feathered friends!  In addition to countless vegan “turkey substitutes”  you can try making a homemade lentil loaf with all of the fixins!

vegn thanksgiving (Medium)

 

Lentil-Walnut loaf with a maple glaze:

  • I basically used this recipe from Oh She Glows… because it’s pretty awesome
  • http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/01/ultimate-vegan-lentil-walnut-loaf/
  • (however, I just used maple syrup for the glaze)

 

Sweet Potato Casserole:

  • 4 cups sweet potato
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbs flax seed, mixed with 6 Tbs water
  • 1/2 tsp earth balance
  • 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • TOPPING:
  • 1/2 cup brown or coconut sugar
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 3 Tbs earth balance
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans

preheat oven to 325.

peel and cube sweet potatoes and boil until soft enough to mash.

mash and add all ingredients (not inducing topping) and transfer to baking dish

Make topping mix in separate bowel and sprinkle over mashed sweet potato mix.

bake in oven for 30 mins

 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

wash and prep fresh sprouts, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on 350 for approximately 30 mins.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce:

  • 12 oz fresh cranberries
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1.5 cup maple syrup

add all ingredients to saucepan and bring to a boil.  reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 mins.  transfer into bowl and place in fridge to cool (sauce will thicken once cool)

Summer Baked Lentil Burgers

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Lunch & Dinners

Summer Lentil Burgers

8-10 burgers

  • 1 cup dry lentils, well rinsed
  • 2 1/2 cups water – may need to add more if needed
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced (or onion powder in a pinch)
  • 1 red pepper diced
  • 1 fresh ear of corn- cut off kernels (or some frozen)
  • Handful of spinach, kale or other green
  • 1 cup (apx) of flour (can be reg or gluten free)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ½ tsp Garlic powder

 

Directions

  1. Boil lentils in the water with the salt for around 45 minutes. Lentils will be soft and most of the water will be gone. Add more water id lentils aren’t mushy yet and you need to continue cooking
  2. Once lentils are mushy – throw in fresh veggies and cook for 3-5 mins.
  3. In a bowl mix the cooked ingredients with flour, and any spices (spices are apx. And you may want to add more or less depending on your taste)
  4. While still warm form the mixture into patties, it will make 8-10 burgers.
  5. On a cookie sheet lines with tin foil – grease lightly with olive oil
  6. Bake at 350 or 400 for 10 mins or so – check to make sure bottoms aren’t getting burnt – I also put on Broil for 1 min at end to brown tops.

11895949_683636068402914_1762915014620634792_n 11890966_683369211762933_2797728293315192759_n11051918_683393951760459_2091772825442108750_n

Vegan Treats Easter Basket Review

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Goodness Desserts, Vegan Goodness Reviews

VEGAN TREATS Easter Basket Review

 

I ordered “The Ultimate Lucky Bunny” basket from http://vegantreats.com/shop/.

*I was not paid or given free product  for my review.

WOW! These were some of the tastiest Easter Chocolates that I have ever encountered… and believe me when I say that I scour the internet and health food stores for delicious Vegan Chocolate.

I received the box only days after ordering, and for the sake of being able to review them before Easter I HAD to dig right in. Not only were these chocolates some of the tastiest that I’ve had, they were also BEAUTIFUL! Each piece looked like a masterpiece filled with deliciousness!

As stated on the Vegan Treats description the basket includes:

  • 1 bunny buddy box containing two betterfinger bars – I never thought I would get to taste these again – they were spot on!
  • VT (2) (Medium)
  • 1 pack of twin caramel cookie bars – these “twix” imitations were delicious, but I would have loved the caramel to be a bit creamer
  • 1 pack of twin peanut butter cookie bars – Yum.
  • VT (3) (Medium)
  • 1 foil-wrapped chocolate egg filled with handmade coconut cream encased in our Swiss dark chocolate – One of my FAVORITES. These were so good, I could have eaten 50 of them!!! Seriously – how do I get more???
  • VT (6) (Medium)
  • 1 foil-wrapped chocolate egg filled with peanut butter cream encased in our Swiss dark chocolate – Yum
  • 1 white chocolate bunny pop – this is the first vegan white chocolate that was really tasty – most of the “white chocolate” I’ve tried previously have had more of a waxy feel. These were amazing and reminded me of the White chocolate I had as a child.
  • VT (10) (Medium)
  • 1 swiss chocolate bunny pop – Yum.
  • 1 carrot bag filled with eight handmade milk chocolate eggs – Yum.
  • 1 pink box containing two chocolate speculoos bunnies – Oh My Gosh – I was not expecting the burst of delicious flavor and addictive taste of these. I’ve never tasted speculoos before – and apparently I’ve been missing out. One of my FAVORITES!
  •   VT (4) (Medium)VT (11) (Medium)
  • 1 bag of five swiss chocolate and five white chocolate bunnies – Yum.
  • VT (9) (Medium)
  • 1 bag of six passion fruit swiss chocolates – These were so beautifully decorated that I was hesitant to eat them. These were very good, even though I’m not really a fan of fruit flavors with chocolate.
  • VT (8) (Medium)
  • 1 bag of four veganbury eggs – One of my FAVORITES… these lived up to all my hopes and dreams of a vegan cream egg. Well done!!! (see comparison below)
  • VT (7) (Medium)

I also had to compare the two different types of vegan cream eggs…

vs. (Medium)

The left one is from Premium Chocolatiers and is good. They use a sweeter chocolate that is more like milk chocolate, but as you can see the cream is my smaller and harder. The Vegan Treats version oozed out and reminded me exactly of the Cadbury version I had as a kid. The chocolate is darker and more of a shell. It. Was. Amazing.!!!!!vs. (2) (Medium)

Now for the cons. The web site does not offer individual items for sale. I would LOVE to pick and choose which chocolates and how many I want. I assure you that I would have doubled (or tripled) up on some of these if given the chance. So PLEASE Vegan Treats… for those of us that don’t live within driving distance… offer more of your goodies online!!!!   I promise you will have a loyal following 😉

MORE vegan Easter treats!

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Goodness Desserts, Vegan Goodness Reviews

Not sure how I’ve missed this one… but I will be ordering to review ASAP!!!!

http://vegantreats.com

How awesome does this sound:

Included in every box:

  • 1 bunny buddy box containing two betterfinger bars
  • 1 pack of twin caramel cookie bars
  • 1 pack of twin peanut butter cookie bars
  • 1 foil-wrapped chocolate egg filled with handmade coconut cream encased in our Swiss dark chocolate
  • 1 foil-wrapped chocolate egg filled with peanut butter cream encased in our Swiss dark chocolate
  • 1 white chocolate bunny pop
  • 1 swiss chocolate bunny pop
  • 1 carrot bag filled with eight handmade milk chocolate eggs
  • 1 pink box containing two chocolate speculoos bunnies
  • 1 bag of five swiss chocolate and five white chocolate bunnies
  • 1 bag of six passion fruit swiss chocolates
  • 1 bag of four veganbury eggs

VEGAN EASTER TREATS!

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Goodness Desserts

Some of the best Easter treats are also Vegan!  For so many years, if you chose to be Vegan it meant “going without” certain things and traditions…. but now… almost everything has a vegan version!!!   (not to be confused with “healthy” but most certainly “yummy”)

 

Some of my favorites:

  1. Premium chocolate:    

http://www.premiumchocolatiers.com

offers a wide variety of Easter treats that you can’t live without.

Like the vegan version of Cadbury cream eggs:

Cream VEGGs

Chocolate (and white chocolate- I know vegan white chocolate!) bunny pops !!!

Lollipop - Wheelbarrow Bunny

 

 

  1. Divvies: 

http://www.divvies.com/   

Offers some delicious solid bunnies –

and while there you should also order Chocolate Brownie Cookie Sandwich with Vanilla Filling just because they are awesome!

 

  1. VeganEssentials:

http://store.veganessentials.com/easter-gift-ideas-c108.aspx

is always a great place to stalk up on vegan treats:

Organic Chocolate Easter Basket with Bunny and Eggs by Sjaaks

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Sweet & Sara:

http://store.sweetandsara.com/seasonal/

Vegan “peeps” & Vegan chocolate covered marshmallow bunnies – straight from your childhood!!

Sunny: Chick Veep [1 pc]Skipper: Chocolate Marshmallow Rabbit 8

  1. Sjaak’s :  

https://sjaaks.com/categories/show/Easter

 

always has some yummy vegan treats.. and special ones for Easter

like the pb crunch egg:

Fluffernutter_egg_-large

Caramel filled chocolate eggs:

Organic_fair_trade_vegan_chocolate_cream_egg_box-large

And some solid chocolate eggs

Organic_fair_trade_vegan_dark_chocolate_egg_bag-large

  1. Rose City Chocolatier

If you like hazelnut truffles (or pb filled easter eggs)… these are the perfect ones for you!

http://www.rosecitychocolates.com/vegan-easter-products.php

vegan chocolate easter bunnyvegan chocolate

 

  1. The Natural Candy Store:   http://www.naturalcandystore.com/category/vegan-candy

Offers a variety of chocolate and other candy Easter treats.

Allergy-Friendly Dark Chocolate Smiling BunniesEaster Bunny Lollipop

Oatmeal-flax-chocolate chip cookies

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Goodness Desserts

IMG_6228 (Medium)

Oatmeal Cookies

½ Cup Earth Balance butter – softened

¾ Cup brown sugar

½ Cup maple syrup

2 Tbs ground flax + 6 Tbs water

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ Cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

Dash of salt

3 Cups of Oats

Optional:

½ Cup Chocolate Chips

½ Cup Nuts (I used hazelnuts)

unsweetened coconut

Raisins

Other seeds

 

Heat oven to 350.

Mix all ingredients except oats and optional stuff

When well mixed, add in oats & other toppings

Bake for 10 mins

Peanut dressing

Posted on by Loryn Vegan Appetizers

pnut dressing (Medium)

Peanut dressing

1/4 C peanut butter

1 Tbs braggs or soy sauce

1 Tbs Vegetable oil (I used extra light olive)

1 Tbs rice vinegar

2 Tbs coconut sugar (or brown sugar)

pinch of ginger powder

pinch of cayenne pepper

Hot water

 

Mix ingredients together and slowly add hot water until it is the consistency that you want for dressing.

This is amazing over salad or pasta, couscous, rice… the possibilities are endless!