Desserts

Easy Vegan No-Bake Brownie Bites

Posted on March. 2023March. 2023 by writinstuff

Yesterday was my birthday and I swear I’m not telling you this just so you’ll say ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, but you totally can if you want to.

When it comes to birthdays I am usually the person who will show up at your door with a homemade dessert and an off-key rendition of Happy Birthday and if you’re really lucky, an off-key version of the Stevie Wonder song. Either way, that’s me.

Except for my own birthday. But this year I was feeling good about myself and making excellent progress on reaching my weight loss goals while also not obsessing about not making my weight loss goals, so I decided I wanted my favorite dessert ever. Brownies.

But of course I couldn’t quite bring myself to make like actual brownies because, well because that’s just not who I am anymore. But I found quite a few different variations on vegan brownie recipes, no bake brownie recipes and I did a little online curating and came up with something a little different.

These no bake vegan brownie bites are super easy, only requires a few ingredients and they don’t require you to pre-heat an oven or bust out a toothpick to check for doneness.

Sounds good, right? You’re totally intrigued to keep reading for my easy no-bake vegan brownie bites.

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Desserts, International vegan cuisine, Vegan

Vegan Savarina “aka” Savarina de post

Posted on December. 2022December. 2022 by writinstuff

The other day the Hubs and I stopped inside a local bakery that makes the most delicious bread to see what else they have to offer. I’m the cynic in our little family and I wasn’t going to hold my breath for anything other than bread, so imagine my shock and delight when learning there were several “de post” options.

Now for those of you who don’t know, de post, is a religious designation that means fasting but not fasting how us English speakers think of it. This is a way to note that the food contains no animal products and is therefore suitable for de post times. It’s odd but the good thing is that depending on where you are in the country, you can find plenty of accidentally vegan options.

Yay for us.

The Hubs spotted a vegan version of one of his favorite childhood desserts called Savarina. This was my first time hearing about it or seeing it, but the glazed over look in his eyes was full of memories as he ordered one for us to share.

This post isn’t a vegan recipe post, just me sharing a cool vegan dessert I discovered here in Romania.

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Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

Delicious Vegan Desserts ~ Vegan Pumpkin Banana Cake

Posted on November. 2022November. 2022 by writinstuff

When pumpkin season rolls around, I love to grab all different types and experiment with them especially in the form of desserts. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good pumpkin bisque but finding new ways to incorporate pumpkins into different desserts–and watching my non-vegan friends and family to totally fall in love with them–is such a treat!

Today’s pumpkin is just a regular small orange pumpkin known as the Cinderella pumpkin. It is small and bright orange with a noticeable stem and a sweet flavor. This type of pumpkin works well in pie and cake recipes. I always grab whatever I can find and hope for the best. So far I haven’t found a pumpkin that doesn’t translate well into both sweet and savory vegan recipes.

But today, we’re talking CAKE. I used one of my old banana bread recipes and added a bit more vegan plant milk to give it a more cake-like consistency. If you have a better pumpkin cake recipe I would love to see it!

Now…onto the Vegan Pumpkin Banana Cake Recipe.

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Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

Quick & Easy Vegan Sweet Potato Pie Recipe

Posted on November. 2022November. 2022 by writinstuff

Happy November, my fellow vegans! If you’re inside the United States then you know that sweet potato pie season has officially begun! If you are outside of the U.S. then it’s just regular ol’ autumn for you, which means tons of sweet potatoes and pumpkin and even butternut squash recipes.

The good news is that you can use many of these interchangeably. For example if you have pumpkin or squash in your vegetable box right now, you can use it in place of sweet potato in today’s vegan recipe.

The great news? This vegan sweet potato pie recipe tastes just like the ones grandma makes except it doesn’t require you to:

*Spend all day making a complicated and veganized pie crust
*Manually mixing up pie ingredients until they reach the perfect consistency

And best of all? It turns out perfectly every single time.

Every. Single. Time.

SO let’s stop talking about this mouthwatering vegan sweet potato pie and start making it, yeah?

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Asian Food, Beans, Bowls, Desserts, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Travel, Vegan

A Day in Bucharest ~ Sightseeing & Vegan Eats

Posted on September. 2022September. 2022 by writinstuff

Last week was our 18th wedding anniversary and we decided to do something that we have been avoiding for the past few years. Driving in Bucharest. Well, that’s not entirely true as we did spend some time in 2021 there in order to get some tattoos, but in general it is a huge headache and something that was just…ick.

But there are some tourist attractions that I really wanted to see and figured I could pull the Anniversary Card to make it happen. It worked like a charm.

The plan was simple; spend the morning sightseeing and stop at some kind of cafe for a coffee or a drink and then finish off our day of sightseeing at Ceauşescu Mansion and then a nice vegan dinner. But then we both remembered that this is Romania and things rarely work out the way you planned, especially in Bucharest.

The good news? We did manage to get in some sightseeing so you’ll have some pretty and historic sights as well as some delicious vegan food!

Let’s start with this beautiful tapestry made by an unknown Romanian artist for Ceauşescu Mansion.

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Desserts, Plant Based, Vegan

5 Ingredient Vegan Cream Pops

Posted on September. 2022September. 2022 by writinstuff

Today isn’t my normal posting date but I really wanted to share with you the latest vegan food obsession in my home. Cream pops.

Okay, full disclosure this one is tasty but it’s more of an obsession of my husband who is the one with a GIANT sweet tooth in our house. I found them very sweet but naturally delicious.

So anyway the ingredient list for these cream pops is super simple and the food processor and the freezer do most of the work.

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Desserts, Vegan

New Vegan Food Find! ~ Vemondo Coconut & Caramel Ice Cream

Posted on August. 2022August. 2022 by writinstuff

You guys know how much I love to find new vegan food items, whether in the grocery store or a restaurant. I feel compelled to try them out and as long as it’s something I like or might reasonably like I will test it out.

Once.

Okay, at least once.

Today (or was it yesterday) I was browsing the aisles of my local Lidl and my husband was bored watching me squint to check the ingredients on a tiny package of sun dried tomatoes. Why? To make sure there were no anchovies or crustaceans in the oil or the jar itself. There weren’t.

Anyway he zoomed right through the canned good aisles and went straight to the freezer section and found these babies, Vemondo Coconut & Caramel Ice Cream bars.

Ice. Cream. Bars.

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Beans, Desserts, International vegan cuisine, Plant Based, Sandwiches, Soup, Travel, Vegan

More Vegan Travels & Food ~ Constanta, Danube & Tulcea (Romania)

Posted on June. 2022June. 2022 by writinstuff

One of my favorite things to is travel to new places and explore new cultures, history and art. I love to see how people live all over the world and whenever I can find time I like to go pretty much anywhere that has a few items of interest.

My partner and I had been planning a trip to the Danube Delta and then COVID struck and we postponed it. Twice.

But we finally got there and we took a rather circuitous route, starting with Constanța to see the port and the Black Sea, which is a place my husband and his family often spent summers when he was a kid. The day was nice and warm and we walked around the city before taking in the Museum of History and Archeology which was incredible. There really is a lot of Roman history to be found in Romania, in addition to the Austrian and German influences found throughout their history. It was a wonderful day of sun and history and exploration.

I love the town signs that give you a silhouette of each town entering and leaving

So we started with Constanta and if you don’t know it is the birth place of tennis player Simona Halep and actor Sebastian Stan! Just a little bit of fun trivia for ya.

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Desserts, Fruit, Plant Based, Vegan

Vegan Dessert Recipes ~ Vegan Banana & Pineapple Cake

Posted on May. 2022May. 2022 by writinstuff

Who doesn’t love cake? Truthfully? Me. I mean I like cake but it’s not something that I just have to have or can’t live without. If it’s too sweet then I’ll have a bite of my husband’s piece but that’s where it ends.

Unless we’re talking Devil’s Food Cake, which I happen to LOVE!!!

I also quite enjoyed this Apple Crumble Cake recipe.

But he has quite a well-developed sweet tooth which means I get to try out all my vegan dessert recipes on him. A win-win for us both.

This banana and pineapple cake, titled Bananananas Cake because of the English word for Banana and the German word for pineapple, ananas. Get it?

Well even if you don’t, this is what we have for today’s vegan recipe, so let’s dig right in!