Double dose of vegan cupcakes and some jerk tofu!

The most moistlicious Chocolate Stout Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, dusted with powdered sugar. The recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of stout so be prepared to relax with your beer while they bake, like I did.
Oh snap! Classic Maple Cupcakes. From VCTOTW, with a maple infused fluffy white buttercream, and homemade maple candied pecans (though the recipe calls for walnuts).
I forgot how big of a maple fan I was, because I bit into one of these and immediately wanted my next birthday cake to be maple laye cake.


The stouts, pre-baked.
From Vegan with a Vengeance - the Jerk Seitan, made with tofu. Paired with sea salt, olive oil & paprika roasted turnips, fingerling potatoes, cauliflower, beets and red kuri squash / steamed chard for me / and a wild brown rice mixture. The sauce was tangy and Thomas loved it, but it wasn't really my thing - I can probably blame the onion, whatever. Still an easy and vibrant one to make!


Fu close up!
I picked up few containers of this tofu on sale for 2/$3 recently and they are super duper firm. Trader Joe's is also selling something similar, check it out.
Tofu in the marinade..
The fingerling taters I picked up from the downtown farmer's market - which is having its last day of the season this upcoming Wednesday. I've made a mental note to pick up more beautiful bell peppers.
Tempeh taco crumbles (in burritos) - I've added this to my favorite food list. I follow the tempeh sausage crumble recipe in VWAV, and use bulk organic taco seasoning, more cumin, more chopped garlic, jalapeno and bragg's. One of the best things I have EVER eaten were the tempeh tacos from the old Country Life buffet in Boston, and these come somewhat close, and that is a magical thing.

This particular burrito included black beans, mixed greens, short grain brown rice, chopped cherry tomatoes and hot sauce. Didn't miss the cheese at all~
On a side note, I can't think of tacos anymore without thinking/singing the "You make me forget about Ta-cohs!" J-lo/Ben Affleck/Cartman bit Thomas and I caught on rerun a couple months back.

Below we have Mexicana Spaghetti Squash topped with more chopped cherry tomatoes and savory toasted squash seeds. This is another PPK test kitchen recipe. Sorry for the lighting in so many photos these days, such as this one, I cook in the evenings, no natural light, yadda yadaa.

Roasted cauliflower over a quickly fixed pasta alfreda.

Earlier this week I had a rough day and wasn't quite sure what to make for dinner, but then I knew what I wanted - the pasta alfreda again, especially after seeing Wiebke whip it up.

Unfortunately I am now out of nooch. I try to only eat pasta once a week, and whole wheat and/or veggie pasta if available. For those with access to a Trader Joe's, I highly recommend their whole wheat (I think they are organic as well) pastas, at 99 cents a bag.Went to the Portland Nursery Apple Festival this weekend and tried 40 types of mostly delicious apples - screw the banana apple, that was awful. Sampled a few apple dishes from the cooking demos as well, of course.
I picked up a bunch of my all time favorite sweet and tart apple - The McIntosh! These are ideal for both munching as is and baking with. Last season apples weren't exactly topnotch in Portland, and I came across no local McIntoshes, the apple we picked as kids growing up in NY. Fortunately things have changed, and I'm planning on making some sort of apple crumb soon.
Jealous of my comparable-to-a-5-year-old painting skills?