I haven’t been inspired to cook in ages. I mean, really cook. Not bake something, or whip up some treats, or run a test kitchen. I mean, FEED myself. I haven’t been grocery shopping in a month, and I have been eating out every day. Not only is this not good for the body OR the psyche, but it is also not-surprisingly costly. Due to unexpected family trips, I find myself with less money than I normally have. Also with trying to get things together to open a wee bakery, excess spending is a terrible idea.

That being said, all these factors have come together to inspire me. I finally went grocery shopping yesterday, and have found my legs in the kitchen again. I think both my wallet AND my…ahem…girlish figure will thank me.

SO, you ask? What have I made.
Here’s the list that has accumulated in the last 24 hours or so.
(Please excuse the poor photography, that is one thing I haven’t been inspired on today!)

1. Vegan Lasagna, with mushrooms, spinach, fresh tomatoes, and basil (from my “garden”). Instead of red sauce, which I’m not the hugest fan of, I made a sort of vegan alfredo sauce. I did, however, top the lasagna with a tiny bit of red sauce for good measure. The alfredo was delicious, and had thyme from my garden, as well as hints of nutmeg.

2. I’ve been rather obsessed with this month’s Veg Times, if you hadn’t noticed. I have also been having serious avocado cravings. The two might be connected, as the magazine had avocados as their “One ingredient, Five ways” for the month. One of the recipes is an Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta, which I highly recommend. I adapted it a bit and also used no oil except a slight drizzle on top of the toasts. YUM!

4. No-Bake Oat, Coconut, Almond Clusters.
This was ridiculously delicious, and ridiculously chocolatey. Luckily, however, there are tons of nutrients suspended amongst the sugar and chocolate, so I don’t feel TOO bad eating them.

I didn’t really follow a recipe, it’s pretty classic, but I will tell you what I did.

Melted maybe 1/2 cup of evaporated cane juice in some earth balance and some coconut milk over low heat. Let that come to a little boil and hang out for a few minutes until it seemed syrupy. Then added a little less than 2 cups of oats, a handful of shredded coconut, and a handful of slivered almonds. Stirred it all up until it was all mixed. Then dropped clusters onto a waxed papered cookie sheet to go into the refrigerator for half an hour until they were set.

You could pretty much add anything to these. Dried fruits, chocolate chips or peanut butter…the list goes on!

Who doesn’t love No-Bake cookies? Super easy, and super tasty. Super sweet though, so watch out!

As lame as it may be, I’m going to mention the new bakery in most of my posts from here on out. It’s really all that’s on my mind. It will take a while to get it all off the ground, but I need all the support I can get…so….

Check it out…South Austin’s newest vegan bakery, Sugar Tooth, coming soon. Until then, order cakes and treats from us for your event or party, so that we can open sooner than later!

and be sure to check out our myspace and add us as a friend!

Sugar Tooth Myspace

If you aren’t on myspace, feel free to email us at
Sugartoothbakery@hotmail.com for inquiries.

Sugartoothbakery.com is up, but we haven’t really posted anything there yet.
More to come…

Cheers!
Meghan

My friend Annie and I are finally doing it! We are in the process of getting our shit together to actually execute this bakery thing. At the moment, we would be happy to bake things for your special events. Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, etc. OR, if you just happen to have a hankering for something sweet. Custom and Classic designs available for any occasion! Please contact us with any questions or orders.

We don’t have a location and such yet, but that is all in the works as well!
I’m very excited about it!

You can start by visiting and adding us as your friend on myspace. Here it is:

Sugar Tooth Bakery

Tell all your friends, and feel free to contact us to place orders even before we get the actual bakery up and running. All vegan, gluten free available, as well as agave sweetened (no real sugar!), option for natural food coloring only. Any special dietary needs CAN be met.

We appreciate your support, and look forward to the months ahead!

I’ll post here with all updates, so stay tuned, for sure.

sweet sweet love,
meghan

Banzai is a door guy at my bar. He is a large Italian man, who might be one of the craziest people I’ve ever known. He is also hilarious. And loves to eat like nobody’s business!

A few posts back you might recall that I made some snickerdoodles. WELL, I made a very small batch, and because of this fact, took a few cookies to work. ONLY a few. SO…when I got there, I told Banzai I had made cookies, and that he could have one. “ONLY ONE???”, was his response! Banzai is a man who could easily eat your entire batch of cookies, so he was very upset to get merely a single sample. It has become an inside joke with us, and he tells EVERYONE who will listen the story of how I only made him ONE cookie. All in his very Italian accent of course! I’ve been telling him for a while that I will make more cookies, and he could be sure that he will have at least several.

I decided that today was the day. Hopefully he is actually working tonight, otherwise I will have to make more another day. That of course, would be just fine by me!

The cookies I made today were the Peanut Butter-Oatmeal variety that can be found in this month’s Vegetarian Times. They aren’t too sweet, and are VERY delicious. Get yourself a glass of soy milk, and whip up a batch. Super easy, super delicious in no time at all! AND I’m sure you have all of the ingredients on hand if you bake. That’s the best thing…recipes you don’t even have to go to the grocery store for!

If you don’t get Veg Times and need the recipe, let me know.
mmm mmm mmm…

Now a little relaxation and a shower before I go open the bar this evening.

DJ at
The Skint Vegan is a fabulous lady, and has nominated me for a Brilliante Blog Award. Thanks DJ, for that, and for your kind words and support. It means a lot to me. DJ has a lot of great recipes on her blog as well, so be sure to check them out. NOT to mention that her family is ADORABLE, and she often posts pictures of her cute kiddos!

The rules of the award tell me that I now nominate 7 other blogs for an award.
Here they are in no particular order:

Sugar Crash Vegan Bakery, friends of mine in Seattle who do a mobile bakery and whip up some delicious and pretty things!

Melisser at
The Urban Housewife. She’s awesome, and will not only cook/bake awesome stuff, but she’ll also review all the vegan delights she discovers in all of her travels. VERY helpful if you like to move around a bit and check out new restaurants!

Kittee at
Cake Maker to the Stars, for just plain being a rockstar. Also a great resource for recipes. Not to mention, cute knitting stuffs, caterpillars and the goings on of an amazing lady!

Lauren at
Vegan Yum Yum. Doesn’t this go without saying? The most beautifully portrayed deliciousness and recipes. Not to mention a really talented and sweet gal. We all look forward to her cookbook coming out one day sooner than later!

Hannah at
Bittersweet. Another obvious one. Kind of a like a wonder-child (without really being a child), she already has a cookbook out and she’s younger than most of us, for sure. SO, go buy your copy of My Sweet Vegan, and put that in your bowl and mix it!

Celine at
Have Cake, Will Travel. This might be my very favorite blog of all times. This woman can do NO wrong in a kitchen. Especially where cookies are concerned. You would be stupid NOT to check out her blog if you haven’t already!

Wheeler’s Black Label Vegan Ice Cream. Didn’t the name already convince you. VEGAN ICECREAM! I only hope they come to Austin someday!

Everyday Dish. Just check it out. That’s all I can say!

You know what to do now, go check out these blogs, get yourself some new recipes and info, and get your butt into the kitchen!

Let’s see if I can now figure out how to inform all of these people how much I love them!

cheers!
Meghan