Dessert first, then the meals!

We thought to start the post off with dessert first! These chocolate covered graham crackers are a nice treat! We used a mix of Sunspire's Tropical Source chocolate chips and Green & Black's 70% Dark Chocolate bar. By the way, there is a recipe contest to use Equal Exchange chocolate. We are turning on our thinking caps and going to see if we will bake anything worthwhile for the contest.

Anyways, this dessert was very easy to make - we made our own double broiler by putting some water in a small pot and placing a bowl on top of the pot (stove-top heat proofed). The chocolate goes in the bowl and the water boils below to help melt the chocolate! Once the chocolate is melted, we just spread some chocolate on each graham cracker. Top with an almond or two, and then place in the fridge to harden, and enjoy!

For chocoholics, it could be considered a "healthy snack" instead of a dessert, because of the healthy oat bran graham crackers and the antioxidant rich dark chocolate and the unsalted almonds. But that's a stretch...lol..


On to the meals! With this hot Texas weather already, we crave cool refreshing foods like smoothies, fruit, corn on the cob...

and pineapple salsa with cold Mexican macaroni salad!
Fresh and easy. For the pineapple salsa, we diced onion, jalapeño, and fresh pineapple, and then added lots of fresh cilantro. So yummy with chips or with sliced cucumbers.

For the macaroni salad, we combined 1 can black beans, 3 chopped tomatoes, 1 chopped orange bell pepper, 1 clove minced garlic, 2 small zucchinis, diced jalapeño, cooked corn macaroni pasta (1 entire box!), and chopped cilantro. We made a creamy mustard Mexican sauce with cumin, cayenne, chili powder, nutritional yeast, and spicy ground mustard. The pasta salad was good, but a little strong in the cumin and a little dry, so next time we are thinking of adding less cumin and adding some lime juice and lots of avocado. Serving with pineapple salsa made it great. It made TONS of leftovers - enough for a party of 12 probably. For leftovers tonight we are going to add some orange baby tomatoes and fresh diced mango. We might try adding some balsamic for something different. Overall a versatile pasta salad!


Besides craving "cold" foods, we were hungry for a southern breakfast - tofu scramble and hashbrowns. We diced lots of red and yellow new potatoes (which are local produce from the farmer's market) and browned them on the skillet for a while (it took a while to cook, but it was tasty in the end!). Spices included paprika, cayenne, black pepper, garlic, and onions. We served the potatoes and tofu scramble in a wrap stuffed with slightly-wilted spinach.

We LOVED serving it with homemade "agave" mustard salad dressing and avocado! Ever since Spiral Diner, we've been craving mustard salad dressing. Here is our recipe!:

Agave-Mustard Dressing

2 Tb spicy mustard
2 Tb agave nectar
1/2-1 Tb safflower oil
2 Tb apple cider vinegar
a little water to your liking to make it thinner

Mix all ingredients. Enjoy in salads, wraps, tofu, potatoes, vegetables, etc!



Our only baking this week was Hummus Bread. We changed it up a bit, and used sun dried tomato basil hummus that we bought at Sprouts Market. It had a nice flavor and was soft inside, despite being dense. Yumm!

Hope you are enjoying a fun relaxing vegan summer!
- LK