Seriously amazing vegan fondue recipes

The Hibbards love vegan fondue!

There is something magical about fondue. Don't you agree? My dreams usually involve cheese and chocolate...and Krispy Creme donuts (find and/or make me vegan ones and I will love you forever). Matt jokes that I try to eat my pillow at night. ha.
The Melting Pot was my only real experience with fondue, but we used to go at least a couple times a year, BV (before vegan). I am saving myself for a Cathrineholm fondue set, but until the day I find one in good condition, I'll just have to use big enamel pots and some old 70s fondue sticks that I found in our junk drawer (probably came from a fondue set my parents gave me).

Trying to find a vegan cheese fondue recipe online was pretty hard, so I took the basic idea from this recipe to create my own. My modified recipe is DIVINE!!! Like, so good that I had it as leftovers for 3 nights! Not the healthiest thing you can eat...but your mouth will love you.

VEGAN CHEESE FONDUE

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mimiccreme
• 3 tbsp earth balance
• 1 bag vegan shredded Diaya cheese
• 1 tsp tahini
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• dash salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation:

In a fondue pot (or enamel pot) over medium-low heat, melt the earth balance and diaya cheese. Add tahini and stir until combined. Add remaining ingredients. You may need to add a bit more cheese or mimiccreme to get the consistency that you want.

  You only need 1 bag of Diaya...not 2, as pictured

 Looks just like cheese

 Starts looking like cheese fondue!

Here's where it get's fun! We decided to dip gardein crispy 7 grain tenders, apple slices and 2 varieties of fresh vegan bread.

 Gardein and apple slices

Fresh bread cubes

 After sitting on low heat, the cheese fondue turns a nice shade of 'cheddar'.

 Yum!

 I yuppified Matt's Coleman camping grill, so we could keep the cheese hot! This is where a good fondue set would come in handy.

 Yep, camping in the kitchen.

 Dippin'

 It was sooooo tasty. I honestly think I could taste-test fool some non-vegans into thinking it is real cheese fondue.

The chocolate course. This is somewhat easier to find recipes for, and I used this recipe, but made some modifications. Super duper tasty. And, you can re-heat it, if you have leftovers.

Vegan Chocolate Fondue

Ingredients: 

• 1/4 cup earth balance
• 8 ounces vegan chocolate chips or dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tbsp vanilla soy milk

Preparation:

Melt earth balance, vegan chocolate and soy milk together in saucepan over very low heat, or, use a double-boiler to ensure chocolate doesn't burn. Once melted, remove from heat, add the rest of the ingredients, combine well and transfer to fondue pot to keep warm.

Ingredients

 Everything goes into the pot

 Finished vegan chocolate fondue

 Fun! Let's dip bananas, massive strawberries, vegan bread, vegan chocolate chip cookies and vegan brownies.

 Going in!

 Strawberries and chocolate. Dreamy.

So, looking for something fun to try this weekend?! Try vegan fondue! 

Vegan 'homemade' pizza on the easy

I call Fresh and Easy Effin' Easy. I love it. I had a hankering for pizza after my nightly run (I like to think I counteract my naughty food with exercise). I ran over to Effin' Easy and got a pre-made pizza dough and pizza sauce. I had some Diaya mozzarella in the fridge and basil in the kitchen garden.

This is totally yum...11 minutes in the oven at 450 (dough package says 8-10 minutes, but I got the perfect golden crust at 11 minutes). Heaven.

All loaded up for the oven

 Close-up

 All done!

 All yum!

My 10th month VEGANniversary

It's been 10 months since I became vegan; I can't believe how time flies. The only things I have really missed out on are deep dish pizza and good ol' cheese. But, I have to say that my substitutions for most everything are pretty rocking.Soy milk and soy yogurt are mainstays, but I have been easing off the soy, in an effort to be more balanced. I have enjoyed many nut and rice-based milks and creams; I am especially thrilled to have discovered Mimic Creme, including a whipped cream version and a coffee creamer. Lean plant-based meats like Gardein have allowed me to create quick healthy meals, when I don't have time for a drawn-out dinner production. I've also come to love vegan cheese.
In the short time I have been vegan, Diaya cheese has become somewhat mainstream. You can find it on frozen vegan pizzas, at a number of vegan pizza chains and in several grocery stores, including Sunflower Farmer's Market. Teese cheese, made by Chicago Soy Dairy, is rumored to be coming out with frozen Teese mozzarella cheese sticks. We were lucky enough to try them in Chicago, at the Chicago Diner, and they are just like the real deal! Gardein has been popping up everywhere, including many major chain restaurants like Yardhouse and test-markets for Chipotle. So many of my friends have been contacting me when they see vegan products I might like and the people around me have been super supportive about my veganism.
I am pretty impressed that I haven't wavered, even once, since my vegan journey began. Early on, I did get fooled by a few non-vegan products, like non-dairy creamer and rice cheese, but unless the restaurants where I order vegan food have been serving me animal-based meals, I have been rock solid vegan. I look forward to continuing my vegan journey and sharing my food adventures with whoever wants to listen. Happy VEGANniversay to me (I just googled 'veganniversary' and apparently many people before me have used the word...I thought I was so clever! ;)

Grocery adventures

Shopping for groceries is an entirely new experience, when you are so used to buying processed foods. I used to breeze through the grocery store in 10 minutes, as I would buy the same foods every week.
I am proud to say that I have 21 days without drinking Diet Coke and processed foods no longer have a place in my kitchen. Part of the fun of becoming vegan is trying new things. For anyone who knows me, you know I don't often try new things. I have to admit that I am liking almost everything vegan I try.

We bought Teese Cheese Mozzarella at Green this week. We tried the Teese Cheese on a homemade flatbread pizza. YUM. Tastes just like Green's pizza. This vegan cheese blows Diaya out of the water....way out of the water.

We bought some amazing raw treats this week at Whole Foods. The Pure Organic raw fruit and nut bars are very tasty. I couldn't believe they were raw and certified organic. Pure heaven.

 
We also bought some vegan cheesecake from www.earthcafetogo.com at Whole Foods. OMG. Tastes just like the real thing-HOW?! Matt and I thought it was pricy at $5.99 a slice, but totally worth a splurge.

I had no idea that a lot of wine is processed using animal products.  I am sure there is a long list of vegan wines, but it was nice that Whole Foods was featuring Stellar Organics. I bought a lovely vegan-friendly Merlot.

This week, we plan to make some oat burgers, crockpot mock-chicken taco chili, citrus scones, mock chicken parm, and some other new-to-us vegan recipes.

Making vegan pizza for the 1st time ever

My favorite pizza as a non-vegan was white pizza with pesto and sliced tomatoes from Grimaldi's. I thought it would be fun to make vegan version of my favorite pizza. The main difference between vegan pizza and non-vegan pizza is cheese, in my opinion. I was on the hunt for a cheese that would melt, since many reviews of vegan cheese online say that they don't melt. I read about Diaya cheese and knew if I wanted vegan pizza, this would be the cheese to use. We made our weekly grocery trip to Whole Foods instead of Sunflower Market, in order to pick up the cheese we needed.

The vegan pesto we made turned out AMAZING! We have plenty left over for future use.

Vegan Pesto 

 

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/morerecipes/r/Veganpestorec.htm

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 cup pine nuts (other nuts, such as almonds or walnuts may be substituted)
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients in a food processor until nuts are ground. Pesto should still have texture and not be completely smooth. Add more salt and pepper to taste and enjoy! One variation is to add 1/2 cup rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes. For a lower fat version replace half the oil with soy milk.

Vegan Pizza Crust
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5849.0
Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    1 pkg. yeast
    3 cups flour
    1/3 cups lukewarm water
    1 teaspoon salt
    2/3 cup lukewarm water

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup lukewarm water and let stand 10 minutes. In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Add the yeast mixture, blend, then add 2/3 cup lukewarm water to make a pliable, elastic dough. Form into a ball, cover with a clean cloth, and let rise until doubled in a warm place (about 20-30 minutes).

Variations: Add 4 tsp basil for a more flavorful crust. Kneed in 4 Tbsp.  margarine for a more pastry-like crust. Vary these quantities according to your taste.

Roll out dough onto pizza stone or a flat pan; leave a lip around the edge. (Variation: Top with olive oil.) Spread sauce, add toppings of your choice. Bake at 450 degrees F for about 20 minutes, until crisp.

We spread our homemade pesto on the dough and then laid thinly-sliced tomatoes on top. We finished the pizza with the Diaya cheese and cooked for 20 minutes. In the future, I will cook the pizza longer so that the cheese gets a little firmer/stretchier. The cheese melted well, but I felt it would have had a "cheesier" texture, if cooked longer. Not too bad for a 1st attempt at vegan pizza!