I discovered the most amazing salsa from Trader Joes – Habanero and Lime salsa. I think my husband and I almost polished off the whole jar in one setting. I didn’t even need chips. I could have eaten it straight from the jar with a spoon! We are huge lime fans anyway, so this was right up our ally.
I can imagine it tastes good on just about anything. Go buy a jar now. Actually, you may want to buy two! 
Lucky Charms was one of my favorite “sweet” cereals growing up. At that time, I wasn’t veg and would save all the marshmallows for the last. It was really more dessert than breakfast for me and honestly, my parents were so health conscious, I think we only had a few boxes my entire youth. And most of those were at grandma’s house.
Since becoming veg, I haven’t thought much about Lucky Charms until last night. My husband went to Trader Joe’s to pick up some food to re-stock our poor bear cupboards. He brought home Vanilla Almond Clusters cereal. Of course, I had to taste it almost immediately out of pure curiosity.
The first thing I thought was “Lucky Charms”. There are no marshmallows, but if you close your eyes and imagine dehydrated marshmallows, it tastes almost identical. You should try it. For dessert, of course.
This week, I went to Orange County on business. And after hearing much hype about Pinkberry – only found in the Los Angeles (aka “OC”) area and New York, I decided I’d venture out to try it. For those who don’t know what the Pinkberry is, it’s a frozen yogurt place that is hugely popular and often frequented by celebrities. I was surprised to see just how many stores there are in this area!
The closest one to my hotel was the one in Huntington Beach. So, I started planning my whole dinner adventure around my trip to Pinkberry. Must try the Pinkberry! Unfortunately, after some research, I found that the only restaurants in that area are chains. When I travel, I attempt to try local flavor and stay away from chains I can get up in Nor Cal.
While researching Yelp and Google, I had an epiphany. I’m by myself… What do I want to eat? Veggie food!!! So I started looking for the most highly rated veg restaurants in the area. I discovered a few, one of which (thankfully) I called and found out they are closed Monday and Tuesdays. I was disappointed because there were raves for their raw food menu and I was really wanting to try that. Oh well. I went with another highly rated restaurant – Avanti Natural Cafe in Costa Mesa. This wasn’t Huntington Beach near Pinkberry, but it was close enough. They were both about 15 mins away from my hotel – not bad.
When I pulled up to the Avanti Cafe, I took in the restaurant I was about to enter. It was a tiny cafe in a strip mall. Very “natural” for sure. It had simple signage, art all over the walls, and was jam packed with tables with tie-dyed tablecloths and “bleached art” tablecloths. The guy at the counter explained how everything worked. Order at the counter, pay, sit down and they serve you. I asked for the recommendations – everything looked too good – and he suggested a ‘taster’ plate. You get to choose 3 items from their deli counter. I went with the horseradish ginger chickpea and beet casserole, the Mexican enchilada casserole, and a bread veggie casserole. All were fabulous, and you could tell they were natural – wheat flours, organic, etc (it has it’s own unrefined texture/flavor). It was WAY too much food, but tasty. My favorite was the Mexican dish.
I was impressed with their menu – a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes. Plus, they use local farm ingredients. The guy also explained to me that everything they make is seasonal based on what is available from the local farms at the time. Three cheers for supporting local, organic, veggies, and more! They also had a whole counter of baked goods that from the reviews are delicious and even better (to some people) than their food. I was way too full and was planning to hit Pinkberry, so got an apple tart to go. It’s still sitting in its carton (that if I were to guess is biodegradable – it’s really ‘rough’ looking).
It was delicious, and definitely ‘natural’. It tastes like its probably made with honey and rice flour, possibly, as a sweetener and the crust has a nutty flavor – probably to add some texture. I guess I keep mentioning this “natural” taste because I don’t think just everyone would enjoy it as much as I did. If you’re used to refined sugars and flours, etc, I don’t know that you’d like this. But I like natural and I’m used to it, so I loved it.
I then hopped on the lovely packed 405 and headed north to Huntington Beach for my “back to the real world” refined sugar treat of frozen yogurt from Pinkberry. It didn’t take quite as long as I expected and it ended up being right off the freeway. AND I got a super close parking spot (the shopping center was surprisingly busy for a Monday night!). I walked in and was greeted by a cheery “Welcome to Pinkberry!” by the high school aged girl behind the counter. The other 4 girls on the other side of the counter by the toppings weren’t so friendly. In fact, they pretty much ignored me the whole time. But I digress…
The decor is adorable – hip, bright and shiny. The floor is a funky little glazed pebble texture and the chairs are clear green plastic.
The chipper girl explained to me that I could get original, green tea or coffee flavored yogurt and then add toppings if I would like. She handed me a sample of each flavor. The original is definitely the best. Green tea is good, but I know I’d get sick of it pretty quickly. And coffee… Well, the coffee wasn’t good. Imagine the tart undertone of yogurt mixed with coffee. Not pleasant. I decided to go with an original with 3 toppings – strawberries, blueberries and white yogurt chips. The yogurt chips weren’t quite as good as I’d hoped they’d be, but I know for next time. The fruit on the frozen yogurt was very good.
My review? Well, I have to say, it’s definitely over-hyped. And I expected that since all the reviewers said the same thing. But it wasn’t bad either! But the most hilarious thing about the experience was this. When I tasted my first bite of ‘original’, I thought to myself, I’ve had this before! After a few minutes of thinking, I realized that my sister had made frozen yogurt for my mom’s birthday in January. It tastes almost identical. No joke. I’ve totally had homemade “pinkberry” and didn’t even know it (I’ll have to dig up that recipe to share). The secret of her recipe (and maybe Pinkberry’s too?) is that it’s made with Greek Yogurt. (Sorry for the grainy pics – I only had my camera phone with me).
Overall, it was a fun evening. I’m glad I took a little ‘me’ time and went adventuring in the OC tonight. It made the trip more worthwhile. That evening, I went off to bed with veggie food and Pinkberry in my belly and an empty Pinkberry cup on the table!
Valentine’s Day. That fun day to bake some sweet treats for the ones you love. And if you’re like me, you always want to try something new. As a completely last-minute idea – I had no intentions of baking this year, I decided to scour the web for something to make. I found a few recipes from Bakerella for Oreo truffle kisses and red velvet cake balls. I combined the ideas into red velvet cake kisses which was perfect since I just happened to have a box of red velvet cake mix on hand. So, I decided to go for it.
As a disclaimer to all you food snobs out there (hehe!), yes, I used a box mix! Oh the horror! I actually usually turn my nose up at boxs, however, I found this in the “New Orleans” section of Cost Plus. The brand is Mam Papaul from the south. Since red velvet is a traditional southern cake, I figured I’d give it a go. Plus, I’ve heard horror stories of people trying to make their own red velvet cake and the taste came out awful because of how much red die is required. But feel free to make a homemade batch on your own if you want to try these.
I wasn’t sure if any of these ideas were actually going to work, so I decided to make half a batch of cupcakes and the other half half red velvet cake ball kisses in dark Ghirardelli chocolate. So, half the batter went into cupcake pans/papers and half into cake pans.
To make the kisses, after the cakes came out and cooled, I took the blocks of cake and crumbled them in a big bowl. I used a pastry cutter and it worked perfectly. Once the cake was nothing but crumbs, I added a big glob of cream cheese frosting (also from the red velvet box mix, but I doctored it with a little extra cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla to get it the right texture and flavor).
With the pastry cutter, I blended the frosting with the cake crumbs until goopy and workable. With my fingers, I formed little kiss shaped cake balls (about 2 inches tall) and placed them in the freezer to prep for the chocolate. Once they were cool and firm, I melted dark chocolate in a double boiler with just a touch of canola oil to keep it smooth. I then poured the chocolate over each kiss, let the access drip off before setting it on waxed paper to set.
After the chocolate was completely set, I wrapped each in a square of foil (about 6″ squares) with strips of paper printed off from my computer. They were adorable and tasted amazing! I gave them to a bunch of my friends, and of course, my husband. Everyone raved. The kisses were better than the cupcakes (though the cupcakes were cute). I sort of wished I had made the whole batch into kisses. They were a lot more work though so it probably would have taken me a couple more hours.
The kisses were moist, flavorful, and the touch of dark chocolate worked to keep the moisture in as well as add a level of decadence to the kiss. There’s only one left. I hope I can get to it before my husband does! 
If you’re fresh out or if you just want to be more gourmet or try something different, did you know you can make your own…
Brown Sugar?
1 cup granulated sugar, add 2 Tablespoons molasses. Mix well. It’s cheaper than store bought and tastes just as good.
Baking Powder?
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. This is the equivalent of 1 teaspoon commercial baking powder. Add 1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch to absorb moisture in the air and prevent premature chemical reaction between the acid and alkali if you don’t plan to use it right away. I hear it tastes significantly better than store-bought versions.
Self-Rising Flour?
Combine 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (that you just made with the recipe above) and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Egg?
Well, not really “make” your own, but make a substitute for eggs. You have 2 options (each is the equivalent of 1 egg):
1) 2 Tbsp flour, 1/2 Tbsp shortening, 1/2 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp water.
2) 1/2 large banana, mashed.
Super-Fine Sugar?
Sugar + Food Processor = Super-Fine Sugar.
I needed lunch today, but I didn’t have any real clusters of food that would work together. So, I had to come up with something. I had spinach and feta cheese, so I started working on a salad. And then I remembered I had some dried blueberries, but that would require a sweet-ish salad dressing. And I had none on hand. Here’s what I whisked together:
1 T. raspberry jelly (seedless)
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. olive oil
I’m very pleased with the outcome. It was very tasty. I’ll totally make it again! You should too.
What do you do when you’ve been up since 4:45 with only about 4 hours sleep and trying to stay awake during a conference call? Google. I love to randomly Google things just for fun. So, today I googled “Gourmet Vegetarian”. And I discovered the most incredibly wonderful thing. Gourmet Vegetarian Marshmallows called “Gourmallows“.
I have found other veg marshmallows in the past (as I believe I’ve mentioned), but these look like real homemade squares of heaven. Plus, they come in 3 flavors – Cinnamon, Vanilla, and Coconut. They have egg in them, so they’re not vegan, but according to their About Us section, they’re working on a vegan version. So, all you vegans out there, check back to their site in a few months.
At just $7.50 for a pack, I’m going to order a couple of them. But I better hurry up… I want some in my hot chocolate before spring gets here!
