Banana bars with butter cream frosting - La Dolce Vegan

What is this delectable creation you ask?? Well if you are only interested in hearing about healthy vegan food than I suggest that you stop reading now - as this, apart from having banana in the base, is quite possibly the most unhealthy sweet thing I have cooked for a while (I have probably cooked worse in my pre-vegan days).
It is just divine though - so if you feel like splashing out and making something a little decadent but still ridiculously simple - than this is the thing for you.

This my friends is Wolffie's B'nanner Bars from La Dolce Vegan. It is topped with their Butter Cream Frosting (which was the recommended frosting for this bar). As I was taking this to a housewarming (and therefore would not be able to try it before giving it to anyone else) - I thought I should stick to the recipe to be on the safe side.

For the bar I followed the recipe and used a flax mix as my chosen egg replacer. When the bars came out of the oven - they looked moist and wonderful. However I decided to proceede with my plan and frost them.

Thats when I met Trouble!

I assumed that the frosting in the recipe would set - I was wrong. I don't know if its because we don't have Earth Balance here - I just had to use Nuttalex which is our non-hydrogenated margarine spread.
It was still REALLY runny by the time it came to frosting the bars. And even after I put the whole dish into the freezer for a while it still hadn't set. So off to the potluck I went with what was now more like a pudding than a bar.

Despite my frosting issues everyone LOVED this dish. Although there weren't many of us at the housewarming and mountains of food - most of the 'pudding' got eaten. When Nat came home from work he was glad that I had saved him some and he thinks it is fantastic.

So I give this recipe the thumbs up - but beware with the frosting ;)

Ok - not the best photo - but you get the idea of how it turned out in the dish after I got home.

Vegan MoFo - Soup to cure sickness

You must think that all I eat is soup. Now I think soup is one of my favourite types of food. Especially over winter - but now the weather is warming up I am more inclined to make a bean salad than a bean soup. However, Nat got home from guiding two nights ago coughing and spluttering. After a pretty restless sleep he stayed in bed for most of the day. He wasn't incredibly hungry during the day but I asked him what he thought he would like for dinner. His unequivocal answer was soup.

Now soup was not really what I felt like as it was quite a warm day (it got to 20 degrees - which isn't hot but when you have had a week or so of 13 degrees I was in tshirt and thai fishermans pants).

Anyway - I borrowed a copy of La Dolce Vegan from the library and so I sifted through the soup recipes and I came up with cauliflower and potato. I tweaked the recipe a fair bit so I will put it here.

It was really good - I had to add some more of the spices (this is just an estimate of what I added - just use your own judgement). I think I am not the biggest fan of cauliflower soup - so I don't think that what I can say about it would really do this soup justice - I mean it was really nice, but I prefer other types of soup flavours.

Nat on the other hand, was thrilled with the soup and said that it was one of the best he's had. He is wanting me to make it again very soon.

So maybe if you like milder soups and cauliflower, this is for you. I will be making this again purely because Nat was so happy with it.

Soup with Cauliflower and potatoes

1 onion - diced
2 carrots - chopped
1 stalk celery - chopped
3/4 large cauliflower head - chopped
2 medium potatoes- chopped (didn't peel because it was organic)
1 medium sweet potato - chopped (I didn't peel this as it was organic)
enough broth to just cover vegetables
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup soymilk (I used fat free)

1. Saute onion, carrot and celery in oil or broth until onion is translucent
2. Add the cauliflower, potato, sweet potato, broth, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
3. Bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10-15mins until the potatoes are cooked.
4. Stir in milk and then blend the mixture with a hand blender to the desired consistency (I love chunky soups with bits of potatoes). You can also use a blender or food processor to puree half or all of the soup.
5. Return to the heat and its ready to serve.
6. We served it with crusty homemade toast.