Halifax Eats: Sweet HereAfter

Greetings all, I figured since Halifax has been changing as usual it was time to bring back this series of posts on Halifax Eats. Sadly not all the places I've posted about still exist and some menus have changed. But thankfully some new places have opened as well.

One of which is The Sweet HereAfter Artisans cheesecake shack offering a daily vegan cheesecake of rotating variety and always tasty.

The shop is super cute with booths and tables for intimate desserts, parties or coffee/tea and cake with friends. Decor is amazing and they've added a fun little photo booth!

Plus I hear rumours about being able to order whole cheese cakes for your events! Score!!

Although they only offer one vegan cake a day, the flavours are awesome and they are always inventing more and love to talk ideas.

I've done the Oreo, mocha, peanut butter and a few other brilliant vegan varieties. The owners are super nice and great to chat with.


This beauty was my second piece after Alan and I ate  the last of that days Vegan Cheesecake they had just brought out the one for the next day (fresh out of the oven) to our table so I could see it. I decided to grab a piece to go for breakfast.

Coconut Lime Vegan Cheese Cake with Mango puree!

I love the coconut throughout and the crust seems to be a nut/shredded coconut combo with a good sweet crunch!

YUM!

VwaV stuffed peppers on a work night

Work today until 7pm, hit the store for student Tuesdays!

More exciting score was 2$ strawberries and coconuts are 1.99$!

Flour was on sale so I grabbed some as I have like 2 cups left and Almond Joy 2/5$

Shopping aside after being sick for a while I figured some simple home veggies were in order and mom had bought me two peppers! (Score!)

I halved the recipe and had everything on hand thanks to the pepper donation.
They were tasty as usual, VwaV keeps bringing me back.

I think YRR and VwaV are the two books I use most, followed by AFR.

Quick-n-Easy-Student-Smoothie

Something cheap and easy to throw together in the morning or the night before a busy day of classes.

Cheapest option is always to use what you have, Bananas are a great smoothie food and one of the cheapest foods around, but get creative with whatever you have.

Quick-n-Easy-Student-Smoothie

• 2 Bananas
• Chocolate Soy-milk
• Pea Protein powder
• hand full of spinach

Blend the spinach, pea protein and a splash of chocolate soy-milk until totally smooth. Add the banana in sections and blend until smooth.

Toss in a travel mug if you are supper short on time.

Enjoy!

Something Simple

Dinner tonight was something simple but a big venture from my week of stomach flu and crackers.

Grilled Cherry Tomatoes
Grilled YRR Portabellos
Mashed Potatoes (with skins!)
Blanched/Sauted Asparagus

Portabellos
Simple summer staples to start with the Mushroom caps and Cherry tomatoes were marinaded in Joanna's Yellow Rose Recipe Portabello marinade a lovely balsamic/lemon/garlic combo with my home made veggie stock from the other day. I let them soak for a few hours tossing and turning.

Heated the Gorge Foreman Grill for 5 minutes and seared for 4 minutes, rotate 90 degrees and sear some more. If you aren't using a two sided grill, you'll wanna flip them at some point.

For bonus points you can pour some of the marinade which escapes into the drip tray back over your plated mushrooms and potatoes.

Grilled tomatoes
The cherry tomatoes were skewed and added in the last few minutes to grill.

 Mashed potatoes
Standard far, wash, cut, boil in salt water until falling apart. Drain potatoes, return to pot with a spot of margarine, cracked pepper, grey salt and adding some of my home made vegetable broth (dark onion style, hence the colour) and mashing them together until fluffy.

Asparagus
Snap the hard ends into the composts bucket and toss them into the potato water for a few minutes then remove. Heat some margarine in a skillet over medium high heat and toss the blanched asparagus in the pan until it sears. Crack black pepper over top and toss in some grey slat. Shake and sear until you get things the way you like them.

And that's about it.

Working out some blogger bugs

Looking into a few issues with the blog and some weird posting problems. Sorry about any mix up, in the mean time: Food Porn!

Squash Mac-N-Cheeze with Greens

Tempeh Ruben and Pasta Salad outside Farm Sanctuary

Pink Frosted Cupcakes: a High School edition

Prettier cupcakes

Early BLT experiments

Squash-Mac-N-Kale

Morning Hot Rod: Green Tea, Matcha, Ginseng

, Ginger to get you going.

Cheap Vegan Eats: Rice cooker to the rescue!

So I haven't gone out for groceries in a while, with my excessive zombie apocalypse food hording ways I decided it was time to eat through some of the backlog. I'm looking at you storage room, pantry, rubbermaid bins and freezer. Especially the freezer, because I miss smoothies with frozen fruit or freezing meals for later.

So this coupled with my desire to upgrade (read: rebuild) my pc has led to some major cost cutting in not eating out or buying groceries. Which means, produce has been a rarity, I do shop with the sale flyers and if enough things are on sale I will venture out, but I digress.

Tonight is another looking into Cheap Vegan Eats!
This may be one of my all time favourite topics, although not always the tastiest. I love being frugal, I love reading about other people's frugality. I love secrets and tips and saving money. I feel no shame.

So tonight diner is brought to you by every poor students best friend: the rice cooker.

 I lucked out and had some of YRR's Bechemel Sauce  leftover from last night, this is a super easy and fantastically tasty recipe which I've blogged about a few dozen times.



It's a fantastic sauce, creamy, rich, smooth and I always, always, always have the ingredients on hand. And when I'm super hurting (no margarine or soymilk) I can still make my poverty sauce version.

• Leftover Bechemel Sauce YRR
• Brown Basmati Rice
• Water
• Lemon Juice
• Frozen mixed veggies
• Frozen Peas
• Cooked chickpeas

Basically I added rice and water to the rice cooker, dropped the frozen mixed veggies into the rice cooker steamer basket with a squirt of lemon and walked away. Once the rice was done or near done I added some frozen peas and re-heated my sauce. Tossed it  into a bowl, topped with sauce, salt, pepper and nooch with a sprinkle of chickpeas (but you can really use any bean, seitan, tofu, tempeh or bacos you have around).

The bowl is a pretty great low budget, low time, minimal effort way to eat something healthy. You can sub in any grain, sauce, spice, vegetable, protein mixture you have on hand. Or get fancier by turning on your stove and making a noodle bowl. It's a great way to use up your leftovers.

And another great excuse to make a large batch of baked tofu, tempeh, beans or seitan for the week.

Late Night Snack: Curry Caramel Corn!!

ZOMG!
Let me just say, this may be some of the best stuff I've ever tasted. I was checking out Choir Queer's Recipe and asked them if they've ever tried it without the coconut (being lazy, I didn't want to open a can for a tablespoon or two). Choir Queer advised me to try it and then let them know, so I did!

The recipe below is almost the same, and Choir Queer offers a lovely step by step photo guide along with their recipe at there blog: Here. 

ETA: I've just been informed the original inspiration came from peas and thank you!

That version looks super fancy and tasty, but my kitchen being what it was I made a few changes.






 Salty, Spicy, Curry Caramel Corn!

• plain popcorn popped with you prefered method
• 1/2 or more sesame seeds
• 3 heaping TBS Margerine
• Splash of Sesame oil (I a tiny drizzle left)
• 1 large tsp Curry Powder
• 1 tsp of fine salt
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar + 2 table spoons
• Splash of maple syrup
• Coarse sea salt, Fresh ground black pepper and cayanne

Pop your corn however you like. I have two main ways, the lazy way: take a brown paper bag, handful of corn, fold the bag over and microwave with the popcorn button. Or the old fashioned way on the stove: Coat the bottom of a pan with canola oil, heat over medium high until glossy, add enough corn to make a single layer on the bottom. Turn heat down to medium, and shake the pan until the corn pops. Once you've done your corn, toss it into a bowl and rinse you pan (or grab a pan or microwavable dish if you don't have a stove).

With your pan over heat melt the margerine and sprinkle in your sesame oil if using. Stir until combined over heat, then shut off the heat. Now grab your brown sugar and dump into the pan stiring until it melts. Add your curry powder, fine salt, mapple syrup and a dash of cayanne if you want it creamy.
Once sugar melts turn heat to medium and continue stiring over heat until it bubbles and is fully combined 3-5 minutes. Mine kinda looked like those candy making videos with lots of bubbles and if you push some up on the pan it slides off easily. Remove quickly from heat and toss over popcorn, toss in your sesame seeds and toss to coat.

Continue tossing until you can get it evenly coated or mixed around. While the caramel is still tacky sprinkle your coarse sea salt/grey salt, grind pepper and add your cayanne (if you didn't put it straight into the sauce). Keep tossing to coat.

Eat all at once and feel fancy!

Alternatively you could try using garlic powder, chili powder or other savoury flavours into the sauce or corn. This would also make a pretty nifty house warming gift!