Wednesday, September 19, 2012

What I Ate Wednesday, vegan fudge cake edition


I'm not sure what the weather's doing at the moment. One day warm sun, the next cold rain. That's September around here, I guess.

Anyway, for today's What I Ate Wednesday, I am looking back at a week of eating that included a lovely end-of-summer barbecue. Maybe we will get a few more barbecues in (with my husband wearing a coat out on the deck and me watching from inside).



For this barbecue, we decided to try cauliflower. It was still kind of firm, but I enjoyed it anyway.


Then we went from summer bbq to fall soup again. I made some more homemade spelt bread in the breadmaker and served it with veggie and rice soup.


My husband felt like canning some relish this past weekend.

Have you ever noticed the ingredients in relish at the store? That lovely yellow tint comes from tartrazine. Wikipedia tells us that a university study suggested that children previously identified as hyperactive may exhibit an increase in irritability, restlessness, and sleep disturbance after ingesting tartrazine. It also says that a variety of immunologic responses have been attributed to tartrazine ingestion, including anxiety, migraine, clinical depression, blurred vision, itching, general weakness, heatwaves, feeling of suffocation, purple skin patches, and sleep disturbance. In the U.S. and Canada, rather than asking manufacturers to stop using the dye, they are only required to note it on the label.


So, the moral of the story is, buy organic relish, or make your own if you can. My husband made two kinds, zucchini relish and this mix with cauliflower.


I really wanted to try it, but I am still limiting my ingestion of gluten, so I had a veggie hot dog without a bun, along with some kamut pasta. (There is gluten in the veggie dogs and in the kamut pasta, but I figure it's less than a big fluffy hot dog bun would have.) The relish was tasty, but I kind of missed the bun.

Not the classiest looking meal, but you have to have some easy nights, right?


On Sunday, we decided to make a big pile of sushi so that we could have some for dinner and the kids could take some to school for lunch the next day. We also had homemade miso soup and edamame with our dinner.

The kids rolled their own sushi so they could pick out the fillings they wanted for their school lunches.

My husband sautéed portobello mushrooms to fill some of the sushi. We put a bit of mayonnaise and toasted Panko breadcrumbs in others.


I also had leftover sushi for lunch the next day, along with Pad Thai from a box.


I made my favourite banana muffins for an after-school snack one day. I added Enjoy Life allergen-free chocolate chunks for a tasty treat. These muffins are so simple and everyone who tries them seems to like them!


I was watching Meryl Streep eat chocolate cake in It's Complicated, and it reminded me of a recipe I had seen recently in Vegetarian Times. This vegan chocolate fudge cake recipe was one of the winners in the magazine's 2012 Reader Recipe Contest. You can find it online here. It is a simple recipe with very few ingredients. The cake turned out with a lovely texture. Take note, though. It is a fudgy icing, not a super sweet icing. If your preference is for fudgy, though, you will love this cake. It is supposed to be topped with hazelnuts, but I didn't have any, so I used strawberries instead.

What did you eat this week?


I'm not sure I'm fitting into Jenn's theme of good habits:

24 comments:

  1. I'm not going to lie, I scrolled right to the fudge cake. It looks amazing! (Gotta love "It's Complicated")

    Using homemade sushi leftovers for school lunches is a great idea! I've always wanted to try and make my own. :)

    I ate very, very bad this week... Lol.

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    1. I keep watching that movie over and over just to look at the set.

      I would like to try doing the sushi for their lunches once a week. We'll see. :)

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  2. Cake- oh that cake is getting me! Fudgey icing? Yes please :)

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    1. I wish you were here to share it. There was too much for us, and I kept eating it. ;)

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  3. I am so jealous of your sushi making! Mine always falls apart, I can never get it right. ALL of your meals look heavenly and that cake, WOW! I just ate and I am hungry again. Thanks JO!

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    1. We are getting fairly good at making the sushi stick, but we still have some that fall apart. I immediately stuff those ones in my face.

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  4. So glad you shared that cake recipe! I've been thinking about it since I saw in on instagram. :)

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    1. Give it a try Laura. It's very little effort! :)

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  5. I did not know that about relish! We don't eat it too incredibly often, but I will definitely try the organic in the future. And everything else is beautifully yummy looking!

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    1. I'm sure relish ingredients differ, but they are generally not good. High fructose corn syrup and the like.

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  6. Mom used to make "Millionaire's Relish" - I really want to try it! I bought a jar of store brand relish one day and returned it to the store - it was made in India!!! Crazy... I better get busy and make my own....

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    1. Seems a little crazy to find relish from so far away in your local store, huh? Good luck with your mom's recipe. At least you know it's tested and true. :)

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  7. Yum. Cake. Thanks for the info on the relish. I'm going to avoid the store bought now. Everything looks great except that there veggie dog ;)

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    1. The veggie dog does look a bit sad without a bun for dressing it, doesn't it?

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  8. Your eats look amazing! And I love relish so liked seeing your homemade batch

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  9. I love the dishes that you have the soup and the bread on. It is a very lovely pattern. The veggie hot dog looks gross...eek! Everything else looks delicious. Yum, Yum! I like relish so I will try making my own.

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    1. Thanks. Only thing is, these dishes seem to chip easily. Annoying!

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  10. ohdear theres that sushi again :) nomnnommm nomm! :D

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  11. I watched a movie about sushi making, where it wasn't rolled, it was formed with shrimp on top. I was able to try it when I saw one dish prepared like that among a dozen dishes to rolled sushi. I missed the seaweed flavor but other than that it was quite good! I am going to try grilling cauliflower soon! It sounds wonderful!

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    1. I want to try the ones that aren't rolled too. Something to look forward to!

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  12. It's amazing what's allowed into our food! Thanks for sharing about the ingredient. YOUR relish sounds great. The sushi/cake look delicious!

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    1. Thanks Mandy! It IS amazing, isn't it? We have to look out for ourselves. :)

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