Top 8 Vegan Recipes of 2010 that Blew our Tops Off!

Jenn and I started out on our vegan/semi raw lifestyle in 2010, we've made lots of discoveries having to do with health, nutrition and well-being. We've also discovered lots of recipe gems that we'd like to share with you! If it wasn't for these recipes we don't know how we could have survived our first few months on this new way of eating:

1. Raw Frozen Cookie Dough Bites, original recipe from Oh She Glows

This was the first raw recipe that we made and realized, ok, raw is legit. You can still eat really yummy treats and be healthy. Case in point: Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. We took this recipe from Oh She Glows and instead of cookies, made them into little frozen chocolate covered bites. We love these because they remind us of eating raw cookie dough right out of the bowl. Best ever!

2. Gingery Blueberry-Pear Oat Muffins, original recipe from Happy Herbivore

This was the first recipe that we de-sketched and it turned out PERFECTLY. The muffins were so good that we decided to start a Vegan Muffins Monthly and make different versions of the recipe. Our little sister took these muffins to the movies to eat instead of popcorn (she's a weird kid) and her friends didn't believe her when she said they were vegan. Ha! It's the best feeling when you see that shocked look on people's faces after you give them one of your "raw" or "vegan" treats and they're like, "This is so good! How can it be vegan?!"


3. Smoked Tempeh Pizza w/ Carrot Pesto, an original Sketch-Free recipe!

This pizza was the result of Jenn wanting to make tempeh bacon, and me, wanting to make pizza. We instinctively put the two together and oh my lord! This is literally one of the best vegan, gluten-free vegan meals ever. The key was definitely in the tempeh bacon, it gave the pizza that satisfying smokiness that only vegans crave when they've been eating too much salad. Plus the crust is gluten-free!


4. Apple-Banana Mint Smoothie, an original Sketch-Free creation!

We made this smoothie when we were at our dad's house without any of our usual food stuffs, basically we had apples, frozen bananas and a mint plant growing outside. One thing led to another and there it was: the amazingly creamy and fresh tasting Apple-Banana Mint Smoothie. It was like a mint ice cream milk shake!


5. Almost-Raw Pumpkin Butter Tarts, an original Sketch-Free creation!

These tarts were originally supposed to be cooked, but our gluten-free tart shell recipe didn't end up working, so we made a raw crust and it worked perfectly! We are personally not the biggest fans of butter tarts, so I'm not sure what possessed us to make these. I think they started off as being pumpkin butter sandwich cookies, then cooked butter tarts then raw pumpkin butter tarts. It's funny how things just work out when you start getting crazy thoughts in the kitchen, like we did when making these!


6. Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sproutwheels, an original Sketch-Free creation!

You guys may have already noticed, but we're major smoked salmon fans. Anything smoked for that matter. We blame our jewish roots. Its pretty much the one flavour that we constantly crave and thus were thrilled by how similar these sproutwheels tasted like smoked salmon. We were inspired by the vege-lox sandwich from Aux Vivres in Montreal and was able to get the actual recipe online to put into these sproutwheels of goodness.


7. Raw Holiday Cashew Cheese, an original Sketch-Free creation!

We've made cashew cheese before, with rejuvelac, and we weren't huge fans, it was much too light and didn't have that sharp cheesy taste. THIS cheese however most definitely did, it tasted like aged cheddar cheese. Our whole family was just shocked, they kept saying: wow this tastes like cheese! We're like: I know! Even the dogs were begging for it as they do actual cheese.


8. Raw Macaroons, an original Sketch-Free creation!

We created these macaroons based on various raw macaroon recipes on the web. They are the easiest raw treats to make and don't require a food processor, this was before we purchased one. We brought these to a summer work party and everyone raved about how good they were, when I told them they were raw everyone was shocked, "but HOW?" lol

We just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful comments and support! See ya next year! :)