Fudge It!

Nuts and dried fruit... blah-blah-blah, yeah, we all know they're really good for you but damn, you can sometimes feel like a squirrel as you chomp away on yet another handful of impromptu trailmix. When trying to raise children the vegan way it's import to allow for calorie-dense food to fill their little tums and give them enough energy to fuel their growth and their lifestyle. Nuts and dried fruit are a very good, very fibre-rich way of doing this. But if you - like me - have grown bored of plain old apricots, raisins and walnuts and have run out of exotic, tempting dried pineapple, sour cherry and macadamia nuts, why not try the Carob-Almond fudge from 'Eat To Live'. Frugal Veggie Mama is a fan, as is Jennifer Shmoo, so with such sterling commendations I whipped-up a batch today. Verdict? Moreish!!! I used sunflower seed butter in place of almond butter as that's all I had and while it was good I can imagine with almond butter it would be absolutely superb. Ho-Tep clamoured for more-while it provided McGonnagle with a much-needed boost of energy before Judo. Seed butter, dessicated coconut, carob and dates soaked in soya milk. That's it. So easy and so virtuous!

The other night I was trying to use up the contents of my fridge veggie drawer before they expired and decided to make a variation on cauliflower cheese. I boiled waxy potatoes, cauliflower florets and carrot slices until tender before throwing a bag of sad-looking mangetout in at the last minute. I blended-up the tangy nacho-cheeze sauce from 'The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook' and heated-it up before slightly mashing the drained veg and pouring over the sauce. The results? Well, the unique combination of roasted red peppers and chunkily ground cashews left my cheeze sauce with the colour and texture... of puke.
Thank GOD it tasted good, though my son - who is still eating with his eyes at the moment - refused point blank to try it with the cute Scottish colloquialism 'that's STINKIN', mummy!'.

Hmmm... Judge for yourself!!!