Quick and Easy Brownies

Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnut halves


Directions
1.Melt the butter or margarine and mix all ingredients in the order given.
2.Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes in a 9 x 13 inch greased pan.

Avocado, Tomato and Mango Salsa

Ingredients
1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chopped red onion
3 tablespoons olive oil


Directions
1.In a medium bowl, combine the mango, avocado, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro, and garlic. Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and olive oil. To blend the flavors, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

Vegan Baking Tips

Vinegar and baking soda works great for cakes, and COCONUT MILK makes the best texture. It's delicious. Banana and peanut butter as a replacement for eggs in chocolate chip cookies makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever (says my non-vegan mom and I).

And believe it or not I make some divine black bean brownies. My coworkers used to beg me to keep making more for them. People go nuts over them, without knowing what's in them.

You can use any chocolate chip cookie recipe you like, then in place of one egg you can use a thumb size bit of banana along with an equal amount of peanut butter. For my original chocolate chip cookie recipe I actually used "White Chocolate Wonderful" peanut butter by Peanut Butter & Co. If you can't get this kind, and want to mimic it, you can probably just add a bit more vanilla extract and a little powdered sugar.

For the black bean brownies, again you can use any brownie recipe you want, then in place of the eggs, rinse out a can of black beans, then with the black beans inside the can, fill the can up with water, pour in a blender and blend til smooth. Pour in as much black bean liquid as you need in order to get the consistency of a typical brownie batter. You may want to add a bit of extra powdered sugar, a little extra vanilla extract, and my personal favorite: chocolate chips. Trader Joe's has vegan chocolate chips you can use or you can go for Ghirardhelli's semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Vanilla Cake With Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Dry:
1 big handful of flour
1 handful of organic sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 small dash of salt

Wet:

1 handful of coconut milk
1 small handful of canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or add vanilla extract to taste starting with 1/2 teaspoon or whatever suits your fancy
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar or white vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients together first, then eyeball the wet ingredients as you pour, in the order that they're listed. You may want to before you add the vinegar, fold the wet and dry together to see if it's going to be moist enough. It should be slightly less moist than batter for brownies from a box, but closer towards that consistency than the consistency of pizza dough. If you're confident in the moistness, go ahead and add the vinegar and lightly mix. DO NOT OVERMIX - you'll get dense cake.

Now, microwave it for about 45 seconds, then check on it, and keep checking on it in 15-30 second intervals until it looks done.

Frosting:

3 1/2 tablespoons of Earth Balance vegan butter
1 enormous handful of powdered sugar (probably about 3/4 cup powdered sugar)
1 small dash of vanilla
1 dash of lemon extract, to taste

First, beat the butter til it's fluffy, then add the powdered sugar. Beat together. It should form little balls, then you keep beating til it's smooth. Then add your vanilla and lemon extract and beat again.

Now, spread frosting on cake and thank me. :)