Day 45--Happy Valentine's Day!

Dax and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, and that's never bothered me because my birthday is just a few days later.  We have Dax and Melanie Love Each Other Day in May instead.  Regardless, the kids like Valentine's Day, and I have fond memories of it as a kid.  It was always more of a school holiday to me, probably because my family didn't do much for Valentine's Day either.  It was always small.  Usually, I try to get the kids a little toy or some candy, but this year I decided to make cupcakes, and since I was going to go to the trouble of making cupcakes, I decided to make vegan cupcakes!  Since this was a last minute decision, I didn't have time really to go to the store, so I needed recipes with ingredients I already had on-hand, or things I could easily substitute.  I went with this recipe for the cupcakes (substituting all-purpose flour for whole wheat (this is not a wheat-free day!), almond milk for soy, and leaving out the chocolate chips), and this recipe for the frosting.  I tried making some little hearts with sprinkles on the tops, but that didn't really work out.  Still, sprinkles are pretty anyway.

I haven't had my cupcake yet, but preliminary reviews from the kids is outstanding!  (and if my tastes of the batter and frosting count, I think I'm going to agree!)

Tonight was also Round 2 of my veggie burger experiments.  Apparently, still unwilling to follow a recipe, I think I can figure this out on my own using whatever I have laying around the house.  And well...I just might!  Maybe not quite yet, but getting closer!  This time I used about a cup of leftover brown rice, a cup or so of leftover lentil soup, drained as best as I could, a few tablespoons of ground almonds (all I had left),  2 tablespoons of ground flax seed, a handful of mushrooms, and a little bit of teriyaki sauce made from this recipe . I put that all in the food processor and it turned out looking like this...

It was really too moist, so I chilled it awhile until I was able to sort of make patties with it.  I put them between layers of plastic wrap so I could freeze them a bit too, hopefully making them a little firmer for cooking.  It worked...kind of.  When I was frying these, I was feeling like I couldn't quite get the inside cooked too, so I ended up, stirring it all up in the pan, with a little more teriyaki, and then reforming into a patty as I cooked, and that worked pretty well!  I topped the burger with mushrooms sauteed in teriyaki sauce (my attempt at recreating the teriyaki mushrooms I had last week), and I must say I found the result really satisfying!

I found the charred bits throughout (some would say "burned") most flavorful, and the nuttiness of the burger went really well with the teriyaki.  I need to work on the consistency of the burger, but I think the flavor is really coming along!  I have three more patties in the freezer, so I'm curious to see how they cook up.

As for now, it's time for dessert!