Mango beet cheesecake with coconut crispy rice streusel

At the Post Punk Kitchen they are having an online Chopped contest. The mystery ingredients are fresh mango, red bunch beets, dried unsweetened coconut and crisp rice cereal. I was able to get together an entry this time. I think I was motivated by the fact they included beets which is evident from last post. I decided to make a cashew tofu cheesecake using the beets and mango. The crust and streusel topping have the dried unsweetened coconut and crisp rice cereal. I used one fresh organic mango, one fresh organic beet, organic unsweetened dried coconut and organic brown rice crisp cereal. I came up with the crust recipe and used a version of the Pumpkin cheesecake in Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. 

Mango beet cheesecake with coconut crispy rice streusel
Three mini cheesecakes or one large

Crust and streusel topping

1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup unsweetened dried coconut
8 pitted dates chopped
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 Tbl maple syrup
1 cup crispy rice cereal

Place the walnuts, chopped dates, dried coconut, chopped dates, coconut oil and maple syrup in a food processor. Process until the mixture starts to stick together and the walnuts are ground. Add the crispy rice cereal and process for a few seconds to incorporate the cereal. Take half of the mixture and press it into a spring form pan or I have cute little heart cheesecake pans. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes and remove to cool while you make the filling.

Mango and beet cheesecake filling

I used the recipe from the Vegan Pie in the Sky book as I stated above and I added the mango and beets. I included the raw cashews, silken tofu, coconut oil, cornstarch, lemon juice, salt and vanilla extract from the Pumpkin cheesecake recipe. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of guar gum. I left out the rest of the ingredients. I also omitted the regular and brown sugar. I added 1/4 cup of maple syrup instead. You may want to add more sweetener. Both the mango and beet are really sweet so I figured that would make up the difference. It made a vanilla cheesecake base. I split the batter in two. I added one chopped fresh mango to one batter and processed in the food processor until smooth. I poured this into the heart pans and filled them about half way. I then added a bit of the streusel topping and pressed down gently. To the rest of the batter I added one large chopped steamed beet and processed in the food processor until smooth. I poured the beet batter on top of the mango batter and filled to the top. I added the remaining streusel topping. I baked the cheesecakes and then put them in the fridge to cool for a few hours.


We just had one for dessert this evening and it turned out yummy. I think the other two will be even better tomorrow morning. I may put one in the freezer since that sounds like fun and I think the filling would be really great frozen. I might also make beet ice cream tomorrow and have it with the frozen version.

Beet waffles

 
He loves waffles so I try to be a bit creative with the ingredients. I add just about everything to the waffles. My favorites are banana nut with greens and gingerbread with sweet potatoes. We are getting a lot of beets through our csa so decided to give it a try. The color is really lovely from the addition of the beets and they taste really great. He ate a whole one this morning. My next adventure with beets is going to be ice cream. I found a great recipe online for coconut milk beet ice cream. Yum!

Raw strawberry cheesecake

I recently came across the blog Fragrant Vanilla. She has awesome recipes for desserts. I made the little raw strawberries and cream streusel topped cheesecakes last night and they turned out really yummy. I halved the recipe and made three small heart cakes. I wasn't sure if he was going to like it due to the coconut and pecans but he loved it.

Cap sleeve shirts

I have a cap sleeve shirt that I bought a while back that I love to wear. I decided to use the shirt as a pattern to make a few more for myself. I have also been playing with adding texture to my shirts with ruffles and flowers. I used recycled XL shirts from my favorite shopping place Goodwill. The shirts turned out really comfy. The lovely flowers are from Bellair Farm CSA where we get a lot of our produce. They have a huge field of flowers where you can pick your own each week.

Super hero fun

A friend of mine gave me a whole bunch of curtains to use in the new house. We already have curtains for J's room so decided to use the blue gingham ones for a different purpose. The super hero cape pattern is from Georgia Leigh. I purchased the pattern in her etsy shop but you can also draft your own pattern using her great tutorial. The pattern is super easy to sew and comes in a few sizes.

Homemade ravioli

We finally moved into our new house and it is awesome. One of the best parts of the house is the kitchen. It is pretty much a dream for me to cook in the new space. I am busy crafting and cooking in the new space but obviously very neglectful about posting. So here is a post on a whole wheat sweet potato ravioli with a white bean sauce. I am experimenting with making my own pasta and this batch turned out pretty yummy for a first try. The recipe for the whole wheat pasta dough is from The Modern Vegetarian Cookbook by Peter Berley. The white bean sauce is from The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld.

Hemp milk is yummy

For my new years resolution I decided to make more of our food from scratch. I really enjoy home cooked food and in most cases I like the version we make way better than anything we buy already prepared. It is also cheaper to make everything so definitely worth the extra effort. J loves to help out in the kitchen too. It usually involves a bigger mess and more time but it is fun to show him my love for cooking and baking. One thing I have wanted to try is making my own nut or seed milks. In particular I have wanted to try making hemp milk with the blender. I bought organic shelled hemp seeds at Whole Foods and found the hemp milk recipe online. It is really easy to do and tastes better to me than the store bought versions. I haven't figured out the costs yet but I think if I buy the seeds in bulk on Amazon then it will be quite a bit cheaper than buying it in the carton. It also is better trash wise since I don't have to throw away the aseptic cartons. I made a smoothie with the milk by adding a banana, frozen strawberries and mangoes, and a little maple syrup. Very yummy.

Bags on etsy

The recycled and hemp wrist bags are on my Etsy site. I am looking forward to selling in the warm indoors instead of the frigid outdoors for the remainder of the holiday season. I tried the local city holiday market for three weeks in a row but had to finally admit that it isn't worth selling only a few items in the cold. It is a great little market but the location has been moved and though it is full of vendors it is unfortunately not full of shoppers. Oh well, I gave it a good try and onward to selling online. I am really impressed with how easy it is to list items on Etsy and all the fun extras to promote your site. I added a nifty mini etsy to the blog and I am slowly discovering all the wonderful tools available.

Cowl neck warmer from a sweater and t-shirt

I am really excited that cowl necks are back in style. I loved my pink fluffy cowl neck sweater that I got for Christmas when I was a preteen. I am selling on Saturdays at a local outdoor city holiday market and it is really cold so I figure cowl neck warmers are good addition. I made this one out of a cotton sweater and t-shirt that I got at the local thrift store. I marked off the section I wanted to cut with a pen and then sewed along the line prior to cutting to make sure the edges do not unravel. I added a t-shirt circle and quilted a spiral through all the layers. Pretty cute and fun to make. By the way I have finally uploaded all my items to my etsy shop so please head over a check out all the fun items.

Carrot veggie burgers

We love veggie burgers. Here is my take on a simple nut and veggie burger. I can usually get a dozen burgers out of the recipe and it easily works for two meals. They also freeze well. If you don't have vital wheat gluten then you can substitute more ground oats, bread crumbs or a whole grain flour. Also feel free to add any other shredded veggies. Beets work really nicely as well as broccoli. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Carrot Veggie Burgers

version one
1 cup raw or toasted walnuts
1.5 cups raw or toasted sunflower seeds
1 medium size onion
3 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
3 cups cooked brown rice
0.5 cup vital wheat gluten
0.5 cup ground rolled oats
0.5 tsp salt

In a food processor add the nuts, seeds and oats. Pulse to a fine grind. Remove and place in a bowl. Add the carrots and onion and also pulse to shred. Remove and place in the bowl with the nuts. Add oil if using. Pulse again to a sticky consistency and place in the bowl with the other ingredients. Add the wheat gluten to the same bowl. Add salt to taste. Now the fun part. Mix everything together. Feel free to use your hands. They work great. Form the mixture into four inch size patties and fry or bake at 375F for 25 minutes flipping halfway. Freeze the leftovers and you have dinner or lunch for another day. Goes great with sweet potato fries.

Esty shop is finally up and running

I finally have the Natural Violet Etsy shop up and running. I have flower pins made from recycled t-shirts. I also have fun hemp/organic cotton bibs and burp cloth sets along with a few baby teeny pants. I am working on the recycled wrist bags and should have listing for those in a few days. I am also knitting neck warmers/cowls from recycled yarn and plan to sew a few neck warmers from recycled sweaters. I should have the store fully stocked by the end of week so please take a peek. Please also excuse my lack luster photos. I need to work on my photo taking skills. I figured if I wait until I have good photo skills then I will likely never list anything. Hopefully the photos are descriptive enough and please feel free to contact me with any questions. Happy holiday shopping!