Day 29: Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater...

Yes, it is true.  I cheated.  Not with soy ice cream, or vegan buckeye bliss bars...but with lemonade.  Yes, lemonade.

Let me explain myself.  Over the weekend we went to Cedar Point, and it was hot.  And sunny.  And as a redhead, I don't do hot and sunny very well.  And while the restaurant we were at had a halfway decent salad bar (ugh, iceberg lettuce), I was starving.  I was starting to wilt.  And the little guy wanted lemonade, and it sounded soooo good.  I needed something cold with something my body could convert to glucose to get me through the rest of the day.  They had a stand with iced lemonade (pretty much an Icee, but made with lemonade) and we all got some.  And people, it was delicious.  It was so cold and tart and lemony...it was worth cheating.  Totally worth it. 

However, I was incredibly grumpy after the initial high, so that definitely showed me exactly what refined sugar does to me.  (I wish I had known all about this stuff in middle school, when I had mood swings so badly you would think I had multiple personalities.)  But I do miss lemonade, so I'll have to think of a way to make it au naturel.

So now that that unpleasant confession is out of the way, let's talk cupcakes!  I made Alicia's Favorite Cupcakes from The Kind Diet this weekend for my best friend's birthday party.  A disclaimer: if you are the type of person who doesn't like a giant mess in your kitchen ::cough my sister cough:: don't make the frosting with your child.  I think it took me longer to clean the cocoa power from all over the place than it took to make the actual frosting.  For the cupcake batter, I pretty much followed directions.  I tried to use coconut milk instead of soy...yeah, don't do that.  Once you put the apple cider vinegar in, the coconut milk starts to completely separate into chunks and looks pretty gross.  Luckily I had soy milk on hand, so I just used that.  I used a little more apple cider vinegar than the recipe called for, because I have another recipe that is similar and that one calls for one tablespoon of ACV rather than one teaspoon.  I really liked the whole wheat pastry flour--it doesn't have as dense of a texture as regular whole wheat flour, so I'm going to try it with muffins (Skinny Bitch in the Kitch has an awesome muffin recipe).  The cupcakes baked and rose very nicely--I have pictures and will have to post them once I upload them.  The fudge frosting was awesome.  I didn't have soy milk powder, which Alicia says you don't really need.  If you don't like super-chocolately-almost-makes-you-cough frosting, use the soy milk powder to cut the fudginess down.  Also, don't eat the frosting with a spoon.  Just don't.  Major tummyache ahead. 

My little guy was so excited about these cupcakes.  In the morning he went to the kitchen and pulled them off the counter (luckily they were already in a container) and brought them into the bedroom, waiting for us to leave.  When we got to the party, they had a giant bakery cake it was announced approximately 15 times that the cupcakes were vegan...and no one touched them.  My best friend, always willing to try things, had one, but mostly it was me and my son (my son hated the frosting, so he just had them without and he was happy).  I thought they were pretty good.  I make another kind of cupcake (it's my go-to recipe) with a ton of sugar, and they literally make my teeth hurt.  My best friend she liked my usual kind better, but my husband tried them and said he liked Alicia's better.  I'll have to make them again and try them out at my niece's birthday party.

I finally ate kale!  It was...chewy.  It needed to cook longer.  I also made tofu squares--extra firm tofu cut into little squares, with onion powder, turmeric, nutritional yeast, and sea salt--and it was, hands down, the best tofu I've ever made.  I usually get the tofu in the aseptic boxes, but they were all out of that kind at the grocery store, so I tried the Naysoya brand that was packed in water.  It had a great texture (instead of the slimy white mass that looks and feels like white Jell-o) and was just worlds better.  I will be getting that from now on for my sauteing needs.  I have pictures of that as well. 

I've missed the farmers' market two weeks in a row and my husband joked that they're going to put up "Missing" posters soon.  Tomorrow is the last day of my challenge and I will be reviewing the month to see what I've learned!