Six-ingredient vegan marshmallow fluff = heaven

By Giselle Wedemire
 
You know when you have a crazy craving for something, and it just won't go away, no matter how hard you try to repress it? That was me about three months ago when I wanted nothing more than to make vegan s'mores with some graham crackers, some dark chocolate, and a big ol' scoop of that marshmallow fluff in a jar that's usually reserved for ice cream sundaes.

Yes, I could have opted for some vegan marshmallows instead -- and, in fact, I did do that in the end -- but I wanted that fluff no matter what! The fly in the ointment, though, was two-fold: 1) it was incredibly difficult to find in any grocery store, and 2) when I did find it in Superstore -- in the chewing gum aisle, of all places! -- it contained egg whites. Womp womp.

Cut to: me storming away from the store like an overtired toddler, while Mr. Picky Bitch tried to console me. It seemed like my craving for marshmallow fluff would never be fulfilled, and I was devastated. I was crushed. In a word, I was overreacting.

But after receiving a standing mixer for Christmas, and doing hella research on the magic of aquafaba, I was inspired to try my hand at turning chickpea water into gooey, comforting marshmallow fluff. 

And let me tell you, it was a huge success.

Without further ado, I now present to you: homemade vegan marshmallow fluff!

Picky kids & spouses have met their match (Review + Giveaway)

One of the best parts of getting a new cookbook is flipping through it to bookmark the recipes you just can't wait to try out. And you know you've found a good book when you lose track of how many recipes end up bookmarked after that initial perusal. 

As it turns out, I went through half a million bookmarks when I received Kristy Turner's latest cookbook, But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan. #NoRegrets

Photo courtesy of the publisher, The Experiment

Turner is one of my absolute favourite cookbook authors, devising inventive recipes that are healthy but comforting. One of her particular strengths is her ability to create fantastic DIY component recipes for basics like sour cream or sausage crumbles, and then incorporate those basics into recipes that are mind-blowingly good. And what's better is that BMFWNEV has gluten-free variations available for every single recipe -- as well as some soy-free suggestions throughout  -- making this book super accessible to picky eaters.

Menses munchies: Faux Starbucks ginger molasses cookies

By Giselle Wedemire
 
Welcome back to Menses Munchies, a feature just for us girls where I regularly spotlight sweet, calorific vegan treats that I've found help me chase away my menstrual camps and make me feel less like an ogre that's set on destroying the nearest village.

For me, PMS is a sneaky bugger that creeps up on me gradually like a tip-toeing Scooby Doo villain until it's finally on my heels. Before I know it - BAM - I'm sobbing into a bowl of ice cream while watching Sister Act 2. It's not even a sad movie, and yet this has definitely happened to me in the days leading up to my very own shark week.

During these times, sweet and terrible-for-me treats are a godsend, and for a while, my favourite vegan treat for PMS times was the ginger molasses cookie at Starbucks. When I first went vegan years ago, I had looked high and low on Starbucks' website, scoured the internet, and chatted with baristas before I eventually came to the conclusion that those chewy and bakery-soft morsels of heaven were indeed cruelty-free, especially since my super sensitive tummy never flipped a switch whenever I indulged.

Then, last year the coffee chain revamped its line of bakery treats by advertising that they had switched over their recipes to include 100% real butter in every product. Boo-urns, no more cookies for this vegan hormone factory.

Believe it or not, these are not actually Starbucks ginger molasses cookies.
Even better, these are homemade!

Warming Mexican hot chocolate bark

By Giselle Wedemire

I received a copy of The New Chicago Diner Cookbook this past Christmas and it is a joy to behold! There are so many recipes I want to make from it that my copy is practically stuffed to the brim with bookmarks.

One of the recipes that first caught my eye (other than the pasta carbonara, and the chocolate mousse cake, and the ginger coconut tofu bites, and the maple whipped cream and and and...) was the Mexican hot chocolate bark. I love spicy and sweet flavour combos and Mexican hot chocolate anything is my JAM, so I was stoked to get started on this recipe. 

I waited until it was the perfect night for concocting a chocolatey treat that's spiked with hits of heat, and finally it came. On an extremely chilly and wintry Tuesday night, Mr. Picky Bitch was out with friends and I was left to indulge in some creature comforts. Snuggled up in an oversized hoodie with a kitty on my lap and a few episodes of Black-ish to catch up on, I was all set. It was time to get cracking on some sweet and spicy chocolate bark to help punch winter in the face.

Picky Bitchez-style Mexican hot chocolate bark is fully equipped with the heat and spices
some feel are required to punch Old Man Winter in the face. 

Top five goodies perfect for a vegan bake sale

By Giselle Wedemire

For the past three months, we at Picky Bitchez have been on hiatus.The reason for that has mostly been because of time constraints, but also because I made an impromptu decision to step away from the blog until I had had enough time to properly test out some products I'd been sent by some great vegan and gluten-free companies. (Hint: reviews are on the way!)

However, time waits for no picky bitch, and it's about time I get back in the blogging game!

With the Sixth Annual Calgary Vegan Bake Sale just a week away, the vegan community here in Calgary is abuzz and I'll be reprising my role from last year as a volunteer baker. But I'm kind of freaking out because with just a week to go, I still haven't decided on what I should make for the event. Ugh, indecisiveness is the worst!

Event poster via Facebook

Scrumptious Shortbread

By Casey Knoll

I absolutely love Christmas baking -- it's a great way to have fun, and to create 
affordable gifts for your friends and family.

This year, my mom's friend introduced me to gluten-free shortbread. I was never a huge fan of shortbread, but this recipe changed my mind. It's quick, easy, and absolutely delicious.

My mom's friend found this recipe on a blog by Amanda Farquharson. If you give these a try, let us know! 

What you'll need:

3 cups white rice flour

1 cup corn starch

1 cup icing sugar

1 pound of salted butter, softened

Cherries or sparkles (optional)

What you'll need to do:

• Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
• Sift the dry ingredients together.
• Cut the butter into quarters then halve again. Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry mixture until you are able to form a ball of dough.
• Dust a cool surface with rice flour and place the ball of dough on the flour. Knead until the edges crack.
• Form golf ball sized balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. (I use a Silpat mat or parchment paper)
• Press down with a fork and decorate with sparkles or candied cherries.Bake approx. 20 minutes or until edges are slightly browned. Let sit for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. 

An Awesome Gluten-Free Flour Mix

By Casey Knoll

My mom is from Nova Scotia, so baking was a huge part of my childhood. As soon as I could hold a measuring cup, I started to make biscuits, cookies, muffins -- you name it! Ever since then, I’ve always loved to bake, especially biscuits. They go perfectly with a nice cup of tea.

When I became gluten intolerant, baking wasn't fun anymore. I couldn't find a flour recipe that I was happy with because everything seemed to taste like sawdust, or just fell apart in the oven. Yes…there were many biscuit meltdowns.

Finally, after at least two years of sawdust-esque, flaky, crappy baked goods, I got an incredible gluten-free flour mix from a friend of mine that washed all my biscuit woes away. The recipe is at the bottom of the post, so make sure you have a look! Give it a whirl with this recipe for gluten-free orange zest raisin tea scones. 

Cilantro pesta salad to beat the heat

By Giselle Wedemire

The summer heat has been getting the best of me lately, and retreating indoors often provides little to no relief for me -- especially in my kitchen. For some strange reason, my kitchen seems to retain even the smallest amount of heat during the summer, regardless of if the last time my stove was turned on was two hours ago or two days ago!

This presents the unique challenge of needing (and wanting) to make myself nutritious meals while avoiding excess heat at all costs. Salads are a great way to solve this problem,  and I've been taking advantage of the cool simplicity of making salads a lot this summer, but I was in the mood for something a bit heartier the other day. 

I also needed to use up the rest of the cilantro pesto I had lingering in the fridge after I made some amazingly delicious black bean wraps earlier that week. Thus, out of necessity and high humidity my pesto pasta (pesta?) salad was born!

I strongly suggest you whip this gluten-free and vegan wonder up whenever you feel you've had enough of the summer sun, and dig in while cooling off in the shade.

Cilantro pesta salad
(serves 4 as an entree)

What you'll need:
2 cups dried gluten-free pasta (I used Catelli's gluten-free penne)
1/2 cup Thug Kitchen's cilantro pesto
1 ripe avocado, diced
1 cup frozen corn, defrosted
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1 tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnish
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

What you'll need to do:

• Prepare the pasta in boiling water according to the package's instructions. Once cooked and cooled, transfer to a large serving bowl.
• In the meantime, whip up the cilantro pesto in a food processor or blender. The recipe makes one cup of pesto, so measure out 1/2 cup of pesto and save the rest for another day.
• Add the pesto to the bowl of pasta. Add in the black beans, corn, and peas as well, and mix until everything is well coated with pesto.
• Add the diced avocado and mix lightly, being careful not to smush the bits of avocado.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.

Try this recipe out and let us know what you think of it by commenting below or by tweeting us at @PickyBitchez.

Matcha green tea ice cream sammiches from the planet Delicious

By Giselle Wedemire

You know that feeling when you decide, quite firmly, on what it is you're going to be baking, only to find that your hopes and dreams have been dashed because the recipe you had in mind actually doesn't exist?

Well, I do.

Yesterday, I had planned to test out some of Kiss Me Organics' matcha green tea powder by making the green tea ice cream sandwiches in Veganomicon. But when I flipped to the page in question in the veritable vegan bible, I found that that recipe was actually for green tea ice cream which you could then sandwich between cookies of your choice. 

Disappointed, I embarked on a harrowing and frustrating search for the perfect matcha cookie recipe via Google and came up short. Then, I stomped into my kitchen like a three-year-old throwing a temper tantrum and, after a few deep yoga breaths, I set out on making up my own matcha cookies.

Suffering succotash!

By Giselle Wedemire

Sometimes I just need a really quick, reliable, and healthy dinner option that takes no time at all to prepare. It sounds like a tall order, but I think I've found something that works as a great side dish in any time-pressed, last-minute dinner menu.

With Looney Tunes on the brain one day, I decided to research succotash, the source of Sylvester's infamous catchphrase. 

That night, I learnt four things:

1. Succotash was popular in the Depression because its core ingredients are fairly inexpensive.
2. Succotash is incredibly easy to make and comes together in no time.
3. Succotash is amazingly delicious and I constantly wish I had more of it in my tummy.
4. 'Succotash' is ridiculously fun to say (and to type).

While I had to adapt an online recipe to suit both my vegan needs and the contents of my pantry/freezer, my veganized version turned out well so I figured I'd brag share it with you.

*Note: this recipe was inspired by Food Network's online recipe for a similar edamame succotash. The recipe I've concocted (below) is both vegan and gluten-free.

Edamame succotash

What you'll need:

2 tbsp sesame oil
2 stalks finely chopped green onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup frozen edamame
2 cups corn kernels (fresh or frozen is fine)
1 cup frozen green peas
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp black pepper

What you'll need to do:

In a skillet, heat the oil and sauté the onion and garlic. 
Add the edamame, corn and green peas and cook until heated through. 
Once cooked, sprinkle with salt and pepper and enjoy.