Your Vegan Mom

Everyday Dessert: Cashew Date Custard

 
Have I ever mentioned that my kids have dessert every night?  Are you scandalized?  It's true that I haven't seen Fed Up yet.  But before you leave in disgust, let me explain.  Dessert is a legitimate meal in our house composed of real food as opposed to its more common components - white flour and sugar.  It comes about an hour after dinner and serves to top off little bellies before bed.  I'm totally not saying you should do this too, but it's an essential part of our day for these two reasons:

Easy, Vegan Almond Peach Tart

Do you get potluck anxiety like I get potluck anxiety?  It's never a simple contribution of food.  It's a vegan ambassador. It's got to represent for the people.  It should astound with how delicious and satisfying it is.  "This is vegan!?  I think I'll reconsider all my previous assumptions!" it might, for example, elicit.  (Cake is good.)

Tangerine Macerated Strawberries

"We're not really good sharers," says the three-year-old, earnestly protecting his bowl of vanilla soy yogurt topped with straberries, "that's why we have our own."  

I put a dollop of yogurt on top of the last few juicy berries in the blue mixing bowl, and I totally understand the boy's concern.  It's hard, but I hand Paul a bite.  

Tangerine Macerated Strawberries

makes: 4 dainty servings or enough for my two children, with a tiny taste left for Paul and me
takes: less than a minute, plus 10 for sitting 

• 1 pint strawberries, sliced
• 1 heaping tablespoon raw sugar
• juice of half a big tangerine or a fat wedge of orange

Sprinkle the sliced strawberries with sugar and citrus juice and stir it up.  Let sit for about 10 minutes for the strawberries to soften and release their juices and the sugar to disolve.  Serve over vanilla yogurt or ice cream.  

Mark Reinfeld's Raw Pear (or Plum!) Tart

I should have listened.  The recipe called for one cup of finely chopped pitted dates.  I did not do that.  Instead I threw a big rounded cup of somewhat dry whole pitted dates into the food processor along with the raw pecans and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg to make the crust for Mark Reinfeld's raw tart.  I did this despite the fact that I had never made a raw tart before and the author of the well-tested recipe has cooked professionally for twenty years, founding a much loved restaurant that I always wanted to visit.  He has co-authored five cookbooks and recieved many honors and awards for his vegan cuisine, and still, I decided that I probably knew better.  

Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

Desmond starts kindergarten a week from today.  He's been asking me about summer, and I've explained that it means a couple things.  There's the summer that's a season when it's hot and we eat peaches.  We still have more than a month to go of that summer.  And then there's kid summer that is the time between school years when we just play and go to the beach.  That one ends in 7 days.  I feel more than a little panicky.