WIAW: Living out of a suitcase.

Brett and I officially moved out of our apartment and into storage (by ourselves!!) last week. We're living out of suitcases and will be traveling until mid-July when we'll drive a U-haul up to New York City to move into our new apartment (which we don't have yet.) Gulp. 

The view from my run our first morning in West Palm.

Right now we are down in West Palm Beach Florida for work and on Monday we leave for 5 2 weeks in China! I might be just a little excited. I've got quite a few recipes scheduled to post while I'm gone, but I'm also hoping to share some authentic Chinese food with you all too! My plan is to take a cooking class at some point while I'm there. 

Since our lives have been crazy, eating at home hasn't happened much. When I have been able to prepare something it's usually simple or microwavable (like a sweet potato or oatmeal). Snack plates happen often too, which is fine by me! Here are some pictures of the recent meals/snacks I've been enjoying while living out of a suitcase. All the pictures are from my instagram. You can follow me at theconscientiouseater!

And in case you missed previous recipes I posted this past week, you can check them out here:

Easy Fried Plantains

Power Seed Crackers

3 Ingredient Vegan Fudge Sauce

One Bowl Vegan Chocolate Cake

Lots of homemade Power Seed Crackers and hummus.

A sweet potato with peanut butter makes for a perfect, easy meal.

Raw Chili Chocolate Brownies with Fudge Glaze. 

I've been going through a whole batch slowly by myself.

So amazing.

Recipe coming soon!

Mellow Mushroom Veggie Vegan Pizza.

One pizza has given me three meals!

Lots of oatmeal with fruit and peanut butter.

Overnight Cookie Dough Oats.

I'm excited to eat more overnight oats once I'm settled in NYC.

Oatmeal with chia seeds, fried plantain wedges and peanut butter.

Strange but good!

Salads...

when I can!

Homemade "Endurance Bars."

Almonds, dates, coconut, chocolate chips and almond butter.

So deliciously filling.

While I'm looking forward to being able to have a kitchen and cook more meals at home, I'm so thankful for the fact that I have food to eat...and delicious food at that!

Happy Wednesday. Check out Jenn's blog Peas and Crayons to get recipe ideas from other bloggers.

What are some easy meals you like to eat when unable to cook?

What are your go-to travel snacks?

Eat Consciously,

Faith

One Bowl Vegan Chocolate Cake

I have a baking ego.

I don't know where it came from. For some odd reason though I think I can drastically change a recipe (a.k.a. substitute half of the ingredients in the recipe for different ingredients that I deem "healthier") and still achieve the same result.

It never works.

Thankfully, I still learn a lot in the process and have even had accidents turn into masterpieces. Like this Vegan Chocolate Cake. It was my friends birthday a week ago and we invited her and her husband over for some birthday dessert. I asked her what her favorite flavors and/or desserts were and she mentioned brownies and ice cream.

While her and her husband aren't vegan, they have been in the past and often eat vegetarian meals. Any time we have them over I take advantage of trying out new vegan dishes, because I know that they don't mind meatless meals. More importantly, whenever we have anyone over for dinner I always like to make a vegan dessert. That way I don't sit there awkwardly watching everyone else eat their dessert while they wonder if I have a thing against chocolate. That will never happen. 

So for my friends birthday dessert I wanted to make vegan brownies. I also wanted the ingredients to be ones that I felt good about putting in my body. There are tons of vegan brownie recipes out there that call for two cups of sugar and a cup of oil and I'd rather just not go there. So after a bit of searching I found a recipe that used whole wheat flour, avocado and a little bit of olive oil. I didn't have an avocado on hand so I used unsweetened applesauce instead. I also wanted these brownies to be made only with agave nectar instead of white and brown sugar, so I cut out the white and brown sugar and replace some of the wet ingredients with agave. The batter tasted great and it wasn't as runny as some other brownie batters I've made in the past, so I was feeling optimistic. 

When I checked on the "brownies" close to when they were supposed to be done I realized that they had risen a lot and that it was looking and feeling more like a cake. Whoops. I figured I would just roll with it, whip up some type of frosting or glaze to pour on top and call it a night. I remembered that my mom used to always make this ah-maaaaazing chocolate sauce using milk, chocolate chips and vanilla so I thought I'd make it using vegan ingredients and pour it on top of the cake.

Oh. My. Goodness. The result was one decadent, rich chocolate cake. I didn't want my piece to end! Everyone thought it was a hit and my friend didn't care in the slightest that it wasn't brownies. 

Failure turned success. Finally.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Fudge Icing

(Serves 8)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 batch Vegan Fudge Sauce or icing of choice

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the applesauce and olive oil until smooth. 
3. Add in the remaining wet ingredients (until vanilla) and mix until combined.
4. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, soda, starch and salt and stir until you get a thick batter.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. My edges cooked quicker so make sure you check the center of the cake!
7. Let the cake cool, remove from the pan and top with Easy Vegan Fudge Sauce.
8. Cut and dig in!

Eat Consciously,

Faith

3-Ingredient Vegan Fudge Sauce!

I'm not going to talk a lot for this post, because this vegan fudge sauce is the star of the show. Seriously, you can put this stuff on anything and it will turn the even the most tasteless desserts into competition winners. 

My mom always made this fudge sauce for us growing up as a topping for our ice cream...which we at every night. I'm not lying. I used to eat a huge bowl of ice cream every night before bed. Actually all three of my siblings and I grew up thinking that was totally normal thing to do. My parents would buy a 5 gallon bucket of vanilla ice cream from Costco and the six of us would eat through that tub in no time. I'd add in sliced banana, whipped cream and this fudge sauce and sit on the couch in heaven. I have no idea how all of us kids didn't end up overweight. Thank goodness our bodies are forgiving when we're younger. 

And thank goodness I recently remembered this recipe and can now share it with you. I don't even know if you'd call it a recipe. There aren't really measurements which, in my opinion, is the wonderful thing about this sauce.

Please try this. Scoop large amounts of vanilla ice cream into a bowl and top it off with this sauce. You'll wish you too had grown up eating it every night.

Tomorrow I'll also be posting a recipe for Vegan Chocolate Cake which uses this fudge sauce as the icing. It's an amazing combination that you won't want to miss!

Vegan Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:

• Almond milk
• 1/2-1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place a small sauce pan on a burner and turn the heat to medium-low. Cover the bottom of the sauce pan with a thin layer of almond milk. Slowly increase the heat and let the milk heat up until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges. Don't let it get too hot or the almond milk will start to burn.
2. Pour 1/2 cup of chocolate chips into the sauce pan once the milk is warm and use a whisk to stir. The chocolate chips will start to melt and combine with the milk. If there is too much milk, add another 1/4-1/2 cup chocolate chips until all the milk is absorbed in the chocolate.
3. Add in the vanilla extract and continue to stir until all the chocolate chips have melted. 
4. Serve warm or store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Picture of how to make it follow:

Pour a thin layer of almond milk into a small skillet until the bottom is covered.

Add in about a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to start.

Whisk together the chocolate chips and milk until they start to combine. 

If there is still excess almond milk, add in more chocolate chips.

Add in the vanilla extract and whisk until all the chocolate chips have melted. 

Serve warm or refrigerate.