I made some tastespotting badges today and thought I’d share them with everyone. My twinzy Jess did the cute illustrations, please visit his website and show him some love. There are four designs: lime, martini glass, olive branch and a cake slice.  CLICK HERE to download them. In the zip folder is all 4 versions at 3 different sizes: 150, 175 and 200. Also, if you’d like to play with the colors to adjust them to your blogs color scheme or size them yourself, I also have an adobe illustrator file included, with all of the designs in vector format. So you can customize them completely. Enjoy!

I had been meaning to re-photograph my white vegan cake recipe for a while now, because I wanted a more impressive photo for when I publish my actual cookbook. Which I’m in the process of putting together. I finally got around to it this week and so I decided to work on perfecting the white icing to go with it while I was at it. My white cake is always in the top 5 of most visited recipes on my site. I get quite a few emails asking me what kind of icing I use with it. I had never really perfected a white icing and would refer them to someone Else’s recipe, and honestly have no idea if it’s any good. But I can safely say, this is the quintessential vegan white cake icing. You can even flavor it anyway you like, as long as the flavoring is clear. You can add dyes to color it or keep it white.

When shopping on amazon.com the other day I came across some all natural vegan food coloring from India Tree. It was expensive but I really wanted some natural dyes, so I bought it anyway. As expensive as it was, I was disappointed in the quality. I bought the 3 bottle set of yellow, red and blue. The bottles are unmarked so you kind of have to figure out which is the blue and red because they’re both so dark. Once I figured it out I marked the red with a red marker on the top. The yellow looked great and I was happy with it. The red worked well enough for a pink, although you have to add quite a bit to get a red. The blue however is purple and you have to add quite a bit to get it purple. If you add just a few drops you get a pale lavender, almost grey. Another thing I hate is that you have to get a skewer stick and stir the colors before using them. So I would recommend them if you don’t need a blue and are decorating a cake that is mostly pastel.

I decorated this cake with a simple but impressive-looking confetti pattern. If you can draw a half-way straight line you can copy it. I used a small round tip. GO TO WHITE ICING RECIPE>

An easy to make, low-fat vegan caramel popcorn recipe. Feel free to add your favorite nuts. GO TO RECIPE >

Chunks of bursting-with-flavor “chicken” seitan covered in creamy, low-fat dressing with dill. Mixed together with crunchy celery, spring onions and plump cherry tomatoes. This is the ultimate vegan “chicken” salad. Makes a perfect light lunch with only 4.25 grams of fat. The flavor combinations make it perfect in-between homemade pumpernickel bread or on a bed of your favorite greens. GO TO RECIPE>

A lot of seitan recipes tend to be either too soft or too tough. When I started working on this recipe my mission was clear, to make the ultimate seitan “chicken”. The texture is perfection. It’s just the right amount of chewy without being tough. It’s tender without being too soft and so moist. And most importantly it’s bursting with chicken-like flavor. I have a “chicken” salad recipe coming up using this recipe so stay tuned. GO TO “CHICKEN” SEITAN RECIPE>

Sweet potato mash replaces a lot of the oil in these biscuits and also makes them a beautiful yellow color with flecks of orange.  They’re so yummy and soft and only 2.5o grams of fat for 2 biscuits. Great served with winter soups and stews. To make them nut free you can replace the almond milk with rice milk. GO TO RECIPE >

Gumbo is a savory Cajun or Creole stew served over rice. This recipe has very little added oil but big flavor. The fennel and pinch of nutmeg help give it a slight sausage flavor, which adds a depth. Not my best food photography I’ll admit. It’s hard to get inspired by a pile of vegetables on brown rice. But if only you could smell and taste this gumbo through the screen, so GOOD. I had left overs for lunch yesterday and poured some black beans on top as well. The flavors worked really well together. GO TO RECIPE >

When I set out to make my own granola cereal I wanted something I could really feel good about eating and would help me keep my weight down. I only use a tablespoon of peanut butter as a fat instead of oil. Lots of cinnamon and just a touch of agave and brown sugar to sweeten it all.

Besides being lower in sugar and higher in fiber than store bought granola cereal, it’s more fun to make your own. GO TO RECIPE >

These low fat, sweet cornmeal cakes are a great companion to vegetable soup or a crock pot of beans. GO TO RECIPE >