V-day Inspirations

It's solidly post-holidays, but I still feel like my schedule is operating on octane. I was happy to take a break Monday night and check out Compassionate Action for Animals' Vegan Valentine's Day Dinner cooking class hosted by RebelGrrlKitchen's Raechel. The menu was fun and inspired, featuring something red or pink in each dish. My fiance wasn't able to attend, so tonight I treated him to my remake of the class recipes. They were a hit and are pretty easy to make.

Let's start with dessert. Amazingly simple, yet really satisfying, was RebelGrrlKitchen's Decadent Cherry Brownie Parfait. All you need to make this dish is a food processor and the ingredients. The "brownie" is walnuts, dates, cocoa powder, vanilla, a little sweetener and a pinch of salt. The cherry soft serve is frozen bananas and cherries, simple as that.

For the main course, RebelGrrlKitchen's Creamy Tahini Quinoa with Beets and Greens offers protein-powerhouse quinoa in a hearty, earthy tahini sauce with the sweetness of roasted beets and spinach. It's the year of quinoa, and this is a great food for people interested in getting more protein, iron and calcium in their diet.

Finally, the starter was a bright kale salad featuring pomegranate seeds and a citrus vinaigrette. I can't find the recipe on RebelGrrlKitchen, but it's pretty simple. For the dressing, mix 1 T olive oil, 1 T apple cider vinegar, 1 T soy sauce/Bragg's, juice of 1 orange and 1 t grated ginger. To make the kale more digestible, tear it into bit size bits and "massage" it by rubbing and crunching it up in the bowl.

Update: You can now find all the recipes on RebelGrrlKitchen's blog here.