{vegan blackberry fig coconut ice cream}

I've never really been one of those people that opts for the "guilt-free" option when it comes to dessert- I would rather just have a smaller portion of the full-on decadent version than the watered down, fat or sugar free impostor.  This philosophy is pretty much mandatory when it comes to ice cream.  Unless of course you can find a healthy of guilt-free option that tastes so good it makes you forget that you are missing out on things like full fat heavy whipping cream, but I don't know many ice creams like that...

Enter this recipe for Blackberry Fig Coconut vegan ice cream- another fabulous pinterest find!  Using coconut milk and honey in the place of a traditional custard ice cream base.  The resulting ice cream isn't as rich in its texture as regular ice cream- I would equate it more like a creamy sorbet.  But what it lacks in custard texture it more than makes up for in flavor with a tartness from the blackberry and sweetness from the coconut.  The fig rounds out the coconut flavor from making the whole thing taste too tropical (blackberry pina colada anyone?).  It could quite possibly be the perfect summer to fall transitional ice cream if there ever was such a category?  If you don't already have an ice cream maker, I highly recommend this one.

{vegan & gluten-free dinner party menu}

 {image via} 

We have hosted an all vegan dinner party before (see that menu here), but last night we had the added challenge of making sure the meal was not only vegan, but also gluten-free.  One of the things I love most about having people over for dinner is brainstorming a menu beforehand with Chris.  Usually our go to for a vegan meal is a pasta based dish, but we weren't so sure about using gluten free pasta so we had to find something else to base the meal around.  After searching through some of our favorite food blogs this is the menu we ended up with (click the items below for the recipe):

Appetizers:

Twice Baked Red Potatoes with 

Soyrizo & Hummus (brought by Heather)

Lentil & Mushroom Lettuce Cups (brought by Caley)

Cocktail:

Ward 8 

Main:

Arugula Salad with Red Quinoa, Candied Walnuts & Red Onion with a balsamic Vinaigrette

Pan Fried Brussel Sprouts with Shallots

Pumpkin Thyme Polenta with a mint pea puree & roasted mushrooms (side of sausage optional)

Dessert:

Raw Cashew Vanilla Cheesecake (brought by Caley)

Everything turned out amazing, but by far my favorite part was the Raw Vegan Cashew Vanilla Cheesecake!  If that was the only dessert I could ever have then I would be happy.  

{vegan dinner party}

Last night we had some friends over for dinner, one of which is vegan.  Chris was super excited for the challenge of coming up with a menu that was completely vegan.  I made white bean bruschetta over toasted crostini for the appetizer, which is one of my go to appetizers since you can make it almost entirely the night before except for the toasting of the crostini.  The main part of our meal was toasted walnut pesto rotini (recipe here) which we modified a little by using Trader Joe's soy mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes.  We found this recipe by using foodblogsearch.com.  I highly recommend using this search site if you have a certain type of dish you are looking for like "vegan pesto."  We almost always find a great recipe within the first three or four results.