Vegan Dinner: Spring Salad, Mini Pizzas & Dirt Cups

This week's vegan dinner was a bit on the low-key side. My weekend work trip was more exhausting than I prepared myself for, and the only true craving I've had this week (due to stress) is for DIRT CUPS. I can't tell you the last time I had one...but this week I wanted one. And I wanted one bad.

Luckily, my friends are pretty laid back and let me run with it. Of course, I couldn't do it the simple way though. I made the chocolate pudding. From scratch. And I made the whipped cream. And...

IT'S COMPLETELY VEGAN.

For the main course, we made a lovely salad of spinach, walnuts, pears, and dried cranberries along with individual cheese-less pizzas. I made this pizza dough, from My Baking Addicition, the night before for us to use; it was so easy (no knead!) and delicious.



To add some extra protein and fiber to my dinner, I used mashed pinto beans instead of tomato sauce on my pizza. It was different, but satisfying. I think adding some additional spices to the pinto beans would've helped to kick up the flavor some.

Now what I really care about: dessert.

Dirt cups 

= 

chocolate pudding 

+ 

whipped cream 

+ 

Oreos

The hardest part was making the pudding, which, honestly, wasn't difficult at all. It required combining about 5 ingredients and a lot of stirring. The whipped "cream" we used was actually whipped coconut cream. I had never heard of this method, probably because I typically don't enjoy coconut, but the end result was remarkably similar to cool whip with only a very subtle coconut essence.

The final step of creating the dirt cups was no real science. I used about half of the pudding and folded it into one can's worth of whipped cream, plus about 6 crushed Oreos (with more for topping). It was so light and creamy, not too sweet, and just what I wanted.

Me 

+

Dirt Cup

=

Happy Fat Kid :)

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

Adapted from SheKnows Miso Vegan

Servings: 6-8

3 cups unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot (I used arrowroot because its what I hand on hand)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

1/3 semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• In a sauce pan, whisk together 1 cup almond milk and arrowroot. Once well combined, whisk in the remaining milk, plus the sugar, cocoa, and salt.

• Turn burner up to medium high heat. Whisk constantly until mixture starts to thicken and just start to bubble. Turn to low and let simmer; add in chocolate chips and stir until melted. 

• Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour pudding into either one large bowl or individual servings and cover with plastic wrap to prevent pudding from forming a film. Cool on counter for about half an hour and then move into the fridge for a few hours.