Cheesecake recipe & more! March 3rd

Someone asked me a while back if I could post my mom's cheesecake recipe. So I decided to get my own healthier ingredients (like organic, etc.) and make it myself!

Here's the recipe:

2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (I used Organic Valley's brand)

1/2 cup sugar (I used Whole Foods 365 brand of organic cane sugar)

1/2 teaspoon or so of pure vanilla extract

2 eggs (I used an organic, cage free brand of eggs from Whole Foods)

9 inch graham or vanilla crust (I used the Nilla wafer brand, not exactly healthy, but good)

Basically all you have to do is let the cream cheese sit in a bowl until it's room temperature, then mix in the sugar and vanilla extract and blend with a blender. Then add the 2 eggs and blend some more. Pour it in the pie crust and bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes. Cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or more before serving.

Here's the finished product:

And for the berry topping, all you have to do is slice some strawberries and mix it together with a teaspoon or so of sugar and let set in the refrigerator for a bit.

My mom and I also made a great vegan asian inspired dinner the other night. It was featured in USA Weekend not long ago, and you can see the recipe here.

This veggie lo mein has a bunch of veggies (mushrooms, red pepper, onion, etc.) in it, along with extra firm tofu cubes and thin spaghetti in a lo mein sauce that you make. And just as a side note, but the rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil are a bit hard to find... try Whole Foods, I found them there.

One of my simplest recipes I actually found on MorningStar Farms site, that you can see here. It's their maple sausage breakfast sandwich, and I laughed when I saw it because it literally is the EASIEST RECIPE IN THE WORLD!

Just take a MorningStar Farms maple sausage pattie (they make different kinds, but their maple one adds a nice flavor) and put it on bread of some sort (they show a biscuit, but I get the mini bagels and they work perfectly). You can jazz this up with a little cheese (regular or vegan), but it really is good on it's own, and it's SO easy to throw together!

Even though I live all the way in Astoria now, over 7 miles away, I still can't help but visit my beloved Wild Ginger. I went there the other day and got the usual (and the best part is, one waiter there literally just brings out my food when I come in-- I don't even have to ORDER anymore!!! That's what I call service! ;).

In other news, for my birthday I got a purse that I'd been dying to get for a while now from this great vegan handbag designer named Susan Nichole.

I'm ordinarily not even a FAN of red (as purple and blue are my favorite colors), but there is something about the color "candy apple" that I really like. The bag looks more red in my picture, but you can see what it looks like better on their site here. (I broke down and got this because it was on sale for President's Day, and since the holiday happens to be on top of my birthday, it was meant to be! :).

Speaking of birthdays, I know someone who is heading into their terrible two's....

That's right, Peanut's 2nd birthday is on the 13th, so I'll be posting more then! :)