Vegan Cadbury Creme Eggs & a Very Busy Kitchen

The Hugger Food kitchen has been humming along this extended weekend. When I thought ahead to what I wanted to do with my 3 1/2 days off, I knew I wanted to spend a lot of time with my friends and a lot of time in the kitchen, so that is exactly the weekend I created.

Having tons of friends requesting my infamous vegan Cadbury Creme Eggs, that was first on my to-do list. For those of you who have been leaving comments on my older Creme Eggs posts requesting the recipe, I do realize that the link no longer works, but it is not my recipe to share, so I have to respect that if the recipe's creator took down the link, it was for a reason. If you'd like to see photos of the Creme Egg-making process, you can find them in this post. I've been quietly distributing these much-desired handmade candies and making friends very happy.



I baked two batches of cookies for a potluck last night: Double Chocolate Chippers* and "Glosette Raisins" Cookies ("glosette raisins" is Canadian for Raisinets). I'm also packaging up a handful of each of these for a co-worker's birthday.





For another co-worker's birthday, I decided to make a batch of Cocoa-Goji Granola. It was shockingly the first time I'd ever made granola from scratch, but it definitely won't be the last. This recipe created perfect granola clusters and is so flavorful.



After hand-making and baking so many sweets, I had to have a salad for lunch yesterday. Dressed perfectly with a Classic Caesar Dressing, it was exactly what I was craving.

Also on the savory side, this hearty French Lentil Soup with Smoked Paprika is on the menu for my lunches this week. I can see making a point of keeping French lentils on hand specifically to make this soup on a regular basis and I'm certain omnivores would love it, too.



I usually make my week's lunches during the weekend, but I don't do the same for my week's dinners. Since I had extra time this weekend, though, I thought I would give myself a head start. Tucked away in the fridge for this week's dinners are Spinach-Herb Pistachio Pesto pasta and Tomato Artichoke Pasta (I always use Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta). That should make for stress-free and healthful weeknights.



*All italicized dishes are test recipes for Dreena Burton's upcoming cookbook.