Betty White Party with lots of food

Betty White has done a lot for animals in her lifetime and she has also delivered a great amount of laughs. When a campaign to see her host Saturday Night Live appeared on facebook, I joined right away. And when she was finally announced to host SNL, I organized a party right away. When I throw a party, what food I will serve becomes my first planning task. I have a few friends that eat gluten free, so I did know I wanted a least most of it to be safe for everyone to eat.

I decided on a host of dips and stuffed stuff. This included my popular Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Spread, White Bean Artichoke Heart Dip and Tofutti Sour Cream with a Frontier Organics French Onion Soup dry mix.

I also served zucchini stuffed with a garbanzo tahini mash and small red potatoes stuffed with tofu celery salad. I served multiple veggies as well including cherry tomatoes I had hoped to stuff with guacamole but that became too much work, so I offered them for snacking instead.

For dessert I offered strawberries, a vegan whipped cream, sweet mini biscuits and cheesecake bites with an almond meal crust (gluten free).

Vegan Cheesecake Bites

Filling:
1 – 8 oz container Tofutti Cream Cheese
½ cup blended Silken Tofu
1/3 cup Organic Unrefined Cane Sugar
2 Tb Cornstarch
1 tsp Vanilla

Crust:
1 ½ cups Almond Meal
1 Tb Cornstarch
2 Tb Margarine, melted
1-2 Tb Almond Milk

Filling: Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Crust: Combine the almond meal and cornstarch. Using a fork, blend in the margarine. Add the almond milk until the meal starts to hold together when pressed.

Place about a tablespoon of the crust in a greased mini cupcake holder and press down. Filling the cupcake holder until about full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Luckily SNL with Betty White was hilarious and wondrous and the food was enjoyed between the laughs.

Blueberry Muffins

Flaxseed Meal is one of the most versatile egg replacers of them all.  I can't think of anything it doesn't work for, plus you get the added nutrition.  For every one egg, combine 1 Tb Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tb Water.  If a recipe contains 3 or less eggs, it usually works to use an egg replacer.  

I recently taught a baking class and developed this muffin recipe using flax instead of eggs.  the results were very tasty.  Blueberries are my favorite muffin fruit, but strawberry is close behind.  A co-worker recently told me she had never heard of a strawberry muffin before and that just boggled me mind!  So next time I make these it will be with strawberries, which is now in season.

Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar

2/3 cup Soy Milk

2 Tb Flaxseed Meal + 6 Tb Water

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Unbleached White Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Fresh Blueberries

Combine the flax and water and let sit a couple minutes.  Mix together the sugar, soy milk, oil, vanilla and flax blend.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Fold in the blueberries, careful not to over mix.  Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.

*This recipe contains an egg replacer for 2 eggs.  Instead of the flaxseed meal, you could also use 1/2 cup of applesauce, non-dairy yogurt, tofu sour cream, mashed banana or blended silken tofu.  Egg replacers usually make up about 1/4 cup quantity to equal 1 egg.