Choco Tofu Mousse

1 lb silken tofu, extra soft
1 12oz bag of dark chocolate chips (vegan, preferably)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup almond milk

Drain the tofu and blend it until it's smooth. Pour the coconut oil and the almond milk into a pan, and let it get warm. Toss in the choco chips and stir constantly. You don't want the chocolate burning. Once everything's melted, fold it into the tofu. Pour the chocolaty goodness into ramekins or shot glasses and chill for at least ten minutes.

If you want to include a vegan whipped cream, chill coconut milk in the can overnight and scoop out the fatty part on top. Add some powdered sugar and whip until it has a dericious consistency. Top the chilled chocolate and serve immediately.

Pupusas!

What is a "papoosa," you might ask? Well, it's a fantastic cheese-stuffed tortilla. The best one I've ever had came from Gloria's El Salvadorian restaurant in Dallas. If you ever have a chance to go there, get the cheese pupusa, dip it in their refried black bean dip, and prepare to be overwhelmed with joy.

They're actually pretty easy to make at home, too, although they probably won't be as good as those from Gloria's. The recipe is simple. All you need is:

2 cups Masa (corn tortilla flour, you might have to search a bit to find it if you don't live in Texas)
1 cup Water
Salt
Garlic powder
Filling (Cheese, bell peppers, whatever.)

First, make the tortilla. Put the masa in a bowl and add some seasoning. Next, we'll add the water. A good ratio for this recipe is two parts mesa per one part water. Initially you'll want to mix it with a spoon, but by the time all of the water has been absorbed, the tortilla mix should be sticky, but not too sticky to handle, and should hold together fairly well.

Split the mixture in half and roll both halves into balls. Place them on some kind of plastic and roll them out into circular-ish flat forms (this part takes a bit of practice, so don't expect your first pupusas to be pretty.) Now, fill one side with your filling. You can go the traditional, fried cheese route and just toss in some of your favorite mozzarella. Sometimes if I'm making a pupusa that I want to be a bit healthier, I'll add some sliced bell pepper, beans, tomatoes, zucchini, anything along those lines. Make sure that the filling doesn't touch the edge of the tortilla, though! Toss some salt on that mess and cover it with the rest of the rolled out masa mix, pinching the edges to keep in all the cheesy goodness. Flatten it as best you can, but whatever you do, try to make sure that no filling pokes out of the tortilla!

Now fire up your griddle! Stoneware works bests, but a cast iron pan or even nonstick will do as well. Cover the griddle in butter or olive oil and let it heat up to about medium heat. Once it's ready, gently place your pupusa on the heat. Let it cook for about two minutes on each side, flipping until both sides of the pupusa have a delicious orangy tint. Let it cool and enjoy!

All in all, this recipe can be perfected until it takes less than ten minutes. It's fairly healthy too, depending on what you decide to fill it with. Make sure to experiment until you find your own perfect combination of pupusa!

Brownie Cheesecake (YUM)

What better way to start a "health-conscious" blog than with delicious, sugary, empty calories? Of course, whenever I think about food, one of the first flavors to come to mind is ALWAYS chocolate. So, I deigned to make something delicious, cheap, and moderately impressive, depending on how much time you decide to spend on the decorations. You will need:

1 box of your favorite brownie mix, already mixed up (or homemade brownies, whatever)
2 packages of neufchatel cheese or cream cheese
1/2 cup of fine sugar
2 eggs (not including the eggs you used in the brownies. Keep up, kids.)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon

First, you make the brownie base. Grease a 9" circular pan (I used glass, but whatever you prefer for your brownies works too) and set it aside. Then, preheat your oven to whatever your brownie box says. You didn't throw it away, did you? Anyway, I used Duncan Hines "fudgy" brownies, so I preheated my oven to 350 degrees F. And now comes one of the best parts: pour about 1/2 of the brownie mix into the pan, until about 1/3 of the pan is filled. EAT THE REST OF THE BROWNIE MIX. Nom nom nom. Cook the brownies for about fifteen minutes.

While they cook, beat together everything else. The order really doesn't matter. And don't do it by hand, you'll just hurt yourself. After the brownies are done cooking, let them cool for about five to ten minutes, and then pour it on top of the cooked brownie. There shouldn't be any cream cheese/neufchatel left over, but DON'T overfill the pan. It's better to save it and cook it later, or eat it raw or something.

Anyway, let all of that cook for about thirty to forty five minutes. It'll puff up, but don't worry, it'll look like cheesecake again soon. Relax!

After it's done and out of the oven, strategically toss some chocolate chips onto the baked cheesecake. In about a minute, they'll be soft, and you can swirl them around. Mine looked pretty bamf, as you can see. This is where the impressive factor comes in. Be impressive!

So, let it chill, cut it apart, take a bow. I'm going to stick it in the fridge for about thirty minutes because I'm the impatient type, but really it should chill for two hours. So, altogether, it takes about 10 minutes of actual cooking and 3 hours of waiting around. Enjoy!