Leisure time around the oven

I've been on a mini vacation the last several days and had more time to tinker with foods and recipes, which, now I see, explains why every time I'm off work I gain weight.

That aside, it was a delicious extended weekend! I made goodies galore! Here are some of the highlights:

For breakfast, I made a rice wrap banana "burrito." I cut up a banana diagonally, filled it with my favorite things -- chocolate, coconut, honey -- wrapped it in a rice wrap and sauteed in a pan for a couple of minutes on each side. I covered it with more choco-coco and gobbled it up! Pretty good and gooey.

French (whole wheat) couscous with Cajun hot sauce and sauteed veggies (tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, spinach) on top, alongside some muffaletta olive salad, was next on the daily menu.

The couscous is highly recommended!!

And I made an attempt at home-made turtles, but the caramel sauce didn't hold together well. I veganized a recipe that sounded and looked so finger-licking good, but alas!...

Here they are (they were still very much edible!):

I used peanuts

Here's the caramel recipe, if anyone would like to give a try - and if it doesn't separate, please let me know what you did and how many virgins I have to sacrifice to the volcano gods! (just kidding; everyone knows they're only demi-gods):



-2 Tbsp (vegan) butter
-1/2 C packed brown sugar
-1/4 C (vegan) half and half
-pinc of salt
-1 Tbsp vanilla


Mix the first 4 ingredients over medium low heat, 5 to 7 minutes until thicker. Add vanilla and cook another minute. Refrigerate in a jar until cold.

If you make it work as a vegan recipe, I'd be very interested in hearing about it.