I've had good luck with this recipe.... Deep Chocolate Vegan Cake 1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn oil works well) 1 cup cold water or chilled brewed coffee 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 2 tablespoons cider vinegar Chocolate raspberry glaze (recipe follows) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously oil an 8-inch square or round baking pan and dust with a little sifted cocoa, or line the bottom with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar. In another bowl, combine the oil, water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until well- blended and smooth. Add the vinegar and stir briefly. The baking soda will begin to react with the vinegar right away, leaving pale swirls in the batter. Quickly pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Transfer to a plate when cool and glaze. Chocolate Raspberry Glaze: In a double boiler or small, heavy saucepan over a medium flame, melt 1/3 cup raspberry jam with 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and mix thoroughly. In another small saucepan mix 6 1/4 cups jam with 1 tablespoon water and warm over a low flame until the spread liquefies. Brush the water-fruit mixture over the top of cooled cake. Spread the chocolate mixture on top of that. Allow the glaze to cool before cutting the cake. Serves 8. Moosewood Restaurant New Classics

Okay, I'm beginning to organize my thoughts. I've been working on this reply for three days now, but keep having to leave. This is what I've gleaned as categories for a care package: 1. A family sized bottle of B12 supplements. :) Thanks, Grainlady! For the info as well as the recipes. I will also do one of your chia ones for them for the Omega-3. 2. Seeds and nuts that they can throw into any dish they put together, or just snack on. A friend recommended hemp hearts, but also chia and flaxseed, some pre-cut nuts, etc. 3. Some kind of grab and go bars/logs/balls. I'm still checking recipes for these. I've found a couple of good ones that have cocoa but aren't overly sugary. A lot of the bars are no-bakes that require dates to make them stick together, and that's too sugary for this purpose. It's fine for an energy bar, but the girls get plenty of carbs. If the only nuts I use are a nut-butter for stickiness it wouldn't be too bad, I think, though I was trying to expand them from over-reliance on nuts. 4. Easy prep/grab foods like lentil pasta (high protein), packaged tempeh or tempeh sausage, saitan burgers, organic soy protein, etc. 5. Easy to prep/grab vegetables like TJ's Cruciferous Crunch and Power to the Greens, which look like salad but are more nutritious than lettuce. Also, green beans and/or sugar snap peas, which can be eaten raw or cooked, little tomatoes, which can be eaten like candy, and anything pre-prepped. 6. Something home cooked, such as bean and lentil loaf muffins or vegan chili and beans. Islay Corbel: Your cheese and nut ball sounds good. I'll see if I can find a vegan soft cheese. I haven't seen any artisanal vegan cheeses like on your link, but I may not have looked closely enough, since, when I do look, I'm usually looking for one with a kosher hecksher. One of the girls is Middle Eastern, so I'm not going to bother with a hummus. There are also a plethora of made up ones available at the stores close to them--because hummus is such a good food for vegans and there are many among the young. I just wish they'd mind their nutrition better. Cornflakes and cupcakes is not a nutritious diet! Your links are very promising, and I'm still going through them. DCarch, good idea about the Chinese store. The textured soy proteins are also available in more mainstream stores, here. Localeater, Thanks for the recipe. I've only eaten Muhammara a couple of times and didn't really know what was in it. I don't think they'd bother making it. I wonder if I could substitute seeds or beans for a portion of the nuts? Bean salads are a great idea, too. Very grab and snack. Sleevendog, I keep coming back to your patties. Any recipe or guidelines? I make beef meatballs with a lot of veggies in them (more than half). Maybe I should do the same kind of thing with tempeh or something in place of the meat, and egg replacer for the sticky? Would it be sticky enough? I also have chia and flaxseeds. I just don't have enough experience and understanding of which to use when. What makes a meatless ball stick together in lieu of eggs? To make: Kale Chips and Texas Caviar (though the former don't have enough oomph to carry the latter). I can definitely make the Texas Caviar from fresh/dried, rather than canned. I've never seen a can of Rotel tomatoes, so I looked it up. Mine might not taste exactly the same, but I think I can make it taste good. :) Writersblook, I don't have a dehydrator, and while my oven will do the right temperature, it holds too much moisture. I've looked at Rawmazing, thanks for the reference, and didn't see anything that jumped out at me as tempting the young away from nuts and cornflakes. Is there something there that you particularly like? Ruthanna, your salad sounds really good and different. I will definitely be making this, just in general, besides for the girls. Colleen, I appreciate all of your comments, and agree about the cheeses. Vegen rennet is derived from fungus, but milk is milk in any form. Some rabbis rule that beef rennet and cassein are chemicals that are so far from their original source that they may be considered non-meat and non-dairy for Jewish purposes, but that doesn't count for a vegan who wishes to consume no products that started with an animal. I hope to get to the store tomorrow for some ingredients, and get right onto the vegan health snack experiment.

Well, the pie turned out great. I sliced the apples very thinly since that's how I like them and got positive comments about that. The pie wasn't beautiful but it tasted delicious. Thanks again for all the ideas. I will probably play around with the all shortening pie crust for the future. I was in a bit of a hurry when I made the pie so I might have mismeasured. BTW we played poker, six of us, and only two had ever played before. We played Texas Hold 'em mostly but then I wanted to shake things up a bit and taught them five card draw and seven card stud. We had a blast! We were very girly about it, any real poker player would've been tearing his/her hair out! But we had lots of laughs and lots of fun and can't wait to do it again!

I have found tons of great recipies on "vegweb". There are some really great dessert recipies that fit in your criteria. This is one recipie I use for all our birthday parties. Just adjust the time alittle for cup cakes. Chocolate Cake 1 1/2 c flour 1/3 c cocoa powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 c sugar 1/2 c vegetable oil 1 c cold water (or ice coffee) 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 tsp vinegar Directions: Preheat oven 375. Use small brownie size pan (no greasing required). Mix all dry ingredients right in pan. Mix all wet ingredients in separate bowl EXCEPT VINEGAR (important!). Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until all dry ingredients are mixed. Add vinegar quickly and stir in--immediately put in oven and bake for 25 to 30 min. Chocolate Frosting 1 c sugar 6 tbl corn starch 4 tbl cocoa 1/2 tsp salt 2 tbl oil 1 c water 1/2 tsp vanilla Directions: Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a medium sauce pan. Whisk in the water. Heat over medium until it gets thick and starts to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes. (Make sure you don't boil too long, or it will set like taffy.) Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla. Cool and spread on cooled cake. We do lots of pasta, pizza (we do soy cheese), fruit leathers (stretch island makes these, but they can be made in dehydrators), hummus (unless allergic to sessame). good luck Here is a link that might be useful: vegan recipies