Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I should be packing right now.  There is way too much stuff lying around considering that I'm leaving the country in 2 days.  But this recipe needs to be shared.  I made these cookies because: 1. I made the cookie brownies but wasn't completely satisfied with how they came out (even though they got rave reviews from my friends), 2. I needed to use up my oatmeal, 3. I wanted to make sure that I had enough baked stuff for everyone and the cookie brownies only made 1 small pan worth, and 4. I've been on a peanut butter kick.  SO I made these oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  They were delicious. You should make them.

I'm sorry, I'm going to be lame again and not re-post the recipe due to time constraints, but go get the recipe here and check out Evil Shenanigans- there's some pretty wonderful stuff on there.

Enjoy!

Cookie Brownies

This past weekend was my *last* weekend in the USA before leaving for Roatan, Honduras, so I was visiting various friends and decided to bring baked goods along with me (I have to give them a reason to miss me when I'm gone, right?).  I had been wanting to make these chocolate chip cookie brownies for a while because they just looked so darn good, so I finally gave in and made them.

A warning about this dessert: It is not healthy.  I can't even pretend it's kinda, sorta, maybe a little bit healthy.  As much as I love to sit up on my soapbox and talk about how desserts can be delicious without a ton of butter, and all of my other healthy vegan-ish propaganda, I have to say that these were really good.  And really unhealthy.  So make these to share with friends.  Everything in moderation, right?

Before....

After!

I actually had some technical difficulties when making this recipe because even though I used an 8x8 pan like they said, the brownies were super thick and took way longer to cook than they should have.  When I took them out the outside was just a tad drier than I would have liked, while the middle was undercooked.  Luckily I'm totally OK with eating batter, so mostly-cooked brownies were just fine.  BUT next time I think I might try to use a slightly bigger pan so that they're a little thinner and will cook easier.

Normally I would re-post the recipe here to make it easier for you guys, but I'm kinda in a rush.  There are 3 rooms full of clothes, boxes, and other stuff that all needs to be put away before I leave the country.  So if  you missed it before, here is the recipe again.  Plus this way you get to see more delectable pictures of cookie brownies.  Win-win.  Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

The combination of peanut butter and chocolate is magical.  These peanut butter kiss cookies, while not the healthiest, are pretty easy to make and super delicious.  There are lots of recipes for these cookies, which are peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss on top, so it can be tough to decide which recipe is best.  In my opinion the cookie recipe itself can vary some and still be good, but it's a few little extra tricks which make the cookie go from good to great.

Every time I make these cookies I end up using a different recipe but so far they've always turned out delicious.  This time around I used another basic recipe, which I found here and just tweaked a little bit, and it worked quite well.  There are two small details, however, which most recipes don't include, which make this cookie great.

First, after rolling the dough into balls, roll them in granulated sugar before putting them on the baking tray.  It adds a little extra sweetness and a light crunchiness which is really delightful on a soft cookie.

Second, the timing of the Hershey Kiss is really important.  Bake the cookies on their own until they are just beginning to look cracked on top, which is about 1-2 minutes before they are done baking.  Take them out of the oven and gently press a Kiss into the center of each cookie, then return them to the oven for just another 1 or 1 1/2 minutes.  When you take them out the Kiss should be glistening but not yet to the point of melting and losing its shape.  This may not seem important, but after the cookies cool the Kiss will still be a little softer and thus easier to bite into.  Some people just add the Kiss at the very end, but then you end up having to eat the Kiss part all in one bite because it's too hard to split, and then that bite of cookie is overpowered by chocolate.  My way, you can take nibbles of the Kiss along with the cookie to get a nicely proportioned bite.  Also, I like the way the textures of the cookie and Kiss play off of each other more when the Kiss is pre-melted.

Okay, cookie-technique ranting done.  I'll get to the recipe now.

Soo I may have forgotten to take pictures until the cookies were mostly gone.  Whoops.

Ingredients:

1/2 c. butter (Or some substitute, if you have a guilty conscience)
1/2 c. peanut butter (I've used creamy and chunky- both work well, it just depends what consistency you want in your cookie)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

Extra sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix together the butter, peanut butter, and both sugars. (Note: If you can, give the butter some time to soften.  Your life will be much better than if you didn't plan ahead at all and use butter straight out of the freezer and then try to quickly warm it up without melting it and then end up attempting to mix in butter that's half melted and half frozen.  Not that I did that or anything.  But fair warning.)
3. Add in the egg and vanilla.
4. In a separate container, mix the flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add this to the other bowl and mix thoroughly.
5. Put some sugar (maybe 1/4 cup or so) into a small bowl.  Roll the dough into small balls, then coat the balls in sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Gently press down on the cookies with the palm of your hand to flatten them just a tiny bit.  Note: If the dough is too soft/sticky to roll out, put it in the fridge for a little while until it's easier to manage.
6. Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until the top is just beginning to crack.  Remove the cookies from the oven and quickly place a Kiss in the middle of each one, pressing it lightly into the cookie.  BTW, while the cookies are baking, unwrap the Kisses.  That way you can put the Kisses on the cookies quickly and get them back in the oven.
7. Bake for an additional minute, until the Kiss is glossy but not melted (see my rant above).  The cookie might not look completely done in the middle, but it is.  Let the cookies sit on the tray for a few minutes before removing them to cool, so that they have time to firm up a little.

Yum! These cookies are always a hit.  Try not to eat them all right as they come out of the oven so that you have some left to share with friends. 

Quinoa Burgers

As promised, here's the first recipe from the mini dinner party: Quinoa Burgers!  We served them with Tsatziki sauce, but I have a feeling that they would be good with lots of different flavors- maybe a curry sauce?
I found the original recipe here and more or less followed the directions, although of course with just a few modifications.  The only real trouble I had was that a couple of the burgers fell apart while I was cooking them, but I think I might have been making them too thin or something.  A little extra flour fixed the problem.  Also, if you've never tried quinoa, do not be afraid!  It's one of those great superfoods that packs lots of protein, and has just a slightly nutty flavor.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked quinoa*

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 medium carrot, finely grated

3 eggs

2 or more tablespoons all purpose flour (start with 2, if it's still too crumbly add in more flour as necessary)

2 green onions, including white parts

1 /2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

Olive oil for frying

*To cook quinoa: Boil 2 cups of salted water, then add quinoa and cover.  Cook on low for about 20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed (like rice).  When cooked, the quinoa should be tender, almost clear, and you should be able to see the germ- the little white spirally thing.  Let it cool for a little bit before adding it to the burger mixture.

Directions:

1. Combine everything (except for the oil) in a bowl and mix it all together.  If it's not sticking together at all, add a little more flour.
2. Heat some oil in a pan over a medium heat.  Form the mixture into patties (about 1/2 inch thick would probably be good, I think mine were a little too thin and consequently fell apart a little) and then fry until golden brown on both sides- about 4 minutes on each side.
3. Yay! You're done.  Serve with some tsatziki sauce, or ketchup, or curry sauce, or whatever floats your boat.

Falafel with Tsatziki Sauce

After the dinner party the other night, where we made a modified Tsatziki sauce for Quinoa burgers (and yes, I know I still have to put up the recipe for that), I had some leftover ingredients and decided to make falafel with a slightly more complete Tsatziki than I had made the other night.  I made it super garlicky, like the kind of garlic thing that leaves your mouth burning for an hour after you're done eating, but it was oh-so-good.  As for the actual falafel, this was a modified, lazy version of falafel which was still quite tasty but not the super-authentic-straight-from-the-Middle-East kind of falafel.  So if you want real falafel, don't make this.  If you want a fast, falafel-ish meal, this is the place to look.  In case you're wondering, I browsed this site as well as this recipe from vegweb to get ideas for how to go about making the falafel and sauce.

By the way, if possible, make the Tsatziki sauce first so that the flavors have some time to meld together.

Tsatziki Ingredients:

1 small container (or about 6 oz) of plain Greek yogurt. You could use normal yogurt too, but the Greek yogurt is thicker and works better as a base for the sauce.
3 Tbs non-fat sour cream 
1/2 a cucumber, peeled and seeded, and cut into small chunks or grated.
1-4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped or put through a garlic press), depending on your love of garlic (taste and decide!)
2 Tbs finely chopped dill
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil (or more if you want)
Salt and pepper to taste 

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.  Ideally let it sit for a little while to let the flavors blend together (but keep refrigerated).  Serve cold.


Falafel Ingredients:
1 smallish onion, chopped
1 (15 oz) can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and roughly mashed
1 1/2 Tbs parsley (more if it's fresh)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
2 Tbs flour, or more if needed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp coriander
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for frying

Note: I didn't have my ground flaxseeds at the time, but if I did I probably would have added some in to make the mixture more cohesive.  Some recipes called for egg, which I didn't add, so I think the flax would have worked out nicely.

Falafel Directions:
1.  Saute the onion in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, just enough so that they begin to soften and turn translucent.
2.  While the onion is cooking, throw the chickpeas in a bowl and roughly mash them- some chickpea lumps are ok!
3.  Throw in all the other ingredients (including the onions, once they're done) and mix together thoroughly.  Once it's all mixed, taste it to see if it needs anything else.  If it's not sticking together at all, add in a bit more flour.
4.  Put some olive oil in a pan (I'm lazy and used the same pan from the onions- it's one less dish to wash) and heat it on medium.   Form the mixture into small patties, and then fry in the pan until browned on both sides.  I left mine on the lighter side, but some people like theirs darker.  Either way is delicious.

Serve this falafel in a pita with some lettuce, tomato, and onion, and top with the tsatziki sauce.  Yum!

Cooking Confessions from my 2nd Dinner Party

I'm totally becoming an expert mini-dinner-party-thrower/cooker-person.  A few days ago I cooked dinner for my sister and two friends, but of course with a lot of help, and this time there was only a normal amount of excess food instead of a gigantic amount of excess.  I'm learning!

The menu included:
Appetizer: French bread toasted with olive oil and garlic, then topped with an artichoke tapenade (thanks Trader Joe's) and a mix of Parmesan and cheddar cheese.
Main course: Quinoa burgers topped with a simplified Tzatziki sauce.
Side Dish: Risotto with vegetables and Parmesan
Dessert: Chocolate chip cheesecake

Before I actually post the recipes and whatnot, though, I feel a need to confess some things.  Secrets like this will just weigh me down and eat at me from the inside, like how the priest guy in The Scarlet Letter has issues because his guilt about the whole adultery thing gives him actual physical health problems.  And then he finally cracks and shows the whole town how there's some horrible mark on his chest or something too, so it's like he had the same burden that Hester did except that he kept his hidden longer than her so it ate away at him. I think.  It's been a while since I read that book.  It's actually quite an unnecessary analogy anyway.  I just get carried away sometimes.  Sorry.  I digress.

My first confession, which is barely a confession considering that I wrote it out earlier in this posting, is that the appetizer was super easy because it wasn't made completely from scratch.  I used Trader Joe's Artichoke Antipasto, even though I could have easily chopped up some artichoke hearts and mixed them with some stuff.  For a girl who's stubborn enough to make multiple batches of garlic knots instead of giving in and buying pre-made dough, using this jarred artichoke stuff is slightly shameful.  I felt a little redeemed by the rest of the meal, though. So just in case you were wondering if I managed to validate myself or not by the time the meal was over, rest easy- I did.

My next confession is that I forgot to bring multiple ingredients to the kitchen where I was cooking, which resulted in some changes and substitutions being made to certain recipes.  The Tsatziki sauce especially suffered because I forgot cucumber, amongst other things (also because I put about 4 cloves of raw garlic in about 7 oz of the sauce, so it was quite garlicky to say the least).  Lesson learned- double check you have all the ingredients you need, or at least a suitable substitution for ingredients you need.  I even had a list and I still missed stuff.  Also, taste something before adding in massive amounts of garlic.  Not everyone likes being walking vampire repellent.

My final confession is that I did not thoroughly do my homework when I planned dessert.  I had been eyeing up a recipe for a polka dot cheesecake for the longest time, only to realize (when I was about to start making it) that it had to chill for at least 24 hours.  Luckily my sister came up with another, faster cheesecake that was delicious.  However, that served as a solid reminder that I should actually read all of the directions for something I am planning to make, instead of just drooling over pictures and glancing at the ingredients.

I will have recipes up soon for everything that was made for dinner.  Please don't let this post scare you with my apparent incompetence in the kitchen- some of the best things today have been created by mistake!  Chocolate chip cookies were an accident! Look it up if you don't believe me.  But could you imagine a world without chocolate chip cookies? 

Dinner Party 101

It's  been quite a while since I've posted.  I'm sorry for neglecting you, blog.  School ended but then I was surprisingly busy seeing friends and whatnot, and then moving out of my college house and back to my hometown.  Anyway, that's still no excuse. I was still cooking, just not as much.  And I forgot to take pictures of stuff.  But I digress.

I did a small dinner party with my sister yesterday, and due to a questionable series of events I ended up being basically in charge of all the food.  This meant that I planned the menu and cooked it all, but with a lot of help from a few other people in the kitchen (although, on a side note, I never realized how difficult it is to assign jobs to other people while cooking- I had to have all the recipes in my head at once and think about what the prep and next step was for each one at the same time.  More confusing than it seems.  Or maybe just for me.  Either way, the end result was that I frequently ended up standing in the middle of the kitchen with a blank expression on my face, trying to remember what was in the oven or how long onions had been cooking.)  I obviously cooked all vegetarian, but since a lot of the people in attendance were omnivores I tried to make sure that I didn't make anything which was too crazy-hippie-vegan which would scare them away.

After some musings about what to make (heh, pun totally intended as a joke between me and my blog name.... I'm really cool like that) the menu I ended up with was:

My caramelized pears and onions on lentil cakes with vinaigrette salad as an appetizer, slightly tweaked to use the ingredients on hand at my sister's house- it was a balsamic vinaigrette instead of raspberry, and there were walnuts instead of pecans.

The main course was broccoli stuffed shells, loosely based off of this recipe but also just kind of thrown together, but with homemade sauce (which I just learned how to make.... I always thought it was super difficult to make homemade sauce so I always used the stuff from the jar, but it was so easy and so delicious!  Once I attempt it without supervision I'll have to post it here.).

For side dishes we had roasted vegetables (cauliflower, green beans, and carrots) and garlic knots.  However, as usual when I cook with yeast, I had some technical difficulties.  The first batch of dough (so yes, this means I had to make another batch later) I made did not rise at all.  I'm sad to say that I used my recipe for garlic knots, and it just didn't work, unless you like very condensed and chewy knots. I'm convinced the yeast were on strike.  Instead of going out and buying dough at this point, though, I made another batch.  I'm stubborn like that.  I used Joy the Baker's recipe for whole wheat garlic knots, although I just used her directions for the dough and didn't make my knots the way she did.  Thankfully this time the yeast did their bubbling-and-rising thing and didn't make me look like a garlicky failure.  The knots actually rose a ton and were way larger than I usually make them. (sorry, I forgot to take pictures. I was frazzled.)  My problem with these is that they were too bready and not as dense as I like garlic knots, so I guess my search for the perfect garlic knot continues.  One day I'll just have to make a bunch of batches with different amounts of stuff until I get a good balance.  One day.

Finally, dessert was chocolate peanut butter brownies from Evil Shenanigans with homemade chocolate peanut butter sauce (peanut butter, melted chocolate, corn syrup, and milk) with vanilla ice cream.  The brownies were dense and a little sticky, but worked perfectly in a brownie sundae.

I had never done any cooking (at least where I was in charge) for more than about 3 people, and the end result was that I made enough food for about double the amount that I needed.  But I guess it's better to have too much than too little, right?  And leftovers are awesome.  Anyway, end of the story is dinner party success.  Next time maybe I'll even remember to take pictures.

Caramelized Onions and Pear on Lentil Cakes with a Raspberry Vinagrette Salad

I've been doing a lot of baking lately.  This past Friday was graduation, and afterwards some of my housemates and I had our families back to our house for dessert.  Which means that they day before we made lots of desserts, and have been eating the leftovers ever since.  Because of all this, I thought it would be good to explore something a little healthier and give baking a rest for a little while.  I also want to take advantage of cooking while I can, since in just over 2 months I'm leaving for Honduras... Don't think I'll have quite the same food resources that I do in New Jersey.

I kind of threw this recipe together as I was making it and kept adding stuff to it until I had a complete dish.  I started out just wanting caramelized onions.  Then I had a pear to use up, and thought it would go well with the onions.  But then I needed something to eat with the onions and pear, so I made a lentil pancake.  Then I wanted a little more of a kick, so I added a light salad with pecans and a raspberry vinaigrette to spice things up a little.  I would have liked to continue the madness by adding some crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, but I didn't have any.  So no cheese for me.  But I have higher hopes for you.

Ingredients:

 The Caramelized Stuff:
1 large sweet onion
1 pear (Bartlett)
2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 Tbs Smart Balance
1 tsp brown sugar
Salt

The Lentil Pancake:
1 small potato (I used a red potato), cooked and mashed
About 1 1/4 cups (cooked) yellow lentils
1 Tbs ground flax seeds
About 2 Tbs plain soymilk
Salt
Garlic Powder
4 Tbs flour
Olive Oil

The Salad/Dressing:
Green leafy stuff of your choice (all I had was Romaine, but fancier lettuce and/or spinach would be wonderful)
A handful of pecans

3 Tbs Raspberry vinegar
1 1/2 Tbs Olive Oil
Reserved liquid from the caramelized onions/pears
Salt
Garlic Powder

Directions:

1. Start cooking the lentils.  You want them to be a little mushy, so add a little more than 1 1/2 times the amount of cooking water as you have lentils.
2. Cut the onion into rings or strips, whatever your prefer.  Melt the oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then throw in the onion and a pinch of salt, and stir it around.
3. Let the onion cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add in the brown sugar and let cook for another 5 minutes.  Once this is done the onions should be starting to brown and getting soft.
4. Slice the pear into thick strips and throw it in with the onion.  Cover and let it cook for another 10 or so minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. While the onions are caramelizing, cook and mash the potato (I like to just stab mine with a fork and throw it in the microwave for a few minutes).  Add the soymilk and flax to the mashed potato.  Add in the (hopefully now done and cooked) lentils and the salt and garlic powder (and any other spices you might want to make it more interesting).
6. Add in the flour a little bit at a time until the mixture creates a mushy dough.  It doesn't have to be extremely dough-like, but just enough to loosely hold together.
7. Once the onions and pears are sufficiently soft/cooked/caramelized/delicious, dump them out of the pan and into a bowl.  If you're like me and want to wash as few things as possible, take a paper towel and quickly wipe the pan.  It doesn't have to be perfectly clean.
8. Add a little olive oil to the pan (just enough to coat the bottom) and let it heat up on a medium heat.
9. Form mini-pancakes with the batter and put them in the pan like you're making pancakes.  Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until lightly browned.  The inside will still seem "uncooked", but that's okay. All the ingredients were pre-cooked, remember?
10. Make up the vinaigrette- combine the raspberry vinegar, olive oil, liquid from the caramelized stuff (from the bottom of the bowl where the onions and pears are hanging out), a little garlic powder, and salt.  Thoroughly mix together.
11. To serve, place a lentil cake on the plate.  Top with some of the caramelized onions and pear.  On the side/ on top, put your lettuce of choice and some roughly chopped pecans.  Drizzle with the dressing.  Also, if you have Gorgonzola cheese or something, put some of that on top too.  Ideally all of these things should be eaten together (to get the "perfect bite", if you will).

 
 Since I just made this up (well, maybe very vaguely based on the idea of the delicious pizza from California Pizza Kitchen) it's definitely open to being tweaked, but I think it's a good start.  It makes a fancy appetizer or a light meal.  Try it!

Almond Scones

I always forget how much I like scones.  At the same time, they always feel like a bit of a guilty pleasure because they pretend to be a nice breakfast-y snack but are actually just as unhealthy as normal baked goods, made with lots of butter and traditionally eaten with clotted cream.  My previous attempt at a healthier scone alternative went pretty well, with the Vanilla bean scones, but I wanted to try another scone recipe to see if I could use less butter and still maintain the quintessential scone-y-ness.

My main issue with scones is that they always require a bunch of butter to be cut into flour to get the right consistency, so I can't just replace butter with some oil or applesauce or something.  I eventually decided that almond paste might be the right consistency to substitute for some butter, and started searching for a recipe.  Nothing that I found fit what I wanted, so instead I used about 4 different recipes as a jumping-off point and made up my own recipe.  I was a little worried how the scones would turn out, but I was quite pleasantly surprised- they had a lightly crunchy outside and a dense, moist inside, with a delicate almond flavor.
 These were good on their own, but like most scones, would also be wonderfully complimented by some kind of fruity jam, or nut butter, or (dare I say it?) clotted cream if you want to be all fancy.

Ingredients:

·         1 ½ cup flour

                ·         ½ cup whole wheat flour 

                ·         scant ¼ cup sugar

·         1 ¼  tsp baking powder

·         ¼ tsp baking soda

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         ½ cup almond paste

·         2 Tbs Smart Balance, or other butter substitute

·         ½ c unflavored soymilk mixed with about 1 ½ tsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, but white vinegar works too)

·         1 tsp vanilla

·         ½ tsp almond extract

·         1 tbs ground flax seeds mixed with about 2 ½ tbs water

·         1/3 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips, depending on your ideal chocolate-to-scone ratio

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix the flax seeds with the water in a small bowl and set aside.  Mix the soymilk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside.
3. Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
4. Crumble/ slice the almond paste and Smart Balance, and cut it into the flour mixture using 2 butter knives or a pastry cutter.  This will take a few minutes to make sure everything is thoroughly combined, and when you're done it should have an almost cornmeal-ish consistency.
5. In a separate container, mix together the soymilk mixture with the vanilla, almond, and flax mixture.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. The batter should be fairly thick and clump together.
7. Add in the chocolate chips
8. Spray a baking pan with oil.  Dump the mixture onto the pan and spread into a rectangle. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise, then divide each smaller rectangle into 3 squares (or 4, or 2, depending on how big you want your scones).  Cut each square in half, diagonally, so that you have triangles.  Separate the triangles and spread them out on the pan (You don't need to leave a ton of space between them because they'll rise but they won't expand too much.  Mine were pretty cramped together and they never invaded each others personal space.  What respectful scones I made.)  Alternatively, I’m sure you could just blob it on a pan like cookies and be fine.  You could even shape your blobs like triangles and pretend you cut them. I won't tell anyone.
9. Cook at 375 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.
   
   

   

   See? Crowded but not cramped.

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   You should really try making these. The delicate almond flavor is quite delightful without being too overpowering to mingle well with other flavors, like jam or whatever. And as scones go, these are pretty darn healthy AND delicious. My favorite combination.  
   Side note: make these *vegan* by using Earth Balance or some other vegan butter substitute, and obviously use vegan chocolate chips.  Woo hoo!

Chocolate chocolate chip cookies (vegan)

Senioritis strikes again.  I figure as long as I'm going to procrastinate on all my homework, I may as well at least end up with something delicious to show for it.  I've been wanting to make these cookies that I found from Joy the Baker but was running low on cocoa powder so I couldn't.  Until now.  These cookies are so delicious, and really don't taste like they're vegan (tested and approved by all my housemates).  So as cookies go, these are relatively guiltless.  They're decently dense, with a bit of a crunch on the outside but soft on the inside, almost reminiscent of brownies.  Basically, they're just really really good.

I followed the recipe for the cookies almost exactly, except that I did 2 cups white flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour.  Also, I didn't use sunflower seeds and just did chocolate chips and mint chips.  The deep chocolate and mint flavor was quite good.  Oh, and I also coated them in turbinado sugar instead of normal white sugar.  It added a nice crunch.  But I'm sure that following the original recipe would work too.

One note: make sure to squash the cookie dough balls down so that they're flatter.  Trust me, they won't do it on their own.
But yeah, go make these.  They're pretty easy to throw together and gave me great results.  Now excuse me, I have to get back to procrastinating. 

Creamy Cashew Sauce

Today was an eventful day for two reasons.  One- I made this awesome cashew sauce, which was much more successful than I anticipated.  Two- I got pooped on by a squirrel.  I've only ever been pooped on by a seagull before, this one time when I was at the beach and one got me on the leg (I knew I hated seagulls).  While it was a unique and kind of hilarious experience, it is not one I would like to repeat.  I'll spare you the dirty details, but lesson learned- when lying in a hammock admiring squirrels in the trees above, beware.  But now back to the sauce.

I had seen a few cream-sauce-esque type of recipes on Post Punk Kitchen and had been wanting to try the cashew vegetable korma for a while.  I'd even been hoarding some cashews in my pantry in the hopes of finally getting around to making the recipe one day.  Well, so far I still haven't made that korma.  I did, however, steal the idea of the sauce to try out my own version of a cashew cream sauce.  I also glanced over the Mac n' Shews at PPK to get more of an idea of the whole turning-cashews-into-sauce thing.  The idea of a creamy sauce that isn't actually cream based intrigued me, since I really try to avoid cream.  I'm sure that the cashew version is healthier, although all nuts usually have a lot of fat in them so I wouldn't suggest eating tons and tons of this all the time.

Since I was just playing around and experimenting I didn't pay as close attention to the proportion of stuff as I should have, so forgive me for being so vague with the recipe.  I have a feeling that it's highly forgiving, though, so hopefully some variations won't have any detrimental effects.  I made two slightly different sauces, both with the same base, just to get the chance to try out some different flavors.  One was a plainer creamy sauce and the other was a mild curry cream sauce.  I made some whole wheat pasta and sauteed veggies to go with it.  Also, this only makes 1-2 servings, since I didn't want to make a giant amount of food in case it turned out badly.  Feel free to double or triple the recipe.

Cream sauce ingredients:

• About 1/2 cup raw cashews
• About 1/2 cup vegetable broth
•  1 Tbs ground flax seeds (optional)
• A pinch of salt
• 1 Tbs olive oil

Additional ingredients for curry cream sauce (all are approximate, add to taste):

• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric

Directions:

1. In a small pot, cover the cashews with water and boil for about an hour (PPK says to just soak the cashews for an hour or two, or overnight, but I felt like boiling them might speed up the process or more thoroughly soften them or something.  I need instant gratification.)
2. Drain the cashews and puree them either with an immersion blender or food processor, until there aren't any lumps.  It won't be completely smooth but sort of grainy instead, but just make sure you don't have giant clumps of cashews.
3. Add the flax (only if you want to- I don't know if it changes the consistency or not, but I just added it for the health benefits), the salt, olive oil, and about 1/4 cup of the broth.  Blend together.
4. Test the consistency- it should be.... sauce-like! Keep adding the veggie broth until it's nice and creamy, and however thick or thin you like your sauce to be.
5. At this point, you have your basic cashew cream sauce and can stop adding stuff if you just want the basic sauce.  If you're indecisive like me and need two different sauces to choose from, scoop out half the sauce and put it in a different bowl.
6. To one of the bowls, add all the other ingredients listed for the curry cream sauce.  Mix together thoroughly, adding more spices as needed.

Pasta and Veggies Ingredients and Directions:

1. Boil some water and cook about 1 cup of pasta- I used whole wheat spirals.
2. In a pan, cook some vegetables in olive oil- I chopped up some onion, carrot, garlic, broccoli, and asparagus, just because it was what I had lying around.  Sprinkle on a bit of salt for flavor.
3. Once everything is cooked, toss together the veggies and pasta, then top with the sauce.  Mix it all together so that the sauce coats everything (duh) and enjoy!  

Really, this was much more delicious than I expected it to be.  The cashews gave a nice delicate, nutty flavor to the sauce, which was surprisingly creamy considering that it was cashew-based.  I also feel like there could be a ton of variations on the basic cream sauce to make it compliment lots of different dishes and flavors, and will definitely play around with that.
Update: I had a bit of leftover pesto which I combined with the leftover plain cashew sauce to create a creamy pesto sauce. And ohmygosh.  It was soo good.  Like, ridiculously good.  So yeah, try it with pesto.

Oh, and one last thing- it's vegan! Success.

Garlic Knots Revisited

The last time I made garlic knots they were delicious, but this time I made them again with slight variations on the recipe and they were even more delicious.  Hard to believe, I know, but it's true.  I made some changes to this recipe, which is the same recipe I used last time I made the knots.  I'm still not totally happy with the performance of the yeast, but I'm willing to settle.

So, my modifications:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup water at (warm) room temperature 
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup +1 tablespoon whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 4 tsp olive oil

**************************************************

• 1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs Smart Balance (or other butter substitute)
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 Tbs chopped fresh basil

Directions:

1. Combine water, sugar, and yeast.  Let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It's supposed to get foamy, and that's how you know that the yeasties are waking up.  It didn't get really foamy when I did this but it's a well-known fact that yeast hate me, so I'm probably not a prime example of how to make yeast behave.
2. While the yeast is waking up and taking a swim, mix together the flours and salt.  Add in the yeast mixture and stir together until it becomes a dough.  It will be kind of sticky.
3. Put the 4 tsp of olive oil in a container, then throw in the dough and coat it with the oil.
4. Cover tightly and let sit for about an hour, or until the dough has risen (I've heard that the dough is supposed to double in size, but as previously stated yeast hate me, so I can't attest to this).
5. Preheat the oven to 400 F (give it about 1/2 hour to preheat).
6. In a smallish bowl melt your butter substitute of choice, then add the olive oil.  Mince the garlic and then add that to the oil mixture.  Go ahead and add the salt too.
7.  Once the dough is risen, dump it out onto a flat surface- I used a cutting board.  Spread it out into a rectangle.
8. Dump just over half of the garlic/oil mixture onto the dough and spread it over the surface.
9. Cut the dough into strips.  I wanted to make mini-knots so each strip I cut was about 1/2 in. by 2 in. (This is not exact. At all.)
10.  Tie each strip up into some semblance of a knot, or a blob, and put them on a lightly greased baking sheet.
11. Bake for about 9-11 minutes, or until the knots are lightly browned and cooked through.  Be careful not to overcook them!
12. While the knots are baking, chop up the basil and add it to the garlic mixture.
13.  Once the knots come out of the oven, throw them all in a bowl.  Pour the garlic mixture over top and toss the knots so that they get covered in the mixture.
14. Eat them all.

Yummmm

These knots got completely devoured in about 5 minutes flat by all the people in my house.  They're so good.  Next time I think I definitely need to make a double batch.

Caprese Salad with Chopped Pesto

I love Caprese Salad so much.  Maybe it's because I don't eat it all that often so when I do have it it's even better.  But no matter what the reason, it's just really delicious.

My mom gave me a big block of fresh mozzarella a couple days ago and I immediately started having thoughts of combining it with tomato, and plotting if I would rather use basil or pesto, and if I wanted to put it on bread or not.  I should probably have been doing other things like visiting with my family and being social, but that's ok.  It's totally normal to daydream about combinations of food involving mozzarella cheese....right?

I had a bit of free time today so I decided that today was the day to make the Caprese Salad.  I ended up making a simplified hand-chopped pesto, which was inspired by the handmade pesto recipe on Crepes of Wrath.  Instead of full-out pesto, though, I just combined garlic and basil with a bit of olive oil.  Some days I prefer simpler flavors than more complex ones.  Be warned, however, that this pesto is not for the weak.  I use raw garlic, and lots of it.  If you tend to learn more towards being a vampire, reduce the amount of garlic used. 

Pesto Ingredients:

• About 1 cup fresh basil
• 3 large garlic cloves
• A bit of olive oil oil for drizzling
• Salt

Directions:
Using a large knife, peel and roughly chop up the garlic.  Push it to the side of the cutting board.
Wash and dry the basil, and then roughly chop it.
Combine the basil and garlic, and chop chop chop until it's nicely blended together.  I spent a good few minutes just chopping.
Sprinkle a bit of salt on the mixture and drizzle some olive oil on top.  Mix everything together and add more oil until the desired spreadable consistency is reached.

I liked this instead of the typical food-processor-made pesto because you can really taste each individual flavor, as opposed to mushing everything together so much that it creates a new flavor.

                             Ta da!! Pesto!

After making the pesto, I put together my Caprese Salad Sandwiches.
Ingredients:

• French bread
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Tomato
• Pesto

Make slices of everything (except the pesto, of course).  Spread some pesto on each slice of bread, then top with mozzarella and tomato.  Put a  little bit of the pesto on top if you want to make it look pretty.

 

Yum!!  You should probably make this soon.  It'll be even better when summer is here and farm markets start selling fresh tomatoes and basil. I can't wait.

Banana Chocolate Almond Butter Cake

Senioritis is definitely getting the better of me.  I foresee a lot of baking in my future.  Or at least, I foresee a lot of baking in my future once I run out and get more sugar, because right now my house is running dangerously low on sugar.  It's terrible, I know.  But anyway, I started the procrastination-via-baking cycle tonight with some delicious Banana Chocolate Almond-Butter cupcakes.  And this blog posting is special too, because (drum roll...) it's my first post with pictures! Yay!  I can't guarantee the quality, and don't get your hopes up about pictures in the future (there's a high probability I'll resort to laziness again). But, for this post, there are pictures!!  And yes, I know I went back and added pictures to my lasagna posting.... but this is the first time I'm writing a post and putting pictures in at the same time.  Don't take my moment away from me.  But back to the cupcakes!!!

I found the recipe here from Namely Marly, a vegan food blog.  She didn't use the word "banana" in her title for the cake, but because every recipe which uses bananas always ends up tasting like banana bread to me (not that that's a bad thing, it's just a fact) I felt the need to add "banana" to my title.  Not that it matters.  I just thought you should know.

I halved the recipe, partially due to the current sugar famine situation, and partially because I didn't want to have a huge amount of cupcakes sitting around willing me to eat them.  I also, like I said, made cupcakes instead of normal cake like Marly does.  For some reason I always tend to make cupcakes instead of cake.  I don't remember the last time I made a cake, actually.  Cupcakes are just so much more friendly.  You can grab a cupcake on the go and carry it around, or bring some cupcakes to share with friends.  Normal cake requires knives to cut it, and forks and plates to eat it.  That just seems like a huge hassle.  Also, by definition anything which is smaller is automatically cuter and better.  So if cupcakes are smaller than normal cakes, and smaller things are cuter and better than larger things, then cupcakes must be better than normal cakes.  Ha! I knew my logic class would come in handy.

                  So much cuter and more accessible than a normal cake.

But I digress. Again. On to the recipe!!  I'll give the whole recipe here, but like I said I halved it.  I ended up with 12 cupcakes and 1 loaf (had to use up the extra batter), but I assume the whole recipe would either give you a whole cake or about 30 cupcakes.

Please ignore the fact that there are 11 cupcakes here when I said that I made 12.  I only have so much self-restraint.  Thank you.

Cake ingredients

• 3 cups flour (2 cups of regular and 1 C whole wheat if you have it)
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil (I did a little over 1/4 C applesauce and the rest oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 large banana, (mashed)
• 1 cup soy buttermilk (soy milk combined with 2 teaspoons of vinegar)
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Chocolate Frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup margarine (I used Smart Balance)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 – 3 tablespoon soy milk

• Shaved chocolate (optional)
• Chopped almonds (optional)

Cake Directions:
Heat your oven to 375F.
Spray a 9 X 13 cake pan (or a cupcake pan) with baking spray
In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients.
In a small bowl combine soy milk with vinegar and let set for a bit. In a separate bowl blend together peanut butter, oil, vanilla, mashed bananas, and then add soy buttermilk until smooth.  Note- make sure you really mash up the banana so you don't get freaky banana chunks in your cake.
Add the moist ingredients to the flour mixture and stir together well.
Finally, add chocolate chips and give the batter a couple more stirs to incorporate them.
If you're making a cake, put the batter in the cake pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
If you're making cupcakes, fill the cupcake tins about 3/4 full and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Let cool completely then ice with Chocolate Frosting

Frosting:
Combine cocoa and margarine in a medium bowl and stir until well mixed. Add the powdered sugar, then add the teaspoon of vanilla and stir some more. Finally, add soy milk one tablespoon at a time until you get a desired consistency. Top with shaved chocolate and chopped almonds if you want (I just used some slivered almonds I had lying around to make them look all nice and fancy).


As I was saying before, the recipe is good but is definitely very banana-y.  I feel a little weird calling this cake, because it's more like a cross between cake and muffin.  I seem to have a kind of theme and variations going on with banana bread, though, so this is good to add to my arsenal of banana-something recipes.  It was really nice and moist, with just a hint of the almond butter (I think peanut butter would be really good too).  The chocolate frosting on top also really worked well with the cake (muffin?).  If I call this a muffin instead of cake, does it mean that I can have this for breakfast tomorrow? I'll have to sleep on it.  Enough rambling for tonight.

Baked Onion Rings

Before I talk about this recipe, I feel the need to give a warning- this recipe is dangerous.  Especially if you have no self-control like me, and decide that it's a good idea to split a giant plate of onion rings with just one other person and eat way too many of them.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. I haven't even started talking about the recipe.

So. I made onion rings tonight.  But not the gross, oily kind that are basically solid grease with a bit of onion flavor.  These were made of delicious, juicy onion coated in bread crumbs and then baked, not fried.  I had been meaning to try this recipe forever, ever since I came came across it on Post Punk Kitchen, one of my favorite vegan foodblogs.  I love onion rings, though it's one of those things that I always forget that I really like, but I don't like them when they get too greasy so these were perfect.  Also, they should have been vegan, but I didn't have any plain soymilk and had to use regular milk instead.  The recipe can be found here, although this would make a LOT of onion rings.  I halved the recipe and only used 1 onion and it definitely made enough for 2-3 people who want to eat a lot of onion rings.  The only problem I had with the recipe was that I had to make more of the breadcrumb mixture because there wasn't quite enough, but that was no big deal. 

I won't repost the recipe because it is explained really well on the blog(again, find the recipe here ).  But really, make these.  You won't be disappointed.

Veggie Lasagna (and some cookies)

It's been a while since I've posted. Sadness.  Since I last posted I've made black and white cookies, really healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and lasagna.  Well, I've made other things too, but these were the most noteworthy culinary adventures.  I'll give a quick update on the black and white cookies and then delve into my lasagna (the oatmeal cookies can wait for another post).  I'm really excited about my lasagna. But it can wait.

About a week ago I made black and white cookies.  I'm not really a huge fan of these cookies, because they're more of a cake-y cookie than a cookie-y cookie, which is what I like.  I have nothing against cake, but I just don't really think it belongs in cookie form.  Expecting a cookie and getting cake? Not what I want. And then there's the whole Seinfeld thing, where Jerry eats the black and white cookie and does some big speech about integration but then gets sick.  So every time I think of black and white cookies I think of Jerry Seinfeld throwing up.  Not the best image. But I digress.

So my friend really likes black and white cookies, and I promised I would make some so I did. And I was pleasantly surprised.  The batter was actually really really delicious, and the whole thing (both icings included) really wasn't that difficult and didn't take long at all.  I got the cookie recipe here , from the Epicurious website (one of my favorite recipe websites that's not a blog).  I basically followed the recipe exactly, except that for the icing I didn't  have any lemons so I had to use lemon extract instead.  I think I actually made my icing a little too lemon-y, because it just needed a hint of lemon, but it still tasted good- I just made sure to spread the icing thin.  I also had no idea what I was really doing with the icings, but by some miracle the cookies actually looked really nice and clean, and even had shiny tops once the icing dried.  So the black and white cookie still isn't my favorite, but it definitely exceeded my expectations.

Speaking of exceeding expectations, I made some awesome *mostly* healthy lasagna.  I knew I wouldn't really have time to cook this week so I wanted to make something that I could easily heat up.  I was going to make garlic knots to go with it but I couldn't find the yeast. Sad.  That will have to wait for another time, I guess.  Anyway, I really just threw it together and hoped for the best, so the recipe is going to be a little vague and approximated. But that's nothing new.

         Yummmm lasagna. And no, I don't know why the top looks so crazy.

Ingredients:
Olive Oil
1/2 an onion
2 medium carrots
About 3/4 cup chopped broccoli
About 3/4 cup spinach (I used frozen)
5ish garlic cloves, depending on how much you like garlic

1 (15 oz) container part skim Ricotta cheese
Just over half a block of extra firm tofu
Garlic powder, oregano, salt, dried basil, pepper, any other spices you can think of that work
1 1/2 cup (?) Shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheese, or other Italian-y cheeses (I'm not proud to admit that I cheated and bought a pre-shredded mixture. But fresh grated is better!)
1 Tbs ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbs water (or 1 egg)

Tomato sauce
Whole wheat lasagna noodles (I used the kind that just cook in the oven)

Directions:
1. Mix together the 1 Tbs ground flax seed with 3 Tbs water and let sit for about 20 minutes.  Also, press the tofu (put it between 2 plates with a heavy book or something on top) and let that sit too.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 375.
3. Heat up a little olive oil in the pan.  Throw in chopped carrots and onion, and let it cook until the onions are translucent.  Throw in the chopped broccoli, spinach, and minced garlic.  Stir and then cover so the veggies can steam, making sure to check on it every few minutes and stir it around.
4. While the veggies are cooking, get a mixing bowl and squish the (now pressed) tofu.  I used my hands because it's way easier, but if you want to be legit a fork works too.  Just make sure its really squished up.  Add in the ricotta cheese and flax seed mixture (it should have a kind of egg-like consistency now- kind of thick).
5. Mix in about a cup of whatever cheese you're using, then add spices to taste.  I really have no idea how much of any one spice was used- it was just a sprinkle, mix, and taste type of deal.  Which is alright since there's no egg in it.
6. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed together.  Hopefully at this point the veggies will be cooked through.  Dump them all into the ricotta mixture and mix together.
7. Get a glass baking dish, and cover the bottom with the tomato sauce.  Put a layer of noodles on top, then add a decently thick layer of the cheese/veggie mixture on top.  Repeat with another layer each of sauce, noodle, and filling.  Top with one more layer of noodles, sauce, and then sprinkle the extra cheese on top.
8. Cover with tin foil and cook for about 30-35 minutes, then uncover and cook another 10 minutes or so until the cheese is nice and melty but not too brown.

                     Layers of wonderful vegetabl-y cheesy (tofu-y?) goodness.

I thought this lasagna was great, especially since the only unhealthy part of it was the cheese....and I couldn't give up the cheese.  I love it too much.  But BESIDES the cheese, there's healthy whole wheat noodles, a good dose of protein from the tofu (which you can't even taste, btw), some great omega-3's from the flax, plus lots of veggies!

Kitchen Experiments- Ginger Chocolate Scones and Microwave Potato Chips

Today I finally had time to play around in the kitchen, which I hadn't gotten to do in quite a while.  At least, it felt like quite a while.  Maybe it wasn't really that long. Anyway, on this wonderful Friday I finally had the time to experiment with some new recipes I had been meaning to try out.

First on the list was Ginger Chocolate Scones from Post Punk Kitchen, one of my favorite vegan food blogs.  I had seen this recipe a while ago and bought Turbinado sugar specifically for it, and then I promptly forgot which recipe used the sugar.  Needless to say, I was very excited when I re-stumbled upon the recipe and figured out what the Turbinado chillin' in my pantry was actually meant for.  I had to make a few changes to the recipe only out of necessity (like I only had chocolate soymilk instead of regular) but I basically followed the recipe exactly so I won't bother re-posting it here.  These weren't scones in the sense of crumbly, buttery deliciousness ( I guess that's what I get for trying vegan baking) but they had more of a cake-y, banana-bread-ish quality.  The flavor was really interesting, combining ginger and chocolate without being too sweet, which I actually liked more than I expected to.  My only problem with this recipe is that even though I baked the scones for 15 minutes, just like the recipe says, the bottoms burned a bit.  Luckily it wasn't enough to ruin anything, but it was still slightly upsetting.  If I make these again I'll definitely take the cooking time with a grain of salt, like I normally do, and check up on the scones more frequently to make sure they don't burn.

After this (slight) baking failure, I decided to try and redeem myself by trying another experiment.  A while ago I had seen a blog posting about microwave potato chips which intrigued me.  I couldn't find the exact posting so I just took the general idea and made it up.  It's really simple, and came out surprisingly well.

Ingredients:
Potato
Olive Oil
Salt

Directions:
Wash (and peel if you want) a potato.  Cut it into very thin slices.
Put the slices on a *microwave safe* plate, drizzle some olive oil over the potato, and toss 'em around so that all the slices are coated in oil.  Sprinkle some salt on top.
Put the plate of slices in the microwave.  Now, the times will vary a lot, depending on exactly how thick the slices of potato are and how temperamental the microwave is.  My microwave is definitely very temperamental, so I put the slices in at 2-3 minute intervals.  In-between each nuking session I flipped them over so that they would cook evenly.
Keep microwaving until the chips are crispy and just beginning to brown (and this will, surprisingly, happen in a microwave).  My chips took about 5 or 6 minutes total, but it will change every time.

I was quite impressed that a microwave was capable of making crispy potato chips.  Because they were thicker than store-bought chips they had a slightly chewy aspect, and tasted more potato-y.  But I really liked them.  I didn't like that I ended up eating an entire potato's worth of chips (which is a lot when they're pretty thinly sliced) but besides the fact that I need to learn to share food and not eat it all myself, I would call this a success.

Spinach and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Tonight I was in the mood for something a little different for dinner, so I decided to try out Spinach and Sweet Potato Quesadillas.  I'm a fan of quesadillas in general, or actually anything which uses cheese as a main ingredent, and the unique combination of foods intrigued me.  I got the idea from this website and let me tell you, I was not disappointed in the results. 
Hopefully you can figure out the recipe just by the title, because this really isn't a difficult thing to make, but for the sake of foodblogging I'll post the recipe.  Also, this is just the recipe- I've already ranted about my specific quesadilla-making techniques in a different post (found here) so I won't repeat myself.

Ingredients (For one full quesadilla, or two half-quesadillas):
- 2 tortillas (I used whole wheat)
-1 medium sweet potato
-about 3/4 cup spinach
-about 1 cup, or less, grated cheese (I used cheddar but anything will work really)
-olive oil
-optional: garlic powder

Directions:
Cook the sweet potato until soft (my preferred method is in the microwave because it's fastest- just remember to poke holes in the potato with a fork so it doesn't explode).  Once cooked, peel and cut into small chunks.
If desired, cook or defrost spinach (you can use raw, but all I had was frozen so I had to defrost it).
Spread some olive oil on one side of the tortilla for cooking, then put cheese, potato, and spinach evenly on the tortilla.  I like to do a layer of cheese, then the potato and spinach, and then some more cheese to seal it all together.
If desired, sprinkle a little garlic powder on top.  I put garlic powder on mine and it brought out some really interesting flavors, but Caroline didn't put any garlic on hers and the sweet potato came through a little more.  Both were delicious.
Top with the other tortilla, or fold half over if making 2  half tortillas, and place on a skillet on medium.  There's a fine line between the heat being too low and not browning the tortilla enough while overcooking the inside, and the heat being too high and burning the outside before heating the inside.  Different stoves will behave differently.
Cook until the cheese melts and/or the side touching the pan is lightly browned, then flip over and do the same for the other side.

I guess you could eat this with sour cream or salsa or something, but we just ate them plain because they were really flavorful and delicious on their own.  This recipe is great because it's really easy to prepare, but is really tasty and decently healthy if you don't think about all the cheese involved.  But hey, at least spinach and sweet potato are both really really healthy vegetables.  Anyway, I'll definitely be making this one again.....the sweetness of the sweet potato pairs wonderfully with savory spinach and salty cheese, and it's all warm and melty and just yum.

Maple (veggie)Bacon Muffins

Today marks the first official day of my spring break, which is actually quite anticlimactic because I'm just staying home and practicing a whole lot and not doing much of anything too exciting.  BUT, it does mean that I have plenty of time to browse food blogs and make some delicious stuff.  Today I spent way more time than I should have looking up lots of recipes, and during my perusing I came across maple bacon muffins. 
Before I talk any more about the recipe, I just need to say that I love bacon.  Not the fresh-from-a-pig kind, but the Morningstar Farms brand fake bacon.  I put it in sandwiches.  I mix it with baked beans.  I eat it with maple syrup next to my scrambled tofu.  Heck, I just eat it plain.  And now, I can proudly say that I even put it in muffins.  Which brings me back to the muffins (I love circular trains of thought).

I found the original recipe on evilshenanigans, one of my favorite foodblogger sites, even though it's definitely not one of the healthier ones.  I made a lot of substitutions, starting with the whole bacon thing, but then ending up basically veganizing it because I don't have any real milk or eggs.  I also only made a half batch, because I wasn't sure how it was going to come out with all the substitutions, but they were delicious.  The muffins were really moist and crumbly, and I didn't miss any of the original ingredients, so here I'll post the full recipe.  I'm sorry I ever doubted you, maple bacon muffins.  Lesson learned.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 slices veggie bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 cup soymilk
3 Tbs applesauce (equivalent of 2 eggs)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup real maple syrup (I cheated and used the fake kind, but I think real would be better)

Directions:
Mix together the first 4 ingredients while the bacon is cooking, then crumble the bacon and add it to the bowl. 
Combine all the wet ingredients (I like to just use 1 measuring cup and keep adding to it, to save myself washing more dishes later). 
Make a well in the flour mixture and then add in the wet mixture, and stir until just combined.  It will be a little lumpy, but that's okay.
Spray and flour a muffin tin, and then bake at 400F for about 20 minutes.  When done, a toothpick inserted into the middle should come out clean, and the tops should be lightly browned.

Notes about this recipe:
Next time I make this I think I will add an extra slice or two of bacon, because sometimes the bacon flavor was just a bit too subtle for my liking.
The only applesauce I had was cinnamon applesauce, and it still came out fine.
Maybe it's because I used fake maple syrup instead of real, but I wanted a stronger maple flavor.  I ended up putting a little syrup on top of the muffin when I ate it just to enhance the flavor a bit.  And to its credit, the muffin was wonderfully obliging in soaking up the syrup so the flavors really blended together.

Quinoa Salad

Quinoa is one of those superfoods that's becoming more and more popular because of its health benefits.  It's a grain, I think, which is a complete protein and has a lot of other good nutrients in it as well.  A few days ago I made a cold quinoa salad, which I think is really great to make in large batches and bring for lunch.  Anyway, it's pretty easy to throw together, really delicious, really healthy, and vegan!

The ingredients and amounts can vary a lot, depending on what veggies I have on hand and the quinoa-to-veggies ratio I'm in the mood for on a particular day. However, as a basic recipe:

Salad Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa
Approx. 1/2 cup each, or whatever you have on hand, of chopped vegetables: avocado, tomato, bell pepper (I like the sweetness of red ones), carrot (blanched or not, depending on carrot texture preference), green beans, and walnuts (or other nut).

Dressing Ingredients (all approximated, so taste and adjust as necessary):
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp lime juice
Garlic powder, oregano, salt, and dried basil to taste

Directions:
Cook quinoa according to directions (aka thoroughly rinse it, then cook it like rice- 1 cup quinoa to 1 1/2 cups water, cover and simmer until all the water is absorbed and it's tender but slightly chewy, around 10-15 minutes).
While the quinoa is cooking, wash and cut up whatever veggies/nuts you're going to add in.  To me, the mix of vegetables is what makes the whole thing so delightful.... avocados and walnuts add in healthy fats and make the salad more filling, while tomatoes and bell peppers make it sweet and carrots give it a nice crunch.
Once the quinoa is cooked let it cool to room temperature, then throw in all the veggies and mix it together.
In a small bowl mix together all of the dressing ingredients, and whisk to combine.  Taste it and add more stuff according to your particular tastes.  It will taste quite strong on its own, but remember that a little dressing is going to flavor an entire salad.  If it's too intense, just add more olive oil to dilute it.
Add the dressing to the salad and mix it all together to make sure everything is thoroughly coated.  Adjust any spices as needed (I'm sensing a theme of taste-as-you-go).

This salad is best cold (aka refrigerate it after you make it) but I've definitely gotten impatient and eaten it room temperature, and it's still good.  The combination of grains and vegetables makes this a decently satisfying and  balanced meal on its own, and in the winter it also helps cure some of my nostalgia for warmer days and refreshing summer salads.  And did I mention it's vegan?! I'm such a wannabe vegan.

BAT Sandwich

I'm always trying to think of new sandwich/ lunch ideas, or different-things-I-can-put-on-bread-before-it-gets-too-messy-to-eat, because usually I end up falling into a rut of just eating the same few things.  So today, I had a BAT sandwich- bacon, avocado, and tomato.  And it was really really delicious.  Obviously it's taken from a normal BLT, but with variations.  I used whole wheat bread with sliced avocado, sliced tomato, and some cooked Morningstar Farms bacon (the best brand of fake bacon, in my humble opinion).  The avocado acts as a healthier substitute for mayonnaise, which I usually put on BLTs, and the whole combination just works so well.  I would definitely add lettuce too, but I didn't have any at the time (and then I would have to change the name of the sandwich, too- BALT? BLAT? Somehow that sounds much less appealing).  But really, this sandwich needs to be made again.... the creamy avocado pairs with sweet tomato and crunchy, salty bacon in a really wonderful flavor combination. Yum.

Garlic broccoli and spinach pasta

This dish is exactly what the title says it is- pasta with broccoli and spinach in a garlic olive oil.  I end up making this a decent amount because I almost always have all the right ingredients on hand.  In fact, I made this up one night when I really needed to go grocery shopping but didn't feel like it, so I started throwing stuff in a pan.  And voilà! The pasta was born.

Ingredients:
Pasta (really any kind will do)
Broccoli
Spinach (I tend to use frozen)
Olive Oil
Minced Garlic
Salt
Quorn Chick'n cutlets, cut into bite-sized chunks (optional)
Grated Parmesan cheese

All the proportions can be whatever you want.  I usually use about equal amounts of broccoli and spinach, and then a few cloves of garlic.

Directions:
Start cooking the pasta, then do all the other prep while it's cooking.  If it's done before the other stuff, just drain it and then toss with a little bit of olive oil so the noodles don't stick together.
Heat up a little olive oil on medium heat in a pan and throw in the broccoli (and chick'n, if using.  I started throwing it in because it makes for a more balanced meal). 
Stir around and then cover for about 2 min, stirring once or twice, so the broccoli steams and cooks. 
Add the minced garlic, salt, and spinach, then stir and cover again for a couple minutes. 
Turn the heat down to medium-low and add in some more olive oil.  The trick here is to get the olive oil to pick up some of the flavor, mostly garlic, without being hot enough to start frying everything in the pan. 
Cook for a few more minutes, then mix together with the pasta.
Serve with some grated Parmesan cheese.  Don't skip this; the cheese really enhances it.

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On a side note, I have been waiting a week for my red pears to finally be ripe.  I got to eat one last night and it was really really exciting.  Also- sliced pears with sharp cheese (I use extra-sharp cheddar) is extremely delicious- the sweet and tangy work together perfectly.  It's good cold, but try putting a few cheese-topped pear slices in the microwave, just long enough to melt the cheese. Delicious.