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!