Cowboy Cookies (aka, the Best Cookies Ever)

My last post was very sad ...  And even though I'm still sad when I think about Jake, it's time to lighten up just a little.  And what better way to do that than with a post about the most delicious cookies ever?  That's right, ever.  Literally ever.  Even Josh thought so, and he really fancies himself a cookie connoisseur.

 

A long while back a friend at work made Cowboy Cookies for an office function, and I thought they were pretty good.  I wouldn't have said best cookie ever, but I liked that they included a bunch of other ingredients beyond your standard chocolate chip cookie.  Since I wanted to bring cookies along to our visit to Josh's parents a couple of weeks ago, I thought back to her cookies and went looking for a recipe online.  I'm not sure what recipe my friend followed, but that's good.  Because whatever hers was wasn't the best cookie ever.  But luckily this one is. 

 

Oats, nuts, coconut, chocolate ... there's a lot going on in these cookies. And it's all sooo good.  I made 1/3 of the recipe and ended up with 12 GIANT cookies ... so she wasn't kidding about giant cookies.  I also substituted walnuts for the pecans, sweetened coconut for the unsweetened and nixed the soaking in water and sugar (I'm pretty sure that will just get you to what I used, right?), and used chocolate chunks instead of chips.  That's right, go big or go home. 

 

Of course I had to test one almost straight out of the oven to make sure they were worthy of sharing.  And it was awfully hard to stop at one.  The last eleven cookies barely survived the weekend, and Josh and I were the only ones eating them - with a few little bites for Gus and Jake.  (None of the chocolate part - but even if we had, old dogs deserve whatever they want!) 

 

I've already been thinking about making another batch of these ...  I know they're not good for my body, but they certainly seem good for the spirit! 

Happy Fourth!

Happy Fourth everyone!  Or should I say, Merry Independence Day!  I'm definitely planning on a patriotic viewing of the movie Independence Day later today, mostly just to watch the best presidential speech ever delivered.  Yay 'Merica!

 

But of course this day wouldn't be complete without a little red, white, and blue to celebrate too.  And what's the most delicious patriotic treat out there?  That's right ... Craisin and white chocolate scones sitting in front of a blue background ... erm ...  Well, two out of three isn't bad.  And that just means these would make a great Canada Day treat too :) 

 

I adapted these delicious vegan scones from a scone recipe I'd been using for years.  But needless to say they require quite a few vegan replacements.  Fortunately, the end product tastes just as great and seems to have just the same consistency as the original.  Science wins again. 

 

Craisin and White Chocolate Scones (Vegan!)

(makes 12 scones)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar + 1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tablespoons vegan butter, cold
1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup vegan white chocolate chips

1/2 cup vegan sour cream

1 vegan egg

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Combine first five ingredients, then cube butter and mix into dry ingredients by hand until you achieve a coarse meal texture. 

Stir in craisins and chocolate chips.

Whisk together egg and sour cream in a separate bowl, then mix into dry/butter mixture until the dough comes together.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and divide into two balls. 

Press each ball into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. 

Sprinkle each disk with the 1 tbsp sugar. 

Using a sharp knife (to cut through those chocolate chips and craisins), cut each disk into six triangles. 

Transfer the triangles to a parchment-lined baking sheet, at least an inch apart (they won't expand much). 

Bake 15 minutes, until golden. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

June 20 my office held its annual summer picnic.  Everyone gathered in the sunshine at Sandy Point State Park to engage in merriment and lots of eating.  Though the catering was BBQ, there was still a veggie option - grilled veggie wrap with cheese - and a vegan option - veggie wrap with no cheese.  The weather was beautiful and not too hot, so I never cashed in my snow cone ticket (by the way, that should really read "snow ball" - this is Maryland, after all!). 

 

But the real highlight of the day for most people was the dessert contest.  The contest was "election" themed (the Maryland primary was held June 24), and four prizes were awarded: chocolate, non-chocolate, election theme, and grand prize (plus a couple of honorable mentions).  I think there were 19 entries overall.  And I didn't get to try a single one ... :( 

 

The plight of a vegan is that it's very hard to eat dessert anywhere, really.  Not at restaurants, not at a coffee shop, not at your friend's house, and not at your work picnic.  Not a lot of baked goods "happen" to be vegan, and rarely do people go out of their way to accommodate you.  Nope, if you're vegan, it's up to you to make your own desserts.  Which I do ... on a very regular basis. 

 

So while I salivated over the dessert table at the picnic trying to live vicariously through others by asking them about their favorite desserts (most people thought it was the key lime mousse cake, apparently), I was secretly formulating a plan to make my own delicious and vegan dessert the instant I got home.  And the plan?  Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins!  (Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie's recipe for blueberry muffins.) 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins

 

(Makes two muffins - regular size, not large)

 

Ingredients:

 

3 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

heaping 1/16 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp sugar (maybe go to 1 tbsp if using a plain peanut butter)

1 tbsp peanut butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful - yum!)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp milk of choice (I used almond)

1 tbsp mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 330 degrees. Mix first four ingredients, then add the next three. Mix until just combined (don’t overmix).  Fold in chocolate chips, then spoon into two regular-sized muffin liners.  Bake for 17 minutes, but start checking at 15.

Happy National Donut Day!

Not to be confused with National Doughnut Day, which is apparently in November.  Hey, the more days we spend celebrating donuts ... or doughnuts ... the better, right?  Unfortunately, it's a rare opportunity that I get to enjoy a donut since becoming vegan (unless I get out to San Fran to hit up Pepples).

 

So what option did I have on National Donut Day but to try my hand at making my own donuts at home.  I've never made my own donuts before, but I saw this recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie recently and it looked so good I thought I just had to try it.  I originally thought that at just 34 calories per donut (calculations by Katie), how far wrong could I go?  Well, after actually making my version, I decided to put everything into the MyFitnessPal recipe nutrition calculator and got 89 calories per donut ... significantly more.  Whomp whomp.  I'm guessing the big difference was that I went ahead and used real sugar rather than a substitute.  My milk of choice was also soy (had it on hand), which is higher in calories than some alternatives.  By halving the ingredients listed listed for the chocolate topping, I got the total down to 72 calories per donut and still felt like I had a decent amount of chocolate coating.  It seemed like a good compromise. 

I don't own a donut pan, so I opted to make donut holes rather than your traditional-looking donut.  Well, even the donut hole plan didn't exactly work out ...  I used a mini muffin pan so, surprise surprise!, what I ended up with was chocolate coated mini muffins.  Fortunately the still tasted pretty good.  But there's really no illusion that these are donuts.  A cake donut that isn't shaped like a donut is ... guess what? ... cake.  So it seems like if I really want to celebrate National Donut Day again (or National Doughnut Day in November), it seems I'll need to get myself one of these.  Or just head back to Pepples ...

Chia Weekend

When I was a kid my mom never bought the fun foods that all my friends seemed to enjoy all the time.  That's not to say we didn't eat our fair share of junk, it was just the adult versions of junk.  One of her favorite treats to have around was chocolate covered almonds and I was obsessed with eating risotto as a kid (made from a box mix).  Yeah, I was that complete weirdo ...  But every once in a while I'd get to have a fun treat at a friend's house, and one of my favorites was hamburger helper. 

 

I don't even know why I liked it so much.  The whole idea is really pretty silly because without the contents of the box it's still incredibly easy to make a hamburger-helper-like meal.  And that's just what I've been doing all the time lately.  Just make up elbow macaroni, then mix in vegetarian beef crumbles, pasta sauce, and any additions you like.  I've added basil, broccoli, mushrooms ... but the possibilites are endless.  I even ate my version of hamburger helper for breakfast Sunday morning!

I also went full-tilt into chia seed mode this weekend.  First, I revisited one of my new favorite recipes, Almond Joy Chia Pudding.  I was out of almond milk, so I mixed up the recipe using plain soy milk which worked just as well.  But the real innovation came when I dropped the container of soy milk, spilling milk all over the kitchen floor.  Distracted by the mess, I never managed to add maple syrup to the mix.  And you know what?  I didn't miss the sweetness at all.  In fact, I never would have noticed anything except I was surprised by how much thicker the pudding seemed and thought it looked a lot whiter than normal.  At first I thought it was the difference between soy and almond milk, but then I realized it was the syrup.  I liked the non-syrup version so much I'll definitely never go back to adding the unnecessary calories. 

 

My second chia endeavor of the weekend was based on another recipe I saw on the blog Carrots 'n Cake, this time for Blueberry Chia Seed Jelly.  I thought that since I was loving chia pudding so much, chia jelly would also be great.  Unfortunately, I didn't feel like this was any great innovation.  I'll admit, I might have messed this up a bit myself by using frozen wild blueberries as opposed to "regular" blueberries - the wild blueberries tend to be smaller and firmer.  Regular blueberries might have been better at mushing into an actual jelly consistency, rather than rolling around on my bread like all I did was defrost blueberries and set them on top.  The chia seeds certainly didn't seem to do anything to create a jelly texture either ...

Oh well ... chia jelly fail.  Maybe I'll try it again sometime with regular blueberries.  Hmmm ... or raspberries!?  I guess I haven't sworn of chia jelly just yet ...

 

Puff Pastry with Vanilla Cashew Cream

Last week I hosted another one of my periodic group lunches at work.  This was the first one since session ended, so I really wanted it to go well.  Unfortuantely, Papa John's messed up the pizza order and I ended up completely stressed out and pretty much unable to enjoy the actual lunch.  But even if the pizza wasn't executed perfectly, the dessert I brought seemed to be a big hit.  Well, it all disappeared at least.  I had to really elbow my way in just to grab a couple for myself!

 

I remembered reading a while back that Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Cups were "accidentally vegan", so I decided that instead of baking something from scratch, I'd use them as a nice shortcut to make a cool summer treat - puff pastry filled with vanilla cashew cream and topped with raspberries and powdered sugar. 

 

I was a bit concerned that the puff pastry would get soggy if I made the dessert at home ahead of time, so I brought everything separate and assembled it at work.  I used a squeaze bottle with a frosting tip to fill the pastry cups, added the raspberries, then tried my best to sprinkle the powdered sugar on artfully with my fingers.  (It would have been a lot easier with a sifter, but I didn't bring one into work - too much hassle.)  I'm not sure the one single raspberry sticking out of the center of the cup looked all that great, but they sure tasted wonderful!

 

The vanilla cashew cream was definitely the best part of these little gems - and I'm not just saying that because it's the only part I actually made myself.  I ate the leftovers by squeazing a bit directly into fresh raspberries - it was all I could do not to just squeaze it directly into my mouth!  Yum yum yum.  Plus it's so easy I know I'll be using this again and again for a delicious fruit dip, in tarts, or maybe just to eat by itself with a spoon! 

 

Vanilla Cashew Cream

 

1/2 cup cashews

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon imitation vanilla extract (I used imitation because it is clear and would keep my cream whiter)

1/4 cup plain almond milk

 

Blend together and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Cookies

 Last weekend I visited Josh's parents to celebrate Josh's mother's birthday.  Ever since I was little I've loved wrapping presents.  Learning how to curl ribbon was one of the great moments of my life.  I was always in awe of the wrapping at Creative Kidstuff and think of them every time I wrap a present today.  (Check out this photo for inspiration!)  I may have gone just a little overboard with the ribbon curling on this one ... Nah!

 

Pretty much every time I go to Josh's parents' now I also bring along some little treat to share.  I know his parents are still uncomfortable with vegan food, so I figure anything I can bring to make sure there's something I can eat helps!

 

This time I was in the mood for a peanut butter oatmeal cookie, and came across this recipe which I scaled down and modified just a bit.  The cookies were a big winner - especially with Josh's dad who isn't normally big on sweets (which means it's particularly ringing endorsement!).  I'll definitely be making these a lot in the future. 

 

One of my favorite things about these cookies is that they aren't too sweet, so you don't feel sick afterwards!  I made 1/3 of the recipe and came out with 19 cookies a little bigger than a quarter.  I also nixed the chocolate chips, used creamy peanut butter, and used plain white flour rather than wheat.  I did use salt, even though it said optional.  Another tip from my experience: after spooning onto a baking sheet, press down each cookie a bit because they won't sink on their own.  The back row in the picture are the cookies I didn't press down - still tasty, just a little less attractive. 

Oreo Cheesecake

While I may have been particularly good two weeks ago about being on top of my healthy workouts, even ending on a particularly high note with a 7-mile hike, I also ended the week by baking this delicious but decidedly unhealthy Oreo Cheesecake.  Fortunately, life is about balance ... so I basically had to bake a scrumptious dessert to restore order in the universe. 

 

I may or may not have proceeded to eat about two pieces a day for the next few days ...

 

Oreo Cheesecake (vegan, of course!)

 

Ingredients:
 

2 containers vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti)

1 package firm silken tofu

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Broken up Oreos - as many as you like

1 ready-made Oreo cookie pie crust (or you could be industrious and make your own)
 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.  Blend all but last two ingredients in a blender until very smooth.  Pour into a bowl and fold in Oreo pieces.  Pour batter into crust and bake for 1 hour.  When the hour is up, turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 more hour.  Then come up with a really good distraction, because you still need to transfer the cheesecake to the refrigerator for at least six hours before cutting yourself a slice.  But trust me, the long wait is worth it!

 

Peanut Butter Cup Chia Pudding

My chia pudding obsession shows no signs of slowing down, especially since I came up with this latest recipe to toss into the rotation, named for a certain chocolatey-peanut-buttery cup-shaped confection.  Plus, it's super simple to make with just five ingredients!  It's so delicious in all its chocolate-peanut-buttery goodness that all you need is a small bowl to be completely satisfied.  But then again, a large bowl might just make you even more satisfied ...

 

Peanut Butter Cup Chia Pudding

 

(serves two or one generously)

 

2 tablespoons chia seeds

3/4 cup dark chocolate almond milk

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon maple syrup (you could easily leave this out altogether)

 

Mix all the ingredients together, cover, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.  Enjoy!

Chia Pudding

I've been seeing so many delicious looking recipes for chia seed pudding online lately.  But when I saw this recipe for Almond Joy chia pudding, I decided it was finally time I got my pudding on.  Of course I had to make a few modifications based on the ingredients I had on hand ... like using peanut butter rather than almond butter.  Maybe that means it's not really "Almond Joy" flavored anymore ... but it sure tasted just fine! 

 

On my first try I also used almond extract because I had no coconut, but that turned out to be too much almond for my taste.  Fortunately, I could see the potential in this stuff, so I tried a *few* more times.  For all my later versions I've used vanilla extract and it's turned out great.  Oh, and I did include the maple syrup and chocolate chips I just forgot to get them out for the picture ...

 

This stuff is so creamy and delicious - definitely a satisfying dessert.  Unfortunately it's also not exactly "healthy" since it's still full of peanut butter and maple syrup, but it's not quite as bad as some other options one might turned to when looking for dessert ...  I've already made this about five times in the past week, and I'm predicting there will be many more batches in the future. 

Lemon Coconut Bars

When invited to Josh's parents' house for dinner last weekend, of course the first thing I do is ask "Is there anything I can bring?"  Which is how I got roped into baking again.  Don't get me wrong ... I love to bake.  And I love to eat sweet treats.  The problem is that when I bake and then eat sweet treats I tend to not stop at one.  And when I end up baking something for occasion after occasion, then I end up eating multiple desserts ... every day ...  Not good for my health and not good for the size of my posterior. 

 

It was actually Josh's idea to make lemon bars ... specifically, he wanted lemon coconut bars.  And fortunately I had recently come across this recipe on Chocolate Covered Katie for plain lemon bars that I thought would be easy enough to tweak for my needs.  Plus, the recipe was both relatively healthy and also had a small yield - the less it makes, the less I can eat, right?  I followed the recipe almost exactly (I didn't use lemon zest, and obviously I used a lot less food coloring - I prefer the natural-looking yellow, rather than the technicolor) but before putting the bars in to bake I sprinkled sweetened coconut flakes on top.  Even after chilling the bars were surprisingly soft - more like a mousse on top of a firm crust - which meant they really needed to be eaten with a fork.  But they were definitely tasty. 

 

The recipe yielded eight bars that were about 2 inches x 1 1/2 inches - small, but enough to get a few good bites. I'm not quite sure how I would make them firmer next time - maybe more tofu?  But I think I'll be experimenting with these more in the future. 

Muffin Mania

I guess it's no surprise by now that I'm a bit all over the map when it comes to my food choices.  One minute I'm talking about how I want to eat healthier, eat more green vegetables, and make sure I incorporate protein into my meals ... and the next minute I'm off baking up some indulgent treat again.  I'm definitely food bipolar. 

 

But I guess most of us are to some extent.  It's almost impossible to go through life without the occasional treat.  It's just that my treat occasions seem to pop up a bit more frequently than they do for other people ...  I also find that when I get bored I tend to turn to the kitchen.  Either I want to eat something or I want to make food.  It's a way to pass the time, and making food at least means I'm not consuming it ... until it's done. 

 

And apparently I've found myself bored a lot lately.  Because I've been turning to baking over and over again in the past couple of weeks.  To combat the resulting onslaught of baked goods, I've done my best to partake in just a few of the resulting goodies and haul the rest off to work to watch them disappear from the office kitchen.  Which usually manages to happen quite quickly and wins me all sorts of new friends at work too. 

 

Three times in the past two weeks I've brought muffins to work - the first two batches were supposedly cupcakes, but without the frosting (I followed the accompanying recipe for cream cheese frosting with disasterous results - it was sickly sweet glaze rather than frosting, though I followed the recipe to the letter) I figured these hummingbird cupcakes were really more like "tropical" muffins. 

 

I'm not sure if there's a definitional difference between "cupcake" and "muffin" other than the presence of frosting, but no one at work seemed to think they weren't muffins.  In fact, they were so popular that people actually said they hoped I would make them again soon - which is how I came to make a second batch less than a week later.  It also helped that I was quite taken with them as well.  Plus the recipe was so simple to follow it really wasn't much effort to make a double batch the second time. 

 

Then just two days after I brought in round two of tropical (hummingbird) muffins, the last day of Maryland's legislative session arrived.  The last day of session is always a long and exciting day, and lots of people bring in treats to share.  I certainly couldn't sit there with all sorts of non-vegan treats surrounding me all day.  I knew I'd go crazy if I didn't have an opportunity to indulge a bit too. 

 

Which is where the Caramel Apple Muffins came in.  I'd seen this recipe a while back and was eager to try it.  (Plus I couldn't very well bring in a third batch of hummingbird muffins!)  While this recipe wasn't quite as simple and quick as the hummingbird cake, it wasn't too difficult.  Following the recipe measurements, I ended up with 16 muffins to share at work. 

 

And I probably ended up eating 1/4 of them myself ...  The crumble topping made these a bit messy to eat, and I wouldn't really say there was any genuine "caramel" element to them, but the apple cinnamon flavor combination is always a winner in my book.  These also managed to come away with high praise, though nothing so enthusiastic as the hummingbird cakes. 

 

Maybe my coworkers were just a bit muffin-ed out.  I know I am ... for now ...

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day!  I hope you get a chance to celebrate with a big piece of pie today ... or quiche ... or pizza!  There really are so many ways to celebrate this wonderful day. 

 

While I haven't decided just what form of pie I'll be partaking in today, I've had a couple of other delicious pies recently that I can reminisce on in the meantime. 

 

In my last post I had a picture of peanut butter pie that I made following this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.  While I thought that version was perfectly good, Josh didn't really care for the banana flavor of the pie, so a couple of weeks ago I finally got around to trying the recipe again sans banana.  While you wouldn't think it would work, I substituted a block of lightly pressed tofu for the banana, and this version turned out amazing!!!  I also nixed the home-made pie crust and used a store-bought graham cracker one.  And for extra deliciousness, I made a chocolate ganache to layer on top.  I couldn't believe how amazing this pie was.  Plus super easy ...  The perfect recipe!

 

Then just last week I decided to finally get around to trying my hand at a vegan cheesecake recipe.  I stocked up on tons of Tofutti cream cheese and got to work.  Of course it turned out I didn't really need all that cream cheese.  I ended up with way too much filling - probably enough for two cheesecakes - and had a hard time blending it all together because I had too much to fit in the blender at once!  Oops.  Fortunately the great thing about vegan anything is that you don't have to worry about eating it raw.  I used the excess filling as a delicious apple dip!

 

I have to say, what I ended up with really wouldn't pass as "real" cheesecake in any dairy-eaters book, but was still quite tasty.  The vegan cheesecake just didn't have the "kick" that you get from real cream cheese - and sorry, but adding a little lemon juice just doesn't cut it.  But it was creamy, sweet, and felt very decadent.  In fact, the first night I had it I ate two big pieces!  (Yeah, that didn't make me feel too great afterwards.) 

 

While this cheesecake was great as-is, I also experimented with a few different topping options like masserated strawberries and melted chocolate.  The chocolate was definitely my favorite preferred topping.  My drizzle may not be all that artful, but it still tasted great! 

 

 

 

Hope these inpsire your pi(e) adventures today! 

Highlights From the Past Month

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last post!  Bad bad bad.  But rest assured, I've still been taking plenty of pictures of my daily eats, just not managing to actually sit down and write about them.  Which means I've got plenty to catch up on.  Obviously I've been super busy over the past month with the start of the legislative session, and I pretty much have no hope of catching up by actually writing all the blog posts I should have written all this time.  So instead I'm just going to go with an old fashioned photo dump to get it all out there.  And then maybe I'll get back on a normal blogging schedule soon. 

 

So here ya go ...

 

Pasta packets a la Vegetarian Times Magazine:

 

Mmmm ... peanut butter pie from Chocolate Covered Katie:

Dinner at Pizza CS:

Yep, I made my own cheese ... and it came out green.  I guess I should have mixed the chives in by hand rather than tossing them in the blender with everything else.  But it was still tasty :) 

 

 

Mexican dinners rock ... especially chipotle adobo black beans with fried plantains and vegan sour cream!

Chicken Picatta using the recipe from the back of the Gardein package.  (We've made this a few times ... it's delicious!)  Plus asparagus and roasted potatoes.  Would you guess this is vegan?!

Chocolate cake to live for :)  Yum yum yum. 

Dessert again ...  Vegan cheesecake from Capital City Cheesecake.  Unfortunately, neither of these really tasted like cheesecake and at least one of these beauties made both Josh and I incredibly ill.  Never again, CCC. 

 

And ... Valentine's Day dinner!  I made a super simple beer bread and served vegan black pepper steaks and roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate glaze on the side.  Josh wasn't a fan of the black pepper steaks, but he loved everything else.  So much for that secret ingredient - love!  I guess two out of three isn't bad. 

Overrun By Christmas Sweets!

Happy Christmas Eve!

I wouldn't exactly call myself a Scrooge, but I'm not normally one who's big on Christmas spirit.  While I definitely love wrapping and gifting presents, I don't have a lot of holiday ritual.  I don't like Christmas songs.  I don't expect a particular Christmas dinner, or want to watch that one movie I just have to watch every year.  But what I do love is treats.  I don't have one go-to Christmas treat in particular - so maybe this isn't a holiday thing at all, but just my general love of treats manifesting in the season's license to indulge?  Either way, I find myself making lots of sweets and goodies this time of year.  And this year was definitely no exception. 

 

My holiday season really kicked off at the beginning of last week with the culmination of my work's Holiday Sharing program.  I have organized the program for six years now, where my office adopts needy families in the area and provides them with gifts, canned and household goods, and raises money to buy them a grocery gift card.  While it's a wonderful program that everyone likes the idea of us participating in, it can be hard to woo actual volunteers to help out.  So my yearly solution is to make sweet treats for the people that come help me sort and deliver everything.  This year I made s'mores treats by using the Rice Krispies Treats recipe, but subbing out vegan marshmallows and Golden Grahams.  Then I stirred in chocolate chips for a messy but delicious final product. 

Fortunately for my waistline, the majority of the S'mores treats got eaten by coworkers and all I returned home with was an empty Tupperware.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been chowing down on plenty of treats myself too.  My favorite Christmas cookie of all is the cashew nougat cookie by Archway, but it's incredibly hard to find.  A few years back we found a Harris Teeter in Baltimore that stocks them, and since then I've made a yearly pilgrimage to stock up.  This year was no different, and I grabbed four boxes.  One went straight into the freezer to enjoy in April, and one has already been devoured.  Two boxes to get me through the New Year :) 

Another little goodie I've been enjoying lately is So Delicious Pumpkin Spice Coconut Milk.  I originally planned to pick up some more Coconut Nog since I liked that so much, but Whole Foods had other plans for me - namely, that they were out of the Nog.  Instead of leaving sad and with nothing, I decided to try out the Pumpkin milk instead.  While I think I still prefer the Nog, this has been a fair substitute.  In fact, I'm enjoying the last glass of it this morning. 

Just a couple days after Holiday Sharing wrapped up at work it came time to make another treat to share with coworkers for our annual holiday office party.  While management supplies the booze, we are encouraged to bring in treats to share.  And since I knew there wouldn't be a lot of vegan offerings on the table, I would have to supply my own. 

Years ago a friend of mine made molasses cookies for Mole Day (Oct. 23) that I loved.  While I've tried and tried to get the recipe out of her, I never have, so I decided to try my luck with the Internets.  I started working with this recipe from Betty Crocker, which I quickly realized was the same recipe that appears on the back of the molasses bottle except for oven temperature, cooking time, and the direction to sprinkle water on the cookies for the cracked effect. 

I decided to split the difference by using Betty's cooking temperature and time (plus I'd already preheated the oven) and sprinkling water on my cookies.  Straight from the oven the cookies were beautiful, chewy, and delicious.  By the next day they were still delicious, but too crisp for my taste.  Fortunately, most everyone else seemed to have no issue with the texture and complimented them.  This was especially fortunate because I ended up with so many cookies that I had plenty to bring to work, save a few for Josh and I to enjoy at home, plus extra batches to share with friends and Josh's family.  Molasses cookies all around!
 

I made what will be this year's final foray into the world of holiday treats last night, though it was the one treat I'd been planning the longest.  Every year Josh's favorite Christmas treat is White Fudge Oreos.  He gets a box mostly to himself, but I manage to sneak a couple for myself.  While Oreos are one of those surprise vegan items, the white fudge coating is decidedly not vegan.  So I decided to recreate my own version using vegan white chocolate chips I ordered from Amazon, plus Double Stuf Oreos - oh, the indulgence!

 

Making my own White Fudge Oreos was surprisingly easy.  Just melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler, coat Oreos, then decorate for extra Christmas festivity (plus to hide imperfections!).  One bag of white chocolate chips gave me enough coating for 16 finished Oreos (plus one taste test, of course) - not a bad haul compared to the 12 you would get from Nabisco's box.  And they tasted just the same to me.  But the most important verdict came from Josh.  He had two last night for dessert and said they were great.  Success!

 

Now to hit the gym ...

Thanksgiving Week

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today I'll be preparing caramelized onion sweet potatoes and butternut squash tamales to share at Josh's parents' dinner tonight.  More on that next week ...

 

But I've been in a Thanksgiving state of mind all week, preparing all sorts of fall dishes.  Josh's mom plans to make a vegan apple pie (for me) and a regular (non-vegan) pumpkin pie for everyone else.  Since I didn't want to miss out on the delicious pumpkin festivities, I decided to make this vegan pumpkin pie from Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, and I've been enjoying a piece (or two!) every day since.  It's sooo good.  It was just as creamy as she promised, plus it was super easy to make.  I know I'll be making this again and again all winter (and probably into summer!). 

 

When it comes time to plan Thanksgiving food, Josh always advocates for burritos.  His dream is to have all Mexican food for Thanksgiving and ditch the traditional stuff.  Obviously, I tried to appease him slightly by coming up with butternut squash tamales.  But I also tried to take the sting off of the non-Mexican Thanksgiving by making a batch of poblano soup Monday for dinner.  I got the recipe a couple years ago from a Mexican cooking demonstration we attended at the Mexican Cultural Institute and tweaked it a bit to make it vegan - which was easy peasy (sub in almond milk and veggie broth). 

 

Once I'd roasted and skinned the poblanos everything came together so quickly.  Sautee white onion in butter and oil.  Add poblanos then defrosted corn, salt, and pepper.  Sautee for a while before adding broth, then milk, heating through, and serving.  I kind of wished we'd had some sour cream for garnish, but somehow we survived ... In fact, we both ate two big bowls and seriously thought about a third.  But we managed to exercise restraint ...

 

Yup, pre-Thanksgiving eats definitely rivaled the big day this year.  But I'm still excited for tonight!  Hope your feast is fantastic! 

Pumpkin Bread

I'm so delinquent on posting, it's ridiculous.  I don't even actually remember now when I made this pumpkin bread.  It was definitely a Friday.  Not last Friday ...  Maybe the Friday before?  I really have no idea.  If I gave it enough thought I could probably figure it out, but I won't bother.  What I do know is that before I actually got around to using this mix, it had been sitting in the cupboard for probably almost two years.  Can pumpkin bread mix go bad? 

It was a gift, and it was one of those things that I never bothered to actually make because I figured it would keep and I'm always scouring the Internet for all sorts of other tasty and fun dessert recipes so this always managed to fall by the wayside.  Needless to say, since it came into our house before I was concerned about veganism it isn't an entirely vegan mix - the dry mix itself had buttermilk.  But I did go about veganizing the rest of the recipe by making using vegan substitutions for the add-ins.  And I think it came out quite tasty indeed.  Especially warmed in the microwave and with a little Earth Balance spread on top ... Yum!  This definitely became both dessert and breakfast for a few days straight.  Maybe I'm a pumpkin bread convert now ...  Which means I'll have to go back to the Internets to scrounge up a vegan version of this fall treat.  Not a bad homework assignment.