People seem to assume that vegans are weak sickly creatures, malnourished and sleepy all the time.   Surely we’re all bad at sports and eat nothing but grains and sunlight, right?      Once upon a time, they wouldn’t have been too wrong about me.

When I was a kid I was terrible at sports–or anything active or athletic for that matter.  Although, I guess that’s not entirely fair.  I loved dancing, swimming in the creek. roaming through the woods, climbing trees, and building forts.  However, I was terrible at pretty much any kind of organized, official sport and thus I avoided them like the plague.  I couldn’t run, I couldn’t throw very far (or accurately), and when playing a sport that involved balls, I would either duck, jump out of the way, or swat wildly at it with all the strength in my pudgy little arms.  It took me over twenty minutes to complete the mile run fitness test in 5th grade.   I was a chubby, slow kid, picked last for every gym class sport (except hockey, where my chubbiness proved an asset when charging into littler kids), and I honestly would have preferred sitting against the wall and reading a book while the others dribbled, passed, shot, kicked, swatted, jumped or did whatever it was they were doing.

Somewhere along the line that all changed.   I mean, I’m still pretty terrible at sports.  My reaction to balls flying at me has remained unchanged, and I’ve caused quite a few ping pong balls to fly wildly into uncharted dimensions.    Except now instead of being upset or embarrassed, I warn people, and then I laugh and do a little jig.  Anyway, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make.  The point is, I love being active now.    I’ve become something of an endorphin junky.   I have to run, bike, dance, lift weights, or do yoga pretty much every day or I go into withdrawal.

Being a silly little yogi.

It was my dance classes that got me hooked.  Dancing doesn’t feel like “working out.”  It’s just fun.  And once I got used to those endorphins, there was no going back.   However, being an active vegan does have me thinking about nutrition just about constantly.   I try to eat lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, etc.   I want all my calories to go towards fueling my body in a healthy and sustainable way.  I’m always going to choose whole grain bread over the white stuff, because that’s what my body likes.  I want my calories to count, you know?   Also,  I include protein in every meal and snack to help ensure that my muscles continue to support all my wacky endeavors.   If I want to jump up one day and run 8 miles or bike 50 miles or do 3 hours of yoga or lift weights for two hours, I need my body to be there with me.    (Yes these are things I’ve done, and no I don’t do them every day or even very regularly.)

Anyway, I wanted to show you what a vegan might eat as a post-workout snack.   Recovery snacks!   Full of protein, carbs, fiber, and goodness.  Simple whole foods for my poor little body.

Bright, juicy, and full of vitamin C and antioxidants.

Here we have fresh strawberries, which are chock full of yummy carbs, juiciness, fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.  So good.   And that tiny little bag of dry roasted edamame?  15 grams of protein, baby.   Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!    These calories don’t mess around.  They get straight to the point.  They’re like, “You need nourishment?  We’re on it.”

Also, if that snack looks a little small to you, it’s because a) I’m small, and b) exercising tends to kill my appetite for a few hours..   But I know a recovery snack is important so I make myself do it.    I ate this particular little treat after doing the P90X legs & back workout and the Ab Ripper X.   Hah.  The “Ab Ripper” title makes me giggle.   My abs are certainly not ripped.

This next recovery snack is a little bigger because I had run 8 miles and, surprisingly, I was starving.

Healthy Foods! Woah. What a hippy.

Sliced apple, carrot sticks, and almond butter, with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and ground flax.  This was incredible.   Have you ever had apple pie with cheddar cheese?   Or a peanut-butter cream-cheese sandwich?  Carrot cake with nuts and cream cheese frosting?   Basically, fruit, cheese, and nuts go together sooo well.   The nutritional yeast added a cheesiness to my snack that was so so very good–not to mention nutritional (who woulda thunkit with a name like “nutritional yeast”? Mmm Vitamin B12).   The flax was there all full of fiber, B vitamins, and omega 3 fatty acids… and the almond butter was rocking hard, being delicious, and giving me the protein I needed.

Mmmmm Carrot Sticks. Can haz, plz?

I’m getting hungry looking at these pictures…   Almond butter and nutritional yeast was SUCH a good idea.

So there you have it.   My post-workout snacks tend to feature nuts, fruits, and vegetables.  Simple whole foods that give me the carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins my body needs to repair itself and become faster, stronger, harder, leaner, better.

That being said, don’t think that I would shun a Clif Protein Bar, a Luna Bar, or a Kid Z Bar.  Those things are damn good, and make me feel super nice after a workout.   Fruit and nuts are just cheaper so that’s the way I roll.  Nutrition on a budget, baby!

I really need to work on my food naming skills.   Triple-C Cake?  Citrus Surprise Crumb Cake?   CranCitrus Crumb Cake?  I kind of like the last one.

Holey Cake!

Sometimes I start baking and I get a little carried away.   This cake was inspired by a combination of the Post Punk Kitchen’s latest drool-worthy crumb cake post and the fact that I walked into the café at work the other day and discovered whole wheat vegan cranberry crumb cake.  *happy sigh*   I still get a little giddy when I think about that cake.  It was sooo good!   So I knew that I, too, had to make a whole wheat cranberry crumb cake.   But I wanted to make it jam-swirl style, so whole cranberries were out, and cranberry sauce was in!

Cranberry Sauce Swirls

I made the cranberry sauce a million years ago for Thanksgiving, but it had the exact consistency of jam and, like jam, refused to go bad.   So I used it!   I’m sure the cake would also be good with a handful of whole cranberries instead, if that’s what you have on hand.  I wouldn’t recommend making cranberry sauce just so you can make cute little swirls in your cake.   But um, it’s totally delicious, so maybe you should?

Golden, moist, and citrusy!

So, my next act of ridiculousness was the decision to use an adaptation of my mother’s lemon pound cake recipe for the cake portion.  My favorite version of that cake is the orange pound cake… and oranges and cranberries sound sooo good together.  So I had my mind made up.   But, once I started to make the cake, I discovered that what I thought was a bag of oranges sitting next to the fridge… was a bag of grapefruits!   But I was on a cake mission and nothing could stop me.   Perhaps I couldn’t make it a fully orange cake, so I did a little farewell dance for the orange cake idea, and decided to go with a citrus cake –incorporating the one orange we had, a grapefruit, and some lemon juice.

zomg! CAKE.

My last act of insanity was that, when melting the Earth balance for the crumb topping, I decided to make this a grown-up cake, and browned the Earth Balance.  You just have to love browned butter.  Deep and nutty and all grown up, my crumb cake was ready to jump into a bundt pan and boogy into the oven.

Bundty Crumb Cake

So, I probably should have baked this in a normal square pan and put the crumbs on top … but what I did was instead I crumbled the crumbs into the bottom of a bundt pan, poured half the cake batter in, dolloped and swirled the cranberry sauce, and then poured the rest of the batter in.   The crumbs kind of pressed together in the bottom of the pan so when I inverted it, I had to loosen them up with a fork.   But, it looks beautiful so I’m glad I did it.

CranCitrus Crumb Cake

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grapefruit juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons orange rind

• cranberry sauce

Crumb Topping:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup browned butter substitute (Earth Balance)

• Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˙F  and grease & flour either an 8×8 square cake pan or a bundt pan.
2. Prepare crumb topping.   Mix together all the crumb ingredients but the Earth Balance.  Flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Melt 1/2 cup Earth Balance in a small sauce pan.  Let cook until it becomes an amber brown color and has a nutty aroma.  You can find a how-to for browning butter here.   Let the browned butter cool slightly and then mix it into the crumb ingredients.  Mixture should hold together like dough.   Use your hands to crumble the dough into the bottom of the bundt pan.   If you’re baking in a normal square pan, do this step last and put crumbs on top of the cake.  The bundt pan needs it on the bottom since the cake will be inverted at the end.
3. Prepare the cake batter.   Mix together whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.   Set aside.   If using fresh oranges and grapefruits, squeeze grapefruit juice into a measuring cup.   Add a tablespoon of lemon juice and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil to the juice mixture.  Zest an orange and a grapefruit to get two tablespoons of fresh rind and add it to the wet ingredients.   Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and fold in the wet ingredients.
4. Pour half the cake batter on top of the crumbs and dot it with heaping spoonfuls of cranberry sauce.  Swirl sauce into the batter and then top it off with the remainder of the cake batter.  (If not using a bundt pan, the cake batter should go on the bottom, then swirl in the cranberry sauce, then more cake batter, and then the crumb topping.)
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
6. Invert the bundt cake and dust with powdered sugar.

I think it’s super good served on a little bed of cranberry sauce, with a side of fresh grapefruit.  Part of this balanced breakfast!  Hah.   Well, at least I used whole wheat so it’s kind of healthy, right?

I forced my guy friends to come over and eat cake, since I didn’t want to deal with the whole thing by myself.  One boy only could stop for a minute because he was on his way to see his parents.  I sent him away with a whole tupperware full of cake.  Two minutes later I received the text:  ”OMG These aren’t gonna last the drive over…. amazing!”

So the official review is:  Two thumbs up for CranCitrus Crumb Cake!   Om nom nom!

The answer?  Yes.  Duh.

Lettuce be thankful...

I didn’t make these with soy ground beef… for many reasons.  For one, that’d be too easy wouldn’t it?   Secondly, those smart grounds can get pricey.  But most of all, I’ve been feeling off the processed fake meats recently.   So, I borrowed another page from the glorious Ms. Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and used lentils and mushrooms to give my lettuce wraps a hearty meaty feel.

Lettuce be grateful.

So, before I toss a recipe at you, I’m going to tell you something.  Are you paying attention?  Good.  So, I jumped into this project with lots of lentilly experience, but not the right kind of lentilly experience.  I mean, I’ve made an awful lot of dal and stews and lentil burgers, etc, etc.  However, I’d never cooked lentils to just hold their shape and texture… I’ve always been trying to break them down into a goopy delicious mess.  Plus, just coming off of oatmeal joy that morning, I thought, “Oh, why don’t I do one cup of lentils and two cups of water. That shouldn’t get too soupy.”   WRONG.   The lentils ended up being the texture of refried beans…. which is good to know.  If I ever want lentils à la refried beans, I know exactly what to do.  But that wasn’t what I was going for this time.  I wanted lentils cooked a la dente.   But that’s not what I got!    Anyway, what I’m trying to say is…  maybe you should try a 1:1 ratio instead of a 1:2 ratio.. unless you want your filling to be the texture of refried beans… then you know… 1:2 is the way to go.   Whatever floats your boat!

Lentil Lettuce Wraps

• 16 Boston Bibb or butter lettuce leaves (or any big fat lettuce leaves)
• 1 cup lentils
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup diced mushrooms
• vegetable oil
• 1/4 lb diced extra firm tofu (optional)
• pinch of turmeric (for the tofu)
• 1 large onion, chopped (optional)
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced (optional)
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• Asian chile pepper sauce (optional)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (or to taste)
• 1 carrot
• Hot Mustard sauce!  (optional)

Note: My sister does not eat onions or garlic so… there were none in my lettuce wraps.  I’m just hypothesizing that they’d be crazy delicious.     Also, I added tofu to my wraps because I like tofu and because I needed to add some texture since my lentils got so mushy!

Directions:

1. Rinse lentils.  In a medium sized pot, bring water to a boil and add lentils.  Cook until the lentils are tender and there is no more water in the pot. Set aside.
2. Sautée mushrooms in a small saucepan with just a little splash of vegetable oil. Once they start to get soft, mix them in with the lentils in the pot.   (If you’re adding onions and garlic, too… now would be the time to sautée those and then mix in with the lentils.  And while you’re at it, fry up some tofu with a pinch of turmeric until crispy and throw that in with the lentils, too!)
3. Mix in all the saucey and spicey stuff.  Taste often so you can adjust!  Yum.
4. Wash the lettuce leaves and set aside.
5. Dice or shred carrot.
6. Make mustard sauce!  If you happen to have mustard sauce in your fridge… lucky you!  I don’t have any such luxury, so I mixed together some yellow mustard and chili paste.   Worked like a charm!  Start with 1/3 cup yellow mustard and add hot stuff to it little by little until it’s just as hot as you like it.  Yum.
7. Serve lentil mixture on lettuce leaves, topped with carrot, with mustard sauce on the side!

Lentil Lettuce wraps are badass!

And that, my friends, is a wrap!

My constant obsessive blogging has slowed down since I’ve gotten a job!  Huzzah!   However, I’m not planning on disappearing altogether.   No sirree!  I’ve got lots of cookies and cakes and awesome things to make in my future, and so the blog lives on.

Speaking of cookies, I’ve had some requests for my pumpkin cookie recipe.

Photo by Carrie T

Mmmmm Cookie

Pumpkin cookies with penuche frosting.   Oh man, these cookies are so incredibly good.  Out of all the cookies, cakes, candies, pies, and pastries I make, I think these are the most loved.  They are the express favorites of most of my friends.  They may look a little funny, but trust me… they’re incredible.  Soft and lightly spiced, the cookie portion isn’t overly sweet, but perfectly complemented by the candy shell on top!  Also, I have a weird secret way of doing the penuche frosting that makes these extra good (I think).

Pumpkin Cookies

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegan white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance (or other butter substitute)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Optional: 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and/or cloves and/or ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream together sugars, shortening, and earth balance.  Mix in pumpkin and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt (and optional spices); mix into the creamed mixture.
3. Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
4. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool on wire racks.

Cookie Notes:  The recipe originally called for 1/2 cup shortening, but it tastes better with Earth Balance… but keeps its shape better with shortening!  So, I do half shortening and half Earth Balance.  However, if you only have one or the other, don’t sweat it.  It’ll still be delicious.  Trust me.

Also, if you want the cookies to taste more like pumpkin pie, you can add the nutmeg, cloves, and ginger (or just use pumpkin pie spice).  I normally use only the cinnamon.

And don’t bother with making them perfect circular cookie shapes.  I think they’re best if they’re just dropped onto the sheet in funny shapes with little bits sticking up here and there.  Those little bits brown nicely and are so satisfying to bite off.

Also, cans of pumpkins have an obnoxious way of being just  like 1/4 a cup too much of pumpkin.  Sometimes I just throw in the extra pumpkin and it’s still good.  If you’re worried about it being too moist, just add a couple tablespoons of flour or something.

Penuche Frosting

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Optional: 1 Tablespoon Dark Rum
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Melt Earth Balance in a sauce pan and mix in brown sugar.  Add soymilk and vanilla, mixing thoroughly, and bring to a boil.  Boil and stir until mixture reaches soft ball stage (if you don’t have a candy thermometer, you can test by dropping little spoonfuls of mixture into cold water and seeing how much they thicken up).
2. Remove mixture from heat and beat in powdered sugar until there are no lumps and smooth consistency.  Spoon frosting while still warm onto the cookies.  If it starts to harden before you’re done frosting the cookies, just return to stovetop and melt it back down.

Penuche Notes: So what I do with penuche that is weird and different, is that I add the powdered sugar before the mixture reaches the soft ball stage and then I boil it a bit until it’s a thick caramel sauce, which I spoon onto the cookies.  The tops of the cookies soak up the sticky delicious sauce and are sooo good.   I normally have about half the mixture left and I cook it longer until it gets to the point where it’ll harden into a shell over the cookies (just like the earlier instructions), and I cover the sticky caramelly pumpkin cookies with the hardening penuche.  So what you end up with is soft cookie, sticky sauce, and hard shell.  So good.   But if I’m in a hurry, I just go straight to the penuche and skip the saucey way.

Also, adding a tablespoon of rum or two adds a really great flavor to the frosting.  Just make sure you boil long enough to get rid of that extra moisture… and to kill the alcohol if you’re worried about that sort of thing.

Tip: Sift your powdered sugar so you don’t end up with dumb lumps like in picture #2.

Goodness Gracious.   I’d been baking nonstop since Thursday and didn’t post a single photo or recipe or anything!

Caught up in the excitement of an imminent bake sale, I got a little carried away and made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and fudge frosting, blueberry turnovers, pumpkin cookies with penuche frosting, pain au chocolate, almond croissants, Oreo brownies, gluten-free quinoa peanut butter cookies, and gluten-free pecan pie bars.   And because I’m a little crazy, and I was in the baking groove, I made myself a couple loaves of bread,  some oat-bars for my sister, whole wheat blueberry muffins for my friends, some fudge for the fridge, and even gave my friend Josh a croissant-making tutorial.

And in this frenzy of baking, I didn’t take a single photo!

Luckily, a lovely young lady by the name of Carrie captured quite a few nice looking photos at the bake sale yesterday.  And luckily, she is nice enough to let me post her photos! Huzzah!

Warning: Contains Nuts

Dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and chocolate fudge frosting.  I added the roasted peanuts on top as a big “WARNING: CONTAINS NUTS!” sign.  I thought of writing it on the tag as well.  It always makes me crack up when peanut butter jars or bags of peanuts have that warning on their label.  Duh.  If you didn’t contain nuts, we’d have to have a serious talk.

<3 layery "buttery" goodness

My croissants unfortunately got a little squashed, but I’m sure they were still delicious.  I didn’t eat any post-squish, but I have faith in them.  Zillion delicate buttery layers wrapped around a creamy dark chocolate center…  If they didn’t take 3 days to make, I’d make them all the time.   Probably it’s for the best.   I don’t think my waist could handle eating pain au chocolat every day.

A Blondie Named Desire

In this photo, my little oreo brownies are cozying up to Carrie’s amazing amazing looking blondies.  I wish I got to eat one.  Again, it’s maybe for the best.  Scratch that!  There is no way it was for the best.  I need blondies in my life.  Like, now.  She made blondies, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter blondies, and good ol’ fashioned brownies.   I got to eat some brownie crumbs, but I’m afraid the hordes of Santa Cruzians snagged the rest.

Speaking of blondies, I have got to make my grandma’s congo bars soon.   They’re on the to-do list.  Because now that I’ve started thinking about them, I can’t stop.

Gluten Free Goodies

Here is my little gluten-free collection.  The pecan pie bars were adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.  Excuse me while I take a moment to pat myself on the back.  They were by far the best gluten-free cookies I’ve ever created.  I honestly never really gave gluten-free a chance before.  But I was at Whole Foods staring at all the exciting and exotic looking flours, and my imagination went wild, and I was just captivated…. sooo many flours in the world!  Each with their own flavor and texture.  I went a little wild and bought a lot of things I didn’t need.. but it resulted in some totally delicious gluten free cookies, so I’m glad I made the plunge.  I’m really excited to experiment further.

Pumpkin Cookies with Penuche

My pumpkin cookie recipe is classic and old school.  I’ve been using it since Jr. High.  I can’t say that about many recipes in this world.  I remember the first time I ever made them.  I came across the recipe in my mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook, and was struck by how easily they could be veganized.  Mom approved of the cookie choice, but told me very sternly that if I was going to make pumpkin cookies, I had to make penuche as well.  Mother knows best.   Soft, pumpkinny, and spicey with a candy frosting…  I know they’re not seasonal.. so sue me.  They’re good.  And I’ve had two huge huge cans of pumpkin sitting in the cupboard since Thanksgiving, so it was about time I did something with them.

Bake Sale!

The bake sale was really amazing.  There were two overflowing tables of the most amazing looking goodies.  I wish I could have had one of everything… but I probably wouldn’t have been able to move for the next few days!

So cute!

The little Japanese flag cakes were so cute and they looked yummy, too. And double chocolate is really all you need to say to have me hooked.  I think Amey made both of these.

Cowboy Cookies

I’m not sure who made the cowboy cookies, but I really wanted one.

Oh. My. God.

Oh goodness!  Autumn made this. I had a few little crumbs that were left in the pan, and jeeeeeeeeeez it was good.   Flat bread with carmelized onions, squash, apples, some sort of garlicky white bread spread… Yum.

Cupcakes!

Chai spice cupcakes looked really good, too.  I didn’t get any though!   Santa Cruz was hungry on Saturday.

Peanut butter chocolate chip... <3

It was a seriously good looking table we had.

Triple Ginger

I was lucky enough to eat 1/4th of a broken ginger cookie.  It was incredible.  So gingery!

Savory!

Pretzels and quiche!  I wanted a pretzel so bad… but I was too busy selling to eat any.  Also, there is some asparagus hanging out in my fridge, and I think it needs to find a home in a quiche.

Happy Customers!

Happy customers, digging in.

Busy Busy!

We were so busy!

Cinnamon Buns!

Autumn was the yeast-queen!  She made pretzels, flat bread, and cinnamon buns!  These were INCREDIBLE.

macaroons, etc

There were even macaroons!

Dwindling!

Us and our dwindling supply of baked goods!  Down to a very sparse one table.

LAST TWO COOKIES!

Our last two cookies!   We totally sold out!  It was awesome!

Cash Monies

In the end we raised $1,860 for disaster relief in Japan.  Not bad for an afternoon, huh?

So, now that I’m over my cold, I’m once again back on the health food train.   As you may remember, I recently made some wheat-free low-sugar chocolate chunk cookies, which with the help of Heather Eats Almond Butter, I’m now calling, ChocoChunk Oaties.  ChocOaties?  ChocoChunkies?  Ok the jury is still out on that one.

Anyway, I wondered what would happen if I made a peanut butter version, and the result was wonderful.

Peanut Butter Oaties!

I’m calling these Peanut Butter Oaties.  The texture was a million times better than the originals and even better than the banana ones!   They held together.  They were chewy.  And they’re peanut butter… Need I say more?

I even made some with the unsweetened chocolate chunks.

Choco Peanut Butter Oaties

So the flavors were pretty good, but what I really wanted was a huge kick of straight up, non-diluted peanut butter flavor.

Problem solved:

Oh Em Gee.. mmm peanut buttery

Topped with a smear of peanut butter, it was hard to imagine how these could get much better.    Hard to imagine, but not impossible.

Chocolate Chickpea Spread

I took the chunk-less peanut butter versions, and smeared some of my chocolate chickpea spread on them.   Mmmm.  So good.

Only one way to make it better.

COOKIE SANDWICH

Organic peanut butter and chocolate chickpea spread, nestled between  two wheat free, low-sugar peanut butter cookies….  It was perfection.   Is there anything better than a cookie sandwich?  Cookiewich!

Peanut Butter Oaties

• 1 3/4 cups oat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt*
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 1 tablespoon granulated stevia
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 1 Tablespoon flax meal
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• (Optional) 2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

*Depending on whether or not you’re using salted peanut butter, you may way to adjust the salt.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F
2. Cream molasses, agave, stevia, peanut butter, flax, water, and vanilla together.
3. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.
4. Combine flour mixture and peanut butter mixture.
5. Chop unsweetened chocolate into small chunks.  Add to mixing bowl.
6. Drop batter onto ungreased baking sheet.  Push down to flatten the cookies with fork to make criss-cross design.
7. Bake 10-12 minutes.

So I’ve had a pretty bad cold for the past few days.   I’ve spent most of my days sleeping, blowing my nose, and drinking tea.  *sigh*  Boring!   And since I gave up TV for lent, and my brain did not feel particularly up to processing the French language (the only unread novels I have in the apartment are French), I wasn’t left with much to do.

Also, to make matter worse, when I’m sick I crave junk food.  Like mad.  Actually it’s not all junk… it’s just all carb-centric.  First I’ll crave spaghetti, then pancakes, then cookies, then peanut butter chocolate fudge, and then the next thing you know I’m elbow deep in donuts!

I’m not sure exactly how the craving came upon me… I was cruising the food blogs, staring at heavenly foods, sinful foods, purgatory foods, and all foods in between, when suddenly I wanted to make donuts.

Eep! Donuts!

I don’t know what happened!   One moment I was lying on my bed/couch, and the next moment I had my hands full of two different kinds of dough, 4 different toppings, 2 different fillings, and a pan of hot hot oil.

Powdered donuts:

Powdered donuts

Glazed donuts:

Glaaaaaaaze

Cinnamon sugar donuts:

Mmm cinnamon.

Jelly and Chocolate filled donuts:

Umm, I keep trying to take bites of my computer screen...

They were fricken incredible.  I made potato donuts– which may sound weird but are so so so so so good.   My mom used to make them when I was a kid…  and fortuitously, there was a box of instant mashed potatoes in the cupboard that was just dying to become donuts.  Ah, fortune was truly smiling upon me!

I recently learned that potato donuts are actually called “Spudnuts”!  How cute is that?  They’re seriously the best cake donut ever.  I mean, the problem with most cake donuts is that they always seem to be kind of dry or weird inside.  Just, not nearly as exciting as a yeast donut.  But the mashed potatoes in the batter create an amazing, moist center.  And they’re fast!   Because sometimes, you don’t want to wait a million years for your dough to rise.  Sometimes you want donuts NOW.   Spudnuts to the rescue!

Inside a potato donut:

SOOO GOOD

I made sooo many donuts.  And there was NO ONE to eat them!   I was all home alone, my friends were all MIA, and my sister was off galavanting about Berkeley or Marin or something.   I did my best to put a dent in the donut mountain, but I’m only one little girl and I couldn’t handle two dozen sugarry fried pillows of wonderful all by myself.

I was so sad!  I temporarily lost all hope in humanity.   What kind of world is this if I make two dozen AMAZING fresh donuts, and no one comes by to eat them?  And those donuts needed to be eaten right then and there!   In my opinion, donuts are not very good unless eaten immediately.   I was not going to let my friends eat my day old donuts and go “Ho hum.  They were OK for a vegan donut.”

No sirree!  I had a reputation to protect!  Two reputations!  My own reputation as a baker, pastry chef, and creator of all things delightful, and the reputation of veganism at large.  ’Cause, I’m sure you’ve heard it.  ”Oh, I don’t like vegan cookies.  I had one once and it was kind of weird.”    asdfasldkjfa;dlkgj!!!  Rawr!   That sort of thing always gets me all twisted up and huffy puffy and threatening to bake cookies to PROVE THEM WRONG.   I’m sorry if the one cookie you had once was not a good cookie.  But, I promise you, there are lots of amazing, delicious, incredible vegan treats out in the world.  You just have to find someone who can make them well.

Anyway, I had the most massive amount of day old donuts in the morning.   And not much of an idea of what to do with them.   GAH!

Eep! DAY OLD DONUTS.

I couldn’t eat them all by myself… I couldn’t let my friends eat them… I had no desire to freeze and reheat them… what on Earth was I going to do?  I really didn’t want to throw them away… Oh, but I might have to!

Then, it dawned on me!  Duh!

Eureka!

Can you guess what’s happening here?

Donuts in a pan!

Donut bread pudding!  My faith in humanity was restored.  Surely the Universe had engineered the whole unfortunate Donut Debacle just to lead to this very breakthrough.  Donut Bread Pudding.  Donut Pudding?  Yes.  Donut Pudding.     I mean, donuts by themselves are delicious and awesome, obviously.  But donut pudding?  That’s a whole new world.

So I did what any girl would do.  I whipped up the wet custardy part of the pudding, poured it over the donuts, and threw it in the oven.  I called over a few boys and had them watch while I sliced up an apple, sauteed it in some non-hydrogenated buttery margarine, threw in a teaspoon of brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg… and then *glug glug glug* RUM!  Then, I lit it on fire.   I need a cooking show.  Or at least someone to take pictures of me while I do crazy things like light my apples on fire.  Woosh!  Flames!   They were so high!  And awesome.  And my guy friends were completely captivated and impressed.

And, to top the whole thing off?   Caramel Rum Sauce.   I don’t mess around folks.  If I’m going to make an unhealthy fatty sugarry bad-for-you dessert, I go all the way.

My Masterpiece

The non-vegan boys were so knocked out they couldn’t even speak while they ate.  They just kept laughing, shaking their heads in disbelief, taking deep breaths, and staring at me with wide eyes.  Epic Win.

Donut pudding, apples, and rum sauce. Dizamn!

I told them I had considered tossing the whole thing out, and boy #2 told me that would have been a crime against humanity.  Hehe!

I don’t necessarily recommend frying up two dozen donuts from scratch just to make the donut pudding, but if you happen to have a massive load of day old donuts on hand?  Go for it.

Recipes after the jump!

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I made a cookie jar!  Well… “made” isn’t quite the right word.  What I did was recycle an empty giant pretzel tub into a cookie jar.   A pretzel tub that looked something like this:

Pretzel Jar

And turned it into this!

Cupcake!

I won’t be putting any cupcakes in the “cookie jar,” but I thought it would be cute and get the point across.  The point being: here be awesome sweet things.

Om Nom Nom!

Yummy sweet things that make you say “Om nom nom!”

Yum!

And YUM!

Things like cookies!

Les Macarons?

One of these days I’ll make some vegan macarons… but I chose to paint them on the cookie jar just because I thought it would be super cute.  Was I right?

CUPCAKE

Yay cookie jar!  I’ve since covered it with sealer, so it’s all shiny now, too.  Shiny AND cute.  I’m pretty happy.

But, what’s a cookie jar without cookies?    Inspired by the unsweetened chocolate chunks in HEAB’s scookies, and Post Punk Kitchens Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, I decided to make “healthy cookies” for my cookie jar.  I’m gonna blame my recent weird health craze on California living.  I used to scoff at healthy baked goods.  My philosophy was if you wanted some dessert, you should have a proper rich, decadent, fat-filled, sugarry ridiculous something-or-other, and just eat less of it if you wanted to be “healthy.”

But, lots of sugarry foods make me feel all weird and hungover the next day… Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not going to stop making ridiculous goodies all together… I’m just trying to work in the healthier options a bit as well.  So, I’m experimenting with agave and stevia and oat flour and the likes.

Anyway! I present to you,

Cookies!

Wheat-Free Low-Sugar Chocolate Chunk Cookies!   Hrm, that’s kind of a mouthful isn’t it?

inside a wheat-free cookie

They were honestly pretty damn good.  Oaty, nutty, chocolatey, with just a hint of sweet.  The chocolate chunks are unsweetened baking chocolate– dark and intense–and made palatable by the light cookie sweetness surrounding them.   Since the cookies are made entirely with oat flour, they did crumble a bit more readily than your average chocolate chip cookie.  So, in an attempt to improve the binding– and lower the fat content– I made another batch using mashed banana instead of oil.

Banana Cookie

They held together waaay better.  Also, the bananas added another couple hints of sweetness, and the result was a cookie that tasted reminiscent of chocolate chip banana bread.  Win.

Before you throw yourself into cookie making, here is a little note on “oat flour.”  You can probably buy crazy expensive oat flour at your local Whole Foods, or you can be like me and put your oats through a coffee grinder or food processor.  It’s as simple as that!   I used steel cut oats since it’s what we had on hand, but rolled oats would probably work better.

Wheat-Free Chocolate Chunk Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups oat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1 tablespoon agave
• 1 tablespoon granulated stevia
• 1/3 cup canola oil  (or 1 cup mashed banana)
• 1 Tablespoon flax meal
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
• (Optional) 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• (Optional) 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚F
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Add molasses, agave, stevia, oil (or banana), flax, water, vanilla.  Mix together.
4. Chop unsweetened chocolate into small chunks.  Add to mixing bowl.
5. Drop batter onto ungreased baking sheet.  Push down to flatten the cookies if you want to.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Easy Peasy.  God Bless Isa Chandra Moskowitz and her brilliant recipes.

Next time, I’m thinking of trying to make these with peanut butter.  Good idea or what?

I love going to the Farmers’ Market.  I love filling up on the delicious samples, eyeing the bright flowers, squeezing the assorted dirt caked produce, and I love using my Beatles tote bag.

Ready for some veggies!

The bag is probably enough to get me out of the house.

This is what I came home with in the end:

Daisies!

It’s always hard for me to pass up all the flowers at the market.  I generally think my money is better spent on something I can eat… but they were practically giving these away as a “rainy day special.”  I couldn’t pass them up.  They’re so sweet and innocent looking, don’t you think?

Ah, to be a bumblebee!

The full spread:

Yum yum!

I only had $12, so I couldn’t go too wild at the market.   Apples, oranges, strawberries, rainbow carrots, lettuce, and daisies!  I’m thinking of making lettuce wraps.

I did get these as a treat, though:

Bolani!

Sooooo good!   Bolani is a traditional Afghani flatbread, stuffed and baked with deliciousness.  It comes in a whole variety of flavors, such as pumpkin, potato, spinach, and lentil.    It’s all delicious eaten on its own, hot or cold. But, to push it into a whole different realm of awesome, they also carry a whole assortment of chutneys and hummuses and spreads… and it’s all vegan and low-fat!  Mmm.  Bolani.   And their guy at market will feed you every possible flavor combination imaginable… just one sample after another until you’re completely bolani’d out.  I love it.   Yesterday, he also threw in a piece of free baklava.

Baklava!

It’s clearly not vegan, but I didn’t want to turn down free baklava… so I gave it to my sister.  :)

Another breakfast post?   Jeeeeeeeez!

I’m sorry, y’all.  Breakfast is my favorite meal.  You’ll just have to bear with me.   I mean, don’t get me wrong… I love lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts as well.   I love eating in general.  But, breakfast food is just the best.  I could eat breakfast for every meal.  Sometimes I do.  Waffles for dinner?  Yes, please.

However, if you’re an early riser like I am, and you happen to have a late-riser, light-sleeper roommate, and you live in the teeniest tiniest of apartments, it can be a little difficult to whip up anything more complicated than toast or cereal in the morning.   My cooking and baking is always accompanied by a lot of clanking, banging, and whirring.   So what happens when you want something decadent and ridiculous?   Well, folks, then you’ve gotta be a little creative.

And I am creative.

Breakfast win!

So I approached this meal knowing only one thing: I want blueberries!   But we only have frozen blueberries… so they’ve gotta be cooked in some way.  It’s a little too cold and rainy this week to just go around eating frozen blueberries.  So I made a blueberry sauce.  The simplest blueberry sauce known to man.

Blueberry Sauce

• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Quiet Directions:

1. Very quietly empty the remainder of a small bag of frozen blueberries into a saucepan.
2. Gently place it on the stove.  Shhh!  Gently!   Turn to stovetop to medium heat.
3. Sprinkle some cornstarch into the pan.  Don’t really bother with fishing out a teaspoon.  Rummaging through the drawer makes too much noise.
4. Toss a hefty splash of lemon juice into the pan.  Is it a teaspoon?  Who cares.  It really doesn’t matter.   The proportions for this sauce aren’t important.  Just toss the ingredients together, let them cook and bubble, stir occasionally, and wait for the blueberries to do their thing.   Eventually they’ll thicken and cook down and be amazing.
5. Sprinkle in sweetener if you want to… I usually don’t.  Blueberries are sweet enough.

So.  I had a sauce.  A sauce and nothing to put it on.  What good is that?    Bah.  Breakfast isn’t solved yet!   I wanted something fast and quiet.   So I opened up a cupboard and eyed the oats.  Oatmeal?  No.  Too normal.  This is a Sunday!   You know what sounds good?   Granola.  Instant Granola.  Damn, I’m smart.

Almost Instant Granola

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Agave or Maple Syrup
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of cinnamon

Quiet Directions:

1. Pull the oats out of the cupboard without knocking over all the other canisters.  I know, it’s hard!  They’re all lined up like dominoes.  One little “Whoops!” and down they go…
2. Pour a mound of oats onto a dry nonstick frying pan.  Does it look like it’s about a cup of oats?  Doesn’t matter.  The less dishes I use the less noise I make.  I’m not going to clank everything together just to fish out a measuring cup… especially since it really doesn’t matter with this recipe.  Add more oats if you want more “granola” … use less if you want less.
3. Drizzle on some vegetable oil and syrup, giving the oats a quick stir with your spoon.  Sprinkle on the cinnamon and salt.
4. Toast the oats in the pan for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.  They’ll become golden brown, and smell and taste exactly like granola.
5. BAM!  Instant Granola.

Note: I’ve also done this using packs of Quaker Instant Oatmeal.  It’s even easier because you get to skip the flavoring part.   Just empty the packet into the pan, spray with a little PAM, and let them toast.

So.  Now we’ve got granola and blueberry sauce.  You know what would go great with that?  Yogurt.  Or cheesecake.  Or yogurt cheesecake.  Mmm.   But you know what I didn’t have?  Yogurt.  Nor cheesecake.  Nor cheesecake flavored yogurt.  Nor yogurt based cheesecake.  Do you know what I did have?  Silken tofu.

Silken tofu is an incredibly versatile ingredient.  It has basically no taste and can be used in a gazillion different ways.  I stared longingly at the little vacuum packed box, wishing I could use my blender.  I wanted to blend it smooth, flavor it, and bake it into little vegan cheesecakes.  I could use the granola for the crust and the berries for the topping… oh it would be so good!

But the blender was completely and utterly out of the question.  Too much noise.  So I did the next best thing.  I grabbed a fork, and I mashed that tofu as if it were a potato that gave me the evil eye.  Annnnnd…  it looked like ricotta when I was done.  Lightbulb!

Lemon Vanilla “Ricotta”

• 1 package vacuum packed silken tofu
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon agave syrup

Quiet Directions:

1. Cut open package and squish into a bowl.  Mash with fork. Not too vigorously!  Remember, we’re being quiet here.
2. Mix in flavorings.
3. Taste and adjust.
4. Done.

Holy Mother of Oats!

I put the “ricotta” in the fridge to chill, because I wanted it to be cold.  I served with room temperature instant granola and warm blueberry syrup.

Breakfast success!  All without waking up my sister!  She was so surprised to find such a fancy breakfast waiting for her.    Two thumbs up for a quiet and yummy meal!