Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘snack’

Yoga Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on May 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

DSC_2236

Happy Friday, everyone! I’m pretty sure this week was extra long. I don’t care that the calendar says it had 5 days like every other work week. It. Was. Long.

With that said I feel like it’s too easy to focus on the negative and complain about my week so let’s do Friday Favorites as top 5 positive things from this week, shall we? That’s way more fun…

1. Saturday I partied it up with my friend, Rachel, and her very cool friends. It was a birthday/cinco de mayo party. I didn’t drink a drop of margaritas. I know! Who am I?? I did have two very large glasses of the world’s best sangria though. Seriously. I tried to get the recipe and Eric was not having it. It was also the first time I’ve had people who I haven’t met before say “Oh! You write Wicked Vegan? I read your blog all the time!” Or something along that line. It was a very cool moment. Hey, Deanna!

1. she punched the Pinata open. Bats are for woosies and 2. it was filled with little bottles of liquor!

1. Rachel punched the Pinata open. Bats are for woosies and 2. it was filled with little bottles of liquor!

2. SOWA is finally open! I walked around Sunday in the sunshine with my friend, Lisa. She bought the world’s cutest teal dress that looked like it was straight out of New Girl. I bought an umbrella necklace and a cactus. It was a good day.

IMG_20130505_203713

3. I received the following rant from my friend Melissa, via email, this week that made me laugh out loud in my cube. This comes AFTER she sent me a dress from modcloth to consider for Lisa’s wedding this summer:

“Also, Modcloth is sort of evil because I imagine they must be  bunch of tiny little Zooey Deschenel clones in colored tights and vintage cardigans. Manic Pixie Dreamgirls at their worst, not even realizing their power to destroy another girl’s self-esteem because they can’t imagine a dress size that accommodates for hips.
Evil hags.”

LOL! Well, ok then!

4. but that email couldn’t top my Dad’s discovery of emoticons. After he sent me some clapping hands (he’s partial to the animated ones), I firmly told him he was WAY too old for emoticons and he needed to stop. Immediately. This did not work. Instead, I got messages like this:

dad and emoticons

Note: The little dude in red dances..and the beer glasses clink…and the smiley face bounces… and the whale spurts water…yeap.

BUT, the cherry on top was when I found out that he sent Mom a “hive with bees buzzing”:

hive or poop?

He’s firmly sticking to his bee hive story but clearly, I’m not buying it! He definitely sent my mom an animated emoticon of poop! My parents are hilarious.

and last but not least, 5. I made these cookies as a sugar-free snack for post-yoga. Rachel and I are still going strong with the hot yoga, even though the Team Lean Challenge has concluded. Well, I should say Rachel is going strong. I seem to be getting progressively worse. But silverlining- I get to chill in child’s pose and watch the very hot guy in yoga attempt Warrior 1. “mmhmm…it is really hot in here… I’m sure taking off your shirt would be a total improvement… Thank you, yoga gods!”

DSC_2225

Yoga Cookies
Adapted from recipe found in Chole’s Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli; and online at Love and Flour

Serves: 24ish

Ingredients

  • 1 cup + 2 TBSP whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)
  • 2 scoops of your favorite vanilla or non-flavored vegan protein powder (2 scoops should be roughly 1/2 c, minus 2 TBSP. I used a pre-packaged serving size of Vega Sports Protein Powder in Vanilla)*
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup + 2TBSP of unsweetened apple sauce
  • ½ cup maple syrup (or agave)
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (I also tried flaked coconut and much prefer the texture of shredded. The cookie holds together better)
  • ½ cup unsweetened craisins
  • ½ cup cacao nibs or vegan chocolate chips (I used Taza Cacao nibs, which I purchased on a whim because I LOVE their Chocolate discs)
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts

*You want your flour and your protein powder to equal 1 1/2 cups combined. Like I said, I used a pre-packaged Vega Protein pack and when I measured it out, it was just shy of the 1/2 c. mark. Hence, the weird flour measurements

Instructions:

  1. Whisk together the flour, protein powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, stir together the apple sauce, syrup, and vanilla.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
  4. Fold in the oats, coconut, craisins, walnuts, and cacao nibs.
  5. Scoop 1½ tablespoons of dough, roll into a ball, then gently flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. Place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes until firm and bottoms are golden brown

DSC_2245

DSC_2246

One of the hardest things I have found when attempting to eat healthy over the past year or so is that sugar and snacks are SO hard to cut out of your diet. I wanted to make these “cookies” as hearty and as healthy as possible while still fooling my brain into thinking it’s snacking. So I did my best to eliminate the extra sugar from this recipe by using unsweetened apple sauce, coconuts and craisin. I also tossed the chocolate chips and used roasted cacao nibs. I will be honest- these definitely aren’t going to replace chocolate for me, they definitely don’t taste like a chocolate chips and they aren’t that great plain. BUT, I found they gave enough of a chocolate hint when cooked into the cookies to fool my brain without over powering the other ingredients. Cooking them into the cookies took away a lot of the bitterness. I want to try the semi-sweet chocolate baking squares next time.

DSC_2234

Alright, everyone. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! It’s rainy and gross here in Boston but try and stay positive this weekend. Get out and do something spring-y, meet some awesome new people or, you know, tell someone you love them with an animated poop icon. Whatever puts a smile on your face :)

Read Full Post »

No-Bake Chocolate Peppermint Bars

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on September 27, 2012 | 2 Comments »

So, let me introduce you to no-bake Chocolate Peppermint Bars. I’ve made these twice now: once, they came out, well, not so great. I may have, possibly, dumped an entire canister of salt into the food processor instead of 1/2 tsp. Then, because I had used the last of my cocoa powder for these bars and had no other desserts lined up for a snack for the week, I may have spent 30 minutes oh-so-carefully scooping out as much of the salt as I possibly could in an attempt to salvage these bars.

Not surprisingly, that didn’t really work and the end result was a very, VERY salty dessert bar that I attempted to eat so I wouldn’t waste it. And even less surprising, I had to throw them out half way through because I just couldn’t torture myself anymore.

BUT, as fate would have it, Angela at Oh She Glows ended up posting a sugar-free version a week or so later, which I was even more excited to try! See, everything in life happens for a reason.

Chocolate Peppermint Bars
from Oh She Glows

  • 1 cup packed, pitted Medjool dates (approx 12)
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt, or to taste
  • 2 tbsp almond milk
  • 1/2 tsp peppermint extract, or to taste
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/4 cup almonds
  • 4 tbsp mini dark chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life) or chopped chocolate
  • 1-2 tbsp large flake unsweetened coconut, for garnish, or, I used unsweetened flaked coconut

Line a loaf pan with two pieces of parchment paper, one going each way. Set aside. In a food processor, process the pitted dates until chopped and sticky.

Add in the rolled oats, cocoa powder, salt, peppermint extract, and almond milk. Process until combined, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.

Add in the nuts and chocolate chips and pulse until combined and sticky. It should be sticky enough to easily make a ball.

Crumble mixture all over prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle a handful of coconut on top and press mixture into pan with slightly wet fingers. Cover with a piece of parchment paper and roll out smooth with a pastry roller.

Freeze for about 15 minutes or until set. Slice into 6 rows and then slice rows in half to make 12 small bars.

These little bars would be great to munch on while your picking apples, having a picnic on a nice fall day or on a road trip to check out the foliage! And you know, for lunch boxes and stuff.

Read Full Post »

Buffalo Hummus

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2012 | 2 Comments »

I’m back! Singularly employed, once again, and looking forward to 1. having my weekends back! Two whole days off?? CRAZY! and 2. spending a little more time on content for WV. yeah! Now, back to the food…

There is a scene in Ten Things I Hate About You where Biana and her friend are chatting and their conversation goes:

Biana: I know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed but can you just be whelmed?
Her Friend: I think you can in Europe…

Well, consider this Europe because “just whelmed” is exactly how I usually feel about hummus! I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, it is just something that’s…ok. I’ll eat it every now and again randomly but I never end up finishing a container and it usually ends up going bad.

But this recipe is definitely the exception. My friend, Amelia, made it a few months back when we had our pretentious drive-in experience. She brought this along with pita chips and veggies. In fact, it was the pita chips that almost caused me to have to pull the car over because there was a squabble regarding how soon movie snacks can be opened before the movie. The answer: definitely not on the way to the movie!

Anyway, Amelia sent me this recipe a few weeks ago and I’ve been dying to make it…and then eat it immediately. Like, all of it.

Buffalo Hummus
courtesy of Amelia

  • 1 can of chickpeas (or the equivalent if you are using dried)
  • 1 TBSP tahini
  • 4 TBSP Frank’s Red Hot Buffalo Sauce (you can use regular Frank’s Red Hot if that’s what you have or you don’t feel comfortable with the “butter flavoring” ingredient. This was just what I had in my fridge)
  • 5 Peppadew peppers (these are located in a jar, generally in the deli section. They have mild and hot. I used mild cause I’m a whimp but hot would be great, too)
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 TBSP of olive oil
  • salt to taste
  • red chili flakes (optional)

Put the chickpeas, tahini, Frank’s Red Hot, peppadew peppers, garlic olive oil and salt into a food processor and process until smooth. Taste. Add more heat if need be. Drizzle more Frank’s Red Hot on top and sprinkle with red chili flakes for garnish.

I seriously love this hummus recipe. I was scraping every last bit out of the food processor with the cucumbers. I may have even pulled out a bag of old potato chip when I ran out of cucumber slices. Those didn’t really work but I did try them! I was able to restrain myself a bit and actually make a rather delicious meal with this. You will have to tune in later in the week for that recipe. Two words, though: caramalized. pineapple. Oh yeah!

Read Full Post »

Spiced Popcorn

Posted in Recipes, tagged , on August 17, 2012 | 2 Comments »

True story: I have an addiction to smuggling things into movie theaters.

It started as a small problem- My mom would bring us to CVS before seeing a movie and we would smuggle candy into the theater. Note, I said my Mom. My Dad tried it once and all the sneaking around nearly caused him to have a heartattack in the theater. We weren’t allowed to eat our smuggled items until all the lights went out and the movie started to cover the noise. I’m pretty sure even at 10 I was looking at him like he was nuts.

But, the smuggling back then was ok because we usually bought popcorn when we got there. It evens out, right?

Then, when I reached my teen years, I would smuggle in one of those ginormous bags that gets you free refills. I would go into the theater and about 10 minutes into the movie, I would pull out the popcorn bag and go to the snack bar and tell them I spilled it in the theater and needed a refill.

Brilliant, I know.

But my smuggling really hit it’s peak a few years ago when me and a date smuggled in full sandwiches, chips and drinks into an after-work showing of Social Network. You know a dudes legit when he goes along with sandwich smuggling.

I wish I could say I was a reformed smuggler but since going vegan, I now have to smuggle my popcorn in, too. I mean, I love me some movie theater popcorn but that liquid butter they drown the popcorn in is either 1. a dairy product or 2. chemicals that mimick a dairy product and that isn’t much better! Rumor has it the popcorn is first popped in coconut oil so if you ask for no butter, you are in the clear. But, whenever I ask anyone at the theaters (who never seems to be older than 17), they all seem a bit stoned and give me vague answers like ‘coconut oil? uh…sure’. Riiight…I think I’ll stick to my smuggling habits

Melinda’s Popcorn aka Spiced Popcorn

*all the measurements in the recipe are approximates. Adjust according to your taste*

  • coconut oil
  • 1/3-1/2 c. corn kernels
  • olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • pinch of cayenne pepper

Pop kernels using your preferred popping method (air popping, brown bag in the microwave, or on the stove top.  I usually prefer in the microwave but my microwave burst into flames last week so I will be showing you the stove top method.)

Pour a few TBSP of coconut oil on the bottom of a big pan with a cover (I used a big soup pot), add a few kernels, cover and set over medium high heat. Once one or two of the kernels have popped, add the rest of your corn kernels and cover. Shake and move the pot around continuously to prevent the popcorn from burning. Continue until the kernels stop popping

Pour the popcorn in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil on the popcorn and about 1/2 tsp each of the salt, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder and a bit of the cayenne pepper. Toss. Drizzle a little more olive oil and toss. Drizzle more olive oil and the rest of the spices. Toss and taste. Add a little more of whatever else you think you need (which almost always is more salt for me).

This is hands down my favorite popcorn I’ve made from scratch. The spices give it such a good flavor that you don’t even miss the liquid butter…or the 800 knapkins you need to wipe the butter grease off your fingers. Much thanks to Melinda for introducing this to me at the drive-in.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Should I leave you with a Friday song to rock out too?? Oh ok, here you go. My new favorite song:

Read Full Post »

Trail Mix Seven Layer Bar

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 10, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Two weekends ago, Melinda and Amelia came over for a dessert baking party. Wine was opened, chocolate was melted and these bars were inhaled. I’m not exaggerating. Melinda wouldn’t even wait for them to set! The pan of Trail Mix Seven layer bars was passed around between all of us on the couch (including two of my roommates) and we ate them directly from the pan.

With our hands.

I wish I was kidding.

I wish we could say we were stoned to at least excuse our behavior but nope! They were just delicious and that’s the only excuse we had!

I woke up the next morning to find a tiny little corner piece was all that remained. The five of us ate almost the whole pan! Clearly, a photograph was not taken and even if it was, I don’t think any of us want us unceremoniously shoving trail mix bars into our faces with our hands to be available on the internet!

Either way, I was forced to make them again for you so I could actually get a picture.

Trail Mix Seven Layer Bars
inspired by Vegan Baking

Crust:

  • 9 cinnamon graham crackers (one packet in Honey Graham Set)*
  • 5 TBSP of coconut oil, melted
  • 1 TBSP + 1tsp water
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup apple juice infused dried cherries (or regular dried cherries)
  • 1/2 cup craisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped almonds
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
  • 1 cup condensed milk (recipe here. I used Unsweetened Vanilla Almond milk this time)

Prepare the condensed milk ahead of time.

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.

Put the graham crackers in a large ziploc baggy and crush until the graham cracker are roughly the texture of sand. (You can use a food processor but honestly, why lug it out and then have to wash the whole darn thing when crushing them works just as easily??).  Add coconut oil, water and salt to  your crushed graham crackers, seal up the bag and mush it all around until everything is well incorporated.

Dump the graham cracker crumbs into your 8×8 pan. Spread evenly. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to press down on the crumbs until they are tightly packed together.

Cover the graham crackers with the toppings. Pour the condensed milk over the toppings.

Bake for 35 minutes.  Once removed from the oven, allow to cool completely before cutting into it. I would recommend putting it in the fridge overnight. If you don’t let it cool, it will just be a crumbly mess of ingredients. I mean, it will still be delicious! But it won’t hold together in bar form. Trust me…the crumbly mess is what we ate the first go around because we were impatient.

*I know graham crackers often have honey in them. I could not find honey-less graham crackers when I was at Whole Foods but I don’t have an issue with honey so I went ahead and used them. Also, the Honey Graham brand and Whole Food’s 365 brand had mostly the same ingredients. If you are looking for a honey-less, more all-natural version, I would recommend trying to make these and swap out the honey for agave syrup or maple syrup. These have been on my ‘to-make’ list forever but this recipe wasn’t the time to try it.

The idea for these came about because my cafetaria at work always has seven layer bars and they are sooo good. and sooo not vegan. This was my vegan version. It’s a little heartier with all the fruit and nuts. The great thing about these is, like trail mix, you can customize it to your liking. You could swap out the cherries for raisin (eww, please don’t) or dried blueberries. You could swap out the almonds and pecans for different types of nuts. And you could use any time of non-dairy milk for the condensed milk.

Now seriously, go make these. And maybe have a fork ready so you don’t end up eating them with your hands. Though…I hear all the cool kids are doing that…just sayin’.

Read Full Post »

Crackers? Chips? Bird Seed?

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

This blog is going to the birds lately. I had the Nuts and Oats burger, which my mom lovingly said looked like bird seed. And now I have these super yummy seed cracker/chip things. Crackips? Chickers? I’m not sure I can combine crackers and chip to make an appealing word but I assure you, these are yummy- bird-seed looking  or not.

This is my answer to savory snacks. You know, when you are craving the potato chips from the vending machine mid-day, or just want something salty to munch on.

BIRD SEED CRACKERS/CHIPS
from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup chia seeds (can find at whole foods)
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup pepita seeds (or pumpkin seeds)
  • 1/2 cup sesame seeds
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 large garlic clove, finely grated
  • 1 tsp grated sweet onion
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 325F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, mix the seeds together. In a small bowl, mix the water, grated garlic, and grated onion. Whisk well. Pour the water mixture onto the seeds and stir until thick and combined. Season with salt and/or garlic salt to taste. Add spices or fresh herbs if you wish.

3. Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet with the back of a spoon until it’s less than 1/4 inch thick. Not to worry if a couple parts become too thin, you can just patch them up.

4. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, slice into crackers, carefully flip onto other side with a spatula. Bake for another 30 minutes, watching closely after about 25 minutes. The bottoms will be lightly golden in colour. Allow to cool completely on the pan. Store in a container or plastic baggy.

 I know some of you may think these look weird but they are actually kind of like the outside of an everything bagel…without the bagel part, you know?
 
I’m a big fan of garlic and onion so I decided to sprinkle the crackers with garlic salt when I flipped them. Delicious but SUPER garlicky. If you want to make out with anyone within 24 hours of eating these, I would probably NOT add the extra garlic.
 
One thing to note is that these are pretty fragile. If you toss them in a plastic baggy and then in your book back, they are going to get totally crushed and most likely revert back to seed form. The dilemma is they taste awesome with hummus! I was finding my hummus was too thick for these babies to handle. Totally by coincidence, my roommate made the lightest, fluffiest white bean hummus that went perfectly with these!
 
 Mediterranean-inspired White Bean Hummus
 from Exclamations of a Curious Bonnie
 
  • 1 can of white beans (cannelini or white kidney beans), drained with the liquid set aside
  • 1 TBS of tahini
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 TBS olive oil

and the following seasoning, which Bonnie says she didn’t measure but would estimate at 1/2 – 1 tsp:

  • paprika
  • cumin
  • black pepper
  • ground coriander seeds
  • cayenne peper
  • dried parsley
  • salt to taste

Place all ingredients into a food processor and blend. If the consistency is too dry or sort of “cakey,” add small amounts of the bean-water you set aside. When desired consistency is achieved, taste and adjust seasonings as necessary. Add salt if needed. Enjoy with pitas or crackers or veggies!

The slow addition of the bean water made this so fluffy. I loved it! I’d been eating my hearty garlic hummus all week and this was a great change of pace, and like I said, it worked perfectly with these cracker/chips. They were made for each other!
 
 
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go bath in listerine in hopes I can get this garlic/onion smell off of me…

Read Full Post »

Snickerdoodle Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on October 24, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Lets be honest with one another here- sugar cookies are hands down the most boring cookie ever. Yeah, ok…they get trooped out a few times a year when we need to decorate cookies but no one really loves sugar cookies. I don’t know anyone whose ever like, man…I could use a good sugar cookie right now. Because they are boring. They have no pizzazz!

Since cookies were homemade when I was growing up, more often than not, they were chocolate chip or oatmeal raisins (I’d pick the raisins out, obviously). During the holidays, the really good ones came out- mint chocolate chip, chocolate rolos, white chocolate dream cookies,  cookies with Andes mints in the middle, etc. So, why would we ever make sugar cookies when we had these amazing cookies to choose from?!?

The fact is, we didn’t. I called my mom for a sugar cookie recipe last year and she didn’t even have one! When I tried a few online, I felt like Goldilocks with porridge- these are too crunch, these are too cakelike- and I could never find the right one.  I quickly got bored and gave up. Sugar cookies are so not worth the effort.

So it goes without saying that I never made a snickerdoodle cookie. They’re just sugar cookies with cinnamon sugar, right? Well, having exhausted my apple and pumpkin taste buds over the last few weeks (and mildly concerned one of my my co-worker would kill me if I brought one more pumpkin thing into work), I was desperate for a different fall flavor for my Monday treats for work. Since I’ve been shoving my face with this cinnamon honey bread like my life depended on it, obviously my first thought was cinnamon. Hence, me turning to the snickerdoodle cookie. And I must admit, these cookies may be worthy enough to go toe-to-toe with our mint chocolate chip cookies…well, maybe…

Snickerdoodles

veganized version from How Sweet Eats

makes 16-20 cookies

1/2 cup vegan butter, at room temperature ( used Earth Balance)

1 cup sugar

1 Ener-G “egg”

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons milk replacer (I used unsweetened soy milk)

1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon for dipping

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream vegan butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add “egg” and vanilla, mixing well until combine, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Dough will most likely be crumbly at this point. Add in milk 1 TBS at a time until the dough comes together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Remove dough from fridge and roll into big 1 1/2 inch balls. Dip in cinnamon sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. Lightly press down on dough to flatten it. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

These cookies were the perfect texture. A little crunchy around the edges, soft and chewy in the middle. I’m sort of in love with them. And, I may have just had one for breakfast…

Side note: I know I’ve been giving you guys a lot of How Sweet Eats recipes lately. This week I’m going to be getting seriously vegan on your butts though and trying out some recipes from Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet, as well as my second favorite blog Healthfulpursuit.com. Stay tuned!

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 47 other followers