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Archive for February, 2012

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on February 28, 2012| 9 Comments »

I don’t know what has come over me lately. All I want to do is snack. On chocolate. Or Sugar. The other night for dinner, I definitely had 3 scoops of White chocolate Peanut Butter (how did that even get into my grocery cart???) and a handful of almonds. That’s it. What is wrong with me??

So when I sat down last weekend to figure out what I was having for food this week, I definitely made sure to factor in some healthy snack. I knew that I couldn’t make it through another week on handfuls of chocolate chips and late night microwavable mug cakes (one of the blogs I follow calculated how many calories are in one of those and it was like 900. Kill me…)

Let’s begin with the sweet stuff, shall we? Let me introduce to you one of my favorite, new desserts. I was skeptical at first, then when I made it I was undecided on the taste. But after snarfing on it for three nights straight, I have to accept that I really like it. My friends, I introduce to you the Deep Dish Chocolate Cookie Pie aka, my answer to the perfectly undercooked monster cookies that call to me from the caf each day at work.

The cafetaria cookies are in no way, shape or form vegan. But when it’s two o’clock, and I forgot a little something sweet for after lunch, those cookies are relentless in calling to me. BUT, knowing that I have a slice of this cookie pie waiting for me at home, makes it a trazillion times easier to resisit.

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
from Chocolate Covered Katie

  • 2 cans white beans or garbanzos (drained and rinsed) (I know…I seriously have a cookie recipe with chickpeas!!)
  • 1 cup quick oats (or certified-gf quick oats)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 3 T canola oil
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Blend everything (except the chocolate chips) very well in a good food processor (not a blender)*. Mix in chips, and pour into an oiled pan (I used a 10-inch springform pan) Cook at 350F for around 35-40 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

*A high speed food processer is best and here’s why: I blended the crap out of these ingredients and they  still were n’t perfectly smooth. There was definitely a little bit of oatmeal and possibly a bit of chickpeas that remained a bit intact. Nothing severe but it added texture. That texture really threw me off at first and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the pie. But I got over it…cause it tasted great and it was super moist! My friend, Rachel, compared it to having bits of coconut flakes in the pie and she is right. I’m possibly overreacting. But, if you are a texture person, I would suggest either using a high speed food processor or blending the oatmeal seperately first, until it’s the texture of flour, and  then adding in the other ingredients. I haven’t tried that but I bet it would be a huge help in the texture department.

Seriously, could that recipe be any easier?? It’s easier than the 900 calorie mug cake I devoured, that’s for sure! AND this makes 8 serving slices, the mug cake just made one large mug…and made me feel really guilty. Chocolate Covered Katie put the nutritional count of this at about 200 a slice. Not great but hello? Better then 900!! You could also bake this in a square or rectangle pan and cut them into bars if you wanted to get more servings out of it. Just adjust the cooking time accordingly

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go munch on an apple with a bit of dark chocolate peanut butter and granola and ignore that monster cookie in the caf. I have better waiting for me at home, thankyouverymuch!

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King’s Cake and Polariods…Oh My!

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on February 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Guys…this post is a hot mess of bad pictures and awesome recipes. So lets just get this thing over with, shall we?

Tuesday was Mardi Gras. Hellz to the yeah!

If I was a better blogger, I would have posted this recipes on Monday … and I would never use the phrase ‘Hellz yeah’ again…but I’m not, so you are going to get this Mardi Gras recipes 3 days late. It is SO good I couldn’t resist sharing.

Melinda cooking up the jambalaya. Kinda one of my favorite pictures of her…

My super delicious jambalaya recipe. Bonnie and I just about ate this entire pot between us. I’ll post this recipe next week. It so yummy I’m planning on making it again!

Andrew and my roommate, Daniel, working oh-so-hard in the kitchen while the girls slaved away. Thanks for the help guys! (Daniel later cleaned the kitchen so all was forgiven!)

KING’S CAKE!! Definitely in the top 5 of best desserts I’ve made. Melinda said it was second only to the almond joy truffles, Dan said it was second to none. Yeah…It was that good. (Recipe Below) The icing was suppose to be yellow, green and purple but I had some issues with my all natural food dye…especially the yellow, as you can see…

Jester Bonnie! The point of the King’s Cake is a small toy baby or uncooked bean is placed in the cake before it cooks and whoever finds the bean/baby gets the crown and to host the party next year. Bonnie won this year!! (I put a dried chickpea because a plastic baby in a 350 degree oven is weird.)

Vegan King’s Cake
from DairyfreeCooking
makes one cake, 10 to 12 servings (HA! in our case it had maybe 6. We couldn’t stop eating it!)

For the Cake:

  • 1 package dry active yeast
  • ¼ cup warm water
  • 1 T. maple syrup
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
  • 1 t. salt
  • ¼ t. nutmeg
  • 3 T. sugar
  • 6 T. soy margarine, cut into pieces
  • 3 T. Egg Replacer Powder mixed with ¼ T. hot water
  • ¼ cup coconut milk (not “lite” variety), plus more for brushing (I used the thick coconut milk from a can)

For the Filling:

  • ¾ cup dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup dairy-free soy margarine, softened
  • ½ cup finely chopped pecans  (I used a mix of pecans and walnuts because I ran out of pecans. It was good though!)
  • ½ t. cinnamon

For the Icing:

  • Confectionary sugar
  • coconut milk from above
  • food coloring (preferrably all natural)

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the yeast, warm water and maple syrup, mixing gently until the yeast dissolves and bubbles begin to appear on the surface. Set aside until frothy, about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt, nutmeg and sugar. Add the soy margarine and process until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add this mixture to the yeast, along with the Egg Replacer mixture and coconut milk. Knead, adding flour as necessary, until a soft dough forms. Place in an oiled bowl, covered, for 1 hour, or until the dough is doubled in bulk.

3. Meanwhile, make the filling. In a small mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, soy margarine, chopped pecans/walnuts and cinnamon until combined.

4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a large rectangle about 1/8” thick. Using a floured bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough in half lengthwise. Cut each of the strips into triangles, each about 3 inches at their base. (Think of a zipper or zigzag pattern when you cut, alternating the tops of triangles with the bases.) With the tips of the triangles pointed inward, place the triangles in a circle (or oval in my case) on the prepared sheet, overlapping one over the other and pressing the edges to seal. Place an even amount of the filling on the centers of the triangles, and place the baby or dried bean somewhere on the filling. Fold the outsides of the triangles over the filling, so that the reach just over the filling. Fold the tips over, pressing slightly to adhere the tips to the outside of the ring. Cover the ring lightly with a paper towel or clean dish towel, and let rise for 20 minutes more.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow cake to cool completely on a wire cooling rack, and then transfer the cake to a serving platter large enough to catch excess icing.

(Or, just leave it on the hot pan and put the icing on it while it still hot so that it gets all melty and messy because your too inpatient to wait. That’s what I did… though letting it cool works too…)

6. While the cake is cooling, mix together the icing. It should be noted, I NEVER measure out this icing because it’s so insanely easy. Place 3 or 4 spoonfuls of confectionary sugar in a bowl (more if you are going to want a thicker icing to spread). Add coconut milk to the confectionary sugar one spoonful at a time, stirring after each addition, until the desired consistency. I knew I wanted mine a little more liquidy because 1. Melinda likes coconut flavors so I wanted more coconut milk in my icing and 2. I knew I was drizzling it on the cake because I was inpatient so the icing needed to be runnier. I would say I added about 4 or 5 spoonfuls of coconut milk. If you want is spreadable so you have it thicker, you would want to add less coconut milk, obviously. That’s why you want to add the coconut milk slowly. Once you have the icing to the consistency you want, divide it into three and add the food coloring. I used India Tree, which is made from fruit and veggy extract, but only comes in yellow, blue and red. The yellow is STRONG! Go easy with it. Apply icing to cake.

7. Shovel  unceremoniously into your mouth and try not to eat the whole cake!

I know this is traditionally a Mardi Gras thing but it can serve as a delicious dessert or even a morning pastry if you leave out the dried bean/baby and cool it with the mardi gras colors. So definitely don’t wait 362 days to make this!! It really was insanely delicious. If I make it again, I will add the better pictures, I promise.

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Nuts and Oats Burger

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on February 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

Some friends and I have a nice tradition of getting together Friday evenings and making dinner for each other. We take turns so we only have to cook, approximately, every fifth time we get together. This works great for me because sometimes, I just don’t want to cook!

But this week it was my turn. I knew I wanted to make them these beer fries because I was obsessed with them and because I actually wanted to try them when half of them weren’t cooked to a lovely shade of black! My problem was, what to serve them with? I’m the only one in the group that has any sort of weird dietary restrictions. Because of that, we tend to eat a vegetarian diet on Fridays. I knew I couldn’t try and get a veggie burger past them, though. One of the guys at the dinner, BJ, reluctantly gives up meat for this one meal per week but often notes how everything we eat would taste better with bacon.  One time, his sister and I slipped some Morningstar chicken in his meal and he still threatens to slip me bacon as pay back. I couldn’t risk feeding him a veggie burger!

So I did what any good friend would do…I made them real hamburgers while I chowed down on this super delicious vegan burger. Thank gosh I didn’t try to feed these to them… they affectionately dubbed them “The Bird Seed” burgers. I just call them delicious!!

Nuts and Oats Veggie Burger aka “Bird Seed” Burgers
from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup onion, diced
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • Flax eggs: 2.5 tbsp ground flax + 1/2 cup warm water, mixed in bowl
  • 1 cup oats, processed into flour* (other flours might work)
  • 1.5 cups bread crumbs (I processed 3 pieces of When Pigs Fly Honey Wheat bread until fine crumb)*
  • 1 cup grated carrots
  • 1 cup cooked black beans, rinsed and roughly pureed or mashed  (I just roughly mashed them with afork)
  • Heaping 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley (or fresh herb of choice)
  • 1/3 cup almonds, chopped (toasted if preferred, I bought unsalted dry roasted)
  • 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, (toasted if preferred)
  • 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 tbsp Tamari (soy sauce)
  • 1.5 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp. cumin
  • 1 tsp. oregano
  • Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp kosher salt)

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, sauté onions and garlic in 1/2 tbsp oil. Mix your flax egg together in a small bowl and set aside for at least 10 mins while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Place all ingredients (except spices and salt) into a large mixing bowl and stir very well. Now, add seasonings and salt to taste.

3. With slightly wet hands, shape dough into patties. Pack dough tightly as this will help it stick together. I made 8 medium patties.

4. Cooking methods: You can fry the burgers in a bit of oil on a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side. If baking in the oven, bake for 25-30 mins (15-17 minutes on each side) at 350F, until golden and crisp. For the BBQ, pre-bake the burgers for about 15 minutes in oven before placing on a pre-heated grill until golden and crisp on each side. I fried it in a skillet. Yum!

I had high hopes for these burgers. Angela at Oh She Glows.com called them the Perfect Veggie Burger. Well…how could I not try it? Though I don’t know if I would call them perfect, they were pretty darn tasty! I actually really liked the crunch that the sunflower seeds and almonds gave them. Will, the only brave soul to try these on Friday, seemed to agree with me on that point.

Also, because I was making this while trying to make beer fries and real burgers (um…I don’t even know how many times I got burned with grease…), I ended up only cooking  2 or 3 on Friday and then freezing the rest, uncooked. To reheat them, I just thawed out the patty, reshaped it a bit and then fried it up. Still tasted delicious!

They were especially delicious when topped with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, sliced avocado and BBQ sauce. *drool* I can’t wait for dinner tonight….

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I Heart You…so have some Heart Donuts!!

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on February 14, 2012| 3 Comments »

HAPPY VALETINE’S DAY!

I made you doughnuts!!! =D

I don’t know why I’m so excited about this. I’ve made you doughnuts before. In fact, it was the first thing I ever made you.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been dying to make doughnuts for about a week. But I couldn’t make them for myself because, uh, hello? I just made a whole batch of beer fries for myself and my roommates!

Drippy batter. See my note below.

Or maybe it’s because it would allow me to play with these new pans which Target forced me to buy. I went looking for another mini doughnut pan because I only have one and really? Is there anything more annoying then only having one baking pan? But of course, Target didn’t have mini doughnut pans. They only had full size heart doughnut pans. So you know, I had to buy 2, because really? Is there anything more annoying then only having one baking pan?

Either way though, I made you doughnuts!!! Yeah!

Naked!

Strawberry Glazed Baked Doughnuts

Doughnuts
from VeganYumYum

Dry Ingredients:
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp  Nutmeg
1 tiny pinch or shake Cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Soymilk
1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Egg Replacer for 1 Egg
4 Tbs Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 350º F

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients thoroughly. Combine wet ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium low heat and mix until earth balance is melted. Heat it until about a minute or so after the butter is melted. You want the mixture warm, not hot.

Add wet to dry and mix until just combined. It should form a very soft dough*

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out dough into your ungreased nonstick donut pan. Smooth out the top of the dough with your fingers, this will make for more even, prettier donuts, but isn’t crucial.

Bake for 12 minutes. They should not be browned on top, but a tester will come out clean. Invert hot pan over a cutting board or cooling rack to release donuts. Allow to cool completely before decorating

*my dough did not look like dough. It looked more like cake batter. The resulting doughnut was delicious though. Very light and fluffy, and so, so tasty.

Strawberry Glaze
from Heather Christo Cooks

2/3 cup strawberries, pureed
½ cup butter
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs or extract
¼ cup hot water

Puree strawberries. In a small saucepan, heat butter until it has melted add the vanilla and powdered sugar. Add the strawberries and stir until it is starting to melt. Add the water (if needed!) to thin the glaze, and whisk it until smooth. Dip your doughnuts in the glaze. YUM!

NOTE: Because the doughnut is so fluffy and spongy, it super absorbs the glaze. I made these the night before for work and they definitely tasted best right after it was glazed as opposed to the next morning. They weren’t super soggy, the glaze sort of just becomes the doughnut. It wasn’t like Krispy Kremes, were the glaze rests on top of the fried dough. Make sense? Good.

I also made chocolate glazed ones with the leftover Nutella mess up frosting…

Those sprinkles…oh man! They came in a container with blue and  lime green sprinkles-not heart sprinkles, just sprinkles. Clearly, I had to pick them out because, clearly, they were ugly and not festive!

….I have issues.

Anyway, I hope you have a great Valentine’s Day!!!

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Beer Fries, Y’all

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on February 12, 2012| 4 Comments »

If I was going to make my man a Valentine’s Dinner, I would start with these fries because

1. Pasta is so overrated and so predictable

2. What guy doesn’t like beer? There’s practically a beer gene in their DNA

3. They’re really frickin’ tasty.

too thin...make them fatter than these

Garlicky Beer Fries
from Edible Perspective 

  • 1-2 bottles of your favorite beer (I used an apple beer and ended up using 2 bottles as one didn’t cover my fries)
  • 3 russet potatoes
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3T olive oil
  • 1-1 1/2t salt
  • 1/4-1/2t black pepper
  1. Preheat oven to 425
  2. Scrub potatoes, and cut into thick sticks
  3. In a large bowl, soak the cut fries in beer.
  4. Let soak for 15min, tossing 1-2x.
  5. Drain beer and toss with olive oil, garlic, salt + pepper, until well coated.
  6. Line a large baking sheet with parchment* and spread the fries, in a single layer on the pan.  Use two pans, if needed.  You don’t want them stacked.
  7. Bake for 40min – 1hr, depending on how crispy you like them, tossing 3-4 times.**
  8. Add more salt + pepper to your liking.
*The recipe says the parchment paper is optional so I opted not to use it. When I went to toss them though, the fries were sticking to the baking sheet. I would definitely suggest using the parchment paper. It will help keep your fries in one piece
** I really like crispy fries so I cut my fries on the skinny side and cooked them for an hour. This ended up being WAY to long. Definitely start with 40 and work up.
 
 
These fries were delicious but if you really want the beer taste, which I did, you have to keep the middles potato-y. I would suggest cutting the fries on the thicker side and then cooking them until just crispy, not too long.
 

I don’t know what you should pair these with, though. I can’t plan your whole valentine’s dinner for you! Sheesh…

PS.- For Valentine’s Day, I don’t need roses. I’ll just take these, size 7. No big deal, right?

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“Be Mine” Fruit Smoothie

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , on February 10, 2012| 2 Comments »

Ugh, I know, I know! Valentine’s day is next week. I know because every. single. frickin’. store has Valentine’s Day displays. It’s maddening! But I’ll buy in and share some valentines recipes with you…

So chances are, next week you are going to be either:

a. having a romantic evening with your significant other that may or may not involve a large meal and/or skimpy outfits

or b. having a romantic evening by yourself that may or may not involve a large box of dark (hopefully vegan!) chocolates,  your over sized pajamas, and The Notebook.

Either way though, whether your shoveling chocolate into your mouth alone or pasta into your mouth in the company of another, you should quite possibly go easy with the calories this weekend. It will make you fell less guilty when you have to slip into your lingerie/ move on from the chocolates to the icecream, depending on your situation.

This smoothie would be perfect for breakfast or a meal replacement. It’s packed with fruit and contains yogurt and flax seed to help fill you up. As a bonus, it’s a fun pink color, naturally, so you don’t have to resort to food coloring.

“Be Mine” Fruit Smoothie
inspired by Edible Perspective

  • one 6 oz container fo So Delicious Coconut Yogurt, vanilla flavored (or your fav. non-dairy yogurt)
  • 1/4 c. orange juice
  • 1 blood orange
  • handful of strawberries, frozen (I used about 8)
  • 1/2 banana, frozen*
  • 1TBSP flaxseed
  • 3-4 icecubes

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until completely combined.

* I only added 1/2 the banana because with all the Green Monstahs I’ve had, I was kind of banana-ed out. But feel free to add a whole if you like the taste. It will thicken the smoothie up a bit.

This smoothie is a temporary replacement for the Green Monstah smoothie I’ve been consuming almost non-stop lately. I’m actually getting really sick of it. Thursday morning I could only drink about half before I just couldn’t stand the idea of taking one more sip. Clearly, it was time for a change! It doesn’t have quite the same nutritional punch as the Green Monstah but it’s refreshing enough to start your day off with!

Here’s hoping you spend your Valentine’s with someone other than your Teddy Bear and Noah Ryan Gosling.

 

uhhhhh…on second thought…

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The Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on February 6, 2012| 5 Comments »

This weekend was busy but fun…minus that unfortunate game last night but we’re just going to pretend that didn’t happen.

Renee, me and Rachel. Happy Birthday, Renee!

On Friday night, I went over to my friend Rachel’s to celebrate our friend, Renee’s, birthday. We had lots of yummy food (including this black bean salsa) and I brought these cupcakes with me. They were a big hit. I won’t tell you how many Renee ate but let us just say she really enjoyed them…and probably didn’t have any grounds for yelling at her boyfriend for over doing it with the frosting on his cupcake.

Then Sunday, we had our Super Bowl party. After Rent-a-Center told me it would cost me $500 to rent a TV (seriously?!), we stuck with our little inherited TV. We had a ton of food for only 9 people, all of it delicious and most of it vegan (someone brought boneless wings but that was the only non-vegan item). Bonnie made a super yummy avocado tomato bruschetta and a chipotle hummus I may share with you later in the week. I made my black bean salsa, again, and these cupcakes, again, which got thumbs up all around. Melinda made the artichoke spinach dip I shared with you last week. It was kind of a delicious spread!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
from Brown Eyed Baker 

  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 1 avocado, pitted and peeled
  • 1 cup pure maple syrup
  • ¾ cup plain almond milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Purée avocado in food processor until smooth. Add maple syrup, almond milk, oil, and vanilla, and blend until creamy. Whisk avocado mixture into flour mixture.

Spoon batter into prepared cupcake cups. Bake 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached. Cool.

These cupcakes are so perfect because the avocado and maple syrup make them super moist and rich but not too sweet. They are just so darn good! No worries though, you can’t taste the avocado in the cupcake. It’s too mild of a flavor. The chocolate and vanilla easily mask it.

Sooo…I sort of don’t have a frosting recipe for you. For Renee’s birthday, I attempted to make vegan nutella frosting. It was a big fail…or so I thought. I was running late and instead of a fluffy frosting of amazingness to present to her, I had liquid goop.

So I bought a can of rainbow chip frosting on my way to her house…45 minutes late. Darn you nutella frosting!! I was the only vegan there though so no one cared that the rainbow chip frosting had dairy and oodles of chemicals in it. Cheers to birthday cupcakes anyway!! (Rachel, in the gray shirt, is ‘cheering’ with my cupcake and hers so I could take a picture. That isn’t my hairy arm in the foreground- promise. Sorry, Ryan…)

Then Sunday, after working all day, I had some perfectly baked cupcakes ready for thefootballgamethatshallnotbementioned and I couldn’t bring myself to make the Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate frosting from a box. Yes- it’s vegan. Yes-it’s free of chemicals. and yes- I will make it for you eventually and review it but I just couldn’t bring myself to use it on my perfect chocolate cupcakes. Nothing makes homemade cupcakes go to the dogs quicker then store bought frosting. So I dug out the massive bowl of should-have-been vegan nutella frosting from the fridge and to my delight… it was solid and spreadable. Granted, more like a icing then a frosting, but I’d take it!!

Then I piped confectioners sugar mixed with a little water for the stitching. I just used a sandwich bag and cut a tin hole in one of the corners. Super easy. Aren’t they cute? That 83 in the heart was made for my dad for his man, Welker, obviously!

My roommate, Bonnie, rocking some serious Pat's attitude. Hmm...Maybe we'll just put those Pat's jersey's away for a while...

I have the day off so I’m going to go wash all our dirty dishes from last night and maybe try to be productive. Now that the Super Bowl is over I guess I should start brainstorming some Valentines desserts for you guys? Or maybe, like that awful game last night, I’ll just pretend it isn’t happening…

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BLACK BEAN SALSA

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on February 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

IT’S SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

My roommates and I are having people over and I still need to:

– Buy a few more things to make another batch of this below bean salsa (like, um, the beans! Totally forgot those yesterday on my shopping trip)

– Make and decorate cupcakes (they are seriously the best cupcakes ever. I’ll give you the recipe tomorrow)

– Clean up the kitchen a bit and tidy the house, find enough chairs, etc.

Oh yeah, and do all this in the 90 minutes I have after I get out of work and before the game starts. Really? Whose going to go to a book store today? It’s practically a national holiday in New England people. Grocery stores? clearly need to be open.  Packies? Definitely! (though I bought my beer yesterday just in case! I forgot the black beans but hey, I remembered my beer!! Priorities!)

Anyway, so here is my last recipe for the super bowl. This was suppose to go to you last week since I usually don’t post on the weekends but after I talked about how I had no life and went to bed at 8:30, suddenly I got a life again. How annoying!

Black Bean Salsa
from Cooking Light

*the measurements for this recipe were weird. Who measures out 2 TBSP of chopped out jalapeno? If you do actually do that, please see the Cooking Light recipe above. 

  • 1/2  red bell pepper, finely chopped
  • 1/4 red onion, chopped
  • 1 cucumber, chopped
  • 1/2 plum tomato, diced
  • 1/2 – 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, chopped (depends on how much heat you like)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; stir well. Cover and chill 2 hours. For best results, chill over night.

As you can see, my chopping skills are a bit lacking. I had about 15 minutes to throw this first batch together so it could chill overnight before heading to a friends. So, my tomatoes are more chunky then chopped BUT it still tasted delicious. You could also throw in some chopped avocado if you wanted because, really, what doesn’t avocado make better?

Oh yeah, one last thing:

GO PATRIOTS!!

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LASAGNA!

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on February 1, 2012| 2 Comments »

I’m such an old lady.

tofu ricotta

Monday night I had a laundry list of things to do, including post this uber yummy lasagna recipe. What did I end up doing? Having dinner, crawling into my bed (because it was so frickin’ cold in my house that night!) to watch back episodes of New Girl and Once Upon a Time and falling asleep at 9.

…I’m so exciting…

Spinach mixture

I did manage to call Rent-a-center to see about renting a big screen TV. $500!! FOR ONE DAY! I laughed out loud when they told me that because my brother rented a TV from there in December and it was about $25 for two weeks. Talk about inflation. Is that even legal?? So despite practically having already planned out my menu for the Super Bowl, we kind of hit a snag with what we are doing. Ideas are welcome because our TV is really bad.

 

On a different note, I realized while looking over old posts that I’ve been giving you a lot of desserts and a lot of soups/stews. I thought I’d spice things up and throw in a comfort food recipe. After all, what is the winter for but to hibernate…which is clearly what my body is trying to do.

Vegetable Lasagna
adapted from my Mom’s veggie lasagna recipe

Marinara Sauce – homemade or jar (1-2 jars, depending on how saucy you like it)

12 lasagna noodles

2 medium zucchini, cut into ¼ inch thick slices

2 TBLS olive oil

¾ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper

2 TBLS all purpose flour

2/3 cup non-dairy milk, warmed (I used unsweetened, unflavored almond milk)

2 pkg (10 oz each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

2 TBLS plus ¼ cup nutritional yeast

1 bowl of vegan ricotta cheese (see below)

1-2 cups of vegan mozzarella cheese

Vegan ricotta cheese
from Healthydiaries.com 

14 oz. box medium firm or firm tofu
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or 1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 c. olive oil
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
dash of black pepper

Mash tofu with a fork. Add all other ingredients. Continue mashing until it has a ricotta-like texture. Set aside. (If you want it super smooth, you could put the tofu in a blender or food processor before adding the other ingredients. I just mashed it with a fork and it came out great.)

Prepare Marinara sauce, if making homemade.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepot, cook lasagna noodles as label directs.  Drain and rinse with cold running water.  Return noodles to saucepot with enough cold water to cover.

Preheat over to 450.  In large bowl, toss zucchini with 1 TBLS oil, ¼ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp black pepper.  Arrange zucchini slices on large cookie sheet and bake, turning once, until tender, about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, in nonstick 12-inch skillet, heat remaining 1 TBLS oil over medium heat.  Add garlic and crushed red pepper; cook until garlic is golden.  Stir in flour until blended.  With wire whisk, gradually whisk in warm non-dairy milk with wooden spoon.  Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened and boils, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in spinach, 2 TBLS nutritional yeast and ¼ tsp salt.

Turn oven to 350.  Drain lasagna.

In 13 x 9 baking dish, spread about 1 cup marinara sauce.  Arrange 4 lasagna noodles over sauce, overlapping to fit.  Spread tofu ricotta mixture on top of noodles.  Arrange 4 more noodles over “ricotta” and top with all of zucchini, overlapping slices to fit.  Spread with 1 cup sauce and sprinkle with half of mozzarella; top with all of spinach mixture.  Arrange remaining 4 noodles on top and spread with remaining marinara sauce.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.

Cover lasagna with foil and bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake until cheese is lightly golden, about 10 minutes longer.  Let stand 15 minutes for easier serving.


Fresh Outta the Oven

I was super excited to try the tofu ricotta. It was actually really good. Though, seeing as regular ricotta gives me the heebie jeebies, I was clearly going to favor the tofu version!

Overall though, this lasagna has a ton of flavor. I’m not a marinara sauce kinda gal. I was the type growing up who had her spaghetti with butter and salt…cause I didn’t like the shake from a can parm either.  So, I only used one jar of sauce. It didn’t go very far, though, so if you want your lasagna saucy, definitely pick up two jars.

 

I’m off to go act my age. No more 9 o’clock bed times for me! Er, what do 20 somethings do? Drink copious amounts of alcohol on the beach? Have sex with strangers? Let my vajayjay hang out while I dance on bar tops? I mean, that’s what those Jersey Shore kids do right? That’s totally appropriate behavior for a work night, right???

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