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Almond Joy Cake Balls

December 5, 2011 by Erin

This week is the third week of the baking challenge that I sort of started by accident two weeks ago. The first week, if you recall, the premium billing department at my work gave me the challenge to cook with dark chocolate and craisin. These cookies were the result. Then last week, my co-worker Sean, reppin’ the enrollment department, picked strawberries. So I made these bars. This week, the secret ingredient was chosen by my friends, Shea and Cashel, who work in the sales department with me. I knew that I had to give them a chance to have a say, in some way, because they are two of the biggest supporters of my baked goods! I can always count on them to try out my stuff and give me feed back, which I always appreciate it! So the ingredient they chose was coconut.

Yeah, I sort of kicked this challenge’s ass!

I ended up making Almond Joy Cake Balls and there is coconut in every part of this little dessert! The cake is a coconut cake with coconut extract and shredded coconut. Then, instead of adding frosting to the crumbled up cake to form the balls, I added coconut milk AND condensed coconut milk (which I made from scratch). THEN, for the chocolate shell, I added coconut oil to the melted chocolate, which helped thin it out and make it shiny…plus, added more coconut flavor!

Like I said, coconut in every part of this dessert!

Coconut Condensed Milk
from Veganbaking.net

2 ¾ cups non-dairy milk (you can use soy, almond, coconut, etc. I used coconut)
½ cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the “milk” and the sugar in a slow cooker. Set for high and cook for 7 hours, leaving uncovered the whole time. You should have 1 cup of condensed milk when you are done. Transfer to a bowl to allow to cool. Once cool, whisked in the vanilla extract.

If it cooks down too much, you can add water and food process it until you have 1 cup.

*this can also be done on the stove top. Go to veganbaking.net for the full instructions on that.

Coconut Cake
from Vegan Thyme
makes 2 9-inch round cakes

3 sticks unsalted vegetable margerine (cut into cubes and bring to room temp)
2 cups sugar

5  Ener-G Egg Replace “eggs”
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Line two 9″ cake pans with parchment paper, then spray with non-stick baking spray.

Prepare the dry ingredients in a medium bowl–the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk well to combine. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the room temperature margerine and sugar and beat on medium speed for about five minutes until the mixture is very light and very fluffy. Next, mix together the egg replacer powder with the water. Now, add this to the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until well combined. Add the extracts to this and mix well. Next, alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with flour- it should be about three flour additions and 2 milk additions. Fold in the shredded coconut to the batter with a spoon.

Next, spread the batter in the cake pans.  Bake for 45 minutes. The edges of the cake should be golden brown in color and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool completely. I made them in the morning and let them cool all afternoon. If you don’t let the cakes cook completely, the won’t crumble properly when your making th cake balls.

Almond Joy Cake Balls
adapted from Taste and Tell Blog
makes around 60 cake balls

1 batch of the above coconut cake, cooled
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup condensed coconut milk
about 2 bags of vegan dark chocolate
1-2 tsp of coconut oil (*see note below)
60ish whole almonds (optional)
shredded coconut (optional)

Crumble the cooled coconut cake into a large bowl. Add the coconut milk and the condensed coconut milk to the bowl. With your hands, mix the ingredients in the bowl together until they are well combined. Roll into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for 1 hour.

Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil in a double boiler on the stove. Roll the chilled cake balls in melted chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Sprinkle with shredded coconut and top with a whole almond. Return to the fridge until read to serve.

*note: the coconut oil is a must for making this taste like an almond joy. It’s super delicious. Unfortunately, it also prevents the chocolate from staying hard. If you leaves these out in the open for too long, the chocolate gets really soft, which means you get it all over your hands and mouth. If you anticipate putting these out at a party for a long period of time or bringing them someplace where you can’t store them in the fridge, I would recommend using vegetable shortening. They still taste really good, the shell just doesn’t quite channel the almond joy that way.

Aren’t they so cute?! I know that isn’t the point of a dessert but it certainly adds to it! I liked these because they aren’t as sweet as the traditional cake pop recipe which is box caked + canned frosting = cake pop. 1. Hello preservatives, chemicals and non-vegan ingredients and 2. they are just so sweet! This recipe really lets the cake shine, as opposed to having it masked by frosting. Also, the melted chocolate and coconut oil is SO good.

How cute do they look with their little mini cupcake liners? They would be great as a gift, placed in a cute box. A much more creative, tasty solution to boxed chocolates!

Posted in Recipage | 12 Comments »

The Butter Post- Almond with honey and Apple

November 30, 2011 by Erin

I’m sort of a hot mess this morning and its only 8:30:

– works been super busy so I decided to go in early. To help save time in the morning, I decided to do this no heat curl hair style. Except I put too much product at the roots last night before setting it so now my hair sort of has the Conan O’Brien side part, super poofy thing going. When I move my head, I can feel it swaying back and forth. Not the look I was going for. Conan’s hair on 60 minutes

– Despite my best laid plans, I was in fact not early to work but was late courtesy of a faulty alarm clock. Er…ok. It may have worked for the 800 times I hit snooze. But it totally failed on the 801 time!

– To help go along with the time-saving thing in the morning, I laid out my outfit last night. At least, I thought I did. I woke this morning to find I had laid out a complete outfit…minus the pants. And for the life of me, I could not find my black dress pants anywhere! Seriously, they must have walked out of my room. So I’m rocking black skinny jeans to work…on a Wednesday…which is against dressed code. Sshh- Don’t tell.

– I apparently decided today was the day to channel my inner Bag lady. I sauntered into work with not one, not two, but three large bags- my purse (yes, its large), my gym bag, and a reusable grocery bag filled with my lunch, as well as grocery staples I keep forgetting to bring in- coffee, milk for my coffee, sugar for my coffee…more coffee…And by ‘sauntered into work’ I mean, I staggered in under the weight of my three ginormous and heavy bags.

– When removing one of my gargantuan bags from the car, I proceed to accidentally spill a bag of dirty hand towels and single socks all over the floor. So as my lovely co-workers were driving into the garage, I was hastily shoving one eeyore sock or one spider sock into a plastic target bag. I don’t even know where that bag came from…or why I have eeyore socks.

Thank god that I had the foresight to get my crap together on Sunday and have all my meals planned out for the week. Included in those plans was homemade almond butter with honey and homemade apple butter, which I’m currently enjoying for breakfast with my cinnamon honey bread, all of which were in my ridiculously large grocery bag. SO good!

For the almond butter, I have yet to find one that is as smooth as peanut butter. If you are going to make almond butter (which is approximately a trazillion times cheaper to make then buy), you can make it as smooth as you can but you should expect some grittiness.

Almond Butter with honey:

1 cup of almonds

3 TBS of olive oil

drizzle of honey ( I used about 2 Tsp)

Roast almonds for about 20 minutes in a 300 degree oven stirring half way through. Allow the almonds to cool. When they have cooled down completely, add to a food process and pulse until the almonds are a fine dust. Slowly add your olive oil in (the recipes vary on how much olive oil to put in. I started with 2 TBS but found that wasn’t enough to give it a smooth consistency. You can adjust to your taste). Slowly add honey (like the olive oil, this can be adjusted to your taste preference also. It wouldn’t change the consistency of the butter that much).

I’ve been meaning to make apple butter forever! So I’ve been looking at a ton of recipes. None particularly stood out for me. I had two people say they had really good recipes so I had them send them over. I liked aspects of each and was influenced by them but in the end, I just sort of winged it.

Apple Butter
inspired by Lu and Melinda

8 sweet apples (I used honeycrisps, because I’m obsessed)

1 cup of water

3 TBS of brown sugar*

1-2 TBS of cinnamon*

*Like the almond butter, this can be adjusted to suit your taste. For instance, many of the recipes call for a lot of sugar. I didn’t want to start my day with a sugar rush so I scaled back on the sugar quite a bit.

Core and peel the apples. Cut them into chunks. In a large pot, combine apples and water and bring to a boil. Stir, reduce heat to a simmer. When the apples are soft, about 20 minutes, use an Immersion Blender and blend until there is no, or almost no, chunks. Return to the heat and continue simmering until there is no liquid, stirring occasionally. This took me about 2 and a half hours. I was doing other things in the kitchen so I just had it going on in the background and would stir it every 10 to 20 minutes. Stir in cinnamon and brown sugar. Leave it on the heat for another 10 minutes or so until the sugar and cinnamon have really cooked in.

Cinnamon and honey bread with almond butter and apple butter. I assure you, it's tastier then it looks...

 
Now lets see if I can make it through breakfast without dumping coffee all over me. If that happens, I may just give up and go home…

Posted in Recipes | 2 Comments »

Strawberry Shortbread Bars (with Pecans or Chocolate)

November 28, 2011 by Erin

Welcome back to a normal week. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving/few days off. Did anyone have any yummy vegan options on Thanksgiving? I’d love to hear about them! I ended up having Cranberry Pear Salsa for an appetizer with some organic blue tortilla chips. For dinner I had tofurkey (yum) with the gravy that came with it (too salty), my mom’s vegan sausage and mushroom cornbread stuffing (best. stuffing. ever), roasted asparagus with a little olive oil and garlic powder and this sweet potato casserole (to die for!). For dessert, I had these snickerdoodles. I don’t mean to brag but my first vegan thanksgiving went pretty smoothly! It helps that I have an awesome mom who was willing to a.) make separate things for me (like the stuffing) and b.) try new recipes (like the sweet potato casserole and salsa). My family kind of rocks.

Now, on to your Monday Dessert! Last week, the premium billing department stepped up and presented me with a challenge: to make a dark chocolate craisin dessert. The result was pretty good. I extended this challenge to the enrollment department but alas, I didn’t hear anything from them! I’m assuming its due to the shortened week but either way, Saturday came around and I had no idea what to make. So my co-worker Sean stepped up after a bit of prodding and proposed Strawberries as the mystery ingredient this week. I feel like I’m on Iron Chef. If you are anything like me, your first reaction to this weeks mystery ingredient was, “Strawberries?! Those are not even in season. That’s going to cost me a fortune!”, especially when I often have to double or triple the recipe I make to accommodate everyone. Yeah…fresh strawberries were  clearly not happening. So I went with strawberry preserves. I’m pretty sure that would fly on Iron Chef!

the uncooked "crumbles"

Strawberry Shortbread Bars
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens
makes about 28 (the original recipe says it makes 48 but there’s no way that’s possible)

ingredients

  • 2 cups vegan butter, such as Earth Balance, softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 Ener-G “eggs”
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups pecans, coarsely chopped, or 1/3 cup of dark chocolate *
  • 2 10 ounce jar (2 cups) strawberry preserves or seedless red raspberry preserves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl beat butter and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs. Beat in flour.

If you are using Pecans:

After you beat in the flour, stir in the 1 1/2 cups of pecans. Original recipe said that the dough may be crumbly. Mine was not. Put aside 2 cups of the dough.

Press the remaining pecan mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 12×9-inch baking pan. Spread preserves to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Takes the remaining pecan mixtures and “sprinkle” onto preserves. As mine was not crumbly, I broke it into small pieces and dropped them on the preserves (see above picture).

Bake in 350 degree F oven for about 45 minutes or until top is golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

If you are using Chocolate Chips:

After you have beat in flour, set aside two cups of the dough. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of an ungreased 12×9- inch baking pan. Spread preserves to within 1/2 inch of edge. Take the remaining dough mixture and stir in 1/3-1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips. Break into small pieces and drop them on the preserves.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

So, I did this recipe two ways because I know a lot of people are allergic to or don’t like nuts in their baked goods. For the chocolate version, I opted not to go with chocolate in the bottom crust because I didn’t want it to be a chocolate dessert. I didn’t want the dark chocolate to over power or take the focus away from the strawberry. After all, Strawberries were the mystery ingredient this week, not chocolate! If you are PMSing or IMSing (irritable male syndrome. oh yes it does exist! And I can think of a few guys who are poster children for it (nonameswillbementioned!))  and are craving chocolate, feel free to add more. That’s just what I was feeling at 9:00 last night.

Chocolate chip on top, pecan on the bottom

 I don’t think I’m feeling this 5 day work week ahead of me. Can we do 2 and a half days again??

Posted in Recipage | 1 Comment »

This Is a Public Service Announcement

November 22, 2011 by Erin

Happy Tuesday, Everyone. Hopefully you are one of the lucky ones and you have a short week this week! I get the joy of working Black Friday at a book store so I don’t get much of a vacation.

Since I have your attention though, as a employee at a retail place, I must ask all you guys to keep three things in mind when you are doing your holiday shopping- please be patient with your retail sellers this holiday season, please pick up after yourself and please check the hours of your store.

 A lot of the employees at these retails places have been hired just for the holiday season and don’t always know everything you are asking. Be Patient. They will do their best to help you and if you approach them with a smile and manners, they will be a lot more willing to go out of their way to find that obscure book/gadget you simply must have for your husband/mom/sibling/etc. Everyone is stressed during this time of year. I get it. I can assure you that the employee you are asking help from is far more stressed then you as a shopper at that moment so take a deep breath, smile and be patient.

Also, clean up after yourself. Don’t leave random objects in random aisles. Are you done with that coffee you are drinking? Awesome! Please find a trash can.  If you aren’t sure what to do with that DVD you decide you don’t want to buy, return it to someone who works for the store- the cashier, the info desk worker, etc. For instance, for the love of all that is holy, please do not leave 1,000 books on antiques spewd all over a table at 8:55 at night when the store closes at 9:00. I assure you, those employees, no matter how nice they are to you, do not want to stay any later then necessary during the holidays.

 Which brings me to my next point, check the hour of stores!! If a store closes at 9, do not get there at 8:50 and begin to browse. The closing hours aren’t flexible! We will do our best to accommodate you but its pretty inconsiderate to expect an entire store to stay open because you didn’t plan accordingly. Especially when those employees have probably been running around like chickens with their heads cut off for a solid 5 hours, running on nothing but caffine and adrenaline. So please, please, check the hours of stores and be aware of the time

 

So remember kids- Be Patient, Clean Up after Yourself and Check the Hours of Your Store.

 

-End of Public Service Announcement-

Posted in Life | 3 Comments »

Double Dark Chocolate Craisin Cookies (with pecans)

November 21, 2011 by Erin

So, its Monday- again. Poor Monday. Does anyone really like waking up after a too short weekend to find that they have arrived at Monday? I’m thinking no.

Lucky for you, I have an amazing cookie recipe for you! So these came about at the request of the Premium Billing Department at my place of employment.  See, the weekly Monday baked goods began as something I did for my floor. It has kind of escalated to the point where I have an emailing list that stretches across three departments. Despite this, I still manage to miss people and those people always seem to be in the Premium Billing Department. Because, for whatever reason, no one shares the knowledge that there are homemade cookies available to their fellow employees. Or, as I found out Friday, they hoard them/ration them out as they deem fit and it seems PBD are the ones that are often shafted.

Or so they say. I suspect they just may be the most vocal =)

Regardless, after getting two more people to add to my emailing list in the PBD, they asked what I was bring Monday and I couldn’t tell them. No seriously, I had no ideas. I had a laundry list of things to do this weekend floating around in my head and what I was making for work wasn’t even on there. So they suggested dark chocolate craisins. Actually, they first requested no peanut butter (to which I concluded they were insane) and then they requested dark chocolate craisins.

So I mulled it over. I could do a standard chocolate chip cookie with craisins but where’s the pizzazz? Where’s the excitement?? Then it occurred to me…Hersey’s Dark Cocoa Powder! I’ve been DYING to try this product. It’s been popping up all over my baking blogs and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. Good thing I was right across the street from the brand new Wegmans in Mass this weekend. They were well stocked!!

Double Dark Chocolate Craisin Cookies (with pecans)
adapted from Toll House’s Double Chocolate Cookies and a White Chocolate Craisin cookie recipe

2 cups all purpose flour

¾ cup of Hersey’s Dark Cocoa baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

½ tsp of salt

1 cup (2 sticks) of Earth Balance vegan butter, softened

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2 Ener-G “eggs”

¾ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chunks (I used Bakers. They were huge though. I think next time I’d used the 365 Semi-Sweet mini chocolate chunks)

1 cup of craisins

¼ cup of pecans, finely chopped (Optional)

½ tsp of white sugar (optional)

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat together the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy. Add “eggs” one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually add in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks and craisins.

Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Combine the pecans and ½ tsp of white sugar. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll into balls. Press one side into the pecan mixture. This works best if the pecans are very finely chopped. Since the dough is cold, larger peaces had a hard time sticking. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes. The dough will not spread out but they will crack letting you know they are done. Let cool for 5 minutes and transfer to cooling rack.

If you do not have the time to chill these, you can make these into drop cookies. Just mix the pecans in with the chocolate chunks and craisin, drop rounded TBSP onto greased cookie sheet and bake for around 9 minutes. I opted to put the pecans on the outside because I was only doing half the batter with nuts as some people are allergic/don’t like them.  

Plus, I thought it’d look cool =)

These cooks are very rich but they aren’t too sweet. If I’m not making them for others, I think I would add the pecans to the mixture since I like them and it cuts the richness of the chocolate. Also, the craisins get a little overwhelmed with all the chocolate but I like the idea that they are there.

I think if these cookies should probably be called the PMS cookies because I’m pretty sure they would hit the spot for those chocolate cravings!!

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Holiday Sprouts

November 18, 2011 by Erin

Hey. How are you?

=)

Remember when I asked you to trust me because I was borderline forcing cupcakes with beets down your throat? Remember when you trusted me and made them anyways and were super impressed?? Because you go and make my food right after I post them, obviously.

Well…I’d like you to remember that feeling because today, on a Friday of all days, I’m going to be giving you…brussel sprouts.

I know. It’s Friday. You want chocolate. It’s probably some sort of cheat day for you. You have your brain on the brunch you’re going to on Sunday. Or the movie theater popcorn you’ll be indulging in when you watch Robert Pattinson be all angsty and Kristen Stewart bite her lip as she struggles through her lines.

I get it. BUT you will need to eat something healthy. After all, French toast and movie theater popcorn does not a meal make.  

Oven Roasted Garlic Brussel Sprouts

From The Cooking Photographer

2 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
5 cloves garlic, minced fine or pressed through a garlic press
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Move oven rack to the upper third and preheat to 425 degrees.

In a 9×13 inch baking dish, toss together Brussels sprouts, garlic, water, oil, salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until caramelized to taste, tossing once about 25 minutes into cooking time. Remove from oven and toss Brussels sprouts in the pan scraping up brown bits into the sprouts.

 

So, this is my second attempt at Brussel Sprouts and I was pretty impressed. My first go around I tried to be too fancy. I tried to make vegan bacon grease, I tried to throw in some caramelized fruit. It had potential. These, though, are just straight up roasted and garlicky and good. I know they look black which you may think equals burnt but they aren’t. They are just yummy, that’s all! I served mine with a pumpkin mac and cheese recipe I tired and wasn’t Wickedvegan.com worthy. You can serve yours with some turkey and stuffing though! These are the perfect little vegetables to serve as the green portion for your Thanksgiving meals.

So who wants to start a Breaking Dawn pool with me? We can take bets on how many times Kstew bites her lip. I say 75. What about you?

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments »

Thanksgiving ideas, part 1- Appetizers.

November 16, 2011 by Erin

So, I sort of have this problem where I live off my To-Do list/Schedule and I don’t always realize what day of the month it is…or even what day of the week it is. For instance, I was talking to my friend Rachel at work about the crafts she had planned for our works Holiday Bazaar (check out her blog at http://rachelrobinsnest.com/).  She was concerned about time and when I asked when it was, she said, The 17th. ‘Oh, you have plenty of time!’ I said reassuringly. She looked at me like I was crazy and politely pointed out that the 17th was three days away. And Thanksgiving? Yeah, that’s next week.

Holy Crap. Where did the time go? We still have Halloween decorations up! And this week, I sort of pretended it was October. For instance, on Saturday, I came home from work and proceeded to carve a pumpkin while listening to my halloween playlist. My roommate, Chris, walked in and was like, Um…Did we go back in time?? 

But it’s not my fault!! October was not fun at all. I worked, a lot. And when I went apple picking it was too hot to wear a cute fall coat. And when I had my halloween party, it frickin’ snowed!! 

But November? November has been beautiful. The leaves are changing and falling and its been nice and sunny and cool. It feels like fall finally! Hence, the pumpkin carving and why I’m presenting you with a post for roasted pumpkin seeds  even though you’ve been so over the pumpkin carving thing for a  month now.

 On the plus side, these would serve as an excellent alternative to a nut bowl at your Thanksgiving party! And they are chock full of healthy things like unsaturated fats, most of the B vitamins, vitamins C, D, E and K and they help with prostrate and bladder problems. Winning!

So carve a Turkey in a pumpkin this week to put on your front steps to welcome your thanksgiving guests (I’m currently rocking a carved owl) and use those seeds as an appetizer!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

  • 1 c. pumpkin seeds (do not wash them after you remove them from the pumpkin. The gooiness adds flavor!)
  • 1 1/2 tsp canola oil
  • a pinch of salt, or salt to taste (I used Herbamare, which is an organic seasoning salt you can get at Whole Foods)

Preheat oven to 300. Toss your seeds with the oil and salt. Spread your seeds on a cookie sheet and pop in the oven for 40-45 minutes, until golden in color. Stir once, about half way through.

OR, remember that BBQ sauce that you used to make those yummy Kale chips? I know you, of course, went and made a batch right after I posted that recipe because you are smart and trust me. So you, of course, have extra BBQ sauce left over. You can use that on the Pumpkin Seeds! Replace the oil and salt above and toss the seeds with just enough BBQ sauce so that they are all heavily coated. But not too much. You don’t want your seeds swimming in BBQ sauce, even though that sounds delicious. Cook the same as above. Taste them after you remove them from the oven and add salt if you want. I didn’t because I thought the coating was delicious but some people like their seeds super salty. To each their own!

Another great vegan addition to your Thanksgiving meal is hummus. I feel like hummus has reached a level of popularity that if you serve this with some veggies or chips that people won’t think you are too weird or that you are trying to sneak them healthy food.  True- You probably will still hear some griping from the Uncle that lives exclusively off meat and diet coke and harasses you every year for the lack of turkey on your plate BUT I think the majority of the people won’t give hummus a second thought. Plus, you can secretly gloat while you are eating your protein rich hummus and crunchy veggies that he’s probably going to walk away 10 pounds heavier from this day and your going to be feeling pretty damn good about your healthy cruelty-free choices. *smirk*

Garlic Hummus
adapted from Peas and Thank You‘s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

  • One 14 oz. can of chickpeas, drained, rinsed and peeled
  • 1/4 c. reserved liquid from chickpeas
  • 2 T. fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 c. tahini
  • 2 t. garlic, minced  (sssh, I made this way too late at night so I used the garlic from a jar)
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • Paprika, optional

So, according to Sarah Matheny, aka Mama Pea on peasandthankyou.com, the secret to a super creamy and yummy hummus is to skin the chickpeas. Its pretty easy to do this and only took me about 10 minutes to skin 1 can of chickpeas. You just sort of put the chickpeas between your thumb and forefinger and pop them out. I’m sure this would actually be really amusing and fun if one batch of hummus wasn’t standing between me and my warm, comfy bed. Anways…

The chickpea skin...eew

– Set aside 1/4 c of the liquid from the canned chickpeas. Dump the rest of the can into a colander and rinse. Deskin the chickpeas and place in food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and blend until smooth. Garnish with paprika if you want.

This recipe turned out  pretty salty. The chickpeas I bought, the Goya brand, ended up being preserved in salt. So when I set aside the 1/4 c. of liquid, there was already salt going into the hummus. Whoops! I definitely didn’t notice that until after.  I would recommend processing this without the salt and then add it, if need be. Otherwise, it’s pretty tasty! I think next time I’m going to throw a 1/4 or a 1/2 of a chipotle in adobe sauce in. I bet it’d be delicious!

Before the weeks over, I’ll give you guys a few more recipes to help you through the Thanksgiving feast. For now, I’m going to go listen to my halloween playlist…again.

Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

November 14, 2011 by Erin

Happy Monday, all my lovely internet friends. How was your weekend? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as awesome as mine. Even though I worked a bit, I went to see the movie Immortals and got to see Henry Cavill’s hot ass on the big screen for 110 minutes. What was the movie like? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. Some sort of war between, er, people?…and Micky Rourke was bad…and, er, there was blood and some Gods?…and all this resulted in Henry Cavill running around with no shirt! Yeah!! It was an awesome movie. I did read that it was the #1 movie of the weekend, though. I’m pretty sure all the girls in the audience will all give it raving reviews, like I did! Clearly!

Your Welcome!

Anyway! Back to the food- Growing up, one of my Mom’s favorite cookies was homemade oatmeal raisin cookies. She seriously makes the best baked goods out of anyone I know besides me  so even I, who hates all things that raisins have even shared space with, would eat them. Granted, I would do my best to pick the actual raisins out but sometimes one would sneak through. The cookie was so yummy though I didn’t care. There was just something so delicious about oatmeal and cinnamon in a chewy cookie.

These cookies are something of an Ode to those oatmeal raisin cookies. They have all the yumminess of my mom’s (oatmeal, cinnamon, chewiness) with none of the crap (raisins) with an extra little twist (peanut butter!!).

In fact, these cookies are so good that when my roommate, Bonnie, walked into our living room, sporting her second cookie and raving about how awesome they were, I had to put the kibosh on anymore cookie eating before I packed them up for work!

These cookies came from the book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, the founders of Post-Punk Kitchen.  Because this recipe comes from a book, which has copyright laws, I think I need to wait for the ok from Moskowitz and Romero before I can add it to the blog. Until then, I’ll just give you my review of the recipe. How about that?

Ok, So the cookies taste great but they definitely aren’t the prettiest. The batter was super sticky and wet so I had a really hard time rolling them into balls and then rolling them in the crushed peanuts. I ended up using a cookie scoop and plopping them into a bowl with the peanuts  but it was still hard to transfer the dough from the bowl with the crushed peanuts to the cookie sheet. They were too goopy. I made three dozen like this before I was so annoyed I stuck the dough in the fridge. It was only in there for about 15 minutes before I had to put the next batch in but even that short amount of time was a huge help! The cookies still spread out flat though, even when refrigerated. Next time, I’ll chill them longer. Regardless of the dough troubles I had, like I said, these cookies tasted amazing and that is after all, what I was striving for. I did manage to wrestle some away from my roommates to bring to work and so far I’m getting thumbs up all around.

I can’t wait to try some more recipes from this books. Spiced sweet potato blondeis, for instance, would be great for Thanksgiving or the espresso fudge brownies, which would be great for..well…me! I don’t know if I’m going to want to share those…

Keep checking in for the recipe for these. I’ll update as soon as I hear for the authors!

Posted in Recipage | 3 Comments »

A Fresh take on Pizza and Chips

November 11, 2011 by Erin

True story: I like the idea of going out to eat but I very rarely do it because I can  never make up my mind where to go. Melinda was crashing at my apartment a few weekends ago and we decided we were just too lazy to make dinner and I had no food in the house. So we decided to get take out. 45 minutes later, surrounded by take out menus and coupons, we hadn’t committed to anything yet. We couldn’t decide what we were in the mood for. We couldn’t decide whether we wanted delivery or to go get it. We couldn’t decide on anything.

Basically, we just wanted someone to deliver us the best food ever without us having to decide on the food and, we wanted it to be free.

We were sort of pathetic.

This is what happens to me at least once a weekend, though, when I’m too wiped out to make dinner. I always think, “Pizza can be delivered to me in no time!” and then I see all the other options that are out there and nothing gets ordered.

But not this weekend! This weekend, I’m ready! I have this delicious autumn pizza waiting for me in my fridge. Win for me!

Autumn Apple Sage Pizza
inspired by How Sweet Eats

Dough:

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (the original recipe called for 1 c. whole wheat flour and 3/4 c. of all-purpose but I was out of whole wheat)
1 tablespoon honey (see my comments on honey and veganism here)
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of your electric mixer with an attached dough hook, combine warm water, yeast, honey and oil and mix with a spoon. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until foamy, then add in flour and salt. Mix on low speed until just combined, then turn to medium speed to knead the dough for 5-6 minutes. If it seems to sticky, add a bit more flour 1 tablespoon at a time.

Brush a separate bowl with olive oil, add dough, turning once, then set in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2-2 hours. Cover with a towel.

While your dough is rising, you can start your pesto sauce…

Sage Pesto:
adapted from the book Skinny Bitch in the Kitch  by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
(makes approx. 1 cup)

1/4 cup whole almonds
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for storing
1 cup fresh sage leaves
1/2 cups fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

*The original recipe called for 1/4 c. vegan cream cheese but I couldn’t find any. Feel free to include it but it wasn’t necessary

Pulse the ingredients in a food processor in the order given. Scrape down the sides as necessary and continue pulsing to achieve a uniform consistency.

If desired, place sage pesto in a container and top off with olive oil to store.

Pizza Toppings:

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 TBS olive oil

1 large apple, very thinly sliced

1 small yellow onion, sliced

1 garlic clove, minced

3/4 c. vegan mozzarella cheese (I used Daiya)

3/4 cup vegan cheddar cheese ( I used Daiya)

Vegan Bacon (optional)

Preheat your oven 375 degrees. Spray your pizza pan lightly with cooking spray. I prefer round pizzas to square but all I had available was a square cookie sheet. (I’m sure a pizza stone would work great for this too but I’m not fancy enough for one of those!)

15 minutes for dough is ready, slice onions. Heat a skillet over medium heat and add 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, then add onions with a sprinkle of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until carmelized. In the last minute, add garlic and cook for 60 seconds, then set aside off heat.

When your dough is ready, remove from the bowl and place on your greased pizza pan. Stretch out evenly in pan. Top with sage pesto ( I used about half of what I made). Sprinkle with nutmeg. Add mozzarella cheese. Slice apples (a mandolin slicer would be perfect for this…but I’m not fancy enough for one of those, either) and layer on top of pesto and cheese, then add your onion/garlic mixture. Cover with cheddar cheese. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes. If you are using vegan bacon, cook in the microwave for about a minute, slice and add to pizza 5 minutes before its finished. I did this with my first round and I didn’t think the vegan bacon added much to the recipe.

But what would a pizza be without chip??

BBQ Kale Chip
from Healthful Pursuits

1 head kale

1/3 cup cashews

2-3 tbsp water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp smoked paprika + more for sprinkling

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp herbamare

dash of cayenne

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and take out a cookie sheet. No oiling/greasing needed.
  2. Drop all ingredients but kale in a blender and process until smooth. (I used a food processor because I had it out from the pesto. It didn’t really work well and my BBQ has cashew bits in it. It was still good though)
  3. Wash kale and remove stem – I  just rip it from the stem. Place kale in a large bowl and cover with 1/4 cup of the paprika mixture. Stir to coat before laying out on prepared cookie sheet.
  4. Sprinkle kale with extra smoked paprika and bake for 14-17 minutes (I cooked mine for 14 but it definitely could have used more time)

This was my first go-around with kale. I’ve always avoided it because the ruffles kind of creep me out. I’m not a ruffles girl. Pyramid studs- yes. Ruffles- not so much. I was pleased with the results, though! The BBQ sauce definitely had a kick to it but it had really good flavor! Unfortunately, my kale didn’t get chip-like . The edges got kind of crispy but overall, the kale was still soft. It still had great flavor, though.  I’ll cook it for a bit longer next time.

I’m a huge fan of this meal. Then again, I’m a huge fan of pizza and BBQ so I could I not be?? The pizza was light and the apples and nutmeg adds such a great fall feeling. The BBQ sauce on the kale chips was delicious. It created a great new way to eat greens!

PS. Save that extra BBQ sauce. I have a yummy way to use that leftovers that I’ll post on Weds

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Honey and Vegans

November 11, 2011 by Erin

When I first switched to a vegan diet, I was really surprised to find that honey was excluded from the list of things that were ok to eat. Though I can see how vegans would consider honey to be an animal product, I don’t agree with eliminating completely from my diet. You can’t find a more natural sweetener!

My strong support of honey  comes from the fact that my dad is a beekeeper and has been on and off for a good portion of my life. When I was little, maybe around first or second grade, my dad was taking a beekeeping class and I went with him. I remember going down to the front of the class and being allowed to spin the honey out of the combs. It was really fun and clearly something that has stuck with me.

 

Currently, he has three hives which help pollinate is blueberries, apple trees, peach trees and big garden full of veggies. He also sometimes keeps them at local apple orchards.

The point is, I get to see how honey goes from comb to bottle and I know that the bees aren’t hurt in the process. At least not on a local beekeeper level. What would be the point? Beekeepers have to spend money for the bees and the equipment and often they do it as a hobby. Putting your bees in jeopardy would be financially unsound. Furthermore, there isn’t any unnatural manipulation going on. There are no chemicals or hormones involved in the process.

It is true that I don’t know how honey is produced commercially. The procedure could be less clean and natural. A lot of honey on the shelves in grocery stores is also coming from outside the states, such as China, which could have different food guidelines. But the chances are, there is a local bee keeper near you. Check out farmers markets near you, road side stands or orchards. I’ve seen beekeepers at all of them. There’s no reason to give up honey when you can get it from a good, reliable source. I know I certainly won’t. It’s all natural, organic AND you can support local beekeepers. What could be better then that?!

If I haven’t convinced you, no worries. Though I will still be using my Dad’s honey in my recipes, if you don’t feel comfortable using it, you can replace it with sugar, agave nectar or maple syrup.

Posted in Life | Tagged | 2 Comments »

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