MoFo 8: Pepita Fettucine with Spinach and Cranberries

It's 11:47 PM now, this is gonna get in late. I was at school before 8 this morning for an exam, then class from 9-5. After that I had to do some work in the simulation lab (we all have our own dummy with a giant mouth we can put plastic teeth in to work on) until 9:30. My boyfriend picked my tired cranky butt up and we just grabbed some Chipotle for dinner. That place has been my savior for a quick, cheap (for the city) satisfying dinner. Now I have a few minutes to relax (which I spent reading blogs) before I study for a bit, then head to bed so I can have another crazy day tomorrow.

The above recipe was made last quarter, back when I still had time to plan out meals, shop, and then make them. This quarter is hitting me hard (it's supposedly the hardest of the 3 years) and our meals (or lack thereof) have seriously suffered. This dish was fantastic and quick to throw together. It's sweet and spicy all at the same time and because it's pasta it's comforting going down. Next time I make this I'd use less dried cranberries than called for because I thought there were just too many, but otherwise it is another fabulous recipe from Vegan Yum Yum.

I think I was just so excited to finally be home, but here's quite the round-up for today:

1) While I'm a big fan of cooking and eating a nice warm meal, sometimes the simplicity and sheer goodness of the flavors present in raw food dishes is unsurpassed. This recipe for cucumber clubs from Raw on $10 a day (or less!) looks so refreshing and satisfying.

2) I'm also a bit under the weather and this roasted garlic, apple, and butternut squash soup from eat well. live well. be well. looks like just the thing to help me feel better! Now if only I could find someone to make it for me...

3) On the more decadent side of things, how about these german pancakes with chestnut mousse and chocolate sauce from vegalicious? Um, yes please! That picture is drool-worthy.

4) Quarrygirl had a write-up of the first vegan beer fest that was held in LA over the weekend. It looks like there was fabulous food and drink and hopefully they'll make it a recurring fest so I can go sometime!

5) Over at the paupered chef there's a fabulous comparison of canned vs cooked from scratch chickpeas along with the ultimate taste-test: homemade hummus. I've never made chickpeas from scratch before...one day.

6) Some more butternut goodness over at vegan.chicks.rock (every time I type that I always want to type "yes they do!", so now I did) with a butternut squash gnocchi with buttery sage sauce. Sounds and looks perfectly autumnal and would make a fantastic Thanksgiving meal.

7) Since no vegan's recipe repertoire can be complete without some sort of legume loaf (nut, lentil, bean), how about this one: lentil and mushroom loaf with savory potato filling from Wing-It Vegan. While it's not the most photogenic of all the foods out there it seems like a great winter meal to come home to as these nights get colder and darker.

8) Sofia, who I've had the lovely pleasure to meet, at carnal vegan has another appetizing soup, chipotle sweet potato bisque, that I'm now dying to make. I won't have the perfect accompaniment of homemade fresh bread bowls, but I can admire from afar.

9) And now, to kill with sugar shock is the amazing looking maple turtle cake over at fragrant vanilla cake. I have no words...

Win: Joni from justthefood is hosting a giveaway for 2 copies of the book she coauthored, 500 Vegan Recipes!

While not from a blog, if you haven't had a chance to read the NY Times article that's circulating, "While Warning About Fat, US Pushes Cheese Sales," you really should. It illustrates not only what's wrong with cheese, but also what's wrong with our nutritional guidelines and food regulations and subsidies in this country.

And with all that, I bid you a very good night!

Amaretto Amore Cookies

I was in the mood for a different type of cookie and couldn't find anything that sounded quite right. Instead, I found a recipe that sounded promising and tweaked it to suit my cravings. I started with the recipe for Booze it Up cookies from 500 Vegan Recipes. I used the recipe from the book, which apparently had a typo, it was missing cornstarch. I think that would make a good addition to my version as well as they could definitely use a little thickener. I'm adding it to the recipe below. Amaretto makes a great drink, so of course it made a great cookie. Trader Joe's has a great low-priced bottle.

Amaretto Amore Cookies
makes about 18 cookies

1/4 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup almond butter
3/4 cup Amaretto
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat baking sheets.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the canola oil, sugar, almond butter, Amaretto, almond extract, and vanilla extract.
3. Add all the dry ingredients, except for the chocolate chips. Mix until well-combined.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Place well-rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 16 minutes. Let cool slightly and then transfer to a cooling rack before enjoying.

For even more almond love, add some chopped roasted almonds to either the batter or on top before baking.

Garlic Daiya Pizza Chips and Salad

There used to be this one pizza place my family would always go to as a special treat because of this thing called Garlic Chips. It was basically a pizza, but instead of sauce the dough was brushed with olive oil and then topped with garlic, herbs, and cheese. It was seriously one of the most amazing, fattening things on earth. Their vegetarian pizza wasn't all that great IMO, but these things were so good. Realizing that Daiya could be the key to recreating this magical food item I set about recreating it.

Garlic Daiya Pizza Chips

-1/2 recipe Cast-Iron Pizza Dough (500 Vegan Recipes; any dough, enough to make 1 small pizza should be fine)
-olive oil, for brushing
-5 cloves garlic, chopped
-Italian Herb mix (I used a Pampered Chef mix consisting of rosemary, thyme, lemon peel, and salt plus some dried basil)
-Daiya Italian style cheese

1. Prepare pizza dough.
2. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
3. Roll out dough and place in cast-iron skillet, or pizza stone/baking sheet.
4. Brush top of dough with olive oil.
5. Sprinkle chopped garlic on top of olive oil. Add herbs to preference. Top with Daiya.
6. Place in oven for 15 minutes, until just starting to brown and bubble.
7. Set oven to high broil and let brown for 1-2 minutes longer, don't let it burn!
8. Remove from oven, cut into squares, and devour.


This was incredible. We ate our way through the whole thing over the course of the evening. I served it up with a salad using whatever we had in the fridge with a dressing from Oh She Glows, and some red wine. The dressing was fantastic, I liked the tanginess, and it made more than enough for two salads.

Oven-Baked Chimichangas and Mango-Jicama Salad

I just got Viva Vegan! in the mail and couldn't wait to bust into it. Unfortunately for a lot of the recipes some hard-to-find ingredients (for me, if you are blessed with a bevy of ethnic groceries then you could be in luck) are needed. However, these items are mostly pastes and spices, so once acquired they should last awhile and allow for lots of delicious Latin eats. I scoured the local Mexican supermarkets and found a few things, but a handful of others I needed to order online (AmigoFoods has a great selection). So, while I wait for the rest of my items to arrive I made this salad to go with chimichangas from 500 Vegan Recipes. Both of these were very good. This was a little bit of a high-maintenance salad, seeing as both jicama and mango are not the easiest thing in the world to prep. Terry has a great primer on cutting mangoes in the book, and I watched this video to see how to tackle the jicama since I've never prepped it myself (the lady is a little creepy, but they get the job done). However, once that's taken care of it's simple with just some lime juice, mint, and cilantro. The chimichanga recipe was so good. The fillings were a tofu mixture, black beans, and salsa-cheese sauce.


The crispy tortilla was the best part though. So tasty, and luckily deep-frying as per usual chimi's wasn't necessary to recreate that. Great dinner!

Chocolate Orange Marmalade Muffins

I'm not too good at waking up; I really like to sleep. So weekends are nice because we can sleep in and still have time to make something tasty for breakfast before getting on with the day. Here is a muffin from 500 Vegan Recipes. It was a very delicate looking muffin with the bits of orange peel from the marmalade showing; they were also very decadent with chocolate chips inside. While I thought that these were very good they were a bit acidic. I'm guessing that's from the marmalade, so next time I might try these with either a different brand or a different type of jam altogether and see what happens.

Cucumber and Cilantro Salad

Here's another recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes. The flavors of cucumber and cilantro go so well together that I can't believe I never thought of it! I ate a bit by itself and then tossed the rest into a green salad with some flax oil. If everything were chopped smaller I think that this would make a fantastic filling for a slight alteration of a cucumber sandwich

Cast-Iron Deep Dish Pizza

As soon as I heard of the fantastic idea of using a cast-iron skillet to create a deep dish pizza I had to try it. I got the crust and sauce recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes. We loved the sauce! It was a creamy white sauce. I topped the pizza with whole basil leaves, Trader Joe's chicken-less strips and tomato slices; next time more garlic is needed. The crust was a little disappointing because it was so thin--not really deep dish. For the next endeavor I'll need to find a dough that rises more to give us the true deep dish experience. Overall though it tasted great and we had no trouble polishing it all off.