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.

Quinoa Spaghetti with Pecan-Crusted Seitan and Kale

This was one big plate of yum! This is the pecan-crusted seitan from The Kind Diet (her recipe comes from Candle 79) that I had wanted to make the other day, but didn't have the time. It was the weekend, so three hours of marinating time was just fine. I served the seitan over quinoa spaghetti noodles and simple marinara sauce from Veganomicon. For the kale I just sauteed it with a tiny bit of peanut oil, then added garlic powder, soy sauce and a splash of mirin. I ended up changing the seitan recipe quite a bit because some things I didn't have on hand (orange juice) and for others the amounts just seemed wasteful (the marinade and the dry mixture for dredging before frying). Here's my take:

Pecan-Crusted Seitan

serves 4

2 loaves seitan from Viva Vegan! (1/2 recipe, about 1 pound), cut into 1/4-1/2 inch slices

1 6oz can tomato paste
1/4 cup umeboshi vinegar
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon dried Italian Herb mix (rosemary, oregano, basil, whatever strikes your fancy)
1 tablespoon dried tarragon

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup ground pecans (I blended in the dry container of my Vita Mix)
1 tsp dried Italian herbs of choice

olive oil, for frying

1. Combine tomato paste through tarragon in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer marinade to a dish and add seitan slices. Coat on all sides. Cover and place in fridge for at least 3 hours.
2. After marinating, combine flour, salt, pepper, pecans, and herbs in a small bowl.
3. Heat oil in a cast-iron skillet (enough to cover bottom).
4. Dredge seitan pieces in dry mixture and coat on all sides. Add to skillet and sautee until golden brown on both sides.

These were fantastic and tasted great over pasta. Enjoy!

Pasta with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce and Broccoli

I was craving roasted garlic something fierce. After looking through some cookbooks and finding nothing to my liking I decided to make a sauce and toss it with some noodles and broccoli. It turned out quite good. My boyfriend covered his in Daiya and declared that excellent.

Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce

serves 3ish

20 cloves garlic, roasted
2 Tablespoons Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
4 Tablespoons Soy milk
4 Tablespoons Soy Creamer
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
pepper, to taste
extra virgin olive oil

1. Roast your garlic cloves: preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a piece of foil pile peeled garlic, drizzle with olive oil. Roast for ~20 minutes, until soft.
2. Cook pasta of choice (1/2 lb) according to directions. If adding a vegetable, prepare that as well (I steamed broccoli)
3. Add all ingredients, except EVOO, to blender. Blend thoroughly.
4. When pasta is done, drain, return to pot and add sauce (add veg also, if using). Stir to coat. Drizzle with EVOO if desired.

The pasta I used was a vegetable mix from Trader Joe's; the noodles were beet, spinach, and I can't remember the rest but it was good, and cute to boot!

Kale Chips!

I made these when I first stumbled upon the recipe, but seeing them in the latest VegNews as a VegWeb award winner I was craving them so badly that I had to make them, like now. They are just as advertised: a seriously addictive snack! The crispy bits are so good...if you haven't tried this yet and you like kale you need to get on it. Be careful with the salt though, a little goes a long way.

I ended up just eating these for dinner along with a kale and pear smoothie (1 large leaf kale destemmed, 1 banana, 1/2 pear, 1 cup frozen pineapple, and 1 orange-might need some water to get it all going depending on your blender) and it was fantastic! Oh, I also ate the other half of that pear...another thing I didn't use to like, yum!

Enchiladas

Now that Daiya is available for our melty pleasure I had to recreate an old favorite: cheesy enchiladas. There is nothing healthy about these, but I had to try it!

Cheesy Enchiladas

makes as many as you want (we made 6)

flour tortillas, medium size
enchilada sauce, canned or homemade (we used canned)
Daiya cheese
Chicken-less strips, chopped (we got these at Trader Joe's, Gardein also makes some)
canned diced green chiles

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Pour enough sauce in baking dish to cover bottom
2. Pour a good amount of sauce on either a plate or in a pie dish for coating tortillas
3. Heat 1 tortilla on a skillet, once warm coat with sauce
4. Move saucy tortilla to baking dish. Add cheese, chick'n, and chiles. Roll up
5. Repeat steps 3&4 until number of desired enchiladas are formed
6. Pour sauce over top of rolled enchiladas. Top with more cheese and chiles
7. Cover dish with foil, bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10-15 minutes more

We served these up with refried beans. I'll be honest, these kinda freaked me out. If I hadn't made them myself I would have wondered what was in them; the meltiness of the Daiya cheese is gonna take me a while to get used to after not having that texture available for so long. The flavor was great though and they were even better as leftovers.

Beanball Subs (or Daiya Dish #1)

Having never had a meatball sub before I have no idea where this craving came from. I blame the cheese. I don't really care for the taste of a lot of mock meats, so I went with the beanball recipe from Veganomicon for this. They were excellent.

Beanball Subs

makes 2 sandwiches

1/2 recipe beanballs (from Veganomicon, p. 189)
1 cup pizza or marinara sauce
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
2 sandwich rolls (we used ciabatta), sliced
Daiya to taste

1. Make beanballs according to directions. Begin to bake.
2. Chop bell pepper. Place pieces on baking sheet with beanballs.
3. During last 5 minutes of baking add pizza sauce to baking sheet.
4. Place bread in oven on separate baking sheet.
5. After 5 minutes remove everything from the oven.
6. Change oven setting to broil.
7. Stir sauce, beanballs and bell pepper to combine. Pile onto one side of each roll.
8. Sprinkle Daiya on both sides of bread. Return to oven.
9. Remove when bread is slightly browned and cheese is bubbly. Cut in half.



Enjoy!

Yummy Greens Bowl

Using up what was left in the fridge I came up with this creation. It was more amazing than I thought it would be.

It started with some leftover cooked quinoa; on top of that went greens (1 head bok choy and 1 of chard) cooked in (you guessed it!) olive oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and mirin; mushrooms were cooked until soft (no oil needed for them since they get so juicy); some baked tempeh I had leftover from lunch salads earlier in the week; tahini sauce from New Leaf; and finally toasted sesame seeds. It all came together to be one (OK, 2) big bowl of yum!

The tahini sauce is the house dressing at New Leaf (comes on the New Beet salad which has spring greens, shredded raw beets, baked tempeh, avocado, toasted pepitas and sesame seeds--crazy good). This sauce is amazing on everything under the sun--seriously. I need to find a recipe for something comparable because this stuff is great not only on salads, but on crackers, veggies, and now grain bowls, huzzah! I'll be moving away from Santa Cruz this summer (holla San Francisco!) and will need to definitely work on making my own version of this, once I do I'll for sure post it (I've tried tahini sauce recipes from a couple of cookbooks and they're not even close).

Soy Nugget Wraps

I've been making these wraps since college and they're still satisfying! I use Trader Joe's soy nuggets (any vegetarian chicken nugget/strip will work) and cook per package directions. While they're cooking I chop tomatoes then place them in a dish to roast alongside the nuggets. Once cooked, take a warmed tortilla and spread a creamy style dressing inside (we used Caesar) then add lettuce, chopped soy nuggets and tomatoes. Wrap up, cut in half and serve with hot sauce!

Pomegranate Cosmopolitan

I'm usually a beer gal, but every once in a while nothing will serve like a frilly girlie cocktail. Last monday I received a bit of bad news, it was one of those times I needed to drown some sorrows and lift my spirits by having some. I whipped up this little beauty, and it's mighty tasty.

Pomegranate Cosmopolitan

makes one cocktail

1 oz vodka
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz pomegranate juice
splash of lime juice

1. Add everything to shaker. Mix.
2. Pour. Serve.

If you were looking to dress it up a bit a lime wedge or berries would make a nice garnish, or a lime peel swirl or pomegranate seeds tossed in the drink would be lovely.

Chickpea Stew

This is another recipe sent to me by my mom. I changed it up a bit so that I could use canned chickpeas and tomatoes, and therefore make and have it on the table in less than 5 hours with things I had on hand. It was really tasty. The flavors blended together really well. I also got to try out the new immersion blender that I received for Christmas, so that was fun. Below is my cheater version:

Cheater Chickpea Stew

serves 3-4

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cups vegetable stock or broth (I used 2 cups water and 1 veggie boullion cube)
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
1 lb. yellow potatoes, peeled and diced
2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
Salt to taste

1. Add broth to a large pot over medium heat. While heating add chickpeas, tomatoes, potatoes, and all spices except salt
2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender
3. Blend slightly with immersion blender (or transfer half to blender, blend, and return to pot)
4. Taste and adjust salt if necessary
5. Serve

We ate this over brown rice, but any grain or Indian bread would serve. It would be great with cilantro, as the original recipe suggests but I didn't have any.

Mexican Tofu Scramble

First day back from our trip (we went to Magic Mountain and Disneyland), I wanted a nice hearty breakfast, something that I hadn't had in a few days as it's hard to get as a vegan while traveling. I roasted some potatoes, cooked up some black beans, and made a tofu and salsa scramble. So good, so filling, so exactly what I wanted.

For the potatoes: Peel and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Lay out on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and a little salt. Mix around. Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes. Stir and flip as best you can, then cook for about 10 minutes more.

For the beans: I just pour a can of black beans into a pot (juices included), then add lime juice, cumin, cayenne, garlic powder, and hot sauce. Cook on medium until hot, then turn down to low until the rest of the food is ready.

Tofu: my basic tofu scramble recipe, add salsa.

There we go, pretty simple, but tasty. Tortillas probably would have been a nice addition.

Flavor-fall Muffins

I love pumpkin. I'll just get that out there. Anything with pumpkin in it I'm probably gonna love. I wanted pumpkin muffins, but none of the recipes I found were really appealing to my tastebuds so I created my own. It's got pumpkin (obviously), chocolate, cranberries, and an oatmeal topping. I thought these turned out great. They also have no added oil; this makes them a tad dense but I don't mind that in a muffin.

Flavor-fall Muffins

Makes 12 Muffins

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 cup Sugar
1 15oz can Pumpkin (not Pumpkin Pie Mix)
1/2 cup Soymilk
1/2 cup Chocolate chips/chunks
1/4-1/2 cup Cranberries (I used Orange Cranberries from Trader Joe's)

Topping:
1/4 cup Rolled Oats
1 Tbsp packed Brown Sugar
1/8 tsp Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil muffin pan or prepare liners
2. In a large bowl, combine: Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Spices, and Sugar
3. Add Pumpkin, Soymilk, Chocolate, and Cranberries
4. Spoon batter evenly into muffin pan
5. In a small bowl combing topping ingredients. Spoon topping over muffin batter
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean
7. Remove. Let sit 1-2 minutes before removing to cooling rack or platter

Enjoy!