Chocolate Chip Scone Cookies

 

I have been using this chocolate chip cookie recipe for a few years now, it is a Christmas favorite! They do not really flatten out or get crunchy and brown like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, they are fluffy and kind of remind me of a scone. They are VERY easy to make and require no odd ingredients. You can also tweak them to make them peppermint flavored, that is my all time favorite way to enjoy them!

Ingredients:

•  2 cups unbleached flour
•  2 teaspoons baking powder
•  1/2 teaspoon salt
•  1 teaspoon cinnamon
•  3/4 cup of vegan chocolate chips
•  3/4 cup raw sugar
•  1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil or vegan margarine (depending on your preference)
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/2 tsp of vanilla and 1/2 tsp of mint extract for mint cookies!!)
•  1/2 cup soy milk, vanilla soy milk, almond milk, or water (depending on your preference)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
 
In a large bowl mix
 2 cups flour
 2 teaspoons baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon  salt
 3/4 cup chocolate chips
 1 teaspoon cinnamon
 
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and set the bowl aside.

In a medium size bowl mix

•  3/4 cup vegan sugar
•  1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil or vegan margarine (I use earth balance original)
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/2 cup soy milk, vanilla soy milk, almond milk, or water

 

I mix everythin up with a fork with no issues, anytime I do not have to dirty egg beaters is a great thing to me! Once everything is mixed, use a small ice cream scooper to make your cookies, and then press the tops to flatten them a bit. These cookies DON’T SPREAD much at all. I can fit 12 on a sheet, makes about 24! And whatever dough is left is safe to eat, BECAUSE VEGAN. I cook them in the oven for 15 minutes, or until you see the bottom sides start to brown. They look pale but trust, they are cooked! Enjoy and Happy Holidays!!

My Little Review: Earth Balance Aged White Cheddar Puffs

Earth Balance Loves You!

 

When Earth Balance announced that they were selling essentially a vegan puffed cheese doodle, I rejoiced. Probably shouldn’t have though, since cheese doodles were a terrible vice for me that I would sneak out of my mother’s pantry and consume the entire bag in one sitting. Bad bad bad!! I had to go to Whole Foods to find these, as right now I believe they are exclusive to them.

I guess I cannot say that I was disappointed by them since I finished half the bag on the car ride home, but if you are buying these looking for a cheese doodle, lower your expectations. Which is kind of sad because cheese doodles are not exactly the gourmet snack food of the century. These lacked the jagged brutality of a cheese doodle, that super roughly processed cheese powder. While puffed, they were still kind of dense and crunchy. I used to love sucking the air out of cheese doodles ( yeah I’m a weirdo!!) and you can’t really do that with these. They are essentially a slightly puffier version of the Tings crunchy cheese snacks. Also not sure why they had to call them “aged” white cheddar, they just taste like a mild white cheddar, almost like smartfood popcorn.

the bag is a little redundant, pointing out THREE TIMES that they are vegan. I guess they don’t want to confuse anyone in to thinking it is “real aged white cheddar” since I’m not even sure you can age vegan cheese!! The gluten free and non GMO crowd will probably be very happy too. Basically this snack hits all of the high points for the health conscious who still want ungodly snacks. They don’t even contain palm oil! I would probably buy these again if I get a sudden snack craving, but would not try to pass them off to non vegans as a cheese doodle substitute. Get jagged and terrible for me, Earth Balance!!

Recipe: Gardein Beefless n Broccoli

Making your own Asian food is not as hard as it seems. All you need is a few essential ingredients, and a deep pan or wok. I’m looking for more ways to get some broccoli in my diet, and had these Gardein Beefless Tips sitting in my freezer for quite some time, dying for my attention. They really do shine in this dish, the sauce they get coated with makes you really forget you are eating soy proteins! You will need

For the marinade

• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 bag of Gardein Beefless Tips

Combine everything in a bowl as listed and toss to coat. Pour 1 tablespoon of veg oil in a medium high heat pan, and cook the tips until heated through, about 5-8 minutes. Put aside.

For everything else:

• 4 cups of fresh broccoli florets
• 1 small onion, cut into wedges
• 1/3 cup reduced sodium tamari soy sauce, or regular soy sauce.
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Cook the broccoli and onions in the pan with the leftover oil plus 1 more tablespoon, for about 4-5 minutes. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and then dump the tips back in to the pan, and slowly add the liquid, so it doesn’t splash everywhere. Cook for about 2 more minutes, and it should be done! Plate with your favorite kind of rice, I did a brown and wild rice mix. Would also be tasty with some toasted sesame seeds on top!

Recipe: Italian Sausage Bread

 

This is one of those family traditions that I am so thankful it is simple enough to vegan-ize. Sausage bread is something my father and grandfather make for many family get togethers, it is practically demanded! You can really put anything you like inside them, sausage, pepperoni, vegetables, anything! It’s kind of like a calzone or stromboli. It requires very minimal ingredients, making it a great appetizer to bring to a potluck or party. This is enough for two breads.

• 1 prepackaged non frozen pizza dough. I used multi grain from whole foods. Or make your own dough!
• 1 package of Field Roast Italian style sausages, or your favorite crumbly vegan sausage.
• 1 package Daiya Mozzarella Shreds.
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder
• Dried Oregano

Prep the packaged dough as instructed. This required me to put it in a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise for 2 hours. Cut your dough ball in half, and roll out on a floured surface. Get it to be about 1/4 inch thick, it doesn’t have to be a round shape, more rectangular. Lightly sprinkle some olive oil and spread it to coat the surface of the dough. A thin layer! Sprinkle on the oregano and garlic powder, as much as you like. Remember, the sausages also have seasoning in them so you don’t need too much. Now sprinkle a layer of the cheese, making sure it is even.

Open your sausages up and crumble them into a lightly oiled pan and cook for a few minutes until warmed through. Sprinkle the crumbles onto the dough, evenly. If you want, cook 2 sausages at a time, this is about how much you will need per bread.

Now comes the rolling. You can do it two ways, fold it on the side burrito style and roll it, sealing it on the bottom. This will be like a loaf. Or you can roll it this way and then coil it like a snail shape, for a round bread.

Get out a cookie sheet and lightly spray it with cooking spray. Place the breads, seam side down on the pans. Bake in a 375 degree oven until golden brown, about 25-30 minutes. Let them cook on a wire rack. Enjoy warm. They reheat very easily, wrapped in foil in a toaster oven or conventional oven!

Recipe: Just for Me Sweet Potato Casserole

Portion Control are two words you do not hear on Thanksgiving. Unless you are really really serious about your health! This recipe may not be a healthy one but it does show an easy way to portion out a favorite Thanksgiving side dish in a “no brainer” kind of way.

• 2 good sized sweet potatoes or 4 small-medium sized
• 1/4 cup vegan sour cream
• 1/3 cup orange juice or less if you like it less orange-y
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• dandies marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the potatoes long enough that when you pierce them with a knife, they have no resistance.Let them cool down before handling them, unless you really like burning your palms.

Scoop out the “meat” into a mixing bowl and add all the ingredients except the marshmallows. Mix until combined and almost smooth. The portion part of this comes in the form of my favorite thing, RAMEKINS! Drop 1 cup each of the mixture into individual ramekins. You should get 4 servings out of this. Cover the top of the ramekins with the marshmallows, giving enough space for them to puff up. Which I did not do!! Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. When done, let them cool for a while, they will be very hot inside! You can eat all 4 yourself if you want, I won’t tell anyone.

Recipe: Vegan Apple Cider Harvest Doughnuts

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, and living in the North East was always full of pumpkin picking, apple picking and of course lots of Trick or Treating. One of the best parts of heading out to the apple orchards was getting a bag of hot apple cider doughnuts, which were made fresh right at the orchard shop. Not only do I no longer live anywhere near an apple orchard, but even if I did, those doughnuts are out of the vegan’s reach. But like any other food full of animal products, we make due and make it ourselves!! This recipe makes about 9 doughnuts and holes. Here’s what you’ll need!

• 1 cup organic apple cider
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 3/4 cups unbleached flour, make sure to have some extra flour for rolling out dough
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons your favorite vegan butter substitute (at room temp, I use earth balance original)
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar.
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp of cinnamon for coating the doughnuts

Start with boiling the apple cider down to 1/4 of a cup. This should take about 30 minutes on medium low. Put aside in the fridge to cool down. In the mean time, stir the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together. I like to sift my flour first to get out the lumps.

Make a buttermilk mixture by adding the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together, mix, and set aside to curdle.

Beat the butter for a second, then add the sugar to cream together. Then add the pumpkin and mix. Add the curdled milk and the concentrated apple cider to this as well and mix. Once combined, slowly add in the flour. Mix but do not over mix, it will seem very tacky and sticky. I sprinkled more flour over it and worked it into a ball in the bowl, then laying it out on the counter, with more flour. Roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Stick on a parchment lined cookie sheet and pop into the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.

Heat up a pot with about 3 inches of vegetable oil to about 350 degrees. Take the dough out of the freezer when ready, and using a 3 inch round cutter, make the doughnut shapes, and 1 inch hole for the doughnut holes. If your oil is not ready yet, put the cut doughnuts into the fridge.

When the oil is ready, fry each doughnut one at a time, for about 1 minute on each side. Stick on cooling racks to cool and let the oil drip off.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and coat the doughnuts while they are still warm. the traditional way would be to shake these up in a brown paper bag, carefully not to break the doughnuts. Serve with a glass of hot apple cider!

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Protein Shake

I’ll admit, I semi jacked this recipe from Pinterest. With all the different pumpkin spice items popping up in grocery stores this time of year, it can get awfully disappointing to be vegan. Except that when you’re a vegan, you usually have the mad skills to use REAL ingredients like REAL pumpkin and spices, instead of artificial flavorings, to make ACTUAL FOOD. This recipe uses real pumpkin, protein powder, and soy milk, to up the protein count. It honestly has almost a pudding like taste, and feels more like a nice fall treat than a shake!

• 1/2 cup canned or fresh cooked pumpkin
• 1/2 frozen banana, small to medium size
• 3/4 cup unsweetenen original soy milk
• 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice blend (usually includes cloves, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon)
• pinch of ground ginger
• more cinnamon to top with

Throw everything into the blender! If you like a thinner shake, use ice instead of banana. Top with more ground cinnamon or if you don’t give a darn, a little coconut whipped cream. This will also bring down the calorie count. One serving will give you about 19 grams of protein and is about 235 calories. Now bring on the sweater weather!

My Little Quickie: Elena Ruz Sandwich

I got the idea for this sandwich while listening to a Florida based podcast, where Cuban food reigns supreme. This is a good use of leftover Tofurky or Celebration Roast

• 3 slices of Field Roast Celebration Roast or Torfurky
• 1 long style sub roll
• Your favorite vegan cream cheese. I use Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese
• Strawberry Preserves

Slice the roll lengthwise and arrange the roast pieces on the bun. Toast til warm and the roll is crunchy. Spread cream cheese on the naked side of the bun and then top with the preserves. Sounds a little strange but it is almost like a Thanksgiving sandwich! All it needs is a moistmaker 😉 *A gravy soaked piece of bread for all you non Friends watching people!

Low Carb Gluten Free! Almond Crusted Tofu

Everywhere you look now, it’s all about Gluten Free. A lot of vegan food can be “accidentally” gluten free, like this tofu dish. I am trying to cut down on carbs and make as many variations of tofu that my little brain can conjure! And on a budget to boot! Here’s what you’ll need, this is a single serving, as I am a lonely vegan;

• 1 half block of extra firm tofu
• 1/4 cup raw almonds
• dried basil
• dried oregano
• garlic powder
• black pepper
• soy milk

Press your tofu so it is good and dry, and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the block in half, then cut lengthwise. Dip the tofu pieces in soy milk so they are good and coated. I let mine sit a little in the Tupperware while I make the almond coating. Put 1/4 cup of almonds into a food processor or blender. I use the magic bullet blender. I did not measure the seasonings, this is really to taste! Make it how you want it! I like lots of oregano and black pepper. Pulse the mixture until it is fine crumbs, but not too long because you’ll eventually get almond butter!

Pour the mixture onto a plate and dredge the tofu in it, coating all sides evenly. Place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil for less mess. Bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes, then flip for another 15. Serve up with a side of your favorite veggie or if you’re feeling sassy, some cheesy smashed potatoes! I hooked mine up with a side of steamed broccoli with a nice coating or MANGO CHUTNEY aka my new obsession. Happy tofu-ing!

Recipe: Creamy Potato and Broccoli Casserole

I’ve noticed that most recipes that include broccoli, involve it being smothered in some kind of cheesy, creamy sauce. This is one of those times. Lets get cooking.

• 5 medium size potatoes, washed and peeled
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1/4c earth balance
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 1/2 c soy milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast to top

Preheat oven to 350. Start the sauce first, by melting butter on medium heat, and whisking in the flour. Whisk until combined, then add milk and S+P. Whisk the sauce frequently until it boils, then remove from heat.

Slice potatoes thin, I used a mandolin to get them to all be uniform in size. Spray a casserole dish down with cooking spray, and line the bottom with a layer of potatoes. Top with broccoli florets, sprinkle in the garlic, and ladle on some sauce. Repeat until out of potatoes, and top with the rest of the sauce. Coat the top of the dish with breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Place on the center rack of the oven and bake for 40 minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through.

This will satisfy that creamy craving in a flash. You’d never know there is no real cream in this dish! Feed it to your unsuspecting omni friends and laugh behind their backs, fun times!