FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Postal Cookies

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You know those moments when you know why your best friend is your best friend?  Like when you’re having a rotten day and things instantly get brighter because you get an email with a subject line “these look yummy” and inside is a recipe that’s so up your alley you can hardly stand it.  And then the body of the email begins with something like “and non-dairy for you!” and your smile gets grander.  And up next you read “and they look care package-able…” and you laugh so very inappropriately loud at your desk.  And by the time you recover from the slight embarrassment of looking like a crazy person, your day has gone from rotten to perfect.  Yup, that’s a best friend story right there.

So Ariel’s care package-able email was the sole inspiration for the first Postal Cookies post.  But since she was out of town while I had super baking motivation, I decided to wait on her cookie and mail out a completely different cookie to other friends across the nation (seriously).  And now that I’m on day 4 of cleansing, baking motivation turned into its most severe form of baking craving.  Needless to say, the cleanse was a bust (let’s go with I had a very successful 3-day cleanse).  Mostly because in order to modify this recipe, I had to sample the dough to see what was going on.  Really.

FoodFash Vegan Peanut Butter & Both Types of Chocolate Cookies (yields 12 cookies)

1-1/2 cups white chocolate peanut butter (or regular natural peanut butter)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, blend peanut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.  Add flour and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Then fold in chocolate chips.  Roll 2″ diameter balls with your hands and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Flatten balls with a fork and bake for 12 minutes.  Remove cookies from oven and let cool for 20-30 minutes before handling.  The cookies are very mushy and fragile when they are warm, but harden when cooled.

And then I had to sample the cookie before I packaged everything up.  You see, I didn’t wait the 20ish minutes prior to handling and the cookie I messed with completely fell apart.  But by the time I did a few dishes and satisfied my Instagram addiction, the cookies turned into cookies and I was curious.  Legitimate sample, right?

I’m not 100% sold on the way brown rice flour feels between my teeth (see crazy person reference above), so I’d be curious to try these cookies with almond meal or coconut flour.  But flavor and moistness are totally good and worth sending to your best friend, especially if she appreciates a sweet treat on the healthier side!

Simple Nut-Crusted Fish

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I’m fairly certain that nut-crusted fish is one of those dishes that’s supposed to be difficult and unhealthy.  But if blogging has taught me anything, it’s that difficult and unhealthy are two things I am fully capable of transforming into easy and healthy.  And over time, I’ve found that the easier I make a recipe, whether it be by taking out ingredients or reducing steps, the healthier it becomes.

Baking over frying and almond meal over flour were the two major changes I made to what I can only assume a restaurant recipe would be.  Baking the fish turns cooking time from active to inactive, drastically reduces clean-up, and eliminates the need for excess oil.  Almond meal adds protein, fiber, and several vitamins, whereas regular flour just adds… white?  Ohhh just kidding, regular flour, if enriched, adds a teeny amount of vitamins.

FoodFash Walnut Crusted Halibut (yields 2 servings)

2 halibut fillets

1/2 cup California Walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup almond meal

1 egg

your favorite fish seasoning to taste

Place oven rack on the 2nd highest level and preheat to 400 degrees.  Mix chopped nuts and almond meal in a shallow bowl.  Beat egg in a separate shallow bowl.  Remove as much moisture from the fish as you can with a paper towel.  Dip one fish fillet into the beaten egg until well coated.  Gently place the egg coated fish in the nut mixture.  Flip the fish to coat the other side and gently press nut mixture into the fish to ensure that it is evenly coated.  Repeat.  Spray a foil lined cookie sheet with olive oil spray.  Place nut crusted fish fillets on the cookie sheet and sprinkle with seasoning.  Bake for 15 minutes or until fish is completely cooked and nuts are browned.

Adding nuts to fish makes for a protein-a-licious dinner.  And since nuts are inherently crunchy, the baked nut crust gives the illusion that you’re eating something breaded and fried.  An illusion that would also hold true with pecans, almonds, and coconut or another fish/chicken.

Weekday Eggs

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I am way boring when it comes to weekday breakfast.  Greek yogurt or flax oats have been my staple sit-at-my-desk-and-eat-while-I-work morning meal for entirely too long.  And since I’ve cut out Greek yogurt in an effort to get back to the land of non-dairy (gasp!), I had to come up with an oatmeal alternative, stat.

I dabbled in weekday eggs a few months ago, but baking breakfast (along with dinner) every other night and dirtying up a ton of Pyrex dishes is about as far from realistic as it gets.  But now that I finally have a muffin pan again, it dawned on me that weekday eggs can be a thing.  An awesome, un-boring, AM veggie kind of thing.

FoodFash Weekday Eggs (yields 4 servings)

14 ounces of veggie sausage (or 1 lb of turkey sausage)

6 eggs

1 cup of broccoli floretts, chopped (or any green veggie)

hot sauce to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Slice sausage into 12 equal parts and smoosh a piece into each muffin hole.  Bake until sausage is cooked all the way through (about 10 minutes).  Remove sausage from oven and set aside.  In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs.  Add veggies and hot sauce, noting that salt is unnecessary due to the saltiness of the sausage.  Spoon about 2 tablespoon of eggs over each piece of sausage.  Place back in oven and bake for 15 minutes or until eggs are cooked all the way through.  Put three frittatas to a sandwich bag and store in the refrigerator.  Reheat for 30-45 seconds in your office micro and enjoy!

If you’re looking for a way to make your co-workers and Instagram followers drool in a jealous stupor, eating these bad boys for breakfast will surely get you there.  And a bonus?  I found myself much more energized during my lunch-hour spin class.  I can see myself making these weekly, subbing with other greens and “meats” to keep it interesting.

What veggie/meat/non-meat combo would be your favorite?

Brown Sugar Pudding

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In the midst of one of the best and busiest weeks in work history, I couldn’t help but day dream about a strawberry and walnut dessert.  I was obsessed.  So instead of coming home from work and tackling piles of laundry from HLS, I decided to pretend clothes didn’t exist and experiment with pastry.  Normal, right?

I thawed a pastry shell and sliced what seemed like a million strawberries.  I placed the pastry shell in a tart pan, covered the pastry with two dense layers of strawberries, sprinkled with chopped walnuts, and then…  poured brown sugar pudding over everything.  It looked perfect.  I put it in the oven, so excited for what was about to happen.

And twenty-five minutes later, I had the tastiest, soupiest dessert ever.  The strawberries released A TON of moisture while baking, which made me realize that quick cooking tapioca is mandatory when baking with berries and pudding.  But, this experiment wasn’t a total loss.  In fact, it wasn’t a loss at all because I discovered brown sugar pudding.  And after tasting brown sugar pudding, I’m amazed that such a thing isn’t already a thing.  I’m definitely anxious to recreate and share this strawberry walnut brown sugar pudding tart recipe, but in the meantime, brown sugar pudding is where it’s at!

FoodFash Brown Sugar Pudding

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons corn starch

3 cups coconut milk

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon non-dairy butter (Earth Balance)

1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Mix brown sugar and corn starch together in a medium-sized pot.  Stir in coconut milk and continue stirring over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir for an additional two minutes.  Beat egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add the milk mixture to the bowl, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring constantly.  Add the egg mixture to the rest of the milk mixture, bring to a boil, and cook and stir for another two minutes.  Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla.  Place in a sealable bowl and refrigerate until cool.