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!

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?

Put An Herb On It

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Today as I was roaming around the grocery store (I’ve done that a lot this week) I couldn’t help but think that fresh herbs make everything better.  Putting an herb on it makes things better just like putting a BIRD on it makes things better.  You with me?

Well, I’m with me.  A little too with me, actually.  I was so pleased with myself for coming up with the herb/bird thing that I failed to pick up Vegenaise.  Side note: vegans eat Vegenaise because it doesn’t contain eggs.  I eat Vegenaise because I can pronounce the ingredient list and, honestly, it tastes better than mayo.

So rather than give you a recipe for a make-shift dinner that wasn’t my favorite, I figured I’d give you my go-to steps for making egg salad because I never follow the same steps twice and, if I have all of the ingredients, I’m always happy with the way it turns out.

FoodFash Egg Salad Non-Recipe

1. Chop up as many boiled eggs as you want

2.  Add finely chopped celery and onions

3.  Put a chopped herb in it (dill, chives, parsley)

4.  Add a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of some type of mayo and stir

5.  Repeat Step 4 until the consistency is where you want

6.  Add a tablespoon of dijon mustard

7.  Add salt and white pepper to taste

You can use this rule of thumb with tuna and chicken salad too, just skip the vinegar.

Patty Pan, Patty Pan…

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If you were shopping at the downtown Austin Whole Foods today after work, half of me sincerely apologizes.  Not only did I arrive without a list, but I decided to stay on the phone with my mom as I headed to the produce department.  And since I’m one of those people that paces like a crazy person while talking on the phone, I lapped around veggies at an abnormal grocery store pace, empty basket in hand, getting in everyone’s way for a solid 15 minutes.  That part of me apologizes.

The part of me that enjoyed talking to my mom after going days without a phone call, that part doesn’t apologize one bit.  That part is actually thankful because if I hadn’t lapped around produce a gazillion times, I wouldn’t have spotted the cutest little squash ever.  And then I wouldn’t have had an almost perfect recipe that became perfect when I found a box of California Walnuts waiting for me at my doorstep.  Talk about luck.

FoodFash Patty Pan Squash

2 tablespoons coconut oil

3/4 lb patty pan squash, sliced

2 tablespoons garlic chives, chopped

1/2 cup California Walnuts, chopped

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

salt to taste

Warm coconut oil over medium heat and then add squash, garlic chives, and walnuts.  Stir until mixed and then add salt and white pepper.  Continue stirring so that the veggies don’t stick to the pan.  Cook until the squash is softened but not mushy (about 5 minutes).

I just recently cooked with chives for the first time and fell in love.  They’re an excellent way to add oniony flavor without the bulk of onions or any chance of overpowering a dish.  As far as patty pans go, other than the cuteness factor, I couldn’t really tell much difference between them and regular yellow squash.  What I could tell, is that squash, chives, and walnuts are a solid combination.