Gooey Chewy PB/Choco Cookies!!!

These are incredibly gooey, soft and delectable cookies, with no added sugar! YUM! 
They are a MUST BAKE!!!!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups chickpeas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Natural Peanut Butter
1/4 cup  honey (agave would be delicious too!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
add just a pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
spoonful of chia seeds (optional)

Very simple....just blend all ingredients in a blender/food processor.
My suggestion, blend up the chickpeas first then add the rest to blend.
Warning: the dough will be very thick and sticky, it's normal.  I added a splash of soy milk just so I could blend it!
Once blended, stir in chocolate chips.

Spray baking sheet....then place dough in to balls on the cooking sheet.

Cook at 350 for 10-15 minutes!

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mouth is still watering just thinking about them!

Vegan, Gluten Free... Oh and Delicious Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Vegan, Gluten Free... Oh and Delicious Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes

~What you will need~
1/2tsp Salt
1 Cup Buckwheat flour
1/4 Cup Oat flour
1/3 Cup Unsweetened cocoa powder
1tsp Baking soda
1 Cup Raw sugar
     **For this recipe to work, it has to be a large crystallized sugar, unfortunately honey 
         or agave wont work... The large crystallized sugar absorbed some of the excess moisture that is
         a natural consequence of using bananas and/or apple sauce when replacing fats in vegan
         cooking... The sugar helps to keep the cake from being so dense.
1 Banana
1 Cup strong coffee (I use decaf)
1/2tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
1tsp Apple cider vinegar
Natural Peanut butter (I like crunchy)
Powdered sugar (just a very little bit)

~What you will get in return of our efforts~

One dozen moist and fluffy vegan and gluten free cupcakes!

First off Brew your coffee... you just in case you hadn't figured that part out yet...
Next put your coffee, banana, vanilla, almond, apple cider vinegar, and raw sugar into your Ninja and cream... Place off to the side and leave to sit... It will look a little frothy, don't worry that is supposed to happen!
Alrighty so, sift all of your dry ingredients into a bowl individually this is very important because these flours tend to clump and are slightly less refined than the flours that you normally use for baking, so we need to be careful to avoid clumps.
Now whisk your wet and dry ingredients together into the same bowl... Yummy!

Okay, so now at this point preheat your oven to 350 degrees F... You don't have to preheat it before this point because the next step will take long enough for the oven to get hot, but not waste energy...

Next fill your cupcake tins (with liners in them) half way up, leave a little bit in the bowl for later...

Place some powdered sugar into a bowl, grab a normal spoon, and your peanut butter... Get a scoop of your PB (the size you want depends on how much PB you want in each cupcake) drop the PB into your sugar and roll it around until you can form it into a ball... As such...

Take you PB balls (hehe) and press them into cupcake batter... See?

Cover each of your cupcakes with your remaining batter and place into the oven for 30 minutes.

Now would be a good time to clean all of the dishes that you made... This is not exactly a one dish wonder!

After 30 minutes double check that they are done... use the old toothpick trick... but I can pretty much guarantee that they are good to go at this point. Pull your tin out of the oven, and allow them to cool... apply your favorite "frosting" the kind I used for this was a kind of mad science experiment of cashews, coconut milk, and oatmeal... it still needs a lot of work so I wont bother to post it here.
I hope that you all enjoy! Miss your faces!

 

 

9 Appalling Facts About Meat

9 Appalling Facts About Meat...Just in case you needed any further reason to not eat commercial meat!

Raw Spiced Chayote Salad

Raw Spiced Chayote Salad

Never fear the RAW!

Raw Chayote has a really wonderful taste and texture, slice it thin, add in your spices, and let it marinate and and you will be rewarded with this  tantalizing side dish!

-What you will need- 

2 Chayote Squash

Sesame oil 

Splash of Apple cider vinegar (or a rice wine vinegar if you want a more traditional taste)

1 Clove of Garlic Minced

Crushed Red Pepper

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt... or Sea Salt (to taste)

Sesame Seeds or crushed peanuts

Start off by cleaning and peeling your Chayote squash, as described in my last post. Slice as thin or as thick as you would like and in whatever shape you would like, just try and make them fairly consistent. Note the thinner the slices the less time it will take for them to marinate.

Whisk all ingredients, except the squash together in a bowl, add your now prepared marinade to the squash. Cover and leave to set in the refrigerator for at least an hour, after that it is really up to you and how crunchy you would like for your squash to be... and how patient you are... Hopefully this is somewhat logical, but just in case it isn't, the longer you allow the squash to sit in the fridge the softer it will become, but also the more flavor it will gain... I had left overs the next day and they were AMAZING... Unfortunatly I do not have enough patients or preplanning to alow it to set this long! 

Hope that you all enjoy this super simple dish!    

Chayote Squish with Glass Noodles

Chayote Squish with Glass Noodles

So my roommate and I both love to cook, so we have kind of developed  fun game, we take turns going picking out an off the wall ingredient for the other to cook a meal with... So one day Lee came back with this...

Now this one took me a minute to figure out... These little green bombs of goodness are called Chayote squash. After doing a little research my initial instinct was to use it to make a curry as this is a very popular dish, but in my search of the thriving diversity that is inherent in South Texas and there for Corpus I was unable to find curry leaves and so moved onto what I was craving... As is fairly usual for me I was thinking Asian food! Here is what I came up with...

-What you will need-
2-3 Chayote Squash
Glass noodles
3 cloves Fresh Garlic
1-2 inches Fresh Ginger
3 Dried red peppers (soaked)
2 Carrots
Sesame Oil 
Soy Sauce
Sesame seeds (I use the ones that are at the bottom of my flat bread crackers, so they are already toasted)
Some form of sprouts (mung beans, alfalfa, etc...) I used SUNFLOWER sooo good!

 First off tackle preparing your squash the best way I found to go about this was to grab your whole squash and a pairing knife, peel the squash with the knife while holding it under cool running water. When you go to do this the squash will give off a slightly slimy substance, don't be put off by it they are totally worth it... plus that is what the water is for! When that is done cut the squash in half (be careful they have a pit, kind of like an avocado) then remove your pit. your squash should now look like this.

Alrighty, glad that this is done... At this point in time it maybe a good idea to start a pot of water boiling for your noodles, especially if your stove is like mine and takes FOREVER to boil water, but cooks food really fast... Still not too sure about the physics of that, but whatever. So these glass noodles I found are really cool, the only ingredients in my brand was sweet potato starch and water... that was it... I found mine at a little local Asian market, so I am not sure how readily available they are, but definitely look around because the two all natural ingredient thing really rocks! Oh and just follow the instructions for your particular pack of noodles.
Mince your garlic and ginger 
Next work on cutting all of your veggies into strips, if you have a mandolin this is a much easier job, if you don't have one get one, it makes life so much easier... just remember to watch your fingers, the blades on these things are a littler merciless... 

Now doesn't that look nice!

Okie Dokie, get out your wok if you have one, I didn't so I just used a normal non-stick pan. Pour in some sesame oil... just a note I LOVE sesame oil, it has such a really great flavor, just be careful as with all oils to get pure and good quality otherwise it will just ruin everything it touches. Crank the heat to medium and toss in your garlic, ginger, and red chillis. Cook that up until the garlic and ginger start to soften and smell really good. Throw in the rest of your veggies and saute to desired doneness, I like mine to be a little bit crunchy so it didn't take too long. Add in your drained and rinsed noodles and top off with a little extra sesame oil, soy, and sesame seeds to taste.  This is a truly tasty labor of love! I hope that you guys like it!

Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

Cauliflower "Alfredo" Sauce... Ummmm Yum! 

Pale in color, but not in nutrition

Soldier of the immune system, friend of fiber, helper of the heart, crusader against cancer... Cauliflower gives traditional Alfredo sauce a vegan super makeover!

Let me start of by apologizing to KTP for making her really carry the blog as of late, no really good excuses here, I have been cooking, but not taking the time to share the outcomes of my culinary fun, so today my goal is to go on a sort of posting rampage... Here is the first... more to come! 

So this "Alfredo" has kind of become a staple for me as of late, I normally do not enjoy cauliflower at all... I find it tasteless and am not a fan of it's texture... But this, this one is good! This sauce is really diverse I have tossed this on pasta, used it as a sauce for pizza, used at as a quesadilla binder, and folded it in tacos... it works really well for everything!

-What you will need-

Head of cauliflower

6 cloves of fresh garlic

Milk sub of choice... I like almond for this recipe...

Nutritional yeast

Salt

Pepper

Crushed red pepper

EVOO

Sorry, none of the measurements are exact because it really depends on the size of our head of cauliflower

Alright here we go... First of mince your fresh garlic and red peppers (amount depends on how much of a kick you would like it to have), add a little EVOO to the base of a stock pot, add your garlic and peppers and allow to soften over medium heat...

While that is cooking up cut and clean your cauliflower and toss it into the stock pot with your garlic. 

Fill the pot to about 3/4 of the way to the tops of the cauliflower with veggie broth, bring to a boil, place on a tight fitting lid and allow to boil for a minimum of 15 minutes... Do not even think about taking the lid off of that pot in those 15 minutes!

DING!... Okay your 900 seconds are up! Take everything from the pot and put it into your Ninja, blender, food processor... whatever you happen to have... Blend continuously for 2 minutes... toss in a handful of nutritional yeast (more or less depending on how cheesy you would like for it to be) and eyeball your milk, put enough in there that it looks creamy when you run your machine again for another minute or so.

Pull out a handy dandy sauce pan, put it over a medium heat burner and pour the contents of your Ninja into the pan... it will look a little runny at this point, but that is okay... Heat your sauce for a few minutes in the saucepan until it becomes richly thick... if you overdue it do not fret, you can always mix in a little more, "milk"... and that is it, it is ready to go into whatever you have your heart set on! Hope that you all enjoy! 

 

Quinoa - Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
Makes 6-8 servings 

4-5 cups carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped (grated works too)
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons coconut oil
2 cups vegetable broth 
2 cups water 
½ cup quinoa (or rice)
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon fennel seeds (or the greens from fennel)
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric 
½ teaspoon chili flakes (optional) 
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Fresh parsley or scallions and red bell peppers, finely chopped for garnish if desired
Sea salt and black pepper to taste


Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrots, garlic, ginger, one teaspoon sea salt, fennel seeds and chili flakes and sauté for about 10-15 minutes covered, stirring frequently.
2. Add quinoa to vegetables and cook together for 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth, water and all remaining spices. Cover and bring to a boil. 
3. Lower heat and simmer for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Stir occasionally.
4. Turn off heat and add a handful of fresh chopped parsley to the soup. Let cool. Once cooled, blend in a blender. Add more water if too thick for your liking.
5. Transfer to pot and heat on low heat to serve. Add sea salt and black pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley, and red peppers, if desired. Serve warm.

Notes:  it does not need to simmer for the full time, but the longer it simmers, the more the flavors will mend together!!!!  
ALSO....we added one sweet potato for that extra bit of umph and wonderful flavor! I would definitely recommend it!

...I love cheese... just incase anyone was missing it...

The Big Scientific Vegan Cheese Review

Stephens rockin' Black Bean Burgers

Ok,  he just used as many ingredients as he could find to throw in these awesome burgers.
The base of the burgers are black beans and quinoa.  He did not measure, just make the amount proportional to how many burgers you will need.
Then  he used:
beets
carrots
sweet onions
garlic - a few cloves, we LOVE garlic
turnips
red peppers
Dice or food process your veggies real small - do NOT cook them, raw is delish!
For some added nutrients we added chia seeds
Then mix all ingredients together in a bowl with the black beans and quinoa
Stephen then added small amounts of oil and ground flax to assist in holding the ingredients together
Form mixture in to patties and place on a lightly oiled pan
Bake at 450 for 15 to 20 minutes
So these delicious burgers are not completely raw, as cooking them help drains some of the moisture, but they are close to it and not many of the nutrients are lost when being baked for such a short time.
We served ours on sourdough bread, but used whatever you would like, or even just eat the burgers!!!!

ENJOY!!!!

I call it....Pigrigio!!

What is really is.....Lemon-Basil Pasta Salad
This is a fantastic summer pasta, it is refreshing and wonderful!!!!

you will need:
2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp oil - we used coconut
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp nutritional yeast or parmesan if you are not vegan
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 tbsp chopped basil - fresh is better than dried for this meal, much better!
1 chopped zucchini
1 chopped carrot
(really you could use any veggies you have that taste good raw)
chia seeds (optional)
chives (optional)
2 cups of pasta

prep:
1. whisk together: lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper - then add basil, chives and chia seeds
2. pour over cooked pasta - stir in raw veggies
3. refrigerate for at least an hour - it taste best when it is nice and chilly :)
4. ENJOY!!! I know we will be making this a bunch this summer - it is SO quick and easy!

IF you are wondering why I chose the name Pigrigio....it's because we are watching the NBA playoffs and there is this 36 yr old rookie who actually plays hard and play defense....a novel idea!!! but anyways, his name is Pigrigio and it sounds Italian and this is a pasta dish, so there you go!

Great Article for when your feeling a bit LAZY!

Wowsa, I check in here and you all have posted some great thing! I have been super busy and also super lazy lately and have been dreading getting home at the end of the day and having to cook dinner and make my lunch for the next day, so when I saw this article I was pretty excited. It's not all vegan, but there are some vegan options, and for those of us who are closer to "freegan" there are some great lazy-girl options on here! Hope that this is helpful!b 100-cleanest-packaged-food-awards-2013

Lettuce Shell Tacos

Well, since we had leftovers from our taco salad and still a ton of large leafy greens left we figures we could just make lettuce tacos.
We used our tvp, black beans, veggies and toppings again.

But we used large rainbow chard leaves as our taco shells.

I am not going to repeat recipes, so you can just check the taco salad for how to prepare.

But these were great, refreshing and don't leave you feeling like UGH after a typical mexican meal will.

Taco Salad!

Ok, so we had a whole bunch of ingredients that we wanted to eat raw.  So we decided to throw together an incredibly easy taco salad.
The base was black beans, baked sweet potatoes and TVP.  You could also use rice or quinoa.

TVP recipe
boil 1 cup of veggie broth or water
then add 1 cup of TVP and turn burner on low
stir in seasonings (we use fajita seasoning, sea salt and chili powder)

Then of course we had our lettuce and our tortilla chips.
For the veggies, we used:
raw chopped purple cabbage
raw shredded carrots
raw parsley
raw diced radishes
(some other great additions could be - tomatoes, onion, cucumbers, bell peppers, really any veggies you have)
For our toppings we used salsa, cashew cheese and sour cream.

Cashew Cheese recipe
Use blender of food processor
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
dash of sea salt and garlic powder
1 tbsp turmeric
chili powder - optional
BLEND DRY INGREDIENTS
then add
1 cup soy milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
BLEND and SERVE

Sour Cream recipe
1 package of Silken Tofu - firm or extra firm
2-3 tbsp of lemon juice
1 tbsp agave
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oil - we used canola
salt to taste
we also added some extra parsley
BLEND and SERVE

We threw it all on a plate and crushed us some AWESOME vegan food!!! ENJOY!!!

Cheese and sour cream

Even Red thought it looked mighty tasty!!!!

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes..mmmmm!

Whatcha need to cook:
2 sweet potatoes (or however many people you are cooking for - adjust ingredients accordingly)
1 cup black beans
1 cup TVP
2 tbsp minced chives (opt)
1 cup corn (opt)
salsa
spices

1. Preheat oven to 400.  pierce sweet potatoes several times with fork and place on baking sheet.  cook for 35-40 minutes or until tender.
2. While it's baking, I prepared the TVP - boil 1 cup of veggie broth, once at a boil add TVP and lower heat to simmer. then season how you wish - we used fajita seasoning and sea salt.
3. mix together black beans, TVP, chives, any veggies you wish to add and seasoning.
4. Once sweet potatoes are ready, slice open and fill with your delicious mixture of awesome food and enjoy!!
5. I had thought about making a sour cream with silken tofu, but was feeling a bit lazy! But it may be a nice touch to the meal, especially seasoned with garlic and chives!

This is the sweet potatos with the braised kale and apple salad. YUM.
Enjoy

Braised Kale with ginger and apples!!

Welcome back to the blog peeps!!!
Stephen and I just signed up for a local food box "Chow Locally", it has re inspired us to again take the time to make new meals with fresh and exciting ingredients.  Due to how busy we were with the wedding and life, we got lazy and stuck in a beans, rice, veggie kind of rut!
But now we are back in the swing of things....so here we go!

For this dish you will need:
1 tbsp olive oil (we used canola)
2 tsps grated ginger
1 bunch of kale (we used russian red) - remove stems and thinly slice (think shredded lettuce)
1/2 cup apple juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 tspn sea salt
1 apple, thinly sliced

to prepare:
1. heat olive oil in pan over medium-high heat.....add ginger and cook for 1 minute. then add kale, apple juice, vinegar and salt.  cover with lid and reduce heat to medium low.  cook for 5-6 minutes, or until liquid has evaporated.
2. add apples and cook, uncovered for 2-3 minutes.
3. then enjoy!!!!

This is a great side dish, with a nice kick!