Tag: vegan recipes

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I get a lot of requests from family and friends to make these cookies.  Today (Friday, I’m running behind!) my husband suggested that we make them.  I think there’s no better time to indulge than a snowy weekend so why not?

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We’re enjoying a very unexpected long weekend here.  The hubby and I had our first snow days of the year on Thursday and Friday.  Woohoo!  Perks of having a June baby, I probably won’t be making up these days!

Pregnancy + snow day = lots of baking.

I currently have a cake in the oven because the baby is craving cake and I don’t want to deprive my son, but let’s talk cookies.  These chocolate chip cookies are vegany deliciousness.  Simple, easy, and a crowd pleaser.  Best of all y0u probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup melted vegan butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 flax eggs (1 tablespoon flaxseed meal + 3 tablespoons water = 1 egg)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 bag vegan chocolate chips
  • 2 1/4 cup of flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/2 cup of water

Ok maybe you don’t have vegan chocolate chips in your pantry right now, but they’re not too hard to find.  You can usually pick some up in the earthy crunch section of your local grocery store.

In a separate bowl, stir together your flax seed and water.  Set aside.  While your flax eggs are setting whisk your salt, baking soda, and flour together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together your sugars, melted butter, vanilla extract and flax eggs. Slowly pour in your wet ingredients into your dry mixture and stir together. Add in the half a cup of water.  Fold in your chocolate chips.

Have your oven preheated to 375 degrees. I scooped out my cookie dough with and ice cream soup and spread my cookies about two inches apart on my cookie sheet. I covered my pan with aluminum foil because I have a cheap cookie sheet and I was afraid they would stick. I cooked my cookies for about 25 minutes.

One of the best parts about making vegan cookies…the cookie dough is totally up for grabs since there no raw egg!  Happy baking.

 

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Cranberry Orange Scones

I’ve been on a scones kick, that’s for sure.  I guarantee I’ve eaten more scones in the last five months than I have in my entire life.  Scones are awesome and super easy to make!

I haven’t been too daring in my scone pursuits, mostly sticking to blueberry scones, but last weekend I took a risk.  I decided it was time to attempt some cranberry orange scones.

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I’m a good New Englander, so of course I need to cook with cranberries.  I love the tartness of cranberries.  I decided to attempt some cranberry orange scones.  I was quite please with how they came out!

Ingredients

4 cups of flour
6 tablespoons of sugar
4.5 teaspoons baking powder
2 flax eggs
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons of cold vegan butter
1 cup of fresh cranberries
1.5 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons plain almond milk
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice + the zest of one orange
For the glaze

1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. First, make your flax eggs (three tablespoons of water and one tablespoon flaxseed meal = one egg) and set aside in a bowl. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the cold butter to the dry ingredients. Take a fork and cut up the butter until your mixture resembles wet sand. Whisk together 3/4 cup of milk and flax egg and add to the bowl. Mix together and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of almond milk and orange juice. Fold in your cranberries and orange zest. On a well floured surface kneed your dough and flatten into an about 8 inch circle. Cut your dough with a pizza cutter into eight triangles. Place the individual triangles on a baking sheet. I lined mine with aluminum foil lightly coated with flour. Bake for 30 minutes.

Call me bias, but these came out pretty good.  I love taking one of these to work everyday to enjoy with my coffee.  Enjoy!

 

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Oatmeal Stuffed Pancakes

Very hungry pregnant lady here.

Very hungry.

Today I learned that hungry+pregnant+grocery shopping = $40 over budget.  Oh well, it was totally worth it.  I loaded up on lots of veggies, fruit, tofu, and lots of other healthy foods as well as some not so healthy items (vegan ice cream, ramen, etc.)

My grocery run/shopping spree was fueled by a delicious breakfast I made this morning.  Way back in the day, I used to go out to brunch with friends a couple of times a month.  We frequented this (what we considered) fancy place is Wellesley (of course everything is fancy in Wellesley).  Anyways, this spot had an awesome brunch menu.  This was before my vegan days so I indulged in almost every meatless option on the menu.  The other night their oatmeal stuffed pancakes popped into my head through the magic of Facebook.

Pregnant Sarah loves pancakes.  Non pregnant Sarah liked to subject her family to tofu  scrambles and tater tots (and mimosas for the 21+ crowd), but non pregnant Sarah has a sweet tooth.  I haven’t heard any complaints…

I tried my best with these pancakes, the whole “stuffed” factor was the trickiest part, but if I can do it you can too, trust me.  If the “stuffing” proves too difficult you can always make the oatmeal pancakes and top them with the fruit of your choice, but come on, take the risk.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 3/4 cup old fashion oats
  • 1/2 cup almond milk
  • 1 1/4 cup water

For the filling

  • 1 1/5 cup fruit of your choice (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

First I mixed together my oats and almond milk and set it aside.  Next mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Add water, oil, and soaked oats to your bowl and stir together.

In a sauce pan over medium heat add fruit and sugar and let the fruit cook down.  I used a frozen berry mix we had on hand.  I thought it came out pretty good.  I think this could be great with fresh blueberries or strawberries.  If my husband wasn’t so grossed out by bananas I would give those a shot too.

I used my cast iron skillet and coconut oil for cooking our pancakes.  I dished out about 1/4 of a cup of pancake batter onto the skilled and let that sit until I could see bubbles in the bater. Next I added a spoonful of my fruit filling and topped the pancake with some more batter enough so that it covered the filling.  I let that cook slightly longer then flipped the pancake.  It took a couple of minutes to cook each pancake, use your best judgment.  The nice part about vegan pancakes is that you don’t need to worry about raw egg!  It’s important not to let your pancake cook too long before you add the filling and top it off or else your pancake will be very uneven.

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I topped these off with some maple syrup and powdered sugar.  I loved this breakfast, I think the oats added a nice texture and richness to the pancake.  I will be making these again for sure.  Anyone want to come over for brunch?

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Dylan’s “Dirty” Potato Salad

Everything tastes better when someone else makes it for you right?

Well I think I’m a pretty good cook but I love when someone else cooks for me.

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Farm share goodies this week!

We pick up our farm share box every Friday and this week was our best box so far.  It had peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, corn, potatoes and so on.  The potatoes were our firsts of the season and my hubby promised me that he would make potato salad.

Ingredients

  • 7 small potatoes
  • 1 cup vegan mayo
  • dill weed (about 1 tablespoon)
  • salt to taste

Dylan insisted I call this recipe “dirty” potatoes because when he peeled the potatoes he left some of the skin on.  I don’t know if that was to cover up some less than proficient peeling skills or on purpose but we will refer to this recipe as “dirty” potato salad.

He first peeled the potatoes and chopped them up into bite size pieces.  Next he placed the potatoes in a pot with boiling water and left them in until they were soft (15-20 minutes).  Once the potatoes were tested with a fork for appropriate softness he drained them from the pot and placed them in the fridge to cool off for about 30 minutes.

 

After about a half  hour he took out the potatoes and added mayo, dill, and salt.  We love dill in our house but the amount you want to use is totally up to you (same with salt).  As for vegan mayo we have a preference in our house.  We buy Just Mayo.  I’ve seen it at a few stores including Target (Target is my happy place).  It’s by far the best mayo (vegan or not) that I’ve ever had.

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Just Mayo and Pepe my rooster painting.

Once Dylan added the seasonings and mayo he put the potatoes back in the fridge to continue to cool off some more.  I have to say, you could bring this to a cookout and no one would realize it wasn’t vegan unless you told them.  Super simple.  Super easy.  Even a husband could make it. 🙂

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Cornbread

My family loves cornbread.  Cornbread is great because it’s pretty much the closest thing to cake that’s acceptable to eat simultaneously with a meal.  You can eat it for breakfast or on it’s own.  Hot or cold.

In the past, I’ve bought cornbread mixes that I’ve added vegan ingredients to make cornbread.  Then I discovered…cornbread it actually super easy to make on your own!  You probably already have the ingredients you need in your cabinet.

Here’s my vegan cornbread recipe…

Ingredients

  • 2 flax eggs (1 tablespoon flax seed meal mix with 3 tablespoons water = 1 egg)
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup yellow cornmeal
  • 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/3 vegetable oil
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 cup four
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup drained canned corn (optional but highly recommend as it adds a nice texture!)

First step is to preheat your oven to 400 degrees and have a greased 9×9 pan ready.

Prepare your flax eggs and let them set for about 5 minutes.  In a large bowl I mixed my flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder together. Next I added my flax eggs, almond milk, corn and vegetable oil  and stirred together.  Pour your batter into the greased pan.

I baked my cornbread for 25 minutes and that was perfect.  Test your cornbread with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean if you’re uncertain.

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I took this out of the oven about 20 minutes ago and it’s already half gone, I didn’t even get a picture in of the pan as you can see.  I hope you enjoy!

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