Veganized Killer Cookies!!

Some time last year I posted a recipe for Killer Cookies... It's a recipe I got from a friend years ago, and is by far the best chocolate chip cookie ever! Sadly... It wasn't a cookie I could share with my vegan friends... So I made it a goal to revamp the recipe, find vegan chocolate chips and figure out a way to substitute the eggs and guess what?! They ROCK!! The best part about it is all of my friends devoured them and none were aware that I had made them vegan! Yay for that!

The only downfall to this recipe is that it is huge! It makes 80-100 cookies depending on how big you make them, so I recommend halving it.

Vegan Killer Cookies

1 3/4c Shortening
2c sugar
2c brown sugar
4 heaping TBS ground flax + 8TBS water mixed (use for egg)
2tsp vanilla
3c flour
2tsp salt
2tsp baking soda
6c oatmeal

1/2 to 3/4c chopped nuts
1/2 to 3/4c coconut
1 12oz package chocolate chips

It'll be a little on the dry side, pour in some vanilla soymilk or whatever milk you have handy until slightly sticky. Scoop them in to 1in balls.

Bake at 350 for 9-12min

Pizza Dough & Garlic Bread!!

So over a year ago I was given an awesome large Pampered Chef pizza stone that until Thursday I had never even taken out of the box. I had been putting off making pizza because I had never gotten a good recipe for pizza crust. I asked someone I knew would have a good one finally and sure enough.... Awesome!! So here goes...

Gram's Pizza Dough.

2 cup flour

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon yeast

Olive oil

warm water. (about 3/4c seemed to be about right.)

Place flour in bowl, add the sugar , salt, yeast swirl around to mix.
take the olive oil and swirl a few time around the flour mixture, add warm water to make a dough, dough might be sticky just flour hands and shape into a ball place in greased bowl and let rise until double in bulk.

Once it is done rising, sprinkle a little corn meal on whatever you choose to bake it on and spread out your dough to the desired shape/size. Bake the dough for 2-3min at then take out and cover with sauce, cheese or whatever else you choose, then put back in the oven for 10-15min or until your crust is brown on the edges and your cheese is melted.

Bake at 410, makes one large pizza.

Pineapple & Tomato Pizza

Olive & Mushroom Pizza

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I loved the pizza dough so much I decided I needed to use it to make some garlic bread, so this recipe is very similar and can also be used for a pizza crust if you like. I'm sure it would be awesome!

Garlic Bread

2 cup flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast
Olive oil (I used a little extra for this recipe cuz I wanted the flavor)
warm water. (about 3/4c seemed to be about right.)
1 heaping TB minced garlic
and a couple shakes of both Oregano and Basil

Let rise to double, form to desired shape.. bake for 10-20min at 410

I served it with some marinara sauce for dipping.

Black Bean Tacos!!

I didn't get a picture of the actual tacos I ate, but I love taking pictures of veggies so that's the best I've got today. :) And I only have a rough estimate on what I put in it, but yeah... Here you go!

I sauteed about half an onion, half a jalapeno, about 2TB garlic and some mushrooms together in a bit of olive oil until the mushrooms and onions were a little soft.

Added some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, a bit of cumin(my new favorite spice) and a dash of red pepper flakes. Then added a can of cooked semi mashed black beans and mixed it all together.

Served on a flour tortilla with some diced tomato, cheese, sliced avocado and Tapatio sauce. Was super yum and just spicy enough!! It might be my new favorite thing!

Vegan Jalapeno Cookies

Back in August last year I posted a recipe for jalapeno chip cookies, which was a spin-off of my Potato Chip Cookie recipe.

Why I thought it was okay to recreate them with jalapeno chips, I'm not sure... but it turns out they aren't so bad. Even then though, they needed some tweaking and they needed to be made vegan friendly.

So keep in mind with these cookies that they aren't meant to be eaten in bulk, and would probably be good for something like a BBQ type meal. They aren't really a dessert cookie... I don't know how to explain them. So after all of that... Here is the updated vegan version...

Jalapeno Chip Cookies

1/2c butter
approx 6oz vegan cream cheese
1/2c sugar
1 1/2c flour
1tsp vanilla
1/2c crushed jalapeno potato chips (I used Kettle brand)
1 jalapeno finely minced.

blend your butter, cream cheese and sugar together until smooth, then add everything else. If they seem a little on the sticky side you might need to add a little more flour.

Roll into little balls, then push them down with a cup that has sugar on the bottom of it.

Bake at 350 for 8-10min

makes between 30-40 cookies

Cheesy Potato Soup for One!!

So I don't eat soup often, I think it usually tastes good, it just isn't my favorite thing, but every once in a while it sounds really good and up until now I've never attempted to make any kind of soup.... This particular soup would be awesome in a bread bowl if you happen to have one! Sadly I didn't, but a slice of bread on the side worked just fine. :)

Tonight though I had just a single potato and a carrot that have been in my fridge that I needed to use soon and wasn't sure what to do with them. A friend of mine had mentioned bread bowl soup earlier today and for some reason it stuck with me. So I decided to turn my one potato and carrot into soup for one! If I had an onion I probably would have added 1/4c of sauteed onion to it as well, but will make sure to do that next time. Also I don't have one of those fancy immersion blender things so I just used an old fashioned potato masher.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Boil:
1 white potato-peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 carrot-peeled and chopped

Drain and put back in your pot. Mash with a fork or potato masher to your liking then add


2/3c milk (I used vanilla soymilk because it is what was on hand)
1 tbs butter (I used vegan margarine)
1/4 tsp Cayennne pepper (less if you don't want it super spicy)
1/4 tsp Oregano and Basil
1 tbs garlic
1/4c onion finely chopped (again was out of onion, but am sure it is a must!)
1/4-1/2c shredded cheese (I would've used Daiya if I had any)

salt and pepper to taste

While your potato and carrot are boiling saute your garlic and onion and set aside until after your potato/carrot are mashed.

keep your pot on medium heat
add the rest of your ingredients and stir until your cheese is melted, mash a bit more with a fork if you need to, salt and pepper to taste, serve and enjoy!

St.Patrick's Day! (a little late)

So I try and eat only green food on St.Patrick's Day every year. This year we had a work party though, so I wasn't able to make a green dinner, but thought I'd share some things I have done in the past and a list of random green veggies/food I like to eat.

One of my favorite things to make is green cornbread!

Last year I made green mashed potatoes!!


Other things, make a white/yellow cake mix and add green food coloring and/or green frosting. Add green food coloring to sugar cookie dough or bread dough.

Artichokes are a favorite as well as broccoli, green beans, peas, avocados, pistachio's, green jello... I could go on and on! Anyway, next year if you're feeling like being adventurous, try and go the entire day with only eating green food. :)

It's fun and showing up to work with random green treats always makes people smile!

Amazingly Awesome Vegan Taquitos!!

Okay, so on Monday my friend/coworker Jordan over at Militant Vegan Cooking made some awesome vegan taquitos inspired by my buddy Meagan over at The Snarky Chickpea. I'm not going to lie, Jordan did the majority of the work and made sure to take all the pictures needed and everything for the post. So instead of trying to write a third post, I am just going to post the link to his post about them.

We made them for our coworkers and even the non vegans LOVED them!! They were gone almost instantly. Sooo yummy! And really, to my non vegan friends.. change the ingredients if you'd like to things you have on hand, I'm sure they'll still be good.

So after all of that... Rice and Bean Taquitos Go check them out, because they are the beset taquitos I've ever had!