Choco Chip Cookies!
Sometimes basic is good and you can’t get much more simple and basic than good old chocolate chip cookies. I made these last night using this recipe from the PPK blog and they came out pretty yummy, definitely not the best cookies I’ve ever had, but not too shabby. The only change I made to the recipe was that I swapped corn starch for the tapioca flour. I’d make these again for sure if I had a craving for some plain choco chip cookies!
-Kala
Swedish Thumbprint Cookies
First of all, Happy October! October is by far my favorite month and I can’t wait to shove my face full of all the sweet goodness that Autumn has to offer 
Ok, on to the cookies:
Last night while watching a couple of really bad horror movies (Sleepaway Camp 2 and Night of the Demons), Shane and I made Swedish Thumbprint Cookies. I had a weird desire for thumbprint cookies and this recipe from Veg Bitch was absolutely perfect, very simple and the only thing we had to buy was the jam! We used both strawberry and blueberry preserves and I even rolled some of them in some chopped peanuts, yum!
-Kala
Potatoes Au Gratin
Last night’s dinner was all about delicious starchy comfort food. I was planning to make bbq tempeh but I had a strong potato craving to feed! So I poked around online for a good Potatoes Au Gratin recipe and found this one, we had all the ingredients and it didn’t look as high fat as other recipes so I went for it. I’ll definitely be making this one again, it was super easy to make and really delicious. The only changes I made were that I added broccoli because we had some and used some Old Bay for the seasoning salt that was called for. So if you’re in a potato mood, try this recipe out, it’s awesome! Edited to add that I baked this in the oven instead of the microwave like the recipe calls for – I baked it for about an hour at 400, covering it with foil for the last 15-20 minutes.
-Kala
Fusion powered pizza
Way back in 2007 Kala and I entered the Vegetarian Times magazine reader recipe contest. My entry was a Thai Chik’N Pizza, oh and it won 3rd place. Wednesday night we revisited the recipe as we do from time to time. I stuck fairly close to the published recipe only substituting some ketchup (2 tsp) and a little lemon juice (1/2 tsp) for the tamarind paste and instead of Morning Star Farms Chik’N strips we used our beloved mock duck, because well mock duck is just tastier. The results were super tasty, and maybe better than the original.
–Shane
Photos by Kala
Veggie fried yum yum
I can’t say enough about the awesome that is Vegan Yum Yum by Laura Ulm. The latest recipe we tried was the vegetable fried rice with tofu. Fried rice is one of those things I can’t get enough of and this is an amazing recipe, tasty and easy to make. There are a wide array of veggies involved: zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, snow peas, and carrots along with tofu and sesame seeds (we used black sesame) and a very simple yet tasty sauce.
Really everyone should just go out and get the book, we are seriously going to break the spine with the amount of use we have gotten out of it in just 14 days. It just might be the best cookbook out this year.
–Shane Photos by Kala
Tahini Lemon Rice and Beans
Dinner last night was a delicious rice dish from the new book Vegan Yum Yum by Lauren Ulm. We bought the book a few days ago and have already made two dishes, this and the tomato chickpea soup (also delicious!). The Tahini Lemon Rice and Beans was easy to make, very yummy, and full of veggie goodness. It has a really interesting tangy flavor that I love, we’ll be making this again for sure!
-Kala
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Holy crap this stuff is delicious! Last Tuesday at my knitting group, someone brought a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread that smelled heavenly. It wasn’t vegan though so I didn’t get to try any, but she told me where she got the recipe so I could make some of my own. The recipe is from Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchenand it was crazy easy to veganize, all I had to do was use Ener-G instead of the eggs. I also used nutmeg instead of allspice because allspice is evil and gross I totally recommend this recipe though, the bread is so moist and delicious and not overly sweet, it’s also a great way to use up zucchini!
-Kala
Tofu Again!
Dinner tonight was pretty simple, Shane made mashed potatoes and cauliflower and I marinated and then baked some sliced tofu. The mashed potatoes came out really good, it’s a veganized Weight Watchers recipe and we’ll definitely be making them again. The tofu was yummy too, I just threw together a quick dijon mustard based marinade, yay for simple weeknight dinners!
-Kala
Indian-ish Tofu and Spinach
Dinner last night was Indian-ish tofu and spinach, the “ish” part has to be said because when it comes to Indian food I’m somewhat clueless. I spent many years hating it (and I still can’t handle it if I can taste even a hint of cloves) but I’ve been giving it a try over the past couple of years.
I decided I wanted tofu, so I walked down to Whole Foods and grabbed some. Other than that, this dish is made up of weird leftover stuff from the fridge including part of of an onion, some mushrooms, and what was left of the soy yogurt container. It was a nice way to clean out the fridge and it was pretty tasty too!
-Kala
Muffin Quest
Muffin Quest, the eternal search for the perfect blueberry muffin. Every once in a while, I loves me a good muffin, and that good muffin is usually blueberry. But I haven’t really found a recipe that I love yet, not that I haven’t tried many of them. Last night I made two batches, first I made the Bakery Style Berry Muffins from Vegan Brunch and then I made a batch of the Blueberry Lemon Muffins from The Joy of Vegan Baking. First, the ones from Vegan Brunch:
Good texture, pretty good flavor, but there could definitely be improvements. The flavor just isn’t quite there for me. And the ones from The Joy of Vegan Baking:
I really don’t like the texture of these, they’re weirdly smooth. The flavor is good though, I like the lemon with the blueberry, it’s a nice combo. So maybe the perfect muffin is somewhere in between, more experimentation is needed! Do any of you have a great go-to blueberry muffin recipe?
-Kala
