Vegan Christmas Cookie Adventure Vol. 2

This year for X-mas I made 4 different cookies, Minono's, Carmel Pecan Bars, Carrot Raisin Spice Chewies, and Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar- Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

The Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows required a bit of some time, but they were well worth it!

My 3 year old niece Olivia decided that these were her favorite Christmas cookie for the holiday!  I love that she picked a vegan cookie over all the other cookies to choose from!

These are the Carmel Pecan Bars, which were my sister Heather's absolute favorite.  I gave her most of the leftover ones on Christmas Day but while she was at work on Monday, her family devoured them, so I had to supply her with a couple more when I saw her on Tuesday. 

The last cookies that I made were Carrot Raisin Spice Chewies.  My Mom raved about these and I thought they were pretty delicious myself!

My Vegan Christmas Cookie Adventure was a HUGE success!  It was nice that two of the cookies I made were chosen as a favorite by a few different people.  Goes to show you that vegan cookies are just as delicious as the non-vegan variety, even on Christmas!

Winter Comfort Foods Vol. 2

Any type of food that can be served at a diner is comfort food to me.  The only problem is that although diner food tastes delicious and warms up my belly, it is usually filled with animal products and LOTS of fat!  Wednesday night I was in the mood for veggie burgers and onion rings so, I decided to try a healthier approach to this tasty food combination.

Dr. Praeger's California Veggie Burgers are my absolute favorite vegan veggie burgers out there! They have the best flavor and with a little oil and my cast iron skillet, they cook up very nicely.  I like to eat these on whole wheat flats instead of on a bun.

For the onion rings, I cracked open my new low fat cook book, Appetite for Reduction.  I found a recipe for oven baked onion rings.  They were made with Vidalia onions and whole wheat bread crumbs.  They were pretty tasty and cooked up super quick!  I'm glad to know that I can eat onion rings and not have to eat 20 grams of fat!

Vegan Quick Meals Vol. 3

I recently bought Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new cook book, Appetite for Reduction.  It is filled with low fat vegan recipes and many of them are super simple and quick!  The best part about this cookbook is that each recipe includes the nutritional information.  

The first recipe I decided to make out of this gem of a cookbook was

  Everyday Chickpea-Quinoa Salad.  

It was very filling and had 12 g of protein, 11 g of fiber, and 20 % iron.  These are three things I am always trying to get more of in my diet. The salad was made up of cold quinoa, red onion, romaine lettuce, chickpeas and a balsamic vinaigrette.  The dressing was made of, cashews, shallots, water, balsamic vinegar, dijon, agave, salt and pepper.  I could not believe that this was a low-fat salad.  It was perfectly delicious!

The Vegan Christmas Cookie Adventure Vol. 1

This year I am making 4 different types of cookies for Christmas.  Monday I began my adventure by making "Minono's" (Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar) They are a veganized version of Pepperidge Farm's Milano Cookies.

They turned out beautifully, but I will have to wait till Xmas eve to find out how delicious they are!

Ethan's Belated Birthday Brunch

On December 12, my nephew Ethan turned 10.  My whole family got together to celebrate but I couldn't be there because I was stuck in bed with, what felt like, the worst cold of my life!  On Sunday I made Ethan a Birthday Breakfast Brunch to make up for missing his actual Birthday.

I made Waffles, Roasted Onions and Potatoes, and Gimme Lean "sausage".  

It was nice to sit down for brunch with Ethan, Olivia, Kipp and Cassie.  Even though Ethan didn't like the vegan waffles, everyone else did!  It didn't matter too much to Ethan that the brunch wasn't his favorite because he LOVED the birthday gift I gave him.  I bought him $20.00 worth of Trident Layers gum.  Who knew a bag full of gum would go over so well?

Once Again, Bale Saves the Day!

Last week I had an all day observation in Summit, IL where lunch was catered.  I knew it was going to be a boxed lunch and I was pretty sure the vegan lunch that I requested would be awful.  Turns out I was right!  The whole time I suffered through that awful lunch all I could think about was eating something more delicious.  Once our observation was over I had to go pick up Sarah so that her, Dalila, Courtney Olson, and I could meet up to work on a group presentation we had due the next day.  Before we could get any work done I knew I had to go get something real to eat.  Sarah and I decided on my favorite sandwich spot in Chicago, Bale (5016 N. Broadway).

Bale is a Vietnamese- French Sandwich Cafe.  They have many different sandwich choices for the omnivore and a couple choices for the vegetarian and vegan.  That afternoon I got my favorite out of the two vegetarian sandwiches that they offer, The Veggie Avocado with out cheese or mayo (fried tofu, fresh avocado, house pickle daikon, and carrot, lettuce, tomato, olive, vinegar, jalapeno, red onion, cilantro, soy sauce and salt and pepper).  

We brought our delicious sandwiches back to my place and I slapped some veganaise on it when I got home to make it even more delicious!   I was so hungry that I almost forgot to snap a picture of it!  If you haven't eaten at Bale, go give it a chance.  I'm pretty certain that you won't leave disappointed!

Grad School Quick Meals Vol. 2

Last week when I was shopping at HarvesTime, my favorite little neighborhood market, they had some amazing looking tomatoes. I could not pass up the opportunity for a delicious tomato in the dead of winter!  I like to keep at least one tomato around because when things get super busy I forget to eat, or  really what happens is, I forget to give myself enough time to cook.  A tomato sandwich is usually my quick fix in a time like that.  For those of you that have never had a tomato sandwich it is literally just a thinly sliced tomato, toasted sprouted bread, Veganaise, salt and pepper.  In a time crunch, it is my favorite hunger solution!