Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies

My niece, Olivia, and I have set ourselves on a journey to bake healthful cookies together a couple times a month.   Last week we made Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Since Liv loves baking almost as much as her Auntie Courty does, we have a blast together as we discuss and sample each ingredient before we add it to the bowl.

With just a few simple ingredients we made a delicious dough.  It had: Agave nectar, canola oil, almond milk, ground flax seeds, vanilla, orange zest, all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, salt, and of course vegan chocolate chips!

Liv helped shape the dough into cookies with me, but spent a great deal of time eating the dough.  It's a good thing that the dough is vegan, there isn't anything in there that can make her sick.

We both thought the cookies turned out wonderfully!  When she got home later I was informed that she wanted to skip dinner and have cookies instead. 

I am so glad that I get to have cookie Baking Sundays with my favorite  3-year-old.  We have SO much fun together!

Caribbean Curried Black-Eyed Peas with Plantains and Jerk Asparagus

In another attempt at healthful and tasteful eating, last week, I made Caribbean Curried Black-Eyed Peas with Plantains and Jerk Asparagus.

I love the recipes out of this cookbook! They are quick, simple and contain few ingredients.  The curry had shallots, red bell pepper, garlic, ginger, bay leaves, star anise, curry powder, cinnamon, fresh thyme, salt, light coconut milk, water, black-eyed peas, light agave nectar, lime, and plantains.

The only ingredient I had never heard of, was the star anise.  I found some of these little guys in the bulk spice section at Whole Foods Market.  They have that wonderful black licorice scent that anise has, and are quite adorable in my opinion...

I sautéed the asparagus in my cast iron skillet with ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, thyme, salt, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

I know I've said it before, but this was the best meal I have ever eaten! At least I felt that way once I began eating it.  The curry was perfectly seasoned and was delicious served over jasmine rice.  The sweet steamed plantains combined with the spicy curry gave it a nice balance of sweet and salty and pairing it along side of the jerk asparagus created a taste-bud explosion! It was the perfect side to have next to the curry.  I loved these dishes so much that I ate them for 4 days in a row without getting sick of them. In fact, I was actually disappointed once they were polished off.   

Personalized Pizza Party

Last Sunday was another Vegan Family Dinner.  This time the theme was, pizza.  After much thought on how to best do this, I settled on stove top personal pizzas.  

I made Pesto Sauce and Pizza Sauce for the bases and sauteed some mushrooms, caramelized a couple sweet onions, and sliced up some grape tomatoes and pitted kalamata olives to use as toppings.

For the dough, I made the easiest recipe ever!

 Pizza Dough

Makes 4 pizza rounds

What you need:

1 cup semolina flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/3 cup hot water

What you do: 

Toss all the ingredients into the food processor and run until the dough comes together and forms a ball.  Take that bad boy out of the food processor and cover tightly.  Pop it in the fridge and let sit for at least 15 minutes.

When you are ready to cook it, split the dough into 4 equal sized balls, dust with flour and roll each piece out into a VERY thin circle.  It should be "cracker" thin.

This is the way I roll dough.

Leia working it out!

Meanwhile, heat up your cast iron skillet and spray it with olive oil.  When you have one ready, throw it in the skillet and let it cook until it begins to bubble. Then flip it over and let it cook until it's lightly browned. 

After the crust is ready slap on your sauce or pesto, add your ingredients and don't forget your Daiya Mozzarella-Style Shreds.  These melt beautifully and taste delicious.

Once you've got your pie the way you like it, put it back in the cast iron skillet with the lid on, or put it in your broiler for a few minutes.

That's it!  Then you have perfect and tasty vegan pizza!

We had a blast making pizza together! 

Wine spilling catastrophe...

 Gerard was pretty silly!

He liked it!

 After dinner was over we played a game of Apples to Apples and ate Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache for dessert.  

Over all the dinner was successful, but I was wishing that we had a delicious salad to go along with the pizzas.  We will have to try this again, but next time I will be sure that there are a few additional dishes to sample. Hooray for vegan pizza night!  What a fantastic time!

Brunch at Tweet

Last week, Saturday, after finishing my morning
cup of Bustelo, I was day dreaming about delicious vegan breakfast food, when I got a text from my neighbor Kat that said, "Breakfast?".  I think she must have read my mind!  She suggested we go to Tweet (5020 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL), because they have vegan options. 

Once we arrived, there was a bit of a wait, but since they are known to have killer Bloody Mary's at Big Chicks, the bar next door, we didn't mind one bit!  I think it was probably the best Bloody Mary I have ever had.  It was super spicy and filled with lemon, celery, carrot, and giant green olives. 

About half way into our drinks they sat us at a table.  I was pleased to see that the vast menu had many different vegetarian  and a couple different vegan  options.  I ordered a breakfast burrito, the #5- Numero Cinco: Vegan's delight, flour tortilla stuffed with organic beans, organic brown rice, avocado, pico de gallo, organic tofu scrambled in olive oil.  Before the burrito arrived they brought out fruit cups filled with a variety of fresh berries, pineapple and melon, yum!  The burrito was just as on point as the fruit and drinks, in fact I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I have eaten it.  It was perfectly seasoned and  quite honestly, contained the best tofu scramble I have ever eaten. 

If you have never been to Tweet, do yourself a favor and check it out. (Be sure to bring cash because they are cash only.)  You will not regret it I promise!

Scallion Potato Pancakes, Orange-Scented Broccoli, and Hoison-Mustard Tofu

After almost a week of eating nothing but chilled steamed vegetables and Green Goddess Dressing I had to have something warm and flavorful.  I didn't, however, want to ruin my healthful eating streak...

I started out my cooking adventure with Scallion Potato Pancakes.  Isa Chandra Moskowitz created this recipe to be a healthier version of the deep fried Chinese Scallion Pancakes and she nailed it!  They are made of Yukon Gold potatoes, scallions, sesame oil, salt, black pepper and panko bread crumbs.  Two of these pretty big pancakes have 180 calories, 2.5 g of fat, 4 g of fiber and 5 g of protein.  Pretty darn healthful if you ask me!

I couldn't just eat a dinner of potatoes, so I made a couple other dishes to go along with them.  This is Orange-Scented Broccoli.  Broccoli sautéed  in sesame oil with ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes and seasoned with mirin, soy sauce, orange zest and orange juice.  

To tie it all together I made Hoison-Mustard Tofu.  I simply LOVE hoison sauce on it's own, but this recipe was even more delicious!  This tofu was pan fried and mixed together with a sauce made up of red pepper, onion, garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, mirin, hoison sauce and yellow mustard.

All three dishes worked beautifully together and at the end of the meal I was super full and satisfied after consuming under 10 g of fat and 310 calories!  I would say that these yummy dishes fit with my new healthy lifestyle. 

Goddess Niçoise

I love cooking delicious food, but since buying Isa Chandra Moskowitz's new book I have shifted my focus to healthy, tasty and filling.  My tummy appreciates it, but so does my hips!

Last week I made this delicious salad the Goddess Niçoise with Green Goddess Dressing.

It is, by far, the BEST salad dressing I have ever eaten.  I have already made a second batch of it and I am sure there will always be some in my fridge from now on to eat throughout the week.

The dressing is made up of; chives, parsley, tahini, nutritional yeast, miso, water, lemon juice and salt.  Who knew when combining these simple ingredients it creates the most sensational dressing ever?!