Tag Archives: peanut-free

Every week I almost always make a batch of cookies. Why? They travel easily for my husband’s lunches. I mean, I eat them sometimes as well. Truthfully, sometimes making cookies at home isn’t necessarily cheaper than buying them in stores, but most of the time they are. So I decided to review some cookie recipes that were available online. I keep in mind when they should be eaten (aka how sweet and decadent they are) and how well they kept.

If any of you guys have tried these cookies with different results PLEASE SHARE! There are lots of variables to baking so hearing other people’s baking results help figure out how to get the correct results. Everyone- start baking!

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Chai Spice Snickerdoodles

I had to alter this recipe a little. I forgot I never replaced my cardamon and therefore used a mixed garam masala instead for the snickerdoodle sugar mix. They still turned out delicious. I can’t image the cookies tasting that much different if I used the exact spice measurements given in the recipe.

These cookies are pretty darn sweet and fall under the dessert category. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. They tasted great as a nice little snacks. But sadly I didn’t store them properly and some of them got stale. The best thing to do with them is to dunk the stale cookies in chai tea. Yeah, chai cookies in chai tea. It is amazing.

Bottom Line: Super sweet & Yummy

Quinoa Gingersnap Cookies

I always like when I find gluten-free recipes that don’t just use an all purpose mix. There is something nice to have control over every ingredient used. So I was a little happy to make these cookies, but was a little skeptical. Why? She only uses quinoa flour, which can have a specific aftertaste.

The cookies come together rather quickly, about 15 minutes, with a quick clean up. I skipped the rolled sugar outside, but it would definitely add a nice quality to the cookies. I also used only a small amount of brown sugar, using mostly just white. I think it worked out fine since I ended up using blackstrap molasses over normal molasses, which has much more of a bite.

The end result? Pretty awesome. They still had a little bit of a quinoa taste, and the blackstrap molasses definitely had a specific taste as well. But I felt pretty confident handing these cookies to my husband for his lunch. Five cookies have 12% calcium for the day and 10% iron. Not too bad honestly for unfortified cookies.

Bottom Line: Not bad, pretty nutritious

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a little torn on these cookies. They are yummy, but cookie? I mean isn’t that a stretch? They are so fluffy and puffy they feel a little bit more like muffin tops than cookies. I am a little torn, they are delicious but I feel lied to that they are put into a cookie category.

They were great but there are two things I wish she suggested. One is be careful about overheating the butter, I didn’t put much thought into it and mixed in the chocolate chips, which melted into the batter. I got a cool marbling effect instead. No big deal. Second thing is that these cookies probably taste better the next day. Toss them in a bag or a well sealed container overnight, and they get even more moist. I’m not complaining.

Bottom Line: Puffy Cookies, which isn’t bad?

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

These cookies tasted amazing. The ingredients list is so short that I was a little afraid about how they would turn out. Answer: Fabulous, they turned out fabulous! They are soft, crumbly, delicate, and very lemony. Which makes them amazing, but didn’t fit the bill as “daily cookies for lunch.” I am planning on making these for my yearly Christmas cookies.

The only problem is the step where she makes you roll the cookie dough in powder sugar. I am conflicted since I didn’t get any “crinkle” effect on the cookie. I think the dough absorbed too much of the powdered sugar and the dough color wasn’t nearly dark enough to register. But it did give a little bit of a crusty outside, probably from the sugar melting? I would probably skip this step.

Bottom Line: Nice dessert cookie

Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

I think this cookie goes into the “it’s too healthy for a dessert category.” The recipe uses banana, peanut butter, rolled oats, and apple sauce to make the bulk of these cookies. The end result isn’t a tasty cookie. The nuts in the cookie gets soft and taste out of place. The cookies also didn’t have a normal texture as other cookies. They weren’t soft, pillowy, or crunchy. Instead they had a kind-of rubber feel when bitting into them.

The cookies aren’t nearly sweet enough, which makes me feel like they should been playing up savory flavors. Instead of chocolate chips maybe have some sun-dried tomatoes. Maybe chopped herbs, etc. I think that is my biggest complaint about “healthy” snacks, people are trying to cut down on sugar. By all means, I think things are usually too sweet, but not these cookies. They might of been better if I used normally sweetened mainstream peanut butter, but I can’t image by that much.

Bottom Line: Texture stinks, not sweet enough.

Teff Almond Butter Cookies

Man talk about recipe flop. Well, I have two theories about what happened. The obvious one is that I used teff not teff flour. My local store special ordered the wrong thing and I felt bad and thought I could grind it down into a flour myself. I didn’t do that great of a job.

The second theory is that I made them on a hot day and the almond butter and oil just were too much. I am thinking that if I maybe put the dough in the refrigerator for a few minutes the oils would of melted slower and made a more solid cookie.

But the cookies TASTE pretty good, which might motivate me to try the recipe again. Might being the key word because these cookies are expensive. Each ingredient is a big dent in the bank, which is a bummer because as mentioned the cookies were flat but tasty.

Bottom Line: Tasted great, not ruling them out yet as a flop


tsotofucaul0

Damn these short winter days, killing the food blogging realm. I never really put much thought to it before the blog, but nighttime really clobbers photographs. Since I am a working girl in a small apartment, I pretty much only have time to take photos of food the night I make it. Maybe one day I will have enough time to make these great dishes in the middle or the day, or have a special corner to set up lights to photograph at night.

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My latest dish was inspired from our last trip for Chinese takeout. My husband has switched over from General Tso’s Chicken to General Tso’s Tofu. But I haven’t found a place in New Jersey that I liked their tofu, my favorites being in Philadelphia. I’ve been going nuts for some of the baked cauliflower dishes. I thought I might try making a tofu and cauliflower mix.

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Of coarse to make this dish gluten free you have to make some alterations. First is that you need a gluten-free soy sauce or something similar. Coconut aminos, braggs, or tamari should work wonderfully in this dish. You also need to be careful about which hoisin sauce you buy. Most have wheat in it, but Joyce Chen has a gluten-free and kosher hoisin sauce. These are pretty much the only major problems to tackle with this recipe.

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gingergran0

Remember how I mentioned I’ve been a little bummed lately? I am trying to be a little proactive about it. Tonight I am going try out a run in Philadelphia with my friend. Hopefully all goes according to plan, it is suppose to snow on and off all day. I am a little nervous since my running has been pretty null lately. I’ve been much happier sleeping in or lifting weights inside.

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This granola is a great way to add a little bit of a christmas flair to any normal dishes. Add a little granola on yogurt, now you have GINGERBREAD yogurt. Add a little to your chia pudding, BAM Christmas-a-fied. I have big plans for this granola, and if all goes according to plan, I will posting the recipe on here.

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This recipe was a big labor of love. It happened to use a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers, so there were lots of pecans, walnuts, and cashews in there. There is also home dried apples. I figured I would give it a try since my husband picked 16 pounds of apples before our local orchard closed down for the year. I couldn’t even tell you what types of apples are in there. I just kind-of grabbed a bunch from our bags, diced and dehydrated. They are pretty yummy in oatmeal or chia pudding. If you don’t feel like making your own diced apples, you can easily just chop up dried apple rings.

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greenbean1

I remember the first time I had green bean casserole. I didn’t have it until I was in my 20s, it was never a Thanksgiving staple in my family. My brother in law grew up eating it and requested it for the dinner spread. My sister read the can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, frustrated by the simplicity. Really just a can? What are “french onions”? We all gathered around the table and tasted the dish. My sisters and I all agreed it was a mistake and voted off the dish from future dinners.

I didn’t listen. I couldn’t shake off has a very classic dish could be so bad. This prompted me to make a 100% from scratch version of the dish, and made it vegan. Each year I kept tweaking the recipe, and trying out new methods. This year, as I made a pre-Thanksgiving testers batch, I found the perfect match.

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I debated posting this dish since the photos didn’t turn out so great. I thought I could wait till after Thanksgiving and post it with better photos. I mean, this is a dish you could make for Christmas, right? But then after discussing Thanksgiving dinner with my Mother-in-Law, it seemed that she had plans for her own green bean dish. Posting the dish was a now or never deal.

This is a great dish if you are the guest invited to Thanksgiving. It isn’t hard to make, but it does take some time and planning. First you have to roast the onions, then you have to cook the green beans, then you need to make the sauce, then combine into the casserole dish. So it is great to make, getting all the messy work out of the way of the host. Even better is that it is a vegan dish that doesn’t seem “healthy.”

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The plan is simple. Bread and bake onion rings in the oven. Cook the green beans by boiling them for 5 minutes, or use frozen beans (fresh will give the best results). On a stove top make a mushroom-miso like gravy. Cover the green beans with the “gravy” and top with onions. Heat again in the oven. Simple enough.

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frostedsunshine1

I just came home from my trip to Sebring Florida for my Nanna and Pappy’s 60th Wedding Anniversary. And I have to point out, when the average American cuts out meat and dairy from their diet, they are stuck with carbs and sugar! As all vegans do, my husband and I packed a lot of clif bars and snacks, and I was shocked how close we were to eating all of them. Oddly I think it would of been easier to go vegan for the trip if we didn’t have to spend it was family. Then we could of had free reign over restaurants and breakfast.

But when I came home I scarfed down lots of proteins as I didn’t really eat what I normally would during the trip. Then decided I would go on a detox afterwards. And man, did I really need a detox. I am a little hesitant to talk about detox or cleanses, since they have earned themselves a bad rep. I am not really a fan of extreme cleanses where you juice all day or drink lemon water. I prefer cleanses that involving eating more whole foods. In fact my most common detox is a smoothie cleanse, drinking smoothies and soups throughout the day. I like this approach because I don’t deprive my body of calories and fiber that keeps me full. I usually add salads after a few days, and transition into raw foods.

I’ve mentioned my detox diet in the past. I posted an recipe for a Kimchi Detox Soup, which I am thinking I should make pretty soon.

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Well, this smoothie was like a slice of summer in all this cold weather. I used cantaloupe that I got from my CSA during the summer. The cantaloupe was so ripe it was pretty mushy, and didn’t really taste great by itself. Freezing it was a perfect decision, as it was just the texture I needed for a smoothie. 

I use to drink juiced carrot, cantaloupe, and orange all the time. So I thought that carrot would give a great flavor to the smoothie. It is only a small amount but it gives depth to the flavor. It also helps with the body of the smoothie, preventing too much a slushy texture. Plus, you are adding a veggie to your breakfast! You can also add a handful of green to the smoothie, it will just not be such a pretty color.

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sloppyjoe1

Oh man! I am so excited to be back! Our host had too many sites on their server, which is why our page was taking so long to load. So for one week the site was locked, and we couldn’t make any changes, but it was still viewable. Then we had to spend another week with the site being 100% down. It was awful and I was itching all week to work on the site. 

But now the site is back up, and everyone can see our new link buttons on the side, and our big ass blog directory! But first let me share this super easy recipe.

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This recipe I’ve been holding on to for awhile now. It just seemed a little boring. I mean sloppy joes? With lentils? I mean don’t all vegans know about this? Surely?! Well, I gave some leftovers to my husband for work and everyone at his work commented on how clever it was. Sometimes when you are drenched in a subculture, you forget what is or isn’t common.

So even though this dish isn’t something uncommon with vegan blogs, I think it can still reach others to give inspiration. The recipe is also really non-vegan friendly- meaning if you are a non-vegan and you making something for your vegan guests, this is a great option. Quinoa and lentils are pretty frequently used in recipes, and the only “hard” work is reading the buns ingredients to make sure there aren’t any eggs or milk in them (which milk is often added to pre-made breads!) I used sprouted buns, but they taste best with the cheap fluffy white buns.

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mintling0

Can I first point out that I got a new camera? I am very excited. I majored in film and video in college so I love total control. I didn’t get that with an iPhone. There is so much joy in zooming in knowing the quality will be just the same, and being able to focus on whatever you want. The photos speak for themselves really.

I was so excited when I finally got the memory card for my camera that I started snapping away. This dinner wasn’t originally something I was planning on posting, but I think it turned out pretty good. I am hesitant to post some pasta recipes since they are so simple. But a lot of thought was put into which ingredients to use. So I ended up with something that was powerful in flavor.

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jajangmyeon1 So the other day I was making Jajangmyeon and went into my blog archives for the recipe that I posted almost a year ago. To my horror, the instructions were TERRIBLE! I mean so bad that I was embarrassed to keep the recipe up. The image was broken, and the original photo was terrible. I wouldn’t think so much improvement with my posts would happen in such a short amount of time. But Jajangmyeon is one of my favorite dishes, and I just had to keep the world in the loop of this yummy dish. I originally grew up eating this because of my Aunt Hannah. She is Korean immigrant who married into my family. She would bring packages that looked like ramen that she called “Black Spaghetti.” She taught me her special way of cooking them. If I was in an Asian food market I would snatch up as many as I could. When I went to college in Philadelphia I had access to Korean restaurants. I became obsessed with finding one that would serve these black bean noodles. When I finally found one, I became sold on fresh jajangmyeon. They were pricey, so I learned how to make the noodles myself. Since I had it fresh, I found out those dinky ramen packets were pretty terrible. Continue reading


detoxkimchi1

I love detoxes. I mentioned in the last post I was doing a smoothie detox. For three to four days all I eat are smoothies and soups. Usually they are all raw, but they are hardly skimpy. They are packed with lots of nuts and fats to keep me full and going. I like a smoothie cleanse over a juice cleanse since you are getting a larger range of foods. Emily from This Rawsome Vegan Life did one for 7 days, which is longer than I have ever done.

I usually do a detox after big family get togethers and holidays since I usually eat foods I wouldn’t normally eat. It is nice “reboot” for some eating habits. If I am suddenly craving beer and cake every single day, I will usually go on a detox. I find that it makes me want to eat healthier foods. I am still going to want to drink beer and eat baked goods, but I know I shouldn’t be eating them everyday.

Of coarse I don’t like the connection people make with loosing weight with detoxing. Yeah, most of the time you loose weight, but it isn’t permanent. A lot of water weight is loss and quickly gained back when transitioning back to a normal diet. Which is why I like how Emily refers to it as a “Liquid Feast,” since you are feeding your body.
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kimadztaco1

I’ve been terrible at posting lately! I’ve been busy. There has been some exciting news, as my mother is moving from Utah, all the was across the country, back to the east coast in New Jersey. It has been almost a decade of her living a 4 hour flight away, so it should be an interesting change. She is already planning embroidery and sewing projects with me. 

I started to write this post last night and I had the hardest time. I am currently doing a detox, which I like to do them from time to time. I haven’t done one in awhile since I have been eating so well. Writing this entry is hard since I see the photos and want to pull out the leftovers. It is a little painful. 

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