New Camera!!!

My Christmas gift from Dave and Keaton this year was a Canon EOS!  I was completely surprised and it was so unexpected.  I guess they feel my food pic's aren't up to par. lol!  Anyways it was such a wonderful gift from them.  My in-laws got me a long distance lense.  I'm so so happy!  No more blurred photo's unless I want them to be.

Keaton's friend's mother made us some vegan treats this year.  What a pleasant surprise and very thoughtful they were to make these for us. 

Fudge (this was so good I had way to  much)

This will be my go to recipe for fudge.  I'll have to post the recipe later.

Spiced Pecans

This is a butternut squash lasagna that I had been wanting to make.  The recipe is taken from

 Giada De Laurentis but of course made vegan.  It was really good and really easy to make.  There were supposed to be more layers but there wasn't enough sauce or butternut squash.  Next time I will double those two things.  I didn't have enough basil so I added in some sage.  As for the vegan ingredients I used Earth Balance and daiya mozzerella.  I would make this for company in a heart beat.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun New Years Eve.  We are having some friends over for New Years and I hope the appetizers I have planned turn out. 

Until 2011!

Have a very merry Chirstmas!

Warmest wishes to all of you!  I hope you have a wonderful Christmas spending time with family and friends. 

Our dinner menu has changed.  Dave ordered tamales and I made vegan ones the other night so our  menu now will be tamales, rice, beans, tortillas and a big salad.  For dessert I'm going to make a flan from VCON.  Of course there will be plenty of cookies and caramels to munch on.

Speaking of cookies I can't leave you without a recipe now can I?  If you love ginger, molasses and chocolate than these cookies are for you.  They are so soft and chewy....yum!  Keaton and I love these.  I've been making them for years now.  I found them on the Martha Stewart website years ago and the only ingredient change needed to make them vegan is to sub Earth Balance for the butter.  Cool eh?

Chewy Chocolate gGinger Cookies

by Martha Stewart

Ingredients
Makes 2 dozen



•7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
•1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
•1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions

1.Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate

•Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.

•In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.

•In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.

•Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Ginger Cookies, Rumnog Cookies and Caramels for Keaton's friends  families.
 
 
Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramels

It's definitely the holidays.  Cold, rainy, beautiful lights, cinnamon, ginger and pine!   I hope everyone is well and staying nice and toasty warm.

So Christmas is a few days away.  Do you have your menu planned?  Dave is going to grill outside, since he is cooking animal meat for his side of the family.  My plans for the rest of the menu is to make a butternut squash lasagna, grilled stuffed portobello mushrooms, roasted root veggies, some kind of greens, rolls, and a green salad. Oh and today I'm going to try and make tamales.  Let's hope they turn out. Fingers crossed!

I made these packages full of goodies for Keaton's teachers this year. Rumnog cookies fromVCON that I highly recommend, caramels and mocha caramels.

Caramel

Mocha Caramels

These were my first attempt at making caramels.   It does take some time to make these.  It takes about 55min or so to cook on the stove while you have to stir often.  Cutting and wrapping the caramels were the most time consuming but they are worth it.  

I was messing around with some extra caramel and made a pecan turtles.

Happy baking and candy making. Keep those ovens on to keep yourselves warm.  If you are in Australia then you might want to be sitting in a pool eating a popsicle. lol!

I'll be back with the results from my tamales before Christmas!

Back tracking and pineapple guava

Hi everybody!  I guess I really took a bit of a break from blogging after MoFo!  Not on purpose mind you, I've just been busy with Christmas stuff and all that.

Here is our Merlin kitty in between Keaton and his laptop.  He is such a lap cat and cuddler.

Have you ever heard of a pineapple guava?  These gems I spotted at the farm the other day.  We had the worker cut one open for us and said we could even eat the skins.  They taste better without the skins but they are edible.  These are  not a hybrid either, like we first thought.  They do have a pineapple taste to them.  Hmmm could be why they call them pineapple guava....duh!

Yum!  I love trying new foods.

Here's a tempeh salad sandwich on GF bread from Sami's Bakery.  I still can't get over how good this bread is.  I even took a couple of slices to the vegan gal who works at our local health food store to try. 

I'm going to start my baking and or candy making for gifts.  Last year I gave the teachers baked goods and they loved them.  Yummy posts soon to come.  What are you baking or cooking up for gifts this year?

Keep warm and toasty this weekend!

Last day of Vegan MoFo 2010! Frosty Stew and Peanut Butter Cookies

It's the end of the night of MoFo 2010! 

I'm pushing the time here because it's almost midnight. 

It's been fun and a bit stressful at the same time to try and blog everyday. I'm bummed that I had some hiccups regarding computer/internet issues during the month.  I really enjoyed visiting more blogs and seeing all of the talented vegan cooks and  bakers out there in blogland.  There are a plethera of recipes I want to make and I figure if I make all of them I'll never have to make another meal more than once! lol!   

 Thanks to all of you who have visited my blog and kept me going by your comments.  Until next year of Vegan MoFo...keep on bloggin'.

Here's a cookbook I bought when my son was born, 12 years ago.  I made most of his food...yes it took some time but I just felt better doing it.  I also wanted my son to have more of an open palate and to enjoy all kinds of foods or shall I say...flavors.  This is a vegetarian cookbook, I wasn't vegan back then, but my son loved the recipes.  I even enjoyed them too.  Which brings me to tell you why I'm talking about this book.  I remembered making a really good stew from this book(it's been years) so I decided to make it for Dave's birthday tonight.  It's called Frosty Stew and it has all kinds of root vegetables, dark ale(for depth) and bouquet garni for the herbs.  This would even be good with tempeh in it.

  Next time I will not chop the veggies up so much, I don't know what I was thinking, but it turned out really good.  I actually had other plans for this stew but it didn't work out so I'll save it for some other time.

A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of More Great Good Dairy-Free Desserts Naturally by Fran Costigan
from the Book Publishing Company.  This is a great book for everyone to have.  Fran Costigan teaches at the Natural Gourmet Institute in NYC.  Looking through the book I found a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies and they looked perfect.  They hardly have any additional fat in them besides the peanut butter.  Dave loves peanut butter cookies and well  I just don't ever make them so.....for his birthday I did.

 They turned out a bit crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  Just perfect!  Now I have to try to find a GF version for Keaton.  Hmmm?


Enjoy your night!

I know it's a bit late but... Thanksgiving grub!

Howdy everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving out here in the U.S.A. and for those of you in other parts of the world...I hope you had a great weekend.
I'm so bummed that I haven't been able to blog.   We've had our internet and land line down since last Wednesday.  We've switched to cable but when the technician came on Friday and then left, our internet was freezing up.  Last night we spoke with a friend who is a computer guy and he told us what to do.  So here we are...Monday the 29th!

Moving forward we had a really nice Thanksgiving down at my in-laws.  My brother came out from AZ with my nephew.  We met up with some friends we haven't seen in a while for dinner the night before.  Good times!

Some ingredients used for the meal and dessert.

Vegetable Succotash





This is kind of like succotash but it doesn't have any lima beans in it. My brother-in-law that passed away quite a few years ago, this was his favorite veggie dish I made, so whenever I make this it's in honor of him.  We miss you Zig! My mother-in-law was very happy that I was making dish this year.   The ingredients are: red and yellow bell pepper, yellow onion, chopped garlic, sage(use fresh if you have it), fresh corn, zucchini, yellow squash, olive oil, salt and pepper.  You just heat up some olive oil, add garlic for about a minute.  Then if you have fresh sage add that and saute for about 30sec, if you have dried rubbed sage add later.  Add the veggies and cook until cooked but not mushy.  Season with salt and pepper.  The sage is what totally makes this dish!




Trader Joe's Cranberry Sauce(L), Veggie Succatash(bottom), Mashed Potatoes w/brocolli(right),
Field Roast-Celebration Roast(top) with Golden Gravy.

The potatoes were made by my sister-in-law and she just diveded half and left out the butter and cheese.  The golden gravy recipe I use is from The Real Food Daily Cookbook.  The Celebration Roast from Field Roast is so juicy, it's really really good!  We also had sweet potatoes and a green salad.

 



Pumpkin Cheesecake

This years pumpkin cheesecake was thicker and lighter due to using silken tofu.  You can forgo the silken tofu and sub in more non-dairy cream cheese if you want a richer more dense cheesecake but we loved the taste of this version.  It's almost mousse like.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350.

2 paks graham crackers(there are 3 in a box)

1/4 C. organic sugar

1/3 C. Earth Balance

1/2 C. pecans, crushed

In a food processer pulse the pecans until crushed(don't process into fine powder)then pour in a bowl.

Next add graham crackers into processer and pulse until fine crumbs.  Add the sugar and Earth balance until combined then add the pecan back in and completely process together.  

In a cheesecake pan pour graham cracker mixture into it and pack down.  Bake in oven for about 7 min.

Take out and cool down.  Once cooled down wrap aluminum foil around the bottom because you will be baking the cheesecake in a water bath and you don't want water seeping into the cheesecake due to the cheesecake pan.

Filling:

2 8oz. containers of Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese or any other non-dairy cream cheese

1 12oz. pak silken tofu, firm 

1 15 oz. can organic pumpkin

1 C. organic sugar

1/2 C. organic brown sugar 

2 tsp. vanilla

3 T. cornstarch or arrowroot
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves

In a food processor(blends better) or hand mixer, blend together Tofutti and silken tofu until smoothe.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until all of the ingredients are thoroughly blended together and smooth.

Pour filling on top of graham cracker crust.

You will  need a baking sheet or something that has at least a 2 inch lip. 

Put baking sheet into oven then put cheesecake pan into the middle of the baking sheet.  Add boiling or very hot tap water into the baking pan so the water goes up almost 1-inch up the side of the cheesecake pan.  The reason for the water is that it keeps the cheesecake from cracking. Bake for 45-50min.  Until cheesecake is set in the middle.  

Once cheesecake is done let cool down to room temperature until putting into the refrigerator.  Chill at least 4 hours but it's better the longer it is refrigerated.  

I will be posting tomorrow.  It's my husbands b-day tomorrow so I'll be making something special. 

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My internet went down the other day so that's why there was no post. Then we traveled yesterday to mee with the family sooooo. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the day with your family.  Can't wait to see all the delicious food
everyone had and shared with family and friends.

Vegan MoFo day 22/Chickpea Patties and pumpkin bundt cake

Is everyone staying warm and toasty?  Whew it's been cold.  We just got a 24hr notice from the weatherman that we need to cover our plants because Tuesday night it's going to dip into the 20's.  Okay it's California people and here that is coooooold! 

The other night I made some chickpea patties.  They turned out quite tasty too I might add.

Keaton liked them served this way on a tortilla with mustard, lettuce, tomato and avocado. I need to find the recipe I wrote down as I was making these before I post it.   

  

This small bundt cake is made using the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe from VCTOW.   

A light glaze would be perfect over this.

Tomorrow I'm going shopping for a few items I need for some Thanksgiving recipes.

Are you all prepared for Thursday? 

Vegan Mofo days 20 &21/ Vacation trip part 2

So I missed a day of blogging for MoFo and I'm so bummed about it.  I was so busy Sat. morning with trying to get everything packed and ready to go for our overnight trip that I didn't have time to sit down at all.  We went to visit a friend we haven't seen in a while so......

Anyhoo I'm back and on to share more of our summer vacation trip on the northern coast of California. 

Farmers Market in Arcata one morning.  Yes it's summer and it was a cooler summer out here in CA.  Up in that area they said most of the summer was overcast like this. 

We spotted this tamale and salsa booth.

Vegan tamales were a score and ever so tasty.

This was really cool to see...raw juice at Farmers Market...very cool.

This handsome speciman was spotted on our way to Fern Canyon.  Isn't he beautiful!

The trees were just so huge and amazing.

 

We ate dinner one night at Humboldt Brews and they had a good selection of vegan choices.

These aren't very good pictures but I had the falafel that came with sweet potato fries.  Check out all of the veggies on top of the falafel.

Another pic of falafel.  Keaton had the grilled portobello but I forgot to take a photo of it.
Check out the menu by clicking above on Humboldt Brews.  They even had tofu as an option.


I'll share more photo's of the redwoods in future posts with more on food as well.
So tired....
Have a nice night.  Back tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo Day 19/ Sami's Bakery-GF sourdough bread

  Per Jessy at HappyVeganFace I ordered some great tasting GF-Bread.  It's from Sami's Bakery.
You have to try it if you can only eat GF-bread.

Yes that's right.  Sourdough!

You have to place a minimum order of $25 but that's okay for us cuz I'm just going to freeze the rest.  I ordered a couple of loaves of sourdough, the millet & flax bread and lavash.    Keaton loved it and I'm so happy he did.  We finally found a vegan GF bread that isn't heavy, dense and chewy.  YAY!\

Enjoy your night!

MoFo day 18/ Pumpkin Scones

Good evening everyone!  Whooo...I'm barely making the post for day18!

I made 2 pumpkin desserts but I'm only posting one right now.  These are pumpkin scones with a cinnamon glaze.  They turned out more on the moist side, you know not as dry as most scones, kind of cake like and really light. 

Pumpkin Scones w/Cinnamon Glaze

serves 8

2 C + 1/4 C. spelt flour(if using white flour use 2C +1T. flour)

1 T. baking powder

1/2 Tsp. salt 

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

3/4 C. pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. sugar

1 T. molasses

7 T. Earth Balance

3 T. full fat soy milk or non-dairy cream

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400.  Lightly oil a baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices.  

In another bowl blend together pumpkin puree, vanilla, molasses, earth balance, soy milk & apple cider.

Blend in the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until completely combined.  The dough will be more wet than dry.

Flour hands and take the dough out of the bowl and place on baking sheet. Form the dough into a 7-inch circle or so and then take a knife and cut through making 8 slices, but keep it in the circle.

Place in oven and bake for about 20min.

Take the baking sheet out of the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes just to slightly cool.  Than take your knife again and gently cut through each piece and place on a cooling rack to completely cool.

Once scones are cool you can glaze.

To make the glaze use about 1 C. of powdered sugar, cinnamon and non-dairy milk until you get the desired consistancy to drizzle over each scone. 

Vegan MoFo day 17/Better late than never

Not much in the way of food today.  We went on a new hike, Farmers Market, than picked up our dinner at Santa Ynez Burrito.  They have really good burritos, I had the grilled veggie burrito. The food is all organic which makes it even better.

So this vacation post is really long over due.  I mean it's November and we took our vacation at the end of August.  We traveled up to the Giant Redwoods in Northern California.  It was so beautiful!  Instead of posting about some of the first places we ate on our way up north I'm going to start with the best meal of our trip and the most exciting one.  Just so you know this was one vacation that there was plenty of vegan options all over the place.  A vegans dream!  Just how it should be everywhere you go.

My husband's friend's daughter(did you get that?) and her husband, bought this Japanese sushi restaurant a few years back in Eureka, CA.  When he found out we were going to vacation up that way he told us to go have dinner at their restaurant. It's called Kyoto Japanese Restaruant.  We heard that  it's best to make reservations because they are always crazy crowded.  I'm glad we did.  It's not a very big place but they are in the process of expanding...again.  So we get there and let Jenni know, the owner who is so nice, that Keaton and I are vegan.  She said it was no problem and that almost everything on the menu could be made vegan.  Keaton and I smiled.   Yippy jump for joy!

This is the miso soup for starters. Yum!

When you walk into the restaurant there is this big white board with the daily specials.  It was amazing how many daily specials there were on top of what was listed on the menu.

Mushroom Veggie Stuffed Squash Blossoms

  Jenni's recommendation was the stuffed squashed blossoms on the daily menu that were filled with crab but she spoke with the chef and he stuffed them with mushrooms and veggies and the batter was rice flour instead of egg.  I have to tell you these were absolutely exquisite!  I can't say enough about them or describe them any more but let me tell you at just one bite,  my mouth was very happy!  Seriously I could of eaten a whole plate full and would have been satisfied but I still had more food to eat.

This was a cold apple salad with a light veganaise dressing and almonds. Keaton didn't really care for it but Dave and I did.






Avocado Rolls and Tofu Tempura Rolls






Keaton ordered the tofu dinner and he said it was really good.  It came with tempura tofu rectangles(front right), rice, a savory cake like rice cake thingy(sorry I forget what it was but it's in the top right corner),  ginger salad(top left), carrot slaw and sliced ginger.

Dave had a non-vegan dinner so I didn't take a picture of that.

If you are ever up on the coast of Northern California you  must stop and eat at Kyoto Japanese Restaurant!

More vacation posts with vegan food to come.   





Vegan MoFo day#16/Pasta Della California-Veganomican

We've been getting some of the best avocados from the Farmers Market, I mean just perfect!  They are also still so inexpensive right now that we keep a good amount in the house for salads and sandwiches.

With the weather being a bit warmer and having arugula and broccoli in the refrigerator I knew what I was going to make for dinner.  Pasta Della California from Veganomicon is one of our favorites.  The first time I made this I was skeptical about having warm avocados with pasta but the results were amazing!  Dave called me up yesterday and asked what the dinner menu was and when I told him, he was very very happy.   If you haven't tried this yet you must, I promise you'll love it. My mouth is watering again just wishing I had some leftovers to eat. 

Aren't these pomegranates beautiful!  My mother-in-law gave us about 6 when we went down to

there this past Saturday night to watch Pierce College play football.  My father-in-law is a football coach for them.  So anyways, she says it's too much work to take the seeds out.  This is the deal, it's easier to take the time and just seed them all at once and to put in a bowl and store in refrigerator.  They don't last long in our place and will probably be gone tomorrow.  Fill a big bowl of water, place in the sink and cut in half.  Then you just break and seed them in the water so there is no juice spurting out everywhere.  The result is tasty and great for you pomegranate seeds.  No added sugar and no concentrate, just pure crunchy with a burst of juice right in your mouth.    

Until tomorrow!

Vegan MoFo day 15/ Warmer weather calls for some grilling!

First let me start off by saying I'm the winner of a Trader Joe's gift card!!!   Woohoo!  They just called me and thanked me for bringing in my bag and told me the giftcard will be waiting for me.  It's funny the last trip to TJ's my husband Dave asked me when I was going to win cuz I've been filling out those slips for many many years now.  YAY!

A heart sliced beet.  That just shows how good beets are for you.  I usually juice beets but once in a while I roast them in the oven.  I also love the taste of beet greens, do you?  If you never have used them give them a try and let me know what you think.  They don't last long in the refrigerator only a couple of days or so.

Recently I've been finding that I'm not alone in craving salads again. I think it's the warmer weather we are having.  Fall salads are actually really yummy using seasonal veggies.  I grilled a large white sweet potato, russet potatoes, red  and yellow bell peppers, asparagus, carrots and beets.  I used the balsamic dressing from the other night to drizzle on top.  Served on the side of the salad are stuffed portobello mushrooms.  These mushrooms are so flippen good and is a great recipe to make for company.  The recipe is from the Candle Cafe but of course I make my adjustments.  To cut down on oil for the sauteeing of the onions and garlic I use water.  I add more garlic, cuz garlic is good, and more onion.  The rest of the ingredients are bread crumbs, sage, thyme, spinach and walnuts.  I don't use a measuring cup I just eye it. 

Goodnight!

Vegan Mofo#14/ Gingerbread Biscotti & Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Another warm day out here in California.  Beautiful! 

Just the other night I made a couple of Biscotti recipes.  I love Biscotti, always have, always will.  I love the  slightly sweet taste and the big crunch.  I'm not much into dunking my biscotti but my Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti does very well in the dunking area.

Gingerbread Biscotti



So this gingerbread biscotti recipe is taken from the biscotti recipe in Veganomicon.  I did make some changes due to I wanted less fat and less sugar.  A true biscotti isn't very sweet like a chocolate chip cookie for instance.  I usually cut down on the sugar in recipes because it seems like they are always just too sweet.
The following are the changes I made to the recipe and it still came out crispy crunchy!
1/2 C. sugar(instead of 3/4 C.)
1/3 C. oil (instead of 1/2 C.)
1/4 tsp salt(instead of 1/2tsp)
added 2 T. molasses
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
The only thing missing was vegan white chocolate drizzled on top.  I have to order vegan white chocolate and I keep forgetting to.

Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

This combo is so delicious and the looks remind me of Christmas in a cookie.  I didn't have the time but I wanted to dunk half into dark chocolate, but you could add chocolate chips or chunks of chocolate into the mix if you wish.  These are definitely ones to dunk into coffee or tea.  They are more crunchy and drier which I like.  I so loved how these turned out.  Keaton doesn't like biscotti so I didn't try to make them gluten free but I would still like to try it out.  So if you come up with a great GF biscotti let me know.  Jessy?

A while back I checked out the Millenium Cookbook and got a great biscotti recipe that didn't have any oil in the recipe but I can't seem to find the recipe soooooo. I went to Fat Free Kitchen blog and found her gingerbread biscotti recipe and just added changes to it.

 Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

2 cups white organic flour(note below) 
1/2 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer
4 T.water
4 T. Hemp Milk(divided)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 C. dried cranberries
1/2 C. pistachios


Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl whisk the Ener-G egg replacer with the water and 2 T. hempmilk until frothy and thick.  Next whisk in the sugar,vanilla and 2 T. of Hempmilk until well combined.  Stir in the dry ingredients to the wet.  Once well combined add the cranberries and pistachios.  If dough is a bit dry add in more hemp or water a tablespoon at a time.  Form into ball.  Take the dough out and put on a prepared cookie sheet(sprayed with an oil) and form into a long loaf about 11 inch long, 3-4 inches wide and 1-inch high.  Bake for about 30-35 min. just until the loaf is slightly a very very light brown starting.

Remove baking sheet when finished baking, let cool for 20min. and lower oven temp to 300F.

Once the loaf is cool, take off cookie sheet onto cutting board and cut in about 1/2 inch diagonal slices.  Place the slices back on cookie sheet cut side down and bake for 10min.  Then turn cookies over and bake for 10 more minutes.

Note-I think spelt flour may give this cookie a slightly lighter texture.

Mofo#13/ Roasted Butternut on Mixed Green Salad

I hope everyone is enjoying their day.  We've been enjoying our warmer day although we have to bundle up at night.

Yesterday evening I was alone for dinner so I roasted up the rest of a butternut squash I had with a bit of fresh sage, olive and sea salt.  I already had a salad made so I just made some good balsamic dressing to go with it. The dressing I found is here.  The only changes I made to it was that I added a few tablespoons of water and used organic cane sugar instead of brown.  This is a really great balsamic dressing. In a pasta bowl I put some lettuce, butternut squash, dried cranberries and pecans.  Then I drizzled the balsamic dressing and fresh ground pepper.  I Sat down with a nice glass of red wine and scrolled through the old movie section of Netflix and found, to my pleasant surprise, Summertime starring Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi.  What a great way to eat dinner and enjoy a classic movie before the hubby got home.

Tomorrow I'll be back with 2 different biscotti recipes.

Vegan MoFo #12/ GF- Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy Friday!  Another beautiful California day but boy was it chilly this morning.  Last night was the coldest so far...brrrrrr. 

These cookies do contain oatmeal so if you are one who has Celiacs, you will need to buy GF certified oats. For you readers who don't know much about Celiacs disease, if you are truly gluten intolerent you can not have any food that touches gluten or processed from a facility that may also process wheat products.  My son doesn't have celiacs but he is sensitive to too much wheat so he does okay with organic oats.  Keaton says that these are his favorite GF cookies so far.  So coming from a kid that's pretty good.  Also for you out there I won't always list my ingredients as organic but most of them are.  The chocolate chips I use are Guittard, they are also Gluten Free and the dark or semi-sweet chocolate doesn't contain milk.  Personally, I feel these chocolate chips totally out do Ghiradelli in taste, they have this wonderful underlying caramel taste to them. Yum!

GF-Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oats
Recipe

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl cream together:
1/2 C. brown sugar
3 T. apple sauce
1/3 C. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

In another bowl combine:
1/2 C. sorghum flour
1/2 C. rice flour
1/2 C. tapioca flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder(Rumford brand  aluminum-free)
1/4 tsp. salt

When sugar mixture is completely creamed together add in the dry ingredients.  Next stir in 3/4 C. oats and 1/2 C. chocolate chips.

Use a tablespoon to drop cookie dough onto cookie sheet.  Bake in oven for about 12min.

Enjoy your friday night.  Keep warm.