Quinoa Salad & Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made chocolate chip cookies for the Super Bowl this year, just to prove yet again that vegan sweets can be just as good as the 'normal' ones! I adapted this recipe from one I found on allrecipes.com, made some changes and came out with a great recipe for soft, perfectly cooked tasty cookies! I began by creaming together the earth balance butter substitute, brown sugar, and white sugar until thoroughly combined. Next I added the instant pudding mix, then added the egg replacer and vanilla and combined. Lastly, I mixed in the flower and the chocolate chips- I am a HUGE fan of raw cookie dough, and I must admit that it was incredibly hard to stop 'tasting' this.....so yummy! I used a large spoon to drop cookies onto a sheet and put in a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes. They smelled and tasted incredible- I would highly encourage you to make these!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/4 cup whole wheat all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup earth balance, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs worth of Ener-G egg subsitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips

One of my friends posted this recipe for Quinoa salad on pinterest and I had to make it! I simply made the quinoa with the vegetable stock, and combined everything together once that was cooked. So simple, so delicious (quite an unusual flavor!), but has made a few of my friends into new quinoa fans!

Avocado Lemon Quinoa Cilantro Chickpea Salad

1/2 C. dry quinoa

2 C. vegetable stock

1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1 c. cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 avocados diced (I used 1 'Slimcado')

2 C. spinach

1 bunch cilantro

1/4 C. onion (finely diced)

2 small cloves garlic

For the dressing:

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp. dijon mustard

2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 tsp. cumin

Oil Free Morning Glory Muffins

I came across this recipe and had to instantly make this! The original recipe comes from http://www.honeyandjam.com/2010/04/i-really-like-breakfast.html and I adapted it to vegan quite easily. I cut the recipe in half because if I had 12 of these amazing muffins around they wouldn't last too long!! I began by spraying a muffin pan and sitting aside, as well as preheating the oven to 375 F, then I put the raisins in a bowl and covered with warm water and set aside. Next I used the Vitamix to chop the carrots and apples (this was my first time using the vitamix to chop-SO EASY!! Put the machine on level 3, and drop the vegetables in from the top with the blade on, continue to process until desired size). I mixed the chopped apples and carrots with the flour, oats, turbinado, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, coconut, and the walnuts.
In a separate bowl, combine the Ener-G egg replacer, applesauce, vanilla, and orange juice/almond milk. Once combined, I mixed with the dry ingredients and added the raisins (after draining the excess water). The batter was put in the muffin pan and filled to the brim, then sprinkled turbinado on top and baked for 25 minutes.
The smell that filled my apartment was heavenly, and it took every ounce of my being not to eat one right there! I left the muffins out to dry overnight (lots of moisture due to the apples/carrots, etc), and heated one up this morning.....DELICIOUS!!!!! Definitely a healthy, easy, scrumptious go to breakfast recipe!!

Oil Free Morning Glory Muffins (yield 12 muffins)

1/2 cup golden raisins

1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup turbinado


2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups carrots, chopped/grated
1 large apple, chopped/grated
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer


2/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange juice 

(I added a splash of homemade almond milk because the mixture was a little dry for my taste, no more than 1/4 cup)
1 tsp turbinado for muffin top (per 6)

Homemade Almond Milk, Berry Protein Smoothie, and Kale Chips

I always seem to get sucked into Vitamix infomercials even though I already own one- it makes me excited I can already make all of those wonderful recipes =) This particular infomercial was showing how you could make almond milk using the Vitamix and I got online instantly in order to find the recipe and make my own! I soaked the almonds in water overnight as suggested by some blogs I looked at,

then drained them the next time and combined with the water and blended for ~2 minutes on High. This made the milk steam a bit due to the high power of the blender, but I put it in a pitcher and into the fridge. Some people suggest straining the milk (and I would highly suggest this if you are not open to new textures, or in fact are using this to drink as milk), however I tend to only use almond milk in baking, cereal, and smoothies so the texture did not bother me a bit!

 Almond Milk

1 cup raw almonds soaked overnight

6 cups water

Since the vitamix had residual almond milk in the container, I went ahead and made a berry protein smoothie that was delicious!! Just put all the ingredients in and blended on high for about 15 seconds!

Berry Protein Smoothie

1 cup fresh almond milk

3/4 cup frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)

1 scoop raw hemp protein powder

5 large ice cubes

(I had to add a little water to get it to where I could easily drink, ~1/4 cup)

I have been wanting to make kale chips for FOREVER and I finally did it, and I must say I am glad I did...they are SO EASY and really are quite yummy! I used one of the large bags of prechopped Kale (possibly why this process was so easy!) and tore the larger pieces into smaller ones so that they were more or less uniform, and removed any large stems. Next, I drizzled on the olive oil, sprinkled with salt and nutritional yeast, and proceeded to knead the kale with both hands until the mixture was evenly coated. (For those of you not familiar with nutritional yeast, you can get it in powder form from Whole Foods surprisingly inexpensively for how much you get, and it is perfect to sprinkle on fresh popped popcorn- some say it has a slight cheese flavor although I personally think that description is a little bit of a stretch. It is a complete protein and is so easy to sneak into sauces!) I placed the kale onto two separate cookie sheets and placed in a 350 F oven for 18 minutes until it was crispy and some of the leaves were browning. After a taste test, I sprinkled a little garlic salt on top for just a little extra kick- these really are going to be a snacking favorite!! 

Kale Chips

1 large bag prechopped Kale

2-3 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 pinches of garlic salt to sprinkle on top