VeganMoFo: Fall flavors

Last night I wanted something for dinner that really felt like fall. So I made the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. The thyme and sage flavors make it perfect for the beginning of fall. I tried them a couple of years ago when I first got Vcon, but I didn't like them. They were too mushy and meh. But everyone on the PPK kept raving about them, so I figured I'd give it another shot. Good thing I did! They were much better this time around. I like to do a mix between baking and frying. I bake them a little to get the insides to be firm and then I pan fry them a little to make the outside crispy. Yum! So if you tried these in the past and didn't like the texture, try them again. It's worth it.

VeganMoFo: The best cookies ever. Maybe.

I found the inspiration for these cookies last week, when I was looking for a cookie to send Megan in the care package I sent her. They're based off of these cookies, but I just changed a couple of things. They're Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and they have quickly become a favorite here in my house. My mom doesn't like chocolate chips in cookies, my sister doesn't really like peanut butter cookies, and my niece doesn't like oats, but they all love these cookies. I've made them about four times already.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 3/4 c oats
1/2 c rice flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c vegetable oil
1/2 c brown sugar, packed
1/4 c white sugar
1/4 c applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c unsweetened natural chunky peanut butter (if you don't use the natural kind, omit the white sugar)
2/3 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375° F. Grind all but 1/4 cup of the oats in a food processor. Add rice flour, baking soda, and salt and pulse to mix. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugars, applesauce, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and the rest of the oats and mix to combine. Stir in chocolate chips. Bake for 11 minutes.

Happy VeganMofo!

Welcome to the third annual VeganMofo (Vegan Month of Food, that is)! I did a few posts for the first one and completely passed on the second one because I was busy with school, but now I'm only taking two classes at Suffolk, so I think I can handle it. I'm going to reallllly try to post something every day. If I miss something, I have to do two things for the next day.

So today, I'm starting off nice and simple with biscuits! I used the recipe from How It All Vegan. They were wonderful! Super easy. I made them really quickly before I left for class today. I don't have time for rolling and cutting and all that jazz, so I just plop them on to the cookie sheet as is. And I usually double the recipe, so I can save some of the dough in the fridge and have fresh biscuits two days in a row or have some for breakfast and some with dinner. So anyway, I'm posting the recipe because I found it easily online already and I have an audience of about 2, so it doesn't really matter:

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup margarine or veggie shortening
3/4- 1 cup non-dairy milk with 1 teaspoon vinegar

Preheat oven to 450. Combine dry ingredients, than add wet and stir until just combined. Drop into muffin trays or cut out into shapes or whatever onto an oiled whatever. Bake for 12-18 minutes. 

Sourdough uh oh

I got some sourdough starter a few weeks ago from Jody on the ppk. I fed it as soon as I got it, put it in a big mason jar and watched it bubble away. I used part of it to bake and after a day of rising, it looked good. I baked it and it came out looking just okay. And it was really hard. Not so good. I don't know what went wrong, but it sucked.

After that, when I tried to feed it again, it didn't rise. It bubbled and died. I fed it again and the same thing happened. So I took my dilemma to the ppk. They gave me some suggestions on reviving it, but it'll have to wait until next weekend because I've been pretty busy lately.

I don't know, the sourdough starter seems a little high maintenance for me, but I'll see if I can get it going again. Maybe I'll do "Sourdough Sundays" on this blog so I can have some motivation to keep it going.

Crafts

I have been having a lot of fun making onesies. Once I learned about using freezer paper for stencils, I was hooked. It's so quick and easy. These are a couple of the first ones I've made. Consider this a sneak peek of what's to come when I open my etsy shop!