I saw this recipe a little bit ago on Two Peas and A Pod who adapted this recipe from Joy the Baker. Maria at Two Peas in a Pod is a real cookie connoisseur. So I really wanted to try this recipe. Plus my son has a friend with a gluten allergy and I though maybe I could have these for when he’s at our home. They would also be an excellent treat to whip up for an after school snack or to toss into a sack lunch for school. They turned out great. I did ask my family if they prefer these of my regular PB cookie. They all prefer the regular PB cookie I make, but this still was a great cookie.

Today I also wanted to share some school lunch ideas that I came across recently. One of the biggest tips was to mix up what you use to put the sandwiches on whether it be rolls, a hot dog bun, tortilla, or mini bagels. There are all kinds of fun options out there. A great idea that sounded yummy to me was to make a sandwich using raisin bread, then spread a slice of bread with reduced fat cream cheese and raspberry jam. Then fold the slice of bread diagonally and pinch edges to seal. Then you create a triangular pocket type sandwich. Sounded fabulous to me.

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup brown sugar & 1/2 cup white sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray.
2. Mix the peanut butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Stir in the salt, baking soda, and chocolate chips.
5. Spoon dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place them on the cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.
6. Smash with a fork and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Move to a wire rack and cool. Make sure you don’t over bake. They will set up and you want them to be soft.

Here is a great grilling recipe. I found it on allrecipes.com. It requires marinating time, but is well worth it. These were tender and tasty! It does call for Greek seasoning, which is a mixture of onion, garlic, oregano, and a touch of mint. If you don’t have any Greek seasoning and don’t want to buy it, you could probably substitute 1/4 tsp oregano, and 1/4 tsp dried onion.

Sweet Grilled Steak Bites

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
1/2 teaspoon Greek seasoning, or to taste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup dark corn syrup
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

Season the meat with Greek seasoning. In a large resealable bag or non reactive bowl, combine the soy sauce, corn syrup, garlic and seasoned salt. Massage the bag to blend, then add the beef. Press out most of the air and seal. Marinate for up to 24 hours, flipping over occasionally to evenly marinate.
Preheat a grill for medium heat. When hot, lightly oil the grate. Thread the beef cubes onto skewers. (If using wooden skewers make such to soak them in water first. This prevents them from burning)
Grill the meat on the preheated grill, turning occasionally, until they have reached your desired degree of doneness. Be careful not to let the flames get too high. These will darken quickly because of the high sugar content. Don’t worry- they aren’t burning!

I got another zucchini recipe for ya today. This one is a bread with dried cranberries. The recipe comes from Two Peas and A Pod. She took a recipe she already had but altered it to include whole wheat flour, applesauce, and the dried cranberries. So this is a healthier version of a zucchini bread for you. You can also sprinkle to top with some cinnamon sugar before you bake it if you’d like. It gives it a nice crunchy top. This bread is delicious. The sweet spicy bread is complimented with with the slight tartness from the cranberries. The little bit of cloves is also a nice addition. Thanks Maria it was delicious!

Zucchini Bread with Dried Cranberries

Nonstick cooking spray
1 3/4 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Fresh ground nutmeg-I didn’t measure, just a bit
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2-3/4 cup dried cranberries
Cinnamon/Sugar to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, and set aside. Grate zucchini on the large holes of a box grater (to yield 1 3/4 cups); set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together sugars, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and eggs.

2. Into a small bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and stir to combine well. Stir in grated zucchini and dried cranberries.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture-if you wish. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes; invert onto a wire rack, then re-invert, top side up. Cool completely before slicing.

I have never actually had a Jager Bomb. I’m more of a Bombay Sapphire gin and ginger ale type of gal. But I hear they’re all the rage with the kids nowadays. No matter, a friend just sent me this link and I thought it was so awesome, I had to share. If anyone makes these, let me know how they turn out!

From Om Nom Nom…

http://www.ommnomnom.com/2008/vegan-jager-bomb-cupcakes-round-two/

Yes, more from Veganomicon. Isa and Terry have brainwashed me, I think. It’s the most delicious brainwashing ever, though, so I don’t really mind I must say. I have been wanting to try making the Spaghetti and Beanballs recipe for ages. I’m not sure why it took me so long to do it. The recipe makes a ton of these cute little things, so really I think I could get away with either only making half next time or freezing half since it’s just me that I’m cooking for.

If you’re not familiar with this recipe, it’s basiscally like a meatball, but made with mashed up kidney beans instead of meat.

See… I had fun mashing up the beans. It’s a good way to get out some agression, that’s for sure. So you add a bunch of other stuff to the beans like bread crumbs and wheat gluten and herbs and such and you form them into these cute little balls.

There is an option to either fry them or bake them. I remember reading some threads on the PPK forums and some blog postings about these. Most people seemed to prefer the frying pan method of cooking, so I decided to go with that.

These suckers will absorb insane amounts of oil, so be careful how much you’re putting in the pan and definitely use olive oil and not some other not as good for you oil. They also sorta start falling apart about halfway through cooking. I managed to keep a few of them whole, but I had to be really careful about it. To be honest, I actually prefered the smaller broken up pieces because then I had more crispy bits when I put it on top of my spaghetti.

This is definitely yummy and definitely something I’ll make again. It was quick and easy, too. If you have kids, I’ll betcha they’d had fun helping you mix the stuff together and forming the little balls. It’s always fun to play with your food just a little bit.

We all want things to eat in the summer that are light and filling and that don’t require us to do much cooking. Turning on that oven when it’s already an inferno in your place is not fun. I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with summer salads lately. I have a bit of an aversion to mayonnaise, as I think I’ve mentioned before, so let me tell you – I was so excited for this potato salad. It’s pretty much a tweaked version of a recipe I saw on Jamie Oliver’s show. I was a little skeptical at first for some reason. But really… you shouldn’t be. It’s amazing. I loved this so much that I just ate a bowl of it for lunch one day instead of just using it as an accompaniment to something else. Yes, it’s that good.

The original recipe called for creme fraiche. Interestingly enough I find that most commercial vegan sour creams kinda taste like creme fraiche, so it works out nicely. If you have something that you think might work better to replicate that flavor, then by all means, use that instead. Just steer away from using anything that has that sour tang to it.

Potato Salad to Rule the Universe

12 or so small yellow potatoes
3 Tablespoons capers
1 lemon (for juice and zest)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a handfull of fresh dill, chopped
a few dollops of vegan sour cream

Boil the potatoes in salted water just until they’re tender. You don’t want them to fall apart. A good test is to stab one or two with a fork until the potato gives easily. Depending on the size of your potatoes, it could be anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes, so do check them every 5 minutes or so. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and add them to a large bowl.

To the potatoes, add the capers, juice and zest of your lemon, salt and pepper and olive oil while the potatoes are still hot. Stir it up until the potatoes are well coated and then let the bowl sit on the counter until the potatoes are room temperature. Don’t put it in the fridge to cool it in a hurry, though. Part of what you want to happen right here is for the flavors to meld together and seep into the potatoes while it’s cooling down. Putting this in the cold of the fridge will stop that from happening as well. Be patient, it won’t take too long.

Once everything is room temperature, add the dill and the vegan sour cream and stir it up. How much of the sour cream you add is up to you, I think I used about two-thirds of a container and that seemed to work out nicely. Maybe you want more, maybe you want less. It’s your potato salad.

Eat and enjoy the awesomeness.

Hello, dear readers!

Please, don’t be alarmed: I will be away for a month.

I’m taking a trip with my family to Paris and Madrid, and while we will be eating lots of yummy food, I won’t be cooking much of it! I may get a chance to post some photos of things we’re eating. For now, here’s a photo from my last visit to Paris – a bakery had made baguettes in the shape of the Eiffel Tower!!

So please enjoy your August and I’ll see you back in September! If any of you have any must-eat advice for Madrid (or Paris, although we may have our dinners planned out) drop me a line!

How beautiful are peppers? So succulent, and perfect for the summer – and available in a rainbow of colours! These stuffed peppers are a great light supper – I think you’ll like them. I made them with turkey and brown rice, so they’re also pretty healthy – you don’t have to tell anyone that, though – they’d never guess.

You need:

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 tbs olive oil
1 c uncooked brown rice + enough stock to cook the rice in – I used chicken stock.
4 peppers of any colour you like
1/2 a large onion, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1/4 c finely minced herbs – I used basil, rosemary, and chives because that’s what’s growing in my garden
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 tbs tomato sauce
6 tbs finely grated parmesan cheese.

1. Start by cooking your rice according to the directions. Instead of water, use stock to cook the rice – it’ll give you a better flavour.

2. While the rice is cooking, sautee the onion, celery, and turkey in the olive oil.

3. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise and clean out, leaving the stems intact. You can fit more filling in if you leave them.

4. When the rice is cooked, mix it with the celery-onion-turkey mixture along with the tomatoes, the tomato sauce, and the fresh herbs.

5. Fill the peppers with the rice mixture and place the peppers into a rimmed baking dish or casserole dish. Top with 1 tbs of parmesan each. Carefully pour 1/4 c water into the casserole dish, being careful not to get the insides of the peppers wet.

6. Bake in an oven which has been preheated to 375ºF for 40 minutes, or until the peppers are soft and the cheese has browned. Let rest 5 minutes, then serve!

This was kind of an experiment. I didn’t want to leave the house to shop, but I still wanted a delicious dinner. Armed with pantry ingredients, I ended up creating a pretty darn tasty sauce to serve over pasta.

You need (for 4 servings):

8 oz pasta of your choice (I used penne)
8 sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil – dry)
3 tbs olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 large chicken breast (mine was 12 oz)
1/4 c shredded basil leaves
freshly ground pepper
1 c water or chicken stock, divided
3 tbs cream cheese (optional)
freshly snipped chives (optional but lovely)

1. Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in 1/2 c water for about 30 minutes, or until they are soft.

2. Drain the tomatoes, reserving the soaking water. Place the tomatoes and the garlic and 1 tbs of olive oil (and a tbs of the soaking water if you need it) in a food processor and process until almost smooth (some chunks are good and tasty!).

3. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tbs olive oil over medium heat. When the pan is hot, brown the chicken on both sides and set aside. Pour the soaking water from the tomatoes into the pan and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Let simmer while you slice up your browned chicken breast into bite-sized slices. This would be a good time to start boiling your pasta water.

4. Return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato puree. Allow the chicken to cook through with the tomatoes. This would be a good time to cook your pasta. When the past is almost done lower the heat and add the cream cheese, if using, and the chives, pepper to taste, and the basil.

5. When the cream cheese has mixed in and your pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce. If it is too thick, add some liquid until you get the consistency you like. Pasta water is good for this, or stock. Serve with a sprig of basil on top, if you like!

The bad news is that it is late August, which means it’s hot and muggy outside, which also means that I am cooking-lazy (again). Bad news because I am crazy hungry but don’t want to heat not even one tortilla lest my kitchen become a blazing infierno. Then, before I know it, I’ll be eating tuna out of a can, just like my cat.