Tag: Vegetarian

Maple Sandwich Cookies

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Time for Sunday baking!

After my faculty/student mixer where I made carrot cake cupcakes, I had a TON of maple cream cheese frosting left over.  Instead of throwing it away (or eating it straight with a spoon), I decided to incorporate it into my weekly baking.  I didn’t want to make cupcakes again since I’m low on cupcake liners.

Then inspiration came… hmm I could make maple homemade oreos… Sounds delicious right?  Since I don’t have enough cocoa powder to make chocolate cookies and digging out my cars seems like a terrible idea, I thought of another alternative: maple cookies!


Homemade Maple Cookies + Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Maple Sandwich Cookies

adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Graham Crackers and Smitten Kitchen’s Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp sea salt
7 tbsp of butter
1/3 cup maple syrup
5 tbsp milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

In a food processor pulse together dry ingredients.  Add butter, maple syrup, milk and vanilla and process until it’s a smooth ball.  Wrap in saran wrap or wax paper and chill for a few hours or overnight.

Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees, roll out the dough and cut into circles.  No need for fancy tools.

You could pretty much do this in any shape you’d like.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.  Let the cookies cool completely.  If you’re in a hurry throw them in the freezer for a few minutes.

Put your maple cream cheese frosting in a plastic bag and cut off a corner.

This will make it easier to fill the cookies, no need for a knife!

Pipe a dollop of frosting on one side of the cookie

Press the other cookie onto the frosting.

Makes about 30 deliciously sweet cookies.

Enjoy!  Watch out for maple drippings!

I googled maple cookies after I made these and a lot of the recipes use maple flavoring!  That’s nonsense!  Use the real thing!

What’s your favorite type of sandwich cookie?

P.S. Don’t forget to go vote for my penguin olives over at Mara’s blog for the Cute Food Saturday, The Cuteiversary Contest!

P.P.S.  You can win some maple syrup to make this at Jessica’s VERMONSTER giveaway!!!

Just a Taste

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Happy Saturday all!

On Wednesday when I picked the fella up from the airport, he mentioned he really wanted tapas.  So tonight, we went to a wonderful tapas restaurant here in Ithaca called Just a Taste.

We started with a wine flight.  I got the light red flight and he got the Spanish flight.

His was better than mine 🙂

We ordered 5 tapas (well really 6 but one never arrived)

Tortilla Espanola

Garlicky greens with blue cheese and walnuts

Goat cheese flatbread

Potatoes with Chipotle Aioli

Grilled Mahi Mahi

Everything was amazing!  The exception was the Mahi Mahi, which I didn’t care for.  The lovely fella ended up eating all of it!  It was too fishy for my taste!

If you’re in the Ithaca area, I highly recommend this place!  It was very tasty!  The lovely fella gives it an 8.6/10.  Pretty high rating!

Now we’re off to my neighbor’s birthday party!  I see more wine in my future.  Have a great night!!

Snowy Dinner Party

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Yesterday, when I went to class, I stepped out of my apartment building and was basically knee deep in snow!

None of the sidewalks had been plowed or shoveled!  Getting to class was nuts!  But in the end I made it!  After two classes and a mixer, I headed home to start making dinner for a few friends.  I had two dishes planned.

One I saw on the Food Network while working out at the gym a few months ago.  The second from the NY Times.

First Dish: Veronica’s Vegetarian Meatloaf with Checca Sauce:

This was a hit!  It’s actually supposed to be made in a loaf pan but I made it in a 9×13 baking dish because I would have had to make multiple loaves.  It was very tasty!  I think it was a favorite here last night! As usual I made a few changes, instead of spinach I used beet green from the beets in the next recipe.  It was a great way to make use of something that usually gets thrown away!  And it tasted delicious!  I will definitely be making this again!  Maybe for Christmas this year?

Second dish: Marinated Giant White Beans and Beets

I thought this was really good!  As usual I made some changes.  I only had half a pound of lima beans since I used the other half to make Ginormous beans earlier this week so instead I added half a pound of chickpeas.  According to the lovely fella and another guest, it mixed very well with the vegetarian meat loaf.  This wasn’t hard to make but it was sort of time intensive.

All this goodness was enjoyed with Rhoda‘s homemade bread!

Sooooo good!  Soft and delicious!

Here’s my plate:

After dinner, we trudged through the snow to see an improv show, which was pretty funny.  Very entertaining.  Then the lovely fella and I watched The Hangover, which I thought was REALLY funny.  I feel like everyone in the world had seen The Hangover except me.  Have you seen it?

This morning, it’s still snowing 😦  Not sure what the plan is but either way it should be fun!

Have a beautiful day!

Also… Go over to Mara’s Blog and vote for my olive penguins to win the Cute Food Saturday contest!

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

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My bananas aren’t ripe 😦

I’m a banana fan as I’ve mentioned in the past.  I usually have at least one per day sliced up in my oats or on toast or in a smoothie.  The riper the better!  Today my bananas are just yellow.  While I could have enjoyed it on a piece of toast, I really wanted oatmeal but I try to use really ripe bananas in my oats.  I guess because of the sugar breakdown as they ripen, they’re sweeter when riper?

Point being… my bananas were not quite ready for oats.  Then I remembered Christie‘s Carrot Cake Oat Bran I read about yesterday and decided to recreate my own!

My combo contained:

1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill 8 Grain Hot Cereal (or oats or oat bran)
1 carrot, finely grated
lots of cinnamon
dash of allspice
squirt of vanilla extract
topped with plain greek yogurt, agave nectar and a few pieces of walnuts

Pretty delicious!  Interesting way to get a veggie in!

Still… nothing beats the creamy sweetness my sliced banana adds to my oats!  I’m going to try this again but next time with a banana as a sweetener instead of agaven nectar!

Thanks for the inspiration, Christie!

Today is another busy day!  Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!  But something fun…Tonight I’m baking for a faculty/student mixer!  I’m a little concerned because it was advertised as such: “Come mingle with faculty! Enjoy tea and coffee! Savor Karla’s delicious baked goods!” … just a little pressure to make sure it’s great!

See you tonight for some baking!!

GINORMOUS Bean Chipotle Extravaganza!

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Hi friends!

I hope you’ve all have a great day!  Mine has been busy and sadly not very productive but oh well!  As I mentioned before, I’m trying to have more complete, balanced meals.  Today was a success!

Oats for breakfast, sandwich and soup for lunch, cantaloupe for a snack and dinner…

Just plain delicious!  I found this recipe on 101 Cookbooks a long time ago and bookmarked it for future making. I finally got around to doing so.  Of course I tweeked the recipe (quite a bit actually) but it still turned out delicious!

Ginormous Bean Chipotles Extravaganza

adapted from 101 Cookbooks Giant Chipotle White Beans

1/2 lb dried lima beans, cooked in salty water
1 tbsp olive oil
few dashes of cayenne, more for more heat
salt
1 tsp chopped garlic
14oz can of diced tomatoes (I only had whole tomatoes so I chopped them up myself, works fine)
2 tsp dried oregano (more if you use fresh)
1 tbsp of adobo from a can of chipotle peppers
1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1-2 handfuls of kale, chopped
1-2oz crumbled feta (or other crumbly cheese like cotija… which apparently doesn’t exist in Upstate NY…)

Heat the oil (about medium heat) in a pot, add the garlic and the cayenne, cook for about a minute.  Add tomatoes, salt and oregano.  Cook for a few minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the cooked beans and adobo sauce.  Stir in the kale and cilantro.  Transfer to a baking dish, bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

I had mine with red quinoa!

and a huge salad!

You should definitely try this recipe!  It was soooo good!  If you’re one of those people who hates lima beans (don’t get this by the way) you can probably use any other bean, maybe cannellini?  That being said, I thought the lima beans were the perfect bean for this dish!  So big and “meaty”!  Delicious!!

I seriously loved this flavor combo!  Chipotle, feta and cilantro!  What could be better!?!

Try it!  I bet following the original recipe would be even more delicious!  She makes a cilantro pesto that I was just too lazy to make 🙂 Hence I just stirred in some chopped cilantro…

This is also a great make-ahead dish!  I actually prepared it all on Sunday, and today I just stuck it in the oven while my quinoa cooked.  Healthy and Delicious dinner in 15 minutes!  Voila!

Anyway, now I’m off to read before Lost!!  Anyone else as obsessed as I am?!?

Have a fantastic night!!

Game Face

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Hi all!  Happy Monday!

Thanks for all your supportive comment about my last post!  I really appreciate it.

This morning I woke up feeling on the ball.  I was up at 6:20, had some coffee, packed a lunch and headed to the gym 20 minutes before I usually do.

It felt great to get my work out over with earlier than usual… even though a ridiculous girl kicked me off the elliptical because she had signed up for the one was on after me.  There were 6 other ellipticals open… ridiculous!  Oh well, I didn’t let her get to me!

I wanted a change from plain old oatmeal so this morning I had Oats in a Jar using Bob’s Red Mill Hot Cereal! Delish!

My lunch is packed and ready to go:

Flatbread sandwich with a Morningstar veggie patty, hummus, tomato and kale

Along with some cantaloupe, an apple and a granola bar.

I’ve got my game face on to conquer the work load!

Another tip I didn’t mention: just do it! Get work done and stress will be reduced.  So that’s my goal for today.

Have a wonderful Monday!

P.S. Lovely Fella will be here in 2 days!!!!

Post-Valentine’s Day Peanut Butter Blossom

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Last week, I baked Vegan PB cookies for my class.  Kim commented on how much she liked Peanut Butter Blossoms.

Last week was also Valentine’s Day!  On Monday, I went to Target to find Valentine’s Day goodies on sale!  I got a Valentine’s Day bowl for $0.44 and a few bags of Valentine’s Day Hershey Kisses.  I knew Peanut Butter Blossoms were in my future.

These aren’t your average Peanut Butter Blossom.  I kicked these up a notch with Raspberry Hershey Kisses and Caramel Hershey Kisses.

Post-Valentine’s Day Peanut Butter Blossoms

adapted from Hershey’s Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

~40 Hershey Kisses (any flavor), unwrapped
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter
1/3 sugar
1/3 brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
extra granulated sugar for rolling

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees (I did this after I made the dough, while I was unwrapping the chocolates, just to save energy!)

Cream together the PB and butter.  Add the sugar and blend with a hand mixer until fluffy.  Add the egg, milk and vanilla.  Add the flour, salt and baking soda.

Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Bake for about 8 minutes.  Immediately press in the chocolates.  Allow to cool and enjoy!

Makes approximately 40 cookies.

Peanut Butter Blossoms are delicious, but these were OUTSTANDING!  Great flavor combo!

The worst part about making these… aside from their addictive qualities…

Unwrapping all the chocolates.  This can be remedied by the use of a loved one (i.e. significant other, sibling or child).

I have a few ideas for different types of blossoms:
-Mexican Chocolate blossoms.  Use regular chocolate kisses but add cinnamon and cayenne to the rolling sugar.
-Snickerdoodle blossoms with butterscotch kisses (I think Hershey’s makes these) and rolled in cinnamon sugar)
-Almond Blossoms with Almond butter instead of PB and Hershey Kisses with Almonds

Any other ideas?

Well today is another study day!  Not excited for it but it has to happen.  I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!

Are you ready for this jelly?

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Happy Saturday everyone!!

This morning, when I got back from spinning, look what was in front of my door!

Last week, I won a giveaway at The Actor’s Diet and it arrived today!!

I got 4 jars of Crofter’s Super Fruit Spread!

Of course, I had to try one, so along with my salad for lunch (I’ll spare you the picture of that), I had a piece of toast with some of this deliciousness on it!

I tried the Europe flavor (Pomegranates and black currants blended with red grapes and morello cherries).

Not gonna lie, it’s pretty tasty.  I loved how tart and sweet this was all together.  Definitely recommend it.  I can’t wait to try the other flavors, but I’m going to try to work my way through one at a time.  Sadly, one of the North America jar was cracked so I won’t be trying that one.  I’m deathly afraid of glass shards! Oh well!  The other two I have left to try I’m sure will be amazing!

Today is a study day!  I need to get as much done as possible this weekend since the lovely fella will be here on Wednesday! I’m even missing Ithaca’s Chili Fest!  Oh well, I’ll survive!

I might need to make something super exciting for dinner to make up for it 🙂

Have a great day!

Zucchini Stir Fry

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Hi everyone!

I hope you’re having a great day!  Mine is better than yesterday!  I seriously think the weather here is getting to me!

Today I tried two new things!

Remember WAYY back when, when I tried Amazing Grass for the first time and absolutely hated it?  Well I still had a packet of the chocolate superfood powder from when I ordered that sampler.  I decided to give it another try!  However, this time I decided to try less.  So instead of dumping the whole packet in my green monster, I sprinkled about a fourth of the packet in.

It was delicious!  The gritiness that I hated the first time around wasn’t there, and the chocolatey-ness was great!  I’m not sure I’ll keep buying it just because it’s expensive… when I’m rollin’ in the dough, I would definitely consider adding it to my smoothies more regularly.

Are you a fan of Amazing Grass?

The second new thing I tried was Kikkoman Ponzu, which is a citrus seasoned soy sauce.  I got this a few weeks ago as part of the Food Buzz Tastemakers program.

I’m running low on groceries so I pulled together a bunch of random ingredients to make a delicious stir fry!

Zucchini Stir Fry

1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 tsp chopped ginger
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 zucchini, diced
1 tsp Trader Joe’s Soyaki
2 tsp Kikkoman Ponzu
Pepper to taste

Add the onions to a nonstick pan (sprayed with olive oil or any oil you prefer) and cook for a few minutes.  Add garlic and ginger, cook for 1 minute.  Add zucchini, sauces and pepper, cook for a few more minutes until tender.  Serve with noodles or rice.

This would be great with some pineapple chunks in there too!  Maybe some nuts?

I enjoyed mine with Trader Joe’s Harvest Grain Mix that I’ve had since about August… Finally time to use it up! And a Morningstar Veggie Patty for some added protein.

Delish!

The Kikkoman sauce was really good.  Since I didn’t try it on its own, it tasted somewhat like regular soy sauce but with a tiny kick.  Worth a try!

Now I’m off to read and then head to class!  Have a great afternoon/evening!

Tomorrow is Friday!!! WOOO!!!

Lent

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Thank you all for your very sweet comments on my post earlier!  I really appreciate the support!

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  The past few days, and today in particular, I’ve read about a lot of people “giving something up for Lent.”  Most of these things included things like chocolate, baked goods, pastries, candy, etc. I’ve commented about this on a few blogs and thought I should write my own post on this.

Now, I am no hard core Catholic.  I did First Communion, but I don’t go to church and I’m not observing Lent.

I’m not entirely sure what I believe but I do have respect for religion.

I’m a little irked that so many people are taking a sacred 40 day period in anticipation of the resurrection of Christ and turning it into an excuse to diet.  Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice and redemption, not a guilt trip into putting down that cookie so you’ll look better at the end of 40 days.

What about the rest of the Lenten requirements: not sinning, abstaining from meat on Ash Wednesday and on Fridays…?

Obviously, bloggers don’t post their entire lives on their blogs so some may be very religious/spiritual.  I don’t mean to judge, but I’m a little concerned that this is a serious sacrifice for some while it is merely a tool for others.

*Stepping Off Soapbox now*

What are your thoughts on “giving up” things for Lent? Am I being a little unreasonable?

On to food…

I try not to eat frozen food too often, but I like to keep a frozen meal in the freezer for those days when I just absolutely don’t feel like cooking.

Today was one of those days.

Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake (image from kashi.com)

Oh goodness.  If you haven’t tried this, you should.  It’s AMAZING! Slightly spicy and has a great texture.  Also, if you love plantains and sweet potatoes, this entree is for you!

It was the perfect dinner after a loooong day!

Off to do more reading.  Have a great night!