I *love* this soup. You can make it as spicy or mild as you like (I like it HOT), it’s pretty much fool proof, and it’s delicious. Honestly, I was never a huge pumpkin fan. That was until I made this soup and pumpkin dumplings one year for Thanksgiving. This almost tastes like a creamy potato soup or a corn chowder. It makes good lunch by itself, and a great soup to dip (vegan) grilled cheese in.

*The original recipe called for jalapeno-cilantro salsa, but I buy jalapeno salsa and mix in cilantro paste to taste.

I like to use at least 1 tablespoon of curry paste, but you can add as much as you like. Since curry pastes can have varying degrees of heat, try adding as directed on the packaging. For this one I used 2 tablespoons and it had a good kick.

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium-low heat and add the garlic, cumin and curry paste; stir for one minute.

Add the pumpkin, fire roasted tomatoes with green chiles, roasted corn, and salsa. Stir to combine.

Add the broth. Heat through to a simmer, and add the coconut milk. Season with sea salt and ground pepper, cilantro and agave. Heat through gently and bring to a slow simmer.

Taste test and add the fresh lime juice to brighten the flavor. Stir. Add more spice if you need more heat; add more agave and/or coconut milk if you need less heat.

This soup goes great with Cheddar Bay Biscuits. For this meal, we decided to dip in some homemade crusty bread and grilled cheese made with Daiya mozzarella.

    

(The thing on the right is a “dirty diaper”. It’s a crescent roll filled with chocolate chips.)

Makes 16 bites.

Ingredients:

Pillsbury Crescent rolls (or store brand)

Chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life vegan chocolate chips)

shredded coconut

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Roll out the dough. Roll each triangle into a ball and then divide that dough into two smaller balls (unless you want larger ones). You should have 16 small dough balls.

Flatten each dough ball and put a group of chocolate chips in the middle. Fold up the sides and roll into a ball again.

Roll in coconut.

Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 10-13 minutes.

For a “dirty diaper” simply spread chocolate chips all along the inside of the crescent roll and roll up like you would normally.

Dirty Diaper

You’ll need: 

Bread

1/3 cup of nog of your choice

2 teaspoons arrowroot

3 teaspoons apple sauce

dash of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of vanilla

Directions:

Mix everything together, add more arrowroot or apple sauce if it’s too liquid-y.

 Dip the slices of bread quickly into the mixture. If you soak it too long it will be soggy.

Melt margarine or non-dairy spread of your choice on hot pan.

Cook bread for 3-4 minutes on each side over medium heat.

You should have enough liquid for 4+ slices of french toast.

Enjoy with agave nectar and a glass of nog!

Last weekend I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich. I don’t seem to have the best of luck when trying vegan cheese (past brands have been gross), so I did a search on the best vegan cheeses and decided on Follow Your Heart brand. I opted for cheddar over the mozzarella for my grilled cheese. It smelled a little funny, and had a weird texture, but I had an open mind. The grilled cheese sandwich wasn’t as good as I was hoping, but it definitely wasn’t bad. A few days later I wanted to try it on a veggie burger, one slice melted on a black bean patty was pretty darn good.

Today I was trying to come up with other ideas to try the rest of the cheese, and cheddar bay biscuits came to mind. I looked up vegan recipes online and was surprised by how complicated some of them were. So I decided to stick to this original recipe and just substitute a few ingredients. The recipe calls for Bisquick mix, but I made my own. I’ve also seen that Bisquick has a gluten-free mix, I’ll have to try that next time. Makes about a dozen (I got 11).

Disclaimer: These came out amazing. They would be great to bring to a picnic or a potluck, but be warned about making them while you’re home alone for the weekend. At the time of writing this (approx. 2 hours after making them) I’ve already eaten four.

Ingredients:

• 2.5 cups Bisquick baking mix**
• 3/4 cup cold almond milk
• 4 tablespoons cold non-dairy margarine (1/2 stick)
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 heaping cup grated cheddar cheese substitute (I used Follow Your Heart brand)

**Homemade Bisquick Mix:

• 2.5 cups flour
• 1/8 cup baking powder
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup non-dairy margarine

Brush on Top:

• 2 tablespoons non-dairy margarine, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (I didn’t have parsley so I used basil)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• pinch salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Combine Bisquick mix with margarine. Mix until the margarine is clumpy.
• Stir in cheese, milk, and 1/4 teaspoon garlic.
• Drop 1/4 cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 15-17 minutes til firm.
• After the biscuits are out of the oven, melt 2 tbsps margarine, and then mix in 1/2 tsp garlic, parsley/basil, and a pinch of salt. Brush this on top of the biscuits.

Lulu’s Chocolate:

Initial thoughts: Sexy packaging. So far I’ve eaten all except for the Raw Love and the Maca Green bars. I tried the Aztec Crunch bar first because crunch bars are one of my favorite candy bars, and I enjoy cacao nibs. I have to say I didn’t care for it. The chocolate had a slightly weird aftertaste and the clusters of cacao nibs tasted off too.

Next, I had the Coco Cin bar. This was my favorite out of the bunch, and it was awesome. The cinnamon was strong and the coconut was subtle. They complimented each other really well.

The Chocolate Maca Chunk and Maca Love were next, and I didn’t like them.  I’m guessing it’s the maca. They both had a green aftertaste that did not fit well with the chocolate.

I’ve been holding out on the last two because I’m a little afraid I won’t like them. I don’t want to have negative expectations, but if the first two maca bars were anything like the Maca Green bar that I have left I don’t think I’m going to like it at all. Hopefully, if the Raw Love is just plain chocolate (which it appears to be) I’ll like that one.

I got 6 raw chocolate bars for $13. I feel like it was a good deal, or would’ve been if I actually liked them. I love raw chocolate, and I make it all the time, but these flavors just didn’t jive together.

Aztec Crunch:

Coconut Cin:

In the end, the free shipping and discounted prices made me go with the Daily Gourmet deal. I’m spoiled with Amazon’s Prime shipping and I was nervous about how long this was going to take to ship. About 3 weeks after I placed the order I got an email apologizing for the delay and I received a $5 credit. It took another couple of days before I got the package.

The Goods:

Fruit leathers- I think I should’ve gone with my gut instinct on this one because I don’t love them. So far I’ve tried the vanilla pear and the lime ginger. The flavor is good in both of them, but I’m not a fan of the texture. The 3rd one I ate was burnt, and I haven’t eaten any more since.

Kale chips- I was expecting dehydrated kale doused in seasoning. I was completely wrong, but I’m not disappointed. They were more like round crackers, embedded with sunflower seeds. So far, I’ve tried the bbq, chili lime, and salt & vinegar. They all kind of taste the same with a different aftertaste. I don’t really taste the lime in the chili lime, they taste like the others with just a little bit of heat. I was a little disappointed in the amount of chips in the packages. The bbq only had 4 round “chips”, the other ones had about 6 (including broken pieces). They also include a packet of silica gel to preserve freshness. The gel packet in the bbq bag had gotten stuck on the back of the first chip I picked up, and even though I saw it, I could see accidentally biting into it. 

Granola- In the package was the cocoa bliss granola. The flavor is very reminiscent of chocolate graham crackers, but some pieces have a funny aftertaste. I think it might be the pieces with more buckwheat. If broken into smaller pieces I think this would make a good cereal with almond milk.

Overall:

For the discounted price (and the fact that I got a $5 credit) I feel like I got an okay deal. I was excited to try everything, but after I did, I wasn’t really excited to finish it. The prices on the website are reasonable and by no means were the products bad. Just not outstanding. The fact that it took almost a month to get my package definitely doesn’t sit well with me, but they did apologize and tried to compensate. I’m guessing it was a shipping delay from Kaia Foods, most likely because I went through Daily Gourmet.

Overall, I hope the company does well and is able to grow and offer more products. I’m not sure I would buy from them again right now, but they have a lot of potential.

Modified from VegNews’ Vegan Coconut Drop Cookies.

What You Need:

1-1/2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1+ tbsp Masala Chai tea*
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2  large Medjoole dates
1/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup light agave syrup
1/4 cup non-dairy margarine, melted

Icing:

1/8 cup almond milk
1/6 cup non-dairy margarine
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/8 tsp salt

*you could also mix your own masala spices. I chose to use an excellent Masala Chai from Samovar Tea Lounge. Also, I find about a little more than 1 tbsp to be the perfect amount of spice for these, but adjust to taste.

What You Do:

1. Using a coffee grinder, grind the malasa chai into a fine mix. Take out any big chunks that won’t grind.

2. In a large, dry skillet over medium heat, add coconut and stir constantly until flakes are light golden brown. Immediately place in a large bowl. Allow to cool slightly.

3. When the coconut is still warm, mix in the ground chai. Once the coconut has cooled completely, whisk in flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. In a medium bowl, combine sugar, agave syrup, dates, and margarine. Stir well, then add wet mixture into the dry mixture. Roll out little balls of dough and flatten on parchment. The cookies will pretty much keep the exact shape you make them.

6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until barely browned around the edges and no longer shiny on top. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

7. Mix all the icing ingredients together. Ice the cookies when they are completely cool and let set for a few minutes.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs
1 cup Espresso
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. Kahlua
8 oz. mascarpone
1/8 cup cocoa
20 ladyfingers

Combine 3 egg yolks, 1 Tbsp. Espresso, sugar and Kahlua in large mixing bowl. Beat 2-3 minutes. Add mascarpone and beat 3-5 minutes until smooth.

In another bowl, combine 3 egg whites and a pinch of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into mascarpone mixture.

Dip one side of each Ladyfinger into remaining Espresso and layer on bottom and sides of serving dish. Spread 1/2 of mascarpone mixture and sprinkle with cocoa. Layer Ladyfingers and finish with a mascarpone layer and cocoa. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Mocha Java Protein Shake

Mocha Java Protein Shake

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein Powder
12 oz chocolate almond milk
1-2* servings instant coffee

(*2 servings of instant coffee makes the coffee flavor stronger but I recommend adding a bit of sweetener.)

Blend and enjoy!

During the month of December, the Food Network sends out a 12 Days of Cookies newsletter with recipes. Last year they all looked so delicious and this year I decided to try to make all of them. One flaw in my plan was having to eat all those cookies. Well, I at least did the first recipe, but I decided to healthy it up a bit. Honestly, I was a bit nervous… Okay, I was terrified they weren’t going to be edible, but all doubts aside I was determined to make Paula Deen’s Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies vegan and gluten-free.

The original recipe has 6 ingredients:

• 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Before I tell you my “weird” changes, I want to say these cookies tasted exactly like little bites of chocolate cake. I even fed them to people who had no clue anything was suspicious about them. That being said, these were my *substitutions:

• 8oz vegan tofutti cream cheese
• 1/2 cup non dairy margarine
• 1/3 cup+ applesauce (egg replacement)
• Gluten free cake mix (I can’t remember the brand of the chocolate cake I used, but I also tried the Betty Crocker white cake mix to make chocolate chip cookies)

*There’s debate on whether some products are 100% vegan/gluten-free etc…so if even thinking about animal products/gluten makes you ill you might want to do more in-depth research.

Instructions:

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Then, mix in the egg and vanilla, followed by the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.** Roll the chilled dough into little balls and roll them in confectioners’ sugar. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet, for 12 minutes at 350° F.

**When I made these I ended up falling asleep while they were in the fridge. I made half the dough about 12 hours later, and the rest of the dough I rolled into a log, saran wrapped it, and stuck in the freezer for 2 weeks. The freezer dough tasted just as good as the fresh(er) one.

I started off with about a 1/3 cup of apple sauce to replace the egg, but I didn’t think the chocolate mixture was sweet enough so I added more until I was satisfied. I was nervous the batter wasn’t very sweet, but when baked and coated with powdered sugar (or icing) they taste just like moist chocolate cake.

I also made chocolate chip cookies with Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix and chocolate chips. These were sweet enough and didn’t really need powdered sugar, but it didn’t hurt them either.

Price Difference: The normal extra moist boxed cake mix I would’ve use was ~$2 (even though they had store brand on sale for about $1), the Betty Crocker gluten-free was $3.50. The normal Philadelphia cream cheese was $2.29 and the Tofutti brand was $3.79. I normally buy Smart Balance buttery spread (~$3.29) vs regular butter (~$2.99), so not much of a price difference there. I also already had applesauce in my fridge, but it was about 97 cents for a big jar of store brand “All Natural” applesauce. For me, it was about $3 more to make 3.5 dozen cookies “healthier”.

I supposed I should’ve made a control batch of normal cookies to taste test against, but these came out surprisingly amazing. If you give them a try, let me know how they came out.