Vanishing Vegan Oatmeal Blueberry Craisin Cookies

I was grocery shopping last week when I discovered "Blueberry Juice Infused Cranberries" from the makers of Craisins. They look a bit like fruit gushers, only much healthier, so I couldn't resist. I bought a bag of them, and had planned on putting them in my oatmeal for breakfast. 

That is, until I set out to make cookies earlier this evening and my husband asked for his favorite: Oatmeal Raisin, but this time, Oatmeal CRaisin! He came up with the idea to make these, and at first I wasn't convinced that they were going to be good, but after about 7 minutes in the oven, our house started smelling like heaven on earth. The combination of oats, sugar, blueberry, cranberry and dark chocolate is incredible. 

The recipe is Vegan, and it was actually our first attempt at baking Vegan cookies. I love using flax as an egg replacer, and while I was nervous as to how it would work out in this recipe at first, the final results scream success! Even if you're not Vegan, try using a flax egg! Flax is wonderful for you! Learn more about how great flax is here.

Vanishing Vegan Oatmeal Blueberry Craisin Cookies

recipe adapted from Quaker by David

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 flax egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup blueberry infused Craisins
1/2 cup Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°F.
Beat together Earth Balance and sugars until creamy.
Add flax egg and vanilla and beat well.
Lick the beaters. (if you're using a flax egg)
Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until well blended. Add to the sugar mixture and mix well.
Stir in oats, Craisins and chocolate chips and mix well.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Allow to cool slightly and enjoy!

meet the crunchy softies: chewy and gooey. they're crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

the best thing about baking Vegan is feeling 100% carefree while your little one licks the beaters.

Success!

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

I think most coffee lovers will agree that Starbucks has some pretty amazing coffee. Now that Autumn has arrived, so has their impressive line of comforting, ritualistic and expensive cold weather beverages. Whoever you are, they probably have a beverage to suit your tastes, and leave you wanting more.

photo credit: starbucks.com

I love the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate:

photo credit: starbucks.com

My husband loves their Peppermint Mocha:

photo credit: starbucks.com

We both like the Pumpkin Spice Latte:

photo credit: starbucks.com

When we went to Starbucks last week, I ordered a Soy Pumpkin Spice Latte. It's about $4 for a Grande' Pumpkin Spice Latte, and they charge an extra .50 cents for soy milk in place of cow's milk. $4.50 is a bit out of my budget for a 16 ounce drink, and if my husband had ordered a similar soy drink, we would have paid almost $10 for two drinks. If we have no other options, like when we're on vacation or a road trip, we'll splurge, but otherwise, we like to make our own at home. This is when our espresso maker comes in handy. We bought it over two years ago when we were spending $50 a month at Starbucks, and realized that if I was going to be a SAHM, we were going to have to find a way to cut back in every possible way. Starbucks visits went from necessity to luxury. To this day, I use our espresso maker daily for my Iced Vanilla Latte. Starbucks sells many of the products they use in their drinks, including syrups, flavorings and even their cups! We bought these tumblers a couple months ago for our iced beverages. It's amazing what a well stocked kitchen can do for you in place of going out!

We decided to make our own copy cat version of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, and it was so good and inexpensive that I want to share it with you! It's easily made Vegan by using soy milk. If you're a Vegan, you should know that the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, made with soy milk and sans whip is NOT Vegan. Read more here.  If you make this, please let me know how you liked it by clicking here!

Just Like Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte
recipe by David
 Ingredients:

2 shots Starbucks Espresso
2 tablespoons Starbucks vanilla syrup (or you can easily make your own)
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened soy)
1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
Pumpkin pie spice, for sprinkling

gather your ingredients

pour milk into a steaming pitcher and add pumpkin to the milk

then add vanilla syrup

and whisk until creamy and well blended

steam the pumpkin mixture using the steam wand

steam until foamy!

pour pumpkin milk into mug

add espresso

sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice

serve and enjoy!

For a soy Pumpkin Spice Latte in my area (Northern Louisiana), it costs about $4.50. Using organic soy milk(.37¢), organic pumpkin (.16¢), Starbucks espresso (.62¢) and pumpkin pie spice (negligible), the total cost of making this beverage at home is: $1.15¢

Go make it and let me know how it turns out for you!

  

A French Culinary Delight

I usually don't make dishes I can't pronounce, so the first thing I did when I found this recipe was to find out how to say the French word, Gougere (listen here). A Gougere is a French puff pastry stuffed with cheese. Sound good? Then you're going to love this recipe! Oh, and don't be scared away by the fancy name, this is easier to make than icing a cake!

Mushroom Gougere
 recipe from The Vegetarian Cookbook

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry

1/2 cup white bread flour (I used Organic white flour and it worked well)
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter (I used Earth Balance)
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 ounces Emmental cheese, grated (I used Swiss-it's less expensive)

Filling

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon white flour
2/3 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley (fresh or dried)
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F. To make the pastry, combine the flour and the salt and mix well. Melt the butter with the water in a saucepan over medium heat, but do not let the mixture boil. Add the flour all at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and comes away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat, let cool for 10 minutes, (while the pastry cools, prepare your vegetables) then gradually beat in the eggs until smooth and glossy. Beat in the cheese. Grease a round dish (pie plates work well) and spoon the pastry around the side. 

To make the filling, heat the oil in a large, heavy bottom skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Gradually stir in the stock. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook for 3 minutes, or until thickened. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the chopped walnuts, and stir the remainder into the mushroom mixture with the parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the filling into the center of the dish and sprinkle the remaining walnuts over the filling.  

Bake for 40 minutes, or until pastry is risen and golden. Serve immediately. I served this with sundried tomato couscous. 

My pastry was nice and fluffy when I pulled it out of the oven, but it sunk down (as you see above) after it cooled slightly. I think it's because I used sliced Swiss cheese that I cut into shreds, so I recommend that you use finely shredded Swiss instead. 
One thing I would change about this recipe is that I would spread the pastry across the bottom of the dish as well, to make it more like a pie or quiche. I may try that next time, and if I do, I'll post about how it comes out. 


Hope you enjoy this Autumn dish!

Happy First Day of Autumn!

I am so glad that Summer has come and gone. We had a record high filled Summer here in Northern Louisiana, and we are ready for some cool, pollen-free weather!

A few things I am looking forward to this season: (thanks to my friend Bethany for this idea)

visiting the pumpkin patch and going for hayrides!

baking lots of warm & yummy treats!

Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

Scarves, Sweaters and Uggs!

Watching the leaves turn colors...

Snuggling my husband and baby between cozy blankets.

Finding out what lies around the bend.. mainly where we will be living next year for Grad school!

Cinnamon scented pine cones throughout the house!

The wonderful combination of it all... that's what I love about Fall!

Falling Off the Wagon

Since my last post, we have consumed meat 3 times. It feels good to get it out in words. Not that I have guilt or anything...

The first time was an occasion I wish I could forget....McDonald's. Yeah.
It was not only the first meat we had in over 9.5 months, it was also the first fast food we had eaten in several months as well. Since then, we've reconciled ourselves to Taco Bell a few times, so not too bad compared to our old habits, but let's not go there!

I learned a lesson in my experience with McDonald's. Don't let your pantry get empty and don't nurture feelings of neglect due to unhealthy attachments to food. In short, avoid trigger points.

David was cruising on the Vegan highway pretty smoothly, though he missed cheese quite a bit, so at the very least, he was totally composed regarding meat, especially fast food meat.

I, on the other hand, must have been fed McDonald's in utero, and I wouldn't doubt if it were my first food. I have so many happy memories of "happy" meals before I even turned 5. After 5, I loved getting McDonald's gift cards for Christmas so I could pay for my own lunch there. I had a slightly dysfunctional childhood in case you haven't guessed, it's also why I am struggling to carve out a path towards a life filled with the wholesome, the good and the lovely. It's not all peaches and cream, believe me, but it is joyous when we're on it.

All that rambling to make a point: When I smell McDonald's, I feel warm inside. Sick I know. So it started with me stopping by the Golden Arches 2 blocks away from our home for a coke. The smell flooded in the car and I felt a stab of neglect. I pushed it aside, got my coke from the smiling employee and went home.

A few days later, I was there at the drive through window handing over $1.09 for another large coke, and I reeeeallly wanted a fry. I knew they contained beef tallow, but with all the big issues we're dealing with right now, it seemed like such a little issue. I stood fast and got my coke from the even friendlier employee and went home.

I complained to David that I was taking life too seriously and I just wanted a darn hamburger like the normal(fat)people in the drive through line. David held his position, but a few days, I had him on my bandwagon that we were missing something amazing.

Besides, we've celebrated so many milestones with McDonald's. It's so affordable! We ate it as a midnight snack on our wedding night... we were starving and it was across the street from our room at the Sheraton in San Diego. We ate it at the beach before David left for bootcamp. We've eaten it on roadtrips cross country and on the floor of various empty homes that we've moved into and out of. It's practically in my blood!

So we caved, I drove down and ordered our old order: 4 cheeseburgers with extra pickles, a large fry and a large coke. It felt strange, and downright rebellious, but comforting. I got home 2 minutes later and we started to eat. James wouldn't touch the burger. He loved the fries though, as he used to. David and I started to eat and tried not to look at the piece of tortured cow muscle between the buns. It was kind of hard to miss because there were no pickles, hardly any condiments and it was gray and dry. Typical low wage=low quality service. We ate quietly and slowly. David didn't finish his. I was on a high of sorts, even though I was aware that the quality was so lacking and the nourishment factor was zero. Talk about shameful behaviour!

Since then, we've gotten fries and coke once (for me and James), and I've gone back for sweet tea. I'd love to say that I am not enticed by the aroma of the burgers after our experience, but I still am. I'm weaning off the soda (we don't keep it in the house for obvious reasons) but the sweet tea is just as good and just as bad for me. Bah! The will of my flesh is strong.

During this time, I have been so downtrodden and feeling confused about what to call myself, apart from a hypocrite and big fat failure, so I haven't been meal planning. Instead, I've been to the store every 3 days or so to get ingredients that sound good. My budget or lack of one, is showing on our bank statements and extra gas trips. This lifestyle is not only bad for me, for the mass produced animals, and for the environment, but it is also bad for our budget. Imagine that.

Anyways, during this time, we tried fish twice since we were able to find some cruelty free and eco friendly-sustainably caught fish at our Super Target. Jesus ate fish and they are a different species, so it's an easier on the heart, natural and healthy B-12 source.

The other meat we had (the other 2 times) was buffalo from The Buffalo Guys that we found at our local health food store, and that is something we plan to try again. It is free range meat from buffalo that live natural lives on the plains in the North West, they are only handled for medical purposes, and then for slaughter. It didn't make us feel sick, though we both felt a little bit delayed in our stomachs. Not sure what to make of it, so we will try it again. I have no guilt in buying it, apart from the animal lover side of me trying not to picture the animal, but that is my flesh in a different way. God did give us the power to choose to eat animals, though I feel that as a society, we should be moving away from them, at least from the extent that we eat them in the SAD, I don't feel that soy protein isolate is the appropriate direction for me, so we are still ethical omnivores.

At the very least, I hope that this post proves that I willingly share the good and the bad, my triumphs and my failures in my journey towards becoming a more ethical omnivore.

I thought this was an interesting article. Why Vegetarians Are Eating Meat

If you have any thoughts, encouragement or constructive criticism, please, do share, I would love to hear your opinion or any advice you have!

Here's to putting one foot in front of the other and heading back up that mountain, even if I'm taking a slightly different path. God is great, Life is good.

"Sometimes we have to fall off the wagon to realize that we badly want back on."-Me