I'm Still Alive!

Goodbye Ohio!
photo by Elaine Sylvester

Hello again!

I promise I have not abandoned ship here. I literally was studying 24/7 until Friday night and had no space in my brain for anything besides papers, chemistry and memorizing dance history facts. I think I forgot what it was like to breathe. 

But guess what. I'm DONE. And I'm pretty sure everything went successfully!

Now, with a huge exhale, I am finally relaxing a bit, packing up my stuff and preparing to move in with my friend for a week while I stay on campus for graduation. I have a lot of friends who are seniors, plus I'll be working my waitressing job, so I'm really excited that I'm here for commencement week this year!

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of opportunities to bake or cook anything special and if I do, photograph what I make. This may change, but just to be safe I'm warning you all that I may have to take a mini-hiatus until I'm officially on summer break. 

So, I will see you all in about a week with new delicious summery recipes, coming to you from my home kitchen. No more tiny college kitchen for a year! Crazy!

Seduction by Cookies

When it comes to men, there is always going to be the one that got away. In the real world, you can choose not to see him anymore and forget about it. However, in a college of only 3,000 students packed into one tiny town, it is guaranteed that you will see him. And when you see him you will probably be wearing sweat pants, have your hair up because you forgot to shower, look totally sleep deprived from studying, and be waiting in line at the student grocery store buying a huge jar of peanut butter and a bag of kettle corn. That is my life.

If life were fair, it would go like this:

You casually bump into him wearing your best outfit, looking awesome and carrying a big plate of these cookies. You offer him one, he takes a bite and suddenly doesn’t know what he ever did without you. Totally realistic. Seduction by cookies? Definitely possible. Especially with these...

Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies 

makes about 3 1/2 dozen

8 ounces vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti)
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tsp ener-g egg replacer mixed with 1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350º and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. Cream together the margarine, cream cheese and sugars until fluffy. Beat in the egg replacer and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well. Fold in the chocolate chips and try to refrain from eating the entire batch of batter then and there.
3. Scoop the dough in tablespoons onto the cookie sheet, leaving about an inch between each cookie. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. The cookies will still feel squishy right out of the oven, but this is a trick. They harden a bit as they cool! Enjoy with a glass of soy milk and don't forget to share!

These cookies are my new favorites: incredibly simple and amazingly delicious. They are slightly cake-y with a little crisp on the outside, plus the cream cheese adds a little extra something to what would otherwise be a traditional chocolate chip cookie!

Just to warn you... I tend to go on cookie kicks around exam time. They are the perfect study food for you and your friends! Don't be surprised if there are more cookie recipes to come in the next couple weeks :)

Sniffles and Spaghetti

It's that time of year again... the time when every single person on my college campus collectively gets sick. We call it the plague. I thought I had successfully avoided it, but the endless amounts of Vitamin C and tea can only fight it off for so long.

Instead of wallowing in sniffles and coughs, I'm trying to look on the bright side of being sick, for once. Now, I can catch up on some much-needed sleep, watch movies that I've had saved up in my Netflix forever, and finally finish that great book I started reading! Yay!

...But let's be real. Being sick actually mostly sucks.

I was going to make myself a big pot of soup today, but I realized I'm all out of vegetable broth. Instead, I might make another batch of this cajun white bean spaghetti that I had about a week ago for dinner. 
I got the delicious recipe here, from Noelle at the Peaceful Plate, except I made some minor changes. I used spinach instead of kale and had to mix up my own cajun seasoning using equal parts oregano, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt. 

All in all, it tasted super yummy and made great leftovers for a couple days! This will definitely be a weeknight staple around here. Maybe the spice will help to clear up the stuffiness in my head a little bit, too.

More yummy dessert recipes to come when I'm better! For now, time to doze off watching reruns of Mad Men.

Simple Orange Tofu

Every semester I tell myself "Okay, this semester I'm not going to overbook myself- I'm going to try to stay sane." So far, I have failed. There is just always so much to do and so little time! Luckily, everything I'm doing is something that I genuinely want to do. My classes are all pretty awesome (dance and the camera, dance history, a Shakespeare English class, and chemistry and the environment), plus I'm choreographing a dance, performing in another dance, and I still have my great waitressing job. So much for not overbooking myself.

I have been living up to one of my goals for the year: really setting aside time to cook myself quality meals! All you need is to get some good, versatile ingredients that will last you a couple weeks and then set aside half an hour to whip up something delicious. 

This is the first time I've tried cooking tofu by myself and I must say, it went really well! I think this dish is going to become a week-night staple. It's delicious and uses very basic ingredients that I almost always have on hand. 

Orange Tofu with Rice

makes about 4 servings

1 block extra firm tofu
1 orange
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 cup prepared brown rice (I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley)
optional: cooked spinach or peas to throw in with the rice

Note: If you are making this tofu for dinner, I would recommend marinating it around lunchtime. If it is for lunch, let it marinate overnight.

1. Drain the tofu and wrap in a paper towel. Squeeze the excess water out of the block of tofu and cut it into triangles or cubes.
2. Peel your orange and smash it in a medium-small lidded bowl, getting it nice and pulp-y. Stir in the soy sauce, garlic and 1 tbsp of the oil. 
3. Place your tofu into the marinade, cover with the lid and shake gently so that every piece is covered with the sauce. Let it marinate for at least 2 hours.
4. Once the tofu is done marinating, heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a non-stick pan over high heat. Add the tofu (but save the marinade!). Cook for a couple minutes on each side and flip. Repeat until the edges begin to brown and get slightly crispy. 
5. Serve warm over rice with a little extra sauce poured over the top. 

If you have leftovers, these little wedges would be excellent tossed into a salad, served in a wrap with some hummus and veggies, or just eaten plain as a snack! 

Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili

How did I end up in rural Ohio? 

This is the question I have been asking myself for the past 3 days.
Don't get me wrong, I love my school, but after being in California for a month, this place looks a little bleak. No more morning walks on the beach, no more farmer's markets open year-round, no more sundresses in January... Oh well. I'm just going to take advantage of everything this school has going for it and head West the minute I graduate. That's the plan.

In the meantime, I will keep myself sane by periodically redecorating my room...

and making soup.

This pumpkin and black bean chili is the perfect college meal. All you need is an onion, some fresh garlic and three 15-ounce cans and you have a flavorful, hearty winter soup that will feed you for a few days. Cheap, healthy, and did I mention it tastes like spicy pumpkin pie? Yum. It can't get better than this.

Pumpkin and Black Bean Chili (adapted from Keeping it Real Food)

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15-ounce can black beans
2 cups diced tomatos
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups water

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and add the onions and garlic. Saute until the onion becomes transluscent. 
2. Add in the black beans, tomatoes, pumpkin and spices. Stir well for about 2-3 minutes, then pour in the water.
3. Put on some tunes and take a dance break while you let the soup simmer for 40-60 minutes. 
4. Serve with sliced avocado (smuggled back from Monterey), coconut shavings, vegan sour cream, or just keep it plain and simple!

Oh wow, I can't believe classes start in just 2 days. Wish me luck for my incredibly daunting add/drop period!

One More Final to Go...

...and then it's home for the holidays! I can't wait. It will be great to see family and old friends again and actually have a real kitchen to bake in!

In the meantime I'll cram for my history final while I cram my face with cinnamon sugar rolls.

My boss at the pizza restaurant I waitress at is a perfectionist about the consistency of his pizza dough and usually ends up throwing a bunch away at the end of the night. I hate to see decent food wasted, so yesterday I offered to take some home and see what I could do with it!

You absolutely cannot go wrong with dipping something in butter, sugar and cinnamon. I melted some earth balance, rolled the dough balls in cinnamon sugar and baked them at 350º for about 20 minutes or until the tops turned golden brown. Then I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to whip out the last of my leftover cream cheese frosting. Thanks to these babies, my friends and I had a very productive and very delicious study session.

Sorry for the mediocre lighting in these, we made and ate them all between 10pm and 1am.

This is me once I'm all done, wearing my super awesome "vegan" shirt:

Wish me luck!

Peanut Butter Thumbprints

When life gets really crazy, I always try to make more of an effort to luxuriate in the little things. Lately I've been taking comfort in big mugs of tea in the morning (like my personalized mug? my mom's friend made it for me when I was 6!), study breaks with friends where we just sit around and talk about girly things, making really awesome work-out playlists, doing spins and leaps in dance, working on this blog, and really good cookies. Little things like this make the weeks leading up to finals so much more bearable.

My friend Melissa and I have recently been baking together whenever we need a break from work. What this means, really, is that I bake while she reads Cosmo and keeps me company. It's a nice little tradition :)

Yesterday, we made these amazing cookies! They just go to show that you can never go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate.

Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies

makes about 30 cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla

filling: chocolate chips, nuts or jelly

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and line two cookies sheets with parchment paper.

2. Mix the dry ingredients (minus the sugar) in a medium bowl. Combine the peanut butter, oil, syrup, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and stir until creamy.

3. Add the dry into the wet and stir well- you may want to use your hands.

4. Roll the dough into balls about 1-1 1/2 inches wide and place them on the cookies sheets. Then press your thumb into the center of each ball and fill the center with anything you like! I used chocolate chips, but jelly/jam would also be delicious.

5. Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until they start to turn golden brown. Let them cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a plate, or else they will crumble! They harden as they cool.

These cookies are the perfect mix of salty and sweet, so they will satisfy any late-night-study craving.

Thank You Cake

Sometimes words just are not enough. Sometimes you have to find other ways of expressing gratitude to someone. The solution to this problem is always chocolate cake. Trust me.

I took a train back to school from New York and it was delayed 3 hours and my poor friend was stuck waiting for me at the station, freezing in her car while I called her every five minutes saying "Okay, they said we should be there in 20 minutes. Oh wait, make that an hour. Oh wait, two hours...." The least I could do was bake her a cake.

This cake is fairly basic, so I decided to boost the chocolatey goodness by drizzling homemade chocolate sauce all over it. Mmmm it came out light and fluffy and was so easy to make! It's the perfect recipe to whip out when you need another way to say "thank you" or "sorry" or "you're the best."



Basic Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sauce (from The Joy of Vegan Baking)

Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 heaping cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp white distilled vinegar

1 cup cold water

1. Preheat oven to 350° and oil a bundt pan or 9" round cake pan.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for about 15 minutes and flip onto a plate.

Chocolate Sauce:

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1 cup vanilla soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine dry ingredients in a sauce pan and then add the milk and vanilla.

2. Stir over medium heat and let it boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, it will thicken as it cools.



Of course, my kitchen lacks a real sauce pan, so I came up with the genius idea of using a tea kettle instead. It was actually perfect for easy pouring! ...Oh college life.

Enjoy!

September Loves

My plans to bake keep getting squashed by so many things. First, it was just the fact that I was too busy, and now it's because I've caught the college plague. You know how that goes, everyone around you is getting sick and you're all like "Psh, I eat my fruits and vegetables, I'm not gonna get sick." And then you wake up on Monday with a fever. Oops.

Anyways, because of this I've been bedridden for two days, only getting up to go get smoothies and soup from the cafe nearby. I figured while I have some free time to sit in front of my computer (since I already finished a whole season of Mad Men...) it's about time to compile some of my favorite things from this past month. So here we go...

-This music video. It's so endearing and the little dance breaks are the best.

-This incredible looking pie. It's so far from vegan, but I'm determined to veganize it at some point.

-I'm obsessed with underwater photography, and this artist in particular. Her photos are so dreamy and stunning.

-Pears, apples and maple syrup. A perfect fall combination.



-That Book. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel. I finally finished it recently and it was so intense, enlightening, beautiful and disturbing all at the same time. I would highly recommend it!

-This song. I saw him live last year at my school and he was incredible, but I just rediscovered it!

-These shoes. Too bad I'm too cheap to spend over $20 on shoes. Plus did you know Urban Outfitters gives a lot of money to the Republican Party? Booo...

-Last but not least, it's mildly embarrassing, but when I'm sick I tend to watch all 6 parts of this. It's as comforting as eating a big bowl of mashed potatoes :)

That's all for now! As soon as I can walk without getting dizzy, I will have some new recipes for you.

Banana Peach Spice Bread

Yay we got our oven back! Just in time. I finished a difficult paper for my literature class last night, so baking this bread was the perfect stress release. There is no better way to begin a week than by making some good old-fashioned banana bread.... except this recipe has a twist. I realized I didn't have enough bananas for the recipe I had planned on using, due to my late night peanut-butter-and-banana snacking, so I decided to mash up an overripe peach instead. Bananas and peaches go together great in smoothies, so why not in bread as well?

Banana Peach Spice Bread

(adapted from Susan's recipe)

2 large bananas

1 peach, peeled

1 tbsp white vinegar

1/3 cup soy milk

½ cup sugar

2 cups unbleached flour

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cloves

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray or wipe a 9×5-inch loaf pan with oil.


2. Mix the soymilk with the vinegar and let it sit until it curdles into vegan “buttermilk”


3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and the peach together. Add the “buttermilk” and sugar and stir.


4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until it is combined.


5. Spread the mixture evenly in your loaf pan and bake until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean or for about 50 minutes. Cool and eat!

This actually might be one of the best banana bread recipes I've made. It's not only vegan, but super low-fat, which a lot of people are usually skeptical about. However this quick bread will hush up any skepticism. It's moist, just the right density and full of tummy-warming flavor. Use this to surprise anyone who thinks vegan baking is bland!

On a different note, I know I set out with the intent that I would have new posts on here every other day, but between classes, Fearless and Loathing, work, being in a dance piece and actually trying to have some sort of a social life, I think that's gonna have to change. Here's the deal, I can promise at least one new post per week. Depending on my schedule and how often I cook, sometimes it'll be more, but I think once a week will suffice! I have so many recipes that I can't wait to make and share with you all, so stay tuned. :)

Speaking of staying tuned... does anyone else have to have music when they cook or bake? I know I do. This is a song from my banana bread baking music.

Toasted Veggie Sandwich and Disaster

Disaster has struck my dorm. Our oven and stove are broken. Now instead of baking lovely treats for everyone, I'm going to actually have to do my homework this weekend. Maybe it's a sign that I need to adjust my priorities. Hopefully it will be fixed soon though, because I have a long "to-bake" list for you guys. Meanwhile....

I discovered the fact that the stove was broken midway through preparing to make a grilled veggie sandwich. I was about to completely give up after waiting 10 minutes for the pan to heat up and just go with boring old peanut butter and jelly, but then I had an idea. I could toast/roast the veggies instead. The result was still delicious.



Basically I drizzled sliced eggplant and tomato with olive oil and sprinkled them with oregano and rosemary and baked them at 400° in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes (until the eggplant was soft). I toasted two slices of bread (I used plain old wheat, but I wish I had some better bread like ciabatta so it didn't get so soggy) and then spread a layer of spinach and artichoke hummus, topped it with fresh basil and finally added the veggies. Perfect for a quick and healthy dinner before I ran off to serve pizza for 5 hours!



Haven't you ever noticed that the best sandwiches are always the messiest to eat? It's a fact.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Well my class schedule is now official and I couldn't be more excited about what I'm taking. Lots of literature, dance and art- what could be better? It will be incredibly busy... but I'll figure out a way to handle it. In fact, you know what the best way to handle stress is? Bake cookies. Especially chocolate cookies. Take my word for it, it's incredibly therapeutic.

My friend and I were just going to make plain chocolate chip cookies, but when we found cocoa powder in the pantry, we decided the more chocolate the better. They ended up delicious and had a great, crumbly-on-the-outside and chewy-on-the-inside texture.

Double Chocolate Cookies (adapted from here):

makes about 2 dozen

2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

big handful of vegan chocolate chips

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. In a medium bowl, combine sugar and oil. Then add the vanilla and water.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined (you may need to add a little extra water if dough is too dry).

5. Roll dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place them on an un-greased cookie sheet. Flatten them down a little- they don't spread much.

6. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Take them out when they're still a little soft, as they will harden as they cool.



The weather here has been gross and rainy, but these cookies make the perfect rainy day snack.

Also, while I eat cookies and start studying and everything, I have been revisiting this song and the whole album it's on. It's one of my favorites! My friend and I listened to it as we baked these :)

Oh and just so my readers know... I'm still not super happy with the theme of my blog. So if stuff keeps changing I apologize and promise I will be content soon!

Escaping Cafeteria Food

It's not that bad, really. Sometimes you walk out with a plate of great food- an awesome salad from the salad bar, a yummy vegetable soup- but honestly, most of the time being vegan, what I get in the Stevenson dining hall is mush. Mush that gives me a stomach ache. So after less than a week of eating there already, my friend and I decided it was time to take action and make our own dinner with fresh ingredients.

We basically mixed together we had on hand and maybe what we came up with also looked a little mushy... but I promise you, it was delicious and super easy.



Chickpea, Zucchini and Cherry Tomato Sauté

1 cup cooked grain of your choice (we used Trader Joe's Three Grains Blend)

1 can chickpeas, drained

1/2 large zucchini, sliced and cut into half-slivers

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat up the olive oil in a large pan, then add chickpeas and tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes start to shrivel and the chickpeas start to brown a little.

2. Add the zucchini and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Then add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve over grains and add salt and pepper to taste.



This dish is so simple for any college student to whip up, and it's so much better than what you get in dining halls. Sorry for the not-so-great lighting in these... unfortunately our kitchen is plagued with florescent lights only. College life.



Cooking buddies are the best. We actually made a little something for dessert too... but that recipe will come later. Time for me to rush off to class!

Fresh and Peachy

I wish I had a yummy recipe to share to go with this peach that I stole from my college's dining hall (shhh)... but unfortunately I have been too busy unpacking and moving into my dorm room to bake anything in the past couple of days. Let me tell you though, that peach was delicious. I think peaches are my favorite fruit. Hopefully I will get a chance to bake something with them soon!

In the meantime... I was feeling like my blog theme was a little bit too simplistic, so I've decided to change things up a bit. What do you think? I want some honest feedback here. I personally like it better this way. It feels more accessible, but let me know what you think!

Just to give you an idea... here's what my room has looked like the past couple of days....



A lot of half-unpacked boxes....



Desk space occupied by cooking supplies (my friend laughed at me for keeping canned beans in my on-campus storage)...



and here is my workspace for blogging! Hah. Temporarily. Until I clear off my desk.

New things are always fun. New school year, new room, new blog layout, new people, everything. I have a good feeling about this year. Now I just have to get myself organized before it officially starts.