VeganMOFO: Chai Spice Snickerdoodles!

Hooray for Friday! It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to a sunny Autumn weekend.  These Chai Spice Snickerdoodles are soo good. They are a tester recipe for Isa's new book coming out, and I love them so much that I have made them twice already. Nom nom nom.

Snickerdoodles might be my favorite cookie. I have very fond memories of my Mom making them for us as a kid. It's essential to get that perfect balance between a soft, chewy middle and crispy, crunchy exterior and edge. So good!

Recipe is up on her blog, so you can make them too!

VeganMoFo: Rocky + Cookies

Aww, poor 'lil dude just wants a cookie...

Rocky is for sale here

Medium: Watercolor on Arches paper
Size: Approximately 5"x7" (image size is 4"x6")
Will fit in 5"x7" frame! Signed on back.

Note: I am doing a painting-a-day challenge for VeganMoFo, and will be creating a new painting of rescue animals or vegan food throughout the month of October, and placing them for sale. All proceeds (minus shipping) will be donated to For the Animals Sanctuary, because they are a pretty super-great non-profit animal rescue and sanctuary, in Blairstown NJ, and are vegan owned and operated. Feeding, housing, and taking care of these animals costs a lot of money, and as a non-profit organization, they rely entirely on donations. Hopefully (with your help!), I'll be able to make a size-able donation at the end of the month!  You can check out all the paintings I have created so far that are still for sale here! 

Mmm...cookies.  I made the Rocky Road cookies from Vegan Cookies Take Over the World the other night, and they were super-delicious!  I substituted crushed cashews, Dandies marshmallows, and dark chocolate chips for the fillings for some ultra decadence.  I mean, you really can't go wrong with chocolate plus more chocolate and some other yummy stuff, right?

The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies (with choc. chips instead of raisins)

So I received The Vegan Cookie Connoiseur, by Kelly Peloza, before Xmas, but have been saving up making a post about it so I could sample some of the cookies. Lemme tell you, it's really hard to choose which ones to make! I mean, I wrote down a narrowed down list of about 20 that I had to try right off the bat.  I really like the "Cookies Inspired by Drinks" section and will soon make the Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies, the Root Beer Float Cookies, and the Mocha Cappuccino Cookies. I made the White Russian Cookies (I sadly forgot to take a picture, but they were really pretty!) for my family and they loved them. I'll probably make some Hypnosis cookies for a late holiday party I have coming up and many more different kinds in the upcoming cold months. Holy yum!  And have I mentioned the pretty photos that accompany almost every recipe??  If it wasn't hard enough already to choose which recipe to make...

PB&J Thumbprints

Caramel Apple Bars

Holiday Sweets (and some other food)!

S'mlove love!!



Espresso Chip Oatmeal Cookies (from Vegan Cookies Take Over the World)


Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles (from Vegan Cookies Take Over the World)


Gingerbread Biscotti! (from Vegan Cookies Take Over the World)


My Mom made an apple pie! She even put 'lil cut-out heart pieces on top; She's the cutest, right??



Annnnnd some Tester recipes for Joni and Celine's new book of Vegan Substitutions!

Salisbury Steak with Mushroom, onion, and Sage Sauce:


Green Tempeh Casserole! Yummmmmm!


And I made some spicy tempeh tonight (simmer tempeh in water until all absorbed, then mix with a few TBS of Vegan Mayo, some sriracha, some nooch, and salt/pepper) in these 'lil baby pitas that I found at Whole Foods. Super-cute and bite-sized! Nik almost knocked me down trying to get more. Served with a side of raw cabbage/carrots/onions in oil/vinegar/herbs to counter all those sweets I have been eating pictured above. :P


1/2 day of work left this year, huzzah!! Happy New Year friends!

Kitty Love

This past weekend, Nik and I drove to his parent's house for an early xmas celebration. While I was there, I got to play with the cuuuuuutest little kitty. Seriously, LOVE!





We visited a wind farm! Huuuuuuuge!


And then...we came home to this. But seriously, the drive home was a record-breaker in terms of driving back into NYC. No traffic and none of that storm stuff everyone was talking about.


I'm excited to visit my family this weekend! Nik and I are taking a train (I couldn't handle driving two weekends in a row, haha.) I'm doing some last-minute baking this year. I have some Gingerbread Biscotti and some Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles in the oven as we speak! A few more batches of cookies and some S'mlove pie and I'll be ready for xmas.

I know New Year's Resolutions are totally lame, but I'm taking them seriously this year and am working on a list of goals that I want to accomplish this year. Most center around my business and making it more "serious." This blog is a big part of this and I hope to make it a bit more focused and regular. Blahblah, I know, I know, resolutions are boring. :) But! Expect lots of new things!

Happy holidays everyone! I'm signing off until after it's all said and done with!

peace,
Michelle

Broccoli Flowers, White Choc. Chips, and Frittata!

My first recipe from Vegan Brunch! I made the frittata, except with spinach and those mystery flowers from my last post (which turned out to be Broccoli Flowers!) This was soooo good. I also acquired some black salt recently, so I added some of that in. So freaky how eggy it was.



Had a severe cookie craving mid-afternoon today, so I put some of those white chocolate chips I got last week to work in some cookies. I used Isa's choc. chip cookie recipe. Mmmmm.


Dinner tonight was some grilled portobellos on a yummy salad, with balsamic dressing. Those broccoli flowers are pretty good raw too! Edible flowers have always kinda weirded me out, but these were very un-flower-like in taste. Or I guess, how I imagine flowers taste.

V-day Cards and coooookies!

Here is the final card that is including the notecard set, now in my shop

And I've been a mega-cookie-monster lately. I made Isa's chocolate chip cookies the other day ('cept I didn't have enough choc. chips, so I slightly melted a tablespoon of peanut butter and put it in the batter also. I also didn't have any more veg. or canola oil, so I used coconut oil.) Sooo yummy.



Some impromptu snickerdoodles friday night:

Chocolate-covered EVERYTHING

For real. I covered everything with chocolate this holiday season.

Chocolate covered cherries:
Choc.-covered mixed nuts:

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peels (from My Sweet Vegan):

Chocolate Almond Biscotti (recipe from Vcon, but Almonds instead of hazelnuts):

Sparkling Ginger Cookies (from Vwav):

TRUFFLES!

Chocolate, grand marnier, olive oil, with cocoa, sea salt, powdered sugar

Chocolate with Kahlua, covered in cocoa, powdered sugar, cinnamon

Chocolate covered in coconut:

Peanut Butter and Chocolate covered in pecans:

I made the spekulatius Butter from Seitan is my Motor's blog! I read this entry and then found these cookies at the Union Square Holiday Market (there is a little german booth that sells sweets and cider). I thought that it must be meant to be, so I promptly bought some. Yum!



Happy holidays everyone!!

VeganMoFo-Day 17: Liz Lovely Cookies

I have a SERIOUS sweet-tooth right now. I just went to Whole Foods and picked up some s'mores materials (first time trying out Sweet and Sara's vegan Marshmellows! Stay tuned!) for this weekend and I had to get one of these Liz Lovely cookies. I picked out my favorite, Mochadamia Mountains, that have macadamias, coffee, and chocolate. They are super-sugary, but in a "I must eat this in its entirety right now" kind of way. I never drink coffee, so pair this with chocolate and I'm bouncing off the walls. Awesome.

I've blogged 17 days in a row! New record! I'm totally breaking it this weekend though, as I am heading out of town. Happy weekend everyone!

VeganMoFo Day 12: Iron Chef Challenge 2-Pear-Pecan Sandies

For the second Iron Chef Challenge, with Pear and Nuts as the secret ingredients, I decided to make some Pear-Pecan Sandies. Although they are super-yummy, they aren't as "sandy" as I'd like, so I'm going to hold off on giving out the recipe until I can get it more how'd I like it. Soon enough!

Also, I finally got my oven to stop smoking when I turn it on! I think some Earth Balance spilled over from the muffins I made last week, or maybe some of the veg. oil from the doughnuts, but SOMETHING was in my oven that caused it to smoke up all scary like. I cleaned it super-thoroughly last night and it seems to have done the trick. I hate it when that happens!!

***GRAPHIC POST***

Cajun tofu salad with Goddess dressing (tofu and dressing both from Yellow Rose Recipes)

Nut case cookies, from My Sweet Vegan!! These were really yummy, even though I totally bastardized the recipe. I super-proteined it up. I ran out of regular flour, so I used Chickpea flour and I had a mega-mix of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, so I dumped that in.

I spent most of sunday making this stew and biscuits. I also tried those steamed seitan sausages that have been floating around the interweb lately. Mine were waaaaay too wet. Not sure what happened, but i compensated with more flour, so i had some really bready seitan on my hands. Ah well. Still good. The stew has red potatoes, corn, carmelized onion, garlic, broccoli, carrots, spinach, and a whole lot of spices (mostly pepper and tarragon). I cooked it forever in two pots and it came out really well. Total comfort food. The biscuits are from YRR.

sneak peek and PB-BOMB

Sneak Peek at new item for my shop! will post more once finished, and well, there is daylight to take a better picture. (hooray for daylight savings!)


I made Peanut-butter Bombs from My Sweet Vegan this past weekend. Yummy, but needs more CHOCOLATE. This begs the question, who would win in a super-ninja-awesome-fight: Chocolate or Peanut Butter?!? I think I vote chocolate, but it's a tough call. Yum either way.