adventures in vegan baking & cooking

Recently, I became vegan. I really miss butter and cheese. 

It's been a challenge cooking and baking. I've had some hits and misses.


I was trying to copycat PF Changs tofu lettuce wraps. I've made it several times already. 

This was a complete miss. I mean in in the trashcan taste like cardboard miss. It was supposed to be pumpkin bread. 

Lemon Olive Oil bread. This was decent. I don't think I'll make it again, but not bad. 

Chocolate chip cookies. At first they were good, but I think it was because I was desperate for a cookie. This happens when you haven't had a cookie in a month. 

This blogger claimed these were the best cookies. You only need 3 ingredients bananas, oatmeal and chocolate chips. I wasn't that desperate for a cookie. These sat on the kitchen counter for way too long. Fail. 

Vegan coffee cake. This one I liked probably because it required a nice amount of Earth's Balance. 

Mrs. Coldplay's oatmeal raisin cookie passed the test. This one was a keeper. Thank you GP.

If you would like any of the recipes please leave a comment :)

holiday baking

I just realized I didn't publish this post. I went a little overboard with the desserts this year. 

Holiday baking in pictures.

peeling almonds...not fun

baci di dama

cinnamon rolls!

                       

corn bread

salted caramel cake

 

carrot cake...almost there

sugar cookies

I was in Korea for a week last month. Fall in Seoul was just so beautiful and perfect!

so much yumminess 

too adorable to eat

went on a 3 hour hike

on the way home

For A's birthday I took her (plus her cousin and a close family friend) to get their nails done.

My living room is always covered in either Lego's or puzzles.

I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies for A's teachers and aides for the first day of school.

This was SO good.

My neighbor gave me a bag of tart peaches.  I turned them into peach bars.

summer part 1

A has a summer birthday and she is now 11. Where did the time go?!

It was plum season and I made a batch of plum jam. Unfortunately, the plums did not have that much flavor.

 tide pools

donuts & waffles

I've been trying to improve my donut recipe. I took a break and tried a recipe from Baked Explorations.
I was a bit disappointed with the recipe because the donuts turned out too cakey and not buttermilk cakey like dense cakey.

I also made Joy the Baker's lemon poppyseed waffles. They were pretty good so I made them twice in one week.

carrot raisin cookies

I found 2 recipe on the web (can't remember the sites) and decided to try them. The banana chocolate chip cookies were gross. The blogger raved how good they were...I threw mine out. Blech!

banana chocolate chip cookies

The carrot raisin cookies were good. They weren't that good the day after. If you make them, try to consume them all on the day they are baked.

Summer has been busy.  A has been taking swim lessons to learn how to breathe. It's been 3 weeks progress is slow but good.

Carrot Raisin cookies 

2 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups of oat

3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350.

1. Sift all the dry ingredients (including the oats) in a bowl and set aside.
2. In the kitchen aid, cream the butter and the 2 sugars. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Mix well. Then add the dry ingredients until just mixed. Then add the carrots and raisins.
3. Bake for 8-11 minutes depending on the sizes of the cookies. The edges should be golden brown.