Mini Vegan Sweet Potato Pies w/ Oatmeal-Walnut Crust....and Tofurkey!

Anyone got the case of the mondays? Not me! Bummed around home all day! =)

Tofurkey

Mini Sweet Potato Pies

Winter break has been VERY good to me thus far! I've been doing my best to make the most of my two weeks off by sleeping in, bumming around, catching up with friends, and just simply relaxing.  Although the Becker books are sitting on my desk, haunting me every night, I've decided not to crack them open until next week...meh.

Today, my sister really wanted to make a vegan dinner for the family, so I helped her make a Tofurkey with a mushroom and rice "stuffing." We also have a lot of sweet potatoes, so we decided to make mini sweet potato pies with an oatmeal crust.  I tried REALLY hard to convince her to let me use an egg because eggs are used to help the filling hold, but of course I lost to the vegan. Boooo! But don't worry, apparently you can use 1/4 cup of mashed banana or 1 tbs of ground flax plus 3 tbs of water. Very interesting...We ended up using the flax and water concoction, and I added 1 tsp of cornstarch to help it thicken a little more.

All of the ingredients...of course I'm missing the sweet potato and walnuts, oops!

Mini pie w/ whole walnut, coconut, chopped walnuts, or chocolate chips! Pick your choice! =)

As for the Tofurkey, not gonna lie, it was a pretty interesting experiment and came out nicely! Took a lot of tasting, adding, tasting, and more adding, but in the end, all that work was worth it.



Tofu w/ miso and soysauce drained using a cheese cloth

Patting down the bottom layer of Tofu part



"Stuffing" with mushroom, mushroom broth, brown rice, beans, onions, cilantro, soy sauce, and rice vinegar



Tofurkey with orange-soysauce glaze ready for the oven

Smelled yummy



Slice of Tofurkey w/ mushroom gravy? Anyone? =)

Low Fat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! I hope you all are having an amazing Christmas with your families and loved ones!! =)

Just baked some yummy cookies with my sister and mom for Christmas Eve! After eating out a lot this past week to celebrate my graduation and such, I decided to make healthier cookies to make me feel better about myself. It sort of worked, but I am still recovering from over-indulging myself in buffets AND from eating mindlessly out of this neverending bulk-sized container of animal cookies we have sitting in the living room...sigh...I'm also too lazy to run outside in the cold...but ANYWAY

These cookies have no oil and butter, so that cut out a lot of the fat. Yeayea cookies taste better with butter, but you definitely won't be missing the jiggly fat and muffin tops with these.

Pressed and about to go into the oven!

Sister's cookie breaking skills

YUMMM!

Low Fat Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies:
Size = 24 cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup rolled oats, grinded
1/4 cup wheat bran (optional)
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar (or 1/2 cup to make it less sweet)
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or 1/3 cup to make it less sweet)
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Grease cookie sheets
2) Large bowl: Mix flour, oatmeal, bran, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
3) Medium bowl: Beat egg, and mix in apple sauce and sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla
4) Mix in wet ingredient to large bowl. Mix batter with hands (use a plastic glove thing or wash hands well!)
5) Mix in chocolate chips and walnuts (optional)
6) Make small balls and press down dough because they don't spread but slightly rise in oven
7) Bake 11-12 minutes. Let them sit on cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack for at least 5 minutes


Again, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS, everyone! and a special shout out to my family, bf, and my lovely friends! <3 <3 <3

Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

Graduation is just a few days away, so I am seriously trying VERY hard to find some motivation to study for finals....eh. Well, just because I wanted to avoid studying tax, I decided to bake some cookies! I had these cranberries sitting around in the fridge since Thanksgiving and was totally surprised at how long they lasted! They were just as yummy and fresh as they were the day I bought them from Whole Foods...now I think I'll have to buy another box of cranberries ASAP.

When I first came across this cranberry pumpkin cookie recipe from allrecipes, I was a bit hesitant about the flavor combination.  I knew that cranberries and pumpkin screamed Turkey Day, but go figure that two Thanksgiving staples would produce such a tasty cookie! Silly me. These cookies definitely satisfied my craving for something sweet, and I LOVED the kick of tartness from the fresh cranberries.  Not to mention, the smell of pumpkin and spices baking in the oven warmed up the kitchen and brought the holidays home.  These cookies were on the cakier side, which made them lighter and fluffier than your average dense cookie. If I had walnuts, I definitely would've added them to the cookies because I love a nice crunch! Overall, this recipe was great, but I added a few more spices and replaced the white sugar with raw sugar.  Perhaps next time I'll try it with brown sugar. I also added a sugar glaze on top for presentation.



Cookies pressed down and ready for the oven!




Cooling off on the rack...lighting looks kinda funky tho lol






Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies:
 Serving Size = 36 cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup raw sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or fresh
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1 cup fresh cranberries
1 tbs orange zest (approx 1 orange)

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets
2) Medium bowl: Cream butter + sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla, egg, and pumpkin
3) Large bowl: Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture until blended
4) Slice 1/2 cup of cranberries in halves and chop the rest. Zest 1 orange. Add cranberries, orange zest, and walnuts (optional) to dough mixture
5) Put spoon-sized balls onto cookie sheets and flatten them because they rise a lot while baking!
Tip: Dip your fingers into some flour and press the balls down flat. Otherwise, they get all gooey and messy!
6)  Baking 12-14 minutes and cook for 5 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer to cooling rack
7) Drizzle with glaze!


Cinnamon Glaze:

Ingredients:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 tbs butter, melted
1 1/2 tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
1) Mix wet ingredients together. Whisk in sugar slowly to preferred consistency.
2) Use a fork to drizzle glaze over cookies