Kicking A Cold

Today I only have a small "recipe", if you want to call it that. I wanted to share a sandwich I made which turned out surprisingly well.

But first, I want to write about how I'm trying to kick my cold! Yesterday I woke up after an awful night's sleep with the dreaded pre-cold, knowing that the full blown thing was only 24 hours away if I was lucky. I think it was mostly due to the sudden temperature change from the 50s, to the 20s. We had the heat too high most of Sunday (since it was warmer and we burn wood for heat so the temperature is hard to control) and let it die down overnight. So we went to bed sweating, and woke up freezing and I feel this is most of why I woke up feeling like a cold was looming.

So I figured I'd try to combat it by drinking plenty of water, eating oranges and making some garlic ginger soup I found on plant-based on a budget for lunch. It helped, and I started to feel better yesterday, so I made some PPK chickpea cutlets with broccoli twice baked potatoes for dinner. Thinking back, I would probably steam the cutlets first and then brown them. I felt it was hard to cook the middle without burning them.

After dinner I started to crash a little and started drinking my green tea.

Today, I woke up much to my dismay feeling a full-on cold.  So I drank my liter of water, 3 cups of green tea and had some soup in my attempt to kick it out in half a day. No such luck, but I was less congested at least, and felt hungry mid-afternoon.

I was excited to see over the weekend that Freshtown started carrying Daiya, which I've heard quite a lot about but wanted to really get used to life without cheese before I tried it. You know, in case it was really awful and all the vegans were lying.

So I quickly heated up the leftover cutlet in a pan, threw some Vegenaise & roasted red pepper on pumpernickel, and "melted" the cheddar on the cutlet, topped with cilantro.

Truthfully, the cheese is ok on its own. It didn't really melt as I had hoped (which you can probably tell from the picture) but when it hits a hot surface it sort of...liquefies I suppose is what I would call it and it does taste better like that, and does give me the satisfaction of hot, melty cheese.

I also made these vegan cashew cheesecakes over the weekend for some friends and holy smokes they were gooooood. I still have leftovers I haven't gotten into because I'm trying to ration them and not eat the remaining 6 in one night!

Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches, For Valentine's Day (Vegan)

So I guess I should begin by saying, happy Valentine's Day! 

Chances are you are feeling one of three things today:

1. You absolutely hate it because you're single, or because you're still pushing the anti-establishment attitude and spouting off about how this is a commercialized holiday created by card companies to make money and you shouldn't need one day a year to profess your undying love to someone. (These go hand in hand)
2. You absolutely love it because you're in a relationship, or just really like pink, red, cupids, roses, hearts...or just because you're a romantic sap.
3. You're somewhere in between thinking it's a bit silly, but secretly loving it and you think it's nice to designate some time to be a little sappy and cheesy.

So which is it?

Me? Well, I used to be #1 through and through. I used to be a pretty angsty (and angry) teenager that was perpetually single when everyone around me had paired up within three weeks of Valentine's, if not longer. I went to school with a lot of people who were in relationships or so it seemed because that's how I remember it. So I used to say stuff like "oh, good for you, buying into the consumerism and the lie that being single is miserable; way to go Hallmark!...No, thanks I'm good over here by myself" Yup. I thought I was pretty witty with my bad puns and "GFYourself" attitude. I also used to call it "VD" thinking I was pretty funny making the analogy to what was happening between 200 of my fellow jailbait classmates by 3:30 after school. Ah, youth. Suffice it to say I was probably one of about 5 people not partaking in the joy of the flesh by graduation and little did I know that by 18 I would be perpetually paired with someone and fall head over heels, making me into a #2 pretty quickly and making myself swallow my former words. 

Now, I'm a 3. I do think it's a little silly, and I do think you should express love for your partner throughout the year. But, after having a child together it is hard to have alone time and you do kind of need to designate time "us" time to recharge and rekindle otherwise you get really into your routine and forget to talk and remember how much you really love each other. The last few years have been a bit stressful for us and being able to have time just to ourselves even if only once a month has been pretty much what we needed to step back, stop worrying, and be together.

So anyway, I guess you guys are probably wanting that ice cream sandwich recipe, huh?

The best way to do this is make the ice cream the night before, and the cookies the next day.

Vegan Maple Ice Cream slightly modified/adapted from THE SIMPLE VEGANISTA's "Butter Maple Pecan Ice Cream"

• 4 large bananas, frozen
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Puree everything in a food processor until smooth, transfer to a container and freeze. I did mine around noon, and it still hadn't set up in the freezer by 3, so I would recommend making this the day before so it's frozen at least 12 hours.

 

Before I get to the cookie recipe, I would like to say that even though these are vegan, they are NOT good for you, and this is not health food. At all. But, it's Valentine's Day so while I would typically make a less junky cookie, today is a day I don't mind indulging.

Vegan Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1 tbsp. + 1tsp. flax seed
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• chocolate chips

Preheat your over to 350F. Grind your flax in a blender until it becomes a fine powder, add milk, and whizz again. Transfer to a small bowl and let it sit for a few minutes to set up. In a larger bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In another large bowl, cream the coconut oil and sugar together. (I recommend using a hand mixer for this) Add vanilla and flax eggs, and mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. You may or may not need to add some milk to this, I wound up having to add about another 2 tablespoons. When fully combined, add desired amount of  chocolate chips to the dough (let's be real: none of us measure it, we all eyeball it). 

Spoon balls of dough onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly in the pans, then completely on a cooling rack.

When your ice cream is set up enough to be a "soft serve" consistency, use a tablespoon(like one you would eat with, not one for measuring) to plop a small amount in the middle of one cookie, take another and place on top, but don't smoosh too much or it will go everywhere. Wrap in plastic and put into the freezer for 2+ hours. 

This was enough for 14 sandwiches, plus leftover ice cream. 

I'm calling this ice cream maple but it's really peanut buttery maple greatness.
Sorry I didn't get very good pictures, but here it is!