Vegan MoFo Day 8: Cookies and Curries

No, not together. That would be just plain weird. (Cookie dough dessert “curry”? Now that would be something. Something as in a sick, twisted “sweets” recipe). But anyways, I digress. Sorry about missing yesterday. I got back home from my apartment quite late yesterday evening, and just didn’t get around to cooking anything new or posting. All I did last night was make up a half-batch of my Witches Brew Soup, and why post that again, right?

Thankfully, I’m not loaded with homework this weekend (still need to finish reading a selection from Plato’s The Republic…), so at least I will have adequate baking and cooking time. And I took full advantage of that today! First and foremost, I’ll talk about my (un-photographed) failure. I tried making a kabocha squash cupcake, but it just plain did not turn out. They were rather flavoureless and stuck horribly to the cupcake wrappers. Probably there was not enough fat in them or something…I used 3oz cooked kabocha pureed with 2 tbs of oil, and a tbs soy yohgurt and sweetened it with a cup of stevia in the raw. So maybe the sugar did it? I don’t know…but they weren’t good.

To compensate I made two types of cookies…

Un-healthy cookies…

Doesn't it look like my little Punkie kitty is eating a giant cookie?

and healthy cookies!

Yes, healthy. They’re sugar free, very low in fat (only fat from the nut butter), high in fiber, and totally delicious!

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yields: 4-8, depending on size

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 5-6 pitted california dates
• 1/4 cup cooked chickpeas
• 3 packets stevia in the raw (around 1 tbs sweetener, more or less to taste)
• 1 tbs cashew butter
• 4 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs chocolate chips

Directions:

First pulverize you oats into a powder in a food processing instrument. Add in the remaining ingredients (except for the chocolate chips). Process until they stick together. Now add in your chocolate chips and pulse a few times to chunk them up in the dough. Form into cookie-like shapes and enjoy now or chilled later!

[Wellness Weekend Recipe]

So which would you choose? Yummy healthy, or decadently yummy unhealthy?

For dinner, I decided to totally give up the whole Nightmare Before Christmas theme and decided to just whip up a new curry. This one is a little bit sweet, a little tomato-y, filling, and totally delicious. I was inspired by this recipe from Hobby and More, only on the grounds of using tempeh and mango together (genius!). So give it a try!

Tempeh Mango Curry

Yields: 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/2 small onion
• 2 oz cubed tempeh
• 3 cups chopped cauliflower
• 1/2 cup chopped mango (fresh chopped or frozen chunks work)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tbs ketchup or tomato sauce
• 2 tbs soy yohgurt
• 1/4 cup (plus 2 or so additional tbs if necessary) water
• 1/2 tbs jaggery
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• a dash of black pepper
• salt, to taste

Directions:

In a cast iron skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, cook your onions and tempeh over medium to medium-low heat until the onion starts to soften and the tempeh starts to brown. At the same time, steam your chopped cauliflower. When your tempeh has browned and your onion softened, add your cauliflower, chopped mango, and remaining ingredients to the same skillet as the tempeh and onion. Mix everything together and turn up the heat to medium to medium-high. When it starts to bubble, stir, cover and cook for around 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over basmati rice, or with chapati, roti, or naan.

[Wellness Weekend Recipe]

I kind of made a faux naan to have with this out of my basic pizza dough recipe. I made Rigby a cheese pizza, and didn’t want to waste the rest of the dough, so naan it became.

Faux Naan

Yields: 4 flatbreads

Ingredients:

• 1/2 recipe basic pizza dough
• nonstick cooking spray
• garlic powder
• onion powder

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

Take the half of the dough that your using and divide it into four. Stretch each of the four dough balls into that typical oblong naan shape (kinda like a teardrop), arranging evenly on the cookie sheet. Spritz with your nonstick (or lightly brush with olive oil or melted vegan margarine) and sprinkle with the garlic and onion powder. Bake for 15 minutes and enjoy with your favourite curry!

Tempeh Mango Curry, Naan, Basmati Rice

Well, tomorrow I’m planning on making some sort of soup for Souper Sunday. What kind I’m not totally sure yet. Probably something squash-y. Maybe something with miso in it. There is one thing I know I’m making tomorrow...A BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR JOHN AND SEAN LENNON! <3 It’ll probably be a chocolate cake or something like that. Simple. Yummy. And as for next week’s movie theme I’m thinking the Tim Burton film will be…Alice in Wonderland! Tomorrow is planning day…teacake anyone? (Hmm…tea with Johnny Depp? Now that’s something I wouldn’t mind at all ).

Are you celebrating the birth of these Two Fine Lennons tomorrow? (see what I just did with the title of a John Lennon album? Witty, huh?)