Vegan Pancakes!

I'm back!

Today I took a recipe for pancakes and "veganized" it. I replaced the dairy milk with unsweetened organic soy milk and used EnerG egg replacer. These yummy cakes were cooked with Earth Balance buttery spread and served with real maple syrup!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies

With the holidays approaching I find myself wanting to bake my favorite treats. At Christmas time I usually bake 7 or 8 varieties of cookies to offer as gifts to family and friends. My query this year is whether to try to modify my recipes to make them vegan (and accept a difference in texture and taste) or to simply find new and different vegan recipes. Well, the truth of the matter is that I do not need to be eating all these cookies, anyway.

The whole idea of this is to eat healthier! What I have eaten this month has been neither vegan nor healthy. But instead of the usual mental beatings, I will move forward each day, making the best choices I can for that day.

Today, I baked vegan and non vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for a party.

The vegan ( above on plate and on left in picture below) cookies contain rum soaked raisins & vegan semi sweet chocolate chips. The non-vegan ones (Right in picture below) contain milk chocolate chips only. Both are quite good and in fact I prefer the vegan cookies because the cookies themselves are chewy and the soft raisins add another dimension in texture.

Here's the link for the vegan cookies: Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I modified them by substituting Earth Balance for the coconut oil because of a coconut allergy. I also substituted chocolate chips for the cranberries.

Pasta Fagioli

This recipe from one of the Italian grandmothers goes back to my days of living in the Bronx. Easy and inexpensive to make, but hearty and filling.

Of course she never gave me exact amounts because she, herself, never measured her ingredients when she cooked.

This is my adaptation:

One cup of ditalini pasta, cooked al dente (elbows can be subbed)

One 15 oz can of tomato sauce

One clove of elephant garlic, chopped (or 3-4 cloves of regular garlic)

One 15.5 can great northern beans, drained but not rinsed. (any white bean can be subbed)

Olive oil

A few leaves of fresh basil, chopped

Salt & pepper

Cook your pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Do not overcook. Saute chopped garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, until soft. Be careful not burn your garlic or it will turn bitter. Stir in tomato sauce and basil. Season with salt & pepper. Add in the beans and cooked pasta and stir until heated through. Non vegans can serve with grated parmigiano reggiano cheese. This can be served as a main dish or a side dish. To make more soupy add more tomato or some vegetable stock. Mangia!