Chicago Marathon Val

Hi everyone! Are you all excited about a day full of boredom football?!?!? Haha, I’m with Mike at my in-law’s house today for a day filled with about 18 hours of nonstop football.  Luckily I brought my laptop so I can entertain myself while the men scream at the tv

Remember when I made these pumpkin spice cookies  from this recipe?

They were phenomenal!!!  This was probably the best vegan dessert I’ve ever made.  Mad props to the Voracious Vegan for creating it

However, when I make a good batch of cookies, most of them never make it to their planned destination (for someone’s birthday, etc.) because Mike and I go to town on the dough and the baked cookies before they can get out of our condo!  So, for this reason I wanted to make this recipe a bit less indulgent since I knew that we would undoubtedly have more than a serving’s worth!

Here’s my version… I may make some more tweaks to this in the future:

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. wheat bran

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking sode

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 T. vanilla extract

1 T. coconut extract

1 c. pumpkin puree

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. white sugar

* extra sugar for dipping

Blend all dry ingredients separately;  blend wet ingredients together in a separate bowl;  then, stir wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in two steps.  Once the ingredients are incorporated together, make them into small balls and then roll in the extra white sugar on all sides.  Place on your baking sheet and flatten slightly with your hand or a fork.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. 

This batch made about 30 cookies

I have to say that these were not QUITE as sweet as the original recipe, but other than that, the addition of whole wheat flour (and using less oil) didn’t alter the taste at all!  I’m going to fiddle with the amounts and type of sweetener when I attempt this recipe next, but other than that I love it!

Another fun thing I made yesterday was some quick and easy Tomatoey Brussels Sprouts!

I came out of spinning class yesterday with a  mad tomato craving.  I wanted to save my fresh roma tomatoes to use later in the week, so I decided to use V8 instead!  Not the most gourmet ingredient, but it works in a jiff

1) I cleaned the brussels sprouts (they were extra dirty since they were from my CSA, which I like – I know they are fresh!!), took off the tough top layer of leaves, cut off the stem, and cut the larger ones in half.

2) I then sauteed the brussels sprouts in 1 T. of EVOO and chopped garlic.  After 5-8 minutes, add additional spices you may wish to use (I threw in some salt and dried oregano and thyme) and then added some V8 – I used the remainder of what I had left in the jug, maybe about 2/3 cup or so.

3) Let simmer until brussels sprouts are as tender as you like.  I also threw in some capers at the end because I think capers make everything better

Yesterday also involved some fun with my dehydrator! I have made zucchini “chips” in the oven before, but this time I used them in my Excalibur Dehydrator.  This was super easy – I just sprayed them with some Pam (I was going to use some truffle oil I have on hand but I wanted to save it) and then sprinkled them with some BBQ seasoning from Penzey’s Spices. 

After about 6 hours of dehydrating these at 105 degrees, I took them out of the dehydrator.  A few of the thicker pieces weren’t done yet, so I let them sit out on the counter overnight to dry out further.  This morning, they were perfect! 

The BBQ flavoring is good, but they would be even better dehydrated with some of my awesome vegan nacho cheese dip

There’s still another 10+ hours of football to watch blog through today, so I’m off to write a post about my amazing meal last night at Green Zebra, one of the best vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Chicago!

Have a lovely day!

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.