Chicago Marathon Val

Don’t forget to enter my Vega Vibrancy bars giveaway!!

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Happy Tuesday everyone!  How was your day?  I feel like for once, the week is flying by… I can’t believe it’s already Tuesday,  and I still have to do my weekend recap!

Friday night was full of baking, cooking, and more baking!  While Mike watched the Blackhawks game, I spent many, many hours in the kitchen.

First thing, I made a batch of My Favorite Cookie Recipe of All Time.

I found this recipe on HEAB’s blog awhile ago, and ever since Mike and I have been truly obsessed.  I’m telling you, you can convert any vegan skeptic with these cookies.  It’s amazing that they are:

* egg free

* milk free

* butter free

* and even flour free!

The first few times I just made this according to the recipe (which is incredibly simplistic, you can throw together a batch in about 5 minutes).  However, Friday I made one change, simply from laziness:  I mixed all of the ingredients in my food processor.  I had already used the FP to grind up my almonds, and I decided to throw everything else in, as well.  But, I kept the FP running too long, and the oils and the tahini released and made the batch very, very oily.  I threw the chocolate chips in too, which  made an oily, ooey gooey mess.

At the time I thought that I had ruined the recipe, but once I baked these cookies up, I could hardly contain myself.  The “oily” dough ended up making the most moist, buttery tasting cookie that I have ever tasted…. SANS butter!!! Seriously everyone, you must, must make these cookies.  Mike is more obsessed with chocolate chip cookies than anyone I know, and more than once he has claimed that these are far superior than the “normal” kind.  I just wish that I had had the brilliance to create this recipe myself!!!

Ok, enough glowing abut the cookies.  Next up, I made Mike and I some onion rings, which ended up being simple yet delicious.

Onion Rings

1. Stir 4 T. flax meal into 1 c. water, let sit until it thickens – this makes an egg-like mixture that will later hold the breadcrumbs on.

2. Mix 1 c. breadcrumbs with seasonings of your choice – I used salt, pepper, garlic, basil, oregano, paprika, and cumin.

3. Slice 2 large onions into thick rings.

4. Dip each individual ring into the “egg” mixture, and then into the breadcrumbs to coat well.

5.  After preparing each onion ring, bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, and then broil for 2-1 minutes until the onion rings are done to your likeness.

Next up:  chocolate chip banana bread muffins!

One of my co-workers asked me for a healthy, breakfast scone recipe.  In my quest to “healthify” the typical scone recipe, I completely left out the butter and instead used a small amount of oil + bananas to hold it together.  While these tasted good, they were much more like muffins then scones….. but I’m not going to rest until I perfect this recipe, so stay tuned for more healthy scone recipes to come soon!

Friday I also got started on a couple dishes that you will read about later on this post….

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Saturday, after attending the hardest, hottest, sweatiest spinning class of my life, Mike and I met up with my parents at Zapatista, a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood that we had been wanting to try.    I rarely get drinks during lunch, but since we were celebrating my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary, we each got a “Mexican mimosa” which was champagne mixed with margarita mix.

The drink was delicious, but unfortunately I can’t say the same for my meal.   Since nothing on the menu was vegan, I asked to modify one of their existing salads – basically, I just wanted a ton of veggies, beans, and an abundance of avocado.

But, this is what I got:

Ughh!! I suppose when you don’t order off the menu you are taking a gamble, but I was not happy with this meal.  I had to ask a couple times to get everything I had asked for (corn, extra avocado) and I was made to feel like I was being very demanding for making these requests.  I understand that it’s easier for everyone involved to order off the menu, but when I am ordering food that is considering cheaper than what is on the menu (veggies vs. chicken, for example), it’s nice when restaurants are accommodating to their patrons’ requests.

After lunch, we headed over to Grace O’Malley’s to have some beers (for the guys) and hard ciders (for my mom and I).

Saturday night was spent at a rib joint for a friend’s birthday (great choice, Travis!) – I got a side of acorn squash and some sweet potato fries – followed by a karaoke bar…. sadly, it was too crowded to take good pictures!

Sunday we headed over to see Mike’s Italian side of the family for the day, and to meet their new dog, Rio!

Mike, his cousin Heather, and Rio the Malamute

I brought over two side dishes that I took from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan – the cheesy bean dip, which I LOVED….

…and the potato/artichoke/kalamata olive dip. I made quite a few modifications to this dish, and while I loved eating it cold, once I baked it in the oven with the breadcrumbs on top I found it to be good but not spectacular.  But I was truly a huge fan of the cheesy bean dip and will definitely be making it again!

Somehow this frightening lovely picture of my brother-in-law made it onto my camera…

Question of the Night:  Who did you think was best-dressed at the Oscars?  I loved Penelope Cruz and Rachel McAdams’  gowns!

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