Cookie bars!
I have a serious addiction to chocolate chip cookies and the last couple of times that I have made them I have made them into bars in order to make it easier on myself. I don't actually use a recipe, but I am pretty sure my cookies are loosely based off of VwaV's chocolate chip cookies. To make the bars the amount of dough is good for a small jelly roll pan and you just have to cook it a little longer. It is also pretty much essential that they cool before eating, so if you like warm cookies right out of the oven (not me, I like my cookies sufficiently chilled), you probably wouldn't like bars. Unless, that is, you over cook them and eat them all at once.

I also recently made tofu scramble. Tofu scramble is definitely one of my favorite (savory, at least) ways to eat tofu. It is also one of the few (heavy on) tofu dishes you can serve to professed tofu-haters that is appreciated. I don't know what it is about you, little tofu scramble, but you rock! If you are new to the whole tofu scramble thing, don't hold back, make one! I was very hesitant when I first heard of it because 1.) I didn't like tofu that much, 2.) I had hated scrambled eggs before going vegan, and 3.) I am not sure if there is a three, but three seems like a good number of reasons to have.
Anyway, I always use extra firm non-silken tofu and squeeze out as much of the water as I can (I could press, but I'm lazy). Generally, this results in me squishing the tofu too much, so it's a good thing I am just going to crush it all up anyway. I generally use a very little bit of oil. VERY little bit. Every time I make one I think I am going to try no oil the next time but I never do, I am pretty sure you could use no oil, though. Other than the crushed up tofu, my key ingredients are: tomato, avocado, nutritional yeast, and turmeric. Other than those, you can put in any kind of veggies and spices you desire. I like to use asparagus, onions and mushrooms (the one on the picture only has asparagus and onions) for veggies and garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and oregano for spices. I just like to load in tons of stuff, really. That is the beauty of tofu scrambles, you can't really go wrong. You just keep scrambling until everything looks and tastes yummy.

peanut butter molasses ice cream

I haven't been making food since I just got back from a small bike tour, but I took a picture of this invention earlier and feel like I need a new post! I was yearning for ice cream but had no chocolate (which is always my first ice cream choice) so I decided to make a peanut butter molasses ice cream. It rocked! My only complaint was that it was VERY rich, and while that generally doesn't deter me from eating a ton, with this it did (in retrospect, maybe that shouldn't be a complaint!). To make it, I mixed peanut butter and water making a thick peanut milk, basically. To that, I added molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and vanilla. I think that if you wanted it to be a little less rich you could just omit the molasses and put in plain vegan sugar (which I probably would have done had I currently had any normal sugar). In this case I would probably supplement the THICK peanut milk with some soy milk or other nut milk and omit the ginger and cinnamon. Either way, it's a great recipe to play around with.

I have been making a quick, faithful recipe a lot lately: vegan mac and cheese. Every time I come home late and am really hungry I go for it because it doesn't take much prep and I can get sufficient calories to calm my famished stomach.
I play around with the recipe a lot, but I generally use something like:

• 1 part raw pine nuts: 2 parts nutritional yeast
• cayenne
• onion powder
• salt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• (whatever other spices you want)
• water or soymilk

...I blend all of those ingredients in my magic bullet and pour them into a roux (I generally like earth balance and flour, but olive oil or canola oil works), heat until it's my desires consistency, toss the pasta into it, pour that all in a pan (possibly topping with bread crumbs) and bake at 400 until you are too starving to leave it in any longer. YUM! My picture is not the most delicious looking things because, if you know nutritional yeast, you will know that not all nooch is created equal. My current batch just so happens to be of the less than "bright yellow" variety.

Organization of SPICES!

I must be a complete nerd, but I spent the day fooling around with the spinning spice rack I have had for a couple of years because there was stuff on it I was never using (seasoning salt, poultry seasoning, steak seasoning, sesame seeds [no, i don't NOT use sesame seeds, i just need more than one little spice thing of them], and maybe some various others that I have already blocked from my memory) so I am finally trying to get good about having a stocked pantry. I have realized lately that I am very bad about having stuff just hanging around, which is why I never have the ingredients to make stuff when I want it.

This blog is an attempt to get me to explore more recipes and build up that cupboard. Today, most notably, I got dry soymilk mix. This is pretty ideal for people like me who aren't prone to using soymilk often enough to warrant getting a full thing of it. I often just make my own nut milks... but sometimes I am too lazy. In addition, this will be a good way to make it as thick or thin as I want (creamy for ice cream! thin for uhhh... other stuff).