Almond Macaroons

    When life of cookie baking gets too sweet I make almond macaroons. These cookies are relatively easy to make, flourless, and semi healthy compared to other cookies.
      I based my recipe off of the Almond Macaroon recipe from Epicurious . My version has a lot less sugar in it, and instead of salt I use cream of tarter.
   

Pulsed almonds

Batter

    I start with 6 ounces of sliced almonds and pulse them in my food processer until it resembles a coarse flour, you could grind it more if you like a smoother cookie.
    Then mix in 2/3s cup of sugar, with the almonds in a bowl. Add the cream of tarter, 1/4, teaspoon, two egg whites, and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, then stir.
The batter should have the consistency of a good thick oatmeal. After that I plop the batter on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The size of the cookie is dependent on what you want, they usually double in size compared to the first plop. This recipe I usually get 24 cookies but this time I made them larger so I only got 12.

Precooking

On the cookie sheet cooling

Then you bake the cookies at 350° for about 10 minutes. You want the cookies to have a nice brown edge. If you like them crispy, I prefer chewy, then I would leave them in for another 2-3 minutes.
Take them out of the oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet until completely cooled.

Done !

Frittata

    Sometimes a cooking life leaves you with leftovers, and instead of just leaving them to rot, compost or trash, you could make a frittata. At least that's what I do. 

The first step is to take your left over veggies, in this case I had onion, spinach, roasted red pepper, and kalamata olives, and saute them in about a tablespoon butter. I usually saute the onions first and brown them with salt and then add the rest. I also will add fresh herbs as well.
 After that I add some sort of beaten egg mixture. This time I used 3 eggs and ricotta cheese. I have also added half and half to the mixture as well as other cheese, whatever is left over.

 After pouring the egg mixture on the evenly spread sautéed veggies I let it sit for about four minutes or until the edges of the frittata start separating from the edge of the pan. I then put it in the oven at 350° for about 7 minutes. The center part should be firm at this point. Sometimes I will also brown it with the broiler for a minute to get the top brown and crispy.
I usually make this for brunch, perfect for last nights leftovers.

Frittata with leftover sour cream.

Green Tomato Chutney

    Sometimes my boyfriend comes back from Capoeira class with some interesting items. For example, there is a girl in his class who's family is vegan and last year for Halloween they did go trick or treating but got some not so vegan candy, so she brought it to class and he brought some home... a lot of it home. This time he brought home a little over one in a half pounds of green tomatoes. They were fairly small so fried green tomatoes were out of the question, but green tomato chutney was not.
    Chutney is a condiment that you can use on a myriad of items. It's sort of liked pickled/ sweet whatever the main ingredient is. I would use it to dip veggies, pakoras, french fries, on veggie burgers, whatever is your taste preference.  
          This recipe comes from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons and is pretty simple but takes a little over an hour to make but worth it for the pickled sweetness. It calls for onions, ginger, oil, coriander, allspice, sugar, apple cider vinegar, water, and raisins.

Ingredients sans oil

The first step is to heat up the oil, add the onions and then the spices for five minutes. Then you add the rest of it except the raisins and simmer it for about an hour. Then you add the raisins and let it cool.

Cooking and waiting...waiting...

Done!

This will supposedly last a month but it might not because there is so many tasty options with Chutney ! 

Chilaquiles !

An easy Mexican casserole, strangely enough made with ricotta cheese. This recipe comes from one of my favorite cook books Vegetarian Planet.

 The first step is to fry up some tortilla strips in a pan.

The only veggies needed, potato, zucchini, and garlic

   In the same pan fry  the potato,
zucchini, and garlic.

 After frying  the veggies add the ricotta, tortilla strips, salt and pepper, and stir. Then bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.  It's done !

Finished Chilaquiles with avocado and salsa 

When the Boyfriend’s away one must make roasted fennel with green apples.

My boyfriend hates the sound of raw apples; he claims that it gives him goose bumps. Unfortunately I love apples. This has been a big compromise in our relationship. He will eat them cooked but you can’t eat or slice them when he is around and since he’s not around right now I will be eating apples.

Tonight I made Roasted Fennel with green apples from the Vegetarian Planet Cookbook by Didi Emmons.

It is a simple recipe using only fennel, green apple, 6 shallots, olive oil, salt and pepper, and white cheddar cheese. 

All you do is slice the veggies and fruit, toss them and smother them in olive oil and salt and pepper.

As a side note I like to slice my veggies with a mandolin. It makes it go much quicker. 

The mandolin on the left is for slicing the mandolin on the right is for shredding

You then bake it for 15 minutes (at 400°) then sprinkle white cheddar cheese on it and bake it for another 5 minutes.

 After all of that you eat the sweet but savory goodness of fennel, apple, shallots, and cheese.

Lettuce wraps

The shiitakes were cooked the same as the recipe

These lettuce wraps are light enough for summer eating but are savory and satisfying as well. This is a combo of my two favorite recipes and a little something extra added in.  

Two parts of this recipe come from the  Shiitake Banh Mi Salad from the Post Punk Kitchen website. From this recipe I used the shiitake mushroom  and the pickled vegetables elements. 

I added carrots to the pickled cucumber and radishes

The rice noodles and lettuce were not from another recipe but the dipping sauce came from Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. The dipping sauce is the Ginger-Sesame sauce from the Diakon Pot-Stickers recipe (pg.307). It has Balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, honey, dijon mustard, garlic, ginger, wasabi powder, and dark soy sauce on it. was poured on to the the rice noodles in the lettuce wrap. 

Ingredients for the secret sauce.

The end was a pretty tasty result. That's a wrap !

Crepes made with rice flour

 Yet another tasty foray into rice flour, this time in the form of crepes.
I find that crepes are a quick and easy breakfast and this recipe can easily be used for sweet and savory crepes.  
For this recipe 1/2 cup of rice flour,

1/2 cup of half in half, one egg, 1/8 tsp of salt
and one tablespoon of butter is used. I halve the ingredients from the recipe link but still use the full amount of butter.
Then I mix everything together, the butter is melted in the same pan that I cook the crepes in.
To cook the crepes use a 1/4 cup to measure the batter and cook on each side for 30 seconds. This usually makes about 5 crepes

After cooking the crepes I use the same pan to make the filling.  Leftovers, such as stir fires, are always good for crepe fillings. Shallots, spinach, olives, and goat cheese are pictured to the left.
If you like sweet crepes it's all about the Nutella and almonds, just be careful not overfill the crepe or all your filling will ooze out.

Gluten Free Brownies

I don’t really need to be eating gluten free but I bought some rice flour for another recipe and had some left over so I decided to attempt to make gluten free brownies.

This recipe is based off of the Stowe Brownie recipe from Entertaining for a Veggie Planet by Didi Emmons. Who is one of my favorite cookbooks writers.

I selected this recipe because I have made them before with regular flour with great success, it has few ingredients, and very little flour in it.

Vanilla extract, butter, sugar, 2 chocolate bars, rice flour, and eggs

I followed the recipe to some extent. Melted the butter and chocolate together, beat the eggs and sugar, and then stirred them together with the vanilla and flour. I opted not to add the additional water as suggested due to the rice flour absorption rate. 

Pre cooked brownie

After cooking for 20 minutes

The brownie turned out a lot denser than usual, a real fudgy consistency. The taste is still the same,  super tasty.

Super yummy !

Spaghetti Squash Italiano

This is my take on Spaghetti Squash Italiano from the Better Homes and Garden Vegetarian Cook Book. I have made this several times and have adjusted it to my taste.
The first step is to prep the squash, about 2 pounds, by cutting it in half and scooping out all the seeds, I then poke the outside of it with a fork and bake it at 350° for about an hour. Alternatively if you have a microwave you could cook it in half the time but I don't have a microwave so I can't really attest to this method.
After taking it out of the oven it should soft enough to remove with a fork.

After it cools I remove the meat with a fork and mix it with some Parmesan cheese, about a fourth cup, and then place it back in the oven and cook it until the cheese melts.



Whilst waiting for the cheese to melt I make the Caprese salad to go on top of the baked spaghetti squash. I usually do mozzarella, green onion, garlic, basil, tomato, olive oil, pine nuts and salt and pepper on it. Other options worth trying tomato sauce and or pesto, goat cheese, or roasted garlic.




After the cheese melts I take the squash out of the oven and place the Caprese salad on top of the squash and bake it for about 15 minutes more or until the mozzarella melts.
It should come out like this.