Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Scraps and Snippets ~ No Bake Cookies Vegan Style, and Mouth Nirvana "Chicken Salad"


Insanity. Making cookies a half hour before needing to be on the road. This kind of sums up my life. Sadly. The insanity and the cookie parts. Ha.


Before the cookies let me share the "Chicken Salad" Recipe.


I had a love/hate relationship with Chicken Salad when I ate meat. Biting into gamey or bland Chicken Salad was the worst!!! GAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But every once in awhile you could find one that was a party in your mouth. Texture, flavors, YUM. I've been trying for the past few months to find that mouth Nirvana.


This is pretty flippin close for me. Rob even said I should make it again. Trust me. High praise. Ha. Ha.


This is the One - "Chicken" Salad

Bread of choice. ( : ) ) Or not. Eat it out of the bowl if you want.

3 TBSP Veganaise
1 TBSP rustic mustard (just not the yellow plain)
Add:
1 small diced apple (firm sour is best)
a handful of chopped pecans
1 Cup of small diced, nicely flavored Seitan (if your Seitan is bland, (I used the lemon/garlic one) you could add some seasonings)
1 Celery rib finely chopped.
Finely chopped onion to taste, I didn't add this and it would be the final blast of taste I was looking for. I'm thinking a small wedge would do.

Mix all together and enjoy! Loved the texture/taste combo.




And finally, the cookies. Here's the thing about me of late. I have come to the understanding that taking favorite recipes and Veganizing them is almost easy. Doi!!!! After months of trying to create from the ground up, I figure this out. Anyhoo. I took the No Bake Recipe my mom used to make and tweaked it Vegan style. (NOT TOUGH, Sheesh!) and the cookies were awesome. Didn't take pictures, they didn't last that long. Ha. Ha.


No Bake Cookies (Veganized)

1 3/4 cups Vegan sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup Earth Balance
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries

Combine sugar, milk, coconut oil, Earth Balance, and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oatmeal, and vanilla, when mixed add cranberries and stir well. Drop blobs onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

Just like my Mama used to make. Kind of, mostly. I want to try decreasing the sugar to see if I can't make them a wee bit less sweet. But that may throw off the chemistry and make them not harden.