healthy recipes

vegan banana maple cookies

These cookies should really be called Sugarless Vegan Maple Banana Apple Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, but I figured that was a little excessive.

I wanted to make my mom something delicious for Mother’s Day on Sunday. I went down to the Vineyard to surprise her at work and although, let’s be real, my presence is gift enough in itself, I never like showing up somewhere empty-handed. (I kid, I kid.) My beautiful mom is vegan-ish and she LOVES cookies, so I made it my personal mission to create vegan cookies that were healthy (well, as “healthy” as a cookie can be).

After researching substitutions for sugar, butter, eggs, oil—pretty much everything that makes a cookie a cookie—I was ready to get my Bill Nye the Science Guy on and experiment in the kitchen.

Marvel at the healthiness of the final ingredient list…

INGREDIENTS

1 cup whole grain rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 banana
¼ cup apple sauce
¼ cup peanut butter
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp water

Ok, peanut butter and maple syrup aren’t exactly slimming, but that is still one sexy list.

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Celsius.
Stop being an idiot and adjust the temperature of your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mash up the banana and mix in all the wet-ish ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
Mix er’thing together.
Stick your finger in the batter and taste the guilt-free glory of this cookie recipe. This step is mandatory because in all honesty, the dough is better than the final baked product. You also may want to lick the spoon, spatula, bowl, etc.
Plop spoonfuls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The dough will be sticky, leaving you with a great excuse to lick your fingers again.
Bake 8-13 minutes. The first round, I used a heaping spoonful of dough for each cookie and let them stay in there 13 minutes. The second round, I used small spoonfuls and kept them in for only 8.

These cookies are soft, moist and delicious. I figured the peanut butter would overwhelm them, but the dominant flavor is most definitely the banana. Almost like a banana bread cookie.

Try them out and let me know what you think! And if you’re pro in the sport of vegan cooking, let me know what other substitutions you use!

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cheesy potato & onion soup

A few weeks ago, I needed an excuse to go into CVS and buy a Snicker’s bar so I convinced myself that I just absolutely had to buy a food magazine to get some new recipe ideas. As you can surely imagine, it was really difficult to talk myself into it, but eventually I capitulated and bought a Cooking Light magazine (and a Snicker’s bar to balance out the whole “Light” thing).

It must have been destiny because I found this Cheesy Potato Soup recipe and holy shnykies is it delicious! And since it’s in Cooking LIGHT magazine, it’s as guilt-free as an iceberg lettuce salad with a side of air, right? Right.

INGREDIENTS

1 ½ tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped red onion
2 ½ tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chopped red potato
1 ¼ cups 1% low-fat milk
¾ cup fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
½ cup water
½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
2 tablespoons chopped green onions

Original recipe can be found here: Cheesy Potato Soup

My Modifications: I used ¼ tsp of ground red pepper instead of Cooking Light’s suggested 1/8 tsp because I love spicy everything. I also used 1 ½ tbsp butter instead of the suggested 1 tbsp because I found my onions were starting to burn and stick to the pan when sautéing. Last but not least, I heaped the shit out of that cheese, so my ½ cup cheese was really more like ¾ cup.

DIRECTIONS

Melt butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Sauté onions 5 minutes. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Add potato, milk, broth and water to saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add cheese and ground red pepper and stir until cheese is completely melted.
Top each serving with chopped green onions, serve with a piece of whole-wheat toast and get yo’ grub on!

The recipe says this makes 4 servings, but I beg to differ. My roommate and I pretty much killed the whole thing easily (I had about half a serving left for lunch the next day). This soup is DELICOUS and, according to Cooking Light, only 225 calories. Granted, that 225 is thrown out the window if you eat the entire saucepan to your face, but that’s a minor detail I’ll choose to ignore.