Cookbook Review: Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

When Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar showed up on my doorstep I was absolutely ecstatic. Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is one of my favorite dessert cookbook’s and is always great in a pinch and I was hoping for the same go-to quality from Isa and Terry’s new adventure. I started with the classic cookies and worked my way up to the more adventurous. The Chocoalte Chip Cookies were bakery perfect. The taste was a bit different than what I’m used to in a chocolate chip cookie (likely because Isa and Terry use canola oil instead of Earth Balance like I usually do) but they were still soft, chewy and yummy – perfect with a big glass of cold almond milk. Next, I baked up some Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles, Cowboy and Cowgirl cookies for the Atlanta Bake Sale for Haiti. I spent 2 hours in the kitchen baking up pan after pan of cookies. Everything appeared great until the next morning when I went to try the Cowboy and Cowgirl cookies. They were hard as a rock, completely inedible and unfortunately had to be trashed leaving me with just the Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles to sell at the bake sale. Thankfully they turned out amazing!

There was just the right bite of cayenne and the cinnamon-sugary sweetness of the crust was amazing. They were also the quickest of the 4 cookies I tried from the book to make. They completely sold out at the bake sale so I think that means they are an official hit. I usually try to make at least 10 recipes from a book and give you guys my top 5 when reviewing, unfortunately, my waistline just couldn’t take another batch of cookies so I had to stop at four. However, I still highly recommend this book. The Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles alone are worth it. Some of the cookies on my “must try” list are:

Macadamia Ginger Crunch Drops
Pignoli Almond Cookies (although the ingredients are expensive)
Rocky Roads
Sweet Wine Biscuits with Sesame
Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies (because who doesn’t want cookies for breakfast)

A special thanks to DaCapo books for providing me with a review copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Roasted Red Pepper Scramble

I’ve been eating some variation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Puttanesca scramble for breakfast almost every day for the last 4 months or so. This morning I was ready to branch out into a world full of new scramble recipes. I thumbed my way through Vegan Brunch looking for a good scramble recipe and decided to give Isa’s Basic Scrambled Tofu a try. But, true to form. I only loosely stuck to the recipe. The end result was a savory scramble that will be my new favorite for months to come.

Roasted Red Pepper Scramble

2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
½ small white onion, sliced thin
1 pound extra-firm tofu, pressed and cut into ½ inch cubes
1 roasted red pepper, chopped
¼ cup nutritional yeast
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Blend cumin, thyme and salt together in a small cup and set aside.

Warm oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and sauté until they become soft, about 5 minutes. Stir often to ensure that garlic doesn’t burn.

Add cubed tofu, roasted red pepper and spice mix and stir until tofu is well coated. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove scramble from heat source and stir in nutritional yeast. Season with pepper to taste and serve.

Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti!

Come out and indulge in some of the finest vegan sweet treats Atlanta has to offer while helping support those devastated in Haiti! All proceeds will be going to Doctors Without Borders/MSF USA.

Criminal Records is located at 1154 Euclid Ave NE in Atlanta's Little 5 Points Neighborhood (12-4pm). I'll be there with vegan treats from my cookbook that is currently in production Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations as well as some other crowd favorites. I hope to see you there!

The TV Dinner is back! New Leaf Simply Delicious Tuscan Pesto Pasta

In the Land O’Vegan there aren’t an abundance of options in the frozen food section aside from meat analogues and frozen veggies. It’s not like I’ve been complaining my Amy’s Bean Burritos and Enchiladas have helped me out in many a culinary pinch. But you don’t know what you’re missing until something comes along that blows your socks off like New Leaf Simply Delicious Tuscan Pesto Pasta. It’s low in fat, super low in sodium (only 250mg), low in calories (340 calories for an entire meal!) and high in protein (15 grams). Not to mention super creamy, tasty and filling. Surprisingly enough, the only drawback to this dish is that I wish it did have a little more salt! I know, I know. It’s the opposite of what we’ve been saying we want in a good, healthy, vegan dinner but the flavor was lacking a bit of salt and pepper. But that was easily remedied and will definitely not deter me from buying this dish again.

UPDATE: you can find New Leaf Simply Delicious brand products at most Whole Foods. Also check the New Leaf website for other store locations http://www.newleaf4life.com/

Gardein's Super Dreamy Chicken Scallopini (Plus Bonus Chik'n Cacciatore Recipe)

Last year the good folk’s over at Gardein sent me out a bevy of their products to sample, some have been hits like the Tuscan Breast and some have been misses like their Buffalo Wings (which I purchased myself). But the biggest hit of the bunch has been Gardein’s Chicken Scaloppini. I let these little cutlet’s sit in my freezer for over a month having no clue what to do with them. Usually when I try a meat analogue it’s already seasoned up, drenched in whatever sauce it needs to be and ready to go. But this was just a blank slate. I haven’t cooked or eaten chicken in 8 years so I didn’t even know where to begin flavor wise.

Then one rainy day I found myself hankering for some tofu cacciatore but due to my Puttanesca Scramble addiction I was completely out. Then I remembered these little cutlet’s hanging out gathering that funny freezer fuzz and decided to break them out. I defrosted one cutlet in the microwave for 30 seconds, sliced it thin, tossed it in a little flour, pan fried it and added it to my homemade cacciatore sauce. One bite and I melted. It was so delicious. I made “Chicken” Cacciatore everyday for the next week and if you follow me on twitter you know that it was my last dish of 2009 and the first dish I had in 2010 (at 4am!)

Of course I wouldn’t leave you guys hanging without the recipe for my cacciatore sauce so here it goes:

Makes 2 Servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
½ cup diced white onion
2 clove garlic, mined
1 small carrot, diced
One 14 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon capers
1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon parsley flakes
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Sauté Onion, garlic and carrot in olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until onions become translucent. Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.


If using Gardein Chicken Scaloppini defrost desired number of cutlets for 30 seconds in the microwave, dust with flour and pan fry in a separate skillet. Once cooked slice then and serve over cacciatore with brown rice.


Also check out my Chik’n Quesadilla recipe using Gardein Chicken Scaloppini here.