It's been about 4 months since my last blog post. Oops. A lot has happened since then, mainly a ridiculous amount of traveling. I'll work on catching up, but it'll probably mostly consist of pictures.
Right now I'm supposed to be studying for the NCLEX, the nursing board exam, which I am taking in 4 days. Instead, I'm geeking out on food. Don't worry, I've only invested $200 in the test, and only have two potential job offers riding on my success. No biggie.
If you know me you know I love food. Especially chocolate. And cereal. And fruit. And anything yummy. But I've reached a new level of food obsession, sparked by a combination of living with a foodie, having more time on my hands than I've had in over a year, and being an excellent procrastinator. So I'm going to dive in and write a blog post about food.
I've been thinking about food intolerances for a while now, but finally got to the end of my rope with the vague and annoying symptoms that have been bugging me. It got too embarrassing to have my stomach growling loudly in public all the time. REALLY loudly. ALL the time. I decided it was time to take action and try an elimination diet, starting with the most likely culprit: dairy. Within hours of going dairy-free I had a mini panic attack about my chocolate options and started Googling recipes for dairy-free chocolate treats. Funny thing, apparently there are other dairy-free chocoholics out there! My first foray into lactard chocolate 'baking' is an adaptation on a vegan recipe I found on www.sarahcupcake.com (by way of Pinterest, my other favorite procrastination pasttime).
Holy delicious, Batman! 10 minutes, 9 ingredients, and hellooooo yummy cookies! Not even kidding, these are the quickest and easiest cookies I've ever made. They've been added to my list of "oh crap someone's at my house I need to feed them quick what can I make?!" recipes.
I meant no disrespect to Miss SarahCupcake, but I couldn't resist tampering with the recipe. It's just how I operate - I can't play by the rules when it comes to things creative. What's the fun in doing it the way you're told? Plus, there are just so many delicious things that play well with chocolate.
Like coconut.
Or toasted almonds.
Or dried cherries.
Or more chocolate....
To be fair, I didn't adapt it much. Here's the recipe, as I made it:
Vegan No-Bake Cookies
6 dates, pitted
20 unsalted, roasted peanuts (yeah, 20)
1/3 c oats
1/8 c shredded coconut, unsweetened
2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
splash of vanilla extract
1/8 c chocolate chips
2-4 Tbsp milk alternative (I used vanilla soymilk, SarahCupcake called for almond)
Whatever toppings strike your fancy!
Put the first 7 ingredients in a food processor, process till pretty smooth and crumbly. Add chocolate chips, process for a few more seconds. Add milk substitute 1 Tbsp at a time, processing between additions, until a thick dough forms. Think firm playdough. If you accidentally add too much liquid you can just add a few more oats. When the dough is the right consistency it should clump up into a ball while the processor is on. Roll the dough into balls, flatten each ball, and top with something fun! You can chill them, but I'm all for immediate gratification and they're delicious at room temp.
As you can see from my pictures I topped mine with shredded coconut, toasted almonds, dried cherries, and dark chocolate chips (make sure to read the ingredients for dairy-free!). I imagine cinnamon, crystallized ginger, sea salt, a dusting of cayenne, raspberries, fruit preserves, candied orange peel, or any number of other things would be equally delicious and interesting.
Now to go study off the 6 cookies I just ate...
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