Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Alternative post title: “More Cookies? Uhm, yeah.”

Anyways … blogging has been sparse this week because, of course, it’s Erik’s birthday week!! He turned 30 on Wednesday. I tell you what, I married an old man! Ha.

After eating dinner on Wednesday we were going to go get a “sweet stack” (cashew ice cream + brownie) at Fud buuut after getting there we realized they’re not open on Wednesday nights yet (they’re going to be soon, so we’re not totally crazy, we just jumped the gun a bit).

Sooo … Lesley to the rescue! Erik’s request was oatmeal raisin cookies and cashew ice cream. The cookies turned out deliciously!

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
lightly adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oats, divided
• 1 1/2 cup toasted almonds (or any other nuts)
• 3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup Sucanat
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons almond milk
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup raisins

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees, and roast almonds on baking sheet for about 10 minutes. Remove, let cool for a few minutes. Place in food processor or high powered blender until finely ground.
• Mix together flour, baking soda, 1 cup oats, cinnamon and Sucanat. Place in food processor or high powered blender until finely ground, and combine with the ground almonds.
• Stir together wet ingredients (coconut oil, agave, almond milk and vanilla), and mix together with dry ingredients. Stir in remaining 1 cup of oats and raisins
• Place on cookie sheet (I made 12 large cookies) and bake for about 15 minutes.

Tip: Add chocolate chips for added deliciousness!

And, of course, I’ve posted my cashew ice cream recipe before. Instead of almond butter, though, I tossed in a little peanut butter this time around. Delish!

We’re having a party on Saturday to complete the birthday celebration and, of course, it will be full of delicious vegan food!
Can’t wait to tell you all about it

Have a great weekend!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Why hello, there! How was your Monday??

I’m still ready for Friday again, but my Monday did include delicious chocolate chip cookies, so it was a definite added bonus! I still want to work on this recipe, as it’s not quite what I wanted, but none the less … these are pretty stinkin’ tasty so it’s still worth a share! I promise.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup vegan cane sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• Vegan chocolate chips, to taste (I personally think the more the better!)

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together.
• Mix wet ingredients together.
• Combine dry and wet ingredients, place on cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes: I topped mine with some clear glaze and a little organic powdered sugar.

I think about 95% of our desserts are chocolate based … and I don’t mind one bit!

These cookies came out wonderfully fluffy and melt in your mouth.

What’s your favorite dessert?

2011 Plaza Art Fair

Time for the wonderful weekend activities to come to an end and the work to begin! I wish it was Friday again, but alas, back to work we go.

It was a great weekend though, I certainly can’t complain. Someone I know *cough* Erik *cough* is turning 30 on Wednesday so I spent a large portion of the weekend planning out some foods to make for his birthday party that’s going to be next Saturday.

2011 Plaza Art Fair

On Friday night, we went and checked out with Plaza Art Fair. This was the 80th Annual art fair that’s become a yearly traditional for us to go to.

In fact, this will be the art fair’s third debut on The Purple Carrot. It’s fun looking back at what was happening this time of year in the past:

• Plaza Art Fair 2009 (we obviously weren’t vegan back then, ha)
• Plaza Art Fair 2010

The Plaza was absolutely packed on Friday night and we had fun looking at all the art.

The art fair consists of 240 artists from around the country, 26 Plaza restaurants and plenty of live music!

It was even hard to take pictures there were so many people there walking around enjoying the food and art, but I did the best I could and I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:

I thought this painting of the new Kauffman Center was really neat!

And I loved these:

It was a fun event, as always, full of wonderful weather, awesome art, and great people!

(Check out my Facebook album for a few more pictures)

What was the highlight of your weekend??

Great Neopolitan Pizza Quest

Welcome to The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest!

The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest is all about love of authentic pizza. We have a passion for the pure, delicious taste and simplicity of true Neapolitan pizza. The following posts are summaries of our travels to different authentic Neapolitan pizzeries across the US.

• The Great Neapolitan Pizza Quest: Introduction
• Marco’s Coal-Fired Pizza: Denver, Colorado
• Settebello: Salt Lake City, Utah:
• Settebello: Las Vegas, Nevada:
• Pizza e Vino: Rancho Santa Margarita, CA:
• Settebello: Pasadena, CA
• A16: San Francisco
• Del Popolo, San Francisco
• Una Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
• Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco
• Via Tribunali, Seattle, Washington
• Pizzeria Locale, Boulder, CO
• Motorino, New York
• Keste, New York

• Dante Ristorante Pizzeria, Omaha, NE

Carrot Cake Balls

More carrots, anyone??

Carrot cake raisin bread just wasn’t enough, apparently, because that was not the end of carrot inspired baked goods. These are fairly similar to the bread, but have a different, surprisingly delicious taste to them.

Carrot Cake Balls
Adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat bread flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds (or other nut)
• 1 cup finely shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 375.
• In large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt and oats. Add carrots and almonds.
• In separate bowl, mix together agave, vanilla, and coconut oil. Add to flour mixture and stir until combined.
• Drop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, about 1 tablespoon in size. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

*Makes around two dozen.

As I said before, these are surprisingly delicious! I initially figured they would be just okay but, no, they far surpass “okay”, I promise. And they get even better the next day.

Okay, now who’s ready for pumpkins, crisp evenings and crunchy leaves to step on?? I am, I am!

Carrot Cake Raisin Bread

And we’re onto another week!

We’ve been enjoying everything fall inspired such as copious amounts of hot tea, warm soup and baked goods. This weekend, carrots reigned supreme.

I made us two huge glasses of fresh carrot juice for the sole purpose of using the leftover carrot pulp to bake up some deliciousness. I made two separate baked goods but first we have this …

Carrot Cake Raisin Bread
Adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups finely grated carrot
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
• Mix together carrot, flax, agave, almond milk, coconut oil, vanilla and vinegar.
• In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, baking power, baking soda and salt
• Mix wet and dry ingredients together, stir in raisins and almonds.
• Place into greased bread pan and bake for 45 minutes.

Enjoy!

What did you do this weekend?

Coming Up in KC & Share the Love: 9/16/2011

It’s time for the weekend!! I haven’t done a “share the love” post in awhile, so I decided it was high time to share some blogs and links that I’ve been appreciating lately.

Coming Up in KC

• Kauffman Opening: There is a FREE open house THIS Sunday for the brand new Kauffman Center. Check here for more details. I’ll be there!
• Plaza Art Fair: This year’s Plaza Art Fair is coming up soon, September 23-25th.

Share the Love

• My New Roots: I discovered this awesome blog pretty recently, and thus far I just love her recipes! I was already inspired to make raw raspberry cheesecake from her if that gives you any indication!

• Cooking Up A Family: Courtney is not only an online blog friend, but I actually know her in real life! She’s a fellow Kansas City blogger. Her recipes always look delicious, I’m always jealous of her cute house revamps and she’s also the blogger behind A So-Called Runner.
  (For the record, I think she’s an actual runner, not just “so-called”)

• Every Little Thing: Stacy is a St. Louis blogger and in a lot of ways, I think we’re blogging twins! She helps out with the Slow Food St. Louis chapter and is always going on fun foodie adventures and talking about local food in St. Louis! We were even both at Farm Aid 2011 this year and didn’t even know it!

What are you looking forward to that’s coming up??

P.S. Have a great weekend!!

Grown-up Mac N "Cheese"

Glad you all liked the looks of the raw raspberry cheesecake from yesterday. I highly suggest you make it very soon!

Now onto a savory dish. A favorite comfort food, all grown up! That’s right, mac n cheese.

I posted a grown up mac n cheese recipe about a year ago but since we’ve been eating vegan, I thought it was about time I spruced it up a bit!

Grown Up Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat penne pasta
• 1 vegetable bouillon cube (plus water) or about 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 medium to large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon hemp oil (or other desired cooking oil)
• 2 large bunches kale, chopped (or other greens such as spinach or chard)
• Easy cashew cheese, as desired (or your favorite vegan cheese such as Daiya)
• Sea salt & pepper, to taste

Instructions:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees
• Start a pot of water boiling for penne
• Saute chopped onions and garlic in hemp oil for a few minutes until tender
• Add pasta to now boiling water, cook al dente.
• Add vegetable broth and chopped kale to onions and garlic, let cook down until pasta is cooked.
• Place pasta into large baking dish, add veggie mixture and top with cashew cheese.
• Bake for 30 minutes, and enjoy!

Notes: There’s really no right or wrong amount of cashew cheese to add, just depends on how creamy you want your dish to be! Also, I added some fresh tomatoes this time around, just because. Feel free to be flexible with this dish, it’s hard to mess up!

Simple and delicious!

I would have added more cheese to mine, trust me, and it would look a lot creamier but unfortunately, I was out of cashews and didn’t realize it until I needed them. Thus, I put in the little tiny bit I had already in the fridge plus a little Daiya cheese I had.
That’s another reason I tossed in some juicy tomatoes

And now I’m officially in the mood for soup, the ultimate comfort food! And I guess I don’t have to wait much longer, do I??

Raw Raspberry Cheesecake

Okay, you guys, I’ve got a recipe that is beyond amazing! Let’s not waste time here.

It’s raw, filled with healthy & simple ingredients, and tastes awesome. Not to mention, it looks a little something like THIS:

Disclaimer: I cannot take any credit for its awesomeness! I found this raw raspberry cheesecake at one of my newest favorite blogs, My New Roots. Her photos are amazing and her recipes are healthy and delicious. I highly suggest it.

Are you all ready for this? Here it is!

Raw Raspberry Cheesecake
Lightly adapted from My New Roots’ Raw Cashew Dreamcake

Ingredients
Crust:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Filling:

• 3 cups cashews, soaked overnight or for about 5 hours
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Juice of 3 large lemons
• 2/3 cup raw coconut oil, melted
• 2/3 cup raw agave nectar
• 1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, let thaw)

Directions:

• Place almonds, dates, and sea salt into food processor or powerful blender until finely chopped and will stick together. Place crust mixture into 9-inch spring form pan and press down until an even crust is formed.
• Place all filling ingredients, except raspberries, into food processor or powerful blender and pulse until smooth.
• Pour around 2/3 of that mixture on top of the crust.
• Add the raspberries to remaining mixture in the blender and pulse once again until smooth. Pour mixture on top of the first layer, and place in the freezer until hardened.

Notes: The original recipe used a 7-inch spring form pan. Since I used a 9-inch spring form pan, I doubled the recipe and it worked well for us! We stored our cheesecake in the freezer and took it out for about 15 minutes before slicing each time we ate it.

We were extremely impressed with this recipe!

Yes, it blew our normal raw pies out of the water!! It was really smooth, flavorful, and delicious. The addition of lemon juice really took it up a notch. Yum!!

If you make the double batch like I did, the price of this pie could really add up, especially if you’re using organic ingredients (hello, 3 cups of cashews!) but it’s definitely worth it!

We made this about a week ago and right now I’m so wishing there was some left! Ha.

Will someone go make some more for me, please? K, thanks!