Attempt #1: Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been working hard to find delicious replacements for my daughter, who is allergic to dairy and eggs we've just found out. My current mission is to find a good cookie minus the butter and egg that still tastes good...and without using soy products. I bought some Earth's Balance Vegan Buttery Spread...but haven't been able to bring myself to use it...so I probably just wasted $5!

So this is cookie attempt #1...which is okay but not quite what I'm looking for. I attempted to replace the fat with mashed banana...but it seems to be giving the final cookie an altered after taste that is just not characteristic of a good chocolate chip cookie. So I'm going to try a few more adjustments and I'll keep you posted. The cookies were very good...the kids loved them...just not quite on the cookie-exchange level good.

Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 bananas, mashed

1 cup peanut butter

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons rice milk

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place bananas in a large bowl and mash into a soupy consistency. Add peanut butter, vanilla, and rice milk and stir until thoroughly combined. Add oatmeal, flour, sugars, baking soda and chocolate and stir again until combined.

Using a 1 tablespoon cookies scoop, place a scoop of cookie dough in palm of hand and roll into balls. Then roll in sugar and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Smash down slightly with a cup or make Criss-crosses with a fork.

Bake for 11-13 minutes until cookie is slightly brown on edges.

Enjoy!

Herbed Potatoes on the Grill

I love summer simply because I can make an entire meal on the grill and not dirty a single pan! That is the best gift I can give myself.

Herbed Potatoes on the Grill

4-5 medium potatoes

1/2 large onion

handful of you favorite herbs (I used chives, parsley and dill)

2 tablespoons olive oil

kosher salt and cracked pepper, to flavor

Place two pieces of tinfoil on the counter on top of each other and spray the top sheet with Pam. Using a mandolin, slice potatoes 1/8" thick on top of tinfoil. Then grab the onion and slice 1/8" thick. Give your herbs a rough chop and toss on top of your stack of potatoes and onion. Drizzle the potatoes, onions and herbs with olive oil and season with the salt and pepper to taste. Give everything a quick toss with your hands to coat all the potatoes with the oil.

Place another two pieces of tinfoil on the counter and spray the top sheet with Pam. Place the oiled side down on top of the potatoes and fold all four edges together to make a tight packet around potatoes.

Place directly over coals on your grill and grill for about 30 minutes...flipping half way through.

Enjoy! If your household is not dairy free...go ahead and toss a handful of shredded cheddar cheese after you pull them off the grill just to kick it up another notch!

Vegan Blueberry Banana Pancakes

I just found out my Peanut is allergic to eggs AND dairy! I suspected eggs for a while because if she ate an over easy fried egg and got any on her skin she always got a red rash right where the egg was. But the dairy blew me out of the water! So, we've been going through a bit of an adjustment here. Rice milk and almond milk have taken over the refrigerator...cheesy corn puffs have been replaced with regular corn puffs. Ingredient labels have been scoured for even the smallest bit of egg or dairy.

Lucky for me there is a plethora of vegan recipes out there! A huge challenge I've come across though...is that I am not willing to serve my children soy products and the majority of "replacement" products are made of soy. I'm okay with it as an extremely minor ingredient...but butter made out of smashed soy beans is just not going to fly. So, we are experimenting with mashed bananas and peanut butter for baking with instead. I'll keep you posted on my progress to finding good recipes for those with allergies to dairy and eggs and please, if you have some tasty recipes please feel free to share in the comment section or post a link to your food blog!

Vegan Blueberry Banana Pancakes
makes 10-12 4" pancakes

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup rice milk
1 teaspoon Ener-G egg replacer
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon oil
1 small banana, mashed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1-2 cups blueberries...depending on how many you like in your pancakes
raw sugar

In a large bowl, add all ingredients except blueberries and raw sugar. Whisk together until combined. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add about 2-3 tablespoon canola oil. When a drop of water added to the pan sizzles, the oil is ready for pancakes!

Drop about 1/4 cup batter onto pan and sprinkle tops with desired amounts of blueberries and then about a teaspoon of raw sugar to add a nice crunch to your pancakes. When bubbles appear on tops of cakes, flip with a spatula and continue to cook until pancake feels firm.

Enjoy!! Please note these pancakes take a bit longer to cook I think because of the mashed banana, so make sure the check pancakes before you pull them off the heat.