Okay, so I think I'm ready to get back into blogging regularly. I'm not making any promises, though. I've discovered lots of new favorite dishes in the last year, or so. I've been sticking with lots of those, and only occasionally make something that I haven't blogged about already. That probably isn't good, so how about I commit to making one new recipe each week? Okay, that's settled. I've also decided to try to cut my grocery budget some. With these economic times, I feel like saving as much money as possible is probably a good idea. Maybe I'll try to come up with some creative food-budgeting ideas while still eating a healthy, varied diet.
Anyway, as you (not that I know exactly who "you" are) may remember, last year I embarked on an ambitious "12 Days of Goodies" holiday extravaganza. This year I kept it a bit more simple. Being vegan now, I made more vegan goodies. I made the kids their non-vegan holiday favorites, though (sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies).
I made the Sparkled Ginger Cookies from VWAV again this year. Even non-vegans think they are fantastic ginger cookies. They truly are. I would recommend doubling the recipe. They freeze very well.
I also tried a vegan thumbprint cookie from Vegetarian Times. They were pretty good. The texture wasn't great, but the flavor was. I've found that vegan cookies made with canola oil tend to be more true to their non-vegan counterparts than those made with Earth Balance.
Since 7-layer Bars are one of my favorite "cookies" ever, I actually vegan-ized those. Let me tell you, they may be better than the originals. I simply replaced the butter with EB, found vegan graham crackers (Keebler brand), vegan chocolate chips and vegan butterscotch chips (Food Lion store brand are the only vegan butterscotch chips in existance, apparently. They're pretty much just flavored chemicals. Not something I'd want to eat regularly, but once-a-year is acceptable.) I even made vegan sweetened, condensed milk from scratch. It didn't turn out like your standard milk, it was more gooey and carmel-y. YUM!
So, as you can see I didn't go all out like I did last year. I still managed to make some really tasty goodies, though!
4 comments:
Welcome back DM, I've been missing you!! Good luck on the grocery bill challenge, it's outrageous how much groceries cost, but I've at least found that not buying dairy products has helped a little. Right now produce is so dang expensive though....I can't wait until Spring.
As for the cookies...they all look delish. I was going to try those VT thumbprint cookies, but was missing one ingredient at the time. As for the Chocolate Chippers for your kiddos....have you tried Dreena Burton's recipe from her recipe blog? My entire family (even the very hard core omnivores) prefer these to the non vegan versions..
Carrie, Dreena's choc. chip cookie recipe will be my next attempt. I've tried numerous vegan choc. chip cookie recipes and haven't had one that I (let alone the kids) like.
By a grocery budget, I mean I'm trying to keep it at around $130/week. That would be a lot for some, but I refuse to give up certain organic items. I also need a variety of veggies. Not just broccoli. KWIM?
I hear you, over the last year my grocery bill has slowly crept from under $100 per week to around $150, but then again, I'm a bit of a grocery snob (and we don't go out to eat very often)!!
Try Dreena's cookies, they are so good and they are so quick to make, and best of all, it only makes 8-10 cookies, so you don't feel like you have several dozen cookies hanging around to eat!!
Yep. Just over a year ago we were just under $100/week. The price of groceries has really gone up drastically. We almost never eat out either. Our goal is no eating out this month, and so far so good.
I love that Dreena's cookies don't make several dozen. That's much more reasonable.
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