A variety of frosting tweaks

I bought some storebought cake mix & frosting to make birthday cupcakes for a friend, but I decided that it wasn't enough to just bake them & frost them.  Instead, I tweaked the frosting into four different types, and they all turned out awesome.

1. Vanilla - Straight out of the tub.
2. Chocolate - Mixed about 2 spoonfuls of frosting with about 1 spoonful of cocoa powder.  Melted about 1/2 a shot glass worth of chocolate chips & mixed them in.  Added hemp milk until it was the right consistency again.  It's still got little chunks in it -- I think from the chocolate, and they only appeared after adding the milk -- but it's delicious.
3. Chocolate chip cookie - A friend (in fact, the one whose birthday it is) left a little less than half of a container of store-bought mini almond chocolate chip cookies here last time he was over.  I tossed four of them into the food processor, turned them into powder, mixed them in with the frosting, and added milk until it returned to the correct consistency.
4. Peanut butter - Two parts frosting, one part peanut butter.  Goes super well with the chocolate cupcakes.

Dried Cherry Coffee Cake

I bought some unsweetened dried bing cherries at Trader Joe's this weekend, and I learned that there's a reason they usually sweeten them -- they aren't particularly tasty on their own.  So I started searching for recipes to use them in, and this one came up.  It's very sweet and very tasty.  I'd disagree with the comments -- it didn't turn out light for me, but that may be because I tinkered with the ingredients a bit.  It's still super moist & delicious.  The cherries & almond extract smelled awesome while they were soaking.  And the sugar on top gave it a nice sweet crustiness.

Original recipe here.

1/2 cup unsweetened dried cherries
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 (5.4 oz) container vanilla greek yogurt
A splash of milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tbsp white sugar

Chop the cherries into raisin-sized pieces (or slightly smaller than whatever size you're comfortable with finding in the middle of a coffee cake).  Mix with the hot water & almond extract; let sit for 20 minutes (maybe poking/shaking occasionally).  Mix together the dry ingredients (except for extra sugar & almonds), then add wet ingredients, then drain cherries & add them (I used the cherry soaking water to mix with my egg replacer).  Grease & flour an 8x8 pan (or two loaf pans).  Pour in batter.  Mix together almonds & extra sugar; sprinkle on top.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Granola

I wanted enough granola for the weekend, but not any leftovers.  This recipe scales up & down well and is super easy.

Original recipe.

2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats

Microwave the peanut butter & honey for about 30 seconds so they're melty.  Stir together, then add vanilla & cinnamon.  Add oats & mix well.  Squish into a granola-cluster-thickness layer on a baking sheet (silicone baking mats are nice here).  If you keep it all as one pancake, you'll be able to have bigger clusters; this will fall apart a little bit when you pick it up, but if it's all one big piece then that's okay.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  It'll still be soft when it comes out.  Let it cool.  It's much better -- crunchier & more flavorful -- once it's cooled off.  If you're making it in the morning for breakfast, put as much as you want to eat that day into a bowl & stick it in the freezer for a bit.

I had already eaten half of it before I thought to take a picture.  Also, mine's slightly burnt around the edges; still tasty.

Lentil Loaf

I was reminded this weekend that lentils exist.  So I browsed a bunch of lentil recipes & found one that looked interesting.  I've made a lot of pseudo-meat loaf in the past, but I'd always used frozen veggie meat crumbles.  This turned out pretty well.  It was a bit too salty/savory for me, and I'd already cut the broth back from the suggested amount.  I'll probably cut it out completely next time -- the BBQ sauce already adds enough saltiness.  I'll probably also take a suggestion from the comments & use this recipe to make veggie burgers rather than a loaf.  It had that trademark bean-based squishiness that a lot of homemade veggie burgers have.  I couldn't get it out of the pan without it turning into just a pile of lentil stuff, but it was still good.  I think you could also make this in different flavors by replacing the onions/garlic/BBQ sauce with other stuff -- chopped + pureed pineapple is what came to mind first for me, to make funky burgers that you could put grilled onions, peach salsa, and guacamole on.

Original recipe here.

• 1 1/2 cups dry lentils
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups pre-cooked mixed wild rice (I cooked this with half broth, half water)
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

Cook rice if you haven't already.  Mix lentils, broth, and water together, and cook until lentils are well done (squishy), about 30 minutes.  Chop up the onion (a food processor works great) & the garlic.  Sautee onion & garlic until they're softened.  Once the rice & lentils are done, mix everything together.  Oil the sides & bottom of a loaf pan -- this will fill the loaf pan all the way to the top, and maybe beyond that if you have a stumpy pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Cereal Sunday: Bran Flakes & Maple Pecan Granola

I was getting ready to go to the supermarket today, and I decided I wanted cereal for breakfast this week.  Then I thought to myself, why have I never made my own cereal?  I've made granola before, but that's as far as I ever got.  So, I took to Google, and found myself a recipe for a non-granola cereal: bran flakes!

I used this recipe, more or less.  I accidentally bought a bit more bran than I needed, so I made 1.5x the original recipe, and I didn't want to buy another kind of flour so I made them more oat-y than nutty.

3/4 cup bran
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat flour (I think it'd be good with any flour)
3 tablespoons turbinado sugar (I bought this for another recipe a long time ago, and I'm slowly working my way through the box)
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I used hemp milk)
1/3 cup water

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add the two wet ingredients & mix it all together.  Because I made 1.5x the recipe, I should've done this in 3 batches; I didn't realize that until just now, but that's why my flakes ended up so thick.  If you're following the original recipe, take half the dough (1/3 of the dough if you're following this recipe) & put it on a cookie sheet sized piece of parchment paper.  Put a piece of plastic wrap over it & roll it out really thin.  The original recipe says to make it super thin, and I'd agree with it that it'd be best super thin.  Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the edges start to get a little crispy but the middle's still leathery.  Take it out, set it aside to cool, and do the same thing with the other half (or the other two thirds).

This is the part where I started assembling the granola, but I'll give details on that below.

Once the first sheet's cooled,  rip it up into pieces that are however big you want your flakes to be.  They don't shrink much more at this point.  You could probably just cut it into squares if you wanted to do this a little faster, though your flakes would look less pretty then.  Spread the flakes out on the cookie sheet + parchment paper, then bake at 275 until they're crispy, stirring every 5 minutes or so.  Because I made mine thick, this part took more than 20 minutes.  Take them out, let them cool, then store in an airtight container.

I decided to mix the flakes with some granola.  This is probably the best granola I've ever made, and probably among the best I've ever had, and it's super easy.

Based off of this recipe, which is on a site full of breakfast food recipes that I'll have to explore more in the future.  I halved the recipe because I only wanted enough granola (a) for me and (b) to go with the flakes.

1 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla (I almost always double the vanilla in recipes these days, so this is double what it calls for)
1/8 to 1/4 cup raisins (I forgot to add these, but I was planning on using a mix of raisins & dates)

Mix together all the dry ingredients except the raisins.  Mix together the 3 wet ingredients, then mix those two mixtures together.  Spread out, breaking the big clumps up into granola-sized pieces, on a parchment papered baking sheet (I reused the parchment paper from the flakes), bake at 325 for 15 minutes, flip the granola over, and bake for another 15 minutes.  If you're using raisins/fruit, toss those in here & bake for an extra 3 minutes.  Take it out, let it cool, and store it in your airtight container.  Super tasty, clumps perfectly, stays together, has a great texture... seriously, it's delicious granola.  The site says you can sub out any fruit or nuts, so I'll probably experiment with it some more in the future.

Breakfast is gonna be delicious tomorrow.

I made two sheets of this many thick 'n' tasty bran flakes

The only sheet of granola -- I already ate a few pieces before I took out the camera...

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookies

While visiting home for the holidays, we baked some delicious vegan banana oatmeal cookies.  We had just a few too many bananas around the house, and these were a super delicious way to use them up.  We added raisins to the last batch of them, and those were good too; I'd guess you could add any pretty much any chopped dried fruit to these and they'd be tasty.

Based off the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/banana-oatmeal-cookie/

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg (could be doubled)
3/4 tsp cinnamon (could be doubled)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 cup mashed overripe bananas (about 2 bananas)
1 3/4 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix together the first 5 ingredients.  Add everything except the oats & walnuts, mix together.  Add the oats & walnuts, mix together.  Place cookies on a greased/silpat'd/parchment papered cookie sheet & bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until they look done.

Honeyboat Squash with Chile Honey Glaze

Squash is something I've only recently discovered.  And it's fantastic.  I bought this one at the farmers' market because it was pretty.  I asked the guy selling it what it was called, and he mumbled it at me twice; all I could tell was it started with "honey".  If you type "squash honey" into Google, it'll suggest the right name: honeyboat squash (which is a pretty sweet name for a squash), aka delicata squash.  It's stripey & delicious.  I also learned (from the Googs) that squash will keep for 1.5-3 months at room temperature, and 3-6 months in the fridge, so now I won't feel like I have to use up all my squashes right away.

I only made one squash, and I certainly didn't have the ingredients suggested lying around, and I completely forgot to add the cumin, so here's what I ended up with (based on this recipe).

Sauce (part 1):
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water
less than 1/4 of a purple onion (which was leftover in the fridge)
1 garlic clove
a dash of salt

Put the water & red pepper flakes on the stove; bring to a boil/simmer.  Chop up the onion & garlic in the food processor.  Add everything to the boiling red pepper flakes.  Let all/most of the water boil off (oops, but it worked out) so that everything is softened, then set aside.

While that's going on, cut the stem off of one honey boat squash, and slice it longways to make two little squash boats.  Scoop out all the seeds & stringy stuff.

Sauce (part 2):
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp oil
a dash of salt

Mix a heaping teaspoon of sauce part 1 with everything in sauce part 2 & mix.  Split it between your two squash halves.  Brush it all over the exposed squash insides (I used my fingers); leave the remainder in the boat.

Bake on a foil-lined cookie sheet at 400 for 40 minutes, or until squash is soft but not really dark or anything.  Enjoy everything but the (still pretty) peel; the squash should come off from the peel really easily.