Carrot Cranberry Muffins

This week marks both my one year anniversary of eating vegan and of creating this blog! I want to thank each and every one of you for reading along and continuing to inspire me to come up with new recipes. I started this blog the same week I became vegan because I had a hunch that it would keep me motivated and help to connect with others - and boy, was I right! I'm so grateful for the people I've met in the past year, and I'm looking forward to sharing and cooking along with even more friends in the next year.

As I was thinking about what special recipe I could make to celebrate this occasion, I thought back to my first recipe I ever posted - Carrot Cranberry Muffins. I realized that my one camera phone photo didn't do these tasty muffins justice at all, so I decided I would whip up another batch!

Carrot Cranberry Muffins
2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 C sugar
1/2 C canola oil
1/4 C applesauce
1 C finely grated carrots (approx 2 medium)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C dried cranberries


Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla until combined. Mix in the grated carrots.

Stir in the dry ingredients until combined. Fold in the cranberries.
Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Well, these muffins are just as good as I remembered and were a great way to reflect back on a full year of vegan food fun. I feel like I've learned so much, and am looking forward to lots more cooking and baking, of course!

Thank you for reading, commenting, following me on facebook, twitter and instagram, and all the support over the last year for Vegan Fling. You all rock!

Thanks for stopping by!

Snickerdoodle Cookies

We've had some fun weather here in Colorado over the past week... I'm looking at almost a foot of snow out of my window right now. Even though we really need the moisture, I'm still not a fan of the snow at all and have no desire to go out and do anything in it. My solution to my snowed in day was (of course) to start baking! I realized I had not yet attempted to bake the fun and classic snickerdoodle cookies, so I set out to change that.

Snickerdoodle Cookies
makes about 2 dozen small cookies

1/2 C vegan butter
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C almond milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 C flour
1/4 C cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder 
topping:
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Soften vegan butter and with an electric mixer beat it with the sugar. Add in almond milk and vanilla and mix again. Whisk the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder together in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon on a plate and stir. Roll the cookie dough into balls and then roll through the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes then let cool.

Note: My cookies didn't really expand that much, so if you want larger cookies you can make the dough ball bigger.

I was actually happy that these didn't spread out too much in the oven, because they ended up being cute little round bite size cookies. Simple and tasty with a cinnamon sugar coating, these cookies are perfect for any occasion. I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Flashback

I finally made it to Linger in Denver! We went for lunch and the food was amazing. The building used to be a mortuary (see the sign above) and even though the inside was completely re-done and looks awesome, they have kept some of that theme in the restaurant which is kind of funny. We ordered the sweet potato fries to share, and then my choice was the pad thai which was delicious! It had tofu, butternut squash and papaya in it. Yeah. I know. Crazy good. We then ventured over to Sweet Action to get some chocolate ice cream for dessert!



Here are a few other random recent photos:
1. Vegetable sushi roll and sweet potato avocado roll at Sweet Ginger in Cherry Creek.
2. French bread pizza with bell peppers and vegan pepperoni
3. BLAT with tempeh bacon
4. Have you tried this ricemellow creme? It's insane!
5. Minestrone soup for a snowy day

Have a great weekend!

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

I've been feeling quite unmotivated when it comes to dinners lately. I was looking for something that was quick and easy, but also a little different than the standard spaghetti with tomato sauce. I had some artichokes that I was bookmarking for Kristy's yummy looking soup, but we decided we were really in more of a pasta mood and this dish was born!

Basically all I did was make this delicious spinach and artichoke dip from Oh She Glows, and then stir it into some pasta and top it with some bread crumbs - but I was pleasantly surprised with how it came out. Since I'm not the biggest fan of the vegan cheeses out there, I'm glad this recipe doesn't use it but instead has a helping of beans hiding in the sauce.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

1 recipe of Spinach Artichoke Dip from Oh She Glows
1 lb penne pasta
1/3 C almond milk
1/3 C mushrooms, chopped
panko crumbs

Make the spinach artichoke dip, and bake according to the directions. Meanwhile, boil your pasta and saute your mushrooms. (You could add the mushrooms into the dip before baking too, but I forgot!). Drain your pasta and once your dip is done baking, scoop it onto the pasta. Add in the mushrooms and almond milk, and stir to combine. If you want the pasta creamier you can add more almond milk as needed. Top the pasta with panko crumbs to serve.

This was a great and easy weeknight dinner, which is right up my alley. I hope you enjoy it!
I also wanted to share a photo of the great new stack of cookbooks that I got as birthday gifts - I'm so excited to check out of all these!

Thanks for stopping by!

Frosted Heart Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentines Day to all my fabulous readers! I wanted to share these fun heart shaped cookies with you today in honor of the holiday of love.

I got it in my head that I wanted to make heart cookies and so I made it my weekend mission to find a heart-shaped cookie cutter and get down to business. My original plan was to make simple sugar cookies and use them to top my vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting, but once I had my cupcakes done I realized I didn't want to smoosh the pretty frosting down with a cookie. I also had some frosting leftover from the cupcakes so I decided to frost and sprinkle the cookies too! It turned out to be a pretty good plan, I think.

Frosted Heart Sugar Cookies
makes about 2 dozen small to medium cookies
 
1 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C vegan butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
optional: chocolate frosting recipe here, sprinkles


Preheat oven to 350 F. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla and mix. Sift the flour and baking powder then mix into the butter mixture until a dough if formed. Place in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Roll the dough out and cut with the cookie cutters of your choice.
Bake for 12-15 minutes and let cool before topping with frosting and sprinkles.

These cookies might not be the neatest or prettiest things I've ever made, but as long as they taste good I don't mind! Are you a fan of frosted cookies or do you prefer them plain? Personally I think sprinkles make everything a little more fun.

As always, thanks for stopping by. I hope you are spending the day with those you love!