This Month in Food

I've been a lazy vegan all winter because my husband's lactose intolerance got worse, and since I'm unemployed, there's no excuse not to eat the trail of milk products he's leaving behind him. (That is to say, can't afford not to eat it. Not to mention I do not throw out good food... once the animal's been killed or milked, that would be pointless and even more disrespectful.) And that made me lazy when I went to an Indian restaurant, cause I was like, I've been eating yogurt anyway, so I was all: lazylazylazy.

It's sad when one's laziness is stronger than one's compassion. But it's also sad when one's compassion is stronger for others' than it is for oneself. I'm on a journey to get back to my better self, here, one day at a time. Eez been a rough winter.

Though it was kind of good because I tried a little spinach paneer which I've secretly longed for since accidentally buying it years ago, and... didn't like it! I never really regret unveganizing, because it generally just keeps those foods demystified for me. I got pretty tired of those cheese packets two months ago, and last month I learned that goat cheese wasn't the fantasy I'd remembered it being.

But I'm still cooking from my vegan books and updating short reviews on my VeganEats page.

In other food politics news, I did have to give up my fight to resist palm oil. I won't buy it in processed foods (most store goodies), but I'm just not ready to give up margarine yet. Again, it was a good experiment. I kept that last tub of margarine going a long time and found some great recipes, like Dreena Burton's scone recipe with oil. Burton's always my first resource for less processed ingredients baking. But--once again the Emotionally Long Hard Winter--I finally broke down in a flurry of baking powder biscuits and shortbread. I've been eating toast with margarine, like, every second day.

And finally - I have a recipe. My one and only I Invented It recipe. I've always said I can't cook, meaning I can't improve and make something taste good, and always agreed with people that "I can make desserts only because they should NOT be improvised upon." But I recently realized I've been lying. Baking/desserting is the one area where I understand the properties well enough that I'm comfortable experimenting and substituting.

In this case, I was making Ani Phyo's "Lavender Chocolate Bars" but with none of the ingredients on hand. lol. So much so, that I think I can legit call it mine. ;-)

Mabel's Pecan Truffletude

 

Commentary in parentheses to see insight into My Brain When Baking (or not, as it was raw.) I've learned that baking is the only area of cooking where I'm comfortable experimenting.

1/2 cup liquid coconut oil (all I had left - original called for 1 cup)

3 TB honey (I use honey now, because I've become convinced now that if we don't support honeybee combers, there will be no foods, cause the wild ones are dying. But I buy local. But it's just a personal choice. The original recipe is for agave.)

3 TB maple syrup (cause it didn't taste sweet enough, but I was using a regular spoon, not a measuring spoon) 

[at this point her recipe has lavender, and it all gets mixed up]

3/4 cups cocoa powder (I'm not a raw foodist, so this is run of the mill cocoa - she called for cacao)

1/4 cup natural peanut butter (and about a TB or so of the oil, to make up for the lack of coconut oil) (original recipe calls for almond butter)

1 cup pecans (it was the only kind of nut I had in large quantity) (original recipe = almonds, and they get mixed in to keep their shape, not ground up like my lazy recipe)

1 cup dates (I don't like raisins, and all of Phyo's recipes seem to use raisins)

I put it all in the food processor and grinded the hell out of it. Formed into little balls, then pushed flat into cookie shapes, onto a cookie sheet, that was covered with a reused parchment paper. (Original recipe is poured into a pan and broken into pieces like a chocolate bar.) 

 

Put in freezer til hard. But this recipe, even with less oil, is the vegan equivalent of French high patisserie. Because as I squished it into balls it was almost DRIPPING. It was SO DISGUSTING. Maybe it was because of the maple syrup too which is watery. Can you imagine with 1 cup of oil??

End result = rich and chocolatey like truffles. I'd even serve to non-vegans except as they melt they get more oily. Maybe if you left in balls, dusted with chocolate, in little paper cups. I might make again and try less oil. Except coconut oil gets rock hard when cold, so it's a big part of what's holding the cookie together, methinks. 

 

Raw food is weird.