MORE Pancakes, Cookies, and Vegan Super Bowl Food

I have been on a bit of a pancake kick lately. There are so many possibilities and they make a quick, nutritious brunch. What’s not to love? And to believe I actually used to dislike pancakes – my experience with plain non-vegan pancakes, loaded down with butter and ‘Aunt Jemima’ syrup haunt me no longer. Pancakes do NOT have to be an icky, heavy mess.

So for yesterday’s brunch, I made Dreena’s Raspberry Cornmeal Pancakes with Celestial Cream. This recipe is from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan (which I have ordered from Amazon, and should be here at some point, I understand the book went into reprint or something and that is why it is taking it so long to ship out). However, since Dreena is super cool, she provides some of the recipes from her cookbooks or other things she just makes up for free on her blog. This recipe is one of them and can be found here.

These pancakes are delightful. I love the texture the cornmeal gives to them, the nuttiness of the flax meal, and the delicious flavor of oat flour. This was the first ‘wheat-free, gluten-free’ recipe I have tried and it rocked. The Celestial Cream made for a wonderful topping to the pancake, it was easy to make too. I’m not sure about anyone else who has tried these before or not, but the Celestial Cream reminded both Brett and I a bit of butterscotch.

As I mentioned I might do in my last post, I made a batch of cookies, so I would have more than just muffins to bring in to work. The last time I brought in baked goods, I noticed the Oatmeal Raisin and Double Chocolate cookies were the first to get gobbled up. I had found a recipe a couple of weeks ago, on Nava Atlas’ site that was for Double Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, which can be found here. This seemed perfect. I have to admit, they turned out really good, and Brett insisted that I leave some at home for him too.

Now, I am a football fan. But I have to admit, the fanfare of the Super Bowl can be a bit of a turn-off at times. They start coverage for it at 9:00 a.m. as if the fate of the world depended on the outcome of the game, and thus you need enough background information so as to be prepared for the main event. Not to mention all the bad music, blatant nationalism, and bad commercials. I still can’t believe that some people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials – to me that is pretty ridiculous; ads are meant to sell us things, not entertain us. Though as Brett and I have discussed in regards to the poor quality of television (and thus why we don’t watch) all the creativity is gone – it seems like the creativity is reserved for advertisements now. I like the strategy of football (definitely not the violence, but it is hard to avoid in this type of sport), leave all the fanfare at the door thank you very much. (Brett is thinking about starting up a social commentary blog and having his handle be ‘Wet Blanket’ as he feels he can always find something negative in any situation, I think I may be a bit like that as well, the old curmudgeon who always has something to complain about). :-)

So what does a veg*n eat for Super Bowl food you ask? Well, this one made what I coined ‘Vegan Super Bowl – Go Giants Nachos’. I used the Vegan Con Queso recipe from Nava Atlas (who also rocks by the way). I went my own way with the rest of the nachos, but you can find the recipe for the Queso here.

They might not be very pretty, but they were good.

Vegan Super Bowl 'Go Giants' Nachos

pureed black beans - I whizzed black beans, cayenne, cumin, chili powder,salt, onion, and garlic powder in a food processor with some veggie broth until smooth

smashed kidney beans – I smashed kidney beans, chili powder, cumin, salt, and cayenne with a fork, so that there were still some whole and partial beans

Nava Atlas’ Vegan Con Queso
tofu sour cream

simple guacamole – I mashed (with a fork) one avocado, juice of half a lime, one clove of garlic minced, cumin, salt, and cayenne

I preheated the oven to 350. On a plate, I layered the chips and all the ingredients except the tofu sour cream and guacamole. I popped it in the oven and let it all warm together for about 15 minutes. Once done, I topped it with guacamole and tofu sour cream.

The Super Bowl ended up being the best one I have seen since I started watching football. And my team won too!

That’s all for now.

‘Til next time.