Week Four: What's on the Menu?

C is for cookie, and cookie is for me!  Yes... I was able to veganize my absolute favourite Christmas cookies!

Chocolate Haystack Cookies

Ever since I was a kid, I can remember my mom making chocolate haystack cookies at Christmas.  I even remember stirring at the stove, while standing on a stool, and falling off and taking the boiling pot of chocolate with me!  I love, love, love these cookies.  So, how could I eat them now that I'm vegan?  Well, I traded the processed white sugar for organic coconut palm sugar, the butter for coconut oil, and the milk for coconut milk.  The rest of the ingredients stayed the same.  They didn't turn out exactly like my mom's cookies, but they still taste really good.  My mom's are more of a chalky texture (in a good way), and mine are more chewy.  But still.. yumm.  So yum, in fact, that my friend at work asked for seconds (and I can't stop eating them!)!

Coming off my spicy week last week, I decided to dial it down a few notches, and try for more of a sweet/savory type of dish.  I also couldn't decide which dish to eat for lunch and which for dinner, so I just figured I'd alternate as the mood caught me.

Broccoli Salad

For lunch today, I enjoyed a veganized version of a broccoli salad I've always taken to potluck dinners.  I ignored the bacon requirements, swapped the raisins for dried cranberries, used vegan mayonnaise, and organic raw cane sugar instead of processed.  My lunch today was amazing.  I wanted more... and could have eaten way more (thanks to an office move that made me quite active all day today).

For dinner today, I tried a box of Daiya cheezy macaroni... as my son said, it tastes like Play Doh.  And it does.. yuck.  I should have stuck with my soup for the week (which was ready to go).

Butternut Squash Soup

My soup this week is a butternut squash soup, with cauliflower.  I only tried a taste when it was done and before I portioned it out for the week.  Because of all the activity at work today, I knew I would not want a hot dish so I took the broccoli salad. I should have stuck with the soup for dinner though.  I'm sure (even if it is bad), it's better than eating Play Doh!



~ Alisa ~