Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Aside from a few Chinese New Year baked goods, I’ve not made a lot of cookies in my life. Since Andy and I had been living on a shoestring budget, I have deprived him from buying things like cookies. I thought that I should make this phase of our lives a bit more enjoyable, so I had decided to whip up a batch of oatmeal cookies.

I found an easy recipe online from Joy of Baking, and after making sure that I have all the ingredients stocked up in the kitchen, I jumped right into making these yummy chewy cookies. These cookies can easily pass as breakfast if you ask me, LOL!

A few notes about the ingredients that I’ve used:

• I always and only buy pure cane sugar. Dominos brand is cheap and easily available in the US. They make both white and brown sugar.
• I always and only use unbleached flour. King Arthur is sold at Meijer in Michigan and they are not expensive.
• I am an advocate of using organic products whenever feasible. Even though we are tightening our belts, we still buy organic milk and butter.
• Get to know your oven. Every oven is different and it might take more or less time to bake your creations. If you can afford an oven thermometer, check to see if your oven temperature is accurate. It took me more like 25 mins to bake these cookies but I think that is also because I did not flatten them enough prior to putting them in the oven.
• I used Quaker brand oats.
• I used my hands to shape the dough into balls and then flatten them prior to baking. Wet hands first. Besides, when you are done shaping them, the mixture of oats, sugar and butter makes for great hand exfoliant!

And now it’s time for me to make vegetarian reubens (will post that later) and bring them to the riverside for a picnic on an exceptional beautiful day. Seriously, it is like 10C degrees above average and the sun seems to refuse to set.

Beehoon Kerabu

Oops, I did it again! Andy said that sometimes I make delicious food for him, and then sometimes I make him food that murders him. Yes, he accuses me of murdering him with my cooking. Although, last night, my beehoon kerabu was actually quite hot, even for my tastebuds.

I simply made this version of beehoon kerabu using my own recipe from last year. I did not have any large vegetarian shrimps, so I sliced some fried tofu balls (taufoo pok) and pan fried them until a little charred and crispy with a little bit of oil on a non-stick wok. I also added julienned snow peas for the added crunch in this dish. You can always use fresh beansprouts for the crunch factor.

I think that the heat of this dish came from the super deliciously red thai hot chillis (cili padi) that came from the Vietnamese store. I sliced a handful of them thinly and tossed them into the mixing bowl, seeds included. They seemed so harmless when I was chopping them, but looks can be deceiving 😛

For my yummy version of vegetarian beehoon kerabu, check it out here.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Sweet Pepper Couscous

Yet another last minute ingeniunity… LOL! I was inspired by a dish from Danielle of Mayple Syrup and Poutine made at our last cooking club meeting (the theme was Arabian Nights, hosted by Amarjot). Her contribution was a side dish made with roasted cherry tomatoes and Israeli couscous. I did not have any Israeli couscous handy, so I made my modified version with wholewheat couscous instead.

This dish paired nicely with breaded chicken cutlets from Quorn to complete my semi-homemade dinner.

I made too much couscous, so there will be extra for me tomorrow for lunch/dinner. Anyhow, I really should have made 1 cup of couscous for this dish. Also, it would had been nice to add some chopped cilantro and roasted pine nuts as well. O’ well…

Ingredients

• 1 cup wholewheat couscous
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut lengthwise
• 1 sweet bell pepper (red, yellow or orange), julienned
• 7oz pitted kalamata olives
• 1/3 cup roasted pine nuts (optional)
• 1/4 chopped red onions (optional)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice (more if desired)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A pinch of paprika
• A few cracks of Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper or grind of 1 lemon (optional)
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Cook couscous according to package instructions using vegetable broth instead of water.
2. Toss cut tomatoes and bell pepper with some olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven at 400F degree for about 20-30mins or until semi-charred. Stir the tomatoes and bell peppers once or twice while in the oven.
3. Once couscous, tomatoes and bell peppers are ready, toss all the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Drizzle more olive oil if mixture is too dry.

Vegetarian Hae Koh (Shrimp Paste)

I have every intention to make some vegetarian assam laksa one of these days, but I realized that I had forgotten to buy some vegetarian hae koh (shrimp paste) when I went home to Malaysia for Chinese New Year not too long ago. I was ecstatic to find the recipe for homemade vegetarian shrimp paste on the Internet tonight, and the goal of making assam laksa is can almost be materialized. I just have to find assam keping around here or in Toronto. Below is the recipe from Amy Beh of Kuali.com.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Marmite vegetarian yeast extract
• 1 1/2 castor sugar
• 4 tbsp maltose (mak nga tong) – found this is Vietnamese store
• 1 tbsp thick soy sauce — I brought some from home since I cannot find thick soy sauce here that are not Indonesian
• 2 tsp vegetarian belacan powder
• 120ml water
• Thickening: Combine 1 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water

Method

Combine all ingredients in a non-stick saucepan and cook over low heat until it comes to a simmering boil for 1-2 minutes. Stir in thickening to mix.

Source: http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=3342

Garlic Ricotta Stuffed Mushrooms

I made this really simple hors d’oeuvre/side dish along with garlic mash potatoes and grilled asparagus originally to complement some vegetarian chicken chops, but as it turned out, there was too much side dishes that we skipped the chicken chop altogether.

I got the recipe here, but as usual, I never really follow the instructions to a tee. I had 2 packs of white mushrooms lying around and this dish came about as we (yes, we, because Andy bought them and he hates to see his favourite vegetable, i.e. mushrooms) feared that it will spoil soon. We had extra stuffing, so we spooned them into Tostitos scoops and cooked them in the oven along with the stuffed mushrooms. Make sure that the mushroom caps are oiled, or that the foil is oiled so that the caps do not end up sticking too much on the pan.

Have fun with this recipe, it’s too difficult to mess this up, I think… unless you are using expired ricotta or something, LOL!

Soy Chorizo Taco

Well, guess what… I’m laid off! It sucked initially but I soon got over it. I don’t know why but I don’t seem to mind it too much anymore these days. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I received the somewhat predictable news over the phone during dinner time.

If there was one thing that I am finally able to do (along with daily praying, chanting and more of yoga… and hopefully meditation down the road) is planning our daily meals. Planning our meals has a great benefit, i.e. controlling our budget. We are now trying to keep our food and transportation allowance to CAD$100 a week, which isn’t too bad at all. I buy almost all of my produce from the local farm market, where fruits and vegetables are fresh and cheap. Once in a while, we splurge across the border at Trader Joes, Kroger, Target and Meijer to get cheaper vegetarian meat substitutes such as soy chorizo, which I managed to use this week.

I first saw the original meat version of chorizo taco made by Danielle of Maple Syrup and Poutine in our cooking club meeting in January, whereby I was the host. The theme that I had aptly picked was “All Wrapped Up”. It was the dead of winter, so I thought the theme was very appropriate since we were all bundled up in layers of sweaters, scarves and jackets. The original recipe is called Chorizo, Poblano and Yam Fajitas with Lime-Marinated Onions.

I made some modifications to the original recipe, one was of course, using soy chorizo that can be found even at Walmart in Dearborn, MI. I also did not use yam this time, since Andy is not a big fan of them. Also, I used banana peppers instead of poblanos. One of the key things about staying within a budget is not to be too rigid with ingredients. Danielle used sliced avocados as chorizo substitute for me when she made it, and I loved it so much that I kept it in when I made my version. Also, instead of feta cheese, Andy found some Southwest shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I have to say that it is not really necessary if you would like to use sour cream and avocado in this recipe. Also, I merely reheated the tortillas in the microwave wrapped in wet paper towels for about 50 seconds instead of reheating them over the stove.

The meal was very successful. Thanks again, Danielle, for introducing this one ingredient that I had been curios of for quite some time already.  I had 3 pieces of the tacos that night while Andy had 7. Yeah, he is my eating machine and I do have to remind him that we are on a strict budget these days…  More pics below.