Dining In - Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies - Post Punk Kitchen

I love the fall! I enjoy the change of the season into more mild weather with crisp, cool air and brightly colored leaves...whenever I can find them in the concrete jungle, that is! It's also the return of one of my favorite fruits, pumpkin. Feeling festive for the week leading up to Halloween, I decided to make these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to bring into work. I did a quick search online to find a vegan recipe and recognized the credible source PPK (or Post Punk Kitchen, an online vegan cooking and baking community), so I went with the first recipe I looked at. This was made by Isa Chandra, posted back in 2008! You can see the full recipe here, as well. It's a versatile recipe that you can change to your liking (gluten-free, chocolate chips instead of raisins, add ginger, etc.), as demonstrated by the many comments below it.

Sadly I couldn't get the baking times quite right so my first batch was slightly dark and the final batch was a little too soft, but those that I gave a chance to rest to cook more on the baking sheet came out just right. I preferred these over traditional Oatmeal Raisin cookies! They had the subtle sweet pumpkin flavor and a nice chewy texture with some of the sugar caramelizing in the cooking process. The chopped walnuts gave a light nutty, buttery taste to the cookies that balanced out the sweetness and brought in some healthy fats and fiber. 


Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons molasses
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Dry Ingredients for Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

To Prepare Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies:

Grease two large baking sheets with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium bowl sift together flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.


In a separate large bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla extract and flaxseed. Stir until well combined. Add dry ingredient mixture in 1/3 of it at a time, by folding into the batter. Finally, fold in raisins and walnuts. 

Use a tablespoon or large spoon to scoop out batter onto baking sheet. Leave about an inch between cookies. Flatten cookies with a fork (this got a little too sticky for me to do easily) or use your palm to gently flatten each cookie. 

Bake cookies for 15 minutes and if using both levels of your oven at the same time, switch the sheets halfway through baking time. 

Batter Without Walnuts & Raisins

Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool completely. I even put them in the fridge to firm them up quickly. 

Share with friends and family and enjoy the fall flavors!

Dining Out in Paris - Sol Semilla

Assiette du Jour (Dish of the Day) - Sol Semilla

This is another postponed recount of my vegan tour of Paris (see my earlier post on the delicious Hank Burger here). I walked across the city to visit Sol Semilla for dinner and it was well worth it! I spotted the brightly colored cafe, which also houses a small market for their selection of supplements and organic food products. The website is dedicated to these "Superaliments" that you can also purchase online. I was warmly greeted (despite its Spanish name and location within a French city, in English, which was a relief as a typical language-deficient American). I took a seat at the window for prime people-watching while dining alone. 

Menu boards inside with the WiFi password, of course!

 

The Green Detox Juice - Sol Semilla

My ordering decision was very easy because the menu is short, but my meal definitely didn't lack variety. I ordered the Dish of the Day which included about six different tasty, nicely seasoned vegan side dishes made with chickpeas, beets, potatoes, brown rice, homemade hummus, and garnished with greens and apples. I appreciated that the ingredients were all whole vegetables and grains, no processed soy products here. They had various vinegars and oil on the table to dress the dish. For a beverage I opted for a green juice and skipped the full meal option which also included a dessert, since I was already feeling full from my colorful plate. My juice was the Green Detox, apple juice mixed with chlorella, a vibrant green algae in the form of powder. 



I would visit Sol Semilla again. The food was nourishing, fresh, and reminded me of a home-cooked meal, something I was craving given my longer than usual travels in Europe. It was a bit pricey (15.50 Euros for the dish alone, plus a couple more for the juice), but I was happy to spend it given my options in this city. 

Sol Semilla

23 Rue des Vinaigriers

75010 Paris, France

Sol Semilla Website (in French)

Sol Semilla Facebook Page

Dining In - Curry Mustard Seitan with Yellow Rice (Vegan Version of Chicken Kitchen Chop-Chop® and Pollo Tropical TropiChops®)

Curry Mustard Seitan with Yellow Rice

This is a first for this blog, but I am finally posting a recipe that was not prepared by me! My loving and skilled non-vegan boyfriend did all the cooking on this one. It's also an original recipe, handcrafted by him! The photo doesn't do it any justice - it was a knockout.

The inspiration for this dish came from a homemade dinner he cooked just a couple of nights earlier, a non-vegan copycat version of his favorite meal in Miami, where he lived for many years...Chicken Kitchen's Chop Chop dish. The original dish consists of chopped chicken breast, yellow rice, and an addictive curry mustard sauce (you could drink this stuff it's so good). He was so proud of his work in recreating a dish he never thought he would get to enjoy up north so he wanted me to enjoy it, too!

It was adapted from the non-vegan version he created for himself - recipes for that can be found here.  I totally gorged on this, it was tasty!

Serves 2 (really hungry people!) to 4

Yellow Rice
1 cup yellow rice
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable broth (we used, organic, low sodium)
2 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine 
1/2 packet of Goya Sazón with Azafrán seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt (or skip if trying to keep the sodium down)

Curry Mustard Sauce
4 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise (we used Whole Foods brand)
1 tablespoon non-dairy creamer (try Silk or So Delicious brands)
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 teaspoons yellow mustard

Vegan "Chicken"
Seitan strips or Chickenless Strips (from Trader Joe's)
1 teaspoon salt and pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Seitan, Vegan Mayo & Vegetable Broth

To Prepare Yellow Rice:

In a medium pot, bring water, broth, seasoning, margarine, and salt to a boil over medium-high heat. 

Add rice and stir. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Remove from heat and leave covered when the rice is tender.

To Prepare Curry Mustard Sauce:
 
Combine all ingredients in medium bowl and use a whisk to blend. Stir vigorously until well combined. Add more or less water depending on how thick you want your sauce.


To Prepare Vegan Chicken:

In a medium frying pan, heat oil on medium-low heat and then add your choice of vegan protein.

Sprinkle on salt and pepper and allow to warm for approximately 5 minutes. Stir occasionally to ensure the vegan protein heats evenly and does not burn.

To Prepare Dish:

Start with a portion of yellow rice,  layer on a helping of vegan protein (in this case chopped seitan), and pour a generous amount of curry mustard sauce on top. Serve and enjoy a Miami tradition!

Vegan Chicken Kitchen Chop Chop!