"Ramen Noodles For Stuck Up Culinary Students"

I've been writing a research paper for what honestly feels like a month, although I know it can't possible have been that long. It's my last big project of the semester and it's sucking up all my sanity time. In the mists of working my brain to madness I've needed something to fill my belly that would take just long enough to cook that it would be a nice head clearing break, but not so long that my freshly cleared head forgot every new piece of information I just shoved in there. Out of that time crunch came this recipe that is relatively cheap, easy to pull together and just salty enough to sate that part of me that wants to stress eat Chinese food.


Crunchy Peanut Noodles

1lb spaghetti
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
squeeze of lemon juice
1 bunch green onions, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/3 cup chopped peanuts
12 ounces frozen green peas
1/2 a rotisserie chicken, shredded ( I put the other half in the fridge and use it for another batch later)

In a small mixing bowl whisk together the oils, vinegar, garlic, soy sauce and lemon juice. Set aside.

Cook the spaghetti in salted water according to directions on the box, chop up the onions and peanuts  while you wait. When the spaghetti is about 1 minute from being done, turn off the heat and dump the frozen peas in the hot water with the noodles to shock them bright green and cool down the noodle water. Strain out the water with a strainer and add the noodle/pea mixture back into the warm pot. Toss with sauce,onions, chicken and peanuts. Serve warm (or chilled!)

"Everybody's Free To Eat Black Beans"

Although it may not seem like it, the truth is I've been baking and cooking as much as ever lately. Of course I've also been running, studying, gardening and playing in the sun so the evidence has sort of slipped through the cracks. I've been swept off my feet by the arrival of spring ( and also by the quickly approaching end of semester!) and I've taken every possible opportunity to be outside rolling around in the clover avoiding any sort of indoor paper writing or photo editing that might be calling my name.

The one thing I do always have time for is lunch, quick and delicious and just substantial enough to keep my frolicking feet dancing up a storm.

Black Bean Quinoa Burgers (Gluten Free + Vegan)
Inspired by Emma of Food Coma

Makes 10 burgers

1 cup chopped onions
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic diced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder

2 to 4 tbsp olive oil

2 cups (16 ounces) cooked black beans (home cooked, so you can keep all your friends)

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 flax egg (1tbsp flaxseed + 3 tbsp hot water)
4 tbsp tapioca flour
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a skillet over medium high heat add the olive oil, onions bell pepper, garlic, cumin and chili powder and cook until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly before moving on to step two.

2. In the bowl of a food processor add the black beans and the onion mixture and pulse until roughly chopped  to a chunky paste.

3. In a large mixing bowl  fold together the bean onion mixture, the cooked quinoa, flax egg, tapioca flour, and salt and pepper to taste, and form into patties.

4. Heat 2tbsp olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat and fry the patties until crispy and golden brown, about two minutes per side. Serve warm on a toasted sesame seed bun.

"The Wind In The Willows"

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Today was a marvelous 79 degrees and it's only March! God help us all when summer comes around but for now I'm enjoying these warmer days. The weather was so beautiful today that I didn't really feel like spending too much time in the kitchen. Well that not exactly true. I was in the kitchen today but the recipe I was working on didn't really turn out because I spent too much of my prep time sort of gazing out the window at the sunshine.

Once I realized that any work indoors would be fruitless, I decided to answer the call of the wild, make a light lunch and just go for a run (maybe not in that order).


White Bean Hummus

16 ounces ( 2 cups) cooked great northern beans ( either canned and drained or home cooked. I prefer to cook my own because it leaves your digestive system a bit less... ackem, worse for the wear)
3 Tbsp Tahini
1 Tsp Cumin
2 Garlic cloves
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and lemon juice to taste

Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and swirl until fluffy and smooth. Enjoy warm or cool. Serve smeared on toast  topped with cucumber and a side of iced green tea with lemon and mint.

"Peanut Butter Fudge Chocolate Chip Pie" or "How To Ace Your Nutrition Midterm"

I'm pretty sure that before this week I never truly understood the terms "spring break" or "midterm exam". I'd heard them thrown around a lot before but until I started college, the meaning was completely lost on me. Last week was madness, I thought about nothing but the human digestive system, glucose, fructose, galactose, tryglycerides, amino acids and omega 3s. I started calling my boyfriend a monosaccharide to get on his nerves if he tried to talk to me while I was studying (as a joke) but struggled to remember to call him by his proper name when I wasn't studying. Things got ridiculous, so ridiculous in fact that I have no idea how in the midst of all that nutrition cramming I managed to come up with this chocolate explosion of a recipe.


My boyfriend's birthday happened to fall on the day after my last midterm exam. I asked him what he would like to eat since he's an freak and a cake hater, and he asked for chocolate cream pie (again) which was kind of a problem because of my dairy restriction but I had other things to worry about (my test!) so I put solving that problem on the back burner. Like way in the back burner since I didn't really bother to think about it until it came down to the wire.

When the day actually came for me to produce this dessert I started to worry when a quick search determined that my best bet was some melted chocolate swirled around with some silken tofu. Um, tofu? Really? How was I going to get my boyfriend to eat that? It didn't even sound like something I could trick myself into eating. But it was my only hope, so I would trust the vegans and lie to my boyfriend.

My mind raced trying to think up ways I could stealthily pull this off.

I would go shopping while he was asleep of course, and hide the tofu away in the fridge,and sneak the empty containers out to the dumpster so he'd never know they were involved. Then, I'd change the pie around a bit, maybe some smores action. A little graham cracker crust, maybe some marshmallows on top. Yeah, yeah this was sounding good.

So I  waited until he was asleep,ran out to the store, gathered my disguises and headed back to the apartment to get stared on my evil scheme. Things were going well until I realized that the graham crackers I'd bought for the crumb crust were expired. Like way expired. You can smell how rancid they are when you open the package kind of expired.

I was... upset.
I had about a sliver of a window before he woke up where I could deal with this whole tofu madness and I did not have time to go running back to the store.

My overstimulated textbook brain spiraled into  a problem solving mode fueled by stress, nutrition facts and rage.

 I may have blacked out.

I have memories of growing three times my size, breaking free of my t-shirt and jeans, and ransacking my kitchen pantry in a fit of amazonian fury. But I can't be sure what truly went down.

All I know for sure is that when I came back to my senses these little miniature peanut butter fudge chocolate chip pies were daintily chilling in my fridge and I may or may not have been laying on the kitchen floor in my alltogether atop a pile of rags that used to be my clothing.

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The pies, however it was that they came to be, were a hit. Tofu or no there is so much going on that even the most stuck up of boyfriends would never be the wiser. Chocolate and peanut butter atop a crispy chocolate chip cookie crust, who's going to argue? The pies disappeared about as quickly and mysteriously as they came into being. 

Happy Birthday Alan, I totally meant to do that. I think.

Peanut Butter Fudge Chocolate Chip Pie (dairy free, egg free,gluten free)

For the Chocolate Chip Cookie crust

1 cup Earth Balance dairy free butter

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground golden flaxseed + 3 tbsp boiling water left to sit for 10 minutes)

1 cup All purpose gluten free flour mix* (learn how to make your own here)

1 1/8 cup sweet white rice flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt ( omit if using salted dairy free butter)

1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life Semi Sweet chocolate chips)

1. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, sugars, vanilla and the flax egg until well combined and fluffy.

2. in a separate bowl sift together the flours, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

3. Divide the dough into four equal portions, and press into the bottoms of four 5" ramekins, making sure to work the dough up the sides to form an even crust. Poke all over with the prongs of a fork (so it doesn't puff up in the oven). Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and bake for 12-14 minutes ( until it's the level of crispiness you like, or don't bake it at all  since there's no egg and leave it cookie dough if you like!). Let cool for at least 20 minutes before adding the filling.

* for my GF AP flour mix I used sorghum+teff+brown rice for my grains and tapioca+potato+sweet white rice for my starches

For the filling

tweaked from  Moo-less Chocolate Pie By Alton Brown

13 ounces semisweet chocolate chips ( I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate chips)

1/3 cup coffee liqueur ( I used 1/4 cup homemade vanilla extract and 3 tbsp freshly brewed coffee)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pound silken tofu, drained

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey (or more to taste)

1.In a double boiler, or a large microwave safe bowl add the chocolate pieces and the coffee liqueur and melt until creamy and smooth.

2. Add melted chocolate, vanilla extract, silken tofu, peanut butter and honey to the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Divided into the four prepared pie crusts and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour (or more) before serving.

"If You Can't Be With The One You Love Honey, Love The One You're With"

Hello very inconvenient and random dairy allergy! Happy Anna Howard Shaw day to you! 

What's that? Why am I not the grumpiest person alive when I find myself having to cut out dairy for the two weeks that fall right on top of the most chocolaty day of the year? Why, because I have these shockingly delicious dairy free chocolate cupcakes!

Oh, and P.S. Mr. Dairy Allergy? SUCK IT! WE ARE NOT FRIENDS!

It has come to my attention that dairy seems to be triggering my eczema, which isn't at all inconvenient since it's not like I'm in cooking school or anything. Oh, wait! 

The alternative though is walking around looking like Tyrone Biggums which isn't exactly good for business either. So I've found that my only choice right now, at least until all this calms down, is to go completely dairy free, and possibly have periods when I'm dairy free in the future.

So... you know what that means! More stuff to learn!

The very first thing I thought about when the universe presented me with this obstacle was "Oh no! How am I going to bake?!?!" But after a little googling my second thought was "Thank god! There are vegans!" Vegan's pretty much rule half the internet, in fact I'm pretty sure that if we lived in a world without vegans, my quest to learn about dairy free baking would have taken about a hundred years longer. Sure there are other people out there with allergies with knowledge to share, but vegans are passionate! They will find a way to do whatever they want without dairy and they will tell you about it! It's amazing. I love you vegans! Go ahead, lay your knowledge on me!

As it turns out there are all kinds of ways out there to bake tasty delights and what's wonderful is that my gluten free knowledge fits right in with my dairy free knowledge. Honestly if I hadn't taken the time to really delve into the archives of The Gluten Free Girl I never would have thought it would be so easy to modify recipes to fit your lifestyle and your dietary needs. Shauna's focus may be on gluten free baking because that's the obstacle that she has, but she is a wonderful inspiration and advocate for modifying recipes to find what works for you.  And guess what, the cupcake recipe I used today, is my handy work! I started off with a recipe from Martha Stewart and then I tore it to pieces and reconfigured it using all the new stuff I've learned.

And it is DELICIOUS! Crazy good! Moist with that soft fat crumb you want from chocolate cake, and total yumtown. Not like "oh this is pretty good for gluten free" or  "this is surprisingly digestible for something with no butter in it" but actually real world no comparisons necessary mmmm chocolate cake tasty. And it is liberating and shocking to be able to bake this way! I want to kiss Shauna's feet for teaching me! And I want to kiss the vegans too!

Happy Anna Howard Shaw/Valentine's day everyone!

 Kiss the one you love! Kiss Shauna James Ahern! Kiss a vegan!

Slap an allergy in the face and bake some cupcakes!

Gluten Free/ Dairy Free/ Egg Free Chocolate Cupcakes
Originally Martha Stewart but cut to pieces, also you can find the dairy free butter cream icing recipe here

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2 tablespoons golden flaxseed meal soaked in 6 tablespoons of water for 15 minutes
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup soymilk + 1 tsp cider vinegar (left to curdle for ten minutes)
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
3/4cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups Gluten Free All  Purpose Flour Mix *
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

1. In a large mixing bowl cream together flaxseed mixture, warm water, soymilk mixture, coconut oil, sugar and vanilla extract until combined.
2. In a separate bowl sift together cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. Add the dry mixture into the wet mixture a little at a time and whisk until it is well combined and there are no more lumps. It'll look pretty soupy at this point but if you let it sit for five to ten minutes it'll thicken up.
4.Divide into a paper lined cupcake tins and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until it passes the skewer test.
Let cool 30 minutes and serve topped with butter cream icing and sprinkles.

Makes 18 cupcakes

* for my GF AP flour mix I used sorghum+teff+brown rice for my grains and tapioca+potato+sweet white rice for my starches