The baking chronicles

Helloo everyone! I really am posting a lot lately...well I bake a lot! Oh you know that. I took the blondies to the wedding shower, and there were definetly plenty of other desserts. The spread was lovely, as well as the shower.

They're house was so photogenic...so pretty!

And so is my niece! Christina is so goregous.
Today my lifelong friend Hannah came over for lunch. We went to whole foods, and got ingredients to make...

FALAFEL!!

We didn't deep fry it, but we pan fried it on both sides and it was quite yummy. Also some tahini dressing and hummus, mixed veggies, and pita. Great meal around 2:30!

The colorful spread...sorry blurry picture!Tahini dressingHannah-filling her plateFRESH!

My plate
A new addition to the condiment palate-GOMASHIO! Gomashio is a salty topping made up of 18 parts sesame seeds, 1 part salt. I think mine was more like 10 parts sesame because I didn't get enough, but it's a great way to add flavor to a dish without too much salt. Its surprisingly salty for being so low in salt. Just toast sesame seeds, grind in a mortar and pestal with the sea salt. Pretty easy and makes a great topping to vegetables, rice, or anything else you like.

Of course we got the baking bug...
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (adapted from The Kind Diet)

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup maple sugar (org. evaporated cane juice for me-maple sugar is too $$$!!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. molasses
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F'.

Combine the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the syrup, oil, vanilla extract, and molasses. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips. Using your hands, roll tablespoon-size scoops of dough into balls. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and press down slightly on the balls to flatten the tops. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

I also did a few with raisins and peanut butter...these cookies were great! The amazing thing about vegan batter is that you can eat the batter and not feel bad about the eggs. LIKE.

They turned out really big and I made a few smaller ones too. Definetley reccomend these!