Officially 2013 has come and we can celebrate a start of a new beginning – hooray! Isn’t it always exciting to start a new year since it means a total evaluation of oneself and a start to something totally fresh and new? Okay, so maybe not everyone takes the new year so seriously but it’s a great time for me to take a step back and see what changes I want to make to my life, especially since life can be short and I want to make the most of it. Does anyone else take the new year so seriously?
So my game plan for this year? Well, that’s a good question really because it literally takes me about a week to complete my plan for the next year. Yea, I said I was serious about that right? Haha Crazy maybe but it works for me. Right now I’m working on it and will share with all of you lucky people after I complete it. Whatever the final plan comes out to be I’m confident in stating it will be a lot of healthy food, plenty of exercise and hopefully an endless supply of happiness.
As I create my plan, please feel free to let me know what your game plan is, I would love to know! Comment section is below…
Does anyone know the dessert “puppy chow”? As a child we used to make this all the time (wonder why I was overweight as a child haha) but for some reason I haven’t made it since taking on the vegan lifestyle. Why, oh, why? It’s easy to veganize and takes literally about 5 minutes to make from start to finish. It’s strange though, in Michigan growing up we would call this puppy chow but online I could only find the term “muddy buddy”. What do you call this dessert?
This recipe can be found in just about any place and it’s always the same, vegan or not. Please note that this recipe is easier to prepare with a large plastic closeable bag. When we were young we used to use a brown paper bag from the grocery store and it worked just the same so use whatever you want as long as it closes.
1 (10-12oz) box of Rice Chex (we used organic brown rice chex) 1 cup vegan chocolate (bar or chips are okay) 1/2 cup organic peanut butter (we used chunky because it’s what we had in the house) 1/4 cup vegan butter (earth balance works!) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups vegan powdered sugar
1. Place the cereal in a large bowl. You can also add some sprinkles to make it a bit more festive – I put in Christmas sprinkles which turned out so cute!
2. Melt the chocolate and peanut butter in a glass bowl or measuring cup in the microwave. It’s ready when you stir and the mixture goes all smooth and creamy.
3. Add the butter and extract to the melted mixture. Stir well.
4. Pour melted mixture over the cereal and stir until well coated.
5. Put the powdered sugar and cereal in a bag or other sealable container and shake like crazy. I like to put on some Christmas music and dance all around doing this step.
6. You can either keep everything in the same bag or place in another container to chill in the fridge. Some people put their mixture on trays in the freezer but this is really unnecessary since the powdered sugar keeps the cereal from sticking together.
Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration? Is it just me or does Thanksgiving really kick off the holiday season? It is just a wonderful way to get together with your loved ones and celebrate over a well planned meal of fresh seasonal produce. For me any reason to eat more pumpkin is high on my list, hooray! In our household we had a nice calm Thanksgiving with my husband, his brother and his brothers’ old roommate. So there were just the four of us sitting around the table, chatting and having wonderful homemade food together. We basically stuffed ourselves in which later we decided to hike off in a nearby battlefield trail. Nothing like a nice 2.1 mile hike through the wooded area where men were once at war to work off a full vegan Thanksgiving dinner, right? As an added bonus it was well into the 60’s so we delighted in the sunshine and unseasonably fantastic weather (okay unseasonal for us Northerners). The warmer weather the better for me please, I’m so not a cold weather person. After our hike we managed to cut into three different vegan pies – oh yea!
So on Friday, we kick started the Christmas season. Hubby and I literally woke up around 7AM and dig into our Christmas boxes stashed away in my closet. Our lake house has a large A-frame roof that has a private master bedroom with bathroom upstairs with large storage areas behind our clothing closets. So we weren’t too loud digging into the attic or anything like that while our guests were sleeping downstairs. On went the holiday music in our vehicles and we were off to get some hot coffee in Culpeper, VA and then to a local tree farm for a Christmas tree. We didn’t find a Christmas tree that was within our price range but we did have a good time shopping around the city. I managed to purchase a bag full of dark chocolate that is supposed to contain no milk or other dairy products. Now I have the main man’s stocking stuffers completed but still have neither main present nor birthday present, uh oh! As per tradition, we had Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch. The hubby and bro-in-law put up Christmas lights outside and I blew leaves around for about 1-2 hours. The weather was really nice so we decided to go running while bro-in-law friend took a much needed nap with the furry babies inside the house. The men ran 2 miles and I went for another 2 miles to total 4 miles – I just couldn’t stop running because it was such nice weather. The boys stopped running because they were worried about getting showers before the HVAC man came for his appointment. Yes, another appointment, which in the end he missed once again and never called to let us know. We called to complain once again and he finally made it to our house for his 2-4PM appointment at 8:30PM! That meant we wasted 6.5 hours waiting around for him when we had some other things that we had planned but couldn’t do. Argh! So we instead stayed in and watched a movie with popcorn.
Saturday we sadly had to say goodbye to our house guests after two fun filled days. It’s always sad to say goodbye to house guests isn’t it? I love a full house of friends and family, the more the merrier. As an added plus, the more the warm bodies the warmer the household. The hubby and I were then off for some Christmas shopping and some grocery shopping. Its funny how one can stock up the fridge for a holiday and a day after there is nothing left in it. I guess that just means we were efficient in how much we purchased? Anyways, thankfully we managed to check off another two people from our long list. Since this is our first year in VA, we have decided to purchase everyone VA inspired gifts (one never knows when one will move again). Once home from the madhouse we got into a little paperwork and cleaning the house before settling in to a nice BBC Manor House documentary series with the furry babies.
Sunday we were terrible and missed church, by miss I mean just didn’t go. We stayed home and got into some more paperwork and cleaning up the yard from leaves. When we first moved here I thought the water heater man was joking when he said that most people blow leaves until January but I’m starting to believe him, yikes! No wonder people kept telling me to purchase a leaf blower when they saw I was raking, gasp, with a rake. It took us three hours to complete the entire yard (can’t wait until we can move away from the leaves). The husband also put some Styrofoam to cover the summer vents for our crawl space to help reduce our high electricity bills. We have learned two things, never have a house with a crawl space and never get a heat pump if you live in a cooler region. We also setup our small West Virginia Christmas Tree that we ended up purchasing at Home Depot (it was much cheaper than cutting down our own – go figure). We decorated it with lights and setup some more Christmas decorations.
Happy Thanksgiving Eve, Americans! Non-Americans, Happy Wednesday! Today has been so filled with preparation work that I’m in the total holiday spirit. I’ve been cleaning the house from top to bottom (minus the top of our cathedral ceilings) and baking everything ahead as much as possible. I’ve even managed to hand clean all the floors just to be assured everything is clean. Our furry baby is thrilled to go climbing and finding places to rest along the way.
sweet potato casserole. (oops, I haven’t taken a photo yet but will soon)
Not to over do it or anything but I have also gotten in a run each day this week but today (since my knees are still bruised and hurting yesterday the hubby asked me to hold off for one day and I agreed). The other furry baby and I did get out for a fast paced 1.2’ish mile walk out in the wondrous sunshine though. Winter Running Gear in Full.
Additionally I have given my poor itchy furry baby an oatmeal bath in the kitchen. Our Jacuzzi tub is so difficult to bend over to wash our 9-10 lbs furry baby. Minor problem with the water level and a wagging tail.
Now that I have things pretty much clean I just have to take tomorrow and do minor cleaning, baking the Trader Joe’s Turkey-less roast, mashed potatoes and gravy. So excited that this will be our very first Virginia Thanksgiving but I know we will miss our family up North. For now we are just praying that our HVAC “specialist” will come tonight with our heat pump board and thermostat. We aren’t holding our breath though seeing as last night he told us that he has another client tomorrow and he could have someone pick up the parts that are in but he didn’t really want to do that. Basically he was telling us he wasn’t going to be bothered to put heat into our house even though we have been waiting just about two months. We are thankful that it is slightly warmer the next two days though and hopefully our guests won’t leave too early considering the temperature inside.
Are all of you ready for Thanksgiving? I’d love to know, just comment below.
Photo: Taken while on my morning run, the Japanese Maple seemed to glow red.
Happy Monday Everyone! Whew, it really does seem like this last weekend was merely an hour long – not two days. Darling runner man and I put ourselves on house arrest for the entire weekend since we haven’t stopped running around since we moved here almost two full months. Wow, we have been in Virginia for almost three months. VA in some ways is not that much different from the area in Michigan which we were both raised but varies greatly from Cleveland and Chicago where we have previously lived. Right now we have a pro and cons list for the area but we don’t want to make any full judgments until we have been here for at least 1 year. Guess we gotta give it some time, right?
Mainly the weekend involved cleaning, leaf blowing and preparing for the holidays. I’m a bit of an organized freak so I love to plan things way ahead of time for the holidays. It’s not that our holidays go smoothly but it does reduce a bit of my holiday stress which everyone could attest to its necessity. My general character is a bit of a shy, anxious one even though strangely enough I love big crowds (small ones are a different case). So, I setup a plan of attack for Thanksgiving and made out an entire grocery list and time schedule for the to-do list. For those of you wondering what to make for a vegan Thanksgiving Dinner here is what is on our list:
Corn’ey Pumpkin Soup in mini pumpkins
Salad (via Brother-in-law)
Fruit Platter (via Brother-in-law or his guest- wonder if they will notice if I steal this for myself) Sweet Potato Casserole Sweet Potato Rolls
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Tofurky (stuffed with stuffing)
Cranberry Apple butter (instead of cranberry sauce)
Pecan Pie (via Brother-in-law or guest)
(2) Pumpkin Pies here & here
Flourless Chocolate Chip Cookies (possible as goody bags for guests)
Together with the menu, I have devised a cleaning plan and activity list for the next week. (Total organize freak, right? Guess those project planning career has hit home too.) Hence today I’ve been running around getting some areas of the house more presentable for guests. I’m talking laundry, washing the rugs, cleaning out the kennels, and so on. In addition to that I’ve managed to somehow find the time to prepare the sweet potato casserole and the sweet potato rolls this morning. It smells so delicious in our house, I’m sure if the HVAC man finally manages to make his appointment today that his mouth will be watering for something orange.
Somewhere in between running around cleaning and cooking, I threw on some exercise clothes for a nice adventure on the gravel. On the “Map My Run” app, I have found a doable 5k route that works for me. It does still have a lot of hills but I seriously can’t wait until I get a flat route to see how fast I run. Haha On a positive note I have noticed my upper thighs are getting much stronger than what they were as a runner in Cleveland, Ohio. Training is much harder but I’m hoping it is all well worth the hard work. Even though I’m not a master of any kind, I have found a little helpful tip to running with hills. On the up side of the hills I tend to push a little harder with my arms and take the pace down a few notches. Then on the down side (just wish there were more), I release my inner child and let my arms wave freely (think child) and let my body “fall” down the hill. Next time you’re running down a hill, just go ahead and let your body take over. It will most likely scare your neighbors but who cares… just wave as you pass anyone and it will be okay. People are usually okay as long as you are a kind crazy person.
So my mile count this week is now 10k. The amount seems so miniscule but when I think about those hills, I’m totally fine with the number. Small blessings are still blessings- I’m just thrilled my husband and I are healthy and have the ability to run. It’s easy to overlook the blessing of health, so I want to make sure each and everyday I am grateful.
Happy 7th Anniversary Dear Genki Hubby! These last years have seen trials and tribulations not within our marriage but with our combined lives. Not only did we learn how to sprout into adults but also how to live peacefully together, create a balanced Christian life and have become eco-friendly residents on earth. It’s been such an adventure and one that I would not change if given the chance to turn back time.
That being said, I’m sure you can guess why this posting is rather late. Yesterday, June 25th was in fact a busy day for the hubby and me. Generally speaking we do like to keep everything low-key but this year the hubby has a special business trip later in the week so our schedules were tightened by trying to schedule and plan for it. Not that we forgot about our anniversary, oh no, but rather had little time to celebrate. Don’t worry though, we did manage to go out for dinner of Thai at a local restaurant. Unfortunately, it was not the best meal, maybe due to a new chef? Not really sure but we haven’t had much luck at this restaurant (food or staff) and shamefully it’s the only one in our area.
We managed to share two main entrees to share, both were specially ordered to be vegan and add tofu. It’s so wonderful how Thai restaurants can usually add tofu instead of meat in just about any dish. Additional, Thai restaurants normally cook all meals with coconut milk instead of dairy milk or any other animal derived ingredients. It’s a great option for vegetarian and vegans! Let it be known though that coconut milk does have a higher count of fat per serving, similar to Indian curries. Healthy food is good but only in moderation; guess it means we can’t be greedy even with healthy ingredients. Darn…
For the rest of the weekend, we spent a lot of time organizing things in our household. It is amazing how “stuff” or shall I say “junk” collects over such a small amount of time. In our household, it’s not paperwork or misc items that we hoard but rather we have two vices, CD’s and books. Last time we moved our moving men (who were rather buff and so fantastic), commented on possible broken backs and heart-attacks with our book boxes. It was just a humorous comment but we took it to heart that maybe it’s time to filter through all of them. So, this weekend that’s what I started out doing- sorting through CD’s and books. The CD’s took most of my time, seeing that I was getting rid of all the plastic jewel cases and putting the rest of the CD’s and booklets into one case for storage and backup. It not only reduces our stock massively but also allows us to recycle those plastic cases. As I was doing this, I managed to organize my iTunes account and put in all the titles and album artwork. Such a small task really is time consuming; I’m still surprised but totally happy with the outcome.
Really I can’t say we did all that much outside of the house that’s really interesting besides one last trip to a local outdoor shopping centre called Crocker Park. We love this shopping area, this time I surprised my husband with a trip there for our anniversary. Actually it was the day before our anniversary, so it was a total surprise. It was early in the morning so we went to the C.P. farmer’s market and also we brought along some work to do outside the shops as we sipped on coffee from a local Starbucks. (Note: Even though the Barnes and Nobles bookstore does have a sign for Starbucks, they are not Starbucks. In fact, they have multiple signs but only sell one type of coffee and it’s the Blond Roast. They sell no other Starbucks items. Lesson learned…) Then, after we sat around for a bit working, I drug my husband to a few different clothing and shoe stores. (Aka my decoy) Then I took him into the “over the top” Apple Store to purchase him an iPad of his choice. We had talked about getting him one before so it wasn’t a total surprise and he knew exactly what he wanted. Have you ever been in one of these stores though? I’m quite tech-savvy but this type of store that tries to look more technologically advanced just annoys me. Sorry Apple but when I want to purchase something I’d rather just walk in and not wait around for 20 minutes for a staff member to come through a curtain to assist. Then wait another 10 minutes for the ear-bud talking staff member to try to sell us everything in the store (or who knows what else). Then another 5-10 minutes for the item to be carried out by another staff member. Seriously we went through four different people and it took about an hour. We knew exactly what we wanted. Sometimes when you are making a large purchase you just want to run into the store, pick something off the shelf or ask the counter staff for the item and then run out before you change your mind. But, in the end the hubby was so surprised and flipping out with excitement so the wasted time was worth it.
Other than that, we had a calm weekend of grilling out and eating healthy farm fresh foods. To end the long weekend we celebrated with pink lemonade from France and some wild flowers my hubby picked for me. (notice the beans!!!)
How was your weekend? Message me in the comment section, I’d love to know.
Source: Genki Kitty Photo Taken on Lake Erie on a very slanted stone.
As a child the two best parts of Easter were getting to play with the entire entourage of cousins and of course the sweets. Yes, I was brought up Christian, but we never in my memory went to church, even though this is the most important historical holiday to believers. Hence, my fondest memories dealt with nothing but commercial holiday factors. Now that the lordship (aka the hubby) and I are getting older, we tend to flock towards celebrating Resurrection Day instead of the commercialized Easter.
Three years ago we decided to celebrate Resurrection Day instead of the commercial side of the holiday otherwise known as Easter. I’m sure when we have kids we’ll add a few more commercial items such as the German Easter Rabbit and such but for now this is how we prefer it to go. Early in the morning we dress in our fanciest aprons and set for the kitchen together – armed and usually dangerous with our bread making tools. This year we chose to go Italian and bake a type of traditional braided bread that has a slight sweet but hearty flavor. It contains dried fruit and chopped almonds so its really a crowd pleaser and satisfies the body until lunch.
Mid-morning after church or other Episcopalian sermon lectures read, it’s time to head off to a park for hiking and a bible-laced picnic bento. Veganism really opened our eyes as to how one can reconstruct a holiday and make a meal free form death, healthier, and even more biblically satisfying. Hence we flock to the outskirts of our current residing city and find a small stretch of nature to reflect on the amazing gift our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us on this day more than 2000 years ago. This can be done anywhere, even when I lived in Japan I took to a park filled with blooming cherry blossoms and had a nice lunch. It’s refreshing to our lungs, minds and bodies.
Lunchtime is also very special to us, which of course we again return to Jesus’ time on earth and recreate meals that would have graced tables when He lived on earth. When I first came up with the idea years back, I wasn’t sure if it would be possible. Thankfully we found the world’s #1 selling book supplied a magnitude of vegan options. Hence, we dined on dates, almonds, fresh figs (when available), lentils, dried fruit, bread and son on. Here’s a photo of our 2012 picnic spread:
After lunch we again proceed on our hiking trip into the Great Outdoors. This year we traveled to a few new spots, thanks to his lordship. The morning was filled with wondering around an old Ohio Quarry that was opened in 1963 (I think that’s right) as a natural historical park. Although the buildings have all long been gone there are a few remaining remnants from them. Additionally left over are a few mill wheels which were used back in the day to grind Quaker Oats. Yep, the stuff you probably eat just about every morning, or at least should a few times a week.
Next as we were traveling by car to the Hampton Hill Metro Park in Summit County Ohio we drove past a small white sign with green lettering stating “Big Blue Heron”. There were about 10-15 cars parked alongside the road peering in and taking photos of a fenced in area of barren trees. Thankfully my tourist instincts kicked into gear and had my husband stop also. Apparently it’s a large protected area for blue herons to nest in the trees about 6-10 stories above mouth a gapped photo takers. Little did I even know that these regal birds that we have seen on the lakes around our hometown state of Michigan actually created nests high above in the trees. We sat there roadside watching the expecting parents building away. Finally after around 5-10 minutes we drove off and started a good hour hike.
Hampton Hills Metro Park has two available hiking trails. Both start in the same location but the short trail is 3.2 miles and the long one 16 miles. Seeing that it was already the afternoon we decided it would be best to take the shorter route today. It was a nice sized trail and clearly trekked out with many people but there were a few things that could have been better in our opinions. Firstly, there were very few markers which got to be a bit frustrating because there are people that have made their own trails and it’s hard to navigate between which is real and which isn’t since there were three markers the entire hike. Secondly, we found it amazing that it was so busy even though the trail was marked extremely difficult (which yea, it wasn’t). Finally, they allow people to smoke! Yes, even at a park people decide to smoke! Seriously what’s the point of going for fresh air if you can’t get it because the man in front of you is smoking a cigar? Lol, as you can tell it wasn’t the best hiking adventure for us but we were thankful to get the exercise going up and down the hillsides. Oh and we found the “top of the world” but unfortunately it was all hype and nothing to see… we saved you some time. Hehe If you are looking for a good workout and don’t mind a busy trail, go for this one – it’s calling your name.
By the time we got to our car, we were a bit bored seeing as the trail wasn’t the most gorgeous and there wasn’t anything exciting to see. We didn’t even see one bit of wildlife the entire time! No squirrels, strange! Or was it us? Hmmm… We drove home and after showers settled down to a nice dinner of leftovers and the warm sunshine finally coming down. Just perfect!
Source: Genki Kitty Vegan Carrot Cake the Man made for Resurrection Day – so delicious!!!
Hot Cross Buns are very important in our household during this time of year, seeing we are Christians. It is strange though, I don’t remember having them as a child. But then again, I come from a German-American family so I guess this traditionally English bread wouldn’t have been high on the baking list for this reason. Normally my family had cinnamon buns at Easter time but me as a “culture-seeker” that I am, I love making these crossed buns each year. But then again who would complain about having a sweetened homemade bun for breakfast anytime of the year? Not me!
Last year I made this Hot Cross Bun recipe from scratch, taking a lot of recipes together and making it vegan. It was wonderful and I couldn’t have been happier with the result. Then it happened, a new favorite website of mine had a recipe for another vegan recipe (similar to mine only slightly different) and I knew I had to try. Thanks to Vegan Swedes, I was able to test out this recipe. I did find that the dough was a bit stiffer than mine but other than that, I couldn’t complain. This stiff dough can be seen in the final product (which I wasn’t that happy) because it came out all lumpy. *tears* Our only suggestion, according to our taste buds, is to add only half the amount of the allspice (it was just a little too overpowering). I have made my personal flavor corrections to the original recipe below.
Would I make this recipe again? If in a pinch and I didn’t have my own recipe, I would definitely make this again. But, I think I’m a little bias to my own recipe so I would have to stick to my own. I’m sure just about any baker would do that though – we have a deep love for our own recipes… hehe I do love the Vegan Swedes and wouldn’t object to suggesting their site to anyone – they do amazing recipes and really help supply me with ideas and recipes. Yum! You can find the original recipes HERE.
1 cup Almond Milk
3/4c Vegan Butter (I used Earth Balance)
5 tbsp Dry Active Yeast
½ c White Sugar
4 c Plain White Flour (not bleached or enriched)
1/2 tsp Allspice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Cloves
1 tsp Salt
3 tsp flaxseed, ground
1 cup raisins
(Optional: Peel of 1 cleaned Orange)
For the crosses:
4 tbs Plain Flour
4 tbs Cold Water.
Glazing:
½ cup Water
½ cup Sugar.
1. Crumble your fresh yeast in a big bowl. Melt your margarine, add the milk and heat until body temperature (98 F). Pour the liquid over the yeast and mix until lump free.
2. Add the sugar, salt and spices. Mix well and then add your egg replacer (pre-mixed according to the directions on the packet), sultanas and peel.
3. Add your flour and mix until the dough gets glossy and smooth.
4. Leave in a lightly floured bowl, dust the dough with flour and cover with a clean kitchen towel.
5. Leave to rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
6. After rising, divide the dough into 20 equal sized round buns and place them on a oven tray with baking paper. (make sure you don’t knead the dough to much, to save air in the buns)
7. Cover again with the clean kitchen towel and leave to rise for another 45 minutes.
8. Pre-Heat your oven to 400 F and prepare the glaze by adding the sugar to boiling water and stirring until clear.
9. Mix the flour and water for your crosses.
10. Pipe the cross shape onto your buns right before baking them for 10-12 min (until golden).
11. When the hot cross buns comes out of the oven brush them with your sugar glaze. This will make them shiny and sticky, a must for the hot cross buns.
12. Eat them by cutting them in half and spreading with butter (toasting the hot cross buns is a grat tip).
13. Very tasty! Enjoy!
Extra: Seriously, look at the size of this Hot Cross Bun!!! So Cute!
If anything was as encouraging as a new year with new possibilities, I would like to offer this photo up for encouragement. It is a dragon that was seen in the sky by Watashi to Tokyo. My Chinese New Year horoscope promises many things in 2012 so I’m so thrilled about this year. Check out your own Chinese horoscope for free at: http://www.gotohoroscope.com/. I’m sure you can find your horoscope other places too online for free. Happy Year of the Dragon!
We’ve made these tasty chocolate cookies filled with a peanut butter cookie on a few different occasions so it was just right to make them at Christmas. Actually I made them last Christmas and people were seriously fighting over the last few on the plate. So for the fun of our holiday and to make very valuable, memorable videos (aka threat videos) for the future, I decided to make them again. Ha-ha Too much fun!
These cookies look hard when reading the recipe but to tell the truth, it’s not hard at all. It does take some time though, so plan ahead to not be in a rush. In essence you are making two different cookie doughs. Then you make balls out of all the dough. Then just wrap the peanut butter ball with the chocolate cookie dough. Then just toss them in the oven and bake. Trust me; they are worth the extra work!
This cookie recipe can be found in the Vegan Cookies Invade the Cookie Jar Cookbook or online at the PPK website. I have reposted the original recipe from PPK online so you can find it easily. I highly suggest you go about checking out the PPK website and then buy the cookbook.
Chocolate dough: 1/2 cup canola oil 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup pure maple syrup 3 tablespoons non-dairy milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3c + 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling: 3/4 cup natural salted peanut butter, crunchy or creamy style 2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar 2 to 3 tablespoons soy creamer or non-dairy milk 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a large mixing bowl combine oil, sugar, maple syrup, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Sift in flour, cocoa powder, black cocoa if using, baking soda and salt. Mix to form a moist dough.
Make the filling. In another mixing bowl beat together peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, 2 tablespoons of soy creamer and vanilla extract to form a moist but firm dough. If peanut butter dough is too dry (as different natural peanut butters have different moisture content), stir in remaining tablespoon of non-dairy milk. If dough is too wet knead in a little extra powdered sugar.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape the cookies. Create the centers of the cookies by rolling the peanut butter dough into 24 balls. Scoop a generous tablespoon of chocolate dough, flatten into a disc and place a peanut butter ball in the center. Fold the sides of the chocolate dough up and around the peanut butter center and roll the chocolate ball into an smooth ball between your palms. Place on a sheet of waxed paper and repeat with remaining doughs. If desired gently flatten cookies a little, but this is not necessary.
Place dough balls on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes. Remove sheet from oven and let cookies for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to complete cooling. Store cookies in tightly covered container. If desired warm cookies in a microwave for 10 to 12 seconds before serving.
