Flourless Chocolate-dipped Vegan Cookie Dough Bites

This is my favorite kind of recipe because it tastes like it’s terrible for you, but it’s actually not! The “dough” is made from chickpeas, almond butter and oats so each bite has a good balance of fiber, protein and the good kind of fat. I used semi-sweet chocolate which isn’t too bad sugar wise, but it could easily be substituted for sugar-free chocolate chips. If you have a food processor this recipe is a breeze to make. I don’t have a food processor, but luckily there are many semi-public kitchens on campus and I was able to use one. I got the chickpeas and almond butter from Foco (the dining hall for all you non-Dartmouth readers) and the rest of the ingredients I already had laying around, but you can also find raisins, cinnamon, chocolate chips and honey at Foco.

Vegan Chocolatey Coconut Bliss Cups

Lately I’ve been making a lot of chocolate (basic recipe here). Since I bought a giant jar of coconut oil, my mind has just been flooded with ideas for chocolate bars and cups; I’ve hardly had the time to make all of them!

Vegan Palak Paneer

The last few years of my life have been marked by an increasingly passionate love affair with Indian food. It’s just so spicefully wonderful! To sum up my ever-increasing and undying love of Indian food, one particular poem springs to mind:

Perfect Valentine’s Day Treat: Dark Chocolate-Glazed Frozen Strawberries with a Kiss of Spice

This is another spin on my basic vegan chocolate recipe made with coconut oil. I made my basic dark chocolate recipe, added a hint of chili powder to give it a little kick, dipped frozen strawberries in it, and then let them thaw for a few minutes before serving.

It’s a wonderfully romantic recipe for Valentine’s Day, the strawberries even look a little bit like hearts! The decadent combination of icy strawberry and spiced chocolate melting on your tongue is guaranteed to melt any heart!

Sesame Tofu with Brown Rice

This is pretty much a dinner staple at my house. It’s packed with protein and is really yummy! I added Red Palm Oil and turmeric to the rice to add some nutritious benefits, giving it the beautiful yellow color. You can read about turmeric here, and Red Palm Oil here. Here’s the recipe!

Sinfully Good Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This recipe is an amalgamation of my Kentucky grandmother’s banana bread recipe with several other vegan banana bread recipes I found online. I decided to make it for the first time during my Fall term of college, sophomore year. It was an easy choice for college cooking because I found that I could smuggle two of its main ingredients, bananas and honey, in large quantities from the campus dining halls.

Creamy Vegan Spinach Alfredo Sauce

In my pre-vegan days I was a sucker for all things cheesy. Spinach dip, Fettuccine Alfredo, Mac and Cheese, Fondue, if cheese was the #1 ingredient, I was on board. My love of cheese prompted my parents to dub me ‘the mouse’.

Luckily these days with nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and tofu (or cashews), I can whip up any cheesy dish my heart desires without compromising my values or slender waistline.

This recipe was inspired by one for spinach dip I saw in Dr. Colin Campbell’s cook-book. I realized it had the basic ingredients to make an Alfredo sauce, tweaked it, and tested it. It was definitely a winner! Here’s the recipe. You can serve it with spaghetti squash, gluten-free pasta, shirataki noodles, or whatever you have on hand.

Spaghetti Squash: God’s Gift to Low Carb Pasta Lovers

I discovered the sheer brilliance that is spaghetti squash a couple years ago. It’s a staple in a low carb or gluten free diet, but it’s also just delicious and SHOCKINGLY filling. After one small bowl of it with whatever sauce I’ve made, I am usually stuffed, and trust me, with my appetite that is a hard thing to accomplish! For the amount each squash yields and the cheap price, it’s an extremely cost-effective supper option to feed multiple people. One squash is usually enough to feed around four people (sometimes with leftovers, depending on the size) and they cost about $1/lb, sometimes less!

Vegan Chocolate Filled with Spiced Banana-Almond Butter

This is another variation I’ve made on my basic vegan chocolate recipe made from coconut oil, recipe here. It’s a sort of almond butter cup with a little hint of banana and spice. It was utterly divine and possibly habit-forming. I got my roommate, in the photo above, hooked on my vegan chocolate addiction and by the end of it, we were both rushing to the grocery store every other month to buy more coconut oil! It was such a nice stress-buster for in between classes and I’ll admit on occasion it became a sort of late-night snack habit for us.

Vegan Milk Chocolate with Chili Powder

One of the variations I’ve made on my basic vegan chocolate recipe made from coconut oil, recipe here. This time I wanted more of a milk chocolate flavor so I added almond milk. Personally it’s my favorite ‘milk’ because of the silky texture, but really any plant-based milk will do.

If you have seen the movie Chocolat (Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche) you will understand why I added the chili powder. Ever since that movie was seen in my household, my mother and I started making our own version of Vianne’s magic hot chocolate with chili powder. Chocolate and chili is an unbelievably tasty combo, and I’d like to tell myself it’s magical and might bring some beautiful Johnny Depp type into my life, haha!