I'mmm Sooorrryyy

So if you have never seen the movie WANTED then you will not get my title.

I am sorry I have not posted anything for about a month. Here are my excuses:
1. I was working like crazy.
2. I was fasting from the internet for 3 weeks during a fast with my church. (I would have warned you all a head of time but due to work I hadn't been able to do anything.)

Ok so I only have 2 excuses. But my new job will be contributing to my blog because it deals with vegan food! Nice, I know.

Since I haven't posted anything in a while I have two recipes to share with you.

I made a soup for dinner for a friend one night and this is what I made:

Black Bean Soup

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 yellow pepper, small dice
1 green pepper, small dice
1/2 onion, small dice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup vegetale broth
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon oregano, dried
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander

Heat oil in large pot, add onions. Saute until onions are translucent.

Add in the pepper and garlic, cook until peppers are soft, about 8 minutes.

Add the spices, tomato paste, and lemon zest and juice.

Let that cook for 3 minutes, top with black beans. Then add the vegetable broth and 1/2 cup of the water. You want the liquid to just cover the beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes. If the soup is too thick add the other 1/2 cup of water.

Either using a blender, food proccessor, or a hand blender, blend half the soup. If using the hand blender do not blend it completly but pulse to blend the soup.

Add the soup back to pot (if you used the blender), along with the corn and simmer for another 10 minutes.

I toped the soup with fresh tomatoes, black olives, and guacamole.

It was good and my friend enjoyed it too and it was a nice time seeing her during the week.

Recipe number two:

I love oatmeal cinnamon raisin cookies. mine usually have tons of cinnamon, walnuts, and lots of raisins. But I wanted to have a twist on these cookies. I looked through Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and found a recipe that I had thought about trying before. So I did, try it, well sort of. I had to add my twist to it of course. I wanted to add coconut to the cookies and I had went to Trader Joe's and purchased their jumbo raisin mix, which I have had before and like, so I wanted to add that to the cookies, as well. This is what I came up with:

Coconut Fruity Oat Cookies

3 cups old- fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup wheat germ (I did not have wheat germ, so I added wheat bran)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (my teaspoon is slightly larger then others, it looks more like a tablespoon when it comes to cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut, grated unsweetened
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoon applesauce
1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds

1 1/2 cups jumbo raisin medley
extra water if necessary

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Parchment line two baking sheets.

In a large boil, mix oats, spelt flour, wheat germ, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.

Add the coconut and seeds.

In another bowl or a large measuring cup, mix the flax seeds and water.

Add the vanilla, oil, agave nectar, syrup, and applesauce.

Make a well in the center of the dry mix, add the wet mixture and slowly combine the two. Add in the raisins.

If the dough is too dry add extra water slowly until the dough comes together but is not too sticky.

Form into cookies and bake for 16 minutes, turning the pans and swapping the pans halfway through the bake time.

They are good, even with all the crazy stuff inside them. The original recipe has them become bars with dried cranberries, pepitas (pumpkin seeds) and other dried fruit. I like to be different, what can I say.

So some things I have been making at my job:
Tomato Herb Bread

Banana Tiramisu

I don't have pictures for these but I also made chocolate raspberry bars, lemon raspberry bars with an almond crust, focaccia bread, flat bread, pan di ceci, apple/asain pear crisp, and asain pear chai crisp.

So please forgive me and don't worry I will be posting more... I promise.

Here are some dinners I have made for myself:
Stir fry salad:

Asain eggplant and baby corn with edamame:

Oh and I need to find burdock root! I tried it once for the first time, roasted and it was delicious. I need to find some to try it again.

Until next time...