coconut macaroons with chocolate and/or fruit!

Adapted from various places around the internet. Possibly the easiest recipe we've done yet! The final product is chewy, sweet-smelling, and delicious. The only part that was slightly tricky was un-sticking them from the baking tray at the end.
Makes ~20 good-sized macaroons.

Ingredients:
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1.5 (12 oz) cups of shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Handful of dried fruit (here, apricots and pineapple), chopped
1 oz (or more) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:
1. Beat egg with vanilla.
2. In a large bowl, combine coconut with condensed milk and egg mixture, mix well.
3. At this point, you can split the "batter" in half, which is what we did, adding fruit to one half and chocolate to the other so that you will get two different kinds of macaroons. Or, you can mix the fruit and chocolate together, which also works.
4. Put table-spoon sized portions of the mixture onto a greased baking tray.
5. Bake for ~15 minutes at 350F, until they are somewhat firmer and brown on the bottom.

peanut butter bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. (We opted for less butteriness, more nuttiness)

Ingredients:
1 stick butter or butter substitute
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup pecans
3 tablespoons coconut flakes

Directions:
1. Mix butter and honey
2. Stir in peanut butter
3. Stir in egg and vanilla extract
4. Add flour and stir until combined.
5. Finally, mix in chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut flakes.
6. Bake at 350F for ~40 minutes.

Clathrin-coated cake

A tart lime cheesecake decorated in the style of everyone's favorite vesicle-coating protein.

Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz Tofutti cream cheese substitute
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup agave nectar (or, more honey to taste)
3 tablespoons flour 
1 egg
1 lime
2 teaspoons vanilla

Crust:
1 stick butter
~3/4 cups flour

Toppings:
Here, two chopped kiwis and some raspberries. Strawberries would work well too.

 Directions:
1. Juice a lime (should give about 1/3 cup of juice).
2. Grate lime peel to get about 2 tablespoons of gratings. Set aside, along with the juice.
3. In a separate pot, heat cream cheese and Tofutti. Mix until they have melted together
4. Stir in honey, agave nectar, and flour.
5. Beat the egg in a separate bowl, and then stir it into the mixture.
6. Add the lime juice, lime peel, and vanilla.
7. To prepare the crust, melt 1 stick of butter and gradually add in flour while mixing, until your fingers can leave a mark in the dough. Try not to add so much flour that the dough become crumbly.
8. Press crust into 9-inch pie plate so that it evenly coats the bottom and sides.
9. Pour the filling into the crust.
10. Bake at 350F for 40-50 minutes, until crust is solid and filling is firm and springy!
11. Allow to cool, add fruit toppings.

Frosted Carrot Cake

We kinda combined various recipes from out there and added our own ideas, but the starting instructions came from the ever-reliable Closet Cooking.

Cake ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup (vanilla) soy milk
1/3 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tablespoon oil
1 3/4 cups grated carrots

Frosting ingredients:
5-6 oz cream cheese (softened)
Sweetener to taste. We used ~1/4 cup agave nectar, for variety!
1/4 cup chopped pecans 

Directions:
1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, pecans, and coconut) in a bowl.
2. Mix soy milk, honey, and oil in a large bowl. Beat in eggs. Add carrots and mix well.
3. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
4. Pour mixture into a greased pan/plate. (We used a 9-inch pie plate.)
5. Bake in a 350F oven for ~30 mins, until a toothpick can come out clean.
6. Mix agave nectar into cream cheese until it is sweet enough.
7. Spread frosting over cake and top with pecans.

Asian-ish linguini

Adapted from The Taste Space.

Makes 2-3 servings. (We basically halved the original recipe.)

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetable broth
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
6 ounces firm tofu, cut into small cubes
2 cups of chopped broccoli
3 ounces (1 bunch) of soba noodles
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup fresh basil, shredded
1/4 cup fresh mint, shredded
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:
1. Combine vegetable broth, ginger, and tofu in a pot. Bring to boil, and then reduce the heat to simmer for ~10 minutes. Remove the tofu from the pot and set aside, leaving the broth in the pot.
2. Add broccoli to the broth, and cook for about 1 minute. Remove from pot with fork.
3. Add noddles to broth and cook until done, stirring regularly.
4. Drain remaining broth from the noodles.
5. Add broccoli and tofu to the noddles. Stir in the soy sauce, basil, mint, and red pepper. Add salt to taste.

Fruit Pecan Chai Muffins

 

Adapted from Bake & Destroy.

Makes 24 mini muffins.

Ingredients:
2 spicy tea bags*
3/4 cup (vanilla) soymilk
1/4 or 1/3 cup honey
1 3/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup dried fruit (cranberries and chopped figs)
1/3 cup pecans
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 1/2 Tbs ground flax seeds
3 Tbs water
* We used this one.  (The original recipe uses black tea and these spices: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cardamom, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cloves.)

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. Add nuts and dried fruit.
3. Heat soymilk and add tea bags, steep for several minutes.
4. Mix honey into tea.
5. In another bowl, mix ground flaxseed with water.
6. In yet another bowl, beat an egg.
7. Add flax, egg, and tea mixture to dry ingredients, stir.
8. Put in muffin pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Asparagus Broccoli Rice Quiche

Adapted from Closet Cooking.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
~ 2 oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 egg (or equivalent amount of egg white?)

Filling:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
~ 4 oz cheddar cheese, grated
asparagus, chopped
broccoli, chopped
basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the rice, cheese and egg in a bowl.
2. Press the rice mixture into a pie plate (we used a 9.5-inch plate), about 1/4 inch thick.
3. Bake in a preheated 450F oven until the edges and bottom just start turning golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
4. Steam asparagus and broccoli
5. Mix the eggs, milk, cheese, basil, asparagus and broccoli in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
6. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.
7. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until golden brown and set in the center, about 30-35 minutes.