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.

Apricot White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Closet Cooking.
Makes 15-20 cookies.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dried apricots (chopped)
1/2 cup white chocolate (chopped)

Directions:
1. Gradually mix honey into butter in a large bowl.
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
3. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
5. Mix in the rolled oats, apricots and white chocolate.
6. Place the dough onto a (greased) tray one table spoon at a time.
7. Bake in a 350F preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.

Pizza Margherita, grad student style

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp olive oil
Tomato sauce
Cheese
Basil leaves

Directions:
1. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, water, and oil, until thoroughly confused.
2. Add more of each ingredient as necessary until you have something that resembles dough.
3. Flatten onto greased tray, using a mug.
4. Spread tomato sauce and cheese.
5. Bake until crust is crispy.
6. Add basil leaves.

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