I made these the other week for my classmates to nibble on during our first Printmaking critique of the semester. They are always a crowd pleaser! Everyone over at Flickr is hounding me for the recipe, so I made sure to set aside some time this morning to share these minty treats. :)

Dry Ingredients
2 cups White spelt flour
3/4 cup Semisweet or carob chips
1 cup Walnuts, chopped
3/4 cup Rolled oats
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Baking soda
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg (optional)

Wet Ingredients
2/3 cup Agave nectar
2/3 cup Canola oil
2 tbsp Water
1 tsp Peppermint extract

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk. Place all wet ingredients in a separate bowl and emulsify. Slowly add wet to dry while mixing evenly. Let sit in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

- Roll dough into small balls and place on the baking sheet, leaving enough room for them to grow. Bake in the middle rack until delicious… Approximately 10 minutes, or until they begin to brown. Let cool briefly before removing to a cooling rack, then share and enjoy! :)

Goes great with a glass of rice milk or your morning coffee.

Recipe adapted from the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook.

Though I’ve never been exactly clear on who ‘they’ are, they say you’re supposed to drink half your body weight in ounces in water each day. The first time I heard this it took a moment or two for me to wrap my brain around the phrase, but now I think about it all the time. Some days I try to really focus on meeting this goal, and let me tell you how hard it is! I’ll carry my Nalgene with me everywhere I go, guzzling in the middle of class, on the way home, while checking my email and so on.

All I ever seem to accomplish is taking 20 pee breaks over the course of an 80 minute class! But at least the challenge keeps me aware of my water intake, be it in the form of actual water, juice, coffee, or (my favorite) tea!

Ever since school started back up I had to take a bit of a break from any serious cooking. Our pantry full of canned soups, pastas and rice is proof of what a busy semester I’m having. But a canceled class at the start of the weekend meant I had extra time to make something worth blogging about. Chris and I had been eyeing the recipe for Thai pizza in Vegan World Fusion Cuisine for a long time, but just reading the directions made me tired, so we weren’t quick to give it a try.

It’s really too bad we didn’t make it sooner, because there is nothing about this pizza that isn’t delicious. It’s called Tat Tvam Asi Thai Pizza and uses VWFC’s Universal Spelt Foccacia and Hari Jiwan’s Coconut Sauce recipes as well.
Tat Tvam Asi translates to “That Art Thou.” In a nutshell, it means we see the Brahman in everything, and in identifying with the Brahman in ourselves, we recognize that all others are essentially identical with ourselves.

Well, enough with the religion lesson– on with the good food! We didn’t stray too far from the recipe, but definitely made some changes to fit it with our tastes (and budget!). I’m definitely interested in making the sauce without the lime leaf and seeing how much of a difference it makes.

Since it’s such a huge process, I’ll put most of the directions and photos under cuts. Don’t be discouraged if it looks like a lot of work. It is work, but not too much; especially if you have a helper handy to take care of the dough (thanks Chris!). It also leaves a lot of leftovers which don’t get soggy or gross even after 2 days of sitting in the fridge!

The basic order of preparation went like this: First, Chris prepared the dough. Then I marinated the tofu, cut and steamed the veggies and sauteed the onion simultaneously. After the tofu was browned I added the steamed veggies, and then began making the coconut sauce.

Spelt Foccacia Dough

Pizza Toppings

Coconut Sauce

Finally, after everything has been prepared, we carefully added the veggies and tofu to the coconut sauce. Using a slotted ladle we spread the mixture over the dough, leaving borders around the edges for a crust. There was quite a bit of coconut sauce left and it was too tasty to pour down the sink, so we saved it for dipping our crust into.

Both pizzas were then topped with the cilantro and peanuts reserved for garnishing. Placed on the middle rack, we baked them at 375 for approximately 20 minutes, or until delicious.

If you eat like me, this will serve 8. If you eat like my husband, it will serve 4 :)

It sounds even more overwhelming all typed out, but you can easily do many things the day before to cut back on the work. Tofu can be marinated overnight, veggies chopped ahead of time. Even the sauce keeps really well refrigerated in a tight container.

I’m not sure how often we’ll have the energy to make this, but it’s a definite keeper. And heck, the coconut sauce alone is worth keeping on reserve in the refrigerator for pouring over rice and veggies. Yum!

Recipe adapted from the Vegan World Fusion Cuisine cookbook.

This spring term I’m taking ceramics for the first time. It’s proving to be an exciting challenge as I’ve never done anything in the realm of sculpture before. Our first project involves making handbuilt vases utilizing some form of texture. After much inner debate I decided to go Georges Braque on my vase and give it fake wood grain, among other things, to give a tree-like appearance. Who knows if I’ll be able to pull it off, but after doing some research on art with similar texture I’ve decided that I love wood grain!

I even came across this beautiful bracelet which, if I had $250 to blow, I would certainly be putting it into this Etsy seller’s pocket!

Her username is honeybee and her shop is full of marvelous things, but if you aren’t crazy rich I’d recommend you shield your eyes and brace yourself for heartbreak!