Thursday, May 9, 2013

Kitchen Success...and Fail!

In my continued efforts to improve my housewifery skills, I am constantly searching for new, interesting, creative and healthy recipes. This week I tried two...one for Crockpot Orange Chicken, which I've tried before and wanted to perfect, and another for Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies.

First, the orange chicken. This was my second attempt and it was DELICIOUS!! I've found that my crockpot cooks waaaay faster than one would expect so I have to significantly reduce cook time, even when it's on low. That has been my issue with most of my first attempts. I used a little extra flour than the recipe calls for just to make sure I got that breaded effect. Then I made a little bit more sauce than the recipes calls for to get a good coat on each piece of chicken. I paired the chicken with brown rice and steamed veggies and it was perfecto!



Now for the Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies...

NO I am not turning Vegan!! I actually have a decent amount of Almond Meal in my cupboard which I wanted to experiment with. Almond Meal is a gluten free option that can be substituted for flour. It has some great health benefits so I figured why not give it a try with a few different things.

I have to admit that I was excited about this recipe and had no reservations about it. The main difference is that it substitutes flour for almond meal and sugar for honey. The dough was very, very sticky and had a grainy texture to it. I still wasn't worried. Luckily I halved the size of this recipe so it was only a single batch. I love peanut butter but these cookies just taste TOO healthy! They have a very strong taste of shortening, which ruins it. And I ran out of honey so maybe I didn't put in as much as I could have. Long story short, these cookies are not my favorite but they are in my fridge in hopes that I can still stomach them as a snack full of protein.

vegan gluten-free peanut butter cookies recipe

Never fear, I will spend more time and effort on almond meal recipes to see if I find something I like! The challenge is that most of the recipes that include almond meal also include a lot of healthy, vegan ingredients that I've never had in my cupboard before so it's going to require a trip to Trader Joe's. Wish me luck!!

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