Apple-Ginger Cookies

As an individual, I have always loved foods. Unfortunately for me, until recently, I've loved foods that haven't loved me back. Sweets, salted foods. When I turned vegan at the beginning of this year, the trend continued as I discovered vegan baking. I'm still baking, but I'm more aware of my calorie and nutritional intake thanks to nutrimirror, so I'm not eating quite as wildly anymore. I'm attempting to balance what I'm eating, focusing more on beans, on vegetables and fruits, unprocessed sugars (eg fruits such as Dates). Of course, I failed tonight when I made Vegan With a Vengeance's (VWAV) Raspberry-Chocolate Chip Blondie bars. They are crumbly-delicious. They're funk-tastic looking and I don't have the best of cameras, so no pictures, sorry.

A few weeks back, (after having made Isa Chandra's Seitan Smothered in Apples and Ginger (found here), I started using ginger a LOT in my cooking. One night, I wondered if I could make Apple-Ginger cookies. So I did.

They came out pretty muffin-like. Very very ginger-y (2 teaspoons) and couldn't taste the apple. Still delicious however. It's been a little while, sadly, since I've made these, but I'm going to write out the recipe as I remember it.

On this past Sunday, I was at work. They had these left over dishes for lunch available to the members of the meeting. One of them looked like it was Sweet Potatoes and Black beans. Since I wasn't sure if they were vegan, I had to forgo them. Since then, I've been seriously wanting to partake of this delicious looking dish. So I made my own version tonight with black beans & sweet potatoes & corn & peas. 

Apple-Ginger Muffin-Cookies
2.25 cups white flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 of an apple, peeled & diced into very small bits
1 teaspoon ginger (I used two, but one should be way better)

Mix all of this together (I've never been a fan of dirtying two bowls by preparing dry/wet ingredients separately and mixing everything together at one time doesn't really seem like an issue to me, but if you want, you can mix the wet + sugar together first than the dry in) and form into balls. Put on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for ~12 minutes. Preheating a little is good, but you don't have to get it all the way to 350 before putting them in.


Sweet Potato Black Bean Mix
1 large Yam/Sweet Potato, cut into small cubes.
1.5 cups black beans pre-soaked/cooked (canned is good, I suppose, but I use dried beans soaked and then boiled for an hour and a half or so)
1/3 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup frozen corn
1 medium-large onion (I used about 1.4 medium onions-the other .6 went to a different recipe)
1 large clove of garlic
1 teaspoon canola oil
[Mix the spices together in a small bowl]
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup vegetable broth (I used homemade, but I'm sure bouillon cubes would work well too) Water works as well, I would assume.

Saute the onion and garlic for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add the spice mix, constantly moving the mixture until it's mostly covering the onions. Deglaze with 1/3 cup of vegetable broth (or water) and add the sweet potato and stir for several seconds. Add the rest of the broth and cover with a lid for several minutes, stirring every so occasionally. When the sweet potatoes have become tender-not quite soft enough for your liking, but closing in, add the black beans. Stir to mix in and cover again.

A few minutes later, add the corn and peas, stir for a minute or two then turn off heat and cover again.

Eat delicious black beans and sweet potatoes!