TwoOne

My bad shawtays, I'm late on yet another blog post. Wah, let's just all be happy I'm making up for the ones I've missed. Ok, let's post a song first. Here's a sweet Christmas song that I like to listen to when I'm having a rough day. So, since I had a rough few days last week (rest in peace Aunt Linda), I thought I'd share it with you. Rachael Yamagata is an amazing artist and if you have not checked out any of her other songs/albums, I highly recommend you do so! I hope you enjoy it!


Ok, enough sappy/downer stuff, let's move onto something that makes everyone happy...COOKIES! A few days ago I mentioned that Taylor and I made some delicious cookies. I promised you the recipe and it's a mighty complex one so bear with me.

Funfetti Cookies

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 box Funfetti cake mix (or any flavor cake mix)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl mix together the eggs, oil, and cake mix. Stir until all the cake mix is dissolved. (Note from me: it'll be tough to mix but don't add water. It'll be very thick and sticky, this is normal.) Place little balls of cookie dough onto a sprayed cookie sheet and Voila! you're ready to place them in the oven and bake them until they are a little golden on the edges. (We all know what cookies look like when they're done.)

Our batch made about 18 large Funfetti cookies. We also made a batch of lemon cookies using lemon cake mix. I must say, these turned out delicious if you like a hint of lemon. We paired them with cream cheese frosting and mmm they were marvelous.

Now, the other recipe I said I would share was the vegan lasagna we made. So, here goes:

Easy Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna

• 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic
• 2 tbsp. water
• 2 26-oz jars of spaghetti sauce (or your favorite pasta sauce)
• 9 lasagna noodles
• Soy Parmesan (optional; we used vegan shredded mozzarella)
• Sliced black olives (optional)

     Filling:

• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed (we used fresh spinach)
• 1 lb tofu (firm, reduced-fat recommended-not silken!)
• 1 tsp. salt (optional)
• 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast (adds a cheesy taste; I don't think we used this...maybe though)
• 1 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1/2 tsp. rosemary, crushed
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

Saute the mushrooms and garlic over medium heat in the 2 tbsp. water until tender. Remove from heat and add the spaghetti sauce (use a big pot or we found that a wok worked best).

Place the tofu and thawed spinach in the food processor (we used a big bowl and a potato masher) and process briefly. Add the remaining filling ingredients to the processor and blend until smooth. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Spread half of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x12 in. pan. Place a layer of noodles over the sauce, using three dry noodles and leaving a space in b/w them. Spread half of the tofu mixture on the noodles. We added some shredded mozzarella after the tofu layer and then repeated the layers. Cover with another layer of 3 noodles and then spread the remaining tofu mixture over them. Top with a final layer of noodles and pour the remaining sauce over this. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with soy Parmesan and sliced black olives if you want. The lasagna will cut better if you allow it to cool for 15 minutes before serving. 

**Recipe from: FatFree Vegan Kitchen