Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I fell into a trap today and ended up watching 10 Cloverfield Lane. I feel...tricked. A little betrayed. Honestly, kind of confused. I was on the edge of my seat for the first hour and a half, texting everyone "You HAVE TO WATCH THIS!" Seriously, I hated the original Cloverfield, but this was actually good. Until the last 20 minutes. Then it turned into...well, I won't spoil it. I'm just hurt.

It was a good day, overall. However, I ended up breaking my cleanse prep streak. It was weakness. I did go to the local juicing company, but they didn't have enough to sell me for four days of juicing. So I bought two bottles. They were tasty! One was a "Mean Green" with all veggies and a little apple. The other is a pure fruit, consisting of a whole watermelon (rind included...) and lime. I only drink half of that one. It's very strong and makes me feel like I just brushed my teeth.

But anyway, it got a little weird after that. I had tried to call the juice company yesterday but never got an answer. Then they decided to text me. So I ended up having a lovely conversation with the owner of the company about juicing for half an hour. It was a little weird. TFW when your local juicer won't stop texting you, am I right?

I went on a walk as well, just like I said I would. See, it only took a little juice and motivation to turn around a slump. I didn't run, because it was 95 degrees and sunny, but I walked for 45 minutes. It was miserable and wonderful. There's a paved walking track behind my local Walmart. It's in such a weird spot that no one knows it's there, so I have the whole track to myself. I discovered it about six years ago when I was into geocaching, and now I'm a weekly visitor. Daily, on a good month.

So, yeah. The only bad part about today was that, with no stockpile of juice, I broke my raw juice prep diet and ate some of the strange cookie muffins leftover from yesterday. I also just baked some Gardein for dinner because I was really lazy and just wanted to watch that damn movie. But I mean, letting things like that get me down is not something I worry about. I don't watch what I eat. I guess I just felt a little weird about breaking a good streak.

But anyway, I've talked enough. I always complain about recipe blogs that have the whole bullshit blog part that you have to scroll past to get to the recipe. But hey, this isn't a recipe blog. I just want to share my love of cookies with the world. Now, these cookies are special. Like I said, since I've gone vegan, the classic chocolate chip cookie has been kind of a challenge to nail down. But this recipe really works. Be sure to see the end notes, though.

Ingredients:
1 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of almond milk
1/3 cup of peanut butter
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 cup of flour
1 cup of chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Stir sugar, almond milk, peanut butter, canola oil, and vanilla together in a large bowl with a whisk.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, pecans, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the peanut butter mixture and stir to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake cookies about 8-9 minutes, watching carefully.

Notes:
-I cannot stress how careful you need to be with the timing on these cookies. The bottoms will get done very quickly, before the tops look like they're ready. They will continue baking for a short while on the pan even after you remove them from the oven, and they will harden when they cool, so relax. You don't want burnt bottoms! It's also very tricky because if these cookies are too underdone, you will be able to taste the peanut butter. Not such a terrible thing, but this is meant to be a classic chocolate chip cookie, and they taste better that way.
-If you have a nut allergy or just don't want pecans, you can absolutely substitute oats in.