Coconut No Bake Cookies

So, it's erev another Jewish holiday, Shavuot. My whole facebook has gone and filled itself up with very decadent looking cheesecakes. Vegan, you ask? Not a chance. While I did find some pretty great looking vegan cheesecakes, I really haven't been in the mood to fiddle around too much. So when I saw this recipe for Coconut No Bake Cookies by Minimalist Baker on my Instagram, I was there. Easy peasy, chocolate, peanut butter, coconut and oats. Nothing could be bad. And in fact, they are delicious. I usually don't eat sugar and desserts even of the relatively unprocessed, raw kind, but I figured that it's the holidays and why the heck not. YOLO, right? You can find the recipe here.

Meal Plan: March 22-March 26th- Second Avenue Vegetable Korma

This week brings us one of the last recipes that I'll be making from Appetite for Reduction. Officially, spring has arrived (hallelujah!) but the weather has been a bit fickle. I'm taking advantage of these last weeks to make soup/stews before I transition to lighter fare.  Essentially this vegetable korma is a curry, with lots of spices and a bit of coconut milk.

This week at the supermarket I spent about 80 shekels. The usual peppers, corn, cucumbers, potatoes and carrots along with a huge bag of dried chickpeas (for next week's recipe), some drain cleaner, zucchini, and some sweet potatoes to go along with the korma. Not too bad considering that the chickpeas will be stretched for a good while after next week's recipe. I had leftover red onion from a salad I made over the weekend, ginger still from my most recent tofu experiment and I made homemade coconut milk!

Coconut Pancakes

I interrupt this week's rigid meal plan to bring you.... Coconut Pancakes! This recipe was made on an impulse and my am I glad that I was impulsive! I finished my monthly stash of berries two days before I can pick up my order for a fresh supply so that left me without breakfast for a couple of days. That, coupled with the fact that I had leftover soy milk from making corn bread meant I had to be creative. Can't starve and certainly can't have any waste! Although I asked for suggestions on Facebook, my heart was telling me only one thing- pancakes! And so pancakes I would have. I checked online and a basic search told me that my favorite vegan chef, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, has a a few pancake recipes in the very book that showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago. The coconut pancakes quickly caught my eye. Seeing as I had everything in my pantry (making this budget friendly) I set to work. These were easy peasy to make and behaved just as an egg-filled pancake would and my how delicious all the coconut was. I didn't use as much nutmeg as called for and I'm glad I didn't because then I would have been too overwhelmed by the flavor. The nutmeg really complemented the coconut well. Did I mention that I love coconut?! Being a McDougaller, I rarely use oil and almost never use coconut anymore but I figured that once in a while is okay. I'm hoping my heart will forgive me. As I still have another cup or so of soy milk left, I probably will make a batch of her plain pancakes tomorrow, the recipe being very similar to this one. Gosh, go make these already-- they are simply divine!