Recap and a cool new oil!

Hey guys! So, what did you think of the 5 grain salads? It's a healthy start, right? Well, since I've been bombarding you guys with healthy stuff, well, I thought I'd take a break and maybe share some of the sweeter items I've made lately. (Actually, it's a little healthy.) But first, a little recap of the 5 Days of Grains.

Day 1: Quinoa. It's the new superfood, right? Plus, it tastes great.

Day 2: Couscous. Whenever I'm in a rush, this is my go-to grain.

Day 3: Scarlet Quinoa. A red version of the super healthy superfood? Yes!

Day 4: Israeli Couscous and Scarlet Quinoa Salad. Cook and easy, sign me up!

Day 5: Barley Salad. A new grain, one that I wasn't really sure how to cook, but nonetheless tasty! Agh, I keep spelling it barely, not barley. Oops o.O

Now onto a sweeter note....these Cranberry Almond Oatmeal Cookies. They're vegan and made with coconut oil! First off I want to say Coconut Oil smells AMAZING. No coconut body lotion could ever smell as good. It's not that fake coconut fragrance, but the true authentic coconut oil smell. I don't think I can do the smell justice, but trust me on this, it smells out of this world! Also, it makes a pretty darn good cookie. My dad said they taste more like oatcakes than cookies, but that's okay because he said they're still extremely tasty. I may have baked the cookies a little too long (hence their oatcake-like-texture) but they were really tasty. Even after baking they smelled and tasted faintly of coconut.

If I ever make a coconut or haupia cake (which I hope I will soon) I plan to use this coconut oil. Yup, I bet it will bump up the coconut flavor even more YUM! :) I also used the coconut oil to make some spelt pancakes. But sadly I didn't take any pictures. Darn, I should've taken some because they were pretty tasty. And by that I mean I inhaled those delicious hotcakes! I'll probably make another batch this weekend, so hopefully I'll take some pictures.

Oatmeal Raisin

Adapted from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Ingredients:

⅓ cup soy milk

2 Tbs ground flax seed

⅔ cup brown sugar

⅓ cup coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla

¾ cup flour

½ tsp cinnamon

⅛ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ cups quick cook oats

½ cup dried cranberries

 1/2 cup almonds, toasted and chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven 350˚F

2. Beat together soy milk and flax. Add sugar and oil. Beat until resembles caramel

3. Mix in vanilla

4. Sift in flour, spices, and salt. Mix in oats, cranberries, and almonds

5. Drop tablespoons onto a cookie sheet, flatten slightly

6. Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly golden. (For firmer cookies / oatcake-like-texture, bake slightly longer until golden brown)

 Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose.  Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review in return for the free product.