Lots of cooking today!

For lunch, I got a mean craving for some wontons. On a side note, my work week is light this week, so I'll be posting lots of yummy lunch-at-home meals...as a needed relief from bars and protable fruits and veggies. Anyway, I devised my own recipe for chicken-like wontons:

* 1/3-1/2 block of firm tofu, drained, well-dried, and mashed with a fork in a medium-size bowl

* 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

* 1 teaspoon liquid aminos or light soysauce

* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger (or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger)

* 1 teaspoon rice vinegar

* 1 teaspoon sesame oil

* 1 teaspoon natural sweetener (brown sugar, agave, molasses, etc.)

* chopped scallions

* 1 teaspoon canola oil

* 10-12 vegan wonton wrappers

* canola oil for pan frying

Mix the mashed tofu with everything but the canola for frying, scallions, and wrappers. Heat the 1 teaspoon of canola oil in a frying pan and add the mashed tofu. Allow to brown before stirring, as you would cooking ground beef (gross, I know, but needed for explaination). Toss in the green onions and transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Fill each wonton skin with a teaspoon or so of the cooked tofu mixture, fold one side of the skin over the tofu and seal with a small dab of water. Once all the wontons are assembled, heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan and fry the wontons over medium to medium-high heat until golden and crispy. Serve with any Asian-style dipping sauce you like--sweet and sour, simple straightup soysauce, hot mustard...

Matt loved these wontons! Later, I caught him eating the leftover tofu mixture with his fingers. Too cute.

So after we digested lunch, we wanted to do some serious baking. Matt scoured Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson and I paged though Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton. I hadn't made Dreena's Coconut Raspberry Bars in awhile, and Matt was in the mood for chocolate. He picked Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies. Here's what they look(ed) like:

Ooohhh...If you haven't already made Dreena's Coconut Raspberry bars, your life is not complete! They are out of this world fantastic! And thanks to Matt, the bottom crust was perfectly smooth and even--beautiful!

The brownies, I was not so crazy about. They were just-barely sweet and didn't have that rich chocolate-peanut butter pizzaz I was hoping for. But good and edible nonetheless.