Foodie Friday: Baker Oats

It's Foodie Friday! Foodie Friday is my weekly feature that gives you a window into my kitchen. I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to read cookbooks, and I love to inspire people to give vegan food a chance. Thus, Foodie Friday was whipped up and baked to perfection.

Our food week started out strong on Sunday with a repeat showing of General Tao's Tofu, which looked way better the first time that I made it. Food photography fail, but dinner win! When Jason asks to have tofu for dinner, I never turn him down. I served it with brown rice this time to make it a little healthier.


Monday night Jason wolfed down a plate of leftover General Tao's while I was cooking up something else:

Cherry chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for the sailor suits!
After my batch of oatmeal cookies fell flat two weeks ago, I had to redeem myself.

Since this recipe was veganized by moi, I can share it with you. I think it originally came off of a package of Quaker oats, but it doesn't match the recipe on current containers, so it may have been changed by my mom or by Quaker over the years. All I know is that this is how we've been making oatmeal cookies since I was a wee little Heidi. I called them "baker oats" because I thought the man on the canister was a baker. Hey, it makes sense!

As a bonus, you get my mom's funny directions (with my notes in parentheses).

Baker Oats Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated (regular white) sugar
egg replacer equivalent to 1 egg (I used Ener-g)
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups oats

Preheat oven to 350°

Beat shortening, sugars, egg (replacer), water, and vanilla extract together until creamy. Stir in flour, salt, and soda and blend well. Eat some now because it tastes good. Stir in oats. Eat some more because it tastes good this way too. Now add chocolate chips and/or chopped nuts (...and/or dried fruit), the amount doesn't matter. Eat some more now. Grease cookie sheets with shortening (I used a silicon baking mat). Eat some more dough. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Don't burn them. I always use a slightly lower temperature and bake for a little less time. Eat more dough.

Would make 5 dozen, but you will only get half that because of the dough you eat. (You don't have to worry about salmonella when the dough is vegan. I'm just saying.)

Wednesday's dinner was sesame kale and cardamom carrots with orange from (what else?) 1,000 Vegan Recipes. Plus a Morningstar riblet for good measure.
I've now tried 54 of the 1,000 recipes. I guess I don't need to get new cookbooks any time soon.