Foodie Friday: From Food Network magazine

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.

Today's recipes came from a copy of Food Network magazine that my sister gave me. Although I am a huge Food Network fan, I don't usually read the magazine. Luckily for me, this issue had two already-vegan recipes!

First, a way to fancy up your ramen without breaking the bank: ramen cake!

Soak three 3-ounce packages ramen noodles in hot water, 5 minutes. Drain; pat dry. In a bowl, toss with 1 tablespoon sesame oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Heat 3 tablespoons peanut oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spread the noodles in the pan and cook 6 to 8 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels. Top with scallions and/or cilantro.


The next recipe, golden sesame roll-ups, definitely took more work than the ramen. Click through if you want to see the recipe, but I'll summarize: There's rolling, freezing, slicing, freezing again, and then (finally) baking. Yeah, these are a labor-intensive little cookie. But they are good, and they're unique--they're made with puff pastry rather than a traditional dough. My favorite part about them was that the cinnamon, sesame seed, and sugar mixture melted onto the baking pan and hardened into little bits of cinnamon sesame brittle... which I had no problem in picking off piece by piece to savor every last bit.


I had some of the sugar mixture left over from the cookies, so one morning I decided to see how it was on toast slathered with Smart Balance. It was delicious, and is my new breakfast addiction. I used the last of it today. I guess it's time to make the pastry roll-ups again!