Last week, out for dinner at a family restaurant I enjoyed a little cup of the complimentary dessert – spumoni ice cream. Instantly I recalled the childhood pleasure of the contrasting but complimentary flavours of pistachio, chocolate and vanilla all rolled together into stripes so perfect that Martha Stewart would be proud. I spooned precise bites in an attempt to get a bit of each kind in every mouthful, and wondered why I don’t put pistachio, chocolate and vanilla together in recipes more often?

This chocolate and pistachio cookie recipe was the simplest way I could think of to incorporate that bite variety and color contrast. By using freshly shaved or chunked chocolate the cookies are freckled with varying amounts of cocoa while the occasional green nut adds crunch and diversity. Not exactly perfect stripes, but a little bit of everything in each bite. Be warned, you will have trouble eating just one.

This cookie recipe was a bit of an accident. After trying three versions of a cakey oatmeal cookie recipe, I changed my approach and produced these. They aren’t a truly cakey recipe but they are light, moist and chewy and overall a great oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

So get yourself a glass of milk, a cup of tea or a latte and make yourself a batch. They are not as healthy as the peanut butter oatmeal cookies, but not everything in life should be good for you.

If you are a fan of the Healthy Peanut Butter, Oatmeal and Coconut cookies you should try this similar cookie recipe with hazelnuts and nutella. Still, full of healthy oats and whole grain flour these cookies are chocolatey and rich in a way the peanut butter cookies are not. However, they are still healthy and dense enough to make a healthy snack or a nice addition to breakfast.

Be warned this nutella cookie recipe makes a lot, but don’t despair you can freeze them easily or keep them in a sealed container and they will stay fresh for at least 4 days.

This shortbread recipe is a perfect union between sweet and salty. Caramel and pecans will always make a good pair but crumbly shortbread is the perfect vessel for them.

Plus, if your inner 7-year old is alive and well, as mine is, you will love drizzling caramel over these cookies. Even if the table, and all of your dishcloths, will drip with pecan-dotted caramel afterwards. Luckily, you won’t care as you will be in the throes of a sugar rush. Once you have calmed down and cleaned up, serve these with a hot cup of tea.

This recipe took three tries to get perfect, but all my tests were worth it. When you make these cookies you will end up with perfect coconut macaroons that form light little haystacks. They hold their shape and aren’t sickly sweet.

When you read the recipe you may think – is this it? Is it really this easy to make coconut macaroon cookies? It really is, they are so quick to make I recommend not to start mixing until your oven is actually hot.

I make a similar no-bake chocolate cookie with coconut instead of peanut butter which I think I actually prefer. Of course I am biased, the coconut version holds a special spot in my heart as it comes from my childhood.

These bars prove that everyone is truly a kid at heart. Soft, sweet and just a little gooey, they taste like the best peanut butter cookie you have ever had – dipped in jam. These are perfect for your next potluck, football party or afternoon snack.

I can admit that I didn’t like the classic peanut butter and jam combination until recently, and I now consume it often. So when I saw these bars on Martha Stewarts website I was excited to try this new idea. In the end, after some googling I actually ended up adapting an Ina Garten version, but the inspiration did come from Martha Stewart.

I could continue waxing poetic about how great these bars are (try them crumbled on your oatmeal in the morning, glorious), but you should just go and make them. Go now. I mean it, run.

Similar Recipes
Healthy Peanut Butter Coconut Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
The Best Peanut Butter Cookies Recipe
Coconut Macaroons Recipe

If you wanted to make these peanut butter oatmeal cookies even healthier you could reduce the oil further, if you want something a little more decadent use non-natural peanut butter and add chocolate chips. Feel free to omit the coconut from the recipe if your family aren’t coconut fans but I think it makes them interesting and really works with the peanut butter in the cookie.

Eat, Drink & Be Vegan is a vegan cookbook. Obviously. Vegan cooking isn’t for everyone but I am very open to it. As someone who is lactose intolerant I like dishes that are dairy-free, though clearly I don’t cook that way all the time. I also really enjoy vegetables and as long as there is protein in a meal I am satisfied.

When I started flipping through Eat, Drink & Be Vegan a lot of the recipes appealed to me immediately. Sometimes when you look at a vegan cookbook half of the recipes are full of meat substitutes and fake cheese. For someone who is not vegetarian this doesn’t really do much for me as I try not to eat too much processed soy products. However, this book uses legumes, whole grains and big flavors in the recipes, rather then trying to replicate the taste of what might be missing.

The book covers the full spectrum of meals and dishes. This includes a large breakfast section, a whole chapter on hummus as well as one on appetizers, and all the way through to desserts. Some of her recipe names are a bit precious for me but I hate coming up with recipe names too. She also includes, in her introduction, suggested tools, advice and helpful tips on eating and cooking for a vegan lifestyle.

So what did I make first? Obviously the Super Charge Me! cookies.

Dreena’s cookies include dried fruit(I used cranberries), coconut, nut butter (almond), coconut and chocolate chips. They took me about 40 minutes start to finish including cleanup and baking time and turned out great. I totally should have doubled the recipe as they were gone within 24 hours. The only thing that wigged me out was how light in colour they turned out? I assume it is because they have no butter in them. You can check out the recipe I attempted after reading about them, but it wasn’t as good. Plus it needed chocolate chips!

Next I wanted to make something savory. I have been experimenting with tempeh for awhile now but haven’t quite figured out its best uses, so I decided to make the Gimme Chimis. A combination of tempeh, pinto beans, veggies and spices fried up and stuffed into tortillas which are then fried and baked. They were good, but next time I would definitely make them spicier. I also didn’t fry them but rather sprayed them with olive oil and stuck them in the toaster oven. They still came out nice and crispy but were less work.

Because Dreena runs her own blog I shot her a quick email to ask if I coud print one of her recipes and if she could tell me some of her favorites from the book. Not only was she super quick at responding (just after having a baby no less) but she was excessively nice and more than happy to let me reprint the recipe and to suggest some of her favorites: “Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, Peanut Sesame Hummus, White Bean Hummus, Chipotle Lime Two-Bean Hummus, Cashew Ginger Tofu, Sweet Potato Lentil Chili, Mellow Lentil Soup, Raspberry Choc Chip Scones, Hemp-anola, Goddess Garbanzos, Balsamic Maple Sauce, Potato Squashers, Chickpea Sensation Patties, Broccoli Cashew Teriyaki Stir-Fry (with broccoli & cashews), Peanut Passion Sauce (served with steamed veg & rice or noodles), Lemony Cashew Basil Pesto, Thai Chick-Un Pizza, Moroccan Phyllo Rolls, Teriyaki Quinoa… and then, most of the desserts, but especially the 5-star cookie ice cream sandwiches, chocolate pumpkin pie, chocolate mint melties, lime sucker coconut pie, nicer krispie squares, and super-charge me cookies. Hmmm, that’s more than a “few” favorites, but it’s hard for cooks to choose their favorite foods and recipes!! “After enjoying the recipes, I decided it was a keeper and worth investing in, so I thought I would buy two and give one away!

If you would like to win a copy of Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, here is what you can do to enter:

- Leave a comment of something you would like to see on this blog. A new recipe? More pictures, cooking something in particular?
- Post a link about the contest on your blog and let me know.
- Tweet about it (include me in your tweet so I know) and link back to the post.

This contest will be open until Midnight PST on June 19th. Good Luck! - This contest is now closed. Congratulations aroma-herbals.

The recipe, as far as experiments go turned out really well, they are very yummy and super filling and high fiber. One thing to caution is that the batter itself isn’t very sweet at all. Without the cranberries and raisins they would definitely not be sweet enough but together super good. These are also amazing dipped in almond butter.

I think this recipe may need testing so use at your own risk! I used a mixer to combine everything and the combination of maple syrup and honey was me trying to use up some maple syrup.

Similar Recipes:
Super-Charge Me! Cookies
Chocolate Drops
Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies