Simple dinner

On the menu tonight:

Main dish salad with broiled tempeh
Mediterranean wheat berry salad
Strawberries and peanut butter cookies

Main dish salad with broiled tempeh

Ingredients

2 servings "spring mix" salad greens
2 leaves red swiss chard, sliced into thin ribbons
3 radishes, thinly sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 persian cucumber, thinly sliced
goddess dressing
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced into thin half-circles
1/2 can trader joe's three-bean salad
1 avocado, cubed
2 servings broiled tempeh (see below)
1 tsp lemon juice
black pepper

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine greens, chard, radishes, carrot, and cucumber. Add dressing and mix well. Transfer dressed vegetables to a platter. Arrange peppers, beans, avocado, and tempeh on top of and around greens. Squeeze lemon over the avocado. Grind black pepper over the top.

Broiled tempeh
Ingredients

two servings tempeh, cut into bite-sized slabs
3 TB balsamic vinegar
3 TB olive oil
water
salt
pepper
thyme
more olive oil

Instructions

After cutting the tempeh into pieces, place in a tupperware with marinade ingredients and add water until tempeh is covered. Allow to stand several hours. Then, remove tempeh from marinade and discard marinade (or use as salad dressing). Coat with olive oil and broil for about 10 minutes, until edges begin to get crispy.

*

I made peanut butter cookies a few nights ago to bring to a dinner party. I wanted to make cookies, but I didn't have any Earth Balance around, so I needed a cookie that would still keep its shape and coherence if I used oil instead. Enter the peanut butter cookie! When I took them out of the oven, they were really crumbly, and I feared for their integrity, but after they sat on the cookie sheet for ten minutes they were good to go. These cookies are delicious. It's because of their incredibly high fat content--I mean, even for cookies. This makes them the consistency of good shortbread--almost melt in your mouth. Except crunchy, too, especially due to the extra peanuts added. Also: does anyone know why only peanut butter cookies need to come with a fork criss-cross? The relationship between peanut butter as a cookie type and fork designs seems completely arbitrary.

Peanut butter cookies and strawberries

Peanut butter cookies
(adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking)

Ingredients
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c white flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted peanut buter)
1 "egg" (ener-g egg replacer)
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
1/2 c corn oil (1/4 c would actually be fine)
1 1/2 tsp soymilk
1 TB vanilla
1/4 c ground peanuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375. In one bowl, combine flours, baking soda, and salt. Prepare egg replacer. In a second bowl, combine brown sugar, peanut butter, oil, soymilk, and vanilla until well mixed. Add "egg." Add flour and peanuts, and mix well. Drop small spoonfuls onto baking sheet (grease not necessary). Flatten with a fork in crisscross pattern. Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies begin to brown. Remove from oven and allow to sit on baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring. Makes 2 dozen small cookies.