During these cold winter months, nothing tastes better than a piping hot bowl of vegetable soup.  On this particular Sunday night dinner at my parents house, my ma and I planned on making a vegetable soup but didn’t have any direction with it.  I’m going to give you the order in which we made our soup and if you have any helpful ideas you’d like to add, drop me a note at the bottom of the post!

The vegetables we used are as follows:

• 1/2 a napa cabbage cut into chunks
• 3 large carrots cut into discs
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• 1 butternut squash cut into little squares
• two 15 oz cans of organic diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• the corn cut off of 1 cob
• frozen peas (we just kind of poured them in)
• diced fresh green beans
• 1 large zucchini sliced and then cut into quarters

We emptied two boxes of organic low sodium vegetable broth and some water into a large pot (water amount depends on how much broth vs veggies you want–always use a least 1 pint’s worth to dilute the broth a little).  We added the carrots, onions, squash and cabbage and brought it to a boil.  We seasoned with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne pepper, covered the pot and let it cook for about 15-25 minutes until the squash was soft but still a little firm to the bite.  We then added the rest of the ingredients, seasoned again and turned the heat down to medium high and cooked for another 15 minutes (still having it covered).  Consider the squash to be your taste tester to make sure everything is cooked through.  We ladled our soup into the serving bowls and let them cool for about 5 minutes before setting them down at the table.  Cheese eaters should freshly grate some parmesan cheese on top of their soup after the 5 minute cool down.

Oh Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, you make my tummy smile. I tried out Isa’s recipe for Big Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter – Oatmeal Cookies the other day but made them small and added carob chips. Can I just say that these cookies are the bomb dot com? They’re the perfect cookie for me to pass out to all my friends and co-workers this Holiday season. Even non vegans cannot argue the deliciousness of this cookie.

To make these fantastical cookies you are going to need:

• 2 c flour (I always use whole wheat flour when baking…tastes incredible)
• 2 c oats
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt in a bowl

Toss these ingredients together making sure they’re mixed.

In a separate bowl mix together (using a hand mixer):

• 3/4 c canola oil
• 3/4 c chunky all-natural peanut butter
• 1 c sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c soy milk (you can use plain or vanilla…recipe calls for vanilla, I used plain)
• 2 t vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and continue to mix. The dough will be sticky and delicious (just the way we like it when we eat cookie batter). Drop little cookie dough balls onto your greased cookie sheets and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven until delightfully brown on top and bottom. Every oven and cookie sheet is different and cooking time really depends on what you’re working with. I believe my cookies were in the oven for around 20 minutes but I can’t be too sure.

…are incredible.  I’m obsessed with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the moment. Of course, you have to be careful when you’re buying these two things at the grocery store.  Beware of chemicals, additives, HFCS and other non necessary ingredients.  ALWAYS READ YOUR LABELS! Raw foodies–use almond butter and make your own jelly.  Simply smash your fruit together using a potato masher (you can add some agave nectar if you like it really sweet).