Not enough running, too many cookies....oh, and pasta

Oh the holidays!  The time of the year when I should be pushing out at least 25 miles a week.  That has certainly not happened this week.  So far, I have run about 10 miles and it’s already Thursday.  I would like to point out that my knee is better but certainly not 100%.  I was advised by a friend that maybe I should see a doctor.  Actually, a few friends have told me to get it checked out.  I am thinking that since the injury occurred in October and it’s still not fully healed, they just might be right.  I’m always so cautious about going to a doctor though.  Don’t get me wrong.  I feel like I have the best doctor that the VAMC has to offer but it’s always the same thing with a running injury: get an x-ray, take Vitamin M (800mg motrin), and start physical therapy.  I’m going to suck it up and make an appointment.

Now to the fun part: Cooking!  Whenever this time of year rolls around, I find myself baking up a storm!  This season has brought on a new challenge though.  Figuring out all these substitutes for eggs and milk is fun.  Milk is easy because of all the options we have now: soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk (my favorite), etc!  The eggs…well, that’s a little different.  Substituting an egg with a banana in one recipe might not be so yummy in another.  I went ahead and bough some Ener-G Egg Replacer.  I used it in the Espresso Crinkles and it was successful!  So, so far, I have cooked up some Espresso Crinkles and Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies.  The recipe for the later has already been posted so here are the

Cooking Light: Espresso Crinkles.

The only thing I had to adjust in this recipe was replacing the egg with the Ener-G Egg Replacer.  The end result was not a let-down.  Very yummy and these cookies make a great show!

For Lunch today, I had a craving for some pasta and some sort of non-tomato veggie type sauce.  I was searching around on vegweb.com and found a recipe that I adapted to my own taste.  Here is the end result:

Spinach Spaghetti

    2 cups pasta (anything except angel hair, spaghetti, etc.)
    1/2 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach
    vegetable oil, as needed
    1 tablespoon minced garlic
    3 tablespoons vegan butter
    2 tablespoons flour
    1 cup nondairy milk
    salt and pepper, to taste
     3-4 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Start boiling water for the pasta. Add pasta to boiling water as soon as it’s ready. In a small pan, spritz some oil over low heat. Add the spinach or broccoli and the garlic. Saute and then set aside.

2. In a medium pot, drop the butter in and melt it. Add the flour and keep stirring until you make a roux. Add nondairy milk, and keep stirring.  The sauce will get thick fast so just keep adding the milk to your liking.   Add garlic salt, pepper, and dried Italian seasoning. Turn the heat up to thicken it.

3. Add veggies to the drained pasta and add the pasta to the white sauce. Enjoy!