New Hampshire Goodies

Tom and I were in New Hampshire this past weekend to visit his family.  There are SO many people to see, so it is always a whirlwind when we travel up there!

Now, I consider myself lucky, because I love to cook, and Tom loves to eat.  Although, he only loves to eat SAVORY foods!!! The guy doesn't like sweet ANYTHING.  The most I can ever get him to eat for dessert is a few bites of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (a miniature one, let's not get carried away ;) ).  But, lucky for me, his entire family likes sweet food!  So, what started as a ploy to get them to like me (I brought TONS of baked goods during my first trip to meet everyone!), has now turned into an awesome tradition! And, I get to use these trips to try out some of the sweet recipes I've been DYING to try out!

This time, I tried an experiment... I brought all VEGAN sweets!

They're all packed and ready to go!!! 

The first recipe was for M&M cookies.  Bear with me, I know M&M's aren't vegan, but we have so many of them!  For our rehearsal dinner a few months ago, my mother-in-law had fancy M&M's made to give out for the favors, and Tom and I got all the leftovers.  So yummy, but we just can't eat those millions of M&M's by ourselves ;)

Now, my brother makes vegan chocolate chip cookies that are AMAZING, but he never knows what the recipe is... he can make them, but can't recite the recipe hahaha I'll have to look over his shoulder next time he makes them ;)  So, since he lives many miles away, I used the recipe from my second favorite vegan cooking blog, Oh She Glows!  All the amazing reviews, and her awesome commentary gave me high hopes for these cookies...

...it's weird to eat food with your face on it ;)  

BEST BATCH OF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I'VE EVER MADE!!!  Even better then DJ's recipe~ here it is: Oh She Glows Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, after trying about 5 of them before we even left for NH (which says a lot because while I enjoy sweets, usually after a few bites I'm done... the fact that I ate 5 speaks for itself!), I was even more excited to try them out! And they got AMAZING reviews.  My two new brother-in-laws pretty much scarfed down all of them! Now that I think about it, I don't even think our adorable nieces got any!  Absolutely perfect... the only pseudo critique was that Pete thinks Oatmeal Chocolate Chip are the best... and I see no reason why we can't add oatmeal to these adorable little things :) 

The next recipe was a play on my husband's beloved Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! These are from the book that made me change the way I think about food~ Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.  She has a flighty way of talking, so some of her rambles are a little hard to read sometimes, but she makes some valid points, and has reputable, medical research (the PA nerd in me comes out very rarely when not at work!) to back up her statements.

Anyway, here is the recipe for her Chocolate Peanut Butter Treats!

yummy melted PB!

...I should clean out my freezer! 

the finished product! 

These came out wonderful! Next time, I'll use a mini cupcake tin... these were HUGE and we all had trouble finishing 1 PB Cup ourselves.  And, maybe use the metallic cupcake cups... the peanut butter gets kind of oily through the paper ones! Our brother-in-law said it reminded him of yummy peanut butter fudge, and my mother-in-law said that they were incredibly decadent! So far, two for two!!!

And lastly, I have had my eye on these Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls for MONTHS.  I found this recipe in an issue of Vegetarian Times, and I was most excited about this one. I left out the Pecans for Tom :)
Here's the Recipe: Sweet Potato Cinnamon Buns

And I actually don't have a finished product view of this one... which is so sad because THESE WERE THE BEST CINNAMON ROLLS EVER!!! The sweet potato toned down the sugar content, so these rolls didn't leave you with a sugar hangover.  They were so good, in fact, that TOM ATE TWO OF THEM! (btw, sorry for all the caps lock, I'm just so excited!!!)

And now, all I have to say to you NH-ites are "HAHAHAHAHA TRICKED YOU! And HA. Vegan food can be good!"
I'll bring more yummy treats, including Pete's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies for next time ;)
xoxoxox