Chocolate chip cookies are a classic. They're acceptable to make year-round, they're easily customizable and they're delicious. This recipe is a vegan twist on a simple cookie.
 
Before we get started, feel free to add add-ons as you see fit for your cookie. If the batter is to liquid-y or sticky, throw in some oatmeal, if it seems a bit dry, put in a dash of milk or blend in a mashed up banana!
 
I'll have a post coming up in a bit with my favorite places to get vegan groceries, but to make things easier for you: vegan chocolate chips are easiest to find if you look for semi-sweet or dark chocolate varieties. I recommend the Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips or the Kirkland Signature semi-sweet chocolate chips if you're in the proximity of a Costco.

 Ingredients:
Oil (to grease pan)
2 TBSP flax meal (you can also grind your flax seeds to create this)
6TBSP water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup Earth Balance melted (or other vegan butter substitute)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup chocolate chips
Optional: banana, chopped nuts, oatmeal

In Washington, August means blackberries. Along the roads, invading backyards and on trail paths, blackberries are the summer weed of choice. Honestly, I don't think there's ever been a time in my life where we've had store-bought blackberries in our fridge. 

This season, we picked too many blackberries too early leaving the taste to be less than desirable (read: sour). So, to sweeten things up a bit, I decided to turn our Thursday-afternoon pickings into frosting! 

This recipe is more jam-like than a buttercream frosting, but trust me, it's absolutely delicious. I used my batch as both the filling and the frosting for a chocolate cake that I'd made earlier in the day.

What you'll need:

1 1/2 cup blackberries
2 cups sugar
​1 Tbsp cornstarch
​1 Tbsp lemon juice

small saucepan
blender
electric-hand mixer

Tips:

• Pour a thick layer in the middle of the bottom cake round and spread it to the outside to cover the edges.
• Freeze your cake rounds for an hour or so before applying frosting. This helps to prevent the cake from falling apart, as is the tendency for vegan cakes.
• ​Try replacing the blackberries with another berry of your choice (i.e. raspberries, blueberries)!
• If you don't want to make your own powdered sugar, you can go out an buy some from the store. Use 4 1/2 cups or so.
• If using wild berries, make sure you wash them before use; you don't know what chemicals might have been sprayed around them!
• The frosting can get kinda messy because it's so liquid-y so you might want to place some wax paper below it when frosting.

​These are my absolute favorite treat on ridiculously hot summer days. They're the perfect mix of cold and chocolatey and super easy to make. If you eat them straight, without putting them back in the freezer, the chocolate forms a shell that makes the frozen banana softer and easier to chew. 

The best part, is it gives you a way to use that super brown banana that's been sitting in your windowsill for the past week (trust me, we all have one). Make sure you don't remove the banana from the freezer until you're ready to cover it in chocolate. This helps it to stay frozen long enough to make the chocolate shell harden.

All you need are some vegan chocolate chips, a banana and a little bit of coconut oil and you're good to go!

What you'll need:
1 banana (the riper the better)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp coconut oil