aye carumba
aye carumba

Before we get to the (DELICIOUS!!!!!!) forbidden cookies, let’s do a quick recap of the day :-)

I started things off with a 30-minute walk in the park with Arthur, then came home to plain Whole Soy yogurt with 1/2 c. Udi’s Vanilla Granola (I didn’t add fruit because I didn’t want any; I think I may have overdone it yesterday!):

bfast

For lunch I packed another plain Whole Soy yogurt with a mix of 1/4 c. peanuts and 1/4 c. Udi’s vanilla granola (redundant, I know, but it’s just SO good!), plus some baby carrots, and a wrap with spinach, 1/4 an avocado, a tiny bit of Sabra’s spicy hummus, and a little cubed tofu (I should have taken a picture of the inside of the wrap; it was quite colorful and SO good!):

lunch

I had the yogurt + toppings at 11, then took a 20-minute walk on my lunch break, and had the wrap and carrots around 1:15.

I got home around 5:45 and gobbled down a quick dinner before a walk date with my friend:

din~1.5 c. whole-wheat pasta with tomato/veggie “meat” sauce (leftover from a big batch that Sonny and I made on Sunday night—it’s one of our standby meals)

sidesrandom (and delicious) sides: 1/4 an avocado and black olives

dried pineappleand a dried pineapple ring, on the way out the door, just ’cause I needed something sweet :-)

This dinner was PERFECT fuel for my walk—energizing but not too heavy. There was a time when pasta was a forbidden food for me, but I’m glad that time is over—every once in awhile it just hits the spot! We walked/ran around in the park with Arthur for a little over an hour and it was perfection.

When I came home I was craving fresh fruits & veggies but also needed something with staying power (and didn’t want to be starving when I made the cookies!) so I had carrots, strawberries, and a tablespoon of cashew butter:

snack

SO HAPPY to be enjoying strawberries again!!! All in all, a great day of food and activity :-)

*  *  *

Onto the cookies.

I googled “the best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever” and found this recipe. After reading all the rave reviews in the comments, I knew this was it! I followed the recipe with the following substitutions: used half all-purpose flour and half white whole-wheat flour (the VERY last of both—I had just enough flour in the house to make these! a sign perhaps?), and added 1 tbsp. blackstrap molasses (just because I love the depth of flavor that it gives to baked goods!)

Oh, and rather than chocolate chips, I went super-gourmet and used a bar of Lindt superdark chocolate, broken into chunks :-)

choco!

mmmm(That’s the piece that never made it into the batter—and it DEFINITELY would have been more if I hadn’t been taking pictures for the blog! ;-) )

Mixing the dry ingredients was no problem, but the “forbidden food stress” set in when I got here:

the hard part1 c. demerara sugar mixed with 1/2 c. canola oil

I never, NEVER!! bake anything with this much sugar and oil in it. Ever. But I’m never quite satisfied with my baked goods, either :-) . And let me tell you, this cookie batter was incredible:

batter portionYup, that’s my portion :-) And I’m so glad I tried it!!!

The instructions say to remove cookies while they’re still soft and let them harden out of the oven. This yielded a cookie that was crisp on the outside, with a chewy, soft center. A.K.A. heaven:

cooookies!

all of 'em

I baked the first batch for the recommended time (5 minutes + 4 minutes + 2 minutes), but took the second batch out after only 5 minutes to see how they turned out. Of course, I tasted one of each batch:

cookie 1Batch 1, front

the backBatch 1, back (LOOK AT THAT CHOCOLATE!!!)

gooey cookie 2Batch 2

Let me tell you, batch 2 was INCREDIBLE!! It retained all the gooeyness of the cookie dough but still had a delicate, crispy exterior. I savored every single crumb.

*  *  *

Reflections: I enjoyed every moment of making these cookies, and have faith that I’ll be able to enjoy them one (or two ;-) ) at a time for the rest of the week. Having the blog/challenge to report to (and taking pictures!) really helped keep my dough-snacking in check, too (I used to make cookies purely as an excuse to eat dough!!). The finished product was SO delicious that I don’t want to eat them all at once—I want to enjoy them all week!

I have a lot more thoughts on this, but I’ll reflect on them as the week goes on. Among them: I really must have obsessed about these cookies for awhile, because I googled “the best vegan chocolate chip cookies ever” a month or so ago (and kept the recipe in my e-mail inbox, but never made it!). Also, it’s not the cookies themselves that are “dangerous” to me, it’s the fact that I avoided making/eating them for so long! And finally, it was very empowering for me to make the cookies, enjoy them, and reach a point of satisfaction (right now, I truly don’t want another one!). I only hope this feeling carries through the rest of the week.

* * *

Finally (for real this time) I am SO impressed with the responses I’ve gotten to the challenge. Coconut-milk ice cream, lemon curd, pecans, peanut butter, cadbury mini eggs, twizzlers, reese’s peanut butter cups . . . from frugal shoppers to former dieters to recovering anorexics, you guys have already incorporated new and formerly black-listed foods in a healthy way and taken a step toward asserting control over them. Every one of you inspires me so much!!!

And remember: all of you—bloggers and non-bloggers alike—are welcome to enter the challenge between now and Sunday! Either share your experience with your forbidden food on your blog and link to this post [challenge details can be found here], or leave a comment on the same post sharing your experience. At the end of the week, I’ll recap everyone’s stories, and a random participant will receive a special surprise package :-)