It's been way too long since our last post. Over the last month, I've been distracted by foodgawker, the election (I'm supporting "that one") and Penn State Football. I've spent entirely too much time in front of the computer, mostly with foodgawker, making it hard to crank out a post. We've been cooking regularly, but I've been too tired/lazy to pull out the camera and tripod to document our meals.

Hungry Bear has constantly reminded me that I'm neglecting SND. To appease her and some of our loyal readers (I hope you are still out there), we present to you look-we-still-love-you-and-SND everything cookies. As someone who loves to eat anything and everything, this cookie has it all... chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, raisins, nuts, granola and rolled oats.

It's a great recipe that Hungry Bear got from a friend over a decade ago. As the name implies, the cookie has everything you'd want... soft, crunchy, chewy, chocolaty, fruity and peanut buttery. I like to think that they're sort of healthy with the low-fat granola and rolled oats. It lessens the guilt after you inhale half a dozen cookies in five minutes!

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Last year, we watched the Barefoot Contessa make chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and thought it was a brilliant combination. We actually made them for dessert in our first post (scroll down) on the site. They were a big hit, so we made them again this past Sunday.

Although we loved Ina's union of chocolate and peanut butter, we thought her cupcake recipe had too many ingredients. I'm sure the cake part tastes great, but we would have bought sour cream and buttermilk, used half, and eventually thrown the rest away.

Instead, we turned to one of our favorite chocolate cupcake recipes by Gale Gand (BTW, her fudgy frosting is killer). We love the simplicity of the cupcake batter... no eggs, no butter, no mixer required.

For the peanut butter frosting, we reduced the sugar and butter, because we don't like overly sweet icings and there's plenty of creaminess from the peanut butter. The final change was the substitution of coconut cream for the heavy cream, since we had already opened a can of coconut milk for a morel sauce that evening.

The cupcakes were scrumptious with a moist and tender cake. The frosting had a great peanut flavor and wasn't too sweet. We had the SNDsters top their own cupcakes with cacao nibs and M&M minis. And once again, they were enjoyed by all.

As we discussed the modifications and ingredients with the SNDsters, we realized that the cupcakes were almost vegan. I believe the only thing you need to do is substitute margarine for the butter. Since the peanut butter is so creamy, I don't think anyone would miss anything. If you do make these as vegan cupcakes, let me know how they turn out.

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We love Trader Joe's. It's our favorite place to pick up staples for the pantry. While the quality of the produce and meat isn't as good as Whole Foods Paycheck or our neighborhood supermarket, the remaining items are just as good or better. And it's definitely the best value among our local grocery stores.

Besides saving us money, we go to TJ's for their unique and interesting products. We loved the Emperor's New Cloves garlic, but sadly they don't carry it anymore because the garlic was grown in China. Anyway, there's always something new to discover at Trader Joe's and I'm constantly on the lookout for them.

My one complaint with TJ's is the overabundance of cookies, chocolate and candies in the aisles. It's so hard not to grab a box of treats with each visit. Damn you TJ, for constantly pushing your sweet crack on me!

Most of the time, I'm strong enough to resist picking up a box of cookies. But there are a few items I never leave without. So, here are a few five of my favorite things...

• Organic Clusters Cereal - a good combination of textures and flavors. Our three favorite cluster cereals are the raisin bran, vanilla almond and maple pecan. The raisin bran is the healthiest one.
• Organic Peanut Butter - by far the best store bought natural peanut butter. You won't go wrong with creamy or crunchy.
• Tempting Trail Mix - it has several types of nuts, dried cherries, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips! Salty, crunchy, chewy and sweet... yum!
• Cinnamon Swirl Bread - a thick wheat bread full of cinnamon. You can make a great open face peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich with it.
• Cheap, Interesting Wine - we can always find inexpensive, but good, wine at TJ's. From the slideshow, the question mark wine is a 2005 red table wine from Oreana Winery. The happy face wine is a 2005 syrah from Project Happiness. We have no idea if the wines are good, but we couldn't pass up the labels.

That's my top 5 list. If you shop at Trader Joe's, what are your favorite things? I would love to know.

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The first time I was offered a tofu chocolate chip cookie, I made a funny face, probably the same look that some of you are giving me right now. With a little hesitation, I took a bite and much to my surprise, the tofu cookie was really good. Ever since then, I've always looked forward to eating the cookies made by our friend, Jeanne. In fact, I like them so much, I've made football game bets with Jeanne, pitting her tofu cookies against my chewy chocolate chunk cookies.

The recipe was created by Jeanne's friend, a certified nutritionist, who wanted to make a healthy alternative to traditional chocolate chip cookies. Butter is not used in the recipe and is replaced with peanut butter and cream cheese. In addition to the soy protein from the tofu, the cookies are made with high-protein egg whites and the aforementioned peanut butter. Lower glycemic index (GI) oat flour is used instead of all-purpose flour. The oat flour is also higher in protein and is gluten-free.

We made the tofu cookies for the first time last week and used white whole wheat flour instead of oat flour, which we couldn't find at the local supermarkets. We thought about using all-purpose flour, but decided to stay true to the healthy intent of the recipe and went with the whole wheat. The tofu cookies were good with predominant flavors from the whole wheat, peanut butter and Valrhona 61% chocolate chunks. I don't think anyone would be able to tell that the cookies contained tofu.

There are definite differences between the oat and wheat flour cookies. I prefer the taste of the oat flour cookies, but I like the texture and crumb of the whole wheat cookies. Since oat flour doesn't contain gluten, it doesn't rise and the cookies are a little more dense. The next time we make the cookies, I'm going to try a 50/50 mix of oat and whole wheat flour.

After eating the tofu cookies for the last few days, Hungry Bear and I decided that the cookies would be a great energy bar alternative. They are relatively low in sugar, a good source of low GI carbs and contain a decent amount of protein. And since they are homemade, you know exactly what's in them and they contain no preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, palm kernel oil or other questionable ingredients. On a long bike ride, I would definitely prefer eating a chocolate tofu cookie over a Cliff bar or Powerbar.

Don't hold me to these exact numbers, but I calculated the nutritional value of the tofu cookies compared to some of my favorite chocolate energy bars and regular chocolate chip cookies. The serving size of the Cliff energy bars are 68 grams, the Balance bar is 50 grams, and the chocolate chip cookie is 55 grams. For comparison sake, I used 68 grams, about 1.5 cookies, as the serving size for the tofu cookies.

Tofu Cookie and Energy Bar Nutritional Comparison

The tofu cookies have less protein than the protein powder/isolate stuffed energy bars, but they also have less calories for a 68 gram serving size, which means you can eat more cookies!

I don't think tofu chocolate chip cookies will ever replace my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but they are a good healthier alternative. Compared to processed energy bars, the tofu cookies are superior in taste and natural nutrition. The next time you are on a long bike ride or need a post workout boost of energy, grab a few homemade tofu chocolate chip cookies instead of that processed bar.

Updated February 27, 2008: I added the nutritional breakdown for my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe to the chart.

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Vietnamese fresh spring rolls? Summer rolls? Salad rolls? What do you call these things? It's goi cuon in Vietnamese. The literally translation is salad (goi) roll (cuon). Whatever you call them, they are light, refreshing and delicious. Most restaurants serve salad rolls with nuoc cham, a fish sauce based dipping sauce, but did you know, it's ten times better with a spicy peanut Hoisin sauce.

A few weeks ago, Hungry Bear had a major craving for goi cuon after Nikki, a.k.a. Canary Girl, asked me to share my recipe. My version is a common shrimp and pork salad roll recipe that most Viet people make. As long as the ingredients are fresh, especially the lettuce and herbs, the salad rolls are going to be good.

I made goi cuon this past Sunday night as part of our Vietnamese/Chinese New Year celebration dinner with our SND friends. Every time I make a batch of salad rolls, I have more respect for my mom's ability to crank these things out. They are easy to make, but time consuming to prep and roll. My mom can probably roll 2 or 3 batches in the time I can make one. Next time, I'm just going to do the prep work and we'll have a salad roll rolling party.

Now to the best part, my Dad's spicy peanut Hoisin sauce. This peanut sauce completely rocks! And it's super easy to make, taking only five minutes. The sauce relegates the goi cuon to just a delivery device to get the peanut sauce into my mouth. It's a great combination of spicy, sweet, salty and creamy. The next time you make Vietnamese salad rolls, dip it in this spicy peanut Hoisin sauce and you won't ever go back to nuoc cham!

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I'm a big fan of peanut butter and honey sandwiches (PB&H). Forget about the jelly, it's better with honey. With peanut butter, I prefer the simple sweetness of honey over fruity jams and jellies.

One of my favorite breakfast items is an open-faced peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich, a PBB&H if you will. It's open-faced because I use a thick cinnamon swirl bread from Trader Joe's. It's a hearty wheat bread with a great cinnamon flavor. For breakfast, I usually toast a piece of bread, spread it with creamy peanut butter, slice a banana and drizzle a little bit of honey on top. Two open-face PBB&H sandwiches are very filling and keep me fueled up during long bike rides.

The funny thing is, I refused to eat peanut butter for almost fifteen years. My disdain for peanut butter started during nursery school. My family and I just immigrated to the States and I was literally fresh off the boat. Well, we took a boat from Saigon to Hong Kong, and flew the rest of the way to a small Pennsylvania town, New Cumberland.

Each day after nursery school let out, I would go to a classmate's home, whose mother baby-sat us until my mom finished work. This is were I was first introduced to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I recall it wasn't too bad initially, but I was used to savory banh mi, pho and rice plates.

Unfortunately, every day for the rest of the school year, my classmate's mom would ask her daughter what she wanted for lunch. Her answer was always a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I was a shy 4 year old, who barely spoke English (I'm the kid holding the flag in the picture below). Her mom would ask me what I wanted and I would respond timidly with "uh, same." I didn't know what to say and I knew she didn't know how to make bánh xèo, a Vietnamese sizzling crepe.

PB&J, ugh! It was always PB&J on white bread with the crust cut off. It was a cruel Groundhog Day scenario for a foreign-born, food loving four year old! Over and over for four or five months, it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. Man, oh man, did I wish my classmate would answer with anything but PB&J! Every blue moon she would ask for something different, but the only thing I can remember eating at her house was PB&J.

On the last day of nursery school, my mom picked me up and asked me what I had for lunch. I answered simply with "peanut butter and jelly." Of course, I had told my mom that I didn't like peanut butter, but I didn't tell her why. Surprised by my response, my mom asked me, "I thought you didn't like peanut butter?" And I answered, "Yes."

Learning for the first time that I didn't like peanut butter, my classmate's mom was horrified. She asked me why I didn't say anything. I shrugged my shoulders and responded with "don't know", thinking to myself, I don't know how to tell you that I hate peanut butter!

From that day onward, I refused to eat anything with peanut butter. Reese's peanut butter cups... no. Peanut sauces... no way. PB&J... hell no! Fifteen years later, I rediscovered peanut butter as a starving college kid at Penn State. At that time, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich suddenly tasted so good!

As you can see, I've had a love-hate relationship with peanut butter. I love it now, and really enjoy PB&H sandwiches, peanut sauces and peanut butter frosted cupcakes. Currently, Trader Joe's organic peanut butter is my preferred brand. I go back and forth between creamy and crunchy. I'm on a creamy kick right now.

So, that's my peanut butter saga. Do you love peanut butter? What's your favorite food with peanut butter? What's your favorite brand?

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