The new Droids and Aliens cutters came out and I was drawn to the Jawas. I was always fascinated with how the hoods covered them entirely and how deeply inset their faces seemed to be – what exactly was behind those beady yellow eyes? I knew I wanted to capture that same idea when using the cookie cutters.

I was going to a Merry Sithmas party believe it or not, and one of the guests (Autumn, for whom who I made the Game of Thrones cupcakes) had a lot of food allergies. She is always left out when it came to desserts and seeing as how she LOVES Star Wars as much as I do, I decided to come up with a totally Vegan cookie and cupcake combo.

Vegan chocolate cookie ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I prefer Valrhona)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water

edible sugar pearls
Vegan Chocolate cupcakes (recipe here)
Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting (recipe here)

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the vegetable oil and the sugar until combined. Add the flour mixture and the water.

It will be crumbly, but knead it together and roll it into a ball and flatten to a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until you are ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep baking sheets with silpats. Once the dough has chilled, roll it out onto a floured board. Using the cookie cutter, cut out the Jawas.

Use a paring knife to cut out the ‘face’ part of the Jawa, leaving an empty hole in the cookie.

Transfer the cookies to the prepped baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Frost the cupcakes and place the Jawa cookie on top. Add the sugar pearls for eyes.

Now you have a very sneaky little Vegan Jawa!

These cupcakes are so deeelish you won’t even notice they’re Vegan! Think – peanut butter cup in a cupcake form. Mmm…

Vegan chocolate cupcakes ingredients:
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup coffee
1/2 cup water

chocolate peanut butter frosting ingredients:
6 ounces chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep cupcake pans with liners (24 total).

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the sugar, vegetable oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar.

Alternate the flour mixture with the coffee and water until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepped cupcake liners and bake for 14-17 mins depending on your oven. Don’t over bake! Let cool on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, start the frosting. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave.

In the bowl of an electric mixer stir together the melted chocolate chips and the peanut butter. Slowly add the powdered sugar alternating with the water. You might need 1 or 2 Tablespoons more of water to get the frosting to the right consistency.

Frost the cooled cupcakes and you have a deliciously Vegan chocolate peanut butter treat!

Sometimes I build entire meals around side dishes. This salad is fresh and crunchy and a great accompaniment to Root Beer Pulled Pork, a great summer meal. What. It’s still winter? Phooey.

ingredients:
1 bag broccoli slaw
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
Juice of one lemon
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
Salt
pepper

Sure you could make your own slaw, no biggie, but since I happened upon this bag from TJ’s I went for it.

Combine the brown sugar, mustard, lemon, olive oil, sesame oil and cider vinegar. Toss with the slaw, season with salt and pepper.

If you want to make something totally evil you’d use a watermelon, am I right? Ok, maybe not. But since I usually make nice happy things that look like watermelon – I thought this would be a nice challenge.

I didn’t want to use a full size watermelon, not only because I was making 15 other dishes that day – but also I thought it’d be cute to do use a personal size melon. Your own personal pocket sized Death Star.

The nice thing about the Death Star is is linear and circular. There’s really no way to screw this up, and if you do, just add more lines.

Start by drawing out the concentric circles, then cutting and removing just about 1/8 of the rind. As I found out, personal watermelons have WAY thinner skins. I’m used to having a good 1-1/2″ to work with on a regular sized melon – this one, not so much. So be careful.

What makes the Death Star the Death Star is the circular Superlaser Focus Lens. I cut the circle out of the rind, then cut a tinier circle in the middle, this time to the meat of the red melon. Then I added some lines going from the center out.

Finally add the linear lines inbetween the outer circles and you’re done! So easy with a small sized melon.

Now when the kids ask, “Can we have some watermelon?” you can say, “Heck no, do you know how long it took me to carve that?” OR, you can be nice and bust it open. Either way.

This is the simplest recipe and the best for a party appetizer – it just adds a little something extra to plain ol’ edamame. It’s not that spicy trust me – from someone who doesn’t care for spicy things – but you can always adjust it to taste.

ingredients:
1 package frozen edamame
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon Ichimi Togarashi
1 teaspoon sugar

Ichimi Togarashi is a dry Japanese chili pepper – you’ve probably seen the little red topped bottles in more ramen restaurants next to the salt and pepper. it’s a shakeable condiment that you can find in Japanese grocery stores.

In a small bowl combine the salt, ichimi togarashi and sugar. Stir well and set aside.

Boil edamame according to package, drain. Blot them dry with paper towels, just a bit – then sprinkle the seasoning on top.

Serve it and act like you worked really hard to make it.

You know who the real winner of the Fried Chicken Face Off, was? The CORN SALAD. I wanted to make ‘light’ side dishes so as not to compete with the greaz-i-ness of the fried chicken. This corn salad was perfection. Adapted from an Ina Garten recipe – per the usual, it was fantastic. Minimal ingredients, AMAZING flavor.

ingredients:
4 cups of cooked corn (cut off the cob)
1/2 cup red onion, diced small
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

In a small bowl combine the cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil. Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl toss the corn and red onions with the dressing.

That’s it? YES THAT’S IT. So simple, you won’t believe how great this tastes.

The simplest dinners are the ones that always seem to get the kids to jump for joy. A quick trip to the Farmer’s Market and you’re ready to roll. Tangerines, guacamole from fresh avocados, strawberries and fresh roasted corn! Corn is so sweet right now you can just roast it in the oven, with very little prep and very little seasoning.

When you buy your corn in husk, open it just a touch to make sure it’s not WORM EATEN. I know, barf. That is rare, but I still like to check. Normally if you find that one is good, the whole batch will be good, just sayin’.

Now some people soak their corn, which is fine but I rarely have the time. So just crank up the oven and thrown ‘em in.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees – place the corn right there on your oven rack for 35 minutes.

Take it out – be careful – these things are blazing hot. Carefully pull back the husks, and add butter, salt, cheese, whatever you’d like, but honestly, it doesn’t even need it. It should be sweet and creamy, right off the cob!

This makes a great side dish and is done on the stove in no time flat.

ingredients:
2 potatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
salt
pepper

Peel and rinse potatoes. Chop into small 1/2″-3/4″ pieces.

In a large skillet heat olive oil, add the garlic and the shallot. Cook until the shallot starts to soften.

Add the potatoes, cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for another 10 minutes until the potatoes start to crisp up and brown, season again with salt and pepper.

I never knew that these things had a name. O.G. always called them FOOTBALLS cause that’s what they looked like. Brilliant, I tell you. Anyway I was shocked at how simple they are to make and the kids absolutely love them.

ingredients:
2 cups rice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3/4 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon sake (I left this out when I made it for the kids, fyi)
1 package aburage aka tofu pouches

Cook your rice in the rice cooker. While that’s going, in a small bowl mix together the rice vinegar, salt, sugar and sake if you are using it. Set aside.

Now bring a pot of water to a boil and heat the aburage according to the package directions. Obviously this is the easy step, since the thing is pre-made. Pretty awesome and simple.

When the rice is done, mix it will with the sauce ingredients that you’ve mixed together. Careful, the rice is HOT.

Now get your prepped aburage ready. They look like little pockets.

Using a spoon, stuff the prepped rice into the pockets and serve. It’s that simple!