I know we’re not supposed to rush time, but when there are 11-hour workdays involved, time can speed the heck on up. Otherwise, I’m resorting to chocolate.

Oh, who am I kidding? I’m doing that anyway. With this healthy vegan cake that is just as moist and delicious as any butter-laden version, I can get through a tough day without having to worry about my health or any other impending doom.

Yesterday I tried to be the nice teacher. My creative writing class is smaller this time of year now that the seniors have graduated, so I asked everyone else if they wanted to have class outside. It was such a gorgeous day, too. 85 degrees and sunny with a nice, light breeze. I’d even put on sunscreen and brought my sunglasses with me in preparation.

Those kids turned down my offer. Apparently, it was too hot, and they were tired, and they just wanted to sit in my cinder-blocked classroom with fluorescent lighting and be sad. What a bummer. So much for using nature to inspire our writing!

Man, do I love the kids I teach. But sometimes they can be a real buzzkill. How am I twice their age and five times as energetic?

Luckily, my last class of the day agreed  to go outside. A half hour in, they started to get sleepy and we trouped back inside. Hey, we made the effort.

A lot of people opt to repeat the same actions day to day, even if they don’t like them. Why? Because it’s less risky than going out on a limb.  But that’s also not really living, so take a risk today. Go outside! Eat something besides Lean Cuisine for lunch! Shop at a different grocery store, just because. Be crazy!

Take this cake, for instance. I’m not one to follow a vegan diet, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t get down with it from time to time. Especially not with a cake this good.

The base cake recipe is Bethenny Frankel’s. I’m not a Bethenny fan, to be honest. I read her book Naturally Thin several years ago and learned that if you eat (or don’t eat) her way, you’ll be well short of your daily caloric intake and lose tons of weight. Not in a good way. So that book really didn’t appeal to me that much. But this cake recipe was in it, and I’ve gotta give her props. It’s good!

It’s also one-bowl with an easy glaze. I’m into one-bowl. Truly, madly, deeply.

So try something new today, whether it’s this lovely cake or a new route home from work. It’s good to retrain our brains. And I’ll try and get that class of mine into the great outdoors!

Of course, it’s a peanut butter recipe. I have a rule when it comes to gluten-free baking: chocolate or peanut butter (or both) has to make an appearance. I don’t know about you, but I still haven’t mastered the GF yellow cake. It’s on my baking bucket list, but as yet, no progress. I’ll keep working on it.

Chocolate and peanut butter are both strong flavors, and they work well with my favorite of all gluten-free flours: oat flour. It has to be certified GF, by the way. Just remember that. I wouldn’t put oat flour in more delicately-flavored desserts, but in peanut butter cookies? Fo sho. For an added bonus, these puppies just happen to be vegan. Eat that, all y’all!

Last night, I went to go see the latest Terminator movie with my dad. We haven’t done a father-daughter date in quite some time, so I appreciated the fact that we could spend the time together. We picked this particular movie because even though my father is a mega-educated retired English professor, he loves Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or at least, he really enjoys the Governator’s movies.

As a big fan of the Terminator franchise myself, I’d lie if I pretended that watching Sarah Connor kick butt one more time wasn’t a whole heap of fun. But at the same time, I spent huge amounts of the film wincing. Like, I would actively catch my face in full-on wince. It was mainly during the giant explosions (every two seconds or so), especially those involving motor vehicles. You know, the bus blows up, or the truck explodes, or fifteen cars all crash into one another. If you’ve seen any action movie in the past 20 years or more, you catch my drift.

I didn’t used to mind those scenes very much. They were so very hypothetical. Maybe it’s part of getting older and feeling more vulnerable by the second, but I actually found myself wondering yesterday about the poor truck driver that got taken out in a burning inferno because Arnold had to rescue Sarah Connor once more. With all those vehicles crashing into one another, nobody ever stops to care about the people inside the cars you can’t see. They just want the bad guys to lose and the good guys to win. No real shades of gray there at all.

That’s enough deep thinking about Terminator. Honestly, it was a fun movie, and I don’t want to overthink it. I just want to pretend that the world is a happy sunny place where machines will never take over. I hope they don’t. Because they don’t have souls, nor do they understand the joy in eating a peanut butter cookie.

Peanut butter cookies are like any other category of baked good; there are a million ways to make them. This way is just one more method. If you’re vegan or GF (or, like me, if you love somebody who is), these cookies come together quickly with no mixer or special equipment. The recipe is very similar to the famous three-ingredient flourless peanut butter cookie, but with a twist: these babies definitely have flour. Oat flour.

For those of you who are food scientists, the presence of oat flour means that these cookies are more filling than their flourless counterparts. Oats are a whole grain, and combined with the protein from the peanut butter, these cookies actually have some nutritional benefit while being completely tasty. It’s a win for everyone! Furthermore, the presence of oat flour should mean little to no chilling time, since oats stop cookies from spreading. But I like really thick cookies, so I chilled the dough.

If the machines ever do rise up and cause mass mayhem, I’ll be in a bunker somewhere eating the last of the cookies. I invite you to join me. Will we survive and kick butt? Nope. But it’ll be a few good hours of fun. And no matter what, the Terminators will never enjoy a good cookie. They can’t take that away from us.

s

Yep, my caramel apples, so lovingly planned to go up today for the first day at school, tanked. See, I had this massive migraine yesterday and I tried (smarty that I am) to make caramel apples while lights were flashing in my field of vision and my head was pounding.

So, yeah. Caramel apples for another day! Something to look forward to, right?

In the meantime, there’s this cake. I love this cake. It’s vegan and gluten-free, but it’s so incredibly delicious. Sounds wrong, I know, but it’s true!

I was kind of a Bethenny Frankel fan once upon a time. To be honest, I’m not anymore. She puts way too much emphasis on being “skinny” (her favorite word, apparently) and not enough on being plain healthy. So I’m not really on her bandwagon these days. But she does have this incredible chocolate cake recipe, and I’ve always loved it.

It uses oat flour and gets made in one bowl. So in other words, it takes about two seconds to whip up. And there’s no butter, so it’s very healthy. For you health nuts out there, you can have your cake and eat lots of it, too!

The frosting on top is modified from Bethenny’s recipe. She uses raw sugar for everything, but I find that to be an extreme approach. Powdered sugar is just fine! And it makes a very nice and quick (and also butter-free, in this case) frosting for the cake.

This is great for any friends with allergies or sensitivities. And if you’re short on time because your caramel apples went south or you’re just human, this is a quick go-to recipe. So even if I don’t always agree with the Skinnygirl, I do love her cake!

Cake:

• 1 and 1/4 cups oat flour (labeled gluten-free)
• 1 cup raw sugar (regular is fine)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons almond milk (I like to use unsweetened vanilla)
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper and spray the sides with pan release spray.

Combine all of the cake ingredients in a bowl and mix until the batter is smooth. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes. Test the cake’s doneness by placing a toothpick into the center.

When the cake is done, invert onto a platter and cool completely.

Once the cake is cool, make the frosting by mixing all of the ingredients together. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to thicken the frosting and then spread over the cake.

Slice and serve!