Mini! Cute! Tasty!

Inspired by these cute little muffin containers and being obsessed with this pumpkin recipe, I decided to make muffins as "cookies" for our holiday baking.

 

 

 

 

Note, the nutrition facts don't include the pecans on top, or the chocolate chips.  I found that I made about 2-2.5 dozen muffins for the recipe.

Christmas dinner

 

It's eggplant fried in a lot of olive oil, then baked in tomato sauce. It could be worse, it could still be slathered in mozzarella. I also added a bed of cooked kale to my plate ('cause I really like kale and pasta!) and tried not to go back for seconds.  (Note, true confession, I still make it with cheese for my non-vegan husband and niece. I don't miss cheese. )

My Dad's Sauce is part of this wonderful dish; it is very healthy. If you haven't made your own marinara spaghetti sauce before, try it!  My friend PS tried making it last year and loves it.  She was convinced by another friend, and I'm so glad!

Mexican chickpeas

 

I wanted to make something with chickpeas. They are my current favorite bean. Well, they are probably in a tie with pinto beans. Anyway, this was dinner. I used kale instead of cabbage because of these beauties that are a LOT bigger now. 

We served it with sourdough bread, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and whole wheat tortillas to make a wrap (you chose how you wanted to eat it). Yum! Four out of 6 of us loved it (my niece is here). We have almost another meal out of this for the four of us.

I'll make it again, I probably won't even change anything; well, I'll probably add more kale. I tripled the recipe tonight.

3 15-ounce cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), half mashed
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 can of diced tomatoes (I'd use fresh if I had them)
15 or so leaves of kale (shredded)

2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1-3 teaspoons olive oil
1 and 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3/8- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt & pepper to taste (I actually added about 1 teaspoon to the pan 'cause my garbanzo beans and tomatoes had no salt.)

Cook the onion, red pepper, and garlic until the onions translucent and soft. (I used just a little olive oil and some of the juice from the tomatoes to cook them in.) Mash the chickpeas and add the mashed and whole ones, along with the tomatoes and spice. Cook everything until hot; add the kale and cook until the kale is soft.

Green lunch

 

I've been getting rid of my plastic containers for lunches.  It's expensive to go all stainless, but over time I've been buying different pieces. I try out a style by buying one of a particular style. If I like it, I go back and buy more of that style, if not, I'm not stuck with a ton of what I don't like. They look so pretty! One good thing is that stainless steel containers don't really break, so as long as the girls don't lose them, we'll have them for a long time.

If you need a last minute gift idea for a fun Holiday gift for the person who likes "green" stuff, I recommend little stainless steel containers!

For the next formal event I go to

 

Found it in FB. I don't know who actually made it. It's super cute! I'd love to give credit, but don't know where it came from.

Fun to explore

I love finding new blogs to read about vegan cooking.  Here's a site with links to some I haven't seen!

Broccoli

 
I forgot to post this from a couple of weeks ago.  I need to check to see how these guys are doing!

Hearty Cookie #2

Mine weren't nearly as ooey goey, but they are delicious! I didn't make the homemade PB chips, so I stuck in twice as many chocolate chips. I definitely classify these as breakfast cookies. The girls are delighted for a new breakfast treat (definitely will work for travel!), but they ate them this afternoon, as a snack--no problem.

Here are the stats for 1/15th of the recipe.  I'll try to make each cookie slightly smaller next time.

1 cup dates
1 medium ripe banana
2 Tbsp Peanut Butter
1 cup almond meal (ground from raw almonds)
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Soak pitted dates for 10 minutes and then stick them in your food processor.
Add banana, salt, vanilla, and pb; process them into the mixture.
Add oats and almond meal.

Put the mixture into a bowl and add the chocolate chips.
Form into cookies and bake at 350 (in a preheated oven) for15-20 minutes.  Mine were so big that they needed 19 minutes. (I let them go until 20--still good.)

 
Raw

 
Raw

 

Cooked

 Cooked

Here's a link to a hearty cookie (#1). The pb in the new recipe makes the cookies taste very different from the first ones.  

Finally! Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!!!

I've finally had a chance to make this DELICIOUS Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!

OHMYGOODNESS!

I'm not much of a fruit leather person. Or at least I didn't used to be, but this is amazing!

I made a batch last night. I modified a bit.  Here's what I did:

1 can of pumpkin puree
1 (heaping) tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/8-1/4 cup maple syrup*
1/4 cup water

BLEND

Pour the mixture  on a silpat (or equivalent) and then work really hard to spread the mixture EVENLY. (I'm guessing you could use parchment instead of a silpat, if you wanted, but I do love my silpat!)

I couldn't get it spread evenly; finally, my husband suggested that I take a BIG spatula (the kind you use to flip pancakes) and drag it across the mixture. It worked pretty well, but we'll see after it comes out of the oven. (One maker of fruit leather suggests "whacking" the pan on the counter a few times to get it even after it's mostly even. I may try this next time.)

Bake at 170 (or as low as your oven will go) for hours... She said 6, but mine was done in about 5 (last night).  We'll see how long it takes today. I spread it a little thicker 'cause parts were WAY too thin last night. I am guessing it will take closer to 6, today. (Yes, I'm making my second batch--don't judge.)

*I used 1/4 cup last night and cut it down to 3/8ths this morning. I'll report back on the sweetness.

Kale

 

We harvested some of the big kale.  So far it's been put into a soup and a smoothie.  It is super fun to have the garden! We'll need to harvest more, soon. We'll learn how much we can harvest and have it keep growing. I'm very curious to learn.

Vegan Thanksgiving

We celebrated at home with just us.  I made:

Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Yukon gold potatoes (4)
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Cashew Cream (about 1/3 of a cup)
Salt
Pepper
A little soy milk
A little earth balance 
(I could probably make runnier cashew cream and omit the soy if I wanted to.)

I had never MADE mashed potatoes before so I just LEARNED that you need to make them RIGHT before eating so they are nice and hot.  I had to heat them up in the microwave. They were still yummy.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
(I made it with Cashew Cream)

A big green salad
Romaine
Tomatoes
Cucumber

Red Pepper Spread (with Sourdough)

Pumpkin Pie
I made the filling from this recipe and just used a store bought vegan crust for one of the pies and plain chocolate chips as the crust for the other recipe (it falls apart, but it is YUMMY!). (The crustless pie is topped with Rice Whip.)

 

What a yummy day!  We'll do another celebration with friends on Saturday.

Red Pepper Spread

Inspired by Oh She Glows, again, I made this delightful, delicious red pepper spread.  Hers was more of a muhammara than mine, 'cause I left the bread out, didn't toast the walnuts, and I used sweet red peppers. You know I can't follow directions and I like doing mash ups of recipes (pun intended).

What did I do?

I roasted about 8 red peppers, with olive oil.  I just put a little olive oil on each pepper and broiled for about 20 minutes at 450, then I flipped them over and watched them (probably about another 15-ish minutes.) I only used 4 in this recipe. The others will be used when I make this for our Saturday get together.


Put all the ingredients in your food processor:

4 roasted red peppers
1 cup walnuts
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (my new favorite spice!)
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of tomato paste

Process until mostly smooth and serve with bread.

 

So delicious! I didn't toast the walnuts, but it was still excellent.  Next time I may toast the walnuts, just for fun. For the record, it was delicious with raw walnuts.  

We think it will be excellent on wraps, (vegan) burgers, and just as a dip. This was Nick and my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.  (Natalie kind of liked it, Kira wouldn't try it, and Tia said it was okay.) (I don't care if the girls eat it or not--more for us!) 

P.S. See the pictures at Oh She Glows!

Homemade adobo sauce

I had no idea what it was until a couple of weeks ago and now it is one of my favorite things. You take these bad boys (dried and smoked chipotle peppers) and cook them in tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, garlic, cumin, honey (could be any sweetner), water....

I had no idea what I was doing so I started with 12 of them.  I made a lot of stuff with this sauce this weekend.

I used 12 chipotle peppers (slice them open and empty the seeds) (then be afraid of your fingers because they will be very peppery and could sting your eyes)
I used two small (7 ounce) jars of tomato paste
about 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (1/3 to 1/2)
about 1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons cumin
water about 1.5 cups
2 cloves of minced garlic

Put it all in a pan, stir and cook (simmering and stirring occassionally) for about 1/2 hour to hour.  I did an hour.

This stuff is AWESOME!


So what did I make?

this from Minimalist Baker
Chipotle Hummus
Mexican Lasagne (Basically this recipe but with an added layer of Adobo Sauce)

I froze enough of the sauce for at least one more batch of Chipotle Hummus (maybe two).
YUM!

Chipotle hummus

 

So good we couldn't wait to eat it!

http://veryveryverygreen.blogspot.com/2012/12/garbanzo-bean-hummus.html  + Homemade Adobo Sauce

Okay, here are the details so you don't have to click:

2 (15-ounce) cans garbanzo beans (drained, but save the liquid from one can in case you need it)
1-2 lemons, juiced (usually 6-10 tablespoons depending on how lemon-y you like it; we went through a phase where we (Kira) really liked it lemon-y. Now we tend to make it less lemon-y like 6 tablespoons)
2 garlic cloves (or more depending on how much garlic you like)
2-3 tablespoons tahini
1-2 teaspoons salt (unless your beans are already salted, if so, salt to taste and you probably won't need too much) 

plus about 3/8ths of a cup of Adobo sauce + 3 of the peppers (still in the sauce) (See the sauce recipe, you do have to click here.)

Tumeric Tea

I've read about tumeric tea for a long time. I finally decided to try it.

Yum.  I'll try it with almond milk next.

I put ~ 3 cups of water in a pan and 1 teaspoon of tumeric. Boiled, and poured a big cup of it. I poured in a teaspoon of honey.  Yum!  I totally skipped straining it and it was fine.  I took the remainder, about a cup, and added ginger tea bag.  I'll try that tomorrow and report back.

Tumeric is supposed to be amazing for you.

Might help, can't hurt.  My motto for what I eat, drink, and do.

A long time since I've blogged

Take a look at how much the kale has grown!

Growing Kale!

 

From this to this!

 

Can't wait until they get a little bigger!!!!  We're planting more this weekend! 

Quinoa-Banana-Bake

I saw a recipe for a non-vegan, slow-cooker, quinoa, banana "bread"... I had no idea what the texture was actually like, in the picture on the blog featuring the recipe, it looked like a baked oatmeal, maybe slightly more "bready"-- maybe like a bread pudding.

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden, as I read that recipe, I HAD to make it. I knew I could turn it vegan very easily, but alas, I don't have a slow cooker.

I started googling, "can you use your oven in place of a slow cooker?" After reading some techniques, involving dutch ovens, I decided I could make this without a slow-cooker. I also knew of a recipe to make quinoa in the oven. Whew! All would be okay.

Ingredients:

1 cup of quinoa
1 cup soy milk (could be any non-dairy milk with some fat in it)
1 cup water
1 - 1 and1/2 banana (past ripe)
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Here's what I did:

Mashed up the banana
Put the rest of the ingredients in the dutch oven or whatever covered item or cooking that you have (I also have no dutch oven), but I have this covered pyrex-type pan.

I pre-heated the oven, but when I stuck the pyrex in, full of cold ingredients, it needed to heat up again. It was at about 280 for 40 minutes until it finally got to 325.

I cheated and stirred around the time it hit 300.  It looked like it had serious yum potential.

I cooked it for about 90-100 minutes. It looked excellent! It does kind of look like a bread until you dip into it. Then you can SEE the quinoa. Nevermind that, it was excellent!

I don't know why I was craving quinoa, but I was! I ate a lot. I will make it for breakfast sometime when I have company. I will make it again for me. It was super easy! One of three of the little girls tried it and "liked" it.  We'll see if she eats more tomorrow morning--we'll heat it up in the microwave.

Here are the nutrition facts.

Alphabet soup

 

Very hearty, tomato-y, yummy!

I found a recipe online and decided I had to try it because it had SMOKED PAPRIKA in it!  However, you should know by now how well I follow directions.  I do not follow them very well at all. In fact, I followed the directions so poorly that I'm not even linking to the original recipe.

Here's what I did:

6 cups veggie broth
1 onion diced
1.5 red bell peppers diced ('cause that's what I had--could be 1 or 2)
3 small yukon gold potatoes
2 cans garbanzo beans
3 carrots diced
3 stalk celery diced
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves

I diced all the above veggies and through them into a big pan with the veggie broth. I added all the ingredients above this line and let things cook for 30 or 40 minutes so they got nice and soft.

Next, I added all these ingredients:
1 24 ounce jar of tomato sauce
1-2 teaspoons dried basil
1-2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1-2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (could be more, but I didn't want it to be too spicy for the girls)

I let things cook a bit longer... 20 or so... maybe longer. I was doing other things around the house.

Then a couple hours went by and the soup was on "low." I had to taken a sick kitty to the vet; when I got back and looked at the soup (and tasted it) I decided it would be PERFECT to add alphabet letters to!
So I added:

1 cup alphabet letters
3-4 cups water  'cause it was really thick and I knew it would just get thicker.  (You can add whatever amount of water you want, really.  I could have added a little more.)
After the letters cooked, I added a LOT of baby kale. Then my husband asked if I could stick in a vegan sausage for flavor, so I stuck in one Italian one.

Serve! Enjoy!
Add black pepper to taste

 

The letters!

Results:
5 out of 5 ate it and liked it. The youngest liked it the least well and that was surprising to me, but she did like it.







 

2 more pumpkin recipes I want to try!

http://kirbiecravings.com/2013/09/pumpkin-fruit-leather.html

&

http://theveglife.com/pumpkin-pecan-larabites-vegan/

I have a little modifying to do, but there is much potential YUM!

Pumpkinspiration!

I was inspired by Oh She Glows, but knew I needed to change a few things, 'cause that's what I do. Here's what I did.

Wet Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons ground flax mixed with 4 tablespoons water (make and set aside mix in after 5 minutes or so)

• 1 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin purée (1/2 a can)*

• 2/3 cup of maple syrup

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, ground into a flour 

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

• 1 cup almond flour (not almond meal)

• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (for enhanced binding)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

• 1 -2 tablespoons cinnamon (we like cinnamon, so we use more!)**

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon allspice
(or use your favorite pumpkin pie spices, in the amounts you like--you can add clove if you like it) 

Yummy stuff (aka as optional, but it's the YUMMY stuff) 

• 1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped

• 4 tablespoons non-dairy chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper

• Mix flax egg in a small bowl or mug and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the pumpkin and maple syrup 

• Pour in the flax mixture (should be thick) and vanilla extract and mix

• Mix the dry ingredients (all of them)

• Add in the Yummy stuff.

• Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread out until smooth and even. The dough will be very sticky, but this is normal. (Tip from Oh She Glows: I like to cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper and roll it with a pastry roller. I didn't do this step.)

• Bake for 20-35 minutes (I baked for 35 minutes)(the original recipe said 15-20 minutes, but I changed a few things). Next time, I might stop at 32. It's done when it has a good texture to the touch. 

• Place pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, lift out and place square directly on cooling rack for another 10-20 minutes, until cool. (The bars will crumble slightly if sliced warm, but they firm up nicely when cooled.)

(Tip: I put the whole almonds into the rolled oats I was grinding to make my own almond flour. Do it in two batches in your Vitamix (or other high powered blender) if you're doing this.)

We all really liked this. 5 out of 5 of us give it a gold star! (I left the pecans out of 1/2 because I wasn't sure how girls would react, but 4 of 5 of us like the pecans.) 

I'm going to play around a little with the recipe and try making it with whole wheat flour. We like the gluten free, and I love having gluten free options to make for friends who need it, but we also like the gluten around here. I'll keep you posted on any new variations. Pictures hopefully soon--we just killed off the first batch, in less than 24 hours, but I'll make this again.

 

*I had 1/2 a can left over and needed a recipe for it. This recipe can be paired perfectly with the cornbread recipe I just posted or you can refrigerate the other 1/2 a can and make the recipe again in a couple of days, or freeze it for later if you need more time between baking sessions.

**I've switched to Ceylon Cinnamon. It's the true cinnamon and may have more health benefits than the cassia cinnamon. It's got a milder flavor and I like to use more. If you use cassia cinnamon you may not want as much.

Happy October (a new cornbread)

I finally got around to making this recipe from The Breakfast Drama Queen. Except, I changed it a little. Are you surprised? She likes savory cornbread, and I, while I don't like sweet, do like sweet cornbread. I have even been known to pour a little maple syrup on my cornbread. Sweet cornbread makes sense to me--savory, not so much.

Okay, so what'd I do? I loved her idea of pumpkin, so I didn't change that! I stuck with the recipe she made for the most part, except I added about a quarter cup of maple syrup. I probably should have reduced the soy milk I used (didn't have almond), 'cause it's taking a long time to bake!

From her site, with my modifications.

• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal

• 3 tablespoons water

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 1 teaspoon maple syrup

• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 ½ cups polenta (cornmeal)

•  ¾ cup unsweetened almond milk (or whatever non-dairy milk you prefer)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 9x9 pan.

• In a large bowl, whisk together the flaxseed meal and water. Whisk in the pumpkin puree and maple syrup. Add the baking powder and salt, followed by the polenta, and stir well. Add the non-dairy milk, and mix until completely combined.

• Pour into the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, (with my extra liquid, it took 30 minutes) or until the tops feel firm. Cool for 5 minutes before eating or transferring to a cooking rack. 

Verdict?  We liked it. It's not that sweet. It's very moist. The amount was perfect for the 5 of us. I served it with My Mexican Soup!

Cool weather gardening

Some broccoli we already started.

In the new backyard, we have 2 big planter beds (raised and gopher proof); the two are about 150 square feet total. We're filling them with greens (see the picture above for what we're planting) and other cool weather plants.  I am so excited!

Back when I was starting to make things with tofu

I wish I'd had this guide! I had to read a lot of different websites to understand what she so nicely presents in a nice blog post.

More inspiration for new dinners

Some of these will need "fixin'"
http://www.misorecipes.net/miso-recipes/walnut-miso-dip/
http://www.plantbasedkatie.com/potato-waffle/
http://minimaleats.com/vegan-stir-fried-udon-noodles/
http://www.veganinsanity.com/recipes/super-cheesy-vegan-pesto-pasta/#.VBmghUtsfYv
http://www.picklesnhoney.com/2014/09/04/chickpea-scramble-sweet-potato-salsa-garlicky-kale/
http://mydarlingvegan.com/2014/09/oatmeal-date-scones/
(I wanna fix this one so there isn't vegan butter in it. I'll try do something with it to make it more Whole Foods Plant Based)
http://www.doradaily.com/my-blog/2014/09/super-lasagna.html

Need to learn more:

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5545/a-winter-vegetable-garden-in-northern-california/page/all

loving cashew cream, but kicking it up a notch

I have growing girls who like yummy treats so I make a lot of things with nuts:

Cashew Cream Cheese

Chocolate Chia Brownies

Blueberry Bites

Dixie Pie Bites

Chocolate Frosting

and the list could go on.

Since I cook with nuts so frequently, I need to kick it up a notch at the gym. (Some of my jeans are getting snug. It's still warm and summery, so it doesn't matter, but come fall, I don't want to have to buy new pants.) Nuts are full of fat and calorie laden, but oh so good. So now it's extra trips to the gym!

I'd like to do more cardio, 'cause I'm a cardio kind of girl, but this fall, is all about muscle building. Having more muscle makes it easier to burn off calories when you are just sitting--muscles require them. Cardio burns off calories and can burn off muscle, too. (I'm not explaining it very well, but I don't feel like getting technical.)

My goal is to add in 2 strength building classes each week. I was only doing one strength building workout a week; a Pilates on the reformer workout. I think I've found a good schedule of 3 days strength training, 2 days of tap, and 1 day of heavy duty cardio day (plus walking as much as possible). (I'd like to get one more day of heavy duty cardio in there, but I don't have time until my class is over in December.)

I do love the reformer. My back, so sore for many years because of an injury and 3 pregnancies, is now not sore most of the time. From 2002-2008, it hurt more days than it didn't. I remember that if I stepped funny of a step or curb, I would be in pain. Some experts said to take it easy and rest it and some said, do more core work. Back then, I wasn't sure what a core was, but I finally figured it out and I'm glad I chose to move and not rest. It took a while to get strong, but now my core is strong and my back doesn't hurt. I don't like doing the strength building classes but not hurting is worth an hour of strength building 3 times a week!

Okay... new recipes soon. I hope. Yesterday, it was hot and summery, we even went swimming, but I decided to make soup!  I made this one Veggie Soup with Kale. Except I had no Kale. So I used cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli (and potatoes). I might add tomatoes next time or use Kale. Soups are fun 'cause you can improvise and it always works. Even the time when you add cashew cream to minestrone (I don't think I ever told you about that), but still, it worked--if you didn't think of it as a minestrone. I froze one dinner's worth of that soup (for the five of us) and have two more dinner's worth in the fridge. Next week, hopefully I'll do another soup. I made it a goal last year to make a soup every Sunday. That lasted a few weeks and then I was sick of making soup. I did get a lot frozen, and it was helpful to have them over the course of a busy year. Over the next couple of months, I'll try to make 3 or 4 kinds and get some of each kind frozen. It's all about EASY around here!

Cashew Cream "Cheese!"

I am loving cashew cream "cheese!"

Inspired by this recipe, I made a cheese.

What I did:
1.5 cups raw cashews
water (soak the cashews in the water for 2-8 hours) then drain.

Put soaked cashews in the food processor along with
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced (or as much as you like)
½ teaspoon sea salt
black pepper, to taste
½ tablespoon dried basil
½ tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon honey* (or vegan sweetner)

Process until smooth.  It may take 5-10 minutes with stops to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl.

Chill and enjoy!  (Or eat straight out of the food processor while it's warm.... your call.)


Someday, I want to make the "tomato jelly" on that same blog. It sounds FABULOUS.



*Yea, I know honey isn't vegan and I know we don't want to exploit bees, but I think if we treat bees right and use only small amounts of their honey, then they will be more valued and have more people on their side to help them. Bees are shipped around to different fields of produce to pollinate the fields. We need our bees and we need them to be healthy and we need to take good care of them. (We have so many problems with our food supply and the way we do things to make enough food for everyone in the country.)  See http://waywardspark.com/transporting-bees-locally-and-to-california-for-almond-pollination/ for more info--in my opinion really interesting.

Recipes I want to make

Here's a list of links that I've been collecting (leaving windows open in my web browser--some have been open most of the summer). I keep wanting time to try new recipes and blog about them, but I haven't had time! June and July were very busy with work and teaching, then we had a vacation at the beginning of August, and then back to school.


Veggie and whole grain bowl! I make a variation of this all the time, but it's fun to see it in recipe form.
http://www.plantplate.com/Recipe/Detail?RecipeID=11058

http://ohmyveggies.com/one-pot-peanut-sesame-noodles-veggies/
One pots are always easy, and intrigue me, but don't capture me fully after I make them.

Intriguing no-oil cornbread
http://breakfastdramaqueen.com/2014/08/02/cornbread-mini-loaves-gluten-free-and-vegan/

Grown up cookies! These look good!
http://talesofakitchen.com/cookies-brekky-bars/grown-up-dark-chocolate-quinoa-cookies/

Then I just saw this one...
http://thevegan8.com/2014/08/07/bbq-pesto/ 
and I think it led to this one....
http://www.thesweetlifeonline.com/2014/07/14/bbq-pulled-pork-pizza-with-mango-salsa/
and then I got the idea of making home made BBQ sauce... this recipe isn't vegan, but it could be!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/neelys-bbq-sauce-recipe.html
'cause I might need it if I make homemade BBQ: vegan worcestershire sauce. (And because worcestershire is so much fun to say as you type!)
http://www.marthastewart.com/258132/homemade-vegan-worcestershire-sauce


I really, really want to make this. In fact, I'm going to try, today! I have the cashews soaking but I need to get cheesecloth.
http://blissfulbasil.com/2014/07/10/herbed-cashew-cheese-spicy-tomato-jam/

& I found this looking for more ideas around vegan cheese.
http://katyskitchen.ca/vegan-cream-cheese-herb-garlic/

& along the same theme...

Maybe my vegan friend, Patti, will make this one with me!  We need a cooking day!
http://thehumbleplate.com/sides-and-snacks/mushroom-thymenutcheese/

Looks fab, but only 3 of us would like it so it has to go to the bottom of the list.
http://avocadopesto.com/2014/07/20/sweet-potato-chickpea-salad-gluten-free-vegan/

Maybe for a pot luck someday
http://myplantbasedfamily.com/2014/07/23/pasta-salad/

I definitely need to make pesto! I'm going to substitute pine nuts in though.
http://katyskitchen.ca/basil-oregano-pesto/

Looks super yum.
http://tasty-yummies.com/2014/01/28/southwestern-quinoa-bites-recipe-with-avocado-dipping-sauce-gluten-free-and-vegan/

I want to try the carmel, 'cept I don't like coconut so I'll have to substitute/modify.
http://thevegan8.com/2014/07/29/sweet-potato-cinnamon-muffins-with-sweet-potato-caramel-glaze/


A slightly different black bean dip than we make.
http://www.healthiersteps.com/VeganCooking/tabid/70/entryid/169/spicy-black-bean-hummus-vegan-gluten-free.aspx

Both look interesting and fun, but the top one looks better than the bottom one, to me.
http://www.nomeatathlete.com/tart-cherries-energy-bars/


Not a recipe, but pretty tasty
http://shop.thepurebar.com/Pure-Ancient-Grains-Bars/c/PureBar@AncientGrains

And now I can shut lots of windows in my web browser! Yay!

August Post

All month, I've been trying to find a moment to blog. I have been unsuccessful. We had a lovely 10-day vacation at the beginning of the month. I had hoped to blog during that down time, but a vacation, where one isn't cooking at all, and one isn't eating very health foods doesn't make fodder for a healthy food blog.

I will tell you that the trick I used to make sure the girls ate some healthy stuff each day. Each day, I made the girls an Amazing Green Chocolate shake mixed with soy milk. Not as good as homemade Momba I at least knew they got a little good stuff.

Okay. Now that I have one post done I'm going to take some time this holiday weekend and put links in to all the recipes I have collected over this busy summer that I want to try.

Apricot crisp

 

 

I should have blogged about this when we did it back in June; however, I was so busy that I could barely see straight. Alas, I'll have to reconstruct what I did from my poor memory.

I wanted more of a "crispy crisp" than I was making a crisp with this crisp recipe. 

I decided the granola recipe I made, without the cocoa, would be perfect.

3 cups rolled oats
1/2 ground flax
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup
5 tablespoons water (more if needed)
2 tsp  vanilla extract

I am pretty sure that I didn't put 3 cups of oats on that little pan of crisp, but rather that I mixed it up, put what I needed on the apricots and then baked the rest and ate it by itself. (I'm guessing cutting the recipe in 1/2 would make a great amount for the crisp.)

I don't remember how long I baked it--probably 20-25 minutes for the apricots at 350. I probably put foil over the top for a little bit so that it didn't get too crisp (aka burnt). It was good!

Bonus: If you're looking for a fun no-oil granola recipe, I recommend the one above.

Saturday morning baking: Delicious Brownies

Natalie found this recipe a while ago and we love it on special occasions. This morning, I tripled it so we can take it to a pool party for my vegan friends! It's a recipe from Minimalist Baker. Everything over there looks very yummy (not as healthy as I tend to make, but every once in a while you need stuff for parties and such). (And I didn't even modify the recipe. That's a shocker!)

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup (1 stick) non-dairy butter (such as Earth Balance)
3/4 cup natural cane or granulated sugar
2 large flax eggs (2 tbsp flaxseed + 6 Tbsp water) (put flax and water in a small bowl and let rest for 5 minutes to turn into the right texture)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
(Optional add-ins:) 1/3 cup walnuts or chocolate chips (or whatever your heart desires)


INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place a paper liner.

Place softened butter in a large mixing bowl and stir in the flax egg, sugar, vanilla, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Mix well.

Add the flour (mix gently), and fold in any mix-ins - chocolate chips or walnuts are our favorite (I make half without the nuts because my 2 out of 3 girls don't yet appreciate nuts.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin tins (I usually get 8-10 muffins from a single batch) until 3/4 full and bake on the middle rack for 21-26 minutes, or until the brownies start to pull away from the sides and they spring back slightly to the touch. (I find 21-22 to be perfect... they don't seem totally done, but they are. If I let them go for 23 minutes, or longer, in my oven, they get crumbly.)

While they are baking, be sure to eat the batter left in the mixing bowl.  (This is a super important step! If you don't, my 3 helpers will be very mad at you for wasting perfectly good batter!)

Remove from oven and give them at least 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a plate or cooling rack.

Store in an airtight container to keep fresh for a couple days. Minimalist Baker suggests freezing for long-term storage. (As if we'd need to that around here! It'll be a miracle if I get all 24 brownies to the party!)

 

My house smelled so good while I was baking!

 

 

Yum!

It's  been a month since my last blog post. I'm done with my class and I return with a fun recipe of chocolate frosting from the Cupcake project.

3 cups raw cashews (soak for a couple hours)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Blend.  Eat. OMG.

Note, this is not sweet. We like it that way. Also, we always have to add more water to get it to blend into a smooth frosting. Since we're not doing anything fancy with it (mostly putting it on graham crackers or a spoon) we don't need it to be super thick.

When life gives you apricots, make apricot jam!

Our tree went a little crazy! Our super nanny had the great idea to make jam with the girls. Here's what happened.

 

Cut them up

 

Cook

 

Blend and then cook a little more

 

Sterilize

 

Fill and, not shown is the cooking of the jars after the jam is inside. You stick the filled jars in water and boil for 10 minutes. This is the essential step to insure the food is properly canned! See directions below.

 

Cool and enjoy!

Here are the complete directions from our super nanny:

Cut them into pieces (8 Cups to be exact), put them in the pan with 1/4 cup lemon juice, and I used 4.5 cups of sugar (the recipe said 6!) (Note, Natalie I made this again with low sugar pectin and used what the amount of pectin and 3 cups of sugar.)

Stir them as they cook, once they boil set a time for about 30 minutes and stir often, otherwise the sugar will stick and burn.

Once its done it will look slightly chunky (but because I didn't think the girls would like it with chunks) so I put it in the blender for 5-7 seconds.

While the fruit was cooking I sterilized the canning jars in boiling water, you put them in for 10 minutes. (You can sterilize them in the dish washer but we didn't have time to do so.)

Once the jar are done let them cool and they are VERY hot! Once the jars are cool enough for touch and the jam is done FILL them up about 4/5 of the way leaving a little room at the top--(just fill to the bottom of the place where the lid screws on.

After you pour them in the jars that have been sterilized you put them back in the water; once the water boils you set a timer for 10 minutes and let them can.

Then you have JAM!!! Let them sit for a day to cool and Enjoy!!

Note again...SO YUMMY. Thanks, Chelsea! I followed her directions and made it again with Natalie. We also made a lot of apricot crisps. Now, we are a little sick of apricots. Next year, our plan is to make jam and to freeze apricots all cut up so we can make jam later in the year (or crisps).