Strawberry-licious

I created a strawberry, baked oatmeal sort of breakfast cake.

1/2 cup almond buttter
1 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup almond flour
1 cup oat flour
1/4 cup flax meal
1/4 cup psyllium or 1/4 cup oat bran
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
up to 1/4 cup of flax milk to mix the batter (if needed), but you don't want it too runny 'cause it will take longer to bake.
(If the batter seems too wet, add in some whole oats--if it's wet at this point, it will get way too wet with the added strawberries.)

10 ounces of frozen strawberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla.

Add the almond flour, oat flour, flax meal, psyllium and baking powder. I strongly recommend using a mixer for this recipe!

Let the strawberries sit out to soften while you mix everything else and then chop the strawberries by hand into small-ish pieces. Mix them in last, by hand.

Line a 9x13 pan with a silpat or parchment paper and pour the batter in.  Bake for 30-45 minutes -- depending on how much liquid was in the batter (e.g., depending on how much flax milk you added and how much moisture was in the strawberries).

Let cool for a few minutes and then enjoy!

 

It's not a very good photo, but it's super yummy.

Soap nuts

 

We have our gray water system up and running! (It's been running for a couple months now, this is just the first chance I've had to post about it.)  Nick found these berries that are actually soap-like; they are really cool, you stick 4-5 of them in a little muslin bag and wash your  clothes with them. They are completely biodegradable.  Nature is awesome! Plants are awesome. 

New dinner: May 2016

Natalie came back from a trip to Disneyland and wanted "not junk food."  She is my vegan who loves veggies.  She found this recipe on Oh She Glows and we made it together.  It was Mother's Day, and I could have gotten out of making dinner, but I like cooking with my girls! 

 

We used whole wheat cappelini ('cause we had it--you can use whatever you like) and broccoli, carrots, edamame, red pepper and green onions all sliced up.

(It's hard to tell the red pepper from the carrots, but it there is red pepper in there!)

What we did:

Chopped the veggies (use any you like!).

Cooked our noodles and set aside.

Mixed up the Teriyaki Sauce.

1/8 cup rice vinegar
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup tamari (low sodium is good)

1 tablespoon (maybe slightly less) untoasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup (slightly more actually)

2 cloves garlic finally chopped

1/2 - 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (use less for less heat)

1 teaspoon cornstarch (or some thickening if you want, not essential)

Then we cooked the chopped veggies in a large skillet (I don't have a wok) with sesame oil.  We cooked the broccoli, carrots, and edamame for about 6 minutes, then the red pepper and cooked for another couple minutes, and then the green onions at the end.

We added some of teriyaki sauce stirred, added noodles, stirred, added sauce, stirred ... you get the picture, until we had as many noodles in the pan as we wanted.

I made a second batch of the teriyaki sauce and cooked some more noodles without veggies for Kira, my vegan who doesn't like vegetables.  (She drank her Kale smoothie with dinner.)

We'll definitely make this again!  All 5 liked it (in some form).

Bean harvest

A little over 1/2 of our bean harvest.
(tea mug for scale)

bee

This little bee is on a broccoli flower.  I may make her the mascot of I like it green! I love her.
 
 
 
 



    I call this one "artistic bee."



  This is "nothing can stop the natabee!"

Working on a new recipe

 
My girls can cook!  All of them!  This summer we'll share more of their cooking.  This is Natalie working on perfecting a chocolate chip muffin. I think she got it just the way she wanted it.  I'll have to share it with you all soon -- or maybe she will blog it here.

Oh!  Here's a photo she took of cupcakes she and her sisters made one day. Yum!

New dinner: Broccoli, hashbrowns, and spice

I have a lot of broccoli in my garden. My winter garden is coming to an end (probably in a week or two) but for now, we are enjoying the broccoli. I don't know how much I got today, but I cleaned and chopped for a long time.  It was the biggest bunch I'd ever picked. I should have taken a picture. Alas.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for new ideas for my broccoli and kale.  I found this:
 http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/02/healthy-hash-brown-casserole.html

I changed it up a little.  Here's what I did:

Sauce1 1/4 cups water and 1/4 cup cashews -- make a cashew cream in the blender

In another larger bowl mix:
the cashew cream
1 cup plain, sugar-free non-dairy milk (I used soy)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons potato starch or cornstarch (I used cornstarch)
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 - 1 teaspoon powdered mustard seed
1-2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
1/2 tub of the chipotle salsa (pictured)

Casserole
Veggie broth as needed for cooking the onion and broccoil (see below for instructions)
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
A LOT of broccoli ... 'cause I had it.  I probably used the equivalent of 3 big heads
16 ounces frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed (no oil)
1 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained

 

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a 11x9-inch baking dish.

Saute the onion in broth when soft add in the garlic, broccoli, and cook until broccoli is slight soft.  Add the sauce, hash browns, and chickpeas.

Cook, stirring constantly, until the sauce begins to thicken. Pour into prepared baking dish.

Cover with foil (I use a silpat) and bake for 40 minutes.

Uncover and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot.





Yum!  Comfort food!  Only 3 out of 5 of us liked it, but those of us who did really liked it.


I'll make this again with kale.  This is the second time I made the casserole and I used cashew cream (like I said in the ingredients. On the orginal recipe she suggested using tahini instead of cashew cream.  I tried it with tahini the first time and I definitely like cashew cream better.