Vegan Meringue

Meringue. I wonder how i could make you? So I went and googled it. I found that if you take flax seeds, simmer them, strain them, then beat them, you can make meringue. I will try this in the near future and tell you how it goes! It will be interesting. I loved lemon meringue pie when i was little!

Hotel Room Banana Cream Pie

While we were at the place of Thanksgiving-ing and family reunion, we had another party for the people who didn't come on Thursday and we decided to just have pie. Thanksgiving day night, we ran out to the store. Let me tell you about that! It was so crowded! but we made it through getting some pudding mix, bananas, and a pie crust that was vegan. I usually don't buy the pie crusts, but in this case, i had to because hey, we can't really make a pie crust from graham crackers in a hotel like room. So the pudding was the instant kind that you just beat for 2 minutes and ta-dah.

1 box instant pudding mix
2 bananas
1 premade Keebler pie crust (check that it's vegan, ours was)

Slice the bananas into the pie crust in medium sized slices, like 1 cm. Then take the pudding, follow the box instructions and beat it for about 2 minutes. Then chill in the fridge over night. It's a little runny, but for a last minute pie, i'd say it's great. I really liked it and it was nice to have something to eat along with the people eating the cheesecake, i felt so good! :D
It was also quite fun going out to the mall Thanksgiving night. I have a picture of it up on my instagram! Follow me!

Fig Bars and Christmas Presents

I made some fig bars for someone what we were meeting up with for thanksgiving. My fillings were:

1. dried plums with hazel nuts, and maple syrup.
2. peanut butter and maple syrup or agave
3. dates, raisins, and peanuts
4. blackberry jam


I put them in my ninja blender pulser thing and it worked great. I just spread it down the middle of the dough and folded it over, then i baked it for about 12-15 minutes.

I also wanted to talk about christmas presents from the kitchen that i made. I did herbed rice mix, fig bars, peanut brittle and spiced nuts. For the herbed rice mix, i took dried shiitake mushrooms, rice, and some herbs like garlic, onion powder, parsley, basil and thyme and then when you want to mix it, you take 1 cup of the mix and 2 1/2 cups of water. Boil for 20 minutes and then fluff with a fork salt and pepper to taste. You can get the recipe here. I got all these recipes from spoonfuls or family fun magazine back issues and stuff that i pulled out.
For the spiced nuts, i also used their recipe. You roast your nuts and then you make a glaze, then you make a spice mixture. I absolutely loved their ingredients for both of them. Since i wasn't eating it, i could use full fat (fat makes me break out with acne) and so i just used the full amount of oil. The recipe can be got here.
Enjoy and have fun! These things won't spoil and so they are great if you want to make them ahead. (Don't do the fig bars ahead, they will spoil but the peanut brittle, herbed rice mix and spiced nuts won't.)
I'm going out for a photo shoot and might post more this week, maybe not. Check out my youtube channel! I hope to post more pictures. Here are all my sites to follow me on!

youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVl0T330s4-MVmk6N7P0s6Q
instagram: Thacia stirling
pinterest: http://pinterest.com/thaciastirling/

As i get the sites i will post more links to where you can follow me
Have a great Thanksgiving Day Eve and don't get run over in the supermarket! It's really crowded in there!

Whole Foods and Trader Joe Run

Pomelo

Quiche

Paneer Tikka Masala

We headed to the local Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and got some stuff. I thought i would show you some stuff of what we saw and got. i didn't take pictures so i just took some off of google. Enjoy! we did some shopping for another person and so we got some paneer tikka masala, and paneer and we also saw pomelos! They were huge! We also got some tofurky that was Bologna style. It should be really good and i like it because it's vegan! :D
more coming later!

Peanut Brittle

This is a perfectly perfect recipe that i used. I loved it and used it for christmas gifts.

Peanut brittle
1 c. raw Spanish peanuts
1 C. white sugar
½ c. light corn syrup
½ c. water
1 t. baking soda
1. lay out several sheet so foil to spoon the hot peanut brittle onto.
2. In a large skillet, mix sugar, syrup and water together. Cook at a medium-high heat, stirring regularly. Heat until the mixture has a hard ball consistency. heat up to 250-265 degrees or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a ridgid ball.
3. Once mixture is at hard ball consistency, add raw peanuts. (They will pop a little). When the mixture starts to turn a light clear-brown, as if it’s starting to burn, remove from stove. Add soda and stir. Mixture will foam up.
4. Spoon out onto the unbuttered foil, making sure it’s even height. When it’s cooled, it can be broken into small pieces.

Pumpkin Biscuits

Made some pumpkin biscuits. :D They were really good. I actually made 25 biscuits from this recipe because i rolled it thinner and used a smaller cookie cutter. They were about 45 calories per thing and made a nice little snack.
1/2 c. pumpkin (unsweetened/plain in a can)
1/2 c. water
1/4 c. almond milk (unsweetened)
1 t. .vinegar
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
1 T. applesauce (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Mix the first four ingredients together. Add in the flours, baking soda, bakign powder, salt, seasonings, and applesauce if you want to. Mix until all combined. Take about 1/2 c. of mix and put in on some floured surface. Roll it out to 3/4 " thick. Cut with a 2 1/2 " biscuit cutter. Bake the biscuits 12-15 minutes. Makes 14 biscuits.
For one biscuit
68 calories

Gluten free pie

I made a gluten free pie!! Recipe coming soon. It was a double crust apple pie.

Nacho Cheese Sauce

Thought I'd share this recipe with y'all! I really like the idea and when i do try it out, i'll tell you guys. so here it is. It's nacho cheese sauce that doesn't use nuts! I love it since i believe that we should also cut back on our consumption of nuts.... those little guys are addicting but full of fat!!

1/4 c. overcooked potato
1/2 c. nutritional yeaast
1/4 c. corn starch
1 t. paprika
1 t. seasoned salt
1 T. corn butter
1 c. water
and i would add to mine
1/4 c. red pepper (to help colour it red)

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Cook in a sauce pan until it becomes creamy and thick. Enjoy on chips or dipping stuff in it. Tell me how it goes!