pie!

Happy late Pi day!

Pecan muffins

Recipe coming soon!!

"Newspaper" Pumpkin Soup

Every recipe most likely has a story, from an experience of making it, first memory/thought of tasting it, or something else memorable like that. I call this Newspaper Soup. Why? because my mom had clipped it out of a newspaper, and glued it to an index card. I really really liekd the soup, and i couldn't remember what it was called, or what it was made out of, but i did remember that it was on a newspaper type of paper on an index card. So I called it newspaper soup. Here it is!

"Newspaper" Pumpkin Soup                   Makes 6 cups
1 c. onion
1/2 c. celery, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t. salt
3 c. vegetable/mushroom broth
1 3/4 c. pumpkin
1 c. unsweetened almond milk
Saute the onion, garlic and celery in a sauce pan on medium or high. I like to saute in water instead of oil. Add salt and cook for about a minute. Add the broth, letting it simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and milk. Cook for 5 more minutes. Let it cool for  a bit, and then put in a blender and blend until you can't see the celery. Reheat on the stove and serve warm.
You can put green onions or daiya cheese on it. Cornbread goes really nice with it too.

Tomato Soup

Here's a classic tomato soup recipe for a day where it's rainy, and you have some toast you want to eat something with. Maybe put some Daiya cheese between two pieces of bread and grill it!

Tomato Soup
1 T. flour
2 c. tomato juice
1/2 c. water
salt to taste
3/4 c. noodles (optionals

Mix the flour and the tomato juice, water and salt, making sure that the flour makes no lumps at all! It may be easier to mix it with the water and then pour it in. The flour makes the soup thicker. You can make the soup without this ingredient. Bring it to a boil and cook your noodles. Add the noodles in if desired, but right at the end. If you put them in too early before you are going to serve it, the noodles become sticky and clump together.

Family Fun "A Better Brownie"

Cleaning out my old Family Fun magazines and I was going through them page by page, to make sure that I didn't throw away something that I'd want later. I came across this recipe. It was called A Better Brownie. "Sarah Phillips, author of The Healthy Oven Baking Book and founder of baking911.com tweaked an old family brownie recipe and came up with a moist, chocolaty treat with less fat and sugar than the typical version."
I was really impressed by the nutritional information and I hope that one of you guys decides to try this along with me. I'll post the recipe today, and then sometime in the near future, and give pictures and maybe the step by step. So here it is!
"A Better Brownie"
1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder (or carob)
1/2 t. baking powder
1/8 t. salt
1/4 c. apple sauce (or oil if you don't want it fat free)
2 oz carob or chocolate chips
2 fake eggs (Energ Egg Replacer) (follow instructions, like adding water)
1 T. canola oil, or apple sauce
2 t. vanilla extract

1. heat oven to 350. Lightly coat an 8" square baking pan with cooking spray. 
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set the mixture aside. Melt the carob chips and let them cool. 
3. In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the cooled carob/chocolate mixture, sugar, applesauce or oil, and vanilla together until combined and smooth. Stir in the flour mixture but DO NOT OVERMIX THE BATTER. It will become glutenous and not very nice at all. 
4. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake the brownies on the center oven rack until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 25 minutes. The brownies will look under baked (a cake tester will come out with a few moist crumbs), but they will set up more as they cool. Place the pan on a wire cake rack to let the brownies cool, then slice the batch into 24 pieces. 

Nutritional Information for 1/24 of recipe

Calories; 84

Fat 3.5 g

Saturated Fat 2g

Cholesterol: 0mg

Sodium 25mg (1% DV)

Carbohydrates 2.5g

Sugar 9.5g

Calcium 6.5mg

Have fun baking and tell me how it turns out!! 

breakfast smoothie

I have been eating smoothies for breakfast, because that's what works best with my stomach. It's really nice,cold and soothing on it. Aloe is also very nice on the stomach. It's just the right amount of smooth and soothing that makes the stomach feel better. I like to mix it with apple sauce, since just eating it straight is not a fun ordeal by any means. Trust me, I have, and it isn't pretty. I can't really explain the taste, it's just not a pleasant one. So in this picture, i had strawberry mixed in, and then i added blueberries, and they were just mixing together. It looked really cool. 

Anyway, here's what I usually put in. I don't measure, I just drop things in as the blender runs. So, this is what i usually put in.

frozen - strawberries, mangos, pineapple, blueberry, apple, banana, peaches

peanutbutter

maple syrup

unsweetned almond milk

carrot juice

That's usually what goes into it. Play around with how much of each ingredient and have fun eating your new creations!! 

<3

Food!!

More food pics!

Pink Pancakes

So for valentines day, I decided that I would do something cute for breakfast. Wednesday is our big breakfast day, so I decided that valentines would come a day early to our breakfast table. :)  I was thinking, "What could turn things red that is natural?" And then i thought of beets! Beets could turn any thing red (personal experience with beets and white napkins >.< ) anyway, I decided to experiment, and if it didn't turn out, oh well, they would still taste decent. :p I love being adventurous in the kitchen. 

This is what my pancakes looked like when they were in the frying pan, and yes they were a nice beautiful pink! I know this picture doesn't do much justice to how beautiful they were. :D 

I made some hearts, just to be valentiney... if that's even a word. Here's the recipe!!! 

Pink Pancakes

2 c. flour (mixes of whatever you want)

1 T. baking powder

3 T. brown sugar

1 c. milk (unsweetened almond breeze)

1 c. beet juice

I mixed all the dry ingredients well, then added the wet in. It turned a beautiful pink! :D Then put them in a greased frying pan or on your trusty griddle and then enjoy with some strawberries, or other pink fruits or pancake toppings. Happy Valentines day guys!! Thanks for reading my blog, please comment, share, etc. 

Recent cooking

Lazy Girl Granola

This is a new thing that I thought up I like to call Lazy Girl Granola. It's granola made in a dehydrator so you don't have to stir it every 15 minutes. Just stick it in the dehydrator and let it go all night and in the morning, you get nice granola for your vegan yogurt, smoothie, or cereal! 

4 c. oats (mix of quick and old fashion is what I used)

1/4 c. apple juice concentrate

1/2 - 1/4 c. water, depending on how clumpy you want the granola

1 t. cinnamon

Mix the oats, apple concentrate and water with the cinnamon until fully combined. Then lay them out on your dehydrators trays. My dehydrator has slatted trays so I put on the fruit roll up plastic sheet and it worked fine and didn't let any of the oat pieces through. After about 8 hours, they were ready for consumption! And tasted very nice. They were drier than the ones that we get out of the oven and it tasted like I had used oil in them, but no oil was used! You can put some fat in this by putting some peanut butter in it. It can add a nice flavour to foods. Enjoy!! 

Popcorn in a bag

I found a cool way to make popcorn in a paper bag! Just a regular old lunch sack! :D 

You ge some spray oil, salt, paper bag and popcorn seeds. I use white popcorn. Lightly spray the popcorn with oil, sprinkle with salt place in the bag. then roll the bag over atleast 2 times and then put it in the microwave for about 1.5-2 minutes. Listen to the popcorn and when it slows down, it's probably ready. Pour it out into a bowl and enjoy! 

crepes!

crepes!

Vegan style!

Done!!! 

Vegan Crepes

1/2 c. soymilk

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. applesauce

1 T. sugar

1 T. maple syrup

1 c. flour

mix all the ingredients together and let it sit over night. Take about 3 Tablespoons of batter at a time and pour it into your greased/sprayed frying pan on medium. Roll it around to the desired size. When teh edges turn slightly brown, it's time to flip it. Eat with fruit or nut butters inside. Makes about 16 crepes

Pad Thai

Pad Thai Recipe!! (I used a base from myrecipes.com) 

Sauce:

1/4 c. low - sodium soy sauce

2 T. vinegar

1 t. hot sauce

1 t. maple syrup

Noodles:

2 c. shiitake mushrooms

1 c. grated carrots

1 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz tofu, drained and cut into small cubes

1 c. fresh bean sprouts

1 c. chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 c. dry roasted panuts

8 oz uncooked wide rice stick noodles (mung bean threads work also)

2 limes

Prepare the sauce by combining all ingredients in a small cup/bowl, stirring to get them well incorporated. 

Sautee the mushrooms and carrots together in water or a light spray of oil. Throw in the garlic, and tofu with the sauce that you just made. Sautee for 2 minutes, then add in the bean sprouts, cilantro, peanuts, noodles. Sautee for a few minutes. Serve with the lime wedges. I like to eat Sriracha on this too. :) 

5 servings