I baked

And made peanut granola. Nomz.

lunch is soo good

just thought I'd brag about my eats today. Especially lunch.
For breakfast, I had millet puffs with a crumbled carrot cake lara bar and a drizzle of maple syrup in soy milk. I did some stuff around the house, walked to trader joes and back, (about 4 miles?) and came home to the yummiest leftovers ever. I made this bean soup with chickpeas and white beans with roasted garlic (VEGAN WITH A VENGEANCE...NOMZ) and topped it with some wasa crackers and hot sauce...with a pink lady apple on the side.
So good. I reccomend it highly :)

Snowed in

If only today was a school day...urrghh....

Hello everyone! I haven't been here in a while...sorry bout that. I've been busy baking for the holidays, I tried some sparkled ginger cookies and they were, uh, interesting. Yummy, but very ugly.

I'll keep trying.

But I did make vegan caramels!! They are so cute! I didn't have any cream, so I made a fake 'cream' from soymilk, cornstarch, and a little powdered sugar to thicken and sweeten it. It worked, but something was weird about them. They tasted a tiny bit too healthy, almost like there was brown rice syrup. But there wasn't!!

We've been busy putting up the tree as well...while I was opening the ornament box to unload them, a certain someone found a nice place to nap.

Ah, Bourbon. The holidays have begun for all of us.

I just sat down to a big bowl of celery and carrots with homemade spicy hummus...when your body craves something like that for breakfast, don't deny it. :) I went through many phases of breakfasts, as you guys can probably see...

The oatmeal phase

The cereal and fruit phase

The granola phase

The waffle phase

The honeycrisp apple phase

The breakfast bread phase

The smoothie in a bowl phase (Thanks, Kath!!)

The muffin phase

Oh wow. Now that that's all typed up, I feel really self consious and indesicive. uhhhh....

Well today I got up at 8, listened to John Mayer, made really good hummus, ate, and blogged. I'm doing homework later, unless we get more snow therefore a snow day. If only....

Away to camp...again!!

Yes, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to a choir camp for 1 week up north. Our schedule is waking up at 6, doing calesthetics, breakfast, 4 hour rehearsal, lunch, then break. Oh then more rehersals :D

What have I gotten myself into.

Anyways, why not I talk about food to ease the pain of that regimine?

Some snacks I'm bringing to camp-homemade instant oatmeal, peanut butter cookie lara bar, crispy rice treats, (this version with almond butter and raisins! Yum!)

New obsession: tamari roasted sunflower seeds. Courtsey of The Kind Diet.

For lunch today, I enjoyed a mini ezekiel tortilla with smashed black beans, 1 clove garlic, gomashio, soy sauce, and a little sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Plus arugula and 1 leaf of basil.
A little salad with arugula, carrots, cherry tomato, lime juice, and a tiny dollop of tahini dressing.

mmm....

I *think* I can bring my phone to camp, (not sure if I will...) but I'll be off blogging for a week. See you guys after then...thanks for reading :D

Rain, rain...

PRETTY PLEASE STAY!

I love rain. It's weird, some days I would rather have a tretcherous downpour than a nice, sunny day. Well, I'd say 75% of the time. I don't know why! It just gets in the way of running and biking, I guess. I love rain.

Anywayzz....

Yesterday was Bourby's (my cat) birthday!! He is now 7 in cat years, which means he's 44 in human years! AAH!! We gave him some cat treats, temptations, on a plate with a candle in the middle. We sang happy birthday, he got scared of the candle, ran away, then walked around the kitchen and ate some of his treats. You know cats...

I painted my nails green with a little sparkly dotAte a large bowl of cereal

Corn puffs, puffins, yellow delicious apple, blackberries, blueberry optimum cereal, a few raw oats, flax, cinnamon, almond milk. YUM!


Love these things. Edible air? Well...

This morning, I headed off to whole foods. On my bike? NO! Flat tire! That hasn't happened in forever. So I walked. I got ingredients to make macadamia blondies with caramel maple topping from vegan with a vengeance. They are for a wedding shower tomorrow, they requested that I make a dessert. YAY! I signed up.

Also, I was looking for a cracker recipe, and instead found a granola recipe in a random cookbook on our shelf. I made it! Who it's for, thats a surprise! But I bought ingredients for that too. When I got home I started on Mr. Granola, and made the blondies in the midst of that. I say when you bake, really take advantage of the opportunity.

Blondie batter!Not really.

Caramel maple macadamia topping.

Out of the oven

Overflowing caramel topping!
MM.

The recipe is here:

Blondies

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz firm silken tofu

1/4 cup non dairy milk

1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup raw macadamias, partially chopped and partially ground (If you pulse them in a food processor for about 30 pulses, this is achieved.)

Topping

1/4 cup earth balance butter

2 tbsp brown sugar or turbinado sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup raw macadamias, coarsely chopped

Dough:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In a blender, whiz the tofu with the nondairy milk until smooth. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla, blend again. Pour the tofu mixture into the flour mixture and use a firm wooden spoon to combine the dough. Fold in the macadamias. The batter will be thick and have a cookie dough consistency. Spread in the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, meanwhile prepare the topping.

Topping:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the margarine, sugar, and maple syrup, heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase t he heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in the nuts, remove from heat.

Remove the blondies from the oven when they are ready, and pour the topping over them, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more.

Let cool completely before cutting, the topping should be like a hardened caramel (mine wasnt! Just ooey gooey goodness) consistency. I cut mine into very small cubes, because I'm serving them at a party. But 16 squares is ideal.

The granola! Yummy!

This recipe came from Great Good Food by Julee Rosso. Okay...just a big red cookbook I flipped-eed through. I changed it a tiny bit, by the wayy..

Vanilla Granola

2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup apple juice

2 tbsp melted earth balance

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened flake coconut

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup slivered almonds

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 300'F. In a large bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients together, toss well. Spread the granola on a greased baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the coconut, vanilla, and nuts and bake for another 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir in the raisins, and pop back in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Let cool completely, so you can let it clump up a bit. Yum!

Even Paula Deen could be vegan, as long as there is you, Earth balance.

NIGHT!!

Back from camp!!

Camp was awesome!! So many friends, fun stuff, and weird camp stuff that us crazy Greeks do. Shout out to any camp friends who are reading this-thanks and heloo!
I shared a cabin with 18 other girls, and it was amazing, there was virtually no drama and we were so close. So many fun memories!! I'm glad to be back, but I miss it.
Food wise? I brought my staples, kamut puffs, soymilk, apples, wasa crackers, hummus, and some of those date quinoa bars. I couldn't eat a ton of what they had there, but I could have some because we were fasting this week on monday, wednseday, and friday. They actually had garden burgers one day and the first ingredient was brown rice! I had one, not bad but not my personal favorite. Other than that, mostly I could have the veggies, and believe me I had plenty of that amazing salad.
I got back and my dad and I went grocery shopping, got flour, sugar, oats, plums, hummus, crackers, corn puffs, a few other things. I had a bowl of cereal and some carrots for dinner-my idea of comfort food!
I don't have a lot to say, but I know for sure I'll be baking this week for this party thing. What do you think-blondies with macadamia nuts and caramel, or a cookie of some sort? There is someone making cupcakes, so I'll stay away from anything with cake resemblence.
Oh! I made gaspacho from fresh and fast vegan pleasures with the crazy boatload of tomatoes we have. Pics tomorrow! It was super yummy.
'Pologize for no pics, but tomorrow I promise I'll post some foodie pics.
Love you all and thanks for reading!

Ups and Downs

Well I took a picture of my breakfast today, (UP!)which I am proud of. Not too pretty, but I walked to school today because I delivered the pumpkin bread to my sister for an early mother's day present. We'll be away in Washington, D.C. for a wedding this weekend, so I figured I should give the bread to her while it's still fresh! UP!

I packed kamut puffs with a few oats thrown on top, 2 lil' strawberries, and a few raisins in my peanut butter jar. (clean) I had it with rice milk and cinnamon, and ate it on my walk to school! While listening to my iPod. Great way to wake up, if anyone needs it. UP!

I had a rough day (care not to share...) down...and went for a very sprint-iful run to work it out. Its actually good to exercise when you're mad, I've found out. I was able to run faster! Cool.

My dad picked up "the best middle eastern food ever" in Belleville, MI. (?) UP! I ate his leftovers for dinner, super yummy baba ganouj, with carrot, red pepper, and cherry tomaters. Some tabbouleh as well, which was uh-freaking-amazing. So flavorful. I didn't know parsley had so much potential.

(NO, I didn't have that much baba ganouj. I just took the tupperware out of the fridge.)

A big strawberry for dessert

Well my science binder is waiting for me to study it, (down...) so I had better tend to that...I'll probably blog tomorrow, but forgive me if I don't as I'm leaving for D.C! Well definetly Sunday I'll blog.

Why hello, Wednesday!

I woke up sort of late today. Kinda well rested and stuff, I was happy and not all grumpy and grumbly like I usually am. :) I set out my "mis en place" for the pumpkin bread I was making later that night. Which is in the oven now, smelling like heaven.

I packed kamut puffs, a small handful of oats, a sprinkle of raisins, and strawberries in an earth balance container with almond milk. I ate it in class, and it was perfect! No pictures though, my carpool rolled up to my house and I had to go:(

I picked up my nephew today, walking to his house was nice, not too hot or anything. But shortly after arriving at my sisters, it started POURING. We played soccer in the basement, he beat me 25-24. I actually got somewhat of a workout, running back and forth and crashing into walls and falling and such. Oh well, its not too bad that a 6 year old beat me in soccer {:

(Sorry about the lack of pictures. There are some to come, I am extremely lazy about it.)

I worked on my pumpkin bread for a while when I got home, and made a salad with the massive bag of Field greens in the midst of it all. Field greens, (very unripe) avocado I had to smash several times on the kitchen floor to make it remotely ripe (shh...), tomatoes, broccoli, red pepper, and leftover balsamic Dijon dressing. I cooked up a lil' bit of quinoa for protein AND grains, mixed it with beloved rooster sauce, and threw it on top of the salad.

Don't you LOVE this picture?

My pumpkin bread...before it went in the oven! This would be another delicious recipe from The Kind Diet. The recipe is in one of my early blog posts. I promise. This time, I MELTED chocolate over the top. NO macadamias, this time I used pecans and walnuts. Another important piece-I used 1/2 pumpkin, and 1/2 sweet tater puree. Let's see how it turns out! I think it'll be better.

I'll show the finished product of the pumpkin/sweet tater bread by tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow evening, for sure! No baking tomorrow:( oh well, less cleaning!:)

Finally Friday!

It was soo relieving to know it was Friday! Just knowing the weekend is in your grasp motivates you to get through school/work. Yay!

Since Trader Joes is on the way home on my walk, I stop there a lot to get treats for my nephew, quick things I need for dinner, or just samples! I wanted to try making granola bars so I got a few ingredients after school.

Organic oats, unsalted sunflower seeds, dried apricots, and a new item. Pumpkin butter. (like a jam, its not dairy. Calm down.)

I got home, blogged a little, and then got crackin' on my bars. I kinda made up the recipe as I went along (?) at least I learned what to do next. (And at least I made a small batch!) These bars were sooooooooooo delicious. You could taste every flavor, and the pumpkin I could have eaten so many of them! But they weren't exactly sticking together like proper granola bars should. They were crumbly-perfect for having on top of a smoothie, soy/nut milk, or oatmeal. But not exactly a munching bar. Unless you wanted it to be super messy!

1 cup rolled oats

About 1 more cup cereal of your choice (I used kamut puffs and ezekiel wheat free cereal)

Scant 1 cup nuts (I used sunflower seeds and walnuts)

1 cup dried fruit (Apricots and raisins for me)

2/3 cup maple syrup (I didn't use enough-so feel free to play around with this until it's the consistency good for "packing.")

2 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp wheat germ

1 tbsp flaxseed

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp pumpkin butter

Mix the oatmeal, cereal, flaxseed, and wheatgerm in a bowl. Toast the nuts in a 300'f oven for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown. Add the nuts to the cereal mix, add the dried fruit. Then add the maple syrup, pumpkin butter, vanilla, salt, and oil. Mix, and change if you think the texture/taste needs a lil' somethin somethin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, and LET COOL COMPLETELY before digging in/cutting.

For dinner, I was in a rush (no pictures:( ) I went to see Peter Pan, which was really good but very long! I didn't remember how much I loved that movie...

I was in the oat-spirit of things, (and in a rush...) So I made oatmeal (rolled, I'm shocked with myself!) with some thrown in ezekiel cereal, pumpkin butter, sunflower seed butter, cinnamon, and raw apples. I threw this in a thermos as I ate it in the car! I also brought steamed broccoli with a balsamic vinaigrette, and raw carrot sticks.

I do have to say I prefer steel cut oats for straight up eating, but I'm sure I just say that because I'm so used to having them. I have no problem with rolled, I think there's more freedom to do stuff with the consistency, plus they are done soo much faster so I can make them on school mornings without having to wake up early! YAY!

I'll post again tomorrow, not sure whats going on quite yet, so bye for now.

Not much cooking!

I'm thinking about making this more of a...food blog than just a recipe blog. I will still have plenty of recipes! But I want to get into the habit of blogging every day and talking about my day. So it may be under some changes!

I woke up and wanted a smoothie...our blender either hates me or likes me, and I guess yesterday it hated me! So it was very thick. Anyways, I blended:

10-12 cubes frozen mango

3 big strawberries

about 1 cup almond milk

1/2 frozen banana

handful spinach

I topped this off with kamut puffs and some coconut, plus one date. Yummy breakfast, and super filling till lunch!

For dinner, I had a big salad with avocado, green and red pepper, carrot, peapods, and a boca burger cut into strips. I had a side of brown rice too. So good! It was good to have because I had just played soccer, so I had a late dinner and didn't want to go to bed overly full. This was perfect! Quick too.

An hour or so after dinner, I wanted a sweet :). So I had some Trader Joes chocolate with a date and a fig. SO YUMMY! Great combo.

Thats all for now! I forgot to blog yesterday, so I just gathered my pictures and pretended like this was today...But I'll just have to have 2 posts today!

Steel cut oats...mmm

I've never been one to ask for oatmeal. Why? I don't know. But I sure was missing out. This morning my dad and I shared some steel cut oats. Steel cut oats are slightly chewier, and even though they do take a little longer than rolled oats, they sure are worth it. They are the inner portion of the oat, also called the whole grain groats. Thats fun to say...They are kind of nuttier and have more texture than rolled oats. Just boil water (1 cup) and then add 1/2 cup oatmeal, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20-30 minutes. (or less.) Almost done...

While all of this yummy oatmeal was cooking, my dad and I got into a debate about what currants were. It all started when I said, "Do you care if you have raisins or currants?" And he goes, "raisins!" I think I then replied with something like saying "They are both forms of dehydrated grapes." From there, he kept telling me they were "currants!" And that led me to look it up on google. Well, I win. Currants are dried, black seedless grapes. Ha ha.

I cut up some dates and dried apricots to sprinkle over mine, and my dad chose banana and walnuts, as well as raisins. (not currants.)We both had some maple syrup, and this breakfast is sure to happen again sometime!