Vegan Quinoa breakfast yumminess

Recently, my family has fallen in love with Quinoa


I've made Tabuleh for my husband (which I will post a recipe for later) that he LOVES, and today I made this little concoction which both my daughter and I adore.


This is basically this recipe for Breakfast Quinoa and this recipe for Vanilla Roasted Walnuts combined into sweet perfection.

I changed the recipe to my liking and this way it's totally vegan.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 cup of quinoa
pinch salt
3 Tablespoons of agave nectar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla bean
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c. Vanilla Roasted Walnuts (recipe for that is in the above link)

Directions:
1. Bring the almond milk to a boil in a small saucepan. The almond milk works just like cow milk so keep an eye on it. It will boil and bubble over if you don't keep a close watch on it. Add the quinoa and salt, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the almond milk has been absorbed.

2. Stir in agave nectar and spices. Cook covered, until most of the almond milk has been absorbed.

3. Stir in cranberries and walnuts and serve. 

Blueberry Cake

blue berry cake



from Smitten Kitchen of course

i just used blue instead of rasp.

light fluffy

low on sugar

high on yummeh.

Classic Sandwich Bread

I found this recipe on the back of the bag of King Arthur Flour and it's fantastic!

The critics (meaning my husband and coworkers) have deemed this bread to be righteous.

The recipe looks a lot more complicated that it actually is, and there are only 2 things I did differently. 

1. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of sugar, but that was too sweet for my husbands pallet, and really, I just think thats too much sugar for bread. So I reduced it to 1 Tablespoon and he liked that much better.

2. I have to make this bread while I'm cooking other things in the oven because my house is too cold for the bread to rise naturally. So I leave the loaf on top of the oven to rise before I bake it, and right before I pop it into the oven, I brush the top gently with a little bit of olive oil

The bread is dense, but not too heavy and it's very tasty. It really is perfect for sandwiches and grilled cheeses.

Eat My Tattoo aka I Love Shortbread

 

My husband & I don't really do anything for each other for Vday now that we're married. It just seems silly & a waste of money. We get our daughter Valentines but that's pretty much it. So I decided to make some Valentines day cookies for her with my heart cookie cutters.

Then, I realized that I have black food coloring I've never used.

And thought it would be great to make black heart cookies for my husband and red ones for my daughter. Then I thought I would use some gel frosting to add a little red heart to the black heart cookies.

Then I realized that I had a bat cookie cutter.

This meant I could make edible versions of my tattoo!

I was so excited!

So, I used my shortbread recipe I posted earlier, with a couple of  Tbsps of milk added and used 1 Tbsp + 2 tsps of black food coloring and baked.

They came out great! I made heart ones too, and plan to ice "WWJJD" onto those later today.

I gave my husband a tattoo cookie and he laughed his butt off!

Blackeyed Pea Soup with Sage and Lemon

let me tell you

this soup ROCKS!

and?

it's really easy to make!

i'm going to be really lazy and just post the link to the site where i found it, because there's not a darn thing i would change about this!

Blackeyed Pea Soup with Lemon & Sage at Integral Living & Eating

enjoy! 

Vegan Chilli

1 bag of Red Kidney Beans soaked overnight
1 onion
garlic to taste
1 cup of TVP
2 stalks of celery
1 yellow bell pepper
salt
pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili poweder
4 cups veggie broth
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste

1. cook onion & garlic in pot on medium heat until soft
2. add celery & pepper
3. add beans & stir well
4. add veggie stock
5. add spices
6. add diced tomatoes & paste
7. still well


allow to cook for about 45 mins while stirring occasionally

8. add TVP

cook on medium until it's thick.

serve with brown rice or crackers and freshly chopped green onions on top.

enjoy

Spice Cake Sammich Cookies

Spice Cake is the one box-cake that I lovelovelove. really. srsly. LOVE.

Then, while browsing around the foodie blogosphere, I ran across recipes for Spice Cake Cookies!

OMG Good!

SWEET!!

but GOOD!

I found the one I liked best on The Crepes of Wrath

I liked it the best because it was so simple.

Ingredients:

1 Box of Spice Cake Mix (do not follow directions on box. disregard them entirely)
1 stick of softened butter
1 egg at room temperature

Mix everything up

Roll into balls & then flatten the balls a little

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 8-10 mins (depending upon the size of your cookies)

Cool on a rack.

When they are completely cooled, spread butter cream frosting on the bottom of one cookie & stick to the bottom of another cookie.

voila!

Butter Cream Frosting :

(bear in mind that all recipes for butter cream frostings are merely guidelines. there's no exact science to it & what you put in it and how it comes out really depends upon your preference. the following is my general preference, but that's subject to change as well. )

1 stick of butter
a bunch of powered sugar (roughly 2 cups)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 Tbs of milk

beat with electric mixer until smooth. add sugar & milk until you achieve the consistency that suits you best.