Super Quick Warm Salad with Popped Snap Peas

This salad is super yummy and super quick. I'm working on the house today and don't have a ton of time to cook, but I wanted something warm and super healthy. That's where this salad comes in. And I love the way sugar snap peas sound when they're snapped, more of a round "pop" than a snap, so that's what I'm calling them -- popped snap peas! Using pre-washed greens and washing your tomatoes when you bring them home from the store makes this a super quick meal. Also, these pics are bit bit blurry because of the whole, not a lot of time today thing. But, you get the idea, and I'll retake them eventually!

Warm Salad with Popped Snap Peas

3 cups greens -- I used baby spinach and mixed spring greens
handful of canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
drizzle of olive oil
several turns of fresh pepper
handful of grape tomatoes
juice and zest of one lemon
handful of sugar snap peas, "popped" in the middle

Tear your greens into a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients except the lemon juice to a warm skillet, cover and cook on high just for a couple of minutes until your chickpeas are a bit browned. Add the lemon juice and let cook for a minute to reduce the acidity and increase sweetness. Pour contents of skillet over your greens and top with more olive oil and pepper, if you want. Enjoy!

Chickpea Florentine Tart with GF Breadcrumb Topping

Here's another one out of Cooking for Isaiah. I've modified it quite a lot to replace the eggs, and what I've ended up with is a deliciously hummus-y florentine tart that both me and Sam can eat! Yay!

1 can great northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 T tahini
1 tsp egg replacer powder (optional, I think)
1/2 tsp garlic powder or onion powder
juice of one lemon
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper, to taste
1 package spinach, thawed
1 T olive oil, to grease the pan

2 small tomatoes, thinly sliced and lightly sprinkled with salt
1/2 cup rice cereal crumbs
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, grated
more olive oil, for drizzling

Add everything from the first list except the spinach and oil to a blender. Blend for a couple of minutes, until thick and smooth. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix spinach with bean mix. Grease a cast iron skillet (a pie plate would probably work too) with the olive oil. Use the whole tablespoon, to create a nice crust.

Spoon the mixture into your skillet, top with the tomatoes, and place in the oven for about 50 minutes.

Process a bunch of rice cereal (Chex), into a breadcrumb texture. Reserve 1/2 cup, and save the rest in an airtight container-- trust me, you'll want some more later, the topping is the best part! Put the 1/2 cup back into the food processor, grate a garlic clove in there, and add 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes. Pulse. When your tart is finished, and looks golden around the edges, take it out, top it with the crumb mixture, and drizzle pretty liberally with olive oil. Broil for about 3 minutes. You can totally eat this hot from the oven, but it will slice and serve much better if it cools to at least room temp and can be served cold. Enjoy!

Meatless Mondays Return

Oh how I love to read blogs. I could (and have) spent days reading other people's blogs. I just fell in love with Girl of Cardigan after reading her viral post on new mommyhood. She's awesome. But sometimes I neglect mine, almost all the time-- I'm sorry, I really do like writing! I haven't been writing about Meatless Mondays in a couple of weeks, because we've been going to the store last minute or not at all on Sundays and I don't like to feed Sam whatever weird combo I threw together in 2 seconds that I'm eating. Raw tofu on hotdog buns dipped in store-bought salad dressing might do it for me (I actually like it, sshh, don't tell) but I'm not feeding that to my brave hubby who is trying so hard to be healthy and try new things. I don't want to scare him off. 

So today, I'm making a chickpea tart for dinner, that I'm trying out way before dinner, so I can make sure it tastes ok for my sweet, healthy, husband, so I don't scare him off being healthy forever.

Also, we're scraping all of the popcorn ceilings in our new house and skim-coating the drywall for pretty, pretty, smooth ceilings. And painting the house. and buying furniture. And light fixtures, and a fireplace grate, and you get the idea. We were talking yesterday, and it seems that home ownership isn't what gets expensive, or takes sooo much time. It's making your new home not feel like a rental property. We could leave the ceilings, the light fixtures, the taupe-y paint, and our broken armchair and futon that didn't really fully survive the move, but we don't want to. Every room that I get the ceiling half done in, I'm like, "Even if I were to stop here and not sand and patch and paint, it'd still be better than popcorn, I love our pretty ceilings!" And that makes it so worth it. I bet it'll feel even more worth it when we're finished, because wow, there's a lot of dust, and I'm getting muscles I didn't know I could have, and our walls are still taupe. I can't wait for colorful walls! And I can't wait to look up in any room I'm in and not see goopy, messy, dusty, shadowy popcorn, but smooth, calm, pretty smoothness! Is this weird? Does anyone else share my distaste for popcorn? On ceilings I mean, the food is delicious.

Hubby's Grownup Breakfast

So, I don't have a picture for this quick post because Sam took this smoothie with him to work this morning. Sam is trying to eat more fruits and vegetables -- I'm so proud of him! I'm hoping it goes well, since he has allergies to many fruits-- we're just kind of trying to ignore that for now and see if he can eat them. Maybe we'll get a better plan in the future, maybe digestive enzymes or go organic? I don't know if either of those would help. This morning I sent him off with a cup of coffee instead of an energy drink, and a smoothie instead of a breakfast sandwich. The smoothie was darn tasty, too, if you ask me. When I texted him to ask how his new breakfast was he responded that it tasted "grown up...in an ok but I'll have to get used to it way." I'm deciding to take that as a compliment!

Makes about 10 oz.

• 1/2 small gala (or other) apple
• 1/2-2/3 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 medium banana, peeled, broken in half, and frozen
• 1/2-2/3 cup orange juice
• 2 large spinach leaves

• If you have a high-powered blender, just put everything in and blend it up.
• If you don't, let the banana and strawberries sit out of the freezer in a bowl for a few minutes and add the orange juice, apple, and spinach to your blender. Blend until as smooth as it'll get and then add the frozen fruit. Blend until no longer chunky. Pour into a glass or blender bottle and enjoy!

This is a perfect beginner smoothie, it doesn't look green or taste funny. It's mostly just orangey-fruity tasting. Sam actually eats spinach really well but he's never had any sort of green drink so we're going slow on that end. Who knows, this time next year, he may be taking a green juice to work in the the morning!

Texas State Veggie Fair!

I went to the Texas State Veggie Fair !!! It was on the 20th and I just haven't gotten around to posting pictures yet. It was my second time going, the first was 3 years ago on their first year. It was so much bigger and better organized this time around. And so much fun! There was tons of food-- way better than last time, since last time everyone ran out of food early, samples, vendors, everything. I love trying new vegan food, especially stuff that's difficult or expensive to make at home-- that's why I went for the cheesecake and corn dog, both delicious. And there were tons of dogs there too! And a few kitties and bunnies.

waiting in line to be one of the first 500 in so I could get a goody bag!

first thing I bought after my mom got there-- cheesecake!

My mom and I shared the cheesecake, which was delicious but quite sweet, and I have a major sweet tooth so that's saying something. 

"chicken" quesadilla from the Whole Foods booth

The quesadillas were so good, I went back for another sample-- shh, don't tell anyone! But seriously, I felt like I needed some fuel in order to wait in line for 45 minutes for the corn dog, which was definitely the most popular item that day. My mom got us a kombucha to share while we waited too, which was awesome. I've never tried kombucha before but I'm hooked now. It's fizzy without being bad for you-- how awesome is that? It was strange because my stomach feel gurgle-y while I drank it, but not in a bad way and it went away after a few minutes. I'm not used to that. usually, if something makes my stomace feel weird at all, it's bad and I'll feel sick the rest of the day. I guess it was just the probiotic goodies doing their work! I forgot to take a picture of the kombucha but it was flavored with pear juice and was a lovely pink-y color.

veggie corn dog -- weird looking but so good!

The Fair is open to any doggie who wants to come, and we did bring Osgood last time. He had a lot of fun but he got overwhelmed by all of the people and Sam had to stand off to the side with him while I went to the booths. 

this is Osgood last time

 

 

 

isn't he handsome?

So, since I was with my mom this time, and not Sam, I left Osgood at home, even though I missed him so much, seeing all of the other sweet doggies! 

Kristina from FullyRaw!

Listening to Kristina, this is an adorable doggie and someone with one of the goodie bags

dog kissing booth

Teese sample-- so yum!

Upton's Naturals "bacon" wrapped around a baby tomato and spinach

There were also dogs, kittens, and bunnies to adopt. My mom said she wouldn't have been allowed to come if they knew there were adoptable animals, lol. The bacon wrapped skewer thing I think would have been better with basil instead of spinach. It wasn't super awesome and my mom didn't like it at all as she doesn't do fake meats.

here's a pic of the booth where the cheesecake came from-- isn't it georgous? it's a bakery in Austin, don't remember the name but if you zoom, you might be able to see a flyer

me in my Texas State Veggie Fair tank! I was glad I bought this since my sweater was getting super hot.

sample haul -- the bean chips, macaroons, soap, coconut oil, and several coupons were in my goodie bag, the rest I picked up along the way

this stuff was really good and super ginger-y

Black Bean, Corn, and Yellow Rice Enchiladas and a New Cookbook!

Last week on Meatless Mondays, I made some pretty amazing enchiladas from Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone. This is a really cool cookbook that Sam picked out at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. All of it's recipes are dairy and gluten free, and while it is by no means a vegan, or even vegetarian cookbook, there are a few vegan recipes that look delicious and I plan on veganizing some of the other ones. Sam is gravitating to more and more gluten and dairy free things, which gives me another way to challenge myself in the kitchen-- challenges are what keep me cooking! I just got all of the flours and starches to make her gluten free flour blend, and I'm going to try my hand at gluten free baking. I'm hoping that I can find an egg replacer that works with the flour blend because all of the bread and cake recipes in the book include eggs, although I did see one recipe for bread sticks on her blog that is vegan. My usual go-to egg replacer is flax, but Sam is allergic to flax, so I'll find something new. Does anyone have suggestions for a good egg replacer for gluten free baking?

Our whole perspective on meatless Mondays for him is that we want more things we can eat together, without making two separate meals. It's fun to eat the same thing, it's easier, and it's something we want our future family to be able to do, for the most part. That's where these blackbean and corn enchiladas come in. They are delicious! They feature a homemade red enchilada sauce made with red wine that is so flavorful, the carnivores may not miss their meat, at least for one night!

I don't think the recipe is out there on the interwebs and I didn't really adapt it so no recipe today, but if you are into non-vegan cookbooks or veganizing amazing recipes, I recommend this one! It has some beautiful photography, amazing reviews, and if this first recipe is any indication, some pretty darn good recipes!

so yummy!

Raw Caramel Apples

apples awaiting their caramelly fate

Whew, mini camera emergency. I was taking a million pictures of these beautiful little apples, I stuck the sticks into them, and was taking a bunch more pictures, and poof! "Battery exhausted." Why does it get exhausted? I feel like that's a weird way to put it and I have that thought every time it happens. After a moment of panic and more than a couple of moments rummaging through boxes, I found the cord to charge the camera. Whew, crisis averted. Onto making some caramel apples. Raw caramel apples free of refined sugar! That may not sound great to you, but for those in the know, they know that dates make an amaaazing caramel sauce. And also, you don't have to cook date caramel! Now, caramel is one of my all-time favorite things, don't get me wrong, but usually it's sticky, makes a mess, and takes quite a long while. Not this time. Super quick and only uses one kitchen tool-- a food processor. You can also do this with a blender, just take a little more time, add a little more water, and scrape down the sides a lot. This is where I got to put into play my birthday present! It was my birthday on Saturday.

vegan oreo cake from Whole Foods!

I had a fun day hanging out with family, going swimming-- an all time dream of mine, to go swimming on my birthday!-- and eating some delicious beans my honey cooked, along with some homemade tortillas-- recipe for those coming later.

Homemade tortillas and Sam's amazing beans

pretty peppers, while Sam was chopping veggies to make the beans

Anyway, my father-in-law got me the most thoughtful gift! A Ninja Kitchen System. It's awesome. So far, it whips out a mean pumpkin spice tea coconut oil latte,

yummy coconut oil pumpkin spice latte-- just blend a tablespoon of coconut oil with a strong cup of pumpkin  spice tea until creamy... so yum

.... and makes the best banana ice cream ice ever had. 
 

so good

yum! check out how creamy that is!

It can also make this delicious caramel sauce. As I am typing this, I'm attempting to get the last bit of caramel out of the mug I dipped the apples in. I've already had to wash my face and hands once. It's delicious.

Date Caramel

1 cup dates
1 tablespoon peanut butter (raw if you want to keep things raw)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water/non-dairy milk
apples on sticks (I used kabob sticks because that's all I could find--you'd think the stores would have sticks right by the apples this time of year, but not that I saw)
other yummy toppings, if desired-- chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

Whir together in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed-- a couple of minutes. Scoop out into a bowl (or large mug) and dunk your apples in. Coat in extra yummies if you want. I'm kind of a caramel apple purist, but other toppings are good too, sometimes.

swirly caramel goodness