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!

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!

Meatless Mondays!

Okay, every day is meatless for me, but my husband has decided to join me for Monday night dinners! I am so excited about this! It is a bit of a challenge because he is allergic to nuts, coconut, and fruit unless it's been cooked. And he wants to stay low on soy. So far I've come up with a couple of options, and the one we had last week he said he'd eat again-- yay! So last Monday we had Black Bean Sliders with Sweet Potato Fries. I already knew he liked the sweet potato fries. Those are one of those things that I've never blogged about because it seems too simple or plain, but when I'm able to cook, we have them a couple of times a month, they're that good. So now I'm sharing!

Black Bean Sliders
makes 8-10ish patties

1 15 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 red bell pepper
Tony's Creole Seasoning, to taste
3 tablespoons wheat germ
Oil, olive or vegetable, to cook
Slider buns
Earth balance MindfulMayo or other vegan mayonnaise

• Broil the red pepper while it's whole, until the skin begins to bubble
• Chop the pepper finely-- Sam said a little more chopped would be good next time, so chop to your desired fineness.
• Add the pepper and beans to a mixing bowl and smoosh the beans somewhat with a glass or other smooshing device.
• Mix in the seasoning and wheat germ-- I used about 1.5 tablespoons seasoning I think.
• Add about 1 tablespoon oil to a skillet and allow to heat to medium high for a minute or two.
• Using a spoon to scoop and your hands, form the bean mixture into slider-sized patties.
• Fry four or five at a time, adding more oil if needed, a couple of minutes on each side, until browned.
• Serve on slider buns with mayo and sweet potato fries (below).
• Notes: 
• Sam didn't like the buns toasted, how I tried them at first, but you can do toasted if you want. Just brush with some vegan margarine (I used Smart Balance Light) and put the buns straight onto the baking rack in the oven for a couple of minutes while your fries are cooking.
• MindfulMayo is my favorite vegan mayo. It's super tasty, uses brown rice syrup as the sweetener, and is soy-free! Sam even gave it his approval, and he doesn't generally like new products, so that was a bonus for us!

Sweet Potato Fries
makes one big baking sheet of fries

1 big sweet potato-- I only used half of mine this time
Light drizzle of olive oil
Paprika

• Cut the potato into fry shapes.
• Pile onto a cookie sheet, drizzle with oil, and use your hands to work the oil onto all sides of the fries.
• Arrange the fries in one layer on the baking sheet and stick in the oven set to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Bake for about 35 minutes, turning each fry halfway through. Once turned, sprinkle with paprika-- you don't want to add this too soon or it will burn.
• Finish cooking -- they're done when you can poke your tongs or a fork into them easily.

Home Sweet Home

This is our house! We finally did it! We found a house, bought it, moved in, and have been living here for almost two weeks. I didn't want to spill the beans while in the process because it was so stressful and I didn't want to have to post about it falling through-- and our first house did fall through, so I was kinda right. But I'm so happy we got this one instead! I've missed the blog so much and I have so much to share now that things are more settled! When we moved to the Dallas area, we stayed with my parents in Azle for two months while we looked for houses-- thank you, mom for driving me to a million of them while Sam was at work! We are so appreciative of them for everything they did for us during that time, and are continuing to do-- Ikea trip tomorrow! But Sam had a crazy commute and with four adults, five dogs, two cats, two little brothers under the age of eight, and a high-school senior my parents took in so she could finish school, it was a bit crazy there. We are so happy to be in our own place! Sam sometimes feels that the new house is too big, but we haven't fully moved in yet and that's just fine with me after our tiny rental-- and we have a pool!

 

There's me learning about all of the chemicals and skimming the leaves out last weekend. Yes, that means we're swimming in October. I always don't want to get in and it's so cold, but then 10 minutes after I'm in, it's so worth it. The animals love it too-- the two bigger dogs (Amy and Osgood) love love their yard and just walk around smiling and jumping on each other. The little dog, Yosemite loves his perfect-Yosemite-size dog door-- the other two can't get through so he can just come in whenever he wants and play fetch with his stuffed animals inside-- his favorite thing to do.

 

And the cats are living mostly in what will be our office/sewing space and they're pretty excited about that too-- as excited as cats get, anyway. 

 

They have a brand-new scratchy-tower thing and three windows with perfect kitty-sized sills to sit on and tons of room to chase their spring toys-- although it's really just Pascal that likes that, Little Cat gets super annoyed when Pascal runs into him en route to the spring. We've got tons of projects to do (I'm looking at you, popcorn ceilings and taupe walls), which I'll be posting about here. I'll also be posting some phone pics of the last couple of months of food and hopefully get some new recipes out too! I'm so excited to be back!

Ohmygoodnes You Guys

I know I haven't posted in sooo long. I don't have any awesome recipes or pictures even now, because guess what? We're moving! Or we've moved? I don't know how to put it. May and June were completely crazy and July is shaping up to be worse....better? I got a job, and then Sam got a crazy awesome-er job in Dallas, so I put in my two weeks, we packed up 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 people, and enough stuff for a week in the Jeep and moved to my parent's guest bedroom/little brothers' playroom for now. Sam drives a looong way to and from work, and we have to go back every weekend to finish packing but other than that, things are going really well. Oh, and we're trying to buy a house... do we sound crazy yet? Does anyone know how much fun that is? Ok, it is a little bit fun, but whoa, how does anyone buy a house and have a job? I'm on the phone, online looking up houses, or out looking at houses all the time. It's crazy. Basically life is crazy right now. I miss the blog, and I'll return when things settle down, but right now, trying to find time to eat is interesting some days. I miss you! And I'll be back!

Birthday Cake!

My birthday was last Friday and my sweet, sweet husband got me a vegan cake! He called everywhere in town, and guess what? There is not a single slice of vegan cake being sold anywhere in or near Wichita Falls, Texas. One bakery, Margie's Sweet Shop, is actually testing recipes and should have a vegan option in the next six months-- so, "yay!" for my next birthday, if we're still here then. Anyway, the only other option for purchasing a bakery cake was to get it shipped, which turns out is really expensive. Sooo... my dear, creative husband paid one of his classmates to make one! (Thank you, Jessi!) It was delicious, and made even more delicious by the fact that it was a surprise and that I didn't have to make it myself! I love cooking, but I make almost every morsel that goes in my mouth, and I love getting a break. So thank hubby, for a great day and for such a wonderful surprise!

I also got an air popper (I've been having popcorn almost every day, yum!) and a cherry pitter (I haven't had a chance to get to the store to buy cherries yet.... so that one's waiting to be used), and a target gift card (woohoo!), and various monies from parents and grandparents (thanks guys!).

On a different note, my camera died the other day. It most of the time now will only take insanely overexposed pictures, so pics on the blog for now will probably be ipod or phone quality, but I hope to get a new one at some point!

Day Trippin' Vegan Style

Sam and I go on a lot of day trips-- sometimes they are an opportunity to eat yummy vegan food that I don't normally get and sometimes they are a bit of a challenge in the food department. A couple of weekends ago we went to Fort Worth for a mini-vacation and the weekend after that we went to my cousin's wedding in Missouri. Both trips offered some really good vegan food (although I did get some strange looks sometimes). The pic at the top is a lovely little produce market on the way to Fort Worth where I found some delicious tomatoes and something I'd never tried before-- an Israeli melon. It was like a really sweet honeydew and was really yummy!

We went to an Imax showing of Born to Be Wild at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. It's a movie following the separate stories of two amazing women who have worked with orangutans and elephants for the past several decades. They take animals orphaned by human poaching and rainforest destruction and raise them to be released into the wild. It was a fantastic movie and the Imax experience was really fun! We ate lunch outside-- this was our view of the polar bear booty right inside from our table.

Like I said, it's sometimes difficult to find vegan food on the road-- it was a little tricky at the museum but I found a delicious-looking build-your-own nacho bar-- score! They had a veggie burger listed but the staff didn't know if it had egg or dairy in it-- I really appreciate it when they say they don't know rather than just telling me it doesn't only to find out it did by an internet search and a nasty stomach ache later! From the nacho bar I had multi-colored chips topped with black beans, salsa, pico de gallo, black olives, and lettuce. I only wish I hadn't gotten the black olives-- I love them on their own but I don't usually have them on nachos so it tasted weird to me.I also piled my little tin a bit too high and didn't finish it all. The guy who portioned out my chips thought it was pretty strange that I didn't want cheese but all of the ingredients were super fresh and I didn't even miss my normal "nacho cheese" sauce! I also had some Very Vanilla soymilk, which seemed like a treat since I usually buy mine unsweetened!

T-Rex

This was my dinner from Pei Wei. We love it there and they don't have one here so we always have to go when we go into the city. I had the Honey Seared Veggies and Tofu (which doesn't actually have any honey in it) with the fried rice (just make sure to ask for the fried rice without the egg!) It's always so good and I always bring the leftovers and chopsticks for the car ride home.

One thing I really love about going into the city is Whole Foods! So many beautiful veggies and so many products I don't have access to at home! We really got a kick out of this sign that asks "What's a-peelin to you today?"-- so cute!

I love, love, love that all of the vegan options are clearly labelled! From the fresh food bar I got this beautiful artichoke salad with asparagus, red and yellow bell peppers, grape tomatoes, and red onion, and a delicious vinaigrette-- I wish I'd gotten more of it!

I also got this udon noodle dish-- when I got into the car and tried it, Sam reminded me that I don't like udon noodles-- duh! I'm sure a lot of people would find it delicious, but this one really didn't do it for me.

Also at Whole Foods, we bought a ton of organic juice that was on sale (I haven't gotten to try any of it yet because our fridge has been too full to chill it), coconut water, veggie broth cubes, pink salt (yum and so pretty!), curry powder (amazing on popcorn!), cardamom, fresh nutmeg, vegetarian beef broth that I still need to check the vegan-ness of, endive, golden beets (which just made a delicious soup, along with the broth cubes!), a HUGE avocado, some Spectrum vegan mayo-- so yummy!, and some ginger chews for my MIL. I may have left something out, I don't know! I'll be posting recipes with some of these ingredients over the next few weeks!

Next came the trip to Missouri. Since Sam had to work, we went up there, attended a wedding and reception, and had some quality family time, all before driving back the same night (morning). About 25 hours in total. Thank goodness I wasn't driving, but I felt so bad for Sam! Especially those last 30 minutes or so seemed really difficult. At times like that I really wish I could drive, but a couple of years ago after many accidents and panic attacks, I realized that if I ever do drive again I'll need considerable work on skill and calming first. When it comes to road trips, my jobs are to pack the snacks and keep Sam entertained!

The picture above this one is an old peanut butter jar filled with celery and carrot sticks-- this is such a good way to pack veggie sticks-- it's plenty tall enough and keeps them fresh and crispy for days! I also brought some Tribe red pepper hummus-- I really love this stuff! The baggy there has craisins, dark chocolate chips, and salted almonds-- my perfect trail mix blend!

This picture is just to show you that we get excited by the little things-- 3 brand new, shiny, 2012 pennies-- yay!

This is me and my little brother (Can you believe he's in high school? He's been taller than me since he was about 10 years old!) at the wedding. It was really great to see everybody-- Dad, the most amazing step-mom in the world, 4 brothers and sisters (well, 2 of each), aunts and uncles, and of course, my cousin who got married (I didn't get to see much of her though, you're always so busy on your wedding day!). I really miss everyone and I wish we could get together more often!  I don't have any more pics right now since I need to get on my family to email them to me. 

At the reception I was a little worried about what my food options would be since, let's face it, southwest Missouri isn't the most vegan-friendly place in the world. To be honest, most of the fare was gravy-covered meatballs and tons of ranch-based dip but I was pleasantly surprised with some yummy fruits and veggies (even with no dip they were still yummy!) and chips and also some roasted potatoes, that to be honest I'm not sure what they had on them, but they seemed innocent enough and were really yummy! The fruit was so good I wasn't even sad about not getting any cake!

Afterwords I went to Denny's and had a double portion of their fruit cup, and some black coffee-- those were some of the sweetest grapes I've ever had! It goes to show that even at totally non-vegan restaurants and events, you can usually find something to enjoy! (Note to readers though, when I'm going to a bar-b-que, I always bring something-- at the last one I went to, all I had was the black bean salad I brought and Oreos-- even the potato chips had dairy in the onion flavored coating! I really enjoyed those Oreoes though, and had way too many!) On a different note, I had black coffee at three different places over this very long day, two iced and one not, and I would rank them as such: McDonald's was not great because I wanted it iced and they only had hot black coffee so it turned out luke-warm and it was kind of bitter. Denny's gets second for being less bitter and having refills! And Dunkin Donuts get top prize for being black and iced and very smooth!

So my advice is this: get creative, ask what's in stuff, pack snacks, and try not to mind if people think you're a little weird for only ordering fruit at a down-home breakfast place-- you might be pleasantly surprised at what you find! I hope this was informative, or at least interesting to read, and I hope all of you have some amazing road trips in your future!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I've been in a really dessert-y mood lately, so please forgive all of the sweets! I hope to post more savory dishes soon. These are red velvet cupcakes that I doctored up from a box. I don't normally use boxes when baking, but Sam wanted to these and I couldn't refuse. I looked around at how to veganize a cake mix and eventually just did my own thing. It worked really well for this particular mix, but I don't know if it would work on others. I also have a recipe for doctored-up cream cheese frosting from a can-- with no Tofutti! My store doesn't carry it and it seems expensive so I never get it but this frosting is delicious without out it!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry:

- 1 box Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix

- 0.5 tsp baking powder

Wet:

- 1.25 cups unsweetened soymilk

- 2 T apple cider vinegar

- 0.5 cup unsweetened applesauce

- 6 T light margarine, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and set up cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. This recipe made 21 cupcakes for me, so I had to do it in batches for my 12 spot cupcake pan.
2. Whisk together the baking powder and the cake mix in a mixing bowl.
3. Combine the vinegar and soymilk in a jar and let sit for a few minutes, them screw the lid on and shake (you can probably just mix it up with a fork or something). This creates a vegan buttermilk substitute.
4. Add the "buttermilk", applesauce, and margarine and whisk well to combine (I just used a fork to be honest).
5. Spoon into liners (about 2/3-3/4 full) and pop into the oven for about 22 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness-- there will still be a few crumbs on the toothpick, but nothing too liquidy.
6. Cool in preparation for frosting.

Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

- 1 can (or 2) Pillsbury cream cheese flavored frosting (Duncan Hines has one too, but I wasn't sure if it was vegan)

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Empty the can into a bowl and use electric beaters to whip it.
2. Add the lemon juice and vinegar-- I thought this made the frosting taste even more like cream cheese, but Sam thought it was a bit too tart, so maybe decrease it to 1/2 or 1/4 tsp each or just use as is if you want.
3. Chill the frosting.
4. Fill a pastry bag with an open star tip and get started making cream cheese roses! (The frosting roses melted a bit after the pictures. This frosting is a little melty for this technique, so feel free to decorate however you want if the melty-rose look doesn't do it for you). But this technique is really awesome so go use it with some buttercream if you have any laying around! Tutorial here.

 Enjoy your cupcakes!

For 1 cupcake out of 21: cals: 124kcal | fat: 4.24g | carbs: 19.70g | prot: 1.56g

For frosting check out the can- I think about 140 for 2 T. The add-ins don't add many calories

Veggie Soup and Sunshine Burgers

This is what I've been having for lunch for the past 3 days-- so yummy!

So I noticed (or rather, Sam noticed) that in the background of the picture in this post, there's a sneaky little visitor. That's Stanley the Seal. He belongs to this little guy.

This is Yosemite (and me in my pj's behind him). And I just realized that he looks giant in this picture because of the angle of the camera and his relation to me-- he weighs about 8 pounds, he's pretty small. Anyway, that's one of our our amazing pups-- I'll introduce the others another time! Now it's on to recipes... Well, sort of recipes. The pita sandwich is one of these amazing veggie burgers from The Vegan Chickpea in a pita with some spicy mustard-- that was weird, I just typed "hummus" after "spicy", I wonder if that means I secretly want some spicy hummus, I'll have to look into that-- anyway, veggie burger in pita with mustard and iceberg lettuce. I think iceberg gets a bad rap from foodies sometimes. Sure, it doesn't have the good looks, nutrition, or varying tastes of your darker greens, but it's delicious in it's own right. It's light and crunchy and really cheap, so that's good too. I used the sunflower seeds I had left over from making sunflower butter-- which by the way, was gone after a week and a half, yum! The only things I changed in making the sunshine burgers is that I doubled that batch and made 4 patties, meaning they were bigger, and I left out the garlic. You''ll probably want to make a double batch of these, they're seriously good.

And now for a recipe from me, sort of. I say sort of because it's a "throw everything you have in a pot" kind of soup, but it's the method I use over and over.

The ingredients are highly variable, but this is what I put in this last time:

Directions:

1. Add the olive oil (or canola, or other neutral oil) to a large soup pot and then start chopping.
2. Rinse everything and chop roughly, adding the chopped veggies to the pot as you go.

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 3 large carrot
• 4 stalks large celery
• 1.5 medium onion
• 2 large zucchini
• 4 large summer squash
• 1 medium sweet potato
• 1 poblano pepper, de-seeded for less spice or with seeds left in
• 1 clove garlic, minced

3.      Then add the crushed tomatoes and their juice-- I add fresh chopped tomatoes instead when they're on sale. Then rinse your split peas and add them to the pot as well. Then fill your (very full) pot the rest of the way up with water, stopping when the water level reaches about 2 inches from the top. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer, simmering for 30 minutes.

• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1.25 cups uncooked split peas

4. After 30 minutes, add your Old Bay Seasoning (my favorite way to season veggie soup), collard greens, and mushrooms and simmer for another 30 minutes.

• 2 tablespoons Less Sodium Old Bay Seasoning
• 4 cups, or 1 bunch collard greens, de-stemmed and chopped roughly
• 9 large button mushrooms

This recipe makes a whole bunch of soup. I usually make it when the veggies go on sale during the season and freeze some of it to enjoy later. It’s also really low calorie, meaning it’s good for people eating lower-calorie, or meaning that you can eat it with bread and margarine, whichever way you want to look at it. I hope you guys enjoy!

Per 1 full cup: cals: 59kcal | fat: 0.42g | carbs: 12.47g | prot: 3.98g

Sunbutter

Like many others, I've been trying to cut back on processed food. My husband Sam is allergic to nuts but he can eat Skippy brand peanut butter without a problem usually (it makes him itchy sometimes, but it's not life-threatening). He loves pb&j's and peanut butter cookies, but my thought is, if Skippy is so processed that someone allergic to nuts isn't allergic to it anymore, maybe it's a bit too processed. So I've been thinking about sunflower seed butter, but it's expensive at the store. So I set out to make my own. I don't have in process pics but there are some great ones at Peas and Thank You. I don't have a food processor either, or a high-powered blender, but my trusty ol' Oster did the job. Mine doesn't have any added oil but I did add a bit of salt and just a hint of honey (or agave, or maple syrup, or just sugar).

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups roasted sunflower seeds
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp honey or other sweetener

Directions:

1. Add the seeds and the salt to your blender and start blending.
2. When the mixture gets stuck and isn't moving through the blender, stop and push it around (I did this with a butter knife).
3. The seeds will get ground up and then will start getting a bit clumpy.
4. At this point, I stopped the blender and did some errands, because the blender was getting overheated.
5. Then blend some more, still stopping a lot to push things around. It will start getting really smooth.
6. Add the sweetener and blend some more. It should get smooth and creamy. If it never gets smooth, add a tablespoon or 2 of a neutral tasting oil.
7. Transfer to a jar and use like you would peanut butter. Enjoy!

Hello World

I've been following veggie blogs and thinking of starting my own for a while now so here I am-- hi! My name is Kelsey, I just graduated from Texas Tech, I've been married for 2 years to Sam, the most amazing person in the world, and we have three dogs. I love cooking-- a love that has become more necessary and also more used since I became vegan about a year ago. I also like sewing and managing my etsy shop, which is complete disrepair right now, but will hopefully be running again at some point soon. Right now Sam is in graduate school and I'm a very lucky stay-at-home wife who's looking for work. That's about all for introductions, I think. I'm really excited to post my first recipe-- here it is!

(Vegan) Mint Chip Ice Cream

I love ice cream in the winter-- especially in the winter. I eat ice cream in the summer too, but it seems a little too sticky and creamy for super-hot Texas summer days, so the bulk of my ice cream eating tends to happen in the winter. The oats give this ice cream it's creaminess- it's seriously the creamiest ice cream I've been able to make since going vegan!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 can coconut milk, shaken (I used Imperial Dragon brand)
• 2 tsps mint extract
• a couple of leaves spinach, to give it a green color--you won't taste it, I promise
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

Directions

1. Place first 4 ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
2. Pour into a saucepan and heat on low-medium, whisking, until very thick.
3. Scoop the mixture back into the blender and add the next 3 ingredients. Blend again.
4. Pour the mixture into a container to cool in the fridge or just stick the blender carafe in the fridge. Wait an hour or two until the mixture is fairly cold.
5. Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler.
6. Freeze the ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
7. After the ice cream is fairly frozen and it's almost finished, drizzle in the chocolate while the ice cream is still churning-- this makes little flakes and chunks of chocolate as it freezes once it hits the cold ice cream.
8. Transfer to a bowl and freeze for an hour or two before scooping out and enjoying. If it's too solid to scoop, let it sit on the counter for 20 minutes or microwave for about a minute and a half before scooping.

Nutrition Info:  Makes 7 servings of 1/2 cup each. 206 calories, 11g fat, 29g carbohydrates, 2g protein

Whew, my first blog post finished. Have an amazing day, everyone!