I'm Salivating

Lately all we have been doing is waiting on the baby. My due date was last Saturday, so now I am at 41 weeks. I really don't mind that much and am not miserably pregnant. She is just giving us a little more time to get ready, Christmas shop, and go on a couple more dates. Thanks, baby girl!

As an added bonus to this post, here is a little robot we bought her. That little creature brings on major warm fuzzy feelings whenever I look at her. It's just so cute!

Not much recipe creating has been going on, so here are a few links that I have been eyeing. Hopefully you will want to try some of them. Tell me how it goes, so far I haven't taken the time to make them. I did however make some Pumpkin Banana Bread tonight. Can't wait to have a slice!

Some healthy dishes to try....

Apple Dressed Lentils with New Potatoes and Crunchy Salad from Veggie num.num

Peppered Lentils with Kale and Butternut Squash from YumUniverse

Kale Saag Soup from Bittersweet

Chili Garlic Pumpkin Hummus from Manifest Vegan

Some sweet treats....

Pretzel Donuts from V.K.Rees Photography

Vegan Puppy Chow from Veggie Kids

Black Bean Chocolate Chili Cherry Cookies from My New Roots

Cranberry Red Velvet Cupcakes from The Mommy Bowl

I have learned that......

Experimenting with scones, leads to delightful raspberry chocolate results.

Shepherds pie is quite comforting.

Making Chocolate Pumpkin Butter is amazingly easy and is incredibly decadent

when spread on hot biscuits. Please try this recipe!

Rutabaga fries are a new favorite. Peel and chop into your desired fry size, toss with olive

oil and savory spices. Bake until soft and a little crispy.

Pumpkin chocolate chip bread and a pumpkin spice latte is the perfect

afternoon snack.

5 years

5 years ago, Matt and I got married. Not on this date though, as our anniversary was on Friday. This year we didn't go all out on our celebration, but instead had an enjoyable meal at home. We feasted on Coconut Curry Butternut Squash soup in bread bowls from Panera Bread, and later that evening enjoyed some pumpkin pudding and shortbread cookies.

The soup was made from butternut squash and onions, coated in spices and roasted. Then I blended it up with coconut milk and let it simmer on the stove with some vegetable broth. So tasty and so good with that sourdough bread.

Here is a belly picture from Friday. I was 37 weeks, now I am at 38 weeks. Can't believe that I only have a few weeks left until baby day or whenever she decides to make her appearance. Matt and I's next year together is going to definitely be an adventure learning how to be parents.

Lunch Time

Lunch has become a very important part of my day as of late. It takes a little time to prepare and it has to be ready by 12:30 or I wont be in the best of moods. So usually around 11:45 I am thinking about lunch. For me lunch is always a salad and something else. Here are some lunches that I have been enjoying.

Lunch # 1 - Salad with a mushroom kale panini.

To make this delicious sandwich, saute the kale and mushrooms in water. Drain the water and stir in a couple spoonfuls of Daiya Mozzarella style cheese. Let the cheese melt a bit in the saute pan and mix in a bit of seasoning (I took a picture of the seasoning I used so you could get an idea of the spices used). Spread some earth balance on two slices of sprouted grain bread and then place the mushroom kale filling between the slices and grill in a George Foreman grill or in a skillet.

Here is the spice blend I used, but really any savory spices would pair nicely with this sandwich.

Lunch #2- Eggplant bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich with a chickpea salad and greens.

Toast the bread, spread on some veganaise, top with lettuce, tomato, and eggplant bacon. To make the eggplant bacon, slice fresh eggplant thinly or with a mandolin, marinate the slices in olive oil, apple cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, and some maple syrup, then dehydrate until crisp. You could probably make the "bacon" in the oven as well, but I haven't experimented with that yet.

Lunch # 3- Salad and mashed turnips.

This is my new favorite salad - arugula and cucumbers with a creamy balsamic dressing, topped with eggplant bacon crumbles and pumpkin seeds. To make the dressing, stir together some veganaise, balsamic vinegar, and a tiny splash of water.

We have been getting turnips with our CSA for a couple weeks and this has been my preferred way to eat them. Boil until soft, mash them up, and top with a little earth balance, salt, and pepper.

Lunch #4- Salad and spaghetti squash and swiss chard.

For this dish, cook the spaghetti squash in the oven (takes about an hour at 350 degrees F) and mix the cooked squash noodles with some sauteed swiss chard. Stir in some Earth Balance or olive oil and top with salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast.

Perhaps this post will give you some good lunch ideas, or perhaps you will just think I eat crazy stuff. Regardless, I enjoyed all of these lunches immensely!

Kitchen Happenings

I haven't been up to much recipe creating lately, but I have been up to a lot of eating. Here are a few things that have been made in my kitchen over the last month.

First apple pie of the season.

A lovely fall dinner to cheer a bad day.

Bananas and pumpkin pie spice on my oatmeal.

"Cheezy" Chard on toast from the cookbook Vegan Yum Yum.

I also have been obsessed with a chocolate chip cookie. So much so that I made them twice this week. They are quick and easy and made with items you most likely have in your cabinet and if not could be easily substituted. Maple syrup and molasses add such a richness to this cookie, so they are perfect for dunking in coffee or hot chocolate on a cool day. So when you are in need of an amazing vegan cookie, look no further. Added bonus, they are such a soft cookie and stay soft after cooling - yum!

Here is the link. Note: the only thing I changed about this recipe is to add about a tablespoon of rice milk to the batter after you have mixed it all up. I found that there wasn't enough liquid in the recipe for my batter to not be crumbly. Only add a splash though, it just needs a little bit. The recipe on the link does address this issue and she suggests more maple syrup, but rice milk works beautifully as well.

Healthy Smoothie

Before I was pregnant, I would have a daily green smoothie. I still keep up those, but now I most often have another smoothie at some point during the day. Sometimes it's a more decadent peanut butter banana, and other times it is a chia seed and berry smoothie. Most often I go for a chia seed one for it's added nutritional benefits. Chia seeds are a complete protein and contain essential omega 3's. Oh so good for baby.

To make this smoothie, soak 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds in a bit over 1/4 cup of water for 10 minutes. Stir them a couple times during the soaking process just to get all the seeds immersed and to avoid clumping. Like flax seeds, chia seeds get thick and gel like when soaked in a liquid.

After your soak time, combine a handful of strawberries and a handful of frozen mango. Really any fruit will do in this smoothie. Frozen berries are great for a quick and deliciously cold smoothie. Toss in the soaked seeds and water as well.

Add one cup of orange juice and blend until smooth.

So good!

Here is a belly picture to leave you with. This is at 30 weeks. I hit 31 weeks today. Only 9 weeks left. I can't believe it!

Cheezy Garlic Bread and some Link Love

Last week I had some dill from our CSA that was sitting around in my refrigerator for way to long. In an effort to not let it go bad, I sought after a yeasted dill bread recipe but came up with only those involving items that I did not have at my disposal. So I turned to a basic French bread recipe and Just mixed the fresh dill into the dough. Delicious. Note that you can make the recipe vegan by rubbing olive oil over the bread instead of egg whites before putting it in the oven. I sprinkled on a little salt before baking as well.

The first night we ate one loaf with roasted butternut squash and green beans. I started reminiscing about cheesy garlic bread which I have not touched in years. Not even a vegan version. So the next night came and on the table with our pasta was this amazing garlic bread.

Cheezy Garlic Bread

1 loaf of dill french bread or just french bread

Earth Balance Buttery Spread or margarine

Garlic powder

Daiya Mozzarella style vegan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Slice the bread in half through the middle.

Spread on the earth balance to your liking. Season with garlic powder to your liking.

Sprinkle on Daiya Cheese as desired. Bake in the oven until the bread is a bit

crispy and the cheese has become melty. Enjoy!

If you are looking for a meal of pasta and garlic bread that is a little less carb heavy, use zucchini noodles. Take a zucchini and make "pasta" strips using a vegetable peeler. You can peel off the skin or leave it on depending on what you like. Top with heated tomato sauce.

Now for some amazing food from other blogs.

Banana Brownies from The Mommy Bowl (these are nut, grain, and sugar free)

Coffee Spiked Chocolate Carmel Bars from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth (I must veganize this

recipe soon!)

Black and Blueberry Sandwich Cookies from BitterSweet

Five Minute No Bake Sunflower Oat Bars from Choosing Raw

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispy Bars from Happy Healthy Life

And some Non-desserts

Lentil, Kale, and Sweet Potato Empanadas from YumUniverse

Stuffed Mushroom Phyllo Roll from Oh She Glows (the kale salad looks awesome too)

Indian Inspired Aloo Gobi Wraps from Choosing Raw

Are there any recipes you have been drooling over lately? Please share!

I Have Learned That......

Fresh from the CSA tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos make amazing salsa.

Simple Dinners are often times the best.

Breaded eggplant and summer squash really wasn't that hard to accomplish.

Kale salad is always a welcome addition to my plate.

Tomato, basil, avocado sandwiches are so delicious, I

could eat one every day.

Homemade spiced donuts are a new favorite, and hard to not

obsessively bake.

When life gives you a bit over 1/4th cup of flour left in the bag,

why not make cake.

Washing a sink full of dishes can be quite satisfying if you are

using a brand new, unstained dishcloth.

Pizza Dinner

Every now and then we get adventurous and make a whole pizza from scratch. Usually its a last minute thing, so I look up a no rise pizza dough recipe and go from there. This time, Matt suggested early that we make pizza on focaccia bread. So with enough time before dinner to let the dough rise for an hour, I whipped up our favorite recipe. That recipe happens to come out of a Cuisinart promotional cookbook that we received in a goodie bag when registering for wedding gifts about 5 years ago. I don't think I have ever used any other recipe in that book, but that one is a winner. It is a basic focaccia dough, brushed with olive oil, salt, pepper, poppy seeds, and red pepper flakes, topped with thin sliced onion and baked to perfection. So good!

This is a little bit different take on that recipe. So grab your favorite focaccia bread recipe and get started on this pizza. You will be glad you did!

After the dough is made and risen, press it out into a 1/2 inch thick circle, on a pizza stone or pan. I only made half of my recipe, so depending on how much dough you have made you can make two pizzas, or make some bread sticks out of the remaining dough.

Brush the dough with olive oil and season to your liking. For this pizza I used red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. In a saute pan, slow cook onions, peppers, and mushrooms with a drizzle of olive oil so that they can caramelize a bit. Depending on your patience you can totally caramelize them, or just partially caramelize them if you are in a hurry to eat. I was :). After they are cooked to your liking, spread the vegetables evenly over the dough.

Top with some thinly sliced tomato.

Then bake it for about 12 minutes at the temperature your focaccia bread recipe suggests.

Slice and Enjoy!

Chocolate Pudding

Shocking is the day when Matt comes home with a bunch of avocados, and even more shocking is the fact that he intends to eat them. Avocados are definitely not an appealing food to him, they smell funny, they aren't pleasant tasting, etc. I on the other hand love avocados and would eat them all the time in a number of ways. The other night I made some chocolate pudding in the blender for our dessert. I knew Matt didn't like avocado, but I figured the taste would be masked enough by chocolate, and sure enough he was hooked. As a result there has been a lot of pudding consumption going on. Please note that this is the only way Matt will ever eat avocado.

Healthy Chocolate Pudding

serves 1-2

1 avocado

1 banana (2 if your bananas are small)

a couple spoonfuls to 1/8 cup cocoa powder or more or less if desired

4-5 dates, soaked in warm water for 1/2 hour or more, seeds removed

(alternatively use maple syrup to sweeten)**

non dairy milk of choice or water

Toss the avocado and banana into the blender along with the soaked dates (or maple syrup) and cocoa powder. Add just enough liquid for blending, being careful to not make the pudding to runny. Blend until smooth. Top with fresh fruit of your choice and enjoy!

**I have only used dates to sweeten the pudding once. My blending did not blend them smooth, so we had chunks of date in that pudding. Maple syrup ensures that your pudding is silky smooth.

Try pouring some pudding into popsicle molds. It makes a delicious pudding pop!

Here is a 22 week belly bump picture (I am now 24 weeks). Our little girl is growing like crazy and we are starting to be able to see her move when we look at my stomach. Tonight we were playing music for her to see if she would dance. She moved around a bit, but when we played her Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins she was totally still. Perhaps it should go on her "Go to Sleep" mix.

I'm Salivating

Hello all. It's me again, with no recipes to share, no pictures of the cookies, cookie bars, and bread that I have been baking, and no delicious cooking to show off. Oh well, I do have this nice round belly.

Really this is the only "cooking" I have to be proud of as of late. Dinner around here has been the usual fair - pastas, salads, sandwiches, and Matt's sweet potato saute. Instead of cooking, my favorite things to do lately are bake, organize and get rid of stuff, then eat said baked goods. Here are two recipe's that I have been making. The first for some delicious homemade bread that I made into rolls and also a loaf. Second, is these super easy chocolate chip cookie bars. I usually half this recipe and have been using coconut extract instead of vanilla, as well as coconut oil in lieu of margarine. This recipe has become a favorite because I can just press the batter into a pan and bake instead of plopping individual cookies on a baking sheet, therefore getting the cookie fix that much faster.

If I do get the urge to be adventurous in the kitchen again, here are a few recipes that I would love to try.

Chilled Double Chocolate torte from Oh She Glows

Deep Dish Cookie Pie from Chocolate Covered Katie

Raw Cacao Kale Crunch from YumUniverse

Any of these chocolate recipes from this post

(notice a theme - mmm chocolate!)

Focaccia from Veggie num num

Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade from Rawmazing

Fattoush Salad with Za'atar from My New Roots

Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad from Miskabelly

Vegan Stove top Style Macaroni and Cheese from BitterSweet

Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmm Sauce from Peas and Thank You

Zucchini Sticks from VeganWiz

And because I really can't resist dreaming about desserts

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dough Balls from Peas and Thank You

White Chocolate, Raspberry, and Sage Tart from Manifest Vegan

Also one to veganize

Push Pops from One Charming Party

I'm sure I wont post again for a bit, but hopefully you still enjoy these sporadic postings. Have a happy Fourth of July!

Lovely Summer Meal

Inspired by the Warm Spring Rolls recipe in Kim Barnouin's cookbook, I created these spring rolls for dinner last night. I really was planning on using the recipe in the book, but after cutting out some things and adding others, this is what I ended up with. I thought spring rolls would end up being a time consuming task, but with only serving 2 it really was pretty easy.

As a bonus, the vegan version is gluten free!

Saute one small head of cabbage, a package of baby bella mushrooms chopped, diced onion, and carrots cut into matchsticks. Saute them with a some water and add some freshly grated ginger, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes to taste.

For Matt's spring rolls I used Nasoya Egg Roll Wraps. These contain eggs, so are not vegan.

They were pretty easy to work with, just add some filling and roll up according to the back of the package.

For the vegan ones, I used rice paper wraps. These are sold in any Asian market as well as the world food section of grocery stores. They are packaged dried, so they will need to be softened up before the filling is added.

Put some water on a plate and then gently press a single wrap into the water on both sides. You don't need to do this for long as it softens up quick and will continue to soften out of the water as well.

Add some filling and wrap it up, making sure to tuck in the sides.

Usually spring rolls made with rice paper wraps are served cold, but with some experimentation, I discovered another lovely way to eat them. Rub some olive oil on each

spring roll, front, back, and sides. You could use a brush, or just dip a finger or two in some olive oil and rub it on that way. Place on a baking sheet and back for about 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Check on them from time to time to make sure that the wraps do not get too crispy. They should be pliable and able to easily eat.

Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. Matt made a lovely peanut sauce to go with our spring rolls. Just mix some peanut butter with enough water to thin it down in a saucepan and season to your liking with soy sauce, fresh ginger, and red pepper flakes.

Delicious! I am looking forward to trying more filling ideas.