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.

Simple Lunch

Just a simple lunch recipe for you today. Of course you can eat this whenever you want.

It was delicious.

Pasta with sauteed Kale and Fresh Tomatoes

serves 1

1 serving of your choice of pasta (I used organic angel hair or capellini)

olive oil

salt

garlic powder

dried basil

fresh ground pepper

3 kale leaves, washed, leaves torn off of the stem

handful of grape tomatoes, sliced in half

Cook pasta according to package. Strain and save some of the cooking water to saute the kale in if you like (or use fresh water). Place pasta on plate and drizzle with olive oil and season as desired. Add kale to the saucepan with a dash of salt and enough water to keep the kale from burning. Saute over medium heat until Kale has wilted but is not overcooked.

Toss kale into the noodles along with the tomato halves.

Enjoy!

It's Been a Long Time

It's been a long time since I have posted. It's been a long time since I even thought about creating a recipe. It's been a long time since I have really cooked, although I have made time for some baked goods. All in all I've been absent for 3 months and here is why. Matt and I have got a little bun in the oven. A little bun that was sucking the drive out of my life for a while. I am going to be 15 weeks on Saturday, and am thrilled to be in the 2nd trimester and feeling great for the most part. Perhaps I will start cooking again. I'm not making any promises, but since I am not just laying on the couch for most of the day, I'm going to try another go at this little blog.

14 weeks!

One exciting food happening of last week was donuts. Oh yes! I read about these little gems and convinced Matt that it would be a shame not to order them. They are from Larsen Bakery in Wisconsin and were shipped to us by Vegan Essentials. We ordered the sampler pack which included 3 bavarian cream donuts, 3 raspberry filled donuts, and 3 ring donuts. They also sent a tub each of chocolate and vanilla icing. My favorite donut as a child was jelly filled, so it was pretty amazing eating one of those again. Matt loves bavarian cream, and these fit the bill. They were delicious and I would recommend them if you ever want to splurge on your budget, and your sugar intake.

While I do not have a recipe for you today, I thought I would add some link love. I am finally able to start enjoying food blogs again instead of avoiding them, so here are a few recipes that I have bookmarked for future use.

Chocolate Mint Bites from The Bee's Knees Kitchen

Iced Lemonade from Cheeky Kitchen

(made this the other week. Amazing!)

Beet Chips from Rawmazing

Cucumber Avocado Boats from Kristen's Raw

(Just might have to make these tonight. I have been loving cucumbers lately.)

Mocha Ice Cream Sandwiches from Manifest Vegan

Asparagus Potato Salad from Oh She Glows