Knots, Pots, and Tots

{this moment}

2013-09-13T06:53:00.001-07:00

. . . . . . . . .

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . .

- Participating with Soule Mama at: http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2013/09/this-moment-1.html#sthash.ObMGAlM7.dpuf

{this moment}

2013-08-16T23:07:00.001-07:00

. . . . . . . . . .

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

. . . . . . . . . .
Inspired by SouleMama:
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2013/08/this-moment-1.html

Out the Front Door

2013-08-15T12:07:00.001-07:00

Snapshots of the beautiful, crazy world right out our front door.
If you’d like to share some of your own photos, please leave a link in the comments!

The merging of seasons - late summer lillies opening in the mist of cool early autumn mornings.

{Out the Front Door with Homestead Honey - http://homesteadhoney.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/out-the-front-door-3/}

The End Has Come

2013-08-10T22:54:00.001-07:00

My summer has ended. The weather is hotter than ever, but classes have resumed and I find myself doing calculus on Saturday afternoon instead of spinning, or knitting, or going to the beach.

While I'm not a huge fan of summer (this "hotter than ever" is only 85 degrees, but I'm dying), I will miss the free time summer brings for a teacher. And it further saddens me as I realize that school starting so early gives a false illusion that fall is near. In southern California it will still be hot through September, and most likely through October as well. Looking on the bright side, I suppose that gives me time for another summer shawl or pair of socks before I start craving warm, cozy sweaters on the needles... the crisp mornings have already gotten me antsy to cast on my little man's new Malabrigo sweater. Admittedly, it doesn't take much to make one want to make anything out of Malabrigo, and those crisp mornings are over by 9 am.

Rather than continue lamenting the slow change from hot to cold here where the sun is king, I am going to leave this post with a few picture of summer fun. I hope this finds you enjoying the warm days.

Absence and the heart

2013-08-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

Well, in my world summer has come to an end. It was a very quick and eventful summer, but I have rushed back to school and been thrown back into work in full force.

This year we started school with a conference. I spent 4 days and 3 nights away from my babies. Going there I thought "Finally I will get to sleep! I won't have anyone crawling on me or kicking me!"

Despite my comfy bed in the ultra-plush hotel they had us in, I hardly slept a wink. I couldn't wait to get home and be surrounded by my babies! When we finally made it home, I forced them all to sleep in my bed - they didn't have a choice. And I had the best night's sleep I've had in a long time ... I sure missed these guys.

{This moment} (a day late)

2013-07-06T20:39:00.001-07:00

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{joy of seeing dad after a 3 week journey of 5,627 miles}

{This moment}

2013-06-21T08:21:00.001-07:00

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Knitters in the making

2013-06-16T05:45:00.001-07:00

It's been a whirlwind of a spring around here. Lots of camping, a fiber festival, not to mention testing at school and finishing up the school year. I can't believe summer is upon us already - although I'm very grateful for the break from school. I'll be spending lots of time with family this summer, and will post pics of our long road trip along the way

Today though I wanted to be sure to share some pictures of my knitters in the making. My 5 year old FINALLY decided she wants to learn how to knit. I bought her Annie and the Swiss Cheese scarf (which is a fabulous book and you should all buy it right now!) along with some pink yarn and beautiful needles for her birthday on January first. It took her a few months, but now she loves "to yarn". She especially likes to work a row of her knitting when I read to her before bed and to bring her knitting with her in the car. Although, she says she doesn't work on it while the car is moving because it's too dangerous.

Her knitting is beautiful for a beginner. Nice and even. It has inspired her older sister (10) to pick up her needles again and start knitting, trying especially hard to keep it as beautiful and even as her little sister's knitting.

I love my girls. (for the record, I love the boy too.)

Enjoying the spring time

2013-04-13T20:30:00.001-07:00

Wow. I really thought I'd blog more now that I do it from my phone, and it's been a month and a half. Sheesh.

We have been busy getting outside and enjoying the spring time. I have been baking some yummy bread and muffins, hopefully a recipe will come your way soon but I still want to perfect it. I've also been knitting a bit, of course, but I'm planning to submit my latest project to be a published pattern, so no pics of that either.

I did finally finish the lace weight sweater for my big one. She loves it! The yarn is Madtosh lace, in Cousteau which is the most beautiful color. I want a sweater for myself out of that color! I haven't made the little chains to cinch up the sleeves, but she wears it all the time already.

I'm keeping this short and sweet and leaving you with my fav pics of spring so far. Hope you have some nice weather and beautiful flowers coming your way soon!

Stitches!

2013-03-07T17:45:00.001-08:00

Finally, two weeks later, I get a chance to sit down and write about Stitches West. I have quite a few pictures to share, but they don't come close to the fun of being there in the marketplace. Everywhere you look there are creative people donning their finest knitwear - shawls and sweaters in all directions!

My first stop was to see Alana Dakos (http://nevernotknitting.blogspot.com/?m=1) and have her sign my daughters' copy of Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf. This book is wonderful!! My daughters both love it and have been so inspired by the story, the beautiful artwork and the goodies that come with the deluxe pack. Alana and I chatted and shared pictures of our girls. If you're a knitter with a young one in your life - or maybe a child who once was young and learned to knit, but is now not so young - you need to buy them this book. And maybe one for yourself. It is a beautiful, touching story with excellent artwork. https://anniecanknit.com/

While walking around I ran into Jasmin and Gigi of the Knitmore Girls podcast and had the great fortune to meet little Danger Mouse and tickle her toes. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of these lovely ladies and their beautiful hair, but we did get to discuss the methods behind Jasmin's gorgeous pink locks.

Wandering around the market of course led to some yarn acquisitions... I brought home a few beautiful skeins of yarn, including some mini skeins from Oink Pigments (http://www.oinkpigments.com/p/online-store.html?m=0), a beautiful rusty cashmere-merino-nylon blend from Western Sky Knits which had some of the most wonderful yarn (http://www.westernskyknits.com/), a d if course two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts BFL Sport - enough for a sweater. (http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/newmoon/). Also, I couldn't help but bring home a few skeins if Malabrigo (http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/) of which one skein I wound up and cast on some fingerless gloves immediately. The rest will be a sweater for my little man. My yarn purchases are now being lovingly displayed in my hutch, calling to me every time I walk by. However, I resist the urge to cast on anything new until I finish the sweater for my big one.

Now, on with the pictures!

California Countryside

2013-02-25T19:19:00.001-08:00

This weekend I had the great fortune if joining a couple of friends at Stitches West (a knitting convention). This event will get its own blog post next; first I must share some images from my trip up.

To get to stitches, I took the train from Oceanside up the coast to LA, stopped a but at Union Station, then headed up through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo to San Jose. It was a beautiful, comfortable 13 hour trip. I fully enjoyed quiet time to myself, got to work on some new socks for my husband, and almost finished listening to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

The trip was very pleasant, but mostly uneventful. When I left LA we had assigned seating, and I was not on the coastal side, so I don't have many coastal pics to share (really just one, of some early morning surfers at San Onofre), but I have many countryside pictures to share with you. I hope those of you still in the throngs of winter find these pictures bring you some hope of sunny warm days to come.

Adventures in Gargantuan Knitting

2013-02-23T14:33:00.001-08:00

A little over a month ago I shared with my husband a blog post I stumbled upon. The girl had knit a gigantic blanket, using PVC pipes. (http://nocturnalknits.com/2011/01/giganto-blanket-finished/) I commented that this would be a great workout for my arms, thinking nothing else of it. My husband, on the other hand, took quite a liking to this blanket, and insisted that I buy the wool immediately and get started right away.

I wasn't quite sure he was serious. Really - do we need such a huge blanket? "Of course we do," he insists. "When are you going to Home Depot to buy your needles?" Well, why not then. I wanted to make him a sweater, but he couldn't decide what type of sweater he would like. So, if I can't make him a sweater, at least I could make him this.

After looking at all the pictures of the blanket, and the different projects on ravelry, my husband specified that he would like it denser than the one on the pattern page. I decided not to do the felting process described in the pattern to help open up the wool, and to use smaller PVC needles - only 1" pipes, 5 feet long. I ordered an extra pound of wool, which was shipped the same day and arrived promptly on our front door.

I cast on that night, attacking the giant 7 pound ball of wool with my duct tape tipped PVC "needles". We watched a movie, and I put in a couple hours of work, making some good progress. The next night my big one insisted on knitting a row, although it turned out she only lasted a few stitches. The pipes were fairly heavy, especially attached to all of that wool.

That 2nd night, I finished up the 7 pounds, and had a blanket that covered half of my bed. My husband advised me to immediately order another 8 pounds, so it would be shipped first thing the next morning. He wanted a blanket to cover our king size bed.

I did so, and had to spend a 3 day weekend anxiously anticipating finishing this blanket. It again arrived quickly, and a mere 2 nights later - on a appropriately chilly night - I had finished the largest feet of knitting I have yet to accomplish. The blanket is incredibly warm. Although the 15 pounds of wool makes it a bit cumbersome to handle, it is so cozy and soothing that I wonder how we ever slept without it.

As I reflect upon the many things I've managed to pull together out of some string and a couple of sticks, the most amazing accomplishments have always been at the encouragement of my husband. He has always been the one to push me to further my skills and make things that are more than just plain and simple. He inspires the artist within me. I'm very lucky and thankful to have such a wonderful partner in life.

Recipes for a great weekend

2013-02-16T12:38:00.003-08:00

February is a wonderful month, especially for us teachers. We have two back to back 3-day weekends. This year, here in San Diego county, we are even more fortunate that one of those weekends was cool and rainy - just the way I like it - and the next is sunny and warm.

Our first 3-day weekend was spent puttering around the house, playing dress up, dancing with the dog, watching Thomas speed around the train tracks, reading Harry Potter, knitting, and baking four (!!!) loaves of delicious rosemary bread to go with our vegetable soup. It was my idea of the best kind of weekend - just staying in the house, cozy by the fire.

Here are some recipes for you to enjoy on your long weekend, or any day!

Saturday Morning Pannycakes

This is what my kids beg for most Saturday (and some Sunday) mornings. Quick, easy and fun to fix up in a jiffy, while the little ones watch cartoons. Or even better, Jack Hannah's Into the Wild =D

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached flour
1 tbsp double acting baking powder
dash of sugar
1/8 tsp salt

1 cup soymilk
1 tbsp veg. oil or melted butter/margarine
dash of vanilla
1 heaping tbsp ground flax (optional)

1/4 cup, or less, chocolate chips! or other mix in of your choice. (optional)

Sift or whisk together dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Stir in chocolate chips, if using Combine wet ingredients in a measuring cup, then pour into dry ingredients. Stir vigorously until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Let sit for about 5 minutes. While that sits, warm up your pan. I have an electric stove, and warm mine on 6, then cook the pancakes on 4, medium low heat. I wash up my utensils and put everything away, then the batter should be puffed up a bit, and you should see air bubbles on top. Resist the urge to give it a good stir, and just dip in spoon and pour spoonfuls into your pan. This makes about 5 4-5" diameter pancakes.
Let cook until small bubbles appear on top, flip and cook a couple more minutes until light brown on bottom. Enjoy warm with the topping of your choice - or none at all! =)

Home-Grown Rosemary Bread:

Romano's Macaroni Grill's bread is the best thing about that place. I LOVE that bread, and have always wanted to be able to just make it at home. I searched the web for a recipe and tried a couple, but they all felt like they were lacking something. So, I've come up with this variation, that my family found irresistible - enough for the little ones to climb up onto the counter and devour half a loaf in a matter of seconds.

My favorite part of making this bread is heading out to the garden with my little big girl to pick some fresh rosemary. If its summer time we often also have fresh basil and oregano, but for now I had to use dry. Feel free to use fresh if you have it on hand, just adjust accordingly.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp yeast (I use Red Star Active yeast in a jar)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh rosemary - separated into 1 tbsp piles
2 tsp dry basil (1 tbsp if fresh)
1/2 tsp dry oregano (1 tsp if fresh)

2 tbsp melted butter/margarine - 1 tbsp in the bread, 1 to top it after baking.
Salt to sprinkle on top

Directions:

To do this my quick way, preheat your oven to 210 degrees f, then turn it off once the oven is preheated.

Whisk together the yeast, sugar and water. Let sit for about 10 minutes, until fluffy and about twice as high.

While the yeast sits, finely chop your rosemary and set aside. Sift or whisk together flour, salt and spices. If you are lucky enough to have a counter top mixer, I just put those ingredients into the bowl with the whisk attached and let it run a bit. (I can't thank you enough for that one, dad!).

Once yeast is ready, I pour in the 1 tbsp melted butter, then dump it all at once into the flour mixture. With the dough hook attached, I put it on speed 2 and let it do its thing for about 5 minutes. If you're doing this by hand, I imagine it would take at least 10 minutes of kneading to get it right. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. Have a glass bowl (I use a casserole dish) sprayed with non-stick cooking spray ready. Once the dough is beautifully soft, flour your hands and take it out of the bowl. Form it into a nice ball, put it in the glass bowl and pop it in your nice, warm oven. Let the dough sit there to rise until doubled in size. This should take about 30-45 minutes.

When the dough is nice and fluffy, take it out and turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into two and gently work it so it makes 2 nice smooth balls. Turn on oven to 375 degrees f, place your 2 loaves onto an ungreased cookie sheet, sprinkle tops with remaining rosemary and place into oven. Let bake for about 20 minutes, until light brown. Remove from oven, brush with 1 tbsp melted butter, sprinkle with a little salt and place back into oven for about 5 minutes, until a deep golden brown. I have an electric oven, and once put these on low broil for about 2 minutes, and it makes the crust just a bit crispier, more like they have at the restaurant.

Here are some pics from our wonderful, long weekend. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ready for an adventure

2013-02-11T21:59:00.001-08:00

9:57 pm

Just wait till you see what will come of this ...

Getting ready for stitches!

2013-02-06T21:10:00.001-08:00

This month my friend Alexa from Oink pigments (http://www.oinkpigments.com/) will be a vendor at the Stitches west convention (http://www.knittinguniverse.com/west/)
I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend with them - thanks mom! I can't believe I'll have an entire weekend kid-free!

In preparation for the big event, we had knit night at Oink pigments headquarters to help skein up and tag some yarn. Of course, I had to bring some knitted sheep cookies.

It was lovely to chat with friends while fingering lots of beautifully colored yarn. We twisted up little mini skeins into a big pot of yarn pasta! Somehow I didn't get Alexa herself into the picture - sorry!! We will have to get pics from the show.

It was a lovely evening. Now I am off to make a sample hat out of some freshly dyed yarn in a new color way that still has yet to be named. Any suggestions?

Back at it!

2013-02-03T22:40:00.001-08:00

It seems the new year always brings me fresh inspiration to create and share with the world (although by looking at the dates on my blog, this feeling must have passed me by last year).

It took a month, but that feeling is back. I want to make ALL THE THINGS! Tournament 7 of nerd wars has started and is burning me to finish up those 2 projects that have been languishing on my needles. Firstly I am making a hat for someone I met, who expressed he would like to buy one of my hand knit hats (!!!) I'd like to think I can finish this tonight, but the powers that be often have other plans ...

Also I am finally working on a sweater for my big one, who is now 9 1/2! I can't believe I haven't made her a sweater yet, and I had to choose a lace-weight sweater! It's taking a while, but it is coming out beautiful. Last night she knot a row on it, and she now is planning to make herself a sweater this year!

As far as family goes, we had an exciting visitor yesterday. A very large grasshopper was taken hostage and brought into our house so my little man could "Touch it! Touch it!" very fun memories. The little big one, now 5, loves bugs of any kind, and was fearless as usual and had no problem picking it up and letting it crawl on her. Her big sister, on the other hand, screamed bloody murder and almost squashed the poor thing as she thrashed about in utter terror. Ah, yes ... And she says she is a tomboy.

Now, off to finish that hat!

Fingerless gloves, giveaways, and yummy soup-dipping bread !

2011-04-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

This past month flew by in a whirlwind of busy-ness - I can' t believe its April already! Unfortunately, that all that busy time wasn't getting any projects completed, but I did get to create something of my own design!

I had knit some fingerless gloves for the big-big one (my 7 year old daughter), and of course the little big one (3 years old) wanted some of her own. She loves going to the yarn store, and so she came along and picked some lavender yarn for her "glubs." I couldn't finish them fast enough for her - although it took me only 2 evenings to finish them! I'm super excited, because I actually made up the pattern on my own. I will write it up separately before too long.

Also, this past month I made a couple pairs of "Oma House Slippers" (Pattern page here). These are the cutest, fastest things I've made in a while!

I made a pair for my aunt Claudia ... they were too small and ended up being for her best friend (and sort of adopted aunt) Judy. So I made another pair for Claudia in a bigger size. I have TRIED making them with hemp, but the hemp cord I have is just way too thick. Which is really disappointing since I've always wanted some hemp shoes, but I'll get around to making them sometime with some smaller hemp cord.

I found the pattern through the Knit-Purl Gurl blog - which is one of my favorite blogs. Anyway, her Oma slippers are the cutest things ever, and what inspired me to make some of these for my Aunt's birthday... and probably for me and everyone else I know!

Speaking of Knit Purl Gurl, she has some awesome giveaways going on, for "March Madness" which I'm excited about. She has a summary of all the giveaways here. Lots of fun stuff!

Besides all the work, knitting, crochet and browsing giveaways this month, I have spent some time in the kitchen... Now, I'll be honest. Most of my experimenting in the kitchen results in something not so stellar, in my opinion. But I made these "Veggie Scones" that I thought were absolutely wonderful. More importantly, my kids loved them too! My little big one at 2 of them back to back - which is a lot for her!

I served them with some tomato soup (which was one of those not-so-amazing creations of mine... still working on that one). My big big one came up with the idea for the soup - it was practically all her intelligence there. But I just felt like something was missing... maybe some fresh basil or bell peppers. I'll have to work on that one. These scones definitely need some yummy soup to dip them into though, as they're a little dry just by themselves. Dippin' them in some warm soup is quite satisfying!

Here's the recipe for some VEGGIE SCONES, perfect for dipping:

Ingredients:

1 cup small broccoli florets - cooked until soft
1 3/4 cup bisquick mix (I know, that's cheating... I think I'll work on a recipe without this)
1/2 tsp hing/asafoetida
1/2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional, if you can't find it or don't have any. Or if you just plain don't like it)
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup plain soymilk.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Whisk together dry ingredients. Add broccoli and soymilk and stir until combined. I've also made this once before with some finely chopped bell peppers, and that adds a nice touch. I just didn't measure it out when I made it then - so feel free to improvise some with that.
Once its mixed, knead it about 10 times, or just until it smooths out a bit. Pat it into a circle about 1/2 an inch thick. Use a floured butter knife and cut the circle into 8 triangles. Place on un-greased cookie sheet. Brush tops with soymilk. Bake at 450 degrees (f) for about 16 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown, and the tops spring back when lightly pushed.

That's it! Super simple, quick, and great to go along with some soup on a chilly day. Too bad we won't be having too many more of those... eh.

If you don't have bisquick, you can try using self-rising flour and about 2 tsp of canola oil, or regular flour, 1 tbsp baking powder and about 1 tsp of canola oil. That's what I'm going to try - but I haven't yet, so don't hold it against me if it flops. Not yet anyway!

Time to get to that little man, his hunger calls!

Beans and Rice, Beans and Rice, how nice!

2011-03-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, its been more than a year now since Ive posted anything here in the blog world. I suppose anyone who read my blog before probably forgot about me. That's alright, I had a great reason for my extended absence - I was pregnant! I didn't feel like cooking or eating much of anything, and didn't really feel like writing much anymore either.

Now my little man is here I finally feel like expressing my creativity to the world - no matter how insignificant it may be. I am changing the name of the blog to reflect the content a little better, since I really don't want to only write about food. I am no chef by any means, but I do like to share my explorations. Even more than that I like to share my adventures with my kids and what I'm making (mostly for the kids).

So, I'll start with what I'm making. I have been working on a cardigan for my husband for the longest time (well, 3 months feels like the longest time...) and I think I'm almost close to the end. I hope so because I want to finally make myself something, for once! I have some beautiful yarn to create something for me and I can hardly wait.

Here's some views of his sweater:

While thinking of something I'd like to make for myself, I've started a mini version for my daughter. It will be a little cardigan, knit sideways. Hers is short sleeved. I'm super excited about it, especially because it's my first creation entirely my own. Pics to come...

As far as food goes, the other night (its taken me a while to get this up) I cooked up some yummy creation with rice, beans, tofu and chipotle sauce. It was quite good. I was inspired a bit after my mom and I were reminiscing over old School House Rock videos, and this song got stuck in my head:

Thus this weekend is a nice combo of some yummy beans and rice.

The picture is a little yellow... sorry. Taken quickly with my phone, while holding a wriggling little boy.

The ingredients are:

1 package firm tofu, cubed
1 to 1 1/2 cups basmati rice (cook as usual, with a bit of turmeric and paprika for color)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp hing (aka asafoetida)
1/2 medium bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 cup water
3 tbsp Braggs Liquid Aminos
3-4 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chipotle sauce (to play it safe... if i were cooking for myself I'd used at least 3x as much!)
1 tbsp fresh cilantro
1/2 cup frozen baby lima beans
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach
1 15 oz can each whole kernel corn and black beans (or pinto, or both!) drained and rinsed
About 1/2 cup chipotle Salsa, or your favorite salsa
2 medium carrots, shredded
salt and pepper to taste.

I baked the tofu cubes. You could also easily just fry them a little, but to bake them:
Heat the oven to 400 degrees f. Coat the tofu in a little oil (about 1 tbsp). Spread out on lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little salt and nutritional yeast, if desired. Bake about 30 minutes, turning a couple of times so they cook evenly.

In the mean time, in a large pan heat olive oil over med heat. Add bell pepper and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes. Add cumin seeds and sautee another minute or so. Add hing just until it turns color. You can also use garlic, I suppose, if you like that or if you can't find hing. Which is very likely.
Add the rest of the ingredients except beans, corn and carrots. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beans and corn and cook until heated through. Stir in tofu, cooked rice and shredded carrots. Wah-lah! Yumminess! Would be best with some avocado, chips and fresh salsa.

Hope you like this week's flavor! As a special bonus to celebrate my return, I'm including another recipe!

Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies!

Yep, you read right -- breakfast cookies! These pair perfectly with a cup of soymilk and some fruit on the side, especially a banana. Made with oatmeal, peanut butter (duh!) apple sauce and whole wheat flour, its a little meal in a cookie!
I just tried this tonight, and honestly I think there was a bit too much flour. Next time I think I'll lessen the flour by maybe 1/4 cup, and/or use regular, unbleached flour, add a little more apple sauce, or use regular sugar or agave nectar instead of powdered sugar. However, they are still yummy, especially for dunking!

Ingredients:
1 cup of your favorite creamy peanut butter (about 1/2 of a 15 oz. jar)
5 tbsp applesauce
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal flour (2/3 cup oatmeal processed in food processor or blender until a fine powder)
1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Put oatmeal in food processor or blender and process until a fine powder. Measure w.w. flour, baking soda and salt together. Add to food processor and process for about another minute, until fine and completely mixed. Alternatively, you may whisk the dry ingredients together. I would love to mix some ground flax in here as well - I add that to almost everything I bake. However, I try to keep my recipes here as universally accessible as possible, so I didn't add them here. Feel free to toss in a couple tablespoons if you have some!
In a separate bowl, mix together peanutbutter, applesauce, and sugars together until completely mixed. Stir in flour mixture slowly, about 1/2 cup at a time. When it gets a little tough to stir, just mix in with your hands until flour is no longer visible. It'll blend in with the peanut butter.
Form into small golf-ball sized balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press down with a fork twice, to form a criss cross pattern typical of yummy peanut butter cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes, until lightly browned on the bottom. Let cool and enjoy with a cup of soymilk, almond milk, hot chocolate, tea.... whatever your pleasure!

Again, I hope you enjoy these recipes. Please let me know of any ideas for improvement!

*A note about hing - this is a very particular spice, and an acquired taste in many people's opinions. My family does not care for garlic or onions much, so I generally use hing in its place. It is often available in Indian as well as some Asian and Mexican food stores. Feel free to adjust the amount of hing to suit your "tolerance" :) or feel free to put a little garlic if that's what you use.

Creamy Corn Tortilla Soup

2010-02-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

At a certain restaurant, whose identity I shall not name, they serve a Tortilla Soup that is so fantastic, I knew I'd have to make a vegan version (it is vegetarian, but they use cream). I've been so excited to try this, and now I'm triply excited because it takes less than half an hour, and I can have all the ingredients on hand! (If I have canned tomatillos and frozen bell peppers...) So awesome.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 - 3 tbsp chipotle sauce (look in the mexican food section)
1 12 oz package soft silken tofu
1 tbsp canola oil
1/4 medium sized red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tsp cumin seed
2 medium tomatillos, diced
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles (or just diced tomatoes if you don't like it so spicy)
3 15 oz. cans whole kernel corn
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt

Directions:

Combine silken tofu and chipotle sauce in a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside. (If you can't find chipotle sauce, use tomato puree and about a tsp of chipotle powder, or very finely chopped chipotle peppers - which are dry roasted jalapenos! Oh, and the silken tofu is probably with the asian foods, or on the baking aisle with the soymilk)
Heat oil in a medium sized pan on medium heat. Add bell peppers and saute just until they begin to brown, 3 - 5 min, then add cumin seed and saute another minute. Add tomatillos and saute for another minute longer. Add the rest of the ingredients, and the tofu mixture from the blender, and cook until heated through. Spoon about half of the soup back into the blender, cream it in the blender, then add back to the pot. Or, use an immersion blender to cream it as much as desired. (Thanks Aunt Claudia for that immersion blender, the best present ever!)
Serve hot and top with crushed tortilla chips. That's it!!

Now, a note about spiciness. All of my family, except for me, is pretty sensitive to spicy foods. (To me, the spicier the better!) and this soup was too spicy for them. My husband said it was "eatable" and he really enjoyed the flavor, but almost too spicy that he couldn't eat it. SO, if you don't enjoy spiciness I'd suggest just using diced tomatoes, not with green chiles, and maybe only using 2 tbsp of chipotle sauce, or maybe just to taste.

As always, I hope you enjoy this one and please let me know how it turns out!

(Served here with Enchilada Muffins - recipe for the book!)

Quinoa Cakes

2010-01-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I was reading about the nutritional benefits of quinoa. For one, quinoa has an especially high, complete protein content. It is a good source of fiber, magnesium and iron, gluten free and easy to digest. So, I thought I should try to cook more with it. My hubby really doesn't like quinoa, he says he doesn't like the texture, so I knew I had to make something completely different from any quinoa he'd had before.

Enter the Quinoa Cake! They're really cupcakes, of the savory variety. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa (1/2 cup dry quinoa cooked with 1 cup of water)
1 zucchini, peeled & grated
1 yellow squash, peeled & grated
1japanese eggplant, peeled & grated
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 medium carrot, grated
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/2 cup ground, unsalted sunflower seeds (unhulled)
1 heaping tbsp ground flax

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350f and spray muffin pans with oil or liners.
Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Add celery and carrot and saute for about 2 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables, the spices and the water. Stir and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables begin to be translucent and the water is beginning to soak in.
Grind the sunflower seeds in a blender or coffee grinder until coarse. Put in a large mixing bowl, add the vegetables from the skillet, then add the flax and the quinoa. Stir together until completely mixed. Spoon into muffin pans and bake for about 45 minutes, or until they begin to brown on top. Makes 12 cakes!

My husband actually really liked these. (Amazing!) I think they're great smothered in ketchup. My little one thought they were so cute she wanted to hug them! As always, please try and let me know how it came out! Feedback is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

Belly-warming Lentil Soup

2010-01-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

So, I've been on a slight hiatus this week. The family and I had to spend a few days in Los Angeles, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Los Angeles is becoming more and more vegan friendly, which is quite exciting.

Anyway, now that I'm back I couldn't wait to get into the kitchen! I made this tasty lentil soup that warms the soul, as well as some "tortas fritas" (an Uruguayan fried flat bread that is perfect on rainy days) and as if that's not enough I even tried my hand at "Chik'n Seitan" from Vegan Comfort Food and it wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was super easy and I can't wait to experiment more with other flavors (and I'll post some of those experiments here, of course!).

Now I have to decide which recipe to post. I would love to put up the recipe for the tortas fritas, because it was actually easier than I expected but the instructions would take too long... and too many pictures to illustrate what I'm talking about. I think I'll need to master it a little better and get the measurements right first, since I'm going from watching my husband, who's Uruguayan, make these for years and never measuring anything. (He always laughs at me, the American, always needing my measuring cups and spoons). So, for easiness I decided to put up the recipe for the soup, which goes along perfectly with all this nice, cold weather we're finally getting!

Here's the recipe, which can easily be cut in half if you're only cooking for 1 or 2 (or for 1 day, we have leftovers)

Ingredients:
12 cups vegetable broth/water and bouillon in whichever combination you want to use that adds up to 12 cups of liquid
2 cups green lentils
1 cup pearl barley
2 - 3 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
2 medium russet potatoes, cubed
2 small stalks of celery

2 tbsp olive oil
about 1 tbsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp oregano
2 - 3 bay leaves (so you can plant them in hubby's bowl so he'll do the dishes) :)

optional:
1/3 pkg vegetable crumbles (hamburger style)
1/2 pkg chicken-style strips

Now I took the easy way on this and put everything in the slow-cooker in the morning, so we'd have a nice steaming bowl waiting for the big one when she came home from school. However, if you don't have a slow cooker or don't have the time, you can also cook it on the stove.

Heat olive oil in a large pot. Add celery and saute until it begins to turn translucent. Add broth or water and bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium heat until lentils and barley are softened and soup begins to thicken (roughly 1 - 1 1/2 hrs, although I'm not quite sure), stirring occasionally.

My family loves this one (extended family included) and my big one jumped up and down with excitement when I asked if she wanted to take some for lunch the next day. So, I hope you enjoy making this one, and as always let me know how it turns out!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

2010-01-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

This was a nice, creamy vegetable soup. My big one loved it, and she hates butternut squash! (well, she did) :)

Ingredients:
4 - 6 cups of water
5 medium, diced russet potatoes (or yukon gold)
1 medium butternut squash
2 cups chopped broccoli
2 cups chopped spinach
1 stalk celery, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp tarragon
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
pepper to taste

optional: add 1 pkg soft silken tofu and 1/4 cup plain soymilk for extra creaminess (adjust salt as needed if you do this)

Directions:
Heat oven to 400f. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff and place face-down on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake for about 45 min, or until flesh can be easily pierced with a fork.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil. Make sure to use as much water as you will need (and no extra) because you'll be using all the water for the soup. You can always add more later if you need more.
Dice the potatoes (I like to leave them peeled) and add to boiling water. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add broccoli and the rest of the ingredients. Cook for about 30 minutes or until broccoli and potatoes are very soft.

When butternut squash is done, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh and add it to the soup. Use an immersion blender (or a regular blender will work just fine) to puree the soup to desired consistency.

Walah! You're ready to serve in a nice big bowl, perhaps with some other roasted veggies or fresh bread or baked tofu... the possibilities are endless! Enjoy!

And as always, please let me know how it turns out!

Pregnancy

2010-01-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no new recipe yet (we've been eating enchilada leftovers...that recipe's for the book).

I just got a note from a friend about being vegan or vegetarian while pregnant and thought I'd share the response with everyone. You definitely can stick to your veg(etari)an diet, just make sure you're eating healthy. One of my friends lent me the book Your Vegetarian Pregnancy and I highly recommend it. Also, take prenatal vitamins! I've been taking Rainbow Light Vegan One, because it's the only one I can get locally that's totally vegan and doesn't cost a fortune. I tried taking another one this summer (they were out of the vegan one vitamins), but I was supposed to take four per day, and it made me nauseous.

Anyway, don't let people tell you you can't go through your pregnancy sticking to your animal-free diet, because you totally can. And best wishes to you!

Vegan.com's year in review

2010-01-06T10:55:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed reading this. It is a bit long, but I found it quite entertaining. And its good news for everyone, really, not just vegans. I'm glad at least 2009 had some good news in terms of healthy trends. I especialy like the "plant-based substance that can be used to produce gooey, stretchy, totally realistic cheese" that has been invented.

Enjoy!

Vegan.com

Sneaky Spaghetti!

2010-01-05T20:16:00.000-08:00

Here it is - my first weekly, quick and easy recipe to sneak in some extra veggies! Tonight's secret ingredients are: Japanese eggplant, collard greens and carrots.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package of pasta of your choice, prepared according to box

Marinara sauce:
4 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
2 tsp nutritional yeast (or more to taste)
28 oz can crushed tomatoes

3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp hing (aka asafoetida)
(You can use garlic if you prefer, my family despises it, so we use this instead)
1 heaping tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp tarragon

1 japanese eggplant, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup FINELY chopped collard greens (or other dark leafy of your choice)
I put this in my little hand-mixer with a spoonful of tomato sauce and gave it a whirl to make sure it was extra small
2 small carrots, shredded

1 1/2 cups burger-style vegetable crumbles (optional)

Directions:
While pasta is cooking, warm vegan mayonnaise in a medium pot. Whisk in nutritional yeast until combined. Add crushed tomatoes and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, or until your pasta is ready. Drain pasta and coat with sauce (or drizzle sauce over your pasta). Serve immediately, with lots of love and gratitude! :D
PLEASE try this recipe and let me know how it turns out!!

Kid and husband approved!!