Stuffed Jalapenos

I had my first attempt at making cream cheese stuffed jalapenos last week, as my Grandparents gave me an arm load of jalapenos from their garden. These things were gigantic and very spicy. I still haven't gotten into learning how to pickle things so needless to say I had a large quantity of jalapenos and a very short time to eat all of them. I made guacamole, salsa, and hummus and still had quite a few left over. I looked around the internets and found a pretty tasty recipe on the Galaxy Foods website.

The result was quite tasty, but I think next time I make these I will add cilantro and tomatoes, and maybe even a bit of nacho cheese to give these jalapenos a more diverse taste. Of course, another option would be to make spicy jalapeno hummus and stuff the jalapenos with that, oh my, the wheels are turning! Have you made stuffed jalapenos before? If so what creative things did you do to spice up your creation?

Chewy Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies

As the temperature in Arizona increases so do the requests for baked goods from my customers. It is this strange dynamic that baffles me every summer. I had an adventurous couple approach me with a request for homemade Cliff bars and trail mix cookies for their hike into the Grand Canyon. I made them delicious raw food bars with millet, sunflower butter, goji berries and almonds. I also baked some yummy oatmeal trail mix cookies with golden raisins, cranberries, agave and pecans. This got me craving yummy and healthy baked goods to get me through these hot summer bike rides.

Since I had a few ingredients left over from the trail mix cookies and bars, I tossed everything into my Kitchen Aid mixer and the result was these tasty, lightly sweetened, chewy cookies.



Ingredients:

2 Cups Whole Wheat flour
1/2 Cup Quick Cook Oats
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Sunflower Seed Butter
1/3 Cup Brown Rice Syrup
3 Medium sized bananas
2 T. Raw Sunflower Seeds

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and grease two cookie sheets

Mix flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and set aside. Mash bananas then mix with sunflower seed butter and brown rice syrup until fully mixed. Slowly add dry ingredients until fully incorporated, be careful not to over mix, you don't want the cookies too chewy.

Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon scoop dough and roll into 1 inch sized balls. Gently pat down and flatten dough on to cookie sheets and sprinkle with sunflower seeds. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms of cookies are a golden brown. Let cool for five minutes before removing from cookie sheets. Makes 18-22 cookies.

I put my cookies in the refrigerator for a cool snack on a hot summer day. Since they are made with fresh bananas, keeping the cookies chilled in an air tight container will keep them fresher longer.


Enjoy!

Quinoa And Sweet Potato Pancakes

Brinner is one of my most favorite meals (breakfast for dinner) it is quick tasty and it is the only time I can really eat waffles, pancakes, faux sausages and hashbrowns. Most big breakfasts are way too big for me, eating that amount of food and carbs first thing in the morning can spell out disaster. A pancake for breakfast usually means I will be returning to bed and wearing my pajamas for the remainder of the day. A normal breakfast for me consists of a banana and a larabar and then a four mile walk. So now you know why I go gaga for brinner. Tim and I had originally planned on having pancakes and a tasty tofu scramble but then we both agreed pancakes were enough.

I wanted to make sweet potato pancakes and was inspired by the Thrive diet book by Brendan Brazier to add quinoa to my pancakes. I cooked up both red quinoa and regular quinoa and added 1/2 cup to my pancake batter, but I think next time I will add more as when I was eating it I kept thinking I wish there was more quinoa in here. I also diced up a handful of medjool dates and tossed those in and once cooked they added a gooey sweetness to the pancakes. I was really bad and just eyeballed the measurements, because there is still need for some improvement but this is what I did and I thought they were fabulous.



1 cup flour
1/4 cup ground flax meal
2 tsp. baking powder
dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
2 cooked medium sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup cooked quinoa
1 1/2 cups soy milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
4-5 dices medjool dates
1 tablespoon agave nectar


First cook peel and cut your sweet potatoes into cubes then cook. I boiled mine but as an afterthought I wish I had roasted them with some Earth Balance and a bit of brown sugar and maybe some raisins. OOOOOOOHHHHH that sounds good, huh? While those are boiling/roasting cook your quinoa, once cooked set aside to cool. Mix all of your dry ingredients together and set aside. When the sweet potatoes are cooked put into a mixing bowl with agave and mash. Add the oil and soy milk to the sweet potatoes and mix. Once mixed add your dry ingredients and mix until incorporated, do not over mix or you will end up with rubbery IHOP pancakes. Then fold in your quinoa and diced dates.




Heat up your griddle and go pancake crazy!I hope you like these, I know Timmy did he ate six or seven of these bad boys, which is really only two restaurant sized pancakes.

Portland, day 3 (Proper Eats)

The third day is the most important of all! You will find out in a later post why, but until then here are some photos of Timmy and I freezing and getting ready to get some hot coffee, not even to drink, just to thaw out our hands. (:


I actually enjoyed the cold weather, I love winter clothes and layers. I love drinking hot coffee and taking really hot baths, so this weather was ideal for me. Timmy, not so much...


He was miserable and every five minutes said how he loved Arizona weather.

It was pretty rainy this day, almost a mist really, but enough to keep everything wet and slick. I thought it was very pretty, there was fog obscuring my vision of anything more than forty feet away or more that 15 feet in the sky. It was delightful. The first thing we did on Saturday was go get lunch. Lucy told us of this place called Proper Eats that had great "hippy" food. I was worried it would be all raw foods, and I was in the mood for hearty and warm. We were pleasantly surprised.

I ordered some garlic bread to get started and it was terrific!

Lucy enjoyed hers

Timmy too!

I took my first bite and fell in love! But if this was good, oh my the entrees were a delight!


Lucy and Tim shared the tempeh reuben and the bad brains burrito. They were both pleased with the outcome of their choices. The burrito had plantains, squash, black beans and all kinds of yummy goodness inside. The reuben was pretty tasty and was a nice change using tempeh instead of tofurkey.



I enjoyed the cornmeal crusted tempeh with quinoa, southern greens and a lime sour cream sauce. I ate the whole thing it was so good!


Mr. Toast!

After that we picked up kitty food and booties for Adelaide so she can run on our laminate flooring,

saw a door with many knobs and then went home to prepare...

Portland, day 2 (Bridge of the Gods and Dove Vivi)

When Timmy and I ate all of our goodies at Back to Eden and Lucy was done being her awesome self with Meals on Wheels we packed a lunch and planned a day time hike. We traveled north and headed to the gorge to take in some fresh air and to hike around some gorgeous waterfalls. The only problem, it was freezing and Timmy and I have thin Arizona blood, so we ended up driving around and stopping for some photos, then piling back into the warm car.


the gorge!



These waterfalls were beautiful and the closer you got to these wonders the colder it got too. So unfortunately we didn't stay that long.


Bridge of the Gods. Portland on the left, Washington on the right. We drove into Washington, parked the car and enjoyed our field roast sandwiches. We ate half our food outside and the other half inside of a heated car. We were wussies and didn't pack nearly enough warm clothes, but thank goodness for heaters huh?

We went home added layers to our clothes then went out to dinner with Lucy and Kyle, their sweet roommate Natalie and our friend Steve. We went to Dove Vivi, the best pizza place in Portland. They offer two delicious Vegan pizzas on their menu, one with corn, cashew cheese and a roasted bbq sauce, and the other (my favorite) and eggplant, mushroom and tofu ricotta pie. They all have cornmeal crusts which make them crispy and add a fantastic texture to the dish.



not the best pictures here, but it was dark in there and I hate using my flash, so this is the end result. I can tell you though the pizzas were great, the best I have had at a restaurant.


Steve and Natalie


Lucy and Kyle

We had a really great night, and headed home a bit early to prepare for our big day, day three in Portland.

Maple Bacon Donuts

I made these just to show it could be done. These donuts were delicious and I brought some in for my new coworkers at Pomegranate and they all seemed genuinely pleased.
Vegan donuts=fucking awesome!

Chickpea burgers

There is this super sweet and funny woman Marcy that shops at my Trader Joe's and over the last four years of working there Marcy and I have become friends. We email, share our pet stories and even poke fun at out crazy up tight neighbors. Marcy is so fun to speak with that often I find myself not working while at work but just chit chatting. Recently Marcy has gotten into the habit of bringing old magazines to my store for the employees to read on our lunch breaks. The magazines vary from Ode, O Magazine and Healthy Living to some I have never seen or hear before like Mother Earth News and Experience Life. Some of these magazines are absolutely uplifting and are great to read on a lunch break giving a fresh perspective to the rest of the work day. For me, one of the perks of these magazines is the recipes, though not all Vegan a lot are very easy to alter and make Vegan friendly. Experience Life just had a recipe for Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers and I made them last night for dinner, they were FANTASTIC! The best part, Timmy and I figured you could really replace the garbanzo beans with any bean and make all kinds of delicious and healthy veggie burgers. I followed the recipe as is, but next time I am going to use black beans with corn, jalapenos and tomatoes for a spicy South Western burger. Yum!

Middle Eastern Chickpea Burgers


served along side with lightly friend and seasoned cauliflower

2 cups cooked garbanzo beans
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. garlic
1 tsp. fresh ginger
3 T. olive oil
2 T. lemon juice
2 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
3 T. diced red bell peppers
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine garbanzo beans through lemon juice in a food processor. Process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add rice, bell peppers and parsley. Mix with your hands then shape into burgers. Place on baking sheet and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.


Enjoy!

Tofu Salad Sammies

I love tofu, I know I have said it a million times before, but I would much rather eat some yummy tofu slab that a mock meat concoction. Not that seitan and all that stuff is bad, it is just I love the texture, taste and really the flexibility of tofu. You can make it taste like ANYTHING! I also love sammies, have I said that yet? Not sure, but it is true. Tofurkey, Pb & J, TLT's, eggless egg even potato salad sammies. I try not to eat too many for fear of a carb over load but damn, give this girl a sammich already!



Tofu Salad Sammie

Tofu:
1 block firm tofu, drained
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut tofu into slabs and place on well greased cookie sheet. Brush on 1/2 olive oil, 1/2 salt and 1/2 pepper and bake for 30 minutes. Pull out of oven, flip tofu and brush on remaining olive oil and sprinkle on remaining salt and pepper. Bake another 30 minutes. Let cool.



Fixens':
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup slivered raw almonds
1/4 cucumber (hothouse) 1 whole cucumber if Persian, sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup Vegenaise


Once cooled,

cut tofu into 1 inch squares. Place into large bowl
and add all the fixens'

and mix well.

Chill in refrigerator for one hour, then enjoy!


weird horse-y, giraffe-y, metal thingy approves!

Candied Walnuts

A little bit sweet, a little bit salty and oh my word, a little bit spicy. This is how I would describe this yummy snack. I bought raw walnuts not too long ago to make candied walnuts and slowly I used them for other foods and today when cleaning out the cupboard I discovered there was only half a bag left, so I left the cupboard a mess and decided to make these instead. Now this is a very simple recipe, but you would be surprised to know how many people drop a small fortune on teeny bags of already candied walnuts. They are around 5 dollars for a 4 oz bag, where as my 12 oz. bag was only $6.50. Once again, this is very simple and it only takes about 25 minutes to prepare and bake.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

6 oz. walnuts
1 1/2 T. olive oil
1 T. sugar (or 1/4 cup agave)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
cayenne pepper to taste


baking in oven

Place all ingredients in a bowl and coat the walnuts evenly. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

See, easy! You can eat these as a snack, add them to a trail mix or even toss them into a salad.

Post 51 Pancakes

Good morning all of you dewy eyed children. Today is a weekend day and I have it off! Brilliant! This never happens, normally I wake up at four A.M. every weekend and get ready for work, by get ready I mean drag my butt all across the house nearly knocking anything in my way over, putting my shoes on the wrong feet and forgetting something of importance every time I leave for work. My brain is inoperable until around six A.M. so morning time equals clumsy time for me. Today I was relieved when I got to sleep in until 5:45 (yep, that is sleeping IN) and I got out of bed well rested and ravenous.



I decided to make a cheerful breakfast and having been inspired by a random photo on Tumblr I made rainbow pancakes. I am still beaming from their happiness in a round doughy disc. The recipe is the basic pancake recipe from VWAV but with an added banana, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour. Yum!

here I go...


so fun to eat!


nom nom nom


oh so good,


going,


going,


gone!

Live Chocolate Mousse

As I mentioned yesterday it is heating up here in the desert and the thought of turning on the oven to bring sweet treats to my grumbling tummy is not a pleasant one. Sometimes I imagine my famine filled face passing out as the oven heat waves leave me light headed. From there I fall gracefully into a heap on the kitchen floor and my dessert, my master prize, burns to a blackened mess all the while I dream of butterflies. I will awaken to the smell of burning delicacies and cry my weak heart out as I find my pie, my chocolate cake, my sweet tray of cookies have become inedible. Though this has never happened, I fear it. I have haunting nightmares of burned sweets.

But I will not fear, there is hope that lies outside of the soul scorching oven, it is called...the refrigerator!

Okay, enough of the drama, yesterday I mad a delicious chocolate mousse out of avocados. It sounds crazy but it is not only a healthy treat but an amazingly tasty treat! The recipe is adapted from a simple recipe from the Vegetarian Times magazine.



1 1/2 avocados
1 banana
5 medium strawberries
1/4 cup raw cacao powder (you can use cocoa if you like)
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Additional fruit to top the mousse with (optional)

Toss all ingredients into a food processor or blender, mix until smooth and refrigerate for at least one hour. Enjoy!

Chocolate Jalapeno Cookies

They sound strange, I know. When I started baking them Tim made the sound of a cat yacking up a hairball. But that is OK, "Whatevs," I said and dusted my apron off. I was curious about how these little guys would turn out and much to my surprise they are my new favorite cookie. I had them at the bake sale and they got many odd stares but those souls brave enough to bite into them smiled and licked their lips in approval. They are not spicy at all, but they do have a jalapeno taste, and if you are a fan of mole poblano sauce you will definitely enjoy these.




1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup Earth Balance (squishy, room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground flax
2 T. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 to 2 jalapenos, finely diced
powdered sugar, to sprinkle on tops



Mix flour and baking soda together in bowl. In mixer beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy like a bunny. Add flax, water and vanilla and beat for about a minute. Add flour mixture to buttery gooieness and beat until smooth. Split into two sections and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about a hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease up your cookie sheets, cause' it is time to party!

Remove 1/2 of dough from refrigerator and roll out with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Cut into desired shape with cookie cutters (I chose stars)sprinkle on the powdered sugar and place on cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then place on cookie rack to cool completely.

Then eat until the cows come home!