Gifts From Friends

There is a lot of fun stuff that comes with blogging: making new friends, receiving product samples, hosting giveaways, eating lots of food at every vegan restaurant you can find because you must report back to those friends, lest they be stranded in your corner of the world with nothing to eat...

But by far, the best thing about blogging is swapping gifts with said friends. Even better is when you are lucky enough to receive homemade gifts. And this past week I was the lucky recipient of homemade treats from two wonderful bloggers.

First, I won Amy's lovely giveaway of her own homemade jam. I opted for the Vanilla Bing Cherry variety and I was not disappointed. This is extremely delicious, even better than I anticipated. You can clearly taste both the sweet tart cherries and that clean splash of vanilla. Thank you Amy, you are so talented!

Not to mention it came with a completely adorable giraffe card!!

Happily following the cherry trend, I was surprised by another package a few days after Amy's arrived. I got excited when I saw that return address, as it was from none other than Hannah, and from the shape of the box, I was crossing my fingers for some more homemade goodness.

Sure enough, out popped a bag of Coconut Granola with Cherries. Yum.

Yes, Hannah, I do love coconut, and I especially loved how as soon I as opened the bag, the coconut smell hit my nose immediately. This is very delicious, and we are big granola lovers in this house! Thank you so much!

I am so thrilled so have been the recipient of such kindness this month. And with the holidays fast approaching, the season of giving and sharing is already in full swing. If you're in the mood to help someone out, hop on over and visit Katie, to support Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness. All it takes is a click...literally!

Enjoy the day, everyone!

Mail Call

Everyone likes mail, right?  Okay, everyone likes mail that isn't bills or junk, right?  

I had a big mail week.  On Monday, I got a little surprise.  You can see on the right of my page that I am a Foodbuzz featured publisher and, maybe I just didn't read the fine print, but I was excited when I got these cute little cards in my mailbox!

To be completely honest, I don't have a clue what I am going to do with them.  If you can't tell, they're about half the size of a regular business card.  Such a cute surprise!  

Next was something I ordered.  I saw on Megan's blog a week or two ago, that she had ordered something called a YouBar.  

I am a total sucker for stuff like this.  I went crazy making my own cereal mixes when I discovered [me] & goji.  So, while they are on the pricey side, I totally had to make my own.  The website is really cool.  You get to choose the base, nuts, seeds, nut butters, dried fruits, protein, and other add ins like spirulina, maca powder, cocoa powder, etc.  Then you name it, they give you an idea of whether or not it'll taste like crap, and then they make it up fresh, and send them off. 

When I was making mine it seemed like a huge jumble of randomness, so I named it The Messy Bar.  It ended up being not so messy, but certainly yummy!

This was made up of:  Dates, Sunflower seed butter, YouBar base (almond butter and dates), blueberries, agave nectar, rice protein, soy protein isolate, chia seeds, hempseeds, oat bran, maca powder, and stevia.  All their ingredients are organic, too.  

Of course, because I am always first concerned with nutrition information:  

These are about 200 calories and have 10g of protein.  They're really good.  My only complaint is that I'm pretty sure they put in dried apples instead of dried blueberries.

My last mail treat was from Robert Cheeke of Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness.  He made a post a few days ago, wondering if anyone wanted some walnuts from his mom's farm.  Of course I said yes, $5 a pound for fresh walnuts?  Sign me up.  

They're totally delicious, I'm so glad I had him send me some.  Anyone else get anything fun in the mail lately?  

I was really stressed for some reason this week, so I am looking forward to mostly staying home and doing a bunch of work.  I am being observed on Monday, and I've got a paper due.  Boring, but hopefully I'll be able to recharge a little.  What's on the agenda for your weekend?  

Monster Hash

So the color makes this more appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, the title more appropriate for Halloween, but I figure it is irrelevant since I didn’t get to post this on Valentine’s Day anyway, right?  

My brother loves anything with potatoes, and I’ve had some pretty Austrian Fingerlings sitting in the crisper for the past few weeks, so I decided to make him some hash browns for breakfast, since it was Valentine’s Day, and I was being nice.  Of course, I couldn’t just make hash browns.  I mean...just pure potatoes?  Not healthy enough.  So I made Broccoli-Potato Hash Browns, using my food processor to grate the potatoes and broccoli, which worked so incredibly well, it made my day.

We had it with my Tempeh Bacon Hash, which I posted a loose recipe for a few weeks ago, but I figured I would post it more officially here, since it has become one of my favorites.  

Double Hash for 2

Broccoli-Potato Hash Browns

2 cups potatoes, grated

2 cups broccoli, cooked until slightly crisp, and grated 

salt and pepper to taste

1.  Press it an oiled pan and cook until browned on one side, and flip (I do this in pieces, I don’t flip the whole thing).  

2.  Cook on the other side.  I tend to flip it a few times until it is cooked through.  

Tempeh Bacon Hash

1 package tempeh (8oz), crumbled

4 tsp Bragg’s/tamari/soy sauce

4 tsp agave nectar (honey can sub for this if you aren’t vegan)

4 tbsp ketchup

4 tbsp water

liquid smoke to taste, about 1/8 tsp

1. Mix together the crumbled tempeh with all the other ingredients, let marinate while you do something else (like cook the broccoli-potato hash, or whatever else you might be making with it).

2.  Spread in an oiled pan, cooking until it gets kind of golden-brown, and then you want to keep turning it until it is slightly crispy and golden all over.

Totally easy; minimal, simple ingredients, and best eaten all mixed together. 

Meal Totals

Serves 2*

Nutrition Information:  465.4 Calories;  12.7g Total Protein;  2.6g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  66.4g Carbohydrates;  7.8g Fiber;  29.9g Protein.  

*This could probably serve 3 or 4 people, but for my brother and I it was appropriate, I like a big breakfast.   

Besides breakfast, I did spend the rest of my Valentine’s Day with my brother.  We went on a little road trip to good old Pennsylvania.  He wanted to go to Sonic.  I was not thrilled with this idea, but I did a Happy Cow search for stuff nearby, and found that Vegan Treats Bakery was only a few short miles away.  So off we went.  

Two hours later, we had our very first Sonic experience.  Of course, there wasn’t really anything for me to eat there, but I did get a limeade!  Their drinks were always what intrigued me anyway.  My brother got some kind of bacon burger on texas toast, which he said was good.  My limeade (diet limeade, actually) was really good.  And, we went during “Happy Hour”, so it was only $0.90. 

 

(Yes, that is the actually scenery, we were in the middle of NOWHERE)

Next, we headed over to Vegan Treats, who have been featured in VegNews a number of times.  My brother was already stuffed, but he was a good sport and had a giant cookie.  I also got a giant cookie for my dad, a cupcake for my mom, and some carrot cake and a mini vegan Oreo cheesecake for myself.  

Yes, two cakes for me.  I ate the carrot cake right in the car, haha.  I forgot a fork, so...hands it was, right out of the box.  No, it was not a pretty sight (ask my brother)...but it was delicious.  Actually, the cake was delicious, the frosting wasn’t cream cheesey enough for me.  I could tell just by looking at it that it was too white, but the cake part was worth it.  

The only problem with this little adventure is that I haven’t been eating a lot of sugar lately.  By cutting out eating sugar after 8, I haven’t really been eating any sugar besides some carob raisins here and there.  So, this carrot cake went straight to me head and I had a headache in about 20 minutes.  

I still had to taste the Oreo cheesecake when I got home though.  You can see it has a kind of Oreo mousse on top...that was fantastic.  The cheesecake itself didn’t really taste like much, which was disappointing.  I actually liked the cheesecake we made for Thanksgiving more than this one.  Maybe they have yet to discover Tofutti?  I mean, I don’t think it is hard to mimic the cream cheese flavor, which I clearly love since both things I bought were (or should have been) cream cheesey.  Oh, and I can tell you that the cookies my dad and brother had were delicious, because I had a taste of my brother’s, and my mom said the cupcake was good.  So, my suggestion is to just avoid the cheesecake.  Not that it is bad, it just isn’t worth the calories, in my opinion.  They have soft serve soy ice cream and doughnuts too.

I was greeted with a nice surprise when I got home too.  Up until now, it was looking like my brother was going to my Valentine this year, and...not that I don’t love him but...well that’s kind of weird.  But I came home to find a Valentine’s Day surprise.  

This pictures isn’t very good, but on the bottom right is an orange and red rose.  I’m sure you’ve seen them, its kind of mixed, and it is my favorite.  There were a few of them, but you can only see one in this picture.  

I also got a turtle in a can.  I mentioned in my posts about my trip to Hawaii that my husband and I are really fond of the turtles, and we would go and visit them often.  So, he sent me a turtle in a can.  Like, I used a can opener to open it, and this little guy popped out.  

He is so cute, although Zoe is a little wary.  

Oh, I also wanted to follow up on the Chilies & Cherries ChocoLove bar.  It was possibly the best piece of chocolate I have ever had.  I’m not really a huge chocolate person, but I ate the whole thing.  I will usually only have a piece or two at a time (I mean like, a square at a time), but I happily ate the whole thing.  Yes, before the 8 PM sugar cutoff (not hard when you go to bed at 9:30).        

Speaking of 9:30, it is rapidly approaching bedtime.  I did want to mention quickly that we went to see Coraline today, and it was...weird.  The 3D was cool, although you kind of forgot about it after a few minutes.  But the movie was just...weird.  I can't really recommend or NOT recommend it, it was just...weird.  Although, I went into it having no clue what it was about, so that may have affected my opinion.  I think I may have liked it more if I had an idea of what it was about beforehand...so check it out before you see it!

I am doing a raw day tomorrow, plus more running and more yoga, and I'm so excited for it.  I hope everyone is having a good weekend!     

The Perfect Day

Welcome to a walk through my perfect day...which is exactly what today was.  

First, you'll wake up to the radio, like always, but Jack Johnson will be playing and it will instantly put you in an excellent mood.  

Second, even though you should really get up and have breakfast, you are going to lay in bed for an hour and finish Eclipse.  

You'll finally get up and have whatever your favorite current breakfast is.  For me is was the Apple Pie Quinoa and Tempeh Bacon Hash (with spinach, for greenery), that I posted about a few days ago.  I wasn't kidding about eating the same thing for weeks!  

All the equipment you need at the gym will be free when you need it.  A girl you went to high school with who you now look better than will be chugging away on the treadmill, then lift some girly weights, and you will smugly smile to yourself (hey, I'm not perfect, its just my perfect day).  

Then, you will set off to discover heaven.  Well, at least if your idea of heaven is fantastic natural bulk food/grocery store.  A few weeks ago, my mom pulled a flyer for this place out of the paper, and I finally got myself there.  It was a bit of a drive, but worth it, completely.  Oh and on your way to this mecca, your iPod will gleefully pump out all the Jack Johnson songs you have, even though its batteries should be running out any second.  

While you are visiting heaven (also known as Nature's Pantry), your husband, who you haven't talked to in a week, will call, and...well honestly, he'll kind of distract you from reading nutrition labels and whatnot, but you're really happy he called.  

Lots of fun stuff will be acquired at Nature's Pantry:  

From the bulk food section, low-sugar pineapple rings, carob covered raisins, and wheat free fig bars!  (Not pictured is also nutritional yeast and oat groats)

With another giveaway in mind (because they're fun!), you'll pick up two bags of Soyfree, a coffee substitution made from soy, in Chai and Almond Amaretto.  Don't forget to sign for my current giveaway in the meantime!:

Other pantry foods will be picked up, some single serving packets of almond butter, wakame flakes, miso ramen noodles, Corn Thins, a Bumble Bar (which are vegan, even though they have a bee on them.  I never would have even picked them up, except I saw them on Erica's blog yesterday), and a chocolate orange Jocolat bar:

You've been looking for vegan hair gel or mousse on the internet for a week or so.  You've been using up all the leftovers in the house, waiting until you find something, because ordering hair gel online seems like a hassle.  You find Giovanni hair gel here!  It comes with a shampoo sample too!  Because it is the perfect day, you'll also pick up some bubble bath, because you've been using shower gel in the bathtub for the past month:  

While you are at the store, you might start to think that maybe this isn't the perfect day after all...because this store ALSO doesn't sell vegan carob chips.  Huh??  However, when you get home, you will chide yourself for thinking this was not the perfect day.  That is because you will immediately see a package on the table, and you will know what it is instantly!  

Orange County NY, you may want to keep vegan carob chips away from me, but the lovely Heather (of Heather eats Almond Butter) has thwarted you!!  I mentioned on her blog last week that they were no where to be found, and she had some in the mail the next day.  She also surprised me with this chocolately Raw Organic Food Bar!!  It looks awesome, full of good stuff.  When I try it, I will post my review.  Honestly, I also ripped into it immediately, but I was able to practice some self control (because one doesn't overeat to the point where they feel sick on the perfect day). 

After you relax for a little, you'll get started on dinner.  Its another day for recipe testing!!  Today I made the Vegetable Crisp.  It had eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, etc.  

  

Serves 6

Nutrition Information:  217.7g Calories;  6.7g Total Fat;  1.2g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  34.0g Carbohydrates;  6.1g Fiber;  8.2g Protein.

This was yummy!  To go with it, you'll try something else from V'con, like the Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic and Navy Beans.  

Serves 5 (made a half-recipe)

Nutrition Information:  174.2 Calories;  2.4g Total Fat;  0.3g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  34.4g Carbohydrates;  6.6g Fiber;  6.6g Protein

While you are cooking, you will make a gigantic mess (something about dropping a baking sheet with food on it...oops), but you totally won't get upset because the Jack Johnson emanating from your laptop keeps you chill.  

Sadly, your perfect day is coming to a close.  After dinner, you'll start on your blog while you watch 'How I Met Your Mother'.  Then, your mentor teacher will call and set up you coming in later this week (which you are equally terrified and excited for).

Lastly, I mean, the perfect day couldn't end dessert-less!  Come on, seriously, you guys must know me a little better than that.  

  

Yes, that's right, Carob Peppermint ice cream.  Fruit sweetened too, so that makes it..kind of...sort of...good for you, right?   

Edited to add:  Then your mom will give you a coupon for Puffins!  

So, perfect day, no?  Relaxed, good food, awesome gym session, packages from blogger friend, food store discovery.  Yes, definitely my idea of perfect.   

If you haven't noticed, Jack Johnson is most definitely my go-to relaxing music.  What kind of music chills you out?  

So, today's Cooking Song of the Day is one of my favorites:  "Losing Keys" - Jack Johnson.  Relax :)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend and had a great start to their week!  

Adventures in Canning Land

Christmas gift-making Day 2:  Caramel Pear Butter

This was my first time canning anything...hence "adventures".  I was really nervous, but it was unfounded, it went really well.  

I made Caramel Pear Butter from Bon Apetit.  I don't remember the month (sorry).  I usually don't share recipes that aren't mine or that I haven't changed drastically..and I'm not about to do it now!!  However, someone else already did, so if you would like the recipes, take a look at it here.  The entire recipe is honestly copied practically word for word from the magazine, so if you're into it...go to it!  I did use one cup of sucanat instead of brown sugar, just because I ran out.  Also, I don't have a food mill, so I used a blender, and just made sure it to just barely blend it.  This probably made it thinner than it should have been but it still came our super good.  Anyway, what I did do was take some pictures for you, and calculate the nutrition info, because I'm like that.  

7lbs of pears, peeled and cored

After being pureed, with sugar and spice added

Ta-da!

Recipe yields 8 8oz jars of Pear Butter.  The link I gave you above, she said she only had enough for 7 1/2, but mine fit into 8 absolutely perfectly.  

1 serving = 1 tbsp Pear Butter

Nutrition Information:  34.5 Calories;  0.1g Total Fat;  0.0g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  8.9g Carbohydrates;  0.6g Fiber; 0.1g Protein

Yeah, no protein, but its a condiment, give me a break.

So, all in all, I'm really happy with the way it came out!  I think it will make a great gift.  Plus, I overcame my canning fear.  I do have one more step to my presenting process, I'll post the whole package when I'm finished. 

The rest of my day was not as good.  Like I mentioned yesterday, my gym closed at 9AM this morning, so I planned on getting up early.  But when I got up, I realized my brother's school had a delay, which meant the gym was most likely closed, so I went back to bed...sort of.  I couldn't fall asleep because I was mad.  Anyway!  No matter, because I'm doing a split, I can do chest and then legs two days in a row and not be affected by it.  I'm going to my in-laws this weekend, which is kind of nice because I love to run at the lake near their house. 

Today had a Cooking Song!  Yay!:  "Lost in the Post" - The Wombats  

*This is the best band I have discovered from iTunes "free music Tuesday"

Spiced Sugar Almonds

While my family and my husband's family are getting traditional presents, I am also making a bunch of food-gifts...because its fun!  

Chai Spiced Almonds

The past two days I've been experimenting with sugared almonds.  If you've ever been to New York City (or maybe other cities too, I don't know), you have probably seen or at least smelled the "Nuts4Nuts" carts.  They are my favorite snack...ever.  Seriously, I love them.  I decided I would make my own, since I had no idea if the street cart version is vegan. 

The basic recipe is simple:

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup almonds

1.  Bring everything to boil in a pan.  

2.  Simmer mixture, stirring periodically with a wooden spoon.  

simmering

3.  When the sugar syrup starts to crystalize, remove from heat, and stir almonds constantly to coat.  

4.  Because of the nature of the solution, all the sugar will fall out, but not all of it will stick to the almonds.  So, you are going to put the pan back on the heat and stir, allowing the sugar that has fallen out to melt and stick to the almonds.

after removing from heat and allowing sugar to settle

5.  Remove from heat, separate any large chunks, and allow to cool.

  

Now, because I am a pain in the ass to myself, instead of just making one big batch, I made a few different versions:

  

Cinnamon Spice Almonds - before boiling add 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Chai Spiced Almonds - before boiling add 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp cardamom, 1/8 tsp cloves, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp nutmeg  

 

Orange Glazed Almonds - use 1/2 cup orange juice, and 3/4 cup water.  This didn't necessarily turn out the same as the first two.  It looked more like they were covered in caramel.  At first I was disappointed, and just put them out on the counter for my family...but then I ate them all.  They were actually really good.  If you want to try them, I don't have a picture (again, because I ate them all), but the directions were the same...the sugar just never really crystallizes, so once the sugar mixture is really thick, and everything is coated, lay the almonds out on a piece of waxed paper. 

If you are slightly masochistic, you may want to know the calorie count for these.  You're crazy.  Oh wait, that's just me?  Fine, whatever.  I only have it for the first two, just with the spice addition.  1 cup of almonds yields about 2 1/4 cups of sugared almonds (it is much less for the orange almonds, because not even close to all the sugar sticks, which is why I don't really have a way to figure out the nutrition info for them).  

1 serving = 1/4 cup 

Nutrition Information:  177.2 Calories;  8.0g Total Fat;  0.6g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  25.3g Carbohydrates;  1.9g Fiber;  3.4g Protein

I know that for the most part, I try to make healthy stuff, but its the holidays...and for the most part, I won't be eating it!  Plus, at least they have some protein.  By the way, my brother prefers these when they're warm and the nuts are still slightly soft.  I prefer to let them cool and dry, because then the nuts get crunchy again.

One other little Christmas related (for me) thing.  I was Christmas shopping in Express yesterday.  It is frustrating to me how much is made of sheep or bunny hair (not to mention that its itchy).  But I found myself in Express looking at a shirt that I really liked, but was made of 60% cotton and 40% modal.  What the hell is modal?  I wanted to know.  Immediately (I had a coupon, after all).  So I asked the salespeople, and no one knew.  So I called my dad.  If you ever encounter modal, you should feel pretty safe buying it.  It is a plant product, sort of similar to rayon.  Whew.  I bought two.  

Alright well, I'm not done with my Christmas gift making.  I doubt I will get to the next part tomorrow, but hopefully on Thursday!!  

      

Hey! I Won Something! - Gluten Free Day 3

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I made some stuffing to take part in Hannah's barley stuffing challenge.  

Lucky for me, I was the only one who decided to actually MAKE a barley stuffing, so guess what?  I won!  Yay!!  You have the privilege of viewing the recipe right here!  ABC Stuffing.  

Hehe.  Seriously though, I was super excited because not do I get the pleasure of winning, but I also get the pleasure of recieving a wonderful gift from Hannah in the mail yesterday!!

If you can't tell, it is a copy of the Everyday Dish cooking DVD with Julie Hasson, Dreena Burton, and Bryanna Clark Grogan!  Thank you so much Hannah, I really do appreciate it!  Not only because I get to watch a vegan cooking show on my own TV, but because it is chock full of recipes!  I am something of a cookbook hoarder, I love them.  

Obviously though, this is not in book form.  Just as I was prepared to sit down and watch this with pencil and paper in hand, I noticed a little note on the CD that said "Print Recipes from DVD-ROM drive".  Print?  Awesome!  

So because I'm really cool, I totally didn't format them all, print them out, and make my own little cookbook with them.  

Oh wait, I did.  

The first thing on my list is Dreena's Mint Melties.  Definitely.  I don't have any of these ladies' books, so this is really cool.  Thanks again Hannah!  

Now, I admit I have been on a little Vegan with A Vengeance kick lately.  I have ingredients for two other recipes all ready for tomorrow and Friday too.  Today we had Stewed Tofu and Potatoes in Miso Gravy.  

Nutrition Information:  386.1 Calories;  12.9g Total Fat;  1.7g Saturated Fat;  0.0mg Cholesterol;  874.5mg Sodium;  37.2g Carbohydrates;  5.1g Fiber;  16.1g Protein 

This was good, homey and warm.  My mom said it was the perfect meal you'd like to have on a snowy day.  I almost completely followed the recipe as given (for once), although I used barley miso instead of chickpea...I've never seen chickpea miso.  I also added kale.  

Anyone have any super awesome onion tricks?  Its usually not so bad, but I was literally in tears between the shallots and one very very large onion! 

I had a fabulous day at the gym today.  I started a new workout routine, I'm doing a body split for the first time in over two years, my routines are usually full body.  Today was chest day, then a 3 mile run.  It went really well, I'm feeling really good about it, which was great because I didn't love the last plan I did.     

Big thanks again to Hannah!