It's Spring!

It's a beautiful day today!   Everywhere you look there are orange poppies popping up   In our yard, in our neighbors yards, on the side of the roads, on the moutains.  They are so pretty!  I love the Spring.

One of my favorite flowers is the Sweet Pea.

They are so fragrant.  I put some on my nightstand.

As you can see Merlin is enjoying the weather and flowers as well.  Although he is laying under the bird feeder!

Cleo and Ace trying to look for trouble.

Peaches!  Our one peach tree is loaded with peaches this year.  I can't wait until they are ripe.

If you are looking for a yummy hot cereal that's gluten free try Cream of Buckwheat.

This is Keaton's new favorite and I've gone through 3 boxes already within a very short period of time.  The brand we are buying is Pocono %100 Organic Cream of Buckwheat.  It has a very mellow flavor nothing like the taste of buckwheat flour at all.

This is the buckwheat cooked.

For dessert last night I made some vanilla cupcakes from VCTOW.  Made some vanilla pudding.  Sliced up some strawberries and melted some chocolate with a bit of non-dairy milk. Then I put it all together to get this!



Yumminess!

Enjoy your beautiful day. 

V-day dinner and a homemade donut coconut dessert

Good day to you!  It's raining again which is lovely.  For a while there we were experiencing Spring like conditions which was wonderful for working outside.  Now it's back to being inside for a while.

For our Valentine's dinner I let my son choose the dinner  menu. 

Emerils Tofu with Mushroom Ragu

served on mashed potatoes.

This may look fancy and taste it as well but it's so easy and quick to  make.

Mine actually looks more colorful than Emeril's but it's because I used a whole carrot intead of half of one.  For the mushroom mixture I used shitake and cremini.   This also tastes wonderful using seitan, which is what I used the first time I made this meal. I'd also like to mention that not all tofu is created equal, my favorite is  Nasoya Organic Extra Firm Tofu which has a wonderful texture and taste.

Beckmen Grenache

Dave brought home a bottle of Beckmen Grenache, that I  had mentioned in a previous post, to enjoy with dinner. Beckman rose and red wines are vegan even though it doesn't say it on the bottle.  They also use biodynamic farming practices.

I was trying to come up with something different for our Valentine's dessert and donuts came to mind.   I remember using the donut recipe from Vegan Yum Yum years ago and how much Keaton and I loved them.  How the wonderful memories came back when they were baking in the oven.  The smell was incredible!

You must make these!  These are light and not too sweet.  These are even better than the ones you would buy at a donut shop.  I don't have a donut pan so I used a cupcake pan and then stuck some decorating tips in the middle to give them the hole in the middle.  Once cooled I poured melted chocolate on them then put in the refrigerator to harden.  This is also very quick to make.  To finish off the dessert...

I used a scoop of coconut bliss on top of the donut.  This is my favorite coconut frozen dessert because it's so creamy, light and slightly sweet.  As you can tell I don't like things that are too sugary sweet. 

The donut and Coconut Bliss was then drizzled with homemade chocolate and caramel sauce.

This was another way that I served up this dessert.  This looks really rich and sweet but it's acutally not.

As a Valentine for Keaton I got him 2 bars of Newman's Own Organic Chocolate.  The one bar that is open is a Dark Chocolate Orange flavor.  He loves them and me too!hee hee.

Have a wonderful day!

Raw Strawberry "Cheesecake"

You know when the alarm clock goes off  and you are still sleepy and you tell yourself, "just 5 more minutes."  Next thing you know it's 40minutes later!!!!  That's what happened this morning.  20min. to get the kid fed, lunch made and in the car to take to school.  I'm still tired...the night before I was letting my dog Cleo in and out of the house all night long because she was sick, must of ate something she shouldn't have...those labs!
Moving on to sweeter things.

I finally made a raw strawberry cheesecake or I should say almost raw because I did add some chunks of dark chocolate in the crust that weren't raw.   I can't wait to try another one...maybe lemon or chocolate?  We scarfed it down.  It was real easy to make, the longest part was the waiting around for it to set up.  I put it in the freezer to set...a little too long cuz then I had to let it defrost a bit. Next time, when I make it earlier in the day, I will chll it in the refrigerator.   It tasted more like a whipped strawberry dessert with an amazing crust.  Keaton and Dave really liked it.  This is a must on a hot summer night!  I adapted the recipe from GLIVING.COM, so you can see the original recipe by clicking here.  All of the ingredients are raw(obviously except the dark chocolate).  I also used coconut oil instead of cocoa butter because I didn't have any.  Below is the recipe of my version of this awesome dessert!

Raw Strawberry Cheescake

1 6-inch cheesecake or 9-inch (for a thinner filling)

For the Crust:

1/2 C. pecans

2 medjool dates

1/4 C. shredded coconut

pinch of salt*

3 oz. dark vegan chocolate, coarsly chopped

1.  In a food processor, process pecans, dates, coconut and salt until mixture resembles fine crumbs

2.  Next add in the chocolate and process a few time just to mix in.  You want some good chunks of chocolate in there.

3. Coat the pan with raw coconut oil. Press mixture into a springform pan.  (I wanted a really thick filling so I used a 6-inch springform pan.)

4. Set aside.

For the Filling:

1 C. cashews, soaked overnight

2 C. strawberries, sliced

1 Oz. coconut oil, melted

1/4 C. agave

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 vanilla bean seeds

1/8 salt*

1.  In a food processor add cashews and pulse until crumbly.

2.  Add the strawberries, agave, lemon juice, vanilla bean and salt until smooth. 

3.  Slowly pour in the coconut oil while the processor is blending until incorporated.

4.  Pour filling onto crust.

5.  Cover with plastic or aluminum foil and chill until set.  4-6 hrs.

Note* the salt I used is called HimalaSalt  .  I have a chunk of it and it came with the grater.

How sweet and fluffy you are!

I'm talking about cinnamon rolls not my kitty cat. hee hee.  Since we really didn't get to eat any of the cinnamon rolls I made for the bake sale last week and  my in-laws are coming in to town for the weekend, I thought it would be a nice treat.  I made some last night, with the help of my son.  He really enjoyed punching the dough down after it was done rising.  Anways, he got to roll, sprinkle and cut up slices.  I swear he would've eaten them raw. blah!

These are when we just put them on the baking sheet to rise a second time.

These are after the second rise right before being baked.

The finished product!  Yum.  You could actually eat these without the glaze on top. Maybe a sprinkle of powdered sugar and cinnamon would do if you don't like them too sweet.  The recipe is from Veganomican and are called Maple Sugar Rolls or something like that.  I didn't use the cardamon they call for in the dough but I did add some cinnamon to the brown sugar for the filling. 

I better finish straighting up the house for our guests.  My son will performing at the school talent show tonight, a Metallica guitar medley he put together a couple of days ago.  Yep, nothing like last minute!  Anyways, it should be fun, the 6th graders have a 6 week session of vocals so the instructor is having them perform a Shania Twain song "Man! I feel like a Woman" and the boys have to dress up as girls.  He is not liking this at all but it should be very entertaining. lol! Along with all the other performances tonight.

Have a great weekend and a fun Super Bowl.

Cool treats for the kids!

The weather is getting warm again and the best treats are the cool ones. My son loves popsicles so this is what I do. Most mornings my husband and I have fruit smoothies and if I have any left over smoothie in the blender I make fruit smoothie popsicles! These smoothie popsicles contain flax seed, non-dairy milk, juice and fruit. It's a great healthy treat for your kids, dha, fiber, protein, calcium, all that good stuff. The popsicle on the left is a banana-mango and the right one a berry-banana. It's all good.

BABY SHOWER CAKE

This is the cake I made for my cousin's baby shower last Saturday. The cake flavor I made was one I have previously posted. I was practicing. I also made the cupcakes. This was my second time using fondant and a bit of a mishap due to the chocolate. I had brown food coloring but when I was adding it to the fondant it was a clay color not brown! What to do in so little time before I had to leave. So I had to use cocoa again which dries out the fondant,those of you who use fondant would know this. So I didn't get a dark brown look like I wanted and it was a bit harder to work with because of it being dry. Anyways, it turned out alright. I actually preferred my practice cake the week before. Oh well. The baby's room is decorated pink & brown and the comforter has a ladybug on it, that's why I went with making the ladybug on top. My cousin and everyone loved it so I guess that's all that matters. I really need to take cake decorating classes.

Li'l layer cake

Experimenting flavors for a cake I'm going to be making for my cousins baby shower so I made a small 6 3/4inch cake . This is a four layer yellow cake with a Chambord(black rasberry liqueur)buttercream filling and finished off with ganache. The idea is to put a layer of fresh rasberries in the middle but I didn't have any at the time. My tasters loved it so this may be it.

Blackberry swirled "cheesecake"

My husband and son love cheesecake, so every Valentines they expect me to make them one.

This year I added Blackberry juice and swirled it in. Topped off with fresh blackberries.