Virgo Vegan

Cheeze Dip/Spread - Cheddar Style (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-free)

2011-11-04T12:44:00.002-04:00

Cashews make some of the yummiest vegan cheese or at least the base for it. Red peppers add both color, nutrients and a tangy taste. I haven't had cheese in over a decade but this works for us as a cheese dip, on sandwiches, veggie burgers, etc.

Ingredients:
1 cup of soaked cashews (soak at least an hour and discard soak water)
1 large red bell pepper
1/4 cup purified water
2 tablespoons unhulled sesame seeds
1/4 small onion
1 garlic clove
juice of one large lemon
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Put all of the above ingredients in a high speed blender and blend until creamy and smoothe. Keeps for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

(If you don't have a high speed blender, any blender will work. You may need to soak your cashews a little longer so they blend easier and blend until creamy. You also may want to substitute tahini for the sesame seeds if you are using a regular blender.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2011-10-06T00:14:00.004-04:00

This was a quick recipe and so easy my 15 month old helped pour and stir the ingredients. Depending on the size of your cookies (we went large) this will make 18 large or 36 small cookies. These cookies are cake-like and chewy and the date syrup makes them very dark in color.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free flour

1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Oats (regular not the quick cook kind)

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1 Tbls cinnamon

1 Tbls garam masala

1 1/2 tsp zanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup cold pressed olive oil

1/2 cup unsweetened organic applesauce

2 Tbls vanilla extract

3/4 cup Date Syrup

1 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325, and either line or oil 2 cookie sheets
In a medium mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients (except the raisins) and whisk together.
In a small mixing bowl, mix all the wet ingredients then pour into the dry ingredients.
Mix together until well incorporated, then add raisins
Drop by spoonfuls on to the lined cookie sheets leaving about 1 inch between each cookie (they will spread as the bake)
Bake for 15 minutes or until dark and golden.
Let stand for 15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool another 10 minutes.

Date Syrup (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2011-10-05T23:59:00.001-04:00

I just got an order of wet pack dates in from The Date People and have been enjoying them immensely! If you enjoy dates and have never had fresh or wet pack dates, treat yourself and call them. I want to use dates as sweetener in recipes as my family has gone sucrose free.

Ingredients:
1 cup pitted organic dates (soaked for 2 hours if you have a regular blender)
1 cup fresh apple juice or purified water

Directions:
Blend pitted dates and juice or water in a high speed blender until mixture is thick and syrupy in texture.
Use immediately or store in an air-tight container in the your fridge for up to 3 days.

This is great over waffles, muffins, in oatmeal, or in place of any liquid or dry sweetener. Use in place of dry sweeteners in recipes in a ratio of 1 cup of dry sugar = 3/4 cup date syrup, or 1:1 for liquid sweeteners (1 cup of maple syrup = 1 cup date syrup).

Red Lentil, Millet and Kale Stew (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2011-09-07T18:37:00.000-04:00

It has been raining for 3 days almost straight here in the Sunshine state which really when I type it sounds like no big deal, but we don't get rain like this where it rains all day. It reminds me of rainy days up north even though today it was still over 85 - still that is about 10 degrees cooler than last week and to me means autumn is starting and what better way to start it than with a thick, hearty, bone warming stew!

Makes 6 - 8 servings

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, just mashed
1 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 mini sweet red pepper, diced
1/2 Tbls Braggs Liquid Aminos or other Gluten-Free Soy Sauce
2 Tbls of your favorite salt-free dried herb mix
6 cups of vegetable broth (or water, but broth is so much tastier)

1 1/2 cups red lentils

1 1/2 cups millet
1 bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped fine (I used purple kale and loved the color but any kale will do)
1 Tbls fresh squeezed lemon juice
salt and peper to taste

Directions:

In a cold dutch oven, pour the olive oil and add onions. Turn heat to medium and cook until onions carmelize. This is the key to this soup so that the sugars in the onion really get carmelly and lend that flavor throughout the soup. This alone can take 20 - 35 minutes depending on your dutch oven and how long it takes to heat and how efficient it is.
Add garlic, onion, celery, carrot, and the pepper. Stir and cook another 5 minutes until the vegetables get soft.
Add Braggs and herbs, cook one more minute
Add broth, lentils and millet and stir.
Bring the broth to a boil, cover, turn to simmer, and cook for 35 minutes.
Remove lid, the lentils will have dissolved and make the soup now look like stew without much liquid. Add the kale, stir to incorporate, and put the lid back on for another 3 - 5 minutes. We like a little crunch to our kale, but if you enjoy more wilted, you can always add the kale in with Step 4.
Salt and pepper to taste, and add fresh lemon juice just before serving.

Frijoles con Queso (vegan, gluten-free)

2011-09-06T11:39:00.002-04:00

I don't really know what to call this recipe - it satisfied my craving for Velveeta and Rotel, but it really is not a chili con queso type sauce, so until I think of a new name for now, it is Frijoles con Queso

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked white beans
1 roasted red pepper
juice from 1 large lemon (approx 1/4 cup)
3 Tbls tahini
1/2 tsp onion granules
1/2 tsp yellow mustard
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups pico de gallo, or your favorite salsa, or even a can of ro-tel!

Directions

Place all ingredients except salsa into high speed blender and blend for 2 - 3 minutes. It will be smooth after about 30 seconds, but blending for the extra time will heat the sauce as well.
Pour salsa, pico de gallo or ro-tel into a medium bowl
Pour the bean mixture over the salsa and stir to incorporate
Enjoy with tortilla chips!

Veggie Burgers (Vegan, Gluten-free)

2011-09-03T23:41:00.001-04:00

Ahh, the veggie burger. Why is it when I look for any recipe for a veggie burger, there are hardly any veggies in them? I don't want a bean patty, or a wheat and grain patty, I want a patty made predominately of veggies and maybe some flax seed to bind! So, in an effort to make a veggie burger like that, and include a bit of grain because my son loves rice, this is my cooked veggie burger recipe. Our entire family loved them - my 14 month old ate half of one just waiting for the others to finish cooking!

Makes approx 8 - 10 burgers
Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
3 stalks of celery, minced
2 carrots, minced or shredded
2 mini sweet peppers, seeds removed, minced
1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp Braggs Liquid Aminos
1 Tbls olive oil
1/4 cup ground flax seed

1 cup cooked brown rice

Vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

Wash and mince all the veggies, or take the easy way and wash then add them to your food processor fitted with an "S" blade and pulse until finely minced. Set aside in a medium mixing bowl
Add the ground flax seed, poultry seasoning, Braggs, and olive oil and incorporate well - mix this with your hands to get everything really mixed well. Let this sit for about 5 minutes so the flax can absorb some of the water of the veggies
Add the brown rice and mix again
Add your oil to a cold frying pan and turn to medium high heat.
Take a 1/3 measuring cup, scoop into your hand to form a patty add to the fry pan. I can fit 4 patties at a time in my pan - you want them to have space and not to be crowded - no touching each other.
Cook for about 2 - 3 minutes or until you see a golden brown crust form, then flip and continue frying for about 90 seconds to 2 minutes until the other side is also brown.
As you finish each patty, set aside on a plate, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve in fresh romaine leaves rolled up with your favorite condiments, tomatoes, sprouts, avocado, etc.
Store any leftover veggie burgers in the refrigerator for 3 - 5 days.

Chia Breakfast Pudding (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-free)

2011-09-02T19:02:00.000-04:00

Chia seeds seem to be a new fad in natural food stores, supplement companies and even in protein shakes now, but their benefits truly do not seem to be a fad to me. Chia seeds are a member of the mint family and yes, they are those fuzzy headed plants you see advertised at Christmas. So why would I want to add chia seeds to my diet?

Chia is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, even more so than flax seeds. And it has another advantage over flax: chia is so rich in antioxidants that the seeds don't deteriorate and can be stored for long periods without becoming rancid.
Chia seeds, unlike flax, are readily available to the body. Flax seeds must be ground to make their nutrients available to the body.
Chia seeds also provide fiber (25 grams give you 6.9 grams of fiber) as well as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, molybdenum, niacin, and zinc.

Chia seeds are 16 percent protein, 31 percent fat, and 44 percent carbohydrate, of which 38 percent is fiber. Most of its fat is the essential omega-3 fatty acid – alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). It’s also high in antioxidants… as much as 8 times higher than blueberries.

When added to water and allowed to sit for 30 minutes, chia forms a gel. Researchers suggest that this reaction also takes place in the stomach, slowing the process by which digestive enzymes break down carbohydrates and convert them into sugar.
Chia seeds are not some new fad in the food industry - chia (from the desert plant salvia hispanica) was a major crop in central Mexico between 1500 and 900 B.C. and was still cultivated well into the 16th century AD. Supposedly after the Spanish conquest, authorities banned it because of its association with religious ceremonies. They were also the staple of Mayan and Aztec warriors - Chia means "strength" in Mayan. Some sites I reviewed stated that one tablespoon of chia seeds was believed to sustain an individual for 24 hours. The Aztecs also used chia medicinally to stimulate saliva flow and to relieve joint pain and sore skin.
Given the shelf life and amazing nutrient rich content of chia, we keep some in our Hurricane survival kit now
Believe what you want about its history, chia seeds make awesome vegan puddings without added sugar or processed foods!

Makes 1 serving of chia pudding

Ingredients:

1 Tbls chia seeds soaked in 1 cup of water for a minimum of 30 minutes

1 apple, cored

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 dates, pitted

2 Tbls raisins (optional)

2 Tbls walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions:

I took pictures of the time lapse of my chia seed soak that I'll post at the end of the recipe because it is pretty interesting to me that one tiny seed can absorb 4 times its weight in water!

Add the first 4 ingredients to a high powered blender and blend for about 30 seconds until all ingredients are pureed
Pour into a cereal bowl, top with raisins and walnuts and enjoy!

Chia seeds in water just moments

Chia seeds in water about 20 minutes

Chia seeds in water for an hour

Chai Spiced Pecans and Almonds (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-free)

2011-08-30T22:10:00.002-04:00

I usually do not care for pecans, but if they are sweet, I love them. I completely understand pecan pie now - pecans on their own do nothing for me, but coat them in sugar and they are quite tasty. I made these for a playdate recently where the adults and the children ate them and really enjoyed them. These are sweet, spicy and salty and may make it into regular rotation for snacks in our home.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup pitted dates plus 1/4 cup water for soaking (reserved)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp chai tea

1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (depending on your taste for heat)

2 1/2 cups of nuts (I used about 2 cups of pecans and 1/2 cup almonds)

Directions:

Soak 1/4 cup of dates in 1/4 cup of water for about 20 minutes.
Place dates, reserved soaking liquid, salt, chai tea, and pepper in a highspeed blender and blend for 15 seconds until the mix is completely liquid and looks like a syrup.
Place nuts in a medium mixing bowl, pour syrup over them and mix to coat each nut.
Let sit for a few minutes and retoss - pecans seem to loose their syrup after the first mix.
Either eat and enjoy immediately, or you dehydrate until dry and sticky - about 8 hours at 105 degrees.
Keep dehydrated nuts for about 5 days in the refrigerator.

Raw Chocolate Kale Chips

2011-08-18T22:28:00.004-04:00

The picture does not give these justice. I have tried 2 different chocolate sauces, and ultimately the one I like the best is a simple mix of dates, cacao and coconut oil. These were super saucy and the sauce that ran off the kale and onto the teflex sheets tasted like a raw Tootsie Roll (or what my memory of tootsie rolls taste like).

Ingredients:

1 large bunch kale, any type will do but I prefer the curly leaf stuff for chips - I just like the texture

1 cup dates, pitted

1/4 cup raw unrefined coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup cacao powder (or reg cocoa but then it wouldn't be a raw recipe)

3/4 to 1 cup of warm purified water - 3/4 is still sort of thick, 1 C makes a runnier ganache

Wash and destem the kale. Tear into bite size pieces and let dry (or spin in a salad spinner)
Set kale aside in a large bowl
Blend remaining ingredients in a highspeed blender until well incorporated. You may want to taste at this point - if you prefer sweet sauces, you can add a few more dates, or a little agave.
Pour about 1 1/2 cups of sauce over kale - you will likely have some leftover sauce that is wonderful as a topping on any dessert (raw or otherwise).
Massage the sauce into the kale. The kale should be coated but not overly wet with dressing.
Place a teflex sheet on your dehydrator tray and lay kale on one layer. Depending on how much kale you have in your bunch, this should fill 2 teflex sheets.
Dehydrate at 105 F for about 8 hours. They will likely still be soft. Take off the teflex sheets and place directly on the mesh liner. Dehydrate another 4 - 8 hours until crispy.

Raw Spaghetti with Marinara

2011-08-18T00:05:00.007-04:00

It is summer time and a great time of year for raw food in our home. We all love spaghetti but I really have not found a pasta that I find to be healthful. Behold a spiralizer and zucchini!

In the past when I have made raw marinara, the sauce comes out very muddy looking from all the fresh herbs. This sauce came out very orange and was very tasty!

Ingredients:

Noodles:

2 large, long and straight zucchini

pinch of salt

Wash and dry your zucchini. If they are conventional, I would also peel them, but if they are organic, eat the peel! Leave on the ends
Center your zucchini on the spiralizer. I get best results if I put the blossom end into the cutting end, and the opposite end into the prongs. The straighter your zucchini, the easier it is to spiralize the entire zucchini without having to readjust.
Take your pile of angel hair zucchini and place in a colander. Toss with a pinch of salt and let sit in the colander. This will help release some of the water so your final product will not be watery.

Sauce:

2 ripe tomatoes

6 sun dried tomatoes, soaked for an hour

1 small onion

2 small sweet peppers (I chose red to help with the color)

1 date (optional)

2 TBLS cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

Place all of your marinara ingredients and blend until smooth. If you prefer a chunky sauce, then blend in pulses until you get the texture you like.
Transfer the zucchini to a large pasta bowl, pour the sauce over the top and toss.

This was definitely a kid friendly recipe in our home and my youngest ate an entire bowl, plus ate the 1/4 cup or so of left over sauce as soup.

Raw Black Sesame Sunflower Bread

2011-08-03T18:34:00.004-04:00

This is a staple in our home that all of us enjoy as either crackers or sometimes less dehydrated and left as a pliable bread. Why black sesame seeds - well, the contrast is pretty, and black sesame is a nutritious food that is already known to contain lecithin, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and iron. Chinese wisdom mentions sesame to strengthen energy, and muscle growth, as well as maintaining soft skin. Chinese medicine also uses black sesame (hei zhi ma) to maintain kidney and liver function.

INGREDIENTS:

1 c ground flaxseed

1/3 c flax seed whole

½ t sea salt

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T onion, minced

1-1/3 c water

2/3 c sunflower seeds

¼ c black sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

In large bowl mix ground flax, whole flax seeds, salt, garlic, onion & water. Mix well.

Add sunflower & sesame seeds. Mix well.

Spread on 1 telfex tray smooth out into an even square., Dry at 105 degrees for 4 hours

Flip & score bread into 9 slices

Dehydrate another hour for softer bread (to use for a sandwich roll) Stores for up to 3 days in the refrigerator

or dehydrate another 3 - 6 hours for crispy crackers. Stores 1-2 months refrigerated.

Raw Chocolate Fudge (Gluten-Free, Anti-Candida)

2011-05-22T23:26:00.004-04:00

We have started an anti-candida diet in our home and I am craving chocolate and sweets. I know that means my body just wants to feed the yeast, but I needed something to help me through this healing time from candida overgrowth. Messing around in the kitchen tonight, I think I found something that helps cover just enough sweetness and a lot of chocolate cravings for me. My 4 year old loved this and while we still have 3/4 of the pan left, he is already asking if we can finish it and just make more.

The ingredients here are listed by parts so that you can adjust the ratio as you need based on how much coconut meat you yield.

Ingredients:

2 parts raw cacao butter

2 parts fresh coconut meat (young or mature coconut works)

2 parts coconut oil

2 parts cashew butter

1 part raw honey (used for anti-fungal properties and to sweeten - use more or less to your taste)

1/2 part raw cacao powder (or carob)

1/8 part cinnamon

1/8 part vanilla extract or portion of vanilla bean

pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Measure approximately 2.5 - 3 parts raw cacao butter in a small bowl. Place over another bowl filled with hot water to make a double "boiler." Stir as the butter starts to melt. Start this before anything else because it takes some time to melt cacao butter.
Open and remove all the meat from the coconut. Reserve the water for your morning smoothie!
Add all ingredients to food processor fitted with an "S" blade and blend until creamy. Add more cacao for richer taste, but the more cacao, sometimes the more bitter the taste.
Pour into a glass baking dish and refrigerate for 4 - 6 hours or overnight.
Cut into squares and serve chilled.

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake (vegan, gluten-free)

2011-01-28T18:06:00.004-05:00

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake

Crust:

2 cups pecans

1 cup dates

a pinch of salt

Cheesecake filling:

3 cups macadamia nuts, soaked overnight

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup agave nectar

3/4 cup coconut oil

1 vanilla bean, insides scraped (or 1 teaspoon vanilla)

2 tsp probiotic powder (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

14 oz blueberries

If your coconut oil is solid, place a little over 3/4 cup of coconut oil into a glass measuring cup or, bowl. Melt the coconut oil in a large bowl or sink filled with a few inches of, very warm water, making sure the water does not reach over the top of the cup or, bowl holding the coconut oil. Stir every couple of minutes while you make the, crust, and it will melt faster. If your oil is already liquid, then just measure the 3/4 cup
Place all "Crust" ingredients into a food processor fitted with the "S" blade and process until fine.
Press crust mixture firmly into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. (I used a pie pan because I cannot find my springform and had leftover of the filling)
Check your coconut oil measurement once it's all melted. It should be 3/4 cup, when melted.
Put all Cheesecake filling ingredients into a high-speed blender or process in a food processor in batches until smooth.
Adjust lemon juice and agave nectar to taste.
Pour mixture onto crust. Tap the pan on your bench/countertop a few times to remove any air bubbles.
Put the cheesecake in the freezer until firm for at least 3 hours but, preferably overnight.
Transfer the cheesecake to the fridge about 2 hours before serving.

Make Your Own Toothpaste

2011-01-14T17:27:00.005-05:00

Most toothpastes, even the ones found in natural food stores, are filled with ingredients that really do not need to be there, including toxic chemical, parabens, and petroleum by-products. When Tom's of Maine was purchased by Colgate-Palmolive several years ago, I started making my own tooth powder. Now I add glycerin to it and it is toothpaste.

This recipe takes minutes to make and I make a little cup of it for each of us. Because there are no preservatives in it, I only make about a month's batch at a time. I use arrowroot because it is less abrasive than baking soda or salt on our gums. I also like mint in my toothpaste but any flavored extract could be used here or none at all.

Ingredients:

3 Tbls Baking Soda

1 Tbls Arrowroot

1 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Peppermint Oil (food grade)

3 Tbls Vegetable Glycerin (may take a little more)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until lump free. You can put the final product in a squeeze tube or a small cup. Too keep it sanitary, I typically use either one container per person in the family, or the squeeze tube.

This makes almost 1/2 cup and depending on how much and how often you use it, should last at least 1 - 3 months.

To make whitening toothpaste, add 1/2 Tbls ground sage.

Chia Water (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2011-01-06T09:47:00.005-05:00

This is a great refreshing "energy" drink. I have felt pretty tired and nauseous in the mornings lately and this is a great pick me up that gives me some energy to last until the nausea is gone. Even if I were not feeling that way - this is a great way to get omegas and water into your diet.

Chia Water

8oz or more water

1 tsp chia seeds

Juice of half a lemon

Add all ingredients to a 10oz or larger glass, let sit for about 10 minutes then drink and enjoy! Chia seeds are different from flax seeds in that the human body can digest them and access the omegas without the seeds having to be ground.

This recipe has:

30 calories
Omega 3 - 819mg
Omega 6 - 270mg
Vitamin C - 10.6mg
Calcium - 31.1mg
Phosphorous - 45.6mg
Potassium - 36.0mg

(based on data from nutritiondata.com)

Popcorn Bars (gluten-free, vegan)

2010-11-15T21:03:00.007-05:00

These are inspired by my brother and sister-in-laws trip to North Carolina recently. They came back and said they had the best gluten-free vegan thing they have ever had - Swag bars from The Swag, but when they told me the recipe, it has corn syrup which I avoid using in our recipes so I adapted the recipe a tad...

Ingredients:
1 cup turbinado or raw sugar
1 cup agave nectar
2 cups peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)

1 tsp vanilla extract
6 cups popcorn
8oz. chocolate chips

Instructions:
Place sugar and agave in large heavy pan. Heat on med high, almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Add peanut butter and continue to stir again until almost boiling. Add vanilla extract - make sure to add vanilla right at the end or it all evaporates in the cooking process.

Take off stove; mix in popcorn. Add chocolate chips and mix again. Press into lightly oiled 9 x 13 pan. Score into bars while still hot. (They are hard to cut when cool.)

Oat and Pepita Patties with Tahini Gravy

2010-11-13T10:15:00.005-05:00

Not proud of this photo - note to self: flash photography and food do not mix! But the patties themselves were really tasty. There would have been a photo retake, but the leftovers were gone before the camera was ready :) These were in place of a veggie burger - my omni husband loves when we have veggie burgers and potato salad. I am trying to move away from the bun and this burger seemed to be okay to eat on its own to him. My son also picked it up and inhaled it which he never does with food so I consider this a big win in our house!

Ingredients:

1 cup raw pepitas

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups shredded carrots

3 celery stalks, chopped

1 green onion (whites and greens), scliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp Braggs

3/4 to 1 cup hot water

Add first 6 ingredients to food processor fitted with the "S" blade and pulse to a rough chop (so that the patties have some texture.)

Transfer to a large bowl and add Braggs, then slowly start adding water. Start with 3/4 cup, and add more if needed. The mixture should be thick and not runny. If you add too much water, add some more oats to thicken the mix.

Scoop out about 1/3 cup of mixture and form into patty shape, place on an oiled baking sheet.

Form patties with the remaining mix, then bake at 400 for about 8 minutes until golden brown.

Flip and bake an additional 5 minutes.

Makes approx 10 patties.

For the gravy:

In a blender, combine 1/3 cup tahini, juice of one lemon, 1 clove of garlic and whiz. Stir in some chopped chives then pour over patties, or make smaller patties, and use this as a dipping sauce.

Raw Tacos

2010-11-02T21:49:00.004-04:00

These are really great, simple, healthy and filling tacos. This is also the first raw taco that I have made that my son, husband and I all like.

Ingredients:

Tacos:

Romaine or Cabbage leaves for the shells

Butternut Squash (about 1/4 of a small squash)

for the avocado salad:

2 avocados

3 roma tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro, chopped

1 green onion, green and whites chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

juice from 1/2 lime

salt and pepper to taste

for the "beans":

2 cups soaked walnuts, drained

10 soaked sundried tomatoes, soak water reserved

3/4 - 1 cup reserve liquid from sundried tomatoes

1 roma tomato, quartered

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 TBSP ground cumin

salt to taste

1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

To make the avocado salad, scoop out the fruit of the avocado, then add and mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.

To make the beans, put all ingredients in the food processor fitted with an "S" blade and pulse to a creamy consistency. Start with 3/4 cup of the reserve liquid from the sundried tomatoes and add more if you need it. This recipe makes enough for about 12 tacos but I make a large batch so we can have tacos two nights. This will last in the fridge for about 3 - 5 days.

To assemble tacos, take a romaine or cabbage leaf, add a couple of spoonfuls of "beans," top with avocado salad, then top with shredded butternut squash. Eat and enjoy! (1 serving is 2 tacos)

Kai's Birth Story

2010-09-23T02:14:00.006-04:00

Kai was a planned but surprise pregnancy just like our first son. We had been trying for over a year and had basically given up on having more children. We decide to be happy with our 3 person family. I also decided that if I was going to be a mommy to one, I could also handle a new career and went back to school to become an architect. I had finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up and that was to work on sustainable community develoment. About 6 weeks into the semester, I found out I was pregnant with our second baby. I was so excited that all of our new plans were now going to have to be replanned once again.

This pregnancy was going to be a successful vaginal birth - my first son was a planned natural birth that ended in a transfer to a hospital and ultimately a c-section. I had more drugs in myself and him than I ever had wanted and had worked on physical detox when he turned 18 months. Now that I was pregnant, I realized, I also needed to work on emotional detox from my c-section as well.

I read several wonderful books, one of the ones that made a deep impact on me was The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. I thought I had read everything I needed to when pregnant with my first son, but this opened my eyes to so many things, the biggest being that there is no such thing as natural interventions. An intervention is an intervention and has no place in a healthy pregnancy or labor. I also wrote my son's birth story - I had told his story many times, but never wrote it. It took me weeks to write it, then go back and read it and add details that I had left out the first time, then add emotions I left out the second rewrite, etc. This was increibly healing. I also surrounded myself with positive birth stories, attended ICAN meetings and listened to other women talk about how they had successful VBACs and vaginal births. I mention all this prep because I strongly feel that had I not done all of this, Kai's birth would have gone differently. I did not want to see myself as anything other than a healthy birthing woman, and I had to heal from these emotional obstacles in order to do that. I remember having a cranio-sacral treatment that gave me a big "Ah Ha!" moment which was that this birth and this baby is unique and really has nothing to do with my first baby. I am just a normal, healthy pregnant woman preparing to birth the way I want to.

My pregnancy was very uneventful - I had normal symptoms, things like morning sickness in my first trimester, being tired from pregnancy and playing with my toddler. I felt wonderful, I had a glow throughout my pregnancy and was excited that I was going to experience natural labor and birth this time! I had a strong birth team who supported me. I also did not debate with those who did not support me. I just avoided talking about this pregnancy with those who were not supportive or those women who insist on telling their horrible birth stories. My husband and I also made the difficult decision that he would not attend this birth. He was raised with images that birth is incredibly dangerous and it makes him nervous. My c-section was also traumatic for him to experience and he did not have an outlet to heal from his feelings about our first son's birth. The decision was mutual and was the right one for our family.

My EDD was June 13, but throughout my pregnancy, I kept saying how auspicious I thought a solstice baby would be. If the baby was a girl, we would have to name her Summer - this was the only name my husband and I could agree on ahead of time. We decided not to find out the baby's gender ahead of time, so we needed a boy name in the waiting as well. About a week before I went into labor, we had decided we both liked Niko or Jude for a boy.

June 13th came and went, and no signs of labor. I refused vaginal exams from my midwife - there is really no need for them and they tell nothing about labor or progress. (You'll notice the difference in this story and other birth stories is that no where do I mention how dilated I was) My midwife assured me that post dates was fine with her and not to worry about anything. (My midwife with my first son was quite the opposite and very nervous about post dates.) This was a relief that there was no pressure from her for me to start things like castor oil - remember, there is no such thing as a natural intervention!

Father's Day was June 20th this year, and we had returned from celebrating at my parents' house. I had made plans for every day of the upcoming week so that I would have something to focus on other than the fact that I was now going into my 41st week of pregnancy. I also decided to go to bed at 9:30pm that night - something I had not been able to do this entire pregnancy due to either acid reflux, or just the baby's activity keeping me awake. My oldest also decided to sleep in the next morning - I got over 10 hours of sleep that night! Something I don't think has happened since I was 5 months pregnant with my first son. My oldest and I stayed in bed reading books and talking before getting up at 9am for breakfast. Around 9:30am, I realized I may have lost my mucus plug. Although this was my second pregnancy, I never went through going into labor on my own, and never lost my mucus plug. I had only heard about this being a pre-labor sign. I was not even sure if that was what just happened, so I went to google images to see if I could see a mucus plug. Lucky for me, women take pictures of their mucus plugs and mine looked just like theirs! Around 10am I decided that I was going to call my husband and my midwife to say, maybe baby today! I was having no surges and no other signs of labor.

By noon, I was having surges about every 15 minutes and lasting only 20 seconds. I had started washing sheets and making the bed and getting all my birth supplies together. My son could tell I was excited about something and shared in my excitement by singing songs to me. By 2:30pm, my surges were 6 - 10 minutes apart and lasting 30 - 45 seconds. It was getting difficult to occupy and care for a toddler who was obviously going to miss his nap today. I called my husband and asked him to come home. My husband got home around 3:30pm and apparently I wanted him to share in my nesting. I asked him to do the dishes of all things. 20 minutes later, I asked him to scratch that, just blow up the birthing tub and take our son to the mall to play. I also asked him to call my birthing team because I was no longer able to talk through the surges - they were 45 seconds long and 4 minutes apart.

At 4:50pm, my doula arrived. Evelyn got out her handy rebozo and started working on my belly while I was in a chest and knees position. Who knew having your belly and hips shaken could feel so good! I could feel the baby moving into position, sort of swimming himself into a better more comfortable spot for the both of us. About 30 minutes later, my friend Charlie arrived. Having friends who are birth junkies is very handy for a pregnant woman. Charlie is an amazing doula and birth assistant, and will hopefully be a midwife by the time we have our third baby. Around this time, the tub was all set up and about 10 minutes later my husband and son left (around 5:30pm).

My labor was progressing beautifully, I was still chatty between surges, and just breathing through each surge and enjoying feeling the baby move further and further down. I was doing my own vaginal checks so I could check my progression if I wanted to. Around 6:30pm, I decided I wanted to get in the tub.

I was still enjoying labor until about 30 minutes later. Suddenly things felt different. The baby was no longer moving down and felt stuck to me. I kept telling my team that the baby is stuck, and they suggested different positions in the tub. At one point I felt like I was just rolling in the tub and nothing was working. I felt a pain that I had not expected to feel - this was not from surges, it was the feeling of the baby being stuck. At 7:30pm, Charlie called my midwife to see if she could come now. This is the first time I mention calling my midwife, but my birth team had been in touch with her throughout the evening. At some point, the water just felt annoying so I moved to the bathroom and labored on the toilet, hoping again that a new position would make the baby feel less stuck.

My midwife arrived around 7:30pm. I knew there were a couple of point of conflict between my midwife and me, and we were heading into one. I had told her I took hypnobirthing classes and was determined to breathe my baby out in a gentle way. When my midwife arrived, she came in the bathroom and saw me groaning on the toilet. I told her the baby is stuck, and she told me "The baby is not stuck, babies do not just fall out of your vagina." She mumbled something about letting her know when I was going to be serious about pushing this baby out and left the bathroom to go sit on the couch. Charlie and Evelyn stayed in the bathroom with me trying to figure out how to get me and the baby to keep things moving. My surges were almost without a break at this point, but the baby was not moving down any further. Charlie was awesome and rather than suggesting any more different positions, gently told me that some babies cannot be labored down with breathing, and if he really is stuck, I may need to just bear down and give a good push to get him moving again. When my midwife heard this, she decided to come back. I pushed in the bathroom for a while and got the baby moving again. Every movement of the baby was so much more painful than I had ever imagined. I started thinking these hypnobirthing bitches are just crazy! I also started thinking, I am pushing on the toilet and I do not want my baby to be born on the toilet. By 10pm, I moved to our bed. I tried getting on my hands and knees and there was such pain that I actually started crying. The only position that felt good or at least like I was going to be able to keep going was slanted on my back. I don't remember how many pushes or how long, but at 10:35, my baby boy's head emerged with his right hand up by his face. I felt vindicated that his hand was up there - it came together in my head that his elbow must have been what was stuck on my pelvis, and his elbow was also likely what was scraping my vagina on the way out causing that pain. After one more push, his body was out and I pulled him to my chest. I no longer think hypnobirthing is crazy - pain is there for a reason, and the reason for my pain was internal vaginal tearing from his elbow and nuchal arm. I actually didn't think anything of the ring of fire sensation because it was so minor compared to what his descent had felt like.

I was planning to cut the cord myself and after the placenta was born. Unfortunately, I was bleeding pretty heavily and the herbs I took were not stopping the bleeding. I cut the cord at 10:47pm, immediately got a shot of pitocin, and one minute later the placenta was born. By 11:00pm, my baby boy was nursing and continued for the next hour and a half. I didn't care about anything else in the world, and it seemed like the world had stopped for a while. While I was watching him nurse, I thought, this baby is neither a Niko nor a Jude. He needs a new name! My husband was called and told he could come home to meet the baby. I remember when my son and husband came to the bedside, my son said something to me, and immediately, the baby looked over at him.

Born at home on the solstice - Kai Delano Williams

7 lbs 14.5oz

20.5 inches

14" head

14.25"chest

13.5" abdomen

He did not have a name for the first 4 days of his life because we wanted a name that both fit him and had the strength and energy of the day he was born. We had decided on either Kai or Julian. Thursday morning, we still had not made a decision, and we decided to let our oldest be the tie breaker. He liked Kai (my choice as well). My husband still wanted a shot at Julian, so we decided to write both names on separate pieces of paper and whichever name we drew from a basket would be his name. Our oldest son drew out the paper, and it was Kai - 2 for 2 dad, his name is Kai. Kai means Ocean or Sea water in Hawaiian, it also means keeper of the Earth in Chinese. We knew whether a boy or girl, this baby would have the middle name Delano which is a family name. If our babies get my husband's family last name, then we decided they get a middle name from my family. Delano means the elder tree of the forest.

I had my successful VBAC, and had a healthy mama and baby. We bedded in for two weeks, and I also used my placenta for the benefits. Both of those will be separate posts :)

Fruit Flies!

2010-05-07T23:01:00.005-04:00

I know I need to find the source of my fruit flies - it may just be from a day of apple cores and clementine skins, but in the mean time, I have found a great natural solution to getting rid of them. I don't want to start a conversation about whether this is vegan or not because ultimately I am killing animals, but I need to get these fruit flies out of my house.

I would post a picture of the after, but it is really not pretty. If you have some fruit flies in the house and need to get rid of them - here is my easy solution:

Step 1: Take a small jar and fill it with about 1 inch of apple cider vinegar. It does not need to be raw, unpasteurized, etc but that is what I had on hand because I use Braggs ACV for recipes.

Step 2: Add a drop or 2 of glycerin. A lot of people do not keep glycerin on hand, but it is one of the things I always have around for making my own beauty products. If you do not have any, any liquid soap will work too.

Step 3: Set the jar closest to the area of most infestation overnight

Step 4: The next morning dispose of the bodies and start over. I think fruit flies life span is about 10 days, so if you get them at the start of infestation, and get them before they can lay too many eggs, then you should be rid of them within a week or so.

I should also say - the biggest pre-step here is to make sure you remove the source of the infestation - like rotten fruit.

Kale Chips (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-05-06T23:26:00.004-04:00

1 large bunch of kale

1/2 recipe of Goddess Dressing

Directions:

Wash and cut large veins from kale
Place kale in a large mixing bowl
Pour goddess dressing over kale and massage kale with your hands to coat the kale
Let sit in bowl for about 5 minutes
Place kale pieces flat onto two Teflex sheets, on top of a mesh dehydrator screen, and dehydrate for 8 hours @ 110 degrees
Rotate kale pieces after about 4 hours to get uniform crispiness in all your kale chips
If they make it out of the dehydrator and last longer than they did at my house, you can store in an airtight container

Goddess Dressing (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-05-06T23:21:00.004-04:00

I love Annie's Goddess dressing, or should say, loved. When we went gluten-free that was one recipe I had a very hard time replacing and still have not perfected it, but the below recipe comes pretty close and definitely hits the spot.

Ingredients:

¾ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup Braggs liquid aminos

½ cup apple cider vinegar

½ cup water for dip consistency (more for dressing consistency)

2 scallions

1 clove garlic, deveined

juice of 1 large lemon

¼ tsp sea salt

¼ cup fresh parsley

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth to get a thick consistency.

A note on sesame seeds - I use raw unhulled tan sesame seeds - these are powerhouses of nutrition and contain more nutrients than their hulled counterparts.

There is often concern that vegans do not get a sufficient amount of zinc in their diet. Include sesame seeds or tahini in your diet often and reap the benefit of plenty of zinc with one tablespoon supplying 1.17 mg.

Unhulled (sometimes called Natural) sesame seeds are high in calcium. One tablespoon provides 87.8 mg while the hulled variety offers only 10.5 mg for that same tablespoon. Comparing sesame seeds to milk turned up some surprising figures in the calcium count. One cup of natural sesame seeds had 1404.0 mg of calcium, while one cup of non-fat milk provided 316.3 mg. and one cup of whole milk contained 291 mg of calcium. Both natural and hulled sesame seeds contain healthy amounts of the B vitamins riboflavin, thiamine, and niacin. With natural seeds scoring 8.7 mcg of folic acid for 1 tablespoon and plenty of vitamin B6, you can count on sesame seeds for excellent nourishment.

Mineral values of the sesame seed:

One tablespoon of hulled seeds contains .62 mg of iron, 27.73 mg of magnesium, 32.53 mg potassium, and .82 mg of zinc. Figures for the natural, unhulled, are slightly higher.

Sesame seeds also contain healthy amounts of phosphorous.

If you're lacking iron, turn to the sesame seed. Its iron content is equal to that of liver.

(Source: nutritiondata.com)

Strawberry Blueberry Cobbler (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-05-04T20:49:00.003-04:00

I made this for a workshop this past Saturday, and while technically, it should have served about 14 - 16 people, 6 of us devoured it. The workshop was a mix of people including vegetarians and omnis - I plan to make this again for an upcoming omni event.

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups pumpkin seeds

2 cups pecans

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 vanilla bean

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup pitted dates

Pudding Center:

2 cups blueberries

1 cup pitted dates

1/2 cup water

Fruit topping:

3 cups strawberries, sliced

Directions

To make the crust, place seeds, nuts, salt and vanilla bean in food processor fitted with an "S" Blade until the mixture becomes crumby.
Add olive oil and process again until the mix becomes dough like
Add dates slowly through top while processing
Cover the bottom of a 9"x13" pan allowing some of the dough to come up about 1/4" on the sides
To make the pudding center, blend berries, dates and enough water to make a thick syrupy mix. The pectin in the berries will make this gel like after it sets
Pour the blueberry pudding on top of the crust and spread evenly
Evenly distribute the strawberries on top of the pudding

"Deveining" Garlic

2010-04-16T01:20:00.004-04:00

Most of us have read about all the benefits of garlic, and for me, I just love the taste. But sometimes raw garlic can have a bitter burn to it that no one in my family enjoys, including myself. I read this tip in a cookbook a while ago (can't remember which one) but the author stated if you pull the "vein" out of the garlic, yo get a milder flavor without that bitter bite. Some people also have a hard time with the digestion part of garlic - seems that without the vein you don't end up, umm... re-tasting your garlic all night, or at least in our house, none of us had that issue. Could it really be this little vein causing so much trouble?

So how to devein - it is really easy. Cut your clove in half, lengthwise (the picture above is so you can see the dark center where the vein is, but you cut it lengthwise to remove the vein), then just use the tip of a knife to pull the vein out. Typically it is a little darker in color than the rest of the clove, otherwise it is just that very center sprout. Use your garlic just like you would in the rest of the recipe, and maybe it will be a little more enjoyable, especially in raw dishes.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Ganache (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-04-05T19:22:00.006-04:00

I was craving peanut butter and chocolate so whipped up this ice cream (and topped it with chocolate ganache) - it comes together very quickly and you can start enjoying it within about a half hour as long as you have the ice cream maker in the freezer.

ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

3 Cups Coconut Milk (either canned, or taking the water and meat of a young coconut to make your own coconut milk is fine)

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Dates, pitted

2 tsp Vanilla extract (alcohol-free so the ice cream will freeze)

1/8 tsp Almond extract (alcohol-free)

Blend all ingredients together until smooth, then place in an ice cream freezer and follow the manufacturers directions.

GANACHE

Ingredients

1 Cup Coconut Milk

1 Cup Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped (or as chocolate chips)

2 tsp Vanilla extract

Directions

Place chocolate in a heat safe bowl.
Bring coconut milk to a boil, then remove from heat.
Pour the hot milk over the chocolate and let it stand for a moment to allow the chocolate to soften.
Whisk chocolate and coconut milk together until smooth.
Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Warm and use like hot fudge over ice cream.

Chocolate Coconut Brownies (Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-03-28T20:41:00.003-04:00

I have made these brownies for the last few potlucks I have gone to - and even omnivores love them. I have yet to bring home any leftovers.

Makes 24 brownies (depending on how you cut them)

Ingredients:

1 cup raw walnuts

1 cup raw almonds

1 cup raw pecans

1 vanilla bean

1 tsp sea salt

1 cup raw cacao powder

1 cup dehydrated coconut flake

3 cups fresh dates, pitted

2 Tbs coconut oil

Directions:

Process nuts, vanilla bean and salt in a food processor fitted with the "S" blade until nuts are powder.
Add cacao powder and pulse to incorporate
Add coconut flake and pulse to incorporate.
Add dates and coconut oil and pulse until mixture starts to form a dough ball.
Press into a 9"x13" pan and let set in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Cut into squares and enjoy!

Tie Dye

2010-03-25T19:43:00.005-04:00

My camera battery needed charging so I didn't get any pictures of our process, (just the final product) but as a fun homeschool project we recently did a single color tie-dye. I also learned that there are a lot of people out there who have never experimented with coloring fabric on their own.

My son picked the color - purple, lavender and pink are currently his favorites so we went for purple. We picked a onesie for his sibling we will meet this summer, and a shirt for him so we could make them matching shirts. Of course, with tie-dye, there is no such thing as tie dye.

To make a circular, almost web pattern, I took the center of the t-shirt, poked my finger through so there was a bit of fabric to twist, then wrapped a rubber band around that area. I did the same thing to the onesie.
Anywhere we want the white of the shirt to show is where we added rubber bands. This is a great exercise for finger dexterity and prepping for other fine motor skills.
Continue wrapping rubber bands around the shirts until you get a "tube" of shirt - keeping in mind that all the white areas you see will be colored with the dye.
We used Rit dye and the washing machine method.
Submerse all the material to be dyed in very hot water so it is completely wet.
We took a packet of dye, added it to the machine, then added all the clothing to be colored to the machine and let it sit for the recommended 30 minutes for more vibrant colors.
Once the color process is complete, you can then either hang the clothing to dry or put it in the dryer.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Gluten Free, Vegan)

2010-03-25T00:40:00.005-04:00

I have been craving Pineapple Upside down cake for the last few days, so finally decided I needed to take a stab at it. I did got he easy way here and bought a Pamela's Vanilla Cake Mix - I just didn't have the various GF flours to make a good cake batter, so here is my alteration to make this cake mix into an awesome cake!

Ingredients:

Cake

1/4 cup coconut oil

Egg replacer for 3 eggs

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 bag Pamela's Classic Vanilla Cake Mix

2/3 cup pineapple juice (reserved from pineapple rings)

Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 can pineapple slices in water (10 slices)

10 cherries without stems (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325°.
Melt coconut oil (if solid) in a 9-inch x 13-inch pan in preheated oven.
When melted, remove pan and sprinkle brown sugar over oil.
Place pineapple slices side by side in top.
Place cherries in the centers of the pineapple rings.
Whisk egg replacer in a large bowl until frothy.
Add coconut oil and whisk until incorporated.
Add almond extract.
Mix cake mix into the oil/egg replacer mixture.
Add pineapple juice and mix until incorporated - in a mixer, turn on med for about 60 seconds.
Spoon cake mix evenly over pineapple rings and cherries - do not pour or you will likely make the rings move around in the pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let stand for 5 minutes then invert cake onto plate.
Spoon any remaining syrup from pan over cake.

Of course, after I made this, I realized as a kid, my mom used to put pecans in the topping as well because my dad loves pecans. I was going to do this too and completely forgot until I had already put the batter over the pineapple, so maybe next time there will be a few pecans in our topping.

Vegan GF Monster Cookies

2010-02-18T21:19:00.003-05:00

This is a revamped recipe from this cookie recipe. The differences make for a coconutty, chewy cookie that is not too sweet.

Ingredients:

4 Tbls flax seed

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1 cup peanut butter

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup almond flour

1/2 cup rice flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grind the flax seed in a spice grinder
In a large bowl, combine the flax seed meal and water and beat until frothy
Add oils, peanut butter and vanilla. Add sugar and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking soda and salt. (No need to sift)
Combine with oil mixture.
Stir in the oatmeal and chocolate chips until well combined.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Cashew Cheese - Cheddar Style (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-01-31T23:27:00.003-05:00

Most people when confronted with the change from vegetarian to vegan claim they could never give up cheese. This is not really where I want to get into that statement so much as to offer alternatives to cheese that are not only soy-free, but tasty and will also melt. The below recipe is kid approved - we had a taco bar party and there were at least 10 kids ages 18 months to 6 years. All the kids and the parents loved the cheese, and at long last, here is the recipe to share as requested.

Cheddar Style Vegan Cheese (adapted from The Uncheese Cookbook)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water

2 T agar powder (get this from the Asian market or you will pay way too much for it)

4 oz jar of pimiento pieces, drained (this lends flavor and color - if you do not like the taste, you can subsititute 2 T tomato paste

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

juice of 1 large lemon

2 T tahini

2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp dried dill

1/8 tsp mustard powder

Directions:

Place the water and agar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often and making sure to stir down the sides of the saucepan
Place in high-powered blender with the remaining ingredients and process until completely smooth
Pour immediately into a lightly oiled 3 cup loaf pan
Cool in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to overnight
To serve, take a slim knife around the edges of the loaf pan, and turn out of the mold. You can now slice, grate or cube this cheese as you would any other cheese.

Yields One 3-cup brick

As an alternative, for a liquid sauce (great for mac & cheese or topped on baked potatoes) skip steps 1 and 2 and just blend the mixture with approximately 1 cup of water until the cheese sauce is the consistency you want.

Cauliflower Au Gratin (Vegan, Gluten-Free)

2010-01-31T23:10:00.006-05:00

Ingredients:

1 medium to large head of cauliflower

1 cup water

1/2 cup cashews

1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes

juice of 1 large lemon

2 T tahini

1 T onion powder

2 T Dijon mustard (like Grey Poupon)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp mustard powder

1/4 tsp dried dill

1/4 - 1/2 GF breadcrumbs, or other crusty topping - I used crushed blue corn chips

1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
Oil a 9x13 baking dish
Wash and chop cauliflower to bite size pieces
Place cauliflower in baking dish - try to keep it to one layer
Mix next 11 ingredients in a high powered blender until creamy
Pour sauce over cauliflower
Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes
Top with parsley

This is great as a side dish, or can be served as the main course. I served this as a main course over a bed of millet with a large salad.

Serves 8 as a side dish

Serves 4 as a main course

Vegan GF Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2010-01-09T19:23:00.004-05:00

I was craving Peanut Butter, Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Cookies but could not find a recipe in any cookbook or on the internet that was vegan and GF or could easily be adapted, so I just modified a traditional Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookie Recipe and came up with this. They are pretty rich and really tasty! This recipe is also soy free - as long as you check your chocolate chips to make sure they do not contain soy lecithin.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable oil (I prefer Grapeseed for this recipe)

1/2 cup peanut butter

Egg replacer for three eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups GF All Purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1/4 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/2 - 3/4 cup chocolate chips (depending on how chocolatey you want the cookies)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, combine the oil, peanut butter, egg replacer and vanilla. Add sugar and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, xantham gum, baking soda and salt.
Combine with oil mixture.
Stir in the oatmeal and chocolate chips until well combined.
Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Rustic White Beans and Mushrooms Casserole

2010-01-06T17:42:00.004-05:00

This is from Veganomicon - so many great recipes and this one is really simple and really great on a cold fall/winter day. This is really good as a main dish with a side salad or some braised greens (like bok choy or kale)

Ingredients:

2 cups dried white beans, soaked for at least 8 hours

1 small onion, peeled & sliced in half

1 stalk celery, cut into 2 pieces

1 small carrot, sliced in half lengthwise

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1/4 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large leek, sliced thinly

1/2 lb mushrooms

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Drain and rinse beans. Add to stockpot with 4 c cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Skim off any white foam from the top. Cover the pot and lower the heat to medium. Add the onion, celery, carrot, thyme and tarragon. Simmer for about 45 minutes.
Remove the carrot, onion and celery (either discard or use in a stock). Lower the heat to low and continue to simmer. The beans should resemble a thick stew, if there's too much liquid, leave the pot uncovered and stir occasionally.
About 10 minutes before the beans are done, place the garlic and 2 T oil in a cold skillet. Heat the skillet over medium heat, allowing the garlic to sizzle for about 30 seconds. Add the chopped leeks and saute 1-2 minutes. Scrape the leeks into the beans.
Add the remaining 2 T oil, allow to warm, and add the mushrooms. Sprinkle the mushrooms lightly with 1/2 t salt and saute until most of the mushroom liquid has evaporated, anywhere from 8-12 minutes depending on the types of mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the beans.
Turn off the heat and season the beans with the remaining salt and pepper.
OPTIONAL - Preheat oven to 350.
Top with bread crumbs (or other crumb topping) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Purse Organizer

2009-09-20T22:49:00.006-04:00

I saw a long time ago on late night infomercial TV, a commercial for a purse organizer. They sold it as a great way to keep track of things, but to me it is a great way to take the essentials from one bag to another - very important for me right now not because I have so many handbags, but because I don't want to carry my purse to night school when I have plenty of room in my backpack - thus I made a mini purse organizer.

Step 1 was to figure out how big - I laid out the items that I need to keep in my purse and want to take to class. I then allowed for 1/2" seam (1/4" seam allowance on each of the sides). I also allowed space for the bulk of the items in each pocket. I then wanted to fold the organizer up to make the pockets about 3 inches.

Cutting the fabric - for my organizer, I used 2 pieces (one liner and one for the outer fabric) of fabric that measured 21" x 9" plus I used a piece of receiving blanket also 21" x 9" instead of interfacing - still trying to get rid of all this nursery flannel and using it in place of interfacing where I can.

Lay the right sides together of the liner and the outer fabric, then place the interfacing/receiving blanket on top of wrong side of the liner. Stitch together with a 1/4" seam allowance around all sides, leaving a 2" gap at the bottom for turning.

Clip corners and trim seam allowance, then turn inside out. Press, then edge stitch the entire rectangle. Fold 3" from the bottom up with the liner fabric facing you so that the liner stays on the inside. Stitch the left and right side so you have one big pocket. Measure where your pockets will go, mark with chalk and pin in place. Sew each line from bottom to top.

Place your goodies in the pockets, then wrap either around itself, or you can place it so that the items line the bag instead of wrapping around itself. Now you can easily transfer bags, or easily find your stuff in the pockets.

Aloo Gobi (Indian potatoes and cauliflower)

2009-09-17T22:01:00.008-04:00

I have lost touch with an Indian friend of mine who had me over for dinner one day when his mom was in town. She made the best aloo gobi I have ever had and shared the recipe with me. I have not made it in years, but was craving this yesterday. I cannot find the recipe now and am quite bothered by this because there were two other recipes that she gave me that I loved as well. I searched high and low on the internet and in the Joy of Cooking, and could not find anything that had all the same ingredients that I remembered hers having, so this is a compilation of a several recipes and an experiment that went very well this afternoon. My friend's mom's recipe was much drier than this one, so there will be further experiments - this has canned tomatoes to make it stew like.

Aloo Gobi

Ingredients:

1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or other light oil with high smoke point)

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1 bunch fresh cilantro - separate stalks from leaves - fine chop stalks and rough chop leaves

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp red pepper flake - adjust to taste

20 oz can crushed tomatoes and juices

1 head cauliflower - with florets separated into bite size pieces

5 medium potatoes - cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 cup water

1 inch piece of ginger, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

Directions

Heat oil in dutch oven - add the chopped onion and cumin to the oil. Saute until translucent.

Add chopped cilantro stalks, turmeric, sea salt and red pepper flake. Mix until well incorporated - almost to a paste.

Add tomatoes, ginger and garlic - stir thoroughly

Add potatoes and cauliflower - Add water and stir

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through

Add cilantro leaves

Turn off heat, cover and leave for about 30 minutes (if you can wait that long) The longer this stews, the better. If you can't wait, it is pretty tasty fresh from the stove too.

This is prior to stewing without heat, but still on the burner.

My son's portion - he wanted me to take a picture of his food since I took a picture of my food. This was too hot for him - next time, I'll probably use about 1/8 - 1/4 tsp of red pepper flake. I used red pepper flake instead of a chili thinking I could better control the heat.

Cat toy tutorial

2009-09-05T18:28:00.005-04:00

It seems that the kitties were not getting any love around here lately so I decided to use some of my scrap receiving blanket stash to make them a toy. I thought about making a simple ball, but then found this great rat toy template from Martha Stewart. The pattern is for a felt rat that is hot glued together. My cats would destroy that in minutes, so I opted to sew it, put some felt ears on it, fill it with catnip and fiberfill, and put a rope tail on it.

This is my first tutorial so please provide feedback and ask questions. I do recommend if you make this, make sure the kitties are not in the sewing room because they could not wait for it to be finished.

You can make this from scrap - I used a small rectangle of receiving blanket and about an inch square of felt for the ears. You also need a 3 inch piece of rope for the tail, a tablespoon of catnip, and two big handfuls of polyfil. Pattern pieces cut out - then I realized I have two of the same side so I cut a reverse of the rat side shape.

Cut a slit halfway into the ear, then fold over about 1/4". I then sewed a V shape into the ear so it would stick up a little bit.

Place right sides together of the two rat sides and sew with about 1/4" seam allowance - I did 1/8" so the rat would be bigger.

Turn the two sides right sides out, then mark two eyes and a nose with either chalk or a water soluble marker. I used the button hole foot (accidentally) but it worked really well. I did a very tight zig zag stitch for the eyes and the nose. This rat has no mouth, but you could add one - I just couldn't picture the rat's expression since I knew this was going to be a toy to torment kitties.

Turn inside out and sew the bottom on and leave about 2" at the base of the tail for turning and for stuffing.

Turn the mouse right side out, fill the nose with at least 1 Tbls of cat nip, then stuff with a washable polyfill. As you can see, the one kitty was ready for this to be done right away. They love catnip. My son had a great time stuffing the toy.

More stuffing - we used a chopstick to press it into the edges and get the mouse into shape. Stuff it loosely, not too full.

Once you finish stuffing, take a piece of rope about 3 inches long, insert into the opening. Tie a knot into the end of the rope. (Don't worry about the end past the knot fraying. Any products to prevent fraying would be toxic to the kitty.) Pin the rope into place so it does not move while you reinforce your seams. Fold the ends by the tail in and edge stitch around the rat on all sides. Reinforce the tail - sew straight over it a few times - this will be tugged on so you do not want to rat falling apart at the tail after you reinforced all those seams.

Final rat - cute little thing.

First examination of the toy... and to see who would win first chance at the kill...

And once it was caught... I am really glad I reinforced the tail because he started pulling on it with his teeth and pushing on the body - he was determined to pull the thing apart but it has held up for hours of play!

Train Shoe Holder

2009-09-05T11:58:00.007-04:00

This was a really fun project. With each new project, I learn a lot of lessons on what I would do next time, and this was no exception, except that I doubt I will make this one again, but who knows...

I got the pattern and instructions from the book Sew It Tonight, Give It Tomorrow, which ironically took me about 4 nights to finish. My son already loves it and kept checking on my progress daily. "Is the choo cho train finished now, mommy?" What better motivation than to have your two year old check on a project. Now having been a project manager in my previous life, and having these sort of projects - I will say that having a deadline slip with a two-year old is more intimidating than the call to a client to say that a deadline has slipped.

Shoe holder in action - my toddler loves putting things away so this is perfect because he didn't have anywhere that his shoes belonged other than the floor of his closet. Another step toward independence!

I had to include this because the cat really enjoyed this project too. This was the felt for the train wheels, and other black parts. There is enough left over from this and the car fleece from the car organize project that I can make another kitty bed.

Marbled Paper

2009-08-05T21:50:00.011-04:00

I found a post earlier last week on how to marble paper. It seemed very complicated based on the post, so I decided to simplify and make it toddler friendly. The original post is over at Design Sponge . My simplified instructions are below:

Materials and tools:

Acrylic Paint
Paper - cardstock and printer paper
2 cups liquid starch
2 tsp cream of tartar
large glass baking dish that will fit paper
Chopstick or bamboo skewers
Newspaper or vinyl tablecloth for work area

Process:

Step 1: Mix cream of tartar and liquid starch into the glass baking dish. I mixed both in a large measuring cup first so I could get the cream of tartar well incorporated, then poured into the baking dish.
Step 2: Add drops of acrylic paint to the baking dish. Some may fall to the bottom. The folks over at Design Sponge gave great tips on how to avoid this, but we were having too much fun to worry about that.

Step 3: Drag chopstick or skewer through the paint making swirls and designs. This is what will transfer to your paper.

Step 4: Place paper into baking dish for a few seconds, making sure you get the entire piece of paper to touch the starch.
Step 5: Remove paper, and set aside for a few seconds (this is why you need the vinyl tablecloth so you can set the paper down and not care about your surface.)
Step 6: Take the paper to the sink and thoroughly rinse the starch from the paper. The paint will not rinse away.

Step 7: Layout the paper to dry
Step 8: Iron the paper flat

Below are two samples from the batch we did. Some were very vibrant and swirly, others were faint and subtle patterns.

Poor Lil' "Pumato" Bug

2009-08-01T21:22:00.004-04:00

In our home, it has become customary over the years to remove any critter who finds there way into our home and put them outside. I say any critter, but truth of the matter is that this privilege has been reserved for amphibians, spiders, ladybugs, and a few other beneficial insects. Never before has this great honor been bestowed upon the infamous palmetto bug. If you live in Florida, you know how often these bugs come into houses and it has no bearing on your housekeeping skills. They come into the house in summer looking for water, they come into the house in the winter to avoid the cold. There is not much that can stop them. Many people refer to them as roaches.

This evening, as I went into the bathroom to check on a noise, I noticed a medium sized palmetto bug over by the shower. My typical reaction would be to look away and pretend I didn't see it, or to size it up and see if there would be a chance I could flush it. My son came into the bathroom right at this time, and walks right up to the bug.

He says, "Oh, poor lil bug."

I said, "yes, poor little bug." Obviously the little bug was sick because he had not moved much in the time we had been observing him. My son then asks if it is a big lady bug.

I said, "No - this is a palmetto bug." He squats down right beside the bug and looks like he is about to pet it, but instead just squats and looks.

He says, "I think he's dying." I concur and ask him what should we do about it.

He says "Awwww, poor lil pumato bug, he's dying."

I said, "Yes, he is dying and probably will not make it much longer."

My son then goes to get a cup from the bathroom counter, hands it to me and says, "He needs to go be with his family outside."

I tell him "Yes, we can take him outside to be with his family."

He repeats "He needs to be with his family so he can die."

So we coerced the "pumato" bug into the cup, carried him outside and placed him in a pile of mulch where my son believes the bug's family lives. As we head back into the house, he says "goodnight pumato bug."

I had no idea that we had taught our son that it is best to be with family when you are sick, and absolutely when you are dying. Simple lessons happen everyday.

Natural Homemade Deodorant

2009-07-17T23:08:00.006-04:00

5 - 6 Simple Ingredients to make a natural and homemade deodorant - and yes, it works, even in this hot, hot Florida humid summer.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Aloe Juice (or water)

1/4 cup Grain Alcohol, or Vodka

1/2 Tbls Chlorophyll

Zest of 1 Lemon

3 - 5 drops of Lavender Oil (or your favorite essential oil - pick one that compliments lemon)

3 drops Grapefruit Seed Extract (optional)

Yields 4 oz

Put all ingredients in a glass jar and let sit for 24 hours. Strain lemon zest, then pour into a 4 oz or larger spray bottle. Apply by spraying under arms. The alcohol content in this is no more than most other deodorants, so you can even use this right after shaving. The aloe helps for sensitive skin, but water works just fine.

What does each ingredient contribute:

Aloe Juice soothes sensitive skin and dilutes the alcohol
Alcohol helps extract the lemon zest and essential oils from the zest
Chlorophyll is the active deodorizing ingredient - some people take it internally to reduce all sorts of funky smells
Lemon is also deodorizing, plus the acid is neutralizing to sweat and it has a nice clean smell
Lavender Oil is antiseptic, cooling and mild
Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) is a preservative and anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. If you do happen to get a little funky in your pits, a little GSE will kill the bacteria, yeast, or whatever fungus you may have developed. The formula stays fine in a bottle for 6 weeks so you do not have to use GSE.

This is a pretty frugal formula too. I have not calculated the cost per batch yet, but I estimate it to be around $1 for the 4 oz which lasts me 6 weeks. Please note that in very hot and humid weather, or based on how much you personally sweat, you may have to reapply during the day. This formula is not very effective for workouts - but I have yet to really find something that is.

Car Organizer Project

2009-07-17T22:42:00.007-04:00

Nothing repurposed here - just a need to organize all the toys that have taken over the entire backseat of the car.

I took my son to the fabric store so he could pick out the fabrics and ribbons for this project. When I got home, I was able to complete this project in about 2 hours - 90 minutes of naptime and about 30 minutes after bedtime:)

This is a Joann Fabrics project - although next time I would have sewn the pieces together rather than use Heat N' Bond tape - I think it would have been just as easy because fleece does not seem to take to that stuff well. Also, I fear that with some minor wear, it may come apart, but maybe I am wrong....

4 pieces prepped for assembly

Final project laid out to torment kitties (one was camera shy - they other can't stand the ribbon)

Final product filled with toys. The bottom pocket is under the seat so might not be too practical at the moment, but it was large enough to fill with a few books.

On the green side of things, this fleece is supposed to be made from post consumer plastic bottles. Not sure what I think of that right now (and too serious a topic for right now), maybe a post for another time.

Coloring Rice

2009-07-15T23:15:00.008-04:00

Today, my son and I had an incredibly fun lesson in color! I have seen so many recipes online for how to color rice, so I thought what an inexpensive fun activity for a toddler to do while learning about color mixing at the same time. I altered it a little bit but the main idea is to take rice, cheap food color, a little rubbing alcohol and shake it in plastic bags. I don't have plastic bags in the house, so instead we used some of the remaining reusable plasticware with tight sealing lids.

Most sites recommend that only an adult should use the food color, but what fun is that? I kept a couple of rags close by, stripped my son down to his diaper (we would have used an apron or smock if it were not so hot today) and let him experiment and have some creative liberties.

I measured out enough rice to cover the bottom plus about an inch thickness in each bowl. I showed my son how to open the food coloring and how to resecure the lids (this may have been his favorite part).

First we did just single colors:

Adding red food color

The fun part of shaking and mixing the color

Making blue rice

mixing and shaking blue rice

Mixing colors to see what they make - we made a batch of purple rice, then this had almost all the colors in it and made a dark green colored rice.

I put the rice in baking pans for about an hour at 200 F, stirring occasionally. Then we poured the rice into storage jars for use later.

We already used our rice for a transfer activitiy. I took the rice that had spilled on the table while pouring it into storage jars and put it all in one bowl. Then left one of the baking dishes for him to ladle rice from the bowl to the baking dish. This kept him busy for about 45 minutes - just transferring rice from one dish to the other - maybe there should be a Zen rice ladle bowl set for adults.

transferring rice with a ladle

Reusable Produce Bags

2009-07-12T22:26:00.008-04:00

My new empty homemade produce bag!

In an effort to reduce consumption, I decided to make some of my own produce bags to take shopping. Whenever we are at the store, in the checkout lane, I look at these plastic bags of produce or bulk items and wonder why am I filling my cloth shopping bags with lots of little throw away plastic bags. At least the plastic grocery bags I do re-use for kitty litter changes, but these produce bags are so flimsy, they cannot be re-used (at least not in my house for anything I have thought to re-use). I bought a bag from reusablebags.com, but it was a little pricey for as much produce as I buy, and it seems to be a little burdensome to the cashiers when they have to open the bag to see what the item is so they can ring it up. I have tried training the cashiers that you can see the numbers on the stickers through the bag, but this is just more work than I want for a grocery store trip. So I decided to make my own bag. I can make several for a low cost, I can pick the fabric, and it is a great sewing project for someone needing some practice since I am a newbie at this sewing thing. My favorite color is purple, so I decided to buy some bright purple nylon mesh - very transparent, and quite sturdy. The drawstring is not so pretty, but it is simple unbleached cording. No need for a closure because friction keeps the bag secure.

No pattern needed - just pick the size of bag you want, cut, sew edges, then sew in a hem line so you can insert a drawstring. Tie a knot in the end of the drawstring and you are done. Simple project - pretty bags! My large bag can hold about 4 lbs of apples (pears, peaches, whatever really). And I have made some smaller bags to hold nuts, seeds and legumes. The holes in the netting are small enough that the things I buy do not fall through. I will probably also make a couple out of cheesecloth so I can put things like millet, quinoa, and rice in them too.

You may ask if this is much heavier than the plastic from the stores - I don't know the exact weight difference, but I do now that none of my bags weighs more than 0.1 oz. My calculations for average produce at about $2 per pound means that this bag costs me about one penny on the scale. If I go to Whole Foods, they give me a dime for re-usable bags, so I actually make $0.09 on each bag that I use. Not a bad buy really. I made 7 bags total from 1 yard of fabric which I bought on sale for $0.99. I spent about $2 on the drawstring, and I had the purple thread. This $3 investment will pay for itself within about 30 uses of the bags.

My new produce bag filled with 4 pounds of pink ladies!

Noah's Chocolate Cherry Brownies

2009-07-06T23:12:00.003-04:00

Must be something about chocolate and cherries this week in our house. I asked my son if he would like to help make brownies and of course since he is 2 he said he can do it himself. I got to help a little bit. I gave him guidelines and bowls to fill with the ingredients he chose (like which nuts, which fruits, which added flavorings, etc). This was really a fun afternoon and if I hadn't been watching him like a hawk, I would have some pictures to post too. This is what we ended up making:

Raw Chocolate Cherry Brownies - Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup raw pistachios

1/2 cup raw walnuts

1/2 cup raw almonds

1/2 cup raw cacao powder

2 vanilla beans - insides scraped

a pinch celtic sea salt

1 3/4 cups dates, pitted

1/2 cup dried tart cherries, unsweetened

2 Tbs agave nectar

Process nuts, cacao, vanilla and salt in a food processor fitted with the "S" blade to the consistency of a course meal. Add dates and cherries, and pulse until mix starts to come together in a dough. With food processor on, add agave nectar - this should help bind everything as well as sweeten. Press into a brownie or pie pan. Cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm them. Slice into squares or wedges.

Black Forest Ice "Cream"

2009-07-01T21:50:00.000-04:00

This is incredibly chocolatey and not too sweet. If you prefer more sweetness, you can definitely add more agave or dates. With ice creams, make sure that the pre-ice cream freezer mixture is sweet enough to your liking or even a little too sweet. For some reason, ice creams taste less sweet after they are frozen in the ice cream freezer.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for at least an hour in purified water (do not reserve the water)

1/2 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 cup agave syrup or mild date (such as halawi)

20 oz cherries, divided (pitted)

1/2 tsp almond extract, alcohol-free (optional)

Pre-freeze your ice cream freezer bowl overnight.

Take 1 cup of cherries, chop and put in a bowl in the refrigerator. These will be the chips for later. Drain cashews and add to high powered blender along with cacao powder and agave syrup (or dates). Blend on high until thick and creamy and no chunks of cashews are left. This should look like a very thick pudding. Add remaining cherries and blend again until creamy and no chunks. Taste at this point for sweetness. If it is not sweet enough add up to another 1/4 - 1/2 cup of agave or dates. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and set in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

Start the ice cream freezer, and pour the chocolate cherry mixture into the freezer. My ice cream takes a total of about 20 - 25 minutes depending on how warm the house is. Check the ice cream after about 10 - 15 minutes. When the mix is starting to set, add the chopped cherries. Adding them at this point will ensure you have an even distribution and that the cherries do not fall to the bottom of the freezer. Let the ice cream freezer run (according to manufacturers instructions) until mix is completely frozen. You can serve and enjoy at this point and the ice cream is like soft serve. Or spoon mixture into a freezer safe container, and freeze overnight so it sets up hard like carton ice cream.

Repurposed Receiving Blankets - Project 3 - Crayon Roll-up

2009-06-26T16:06:00.000-04:00

I found a pattern for making a crayon roll-up through Joann's fabrics which was the inspiration for this roll-up. My son has the twistable colored pencils and crayons - my hope was that those would be refillable, but alas just more plastic for the landfill. I wanted to give credit and post a link to the original pattern, but I can no longer seem to find it on their website. Anyway, it called for fleece and novelty patterns and is very cute. I decided to make mine from you guessed it - repurposed fabric. I also had to alter the measurements - I have only 12 pencils for mine and they are quite taller than standard crayons. I used the following:

2 cotton rectangles measuring 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" - this is the front and back material which in mine is the animal print (a repurposed crib sheet)

1 cotton rectangle measuring 10 1/2" by 12 1/2" - this is the pocket folded in half (so I did not have to hem the packet). Mine is the blue pocket which is a repurposed dress shirt of my husbands that is way too big on him now.

1 receiving blanket square measuring 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" - I used this instead of a fusible interface to give the roll some structure. I used a very faint pattern so it would not show through the back of the roll. The only things I bought for this project were a $0.50 roll of ribbon and some ric rac - I have only been sewing for about a month now and need to practice my trims and my edging. Luckily I am more critical than my son and he loves it.

This is the roll halfway rolled, half way unrolled:

All bundled up - view from the top:

And all bundled up on the side:

Hemp Milk

2009-06-25T21:45:00.000-04:00

Ingredients:

1/4 cup shelled hempseeds

1 cup water

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar or 1 medjool date

Directions:

Place all ingredients in the blender and whirl - this takes about 15 seconds in a high powered blender. Flavor with vanilla, honey, almond extract, etc. (if desired) Optional - strain using cheesecloth, a nut/seed bag or very fine sieve.

For a sweet treat - use 1/4 cup hempseeds, 1/2 cup water, and a very ripe frozen banana - tastes like a nutty banana milk shake!

Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce and Flax Bread Sticks

2009-06-25T18:06:00.000-04:00

This may be my sons favorite meal. I was making the zucchini noodles for me and some gluten free packaged pasta for him. After he saw what I had, he asked for "mommy noodles" and would much prefer these over packaged pasta.

Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

Pasta:

1 zucchini per person - spiraled with a vegetable spiralizer or you can use a vegetable peeler to make fettucini style noodles.

Sauce:

1/2 cup cashew chreese

1 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked for 1 hour (reserve soaking liquid)

1 large tomato

1 Tbls dried Italian herbs (I use a mix of basil, oregano, parsley, sweet fennel, and parsley)

Put all sauce ingredients in high powered blender and whirl until desired thickness. I prefer this to be smooth without any chunks. If it is too thick, add some sun dried tomato reserve liquid. If it is just right, then you can discard the reserve liquid.

Place zucchini noodles on a plate, top with a large spoonful of sauce. Top with parmezano if desired, and flax bread sticks. Serve right after plating otherwise the zucchini starts to release a lot of water and this will make for a soggy plate. Sauce is fine to keep as a leftover and will store for up to 3 days, but make the noodles fresh each time and right before dining.

Repurposed Receiving Blankets - Project 2 - Menstrual Pads

2009-06-25T17:49:00.000-04:00

I have purchased Lunapads in the past and I really could use a few extras. These are more like pantyliners than true pads. I just realized that I did not take a finished product picture - but took a couple along the way pix.

I made a pattern from one of my existing lunapads and added about 1/2 inch to the length of it because being almost 6 ft tall, I need a little more length there too :) I took the scraps from the diaper project and cut out enough fabric to make 2 pads - 2 large pieces that include the wings.

And the absorbent layer made from one layer each of receiving blanket, and shop towel. I then sewed the two layers together (the shop towel and the receiving blanket) right sides together, then turned them inside out, and top stitched the opening. Then I sewed this pad into the large pad with the wings and added velcro to the wings to secure. This is technically a reversible pad because it can be worn with either side up, and the velcro will secure either way as well.

Diaper Pail Deodorant Discs

2009-06-25T14:30:00.000-04:00

The deodorizer discs are working, and not just for the diaper pail. I stuck one behind the kitty litter box (for 2 kitties) and the discs are working tremendously there too. So here is the "recipe" for making your own deodorant discs.

Ingredients:

2 cups Baking Soda

1/2 cup water

10 drops Tea Tree Oil

10 drops Lavender Essential Oil (EO)

(I suppose you could use 20 drops of some other EOs but I am going for the properties of these oils)

Hardware -

2 glass bowls

a spoon

1 12 muffin tin - I say tin, but I only have a silicone one. If you use tin, I would line the pans with something to make it easy to get them out later, like silicone liners.

Directions:

Pour 2 cups of baking soda in a bowl. Mix water and EOs together in a separate bowl. Add water and EOs to the baking soda and mix until well incorporated.

The mix should be like wet sand, but not too wet - you just need it to clump so you can put it in the muffin pan.

Take approximately one large spoonful of the mix in each cup of the pan. Press the mix into the cups. I had my 2 year old do this job and he loved it - mashing a cup into the pan forms.

Set the pan in an area that will not be disturbed and is not very humid for about 24 hours. Remove the discs from the pan and place in the bottom of garbage pails, or anywhere you need a little extra deodorizing power.

These discs are a little fragile so handle with care. If they stop working - you no longer smell the pleasant smell of the oils, then you can always add a few drops of oil to the disc to refresh it. I am storing the extras in a glass container (so the oil is not absorbed into a plastic container) and in the back of the pantry so they are not jostled too much.

Diaper Pail Woes

2009-06-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

I have been having a battle with my garbage pail for what seems like an eternity. I have a liner in the pail, but I guess boy pee is just made to be super potent ammonia smelling. Maybe girl pee smells this bad too, maybe it is just toddler/baby pee but I can't seem to get the smell out of the pail. I wash diapers about every 2 days or so, I was the liner, and I wash the pail, then I leave it out in the sun most of the time to dry hoping the sun will bake the smell out - maybe the sun is baking the smell in. Then I throw about a quarter of a cup of baking soda in the bottom, and a few drops of tea tree oil. Back goes the liner, and we are off for another few days. Now mind you, this is not a cloth diaper issue - when we used disposables, we had the same problem, and moved the garbage can out to the garage. I don't want to move my cloth diaper pail into the garage. This cleaning method is just not working to my satisfaction, so I have tried something else - I really hope this works better. I made my own deodorizer "cakes" today from baking soda, water, tea tree oil and lavender oil. I mixed everything up, mashed it into a muffin tin, and set them out to dry. It should only take about a day for them to cake up. This way, I can put a cake in the bottom of the pail, as well as in the top of the little ball where you are supposed to put some sort of chemical deodorant that the company who makes the pail sells.

I took pictures - if it works after 2 days, I'll post the pix and the exact recipe.

Orange Banana Smoothe - Post Running Smoothie

2009-06-04T21:20:00.000-04:00

Everytime I finish a run, I crave this smoothie. I always keep about 5 peeled bananas in the freezer to add to smoothies - this is a great reason to do that.

Ingredients:

2 frozen bananas

3 medium oranges, peeled

Place all ingredients in high powered blender and whirl until creamy and smooth. Makes approx. 1 quart of smoothie.

Pina Colada Green Smoothie

2009-06-04T21:18:00.000-04:00

This is my son's favorite smoothie and we split it every morning for breakfast.

Ingredients:

1 large banana

4 cups of spinach

1/2 a large pineapple

1 Tbls coconut oil

Put all ingredients in a high powered blender an whirl until creamy and smooth. This makes abut a quart of green smoothie.

Why Do You Like to Break Your Toys?

2009-06-02T21:45:00.000-04:00

For the last couple of months, we have been giving our son toys that he immediately dismantles. This started happening just before he turned two. At his 2nd birthday, he did receive quite a few presents, and many which could easily be "broken." They are not really broken because they are easily repaired. We have even set up a toy hospital in our office. I did not want to come right out and ask "Why do you break your toys?" for fear of the accusational tone, as well as really hating to ask why questions ever of anyone - do any of us really know why we do things especially when we are put on the spot. How presumptuous of me to assume that he really is breaking his toys.

Finally, one day, as we were playing in my son's room, and he had dismantled most of his toy cars, I said, "It sure seems like you enjoy taking apart your toys."

His response "I do, mommy, I really do!"

"What is it that you like about taking apart your toys?"

"Learning to fix them and build them!"

I thought, "oh what I wouldn't do for an old fashioned erector set!" My family happened to be at IKEA the next day where we picked up a BYGGA - the Swedish version I guess of an erector set. We took it home and learned how to build a motorcycle from the set.

My son is learning to build things, and I am learning to assume that children have the best intentions at learning (not destructing).

No-Poo Update

2009-06-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

I love my no-poo hair! It has been over a month of very light experimentation. I figured out in the first week what works best for me is either every 2 or 3 days putting about 2 tsp of baking soda in a cup with about 1/2 cup of water and pouring that over my head to massage in is the best method, for me. I also have figured out that too many ACV rinses can leave my hair kind of greasy whereas no ACV rinses leave it full of static electricity, but only if I use the hair dryer. I tried lemon juice as a rinse and love how soft it left my hair. The only problem was I did not strain it, and I had lemon pulp in my hair for two days. So, my conditioning routine is now only weekly, and using strained lemon juice. The other benefit to the lemon juice is it provided some control to my hair like a mousse would. I have not used any hair products like hairspray, gel or mousse either since May 1. I could, but I don't feel any need. At this point, I see no reason to turn back to shampoo.

Repurposed Receiving Blankets - Project 1 - Contoured Baby Diaper

2009-06-02T20:54:00.000-04:00

I had (who am I kidding - have) several piles of receiving blankets ready to go before my son was even born. I had no idea what they were for, but everyone (really.. everyone!) with a child told me you can never have enough receiving blankets. I started to wonder after he was born if this is just some joke other moms play on new moms or moms to be to see how many blankets a new mom will collect. I never found a use for them as a blanket or otherwise.

When I started cloth diapering, I realized how silly it is to CD, but then use disposable wipes. So off to the stash of receiving blankets I went with my pinking shears to make my own wipes. 5 blankets later, and I have plenty of wipes that have lasted over 2 years now. I still have a large cloth grocery bag full of receiving blankets and now what do I do?

Project 1: Make my own contour cloth diapers

This weekend, I made my own pattern from one of my favorite pocket diapers and created a very cute reversible contour diaper. I have just recently begun sewing so this is a relatively simple project that anyone can do. I used 2 blankets, and 1 microfiber shop towel from a stash I bought a couple of years ago when we gave up papertowels.

Line up 2 blankets. Fold the blankets in half (or thirds). Line up the long edge of the pattern on the fold of the blanket. You should now have an outer layer and an inner layer. This is a contour diaper and will need a cover so it is okay that both inner and outer are absorbable material.
Cut out the soaker - I used a shop towel cut into a strip 4" wide by about 15" long.
Sew the soaker layers together - I didn't bother turning them inside out on this one - I figure it is inside the diaper where no one sees so it should be okay, and it didn't seem to feel uncomfortable through the other layers, so I think it is okay with my son too.
Lay the soaker layer inside one of the cutout blankets and line up so the center of the soaker runs down the center of the diaper and is about one inch from the bottom of the diaper.
Top stitch the soaker layer in place.
Lay right sides of the blankets together and sew together leaving about 3 inches on the top side so you can turn the diaper right side out.
Turn the diaper right side out, then fold under the opening. Sew together.
Voila! Contoured baby diaper! I did not do it on this pictured one, but I will be modifying it after the next wash cycle. I am going to go back and sew down the center of the soaker to reinforce the stitches and hold it together on both sides. I am also going to reinforce the edges by doing a top stitch around the entire diaper.

Parmezano

2009-06-02T20:50:00.000-04:00

This is more of a condiment recipe, but it is very versatile in application and incredibly simple to make. Use it anywhere or in any recipe calling for Parmesan Cheese.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup raw nuts or seeds - I prefer the flavor of raw pine nuts

1/2 cup nutritional yeast flake - if you can only find powder, then use 1/4 cup

1/2 tsp garlic powder

a pinch of sea salt

Put all ingredients in food processor and pulse until nuts are the texture of sand. If you have a high powered blender (like a Vita-mix) this takes about 20 seconds to make. Make sure you do not over grind, or you will get a nut/seed butter.

This is technically a raw transition food - some raw foodists treat nutritional yeast as a raw food, and others do not. It is up to you but right now it is part of my raw diet and is also enjoyed by my husband and son who are not on a raw diet.

We use this to top pizza, pasta, baked potatoes, popcorn, raw veggies, etc.

Getting Greener everyday

2009-05-20T18:59:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a company selling glass straws, Glass Dharma. Luckily, they had a promotion, so I actually got the straw for free, and just had to pay shipping. I thought, is a glass straw really that big of a deal to help reduce my consumption of plastic. Amazingly, it is! I go through at least one to two straws a day depending on how many smoothies I drink. Now I have a reusable glass straw that is very easy to wash. My son also enjoys using the straw, and prevents him from biting and squishing the end - we now have a straw he can use through an entire drink (and more).

Blueberry Cashew Creme Smoothie

2009-05-20T18:47:00.000-04:00

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours

5 halawi dates (or other dates - if using medjool, only 2 or 3 are needed)

1/2 cup water

2 cups frozen blueberries

Put first three ingredients in Vitamix and whirl until creamy. Add frozen blueberries and whirl again. More water may be added to thin consistency, but we like it nice and thick so it is more like a milk shake than a smoothie.

Broccoli and Olive Pizza

2009-05-13T18:48:00.000-04:00

This was a very quick dinner with some prepackaged foods - better than most take-out but not as healthy as what we typically eat.

Ingredients:

1 Pre-made Gluten-free pizza crust - I used Sami's Bakery which has the density of a deep dish pizza crust

5 oz. Vegan Gourmet Mozzarella

1/4 cup of Pizza Sauce (recipe below)

1/2 cup chopped broccoli

10 large olives, sliced or diced

Sauce:

1 14.5 oz can of organic diced tomatoes, strained - reserve liquid

1 Tbsp Italian seasoning

1 Tbsp sun dried tomatoes

Place diced tomatoes, italian seasoning and sun dried tomatoes in blender and whirl until everything is incorporated. If sauce is too thick, add some reserve liquid. If sauce is too thin, ad a few more sun dried tomatoes.

Preheat over to 425 F. Place pizza crust on cookie sheet. Top with sauce, broccoli, then shredded cheese. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until cheese begins to melt and crusts start to brown. Remove from oven and top with olives. Let cool. Slice and serve. 16 pieces.

Baby Wipe Recipe

2009-05-11T19:37:00.000-04:00

We cloth diaper, so why not cloth wipe too? I have been working on a wipe recipe for so long now and I finally have found one that does not irritate my son's skin, and yet kills/prevents any type of yeast.

Liquid Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup Aloe Vera Juice

15 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract (anti-fungal and a preservative)

5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil (or any flavor you like),

2 or 3 old receiving blankets cut into wipe size

old wipes container, or old casserole dish with a tight fitting lid

I tri-fold all my wipes, put them into an old wipe container, then pour most of the mixture over the wipes. They should be moist, but not drippy wet. Any leftover solution, I put into a spray bottle to use for a bottom spray during morning dipe changes.

Peanut Noodles

2009-05-11T19:27:00.000-04:00

We eat this dish as a substitute for mac & cheese - pictured are Deboles Gluten Free Corn Elbows, chopped broccoli, peas, and straw mushrooms in peanut sauce.

Ingredients:

12 oz to 1 pound gluten free noodles

4 cups of chopped veggies - I typically use a combo of broccoli, peas, straw mushrooms, mung bean sprouts and shredded carrots

Sauce:

1/4 cup peanut oil

4 green onions

2 inch piece of fresh ginger, minced

6 cloves of garlic, minced

Chili paste to taste, or cayenne pepper

1/4 cup of agave syrup (or brown sugar)

1 cup peanut butter

6 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

6 Tbsp Braggs Amino Acids

3/4 cup hot water

Boil pasta according to package. Put 4 cups of veggies in a colander. When pasta is ready to be strained, pour into colander - this is plenty of blanching for the veggies. In a sauce pan, heat peanut oil. Add green onions, ginger, garlic and chili paste. Cook and stir until soft and fragrant (about 1 minute). Mix in remaining ingredients. Stir until peanut butter is smoothed out. Serve garnished with the scallions, sesame seeds, and cilantro.

Freckled Green Smoothie

2009-05-07T20:28:00.000-04:00

Freckled Green Smoothie

2 frozen bananas

1 mango

1 large handful lambs quarters (edible weed)

1 large handful beet greens

1 cup water (if needed for blending)

Place all ingredients into a high powered blender (like a Vita-mix) and whirl for about one minute until everything is nice and creamy. Red flecks from the beet greens remain which is why I call this freckled.

Cucumber Orange Juice

2009-05-07T19:10:00.000-04:00

Whenever I find something that passes my son's taste test and that I enjoy as well, I am posting because it will become a staple in our home.

I was able to get about 15 pounds of overgrown cucumbers from a local organic farmer and while they taste great, they are very seedy and the skins are pretty tough. I decided to juice them, and so far my sons and my favorite combo juice is a simple cucumber orange.

Cucumber Orange Juice

2 cups Cucumber, washed, cut into chunks that will fit in the juicer (I use a Champion) Use organic cucumbers so that you can juice the peel as well.

2 cups Oranges, washed, peeled, cut into quarters and peeled. You can juice the peel and pith, but it will be a little bitter. I used Valencia Oranges - a really good juicing orange, but any orange will work.

Run all the fruit through the juicer, stir, strain and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes. This tastes best very cold but my son and I enjoyed it straight from the juicer as well.

Fun info about cucumbers and oranges

Cucumbers are beneficial for both skin and hair. The cucumber is high in silica - a mineral which strengthens connective tissue. The cucumber is best natural diuretic known, secreting and promoting the flow of urine. The potassium content of cucumber makes it highly useful for conditions of high and low blood pressure. Cucumber contains erepsin, the enzyme that helps to digest protein.

Consumption of large quantities of oranges will decrease the outpouring of mucus secretions from the nose. Oranges are very well known for thier high Vitamin C content, but also contains the following nutrients

Nutritive Values : Per 100 gm. of raw orange juice (acc. to nutritiondata.com - please not these are values for RAW OJ - once pasteurized, the vitamin and mineral content is significantly diminished)

Vitamin A - 496IU - 10% USRDA
Vitamin C - 124mg - 207%
Thiamin - 0.2mg - 15%
Riboflavin - 0.1mg - 4%,
Niacin - 1.0mg - 5%
Vitamin B6 - 0.1mg - 5%
Folate - 74.4 - mcg19%
Calcium - 27.3mg - 3%,
Iron - 0.5mg - 3%
Magnesium - 27.3mg - 7%
Phosphorus - 42.2mg - 4%
Potassium - 496mg - 14%
Copper - 0.1mg - 5%,

No-Poo??

2009-05-01T22:49:00.000-04:00

I have been researching ingredients in shampoo as it seems to be one of the last "beauty" products that we purchase. There are so many reasons to stop using Shampoo:

Shampoo is expensive
Shampoo is one of those products that I have not yet figured out how to purchase without also consuming new plastic containers with each purchase.
Chemicals in shampoo irritate and dry out your scalp and hair.
Toxic chemicals in shampoo are absorbed through the skin - your scalp!
The body produces oil to naturally condition your hair and keep it healthy. Shampooing upsets this process and causes the scalp to produce more oil than necessary to compensate for this stripping of the natural oil.

Now that I have decided to go "No-Poo," what is the next step? Today is day 1 of "no-poo" for me and I decided to go the baking soda (BS) and apple cider vinegar (ACV) route. I took about a tsp of baking soda in my palm, added enough water to make a thin paste, then rubbed it in to my scalp at the crown. There is no lather, so to distribute the paste throughout my scalp, I gave myself a scalp massage with my finger tips. This seemed to work pretty well. I thought it would be hard to rinse out, but it came out better than shampoo ever has. I then took about a tablespoon of ACV in my hand and tried to just add this to the tips of my hair. This was awkward so I will probably just dilute and rinse over my entire head next time. Come to think of it, maybe that is how I will mix the baking soda as well.

I am taking some pictures over time as well - I have heard that there is a scalp detox period that can be kind of yucky, but that if I tough it out, the rewards will be worth it.

Oh - and if you are wondering if I smelled like vinegar all day, I did not. ACV does not have that typical strong smell that white vinegar has. And if you have ever mixed baking soda and vinegar to make that wonderful foam, that did not happen on my head either - so I assume I was able to rinse all the baking soda completely.

Raw Chocolate Brownies with Caramel Sauce

2009-05-01T22:13:00.000-04:00

I was really craving chocolate tonight so I whipped up these "brownies." They have a strong cacao taste but the flavor of the walnuts still comes through as well. If you do not care for walnuts, you can use other nuts that are not quite as strong.

Raw Chocolate Brownies

Makes 12 brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup raw walnuts

1 cup raw almonds

2/3 cup raw cacao powder

1 Tbs agave nectar

2 cups dates

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp celtic sea salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Press into a brownie or pie pan. Cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm them. Slice into squares or wedges. These are very rich so cut them small. Serve with Raw Caramel Sauce.

Raw Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup raw agave nectar

5 dates, pitted

1 tsp celtic sea salt

1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla (to taste)

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Put all ingredients in Vitamix or other highspeed blender and blend for 20 - 30 seconds on high. Place in container and chill for at least 2 hours. Drizzle over brownie wedges/squares.