I swear, this is not turning into a food blog.  I’ve just been in the mood to cook, bake, eat.  I had been wanting to try these tortillas for so long and finally did.  They peaked my interest because they use walnuts and oatmeal as the fat instead of oil, shortening or lard.

Now, I grew up on homemade tortillas, so I have a pretty strong idea of what a good tortilla looks and tastes like.  These ended up being quite good, but nothing like grandma’s.   I did add 1 tsp of baking powder to make them softer, lighter and less dense, which I think helped.

I will make them again because the kids devoured them.  And it warms the house so nicely when I cook on the cast iron griddle. Between these and my grandma’s recipe, I won’t be able to buy any more store brand tortillas again.

I had to share to latest obsession.  I’ve been making these nori hand rolls for lunch, pretty much all week.  They are so yum.

Nori is the perfect vehicle for so many things.  I put avocado, brown rice, carrots, sprouts and cilantro in mine, with a spray of bragg’s.  My friend Alexandra came over the other night for dinner and we had these with corn bread, roasted chickpeas and roasted asparagus.  It was such a great meal with lots of great conversation. I hadn’t seen my friend in over a month and we had lots of catching up to do. It was so great to see her and reconnect.

I’m always looking for semi-healthy snacks for the kids- things that are not processed and full of sugar. We eat loads of fruit, but I like having chewy and crunchy things to munch on too.

I’ve also been experimenting with sugar alternatives like brown rice syrup. I already use maple syrup and agave nectar here and there and try to use them more in my baking.

I’ve had this recipe for “sports bars” from a Bon Appetite magazine circa 2002. The original recipe calls for corn syrup, which I substituted with brown rice syrup and agave. The results were excellent. The kids love them too. Of course, they would prefer if I put chocolate chips in them too.

Here is the recipe:
3 cups puffed whole grain cereal (such as Kashi)
1/2 cup nuts (any kind, I used cashews & sunflower seeds because that’s what I had)
1/2 – 3/4 cup assorted dried fruit (I used chopped apricots & golden raisins)
1/3 cup creamy nut butter (peanut, almond, sunflower or cashew – any kind will work)
1/4 cup agave (or honey)
1/4 cup brown rice syrup

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Coat 9-inch square metal baking pan with oil, margarine or butter.  Mix cereal, nuts and dried fruit in medium bowl.  Combine nut butter, agave & brown rice syrup in heavy small saucepan.  Bring to boil, whisking constantly until mixture bubbles vigorously and thickens slightly, about 1 minute.  Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal mixture in bowl; stir to blend.  Transfer mixture to prepared pan; press to compact.  Bake until just golden around edges, about 8-10 minutes.  Cool completely.  Cut into bars.   Store in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!!

I made these little name plaques for a friend who will be visiting her nephews this weekend. She wanted to give them a gift for their rooms.I finished them up with ribbon for hanging.

We also picked up our CSA produce today to find these giant rutabagas. The box said, “do not fear the rutabaga”. Ha! I thought that was cute. We peeled them, and cut them into “fries” and roasted them with a bit of oil and salt. They were very yummy–nothing to fear at all.

We’ve been having a wonderful Valentine’s day. First we started out with heart pancakes.

Then gift exchanging — vegan chocolates for me from Sweet Fritsy and a stitched up Valentine for my hubby (and his bike riding butt).

A trip up the mountain for a picnic lunch and play in the snow with the kids. We feasted on heart shaped pasta salad and chocolate, cream cheese brownies.

For dinner, some take out Chinese to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  We are making a Dragon now, and I made these adorable little felt fortune cookies to handout to my friends at work last Friday.

Tonight, some love potion…  Herbal infused brandy mixed with chocolate syrup, rose water and vanilla. The recipe is from Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal.  It took weeks to brew (or infuse). It’s really tasty and will be served with organic strawberries.  Yum.

Hope you had a beautiful and love filled Valentine’s day.

I made bread today using this recipe, as per all buttoned up. Not surprisingly, it’s halfway gone already. Two hungry boys and one hungry man will do that to a loaf (or two).

I made these same modifications, but used brown rice syrup as the sweetener because I didn’t have enough of anything else. Oh wait, I did have maple syrup. That probably would have worked too.

It came out deliciously wonderful. I made one regular loaf and one cinnamon raisin by rolling one into a long rectangle and spreading on earth balance with a bit of brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins. Divine.

I have put the bread away, trying to save a bit for tomorrow, and maybe even Monday (wishful thinking). Already there have been requests for more future bakings.

I’ve been quiet over here.  I’v been immersing myself in the Mondo Beyondo experience and feeling a tad overwhelmed by my own dreams. It’s okay though. I feel I am growing.  Trying to let go of unwanted baggage and opening myself up to the unknown.   Scary, but at the same time very exciting. I am learning so much in this e-course, mostly about myself and how to manage my fears, my anxiety, my critical voice.  It’s everything I expected and so much more.

I’m also reading my new books having a hard time focusing on much else.  My cold house (my husband will laugh- he’s warm, I’m cold) is making me sluggish, slow to move. I think I inherited a cold gene. I just want to sit with a book and my layers and layers of clothes–not moving–which is exactly what I SHOULDn’t be doing.  But, I’m keeping warm with my tea and some deeply warming soup.  Here is the recipe in case you need some warming up too.

Handful of dried wild mushrooms (Trader Joe’s has a great mix)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped,
1 inch of peeled ginger root
1 tbsp mellow yellow Miso
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp onion powder
Udon noodles
1 handful of baby spinach leaves

Bring 4 cups water to a boil, add everything except noodles and spinach. Turn heat down to simmer, add noodles. Simmer for 8-12 minutes testing noodles for doneness. Remove ginger piece and add one handful of spinach. Simmer for 1 more minute. Serve & enjoy.

I’ve had this incredible desire to knit, which I’ve only done a teeny bit of.  Mostly I crochet.  My first project was a beanie, on the round.  It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.  You Tube helped a whole bunch.  First I watched this, then I accidentally dropped a stitch and found this.  Thank goodness! I thought all was lost. I am half way through my second beanie now.

Then I had to make this delicious popcorn.  My first attempt was disasterous. I used a very heavy bottomed pan which kept cooking the syrup after I turned off the heat, making it burn all too quickly.  The second batch was much better, but oh so close to becoming burnt like the first. Next time I will add some nuts and watch it very, very closely.  Yes, there will be a next time…

Prepping for a tamale dinner with our friends.  Vegetarian & vegan tamales. Some with cheese, some with mushrooms and some with zucchini.

Drinks: Cranberry Ginger Shrub cocktails, adapted from Vegan Knitting

Combine 1 cups cranberries, 1/2 cup coursely shopped and peeled ginger in sauce pan with 2 cups apple cider vinegar.  Bring to boil and then pour everything into glass bowl with lid.  Allow to sit for at least 24 hours.  Next day, strain mixture into saucepan with 1 1′2 cups sugar, juice and zest of one lemon and 1 orange.  Bring to boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool and pour into bottle.

Mix with club soda 1:1 and add a shot of vodka for a nice yummy cocktail.

Cookies for dessert. They are mostly from Isa’s new book, but a couple of the recipes are available on her site. I made our favorite Anzac biscuits, Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows (to die for!!), gingerbread snaps(not shown), and Kahlua BonBons.  All vegan of course. You can click on the links to see the recipes.

The bonbons I made myself, modified a recipe I saw in a magazine and had tucked away in my head. They were easy, no bakes dipped in chocolate and drizzled with coffee flavored icing. YUM!

Chocolate Kahlua Bonbons

20 chocolate sandwich cookies with cream filling (oreos or Jojo’s)
1 1/2 cup roasted pecans, walnuts & almonds
2-3 tablespoons Kahlua, coffee flavored liquor or strong coffee.
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp maple syrup

Pulse cookies & nuts in food processor to a fine crumb. Add everything else and pulse to combine.  Shape mixture into 1″ balls. Place on plate and pop into freezer for 1 hour.  After the 1 hours is complete, melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 2 tsp shortening.  Dip balls and place on plate.  Drizzle with a mixture of 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1-2 tsp strong coffee or Kahlua.

Enjoy!!

Decide to take a break from making art today.  I started making my ornaments for Amy’s swap, but lost energy by noon.  Hopefully I’ll have my ornaments ready to show on Monday.

Instead, I-guy and I ate some yummy strawberry soup (which is really called bright pink fruit dip) for lunch. The recipe is from this awesome cookbook, which always seems to be laying open somewhere.  The kids love to play pretend cooking with it because it has all the ingredients and instructions all nicely drawn out.

He had his soup set up exactly like the book said to and I had some in a bowl topped with nuts, bananas, chopped pears and apples.

It was pretty yummy.  Since both I-guy and I have dairy intolerance issues, we used soy yogurt and tofutti cream cheese instead.  We decide next time to add some blueberries and make purple soup!