I have been craving cherry and chocolate all week!  I have been eating very well and am trying to stick to that, but somehow also include cherries and chocolate. I finally came up with a plan and totally fit the bill. Healthy, crunchy, chewy, sweet with hints of chocolate and cherries.  They are YUM!

1 cup oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup raw almond butter,
1/4 cup agave nectar (honey or maple syrup would work too)
1 handful dried cherries (or other dried fruit of choice)
1 handful pecans or walnuts
1 handful pumpkin seeds
1/2 bar (about 1-2 oz) of dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Throw everything into the food processor and process until everything comes together in a big ball. Roll into bite size balls. makes 20-24. Enjoy!

Indoor plant markers of all the grandkids for my mom.

Cranberry Shrub for our friends. Shrub is a sweet vinegar syrup that you mix with seltzer water and sometimes vodka, if you like.  I’ve made it before and I make it every year for our friends.  It’s a big hit.

Recipe:
Combine 1 cup cranberries, 1-2 inches coarsely chopped 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.

This can be made using cherries or rhubarb (without ginger) instead of cranberries. I’m trying cherries the next time they are in season~yum!

I also made hand warmers, photo note cards, a little bit of jewelry and a lot of baked goods.

Now, I’m off to work on my word of the year!

I was inspired by my cup of coffee today.

Yes, I am back on the coffee wagon.

It’s December and it’s cold, demanding a hot cup of coffee, right?

And it’s a Peppermint Cafe Mocha.

How could I resist that!

1 spoon full cocoa powder or syrup mixed with agave nectar (or sweetener of choice) and a splash of hot coffee and mix thoroughly.

Add your coffee and creamer.  Stir.

Add 1-2 peppermint candies ( I LOVE Bob’s Sweet Stripes) and stir until dissolved.

It’s really good without the cocoa too!

Enjoy!

1. red wine, 2. whole wheat roles, 3. massaged kale salad, 4. mashed potatoes, 5. maple pecan sweet potatoes, 6.creamy corn casserole, 7. Bryanna’s seitan roast and 8. corn bread stuffing (not shown: cranberry sauce and mushroom gravy)

I promised to show a few friends, that I do have a lot of food to eat on Thanksgiving day. I am so thankful that I have the choice to be vegan and have an abundance of delicious foods to choose from every single day. I was so full after dinner, that I could barely squeeze in a sliver of pumpkin pie (also not shown) into my poor aching belly (I had to make sure it tasted okay!!!).  It was all soooooo GOOD!

Hope you had a great and abundant day too!

I had to buy Isa & Hope’s now Vegan Pie in the Sky book.  It’s beautiful and totally yummy.  Not for those allergic to nuts, though.  Nuts are used a lot for the creamier pies.  They all look delicious. First on the list is pumpkin, of course.

Then there is Nava Atlas’ Vegan Holiday Cooking.  Beautiful recipes divided into sections by holiday.  It’s really fabulous, the photos are delicious and recipes look really good.  I have picked a couple for tomorrow from it as well.

At the library I found, Clean Start  by Terry Walter, after reading about it here.   Another beautifully laid out book, divided into sections by season.  I am looking forward to diving into some of the recipes in here.

Uncertainty:Turning Fear and Doubt into Fuel for Brilliance, by Jonathon Fields is about taking that huge leap of faith to follow your dreams.  I haven’t read much yet, but it certainly is inspiring. If I could just tack on another 2 hours to my day, to just read, that would be really helpful!  There is a huge waiting list for this book at the library, so I have to read it before it is due, because I won’t be able to renew!

I have really been into whole, vegetarian foods lately, but occasionally I like to indulge in something like coffee with a good creamer.  Now, I have had only 4 or 5 cups of coffee in the last six weeks (which is really good for me), so when I have a cup, I like it to be creamy, sweet and delicious. Lucky for me, I received some Good Karma Creamers in the mail to sample.  Their website states the benefits to be: Organic, Lactose Free, Gluten Free, Non Dairy, Trans Fat Free, Vegan, Supports Green Farming. I am here to report that they deliver in creaminess, taste and I love that they support sustainable agriculture.   They probably don’t taste too much different than Silk brand, but they come in a larger size, and will be perfect for our non-vegan friends and family that are coming to visit for the holidays.  The hubby and I gave these a big thumbs up!

Lastly, I just had to share my beautiful bowl of pomegranate seeds and some of my new favorite food blogs. They are all so beautifully done. I love reading them and getting inspired to make delicious food. mmmmm……

Have cake, will travel
Green Kitchen Stories
My New roots
Beauty that moves

Enjoy!!

Thank you so much for all the get well wishes. I am feeling much better today.  I have a really long history of getting a nagging cough after a cold, but I didn’t cough once last night and very little today. Amazing!

I thought I’d share some of my favorite natural remedies with you.

1.  Lots of rest and water (avoid alcohol, caffeine and sugar).

2. Tea: My favorite tea to drink when I’m coughing or have a sore throat is ginger, lemon and honey with a pinch of cayenne pepper.  I also like to drink echinacea teas by Yogi or Traditional medicine. Garlic tea with a bit of lemon and honey is really good too.

3. ACV tonic: I think raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar is the greatest thing ever.  We gargle it straight for sore throats, and the sore throat is gone.  I like to mix 1 tbsp ACV, lemon juice from half a lemon and a spoon of honey. Add warm or cold water and sip. This helps me when I feel a cough attack coming on. It tastes like an expensive Kombucha drink that you buy at the store. My boys will even drink it.

4. Garlic broth:  This is Dr. Weil’s recipe.  I make it often every winter.  It’s a great base for any soup. 6 cups vegetable broth, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 large head of garlic, peeled and slightly crushed, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp ground sage (optional), 1/2 tsp ground thyme(optional), salt to taste.  Simmer everything together for 30 minutes then remove garlic pieces and bay leaf. Add any other ingredients you like.

5. Elderberry Syrup:  I made some last year, and just got my berries for this year’s supply. It is a must have in my house.  Everyone loves it.  It is soothing to the throat and super tasty.

6. Echinacea tincture: I am a firm believer in echinacea.  I am making a tincture now.  You can learn how to make your own here.  I also add the dried root to my elderberry syrup when it is simmering.

7. Neti Pot: Using one can be incredibly effective for flushing out the nasal cavity and bringing loads of relief to headaches, facial pain, and clogged nasal passages.

8. Eucalyptus steam and chest rub: Eucalyptus is an anti-viral, antibacterial, and anti fungal compound. I make a chest rub with 1/2 cup almond or olive oil, 1 heaping tbsp beeswax beads, 20 drops of eucalyptus and 10 drops of peppermint.  Melt it all together and then pour it into a jar and allow to cool. It it divine and the kids love the smell of it, along with a good therapeutic rub on their back and chest…and don’t forget the soles of your feet!

9. ZAND Herbal Lozenges.  Elderberry Zinc and Insure Herbal are my favorite. They are made with brown rice syrup and are very soothing for a dry, scratchy throat.

10. Lots of get well wishes from friends. (thank you, they helped a lot!)

It’s muffin season around here. The kids love muffins in their lunches (and sometimes for breakfast). One little guy loves banana and the other zucchini, so I have to make two big batches every time.   They are lucky I love to bake, but I am still searching for the perfect muffin that they will both love.

I recently made these peanut butter banana oatmeal muffins, but only one little guy like them.  Next I plan to make pear, then pumpkin, and then maybe peach! There is bound to be something. But who’s going to eat all these muffins if my picky little eaters won’t eat them? That’s what daddies are for, I guess.

October is Vegan Month of Food(VeganMoFo) and so I wanted to share this apple cake I made a while back, after our trip to the apple orchards.

After doing some major indulging over the weekend, and the last month actually, I’ve been cutting back big time on portions and snacking, in hopes of saving myself of heavy-weight heartache come January.  So I’ve eliminated coffee (my gateway drug to over eating) and am keeping away from excess snacking (hello fruit!).

So, posting this delicious, gorgeous, amazing, decadent cake is well, um, kinda  like torture. But, I had to post it because it’s too good not to share, right?

I used THIS recipe (via pinterest) and veganized it.  I seasoned my skillet with coconut oil, which worked great, used earth balance, a good vegan cake recipe, and ta-dah!  Iron skillet apple cake.  It just screams autumn, don’t you think?

a little bit of chocolate

a little bit of homemade vegan caramel sauce

and a lot of vegan ice cream.

The ice cream was a simple recipe made of coconut milk, sugar and vanilla. That’s it! Mixed it, cooled it and put it in the ice cream maker and ta-daaa!!–delicious, creamy ice cream. Recipe is HERE.  The caramel is a basic caramel sauce recipe, but I used my cashew creamer instead of heavy cream. It was pretty tasty too!

Just trying to keep it cool around here!

It has been dreadfully hot around here. 105 degrees, humid, uck! This is the hardest part of the year for me. My mind is starting psychologically cool down, but the weather isn’t quite there yet. We still have another month (maybe two) to go before we get to start enjoying “fall” weather.  I cannot wait!!  They are predicting a drop to 99 degrees by next Wednesday.  Whooopeee! Well, it is preferable to what is predicted for tomorrow: 108!!!

So it rained a couple of nights ago, for an entire 15 minutes, which seemed reason enough for me to do some baking.  The kids are wanting their baked goodies for lunch, but I haven’t wanted to turn the oven on much. So, I decided I’d do a quick baking session and make some gold star crackers in stead of gold fishies, which seemed more fitting with school starting, and all.

Anyway, the recipe is easy enough and the kids LOVED them.  I’ll be making them again, maybe in a couple of months.