Rabbit Food

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crisp

Juda, another volunteer that works on Spring Creek Farm, shared this awesome recipe for a rhubarb crisp in our CSA newsletter.  I substituted half of the rhubarb with strawberries and it was spectacular.

Here is her recipe (with slight variations to make it vegan):

6 c. raw rhubarb * Large pieces will have to be peeled first* cut into 1/2” slices (I substituted half of the rhubarb with strawberries) 

3/4 c. sugar

3 T. flour

Mix well, and pour into a buttered or margarine-d (or not) 9” X 12” baking pan.  

Combine 1/2 c. walnuts or almonds or both

1 c. oats

1 c. flour

1/3 c. packed light brown sugar (or equivalent of agave nectar, stevia, etc.)

1/3 c. margarine

1/2 t. cinnamon

pinch salt

Sprinkle crumble mixture on top of fruit slurry mixture. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. 

   

I served it à la mode with Good Karma Rice Divine vanilla ice cream.

Yum!

Granola Bars

 

Granola bars are god's gift to humanity.  Either as breakfast, a snickity-snack, or a healthy dessert, I seriously eat one just about everyday.

Here is a recipe for some especially yummy bars from Healthy. Happy. Life.  They taste so much better than store-bought granola bars, they are way cheaper, and you can throw in whatever ingredients you have lying around or make substitutions galore until they fit your tastes.

Kitchen Sink Granola Bars

Ingredients:

2 C. Steel cut oats
2/3 C. Wet sweetener (Agave Syrup or Maple Syrup)
1/4 C. Another variety of sweetener (wet or dry)
4 Tbsp Vegan buttery spread
1/2 C. Flax seed meal or wheat germ, pan toasted
1 1/2 C. Dried fruit assortment
1 C. Unsweetened shredded coconut (or more fruit/grains)
1/2 C. Whole nuts (for chunky texture)
1 C. Chopped nuts (assorted)
1/2 C. Seeds (sunflower, sesame, poppy, etc.)
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
*adjust salt based on how many of your nuts are pre-salted
spray canola or olive oil

optional: 
*thin layer of dark chocolate chips as a topping
*Substitute half the buttery spread with a nut butter such as almond or peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Layer parchment paper or foil in a square casserole dish. Grease the insides with canola or olive oil.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add the oatmeal, coconut and nuts and toss well. Transfer this dry mix to the casserole dish. Spray a bit of spray oil on top of dry mix-this will aid the toasting process.

4. Place dish in oven to toast for 10 minutes.

5. Over low heat, toast your flax seed meal or wheat germ in a dry pan for about 1 minute. Transfer toasted meal to large mixing bowl.

6. Stove top: Place a soup pan over high heat. Add the buttery spread, liquid and dry sweeteners, vanilla extract, salt and cinnamon. Heat until it has melted together and becomes bubbly. Turn heat to low.

7. Measure fruit and seed ingredients and place in large mixing bowl. Toss well.

8. By now, your ten minute oat/coconut/nut mix should be just about lightly toasted. Pull the casserole dish out of the oven Carefully transfer the toasted mix into the large mixing bowl.

9. Next, pour the butter/sugar hot liquid into the mixing bowl. Stir well until the mixture is thick, firm and well combined.

10. Pour the entire mixture into your lined casserole dish. Add any toppings (chocolate/crushed nuts/other).

What's Been Cooking

 I've been pretty swamped the past few weeks, so honestly, a lot of what I've been eating is not so photo-worthy.  It's been a of quick meals eaten on the run, although I think I've perfected the art of jazzing-up a boca burger in fifteen minutes flat.

Still, there were some yummy dishes created around here that are in need of sharing:

Autumn Root Salad with Warm Maple-Fig Dressing From Veganomicon

 

This scrumptious salad is incredibly filling and features roasted beets, sweet and purple potatoes.  The combination of all these root-veggies gives a really nice, earthy taste to the salad, but the real show-stopper here is the dressing.  With maple syrup, plenty of figs, balsamic vinegar, and a tad of dijon mustard served up nice and warm, you'll want to eat this dressing like a soup!

 Vegan Gurrrl-Scout Style Thin Mints

 

Thin Mints!  Need I say more?

Plenty of Loaves of Home-Made Bread

 

Our poor bread-maker had been lying dormant for ages, but we finally decided to bust it out a few weeks ago.  Since then, bread has been vanishing around here in record time ,and we're excited to experiment with different additions of grains, fruits, and nuts.  

Snippets from My Show

Greetings everyone!

Here are some snippets from my show this weekend at Wilde's Chateau 24.

 

   

  

The show went nice and smoothly.  I felt so lucky to have such a great turnout, and especially to have my close friends and family all in one place!  Thanks to all of you that came out, talked a little art, drank a little wine, and ate a little a lot of these (so that I couldn't eat them all!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups 

 The recipe for these devilishly-tasty treats is from Alicia Silverstone's new nutrition/ cookbook, Kind Diet.  I haven't bought the book yet, but you can snatch-up the amazing recipe here.

There were a few other goodies including:

No Bake Cookies

 

Robert's Empanadas

 

And another batch of Raw Cashew Ranch Dressing from The Sunny Raw Kitchen.

 

I'm scheming up another show for this summer-possibly during First Fridays in Kansas City-with newer and more work. So if you are nearby and missed this opening, keep you ear to the ground for the next one.  I'll keep you posted.  In the mean time, this work will be up for at least another month.  So feel free to drop by The Chateau and check it out.

TLT Salad, Raw Ranch Dressing, and Fudge Baby Party

Hey guys!  Here is an amazing dinner I had recently brought to you by the goodness that is the vegan blogging community.  While I try to continue to experiment with mixing up tasty meals on my own, it's great to have such a fabulous resource for recipes, as well as an abundance of information about food, nutrition, and health.  The village keeps growing and it makes me happy to be a part of a movement geared toward healthy living, sustainability, and animal rights.  This great food would not have been possible without the creative minds behind a few of my favorite blogs.

TLT (Tempeh, Lettuce, and Tomato) Salad with Raw Ranch Dressing

Thanks to Mindy and Jessica from Veg Out With Us , I made an amazing TLT, (tempeh, lettuce, and tomato) salad, with "tempeh bacon" strips.  I had never had or made tempeh "bacon" before, but after one bite I was cursing myself for not jumping on the wagon sooner.  Following Jessica's lead, I topped my garden-party with some Raw Ranch Dressing from The Sunny Raw Kitchen.  Oh my goodness!  Just as Carmella claims, this has to be the best dressing I've ever had!  Go make it now!

I  finished dinner with some of Chocolate-Covered Katie's amazing fudge babies.  The creative and ever-ingenious Katie discovered a method to recreate the recipe for Lärabars at home.  Lärabars are such a god-send.  They are packed full of vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, and healthy-fats and contain only natural, whole ingredients. Plus they so absolutely mouth-watering and satisfying, you'd never know you were being so good.

Katie did a great job playing mad scientist.  These little babies are not only delicious, but like Lärabars, they are super-nutritious; they are totally raw and contain only four ingredients.   You can also whip up a big batch and enjoy them at only a fraction of the cost of store-bought Lärabars.  I opted for her cookie-dough variety and drizzled them with some organic, dark-chocolate syrup. She spells out the recipe here.  All you need to do is throw some cashews, dates, chocolate chips, and vanilla extract in a blender or food processor, and bam!  You're good to go.  Yum!

When Life Feels Sucky, It's Time To Make Cookies

I'm trying really, really hard to harness the positive energy I so liberally spewed during The New Year Post awhile back, 'cause man, things have been kinda sucky lately.  Not to a devastating, life-shattering, crawl- into- a- corner level of suck-ta-tude, but close.  So when the last straw arrived yesterday morning, I threw up my hands, walked into the kitchen, and exclaimed "screw it, I'm making cookies." I mean, who doesn't feel better after a couple cookies?  This rainbow mug also helps.

Vanilla and Almond Biscotti, Dipped in Dark Chocolate from Nonna's Italian Kitchen

 

Ingredients:

    1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    1 tablespoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 cups unbleached cane sugar

    3/4 cup smooth unsweetened applesauce

    1-3 tablespoon vegetable oil

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    1 teaspoon almond extract

     1 1/2 cups almonds, toasted and chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven the 325°F.

Lightly oil two cookie sheets.

Use double layer shiny ones, if you have them.

If yours are very black, line them with foil.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, applesauce, oil (1 TBS for a hard biscotti, 2-3 TBS for a softer biscuit), and extracts.

Stir the sugar mixture into the flour mixture, add the nuts; finish mixing with your hands.

With floured hands, shape the dough into two 3-inch wide "logs" about 3/4 inch thick, with the ends squared off.

Place these on the cookie sheets.

Bake the logs for about 25 minutes.

Remove the pans and reduce the oven heat to 300°F.

Cool the logs on a rack for 15 minutes.

Cut the logs carefully with a sharp knife straight across into 1/2 inch wide slices.

Place the slices cut side down on the cookie sheets (you can remove the foil, if using).

Bake 5-10 minutes, or until golden on the bottom.

Turn the slices over and cook 5-10 minutes more, or until golden on bottom.

Cool on racks, then store airtight for up to two weeks.

 Basic No Bakes

 

    Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine (Earth Balance)

    2 cups sugar (white or brown)

    1/2 cup soy milk

    4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

    1/2 cup peanut butter

    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

    3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

In a large pot, bring margarine, sugar, milk and cocoa to a boil.  Stirring constantly, let boil for 1-2 minutes until mixture is completely melted. Do not over boil.

 Take mixture off heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla until completely melted. Stir in oats.

 Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto cookie sheets lined with wax or parchment paper and allow to cool. When cool, turn cookies over to dry the bottoms.

Store in an airtight plastic container in the refrigerator.

The Last of Portland

I'm dwindling down to the last of  my Portland food photos, but I'd like to start off by sharing some of my favorite things we saw while strolling around the city.  We spent a lot of time simply moseying, and for this I'm quite thankful considering all the eating I've been speaking of lately.   With my tendency to halt every other block to snap a photo, we were out of doors much of the day, and I must say, I was really impressed with Portland's weather.  Even the rain seemed pleasant, misty and light, but perhaps I'm just in love with Portland and everything she does is graced with baby's breath and sunshine.

 

Robert makes a fine Dostoevsky .

 

 

So jealous of Portland's abundant moss coverings.  We don't get much of dem der in Kansas.

 

 

I refused to accept this sight as a bad omen (it was almost my bday when this photo was taken.)

Okay, and now, of course, the food!  I've saved the best for last, as these two places were my favorites of the trip.  The first place is called Paradox Cafe, a cute little breakfast place near our hotel.  It was sort of a greasy spoon, but an organic, environmentally friendly, kind-to-vegans greasy spoon.

Robert had the Seasonal Benedict with fresh spinach, tomato, tofu, artichoke hearts and pesto-uncheese hollandaise sauce on thick sourdough bread served with seasoned red potatoes.  It tasted as good as it looks.

I had this hot mess, the Number Two.  Seasoned potatoes, seasonal vegetables, and tempeh prepared "curry style" with Asian curry sauce, raisins and nuts makes for one tasty breakfast.  Paradox also had an amazing selection of desserts which were vegan, (I think?)  

 

Now, the best of the best, a restaurant so good we went there twice!  Hungry Tiger Too, I love you.  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Bar, The best Bloody Mary ever, Amazing, Amazing, Oh my god.  We had dinner there Saturday night, drinks and pinball until the wee hours, and breakfast the next morning.  They have a separate vegan menu spanning two pages, tasty food at a kind dollar, really friendly staff, a cozy back porch, and let me say that again, pinball!

 

Robert's Temptress Reuben consisting of peppered tofurky grilled with sauerkraut and 1000-island on marble rye.  

My sloppy joe something with tasty sloppy joe stuff.  I don't really remember, and the ingredients in this sandwich aren't listed on the internet.  I see some lettuce in there.

Robert's Montecore Burger: grilled onion and mushroom with jalapeno on a boca patty and garlic aioli.

My Portland Scramble:  tofu, veggie sausage, onions, green & red pepper mix, and nutritional yeast, drizzled with vegan cheese sauce.  Such a good last meal in such a good city.

Oh Portland.  We will miss you.

Portland is for (Art, Food, Book, Beer) Lovers --Part 1--

Robert and I are back from our trip to the City of Roses.

Our trip was a pretty relaxed one as neither of us had much of an agenda in mind.  My birthday was on Tuesday, so I used the holiday as an excuse to get outta town and visit a city I've wanted to check out for a long time. Portland has definitely gained a reputation as a Vegan Mecca, as well as a city with super sustainable practices, plenty of local microbreweries, and supportive of a pretty happening art scene.  Believe you me, it didn't disappoint.  

I feel like there has been some sort of diaspora of Lawrencians relocating to Portland (one time I even googled everyone is moving to portland! and had pretty impressive results) and after this trip, I might just have to add my name to that list.  I was completely enamored with the city; it was the perfect mix of big city entertainment/culture and sweet home-town, neighborhood-y comfort.    

We spent the trip visiting small galleries, book reading and coffee shoppe-ing, bar hopping, and of course dining at Portland's abundance of vegan-friendly restaurants.  Thanks to Jess (no really, thank, thank, thank you!) from Get Sconed! and Stumptown Vegans, we were able to get the inside scoop on the best vegan eats and explore the city with full and happy bellies. 

We stayed at The Jupiter Hotel in southeast Portland, and if you ever decide to visit Stumptown, I highly recommend staying there.  It's sort of like a Motel Six dressed to the nines, with a cheesy but awesome glam rock meets IKEA feel; think glass taxidermy dear heads, bamboo gardens, and low lighting.  There is also a pretty swank restaurant/bar/venue called The Doug Fir Lounge attached to The Jupiter, as well as a salon and even a tattoo parlor.   The lounge can get pretty rowdy after hours, so I may redirect my recommendation to those that like that sort of scene or are just champion sleepers.

Here's our room:

The complimentary condom that was left to greet us:

and the sweet chalkboard door we used to leave each other messages/ draw inappropriate cartoons:

After checking in we headed over to the Pearl District for First Thursdays to check out a few art galleries and grab dinner.  I'm always really hesitant to take photos at foreign-to-me galleries, so I don't have many images to show you. I did ask the gallery representing the artist of one of my favorite exhibits,  Jim Riswold, if I could snatch up a few photos.  Here's my favorite piece entitled Damien Hirst Makes A Rug.

 

So good!

Taking photos at restaurants is a little awkward as well, but I did manage to document the heck out of our food.  Our first stop was Blossoming Lotus,  a COMPLETELY vegan cafe located inside a yoga studio.  Many of their dishes are of the raw food camp, and I was excited to give the place a try as I have not experimented much with raw entrees.

While I was intrigued, Robert was pretty hesitant, " You want to eat vegetables in some gym's cafeteria?"  I could understand his doubt as the place was uber quiet and yes, it was hard to tell our raw pizza from its accompanying side salad.  BUT.  UH.  WOW.  All questions were shushed as our mouths devoured our really tasty raw pizza with basil and hempseed pesto, cashew cheese, and an explosion of veggies a top a spiced tomato and walnut crust.  The salad was also delicious, with a really unique dressing I'm guessing had some of the same basil and hempseed pesto in it.

(F.Y.I.  This photo was taken after most of the pizza was gone.  I was so into eating up the pie that I forgot to take a photo until most of it was gone.)

I finished off meal with some awesome raw fudge.  It was really rich and melted in my mouth.  Well done Blossoming Lotus.  You are kinda strange, but I liked you a lot!

That night we visited The Tube, a bar that looked like the inside of a double-wide trailer, with a chill, friendly crowd and awesome happy hour specials.  

The next morning we walked a couple blocks down to Portland's ultra-awesome "vegan strip-mall" including Sweetpea Baking Company, Herbivore clothing store, Food Fight! vegan grocery, and Scapegoat Tattooing.  

We nestled into Sweetpea for some yummy coffee and breakfast.  While it may have been a cardinal sin to neglect to order any of their delectable-looking baked goods (check out their website, their cakes are incredibly beautiful!), I was really hungry and wanted some proper nourishment.  I ordered a simple sandwich, a un-tuna on white bread.  This may seem like a kinda lame choice, but the thing I don't think most people realize about vegans is that sometimes a cruelty-free recreation of a childhood comfort food-like tuna sandwiches on white bread- is the best thing ever.  Most white bread isn't vegan, but since Sweetpea is 100% vegan, I knew I could trust 'em.  I washed down the sammich with a spicy dirty chai with almond milk.  Let me say that again.  Almond milk.  I love almond milk, and Sweetpea spoils us with a selection of hemp, almond, rice, and soy milk.  Be still my heart.

So many pretty little cupcakes!

Okay.  I'm gonna cut myself off here before this ode to Portland gets out of hand.  I'll return soon with the rest of the tale of books, and bars, and soy-shrimp, oh my!

TTFN!

Anita The Pretty

If I do say so myself,  I live with two of the loveliest gals out there. 

Having good roommates is so important for a nice living arrangement, but when you have three great friends under one roof some serious cuteness is bound to happen.

 

My roomie Anita is a really great cook and a baking fool!  A lot of the stuff she makes is vegan, so I'm always excited when I find her in the kitchen.

She recently made some really delicious Coffee Banana Bread With Chocolate Chips with a recipe from VegWeb. 

Coffee, Banana, Chocolate!!!!  Three of my favorite things in one yummy, soft and not-too-sweet bread.  While we both thought the recipe could use more coffee and chocolate chips the next go around, this batch was still quite good.

Here is the recipe:

Coffee Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients:

    Dry Ingredients:
    2 c flour
    1 1/4 c organic sugar (I use part brown sugar if I have it on hand)
    3/4 tsp baking soda
    1/2 tsp salt
    1/8 to 1/4 tsp baking powder (depends how fluffy you want it)
    1/2 c chocolate chips
    Wet Ingredients:
    3 very ripe bananas
    1/4 c very strongly brewed coffee
    3/4 c soy yogurt, vanilla or plain (typical 6 oz. container)
    1/2 c Earth Balance or other soy margarine, melted and cooled
    Topping:
    2 tbsp. sugar
    2 tsp. ground coffee

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease pan. Use a normal loaf pan, which I think are 8x4 or 9x5 inches?

2) Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.

3) Mash the bananas and combine all wet ingredients in a separate bowl.

4) Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

5) Pour batter into greased pan. Mix sugar and coffee together and sprinkle over the batter. Topping should completely cover the bread.

6) Pop it into the oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I check it 1 hour just in case, but it usually needs another 10-15 minutes, depending on the oven. Bread is done when it gently pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7) Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Then remove from pan and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack.

After tasting a bit of her yummy bread I tried to take a picture of her lovely face. 

Unfortunately, this is how Anita feels about having her photo taken:

Ha! 

I'm sneaky though.  

After just a little time rummaging around my external, I found a couple of nice shots of her. 

Here's a picture taken just a couple days after we met.  We studied abroad in Spain together a couple summers ago and it was love from then on.  Here she is in San Lorenzo with our good friend Matty. 

  A marvelous cook and a face that pretty?

  Yup, I'm quite a lucky girl.

Dessert First

Hey err' body! 

I'm here, entering the blogosphere.

I was pondering the best way to inaugurate this little blog of mine when the obvious struck me.  What better way to celebrate a new friend than with desserts? Duh. 

I'm a proud believer of the dessert first rule.  Dessert before dinner.  Dessert before eight a.m.  Dessert before more dessert.

Normally I'm just a plain, ol' dark chocolate sort of lady.  I HAVE to have a few tiny pieces of the stuff every single god-given day.  Lately though, I've been really into baking.  Baking!  I mean, you get to dig your hands into fun goop, make your whole place smell awesome, and of course, eat amazing yummyness afterward.  Most importantly, baking and cooking have been really nice therapy for me in the last few months; the strange, post-grad months when one is not quite sure what to do with the mess of "real world" biznass.

Here's some loot from the past few weeks:

 

Peanut Buttah Fudge

This fudge was amazing!!!   My roommates really loved it and I heard "This is the best fudge I've ever had"  numerous times.  I love that the whole shabang required very few ingredients and only a wee bit of time.  I found the recipe at Veg Web.  Here she is:

Ingredients:

   1 cup of crunchy or smooth peanut butter
    3/4 cup of maple syrup
    1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
    1 cup carob chips or chocolate chips

Directions:

Put the peanut butter, carob chips and maple syrup in sauce pan. Melt together and then add nuts. After all is melted, place in spoonfuls on wax paper. (I put mine into a shallow baking dish.)  Let it cool in refrigerator.

Next up:

Oatmeal and Flax "Sex" (Because they really are that good.)

These little guys are awesome for breakfast and really great for snacking.  I've been hunting for awhile now for something small but satisfying to take with me to work (I waitress in a very, very, vegan-unfriendly restaurant) and these were just the ticket!  

 

I loosely, and I mean loosely, followed this recipe, also from VegWeb.   I changed it up a bit by eliminating the oil and Ener-G Egg Replacer and just using applesauce instead.  I think the switch helped add more moisture and a wee bit of a cinnamon-y, apple-y flavor.  A bunch of stuff I had around my apartment- craisins, pecans, almonds, raisins, molasses-also made it into the mix.  YUM.

A word to the wise:  I added way more sugar and cinnamon than instructed and still thought these bars could have used more-but then again, maybe that's just how I roll.

For our last course:

Brownies!

Confession:  I really don't think I've had a single brownie since I became vegan about two years ago.  It's not that vegan desserts are difficult to make, as this post is making so painfully obvious, we herbivores can cook up just about whatever our hearts desire.

I think I just sort of forgot about them.  I know.  What's wrong with me?

But oh my, oh my, oh my brownies.  These were SO GOOD.  So soft and dense and gooey I couldn't eat more than one at a time.  I made a batch as a house warming gift for my boyfriend's new pad and his non-vegan brother didn't seem to have the same problem.  He ate nearly the whole container in one sitting. 

These guys  were also easy to make:

Ingredients:

   1 1/4 cups applesauce
    1 cup cocoa powder
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    2 cups sugar
    1 mashed banana
    1 1/3 cups flour
    2 cups vegan choc. chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.F.

Mix all ingredients into large bowl.

Pour mixture into 8x8 in. pan.

Bake for about 35 min.

Ok.  So I think I feel settled in now.  Thanks for reading and see you soon.