Weekly Rewind~Easter Edition

Are you excited for Easter weekend? I know my kids sure are! This week’s rewind is all about Easter. I’ve included both vegan foods as well as some other cute stuff I found around the internet. For even more Easter themed fun, check out my Easter Pinterest Board!

How cute is this guy? This zombie-style Easter bunny plush by HenryStMartin is a humorous addition to your Easter collection. You buy the zombie plush separately, but to add an Easter holiday touch to it, you can buy the zombie’s costume for $12 + shipping.

Super cute, super easy hats for your kids (or kid at heart)! Head on over to One Perfect Day for complete instructions and a free template!

Who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter? Check out this awesome vegan peanut butter egg from Sjaak’s Organic. Yum, yum!

Look, it’s a vegan bunny and eggs! Allison’s Gourmet doesn’t disappoint with this adorable vegan chocolate bunny speckled with rice crisps and flavored solid chocolate eggs.

These savory herbed shortbread with pesto filled thumbprints from Glue and Glitter sound like the perfect Easter appetizer to me.

Avocados are a staple in all vegan diets and this Chilled Avocado Soup from She Knows Vegan looks amazing!

I don’t think that lasagna is a traditional Easter dinner but it should be! This Vegan Lasagna with Basil Cashew Cheeze from Oh She Glows is incredible! My omnivore family devoured the whole pan.

I’ve always been intimidated by risotto, especially after watching Hell’s Kitchen and hearing Gordon Ramsay yelling at the chefs every. episode. that the risotto is CRAP! However, Jackie from Vegan Yack Attack assures me that this Asparagus Portabella Risotto is not to be feared.

I think every vegan eats tempeh or tofu on a fairly regular basis, so Easter should be no different. These Miso Tofu or Tempeh logs from Kathy Patalsky look mighty tasty to me.

We can’t have a complete Easter without delicious desserts now can we? Isn’t this cake gorgeous? The original post is in Finnish so some of the ingredients are probably hard to find in the States, but I fell in love with the photos, so here is the cake!

These Cinnamon Swirl Caramel Cheesecake Bars from Chef Amber Shea should not even be legal! Seriously.

What are your plans for Easter? Do you have an Easter Egg hunt? Do you host a big brunch or dinner for your family?

Maple Sunbutter Granola

I am a huge fan of granola, I eat it not only for breakfast, but as a snack, or lunch and sometimes even for dinner. I’ve also been known to eat it by the handful right out the jar!

The combination of ingredients is endless and you can combine your favorites to come up with millions of possibilities.

I used the Sunflower Seed Butter that I made last week for this particular granola. I am a big fan of Livvy from 86Lemons and I found her recipe for Maple Sunbutter Granola shortly after I made my sunflower seed butter. Seemed like fate to me!

In the past I’ve made the full version of recipes only to have a lot go to waste before I can eat it all, so I decided to only make a half batch of this granola. I had no trouble wolfing this down within a few days, so next time I will be sure to make the full four cups!

Ingredients:
Makes 2 cups

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats
• 1/8 cup flaxseed seed meal
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup coconut flakes, unsweetened
• 1/8 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/8 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/8 cup Sunflower Seed Butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life Brand)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Spray a cookie sheet lightly with oil. In a large bowl, combine the oats, flax meal, salt, coconut flakes, and sunflower seeds, and mix well.
2. Place the maple syrup and Sunflower Seed Butter in a small microwaveable bowl (such as a glass Pyrex measuring cup with a pour spout) and warm in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add in the vanilla and mix together thoroughly.
3. Pour the maple and Sunflower Seed Butter mixture over the oats and stir to combine.
4. Spread the granola onto the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden color, stirring halfway through cooking time.
5. If you decide to add dried fruit, you can stir this into the granola when it has cooled. This prevents the dried fruit from burning or drying out too much. Enjoy!

Have you ever made your own granola? What’s your favorite way to eat it? I like mine with almond milk.

Weekly Rewind~Superbowl Edition

So this weekend is the Superbowl. Some people, like my husband, take this football game very seriously. Me, not so much. I am not a football fan. Not at all. I do know who’s playing, the 49ers and the Ravens. That’s where my knowledge ends however.

While I don’t really care who’s playing or about football at all, I do love any excuse to eat lots and lots of delicious food. And drink beer. Beer is good. Food is good. Beer + food = winning!

So, with all that said, I thought I’d put together a list of some plant-based friendly foods that would make a fantastic spread for Superbowl Sunday.

Cheesy Baked Vegan Jalapeño Poppers by Namely Marly

{Source: Namely Marly}

Tempeh and Black Bean Quesadillas by Bev Cooks

{Source: Bev Cooks}

Vegan Buffalo Bites by 86Lemons

{Source: 86Lemons}

Homemade Sriracha by Blue Kale Road

{Source: Blue Kale Road}

Tomato Spinach Grilled Cheese Breadbowl by Vegan Yack Attack

{Source: Vegan Yack Attack}

Speculoos Swirl Brownies by Oh, Ladycakes

{Source: Oh, Ladycakes}

Truck Stop Jo Jo Potatoes by Vedged Out

{Source: Vedged Out}

Creamy Artichoke Spinach Dip by 86Lemons

{Source: 86Lemons}

Vegan Poutine by Healthy Voyager

{Source: Healthy Voyager}

Chocolate Coconut Cashew Butter by Averie Cooks

{Source: Averie Cooks}

Soft Pretzel Bites with Sesame Seeds by Herbivore Triathlete

What’s your favorite part of Superbowl Sunday? The football? Maybe the commercials? Or are you like me and love the food most of all??

Sunflower Seed Butter {homemade, vegan}

Have you ever had Sunflower seed butter? Who ever thought of this is a genius!

My kids’ school offers this delightful spread instead of peanut butter since it seems so many kids are allergic these days. My kids love sunflower seed butter and will often choose it for their lunches at school and have requested that we buy some to have at home as well.

I thought it may be difficult to find in our local grocery store since we live in a very small town, but lo and behold, I was able to find it. But holy cow, is it expensive! I took a peek at the ingredients list and thought to myself that I could probably make sunflower seed butter at home easily and for much cheaper!

I could not find any unsalted or un-roasted seeds in this particular store so I went ahead and bought the roasted and salted kind. All this means is that I won’t be adding any salt when combining the ingredients. I also happened to find small packets of vanilla sugar and picked those up as well. You could just as easily use plain sugar and vanilla extract. Two ingredients and I was well on my way to homemade sunflower seed butter!

Ingredients: Makes about 1/2 cup sunflower butter

 

• 1 cup sunflower seeds (I used roasted and salted)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

 

**Notes: You can use plain sunflower seeds and simply add salt to taste. You can also use 1-2 teaspoons cane sugar and 1 teaspoons vanilla extract in place of the vanilla sugar.**

Method:

• Add 1 cup sunflower seeds into a food processor and blend. Scrape down sides from time to time to ensure all the seeds get blended. This will take some time, mine took about 5-10 minutes, however, I have a very small food processor so if you have a larger more powerful one, this will likely go much quicker.
• Once a smooth buttery consistency is reached add up to 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar (or cane sugar plus vanilla extract). Blend until well combined.
• Transfer sunflower seed butter to a glass jar with a lid.
• Enjoy on toast or straight from a spoon!

**Store sunflower butter in fridge for up to 2 months. Do not freeze!**

Conscious Box~January

Every month I get a special package in the mail that is filled with vegan goodies. Each month a different person is the curator and puts their favorites in the box.

January features celebrity personal trainer Joel Harper. Check out his New York Times bestselling fitness books and DVDs at JoelHarperFitness.com

Past curators include; Jason Wrobel, The Vegan Zombie, Whitney Laurtisen and Brendan Brazier.

You can get either a vegan box or an eco-friendly box. There are three subscription plans, monthly, 3 months or 6 months. This makes a great gift!

Do you want to see what came in my January Vegan Conscious Box?
Let’s open it, shall we?

Each month there is a card attached to the inside of the lid with some words of wisdom and an inspirational quote. I love quotes!

Also included each month is a postcard. I think this may be my favorite so far, I am a life-long horse lover!

That’s Joel Harper, this month’s curator. On the back is information about Joel and a link to his website.



Let’s take everything out and have a closer look.

What’s Inside:

• Q.Bel Whole Grain Crispy Wafers in Minty Mint
• Maakoa Koopuwa liquid nutritional supplement
• TeeChia Blueberry Date breakfast cereal
• Peeled Snacks Apple Clusters
• Larabar Uber Roasted Nut Roll
• Pamela’s Products wheat-free, gluten-free Chocolate Brownie Mix 
• Hail Merry gluten-free, vegan Macaroons
• The Chia Co Chia Shots
• Waxelene petroleum jelly alternative
• Tea Forte MinTeas in Resist (lime mojito)
• Nutiva Hemp Seed packet
• Nordic Naturals DHA Xtra sample pack
• AmaZing Grass Kidz SuperFood drink powder
• Misc. coupons, information packets, and notecards

Soft Pretzel Bites with Sesame Seeds

I’m a huge fan of the big soft pretzels sold at the mall. I like to tear chunks off my pretzel and dip it into good ole yellow mustard. The chewiness of the pretzel and those big flakes of salt make my mouth and belly very happy.

I recently came across a copy cat recipe to Auntie Anne’s pretzels and thought, “Hey I could make those!” The recipe does take some time and planning due to the dough having to rise two times, but the wait is worth it. I decided to make pretzel bites rather than traditional pretzels.

I dunked mine in my homemade Hot Pepper Mustard, but yellow mustard would be perfect as well. I made mine savory this time around, using sesame seeds and kosher salt for the topping. These versatile little bites would be delicious as garlic, sour cream & onion, or jalapeno flavors as well. Dip them in cheese, marinara sauce or sweet mustard for a fun twist.

These pretzel bites could easily be made sweet using a cinnamon sugar blend on top, crushed almonds, powdered sugar, or add raisins to the dough! Then dunking them in caramel, fudge, or cream cheese dip.

Adapted very slightly from A Beautiful Mess

Ingredients:

Makes approximately 48-60 bites

Dough:

• 1 and 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 and 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 and 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup bread flour
• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour

For dipping bites:

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon baking soda

Topping:

• 3-4 tablespoons melted butter
• Coarse salt
• Toasted Sesame Seeds

Method:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water, allow to sit for about 10 minutes.
2. Stir sugar and salt into the yeast mixture.
3. In a medium sized bowl, combine bread flour, all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Add the yeast mixture. Knead for 4-6 minutes, adding flour if the dough seems very sticky. The dough should feel elastic, soft and smooth.
4. Place dough ball in a greased bowl (use butter or non-stick spray), cover with dish towel and allow to rise for 45 minutes to an hour in a warm place. (I like to turn the oven to 200° F, then turn it off and place the bowl in the oven.)
5. When dough has doubled in size, turn out onto counter dusted with flour.
6. Cut dough into 8-12 portions. Roll portions one at a time into a rope, about 12 inches long and one inch in diameter. Cut the rope into 8-12 pieces, depending on how big you want each pretzel bite.
7. In a shallow bowl, mix 1 cup warm water with 1 tablespoon baking soda.
8. Dip each pretzel bite quickly into the water & baking soda solution then transfer to a parchment lined baking pan.
9. Place pans of pretzel bites back into a warm place and allow to rise another 45 minutes to an hour.
10. Preheat oven to 375° F
11. Brush pretzel bites with melted butter and sprinkle with coarse salt and toasted sesame seeds.
12. Bake pretzel bites for 12-14 minutes, until slightly golden on top.
13. Remove pretzel bites from oven and allow to cool (although they were pretty damn tasty warm from the oven!)
14. Store in a sealed container for 3-4 days.

Dark Chocolate Mint Muddy Buddies aka Puppy Chow

This is the stuff dreams are made of.

I’m pretty sure that almost everyone has eaten Muddy Buddies aka Puppy Chow at some point in their lives. It’s a popular treat, especially around the holidays. The traditional recipe is right on the back of a Chex cereal box. I’ve seen countless variations on Pinterest.

Although I am a huge fan of the original version, I wanted to change things up a bit. I was inspired by Sally’s Peppermint version.

I also wanted to omit the peanut butter since I planned on using candy canes and don’t really think mint and peanut butter go together.

When I went to the store to buy the ingredients I could not find peppermint candy canes anywhere! I went to FOUR different stores and every single store only had fruity flavored candy canes. Not at all what I wanted!

However, at the last store I went to I found Hershey’s Chocolate Mint Candy Canes, perfect!

Dark Chocolate Mint Muddy Buddies aka Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

• Hershey’s Chocolate Mint Candy Canes, crushed (I used 5 candy canes)
• 12 oz. Hershey’s Semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 5 cups Chex cereal (I used rice)

Method:

Pour 5 cups of Chex rice cereal into a large bowl. Crush candy canes; I put them in a bag and used my kitchen mallet to crush them. Melt chocolate chips in microwave. Add melted chocolate chips to bowl with cereal and mix until all pieces are well-coated. Next, fold in crushed candy canes.

In a large zip-top bag pour in 1 cup powdered sugar. Add cereal/chocolate/candy cane mix to the bag. Make sure bag is sealed tightly and shake, shake, shake!

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Gift Bags

I like to have my kids give their teachers and coaches a small gift at the holidays. These wonderful people spend a lot of time with my kids and I want them to know how much I appreciate them and all that they do for my kids.

It’s always hard for me to decide exactly what to get everyone and the cost can quickly add up, so this year I decided to give something homemade. After searching the web and browsing Pinterest and asking for my kids’ input, we came up with White Chocolate Peppermint Bark. After purchasing the white chocolate chips ($1.99), candy canes ($0.99) and cute little snowman gift bags ($0.97 for 20 bags) at Wal-Mart, I had quick, easy, cheap and cute gifts for all the teachers, coaches, and dance instructors.

White Chocolate Peppermint Bark 
Recipe from A Cozy Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 16oz white chocolate chips, divided
• 5 candy canes

Method:
Place the candy canes in a heavy-duty Ziploc bag and pound with a rolling pin or kitchen mallet (kids love this job!) breaking the candy into pieces. Set aside.

Place half of the chocolate chips into a large bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir the chips. Repeat this process until the chocolate is thoroughly melted (it should take about 90 seconds of cooking time). Once the chocolate is melted, add the rest of the chocolate chips and stir until everything is melted through. This will temper the chocolate, which prevents it from looking white or moldy when it’s set up.

Pour the chocolate into a pan lined with aluminum foil and spread into an even layer. I used a small baking sheet and covered the whole sheet. If you use a half sheet it should cover approx. ½ of the sheet.

Sprinkle the broken candies over the melted chocolate and allow it to cool, about 1 hour.

Break into pieces and place equal amounts into gift bags. Voila!

Hail to the Kale Cheezy Herb Chips

I’ve got a busy week of cooking ahead of me, but have wanted to share my very favorite kale chips recipe for the past few weeks, so that’s what I’m doing today!

Kale chips are super easy to make and very addictive! They’re available at the grocery store but are expensive and I don’t think they’re as good as homemade, plus I can buy a three pound bag of kale for about $2 at the local Wal-Mart, this means LOTS of kale chips! I’ve tried several different kinds of kale chips and have burned my fair share in the process! This recipe is by far my favorite, I can eat the whole batch in one sitting. I don’t advise doing so however, as these are high in fat.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 cups of kale, ribs removed, ripped into pieces, washed and dried
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon dried chives
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Place kale pieces on a baking tray. Pour the spice blend all over kale and rub into kale pieces. No need for perfection here! Once the kale is nicely coated with the spice mixture, place baking pan into oven.

Bake at 250°F for 50 minutes. Check the kale starting around 30-40 minutes, you don’t want blackened chips! Every oven is different, so until you know how long your chips will take, better safe than sorry!

These are delicious eaten right off the baking pan. They should be eaten the same day you make them, they don’t stay crispy/crunchy. I’ve tried to dry them out really well in the oven and placed them in a container single layer, and they still got mushy and were gross the next day.

Do you love kale? What’s your favorite kale chip flavor?

Cranberry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I’ve been baking a lot lately, using my favorite fall ingredients; pumpkins and cranberries. So far I’ve made orange-cranberry-walnut muffins from The PPK and my bread last weekend. I had just over a cup of fresh cranberries left in the fridge and knew I wanted to make cookies, so I went on a search for a recipe. I found a recipe over on Coconut and Lime that looked promising. The original recipe was not veg*an or gluten-free, but I’ve learned to trust my “kitchen intuition” and knew that I could easily vegan-ize the recipe. The combination of tart cranberries and sweet chocolate chips is absolutely wonderful!

Adapted from Coconut & Lime

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
3/4 cup Sucanat
3/4 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats (use gluten-free for that option)
1/4 cup semisweet mini chips (I use Enjoy Life Mini-chips, these are gluten & dairy free)
4 tablespoons Earth Balance, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 flax egg (1 tbsp. ground flax + 3 tbsps. warm water, mixed)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, cream together the Earth Balance, vanilla and Sucanat, using a hand mixer. Add the flax egg, beat until fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, and oats. Mix until well combined. Fold in cranberries and chips. Drop by tablespoon onto cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes until they  the bottoms are just brown. Carefully, remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

What’s your favorite kind of cookie?