Valentine's Day Treats--Dark Chocolate and Pink Grapefruit Icebox Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!

What does Valentine's Day mean to you? To us, it is a day to reflect on all the great loving people in our lives. Although we should express appreciation and love for others every day, this day is extra special! We started off the holiday early by watching "Becoming Jane" last night--such a romantic, sweet, and terribly sad movie!


Real love is expressed beautifully in Corinthians 13:4-13
"LOVE is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.....And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE."


Valentine's day is also a time to eat decadent dark chocolate and make pretty decorated cookies! We checked out Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar cookbook at the library...there are so many great cookie recipes and pictures in this book! We chose something fun and different than the usual cookies we make, utilizing the winter citrus fruits--"Frosted Grapefruit Icebox Cookies". We would love to eventually make almost every cookie in this book!
Here's what we did:

• Half a batch of grapefruit-flavored cookies with grapefruit juice and grapefruit zest.
• Half a batch of orange cookies with orange juice and orange zest.
• In an attempt to be more organic, and reduce packaging and waste, we bought organic cane sugar in the bulk section and mixed in some cornstarch. We processed it in our blender into powdered sugar. It slightly worked, but the sugar crystals were still grittier than store-bought powdered sugar.
• Replaced the margarine with room-temperature (slightly soft) coconut oil and used whole wheat pastry flour for nutrition.
  

We had so much leftover icing, and it was slightly runny and extremely sweet! These cookies gave us "crash-and-burn" sugar syndrome. They did not make us feel very good after eating them. However they were fun to decorate, and smelled heavenly. We plan to scrape of the icing so they are more tolerable.

The shortbread cookie base was good, just a tad sweet and oily. When we make these next time, we will reduce the sugar and coconut oil. We also plan to just put the zest in the cookie base and omit the icing.


Don't forget the chocolate! Equal Exchange's 71% and 80% Dark Chocolate are our favorites, but Endangered Species' Deep Forest Mint Dark Chocolate, and Alter Eco's 85% Dark Chocolate & 73% Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs are also delicious. For now, while we are young and single women, we'll consider chocolate as our one-true love! :)


Hope everyone has a lovely, sweet Valentine's day! Remember that we are all loved in the eyes of God, no matter how lonely we feel.
XOXOXO,

Amazing Food for Life Reflection

Hi Veg Friends!

So we were sorting through our email and came across this great article. Thought we'd post and share - life is bountiful and full of joy!



It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We're such slow learners...

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God's Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.




Psalm 46:19 'Be Still and Know that I AM GOD'


~Amazing food, amazing life~

Ready for the Christmas Holiday!

Merry Christmas!

What is everyone planning for their big Christmas feast? Since we are staying in Oregon this year for Christmas instead of traveling back to Texas to visit family, we are having fun planning our meal.


Here's our menu:

• Veganomicon's Cornmeal-masala Roasted Brussel Sprouts
• Creamy Tomato Soup
• Celine's Pumpkin Yeast Bread Rolls, with added cornmeal
• Diet Dessert and Dogs' Tofu Fritata, with lots of good veggies!
  
• Homemade Agave-sweetened Cranberry Sauce
• Italian Cornmeal Cake, sweetened with all natural date sugar
• The Happy Veganarian's Vegan Speculaas
• Cinnamon Roll Biscuits, this time with a cinnamon-maple-fig filling
• "Egg" Nog Spiced Smoothie
  
• Dark Chocolate Bars for sweets! :)

Yummy, lots of leftovers expected!! We are so excited this year to stay here in Oregon and savor our all vegan meal, instead of being surrounded by non-vegan food and smelling the unappetizing meats. All vegan feast galore!What are all your plans for Christmas holidays? We recently attended a wonderful "Sound of Music" musical at our local theater, which got us into the joyful spirit of Christmas. We also plan to drive around and view the beautiful Christmas lights, as well as attend a Christmas Choir concert. Of course, we wouldn't want to miss all of those great classic holiday movies, such as "It's a Wonderful Life"! What is your favorite holiday movies? What is the one thing you most look forward to for the Christmas holidays?

Christmas can be a hectic time, especially if traveling is involved. This year seems to so far be a smoother, easy-going Christmas season. We also finished our gift shopping many weeks ago, mailed them all off in time, and beat the crazy crowds in the stores. Remember to slow down if Christmas gets to stressful! Christmas is more than just gifts and shopping and planning. Christmas is a time to relax, find comfort in family and friends, celebrate Christ's birth, and reflect on all the blessings God has given us.

May Love, Joy, and Peace dwell in your homes and hearts always!
Merry Christmas and God bless,

Food Politics & Meat

Has anyone read Food Politics by Marion Nestle? An absolutely excellent book describing the relationship with government and the food industry! So many truths revealed about food policy, nutrition, food safety, etc.

A post on Nov 17, 09, "Want Safe Meat? Make USDA Do It's Job!" caught our attention right away.

The New York Times reports that the company selling contaminated ground beef responsible for killing two people and making 500 others sick, “stopped testing its ingredients years ago under pressure from beef suppliers.”

Recall that since 1994, the USDA bans E. coli 0157:H7 in ground meat. It encourages, but does not require, meat companies to test for the pathogen. Why don’t they test? Because they don’t have to.

If they did test, they might find toxic E. coli and have to cook or destroy the meat. As the Times reported in depth last month, Testing puts meat companies in “a regulatory situation.” As one food safety officer put it, slaughterhouses do not want his packing company to test for pathogens: “one, I have to tell the government, and two, the government will trace it back to them. So we don’t do that.”

Instead of requiring safety testing, the USDA uses a “restrained approach.” As Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, told the Times, USDA has the power to require testing but doesn’t use it because it has to take the companies’ needs into consideration: “I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health.”

The moral? Meat companies will only produce meat safely if forced to. As we saw yesterday, oyster companies will only produce safe oysters if they have to. That’s why we need a food safety system in which all foods have to be produced safely. What will it take to get Congress to act?

It just amazes us that people in the food industry can get away with selling food that is not 100% safe. Shouldn't providing food to customers be about quality and service? Don't food companies want good reviews on their products?

In college, we learned a lot about the food industry and food swafety. Much of our food supply is produced and handled in a way that safety and health are jeopardized. There have been enough food-borne illness outbreaks in the US to arouse people's awareness and concern about contamination. It doesn't even seem like the USDA's seal of approval affirms safety. Our food policy and food safety regulation should be stronger to protect the consumer and society.

There are so many flaws in the meat industry! If one cow is contaminated with bacteria, than the risks of spreading contamination are extremely high, since many cows are processed together to make meat. One meat product sold in stores will probably contain the flesh of more than 100 cows! The high-speed production and the conditions in the packing plant have a direct effect on safety – if not handled properly, contamination can occur. As produce and meat are transported and handled by many, there is greater risk for cross-contamination into the fresh produce. There are regulations in producing meat, but there is still so much needed in order to ensure safety, such as the lack of recall authority that the USDA has over the meat corporation. Also, preparing fast food in restaurants pose many sanitation concern. Multiple workers prepare the meal, and the speed required to make a fast meal may hinder workers from following food safety principles.
Overall, the production and distribution of our food poses safety hazards that add to the health and political expenses of our food. It is great to be vegan, because we are not supporting meat production and the killing of innocent animals. We hope that more people can recognize the need for food safety, and even if they do consume meat, they can be responsible consumers and influence meat production practices. It's always best to purchase from companies with high standards, such as organic, fair trade, and ethical practices.


Marion Nestle (co-author Malden Nesheim) has a new book coming out in May, titled Feed Your Pet Right. Also looks very informative, for those animal lovers!

Where would we be without chocolate?

Without chocolate, all pleasure is drained! :)

..............."A little too much chocolate is just about right."
..............."Too much of a good thing is simply wonderful!" - Deborah Fox-Rothschild
..............."All you need is love. But a little bit of chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt."
..............."Chocolate is the Answer, who cares what the Question is?"
..............."Woman have many moods, CHOCOLATE satisfies them all"

Chocolate is nutritious!

..............."Chocolate is a Vegetable: chocolate is derived from cocoa beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived from either sugar cane or sugar beets. Both are plants, which places them in the vegetable category. Thus, chocolate is a vegetable." (Actually cocoa beans are fruit from the cacao tree)
..............."I do recommend a piece of good-quality dark chocolate as a healthy snack . . . It is a source of polyphenols, the same type of antioxidants found in red wine, and the fat it contains is stearic acid, which doesn't affect cholesterol levels. The latest good news for chocolate lovers comes from a study indicating that flavonoids in chocolate are good for your heart. These compounds reduce the stickiness of platelets, cells that play an important role in blood clotting." - Andrew Weil, M.D.
..............."According to an Italian study, a small square (20 g) of dark (bittersweet) chocolate every three days is the ideal dose for cardiovascular benefits. Eating more does not provide additional benefits." - cacaoweb.net


What are your favorite dark chocolates?

We love to try different chocolates (different companies and different flavors) and taste-test. Our favorites are the darker chocolates (~70-75% chocolate). In order to get a better sense of the flavors in each chocolate bar, we like to take little bites of one chocolate brand/flavor and make note of its taste, then take a little bite of a different chocolate brand/flavor. This is a great way to see that although they may all be "dark" they hold different flavor profiles. Some may have a heavier, richer, roasted flavor, while others may have a nutty, brighter flavor with hints of fruit, etc.

Here is our list (not in any particular order) of delicious melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolates!

Endangered Species Dark chocolate - Supreme Dark 72% and Deep Forest Mint are both delicious. The mint one is nice, because it isn't too strong in mint. The Dark chocolate with Cacao Nibs we have yet to try, and their new organic line, with unique flavors such as dark chocolate with goji berries.

Green & Black Dark Chocolate - Dark 70% is one of our favorites. An all around good dark chocolate, with a nice decadent flavor.


Equal Exchange Chocolate - 67% Mint Chocolate Crunch, 68% Dark Chocolate with Pure Cocoa Nibs, and 71% Very Dark Chocolate are all melt-in-your-mouth good!

Divine Fair Trade Chocolate - The mint dark chocolate and 70% dark chocolate are divine!Theo Fair Trade Chocolate - Their "origin" bars are awesome to taste-test and pick out different flavors, such as hints of banana and flowers. The mint Theo bar is unique, in that it has a refreshing, summery spearmint taste. Would love to try the vegan dark chocolate truffles that they list online!

Alter Eco Fair Trade Chocolate - another fair trade company with dark chocolate cacao nibs and mint.


Beware, some chocolates that seem to be dairy-free do in fact have milk in them, such as Mint Dark Chocolate Green & Black and New Moon Dagoba chocolate (the website doesn't list milk, but the ingredient list on the bar itself shows milk!). We used to love Dagoba, but hadn't had any in a while. The one bar we get at the store happened to suprisingly have milk in it, so we aren't sure if the rest of Dagoba's "dark" chocolates have milk in them too.

**Update: We can in fact enjoy the New Moon dark chocolate bar! Dagoba's dark chocolate line does not have added milk, they just put milk in their ingredient list ("milk (less than 0.1%)" ) to be safe for those with severe milk allergies. We personally think this is a wrong end on their part, because it might confuse people and prevent vegans or people who avoid dairy to try their dark chocolates. Most companies just state a disclaimer below the nutrition/ingredient label that they manufacture on the same equipment that processes milk, instead of actually putting milk in the ingredient list. Here is an explanation of which bars are vegan: "All of our dark bars, Chocodrops, hot chocolates, cocoa powder, syrup are not made with milk or milk by-products, though our facility does handle products made with milk...While we thoroughly clean between runs, there is the possibility that traces of milk protein may be present in the dark bars."**

These are just a few of the delicious organic and/or fair-trade chocolates we have enjoyed. Please let us know other chocolate brands that you all have discovered; we are always on the lookout for new chocolates to try.

Remember, life is short, so we must sweeten life with some divine-tasting vegan dark chocolate!

Veg Links and Lemon Herb Pasta

It's already March - time for flowers and St. Patrick 4 leaf clovers. Pray for spring to come soon, we're sick of the winter and cold!
Just wanted to let everyone know that we've placed a section on our blog's front page for information about vegetarianism/veganism, Christianity, and animal welfare.
Back in college, we took a great class that discussed the world food supply, the degradation meat has on our land/environment, and other issues. The class actually helped lead us to vegetarianism. We've posted some links to websites providing statistics about meat-eating, and the importance of vegetarianism. Feel free to explore! Even if you already know this information, these websites are great resources for telling your family/friends when they ask you veg questions.

• Go Veg.com
• Jesus Veg
• Christianity & Vegetarianism
• All Creatures.org
• Christianity Veg. Association
• All Creatures Great & Small
• Eco Eating
• Resource Page for Many Veg Topics
• Statistics About Eating Animal Products
• Veg Statistics
• Vegetarian & Animal Rights Quotes
• Ethical Reasons to Not Eat Meat
• List of Animal Products In Food
• Why Choose Organic

P.S. Here's a great and simple meal we enjoyed a few weeks ago - lemon herb pasta and steamed brussel sprouts with shallots. The pasta dish just had olive oil and a lemon sauce over some whole wheat rotini. Yummy!


Happy reading and learning, (and eating veg!)
LK Sisters

Re-energize!

Everyone experiences days when they feel lazy or weary, when their lives are too hectic and stressful, and/or when they can't seem to be happy and think optimistically. How do you overcome this? We personally feel that the following have brought us better joy:

1. A wholesome vegan diet and
2. Faith in God

Despite weariness and stress, we are more assured and energized each day. God gives us eternal strength and hope. And, being vegan gives us inner peace, knowing that we are doing the right thing and eating fresh, nutritious plant foods that are good for our bodies, good for the animals, and good for the earth. Nourishing our bodies and souls the right way is so energizing and uplifting!

Some vegan food we've recently made has put smiles on our faces :) We've enjoyed using our Vitamix to blend smoothies and soups!

We are officially on the "green smoothie" bandwagon. We enjoyed our first Kale Berry Banana smoothie this weekend, and it was a great way to start the day. Our smoothie we based off of the Green Smoothie Blog's recipe. We blended together some red kale leaves, bananas, hemp protein powder, and frozen marionberries for a delicious, creamy breakfast smoothie! As if we hadn't had enough Kale, we've also been enjoying raw kale salads, with some garlic, olive oil, and lemon dressing or sundried tomatoes.


With our handy pressure cooker, we easily cooked up some red potatoes and whipped up Creamy Potato Broccoli Soup, adapted slightly from Veganomicon!


We also tried a refreshing citrus fruit - the pummelo! This fruit is a big citrus fruit, with a greenish-yellow skin and a pink flesh. Similar to a grapefruit with a hint of lemon, yet mild and sweet in flavor.


A few weeks ago we enjoyed a trip to New Season's Market in Lake Oswego, OR. These markets are like Whole Foods. The employees are the nicest people - they really care about customer service. Shopping at New Seasons is so much fun!

Trying new products always boosts our mood, and at New Seasons we got to purchase a lot of great eats.
(Note, some of the products in the photo above we've already reviewed)
Dr. McDougal's Lentil Couscous Soup Mixes, low in sodium, yet very flavorful and filling!
Terra Sweet Potato and Carrot Chips, although fried, are a nice variation to the usual chip.
Suzie's Puffed Kamut Cake - so good, with a nice "popcorn" bite and flavor, all whole grain.
Dagoba 'Single Origin' Milagros Dark Chocolate bar - with notes of banana and fruit.
Panda Licorice - the best licorice bar with a great molasses-licorice flavor, soft and chewy!
Laura's Wholesome Junk Food Gingerbread Bites - good because healthier ingredients (such as dates); but too much sugar/sweetness, and expensive.
Woodstock Farms Mango Applesauce - natural and flavorful!


What are some ways you all find energy and happiness each day? The coming of Spring is another thing to find happiness about!
-LK

Eyes, Bugs, Tornadoes!

Happy November! Since Halloween was yesterday, we wanted to get creative in the kitchen and have a "themed" meal. Easy but delicious...

... Black Eye Soup, slimy cucumber salad with bugs, and tornado and moon crescent rolls.



The Black Eye Soup was a variation of our Black Bean Soup, but we added a can of black eyed peas to have "eyes" in our soup. Pureed the black beans but not the black eyed peas.

For the cucumber salad, we just shredded a cucumber and added onion, currants, black pepper and some vinegar. It would be good with some other seasonings, but it was still refreshing and we enjoyed eating our slimy salad with black bugs!

Our Tornado and Moon Crescent Rolls were made with Bob's 10 Grain flour and carrot puree. We were hoping the carrots would make the rolls orange, but it just made it a darker golden brown. The carrot flavor though definetely stood out and made the crescents subtly carroty sweet. Yum!


We had so much fun carving a pumpkin (quite large one too!). The best part - roasting pumpkin seeds! We loved this garlicy cayenne addicting snack.


We are in the mood for comforting Autumn foods, so this morning we baked gingerbread raisin cookies. The recipe is from David's Pure Vegetarian Kitchen Cookbook that we checked out from the library. It is a great book so far with easy but tasty recipes that are quick to make and don't require much ingredients.

Another holiday treat we made last night was homemade "egg nog". In the Vitamix, we blended So Delicious Vanilla coconut milk yogurt, hemp milk, frozen bananas, nutmeg, and a dash of allspice. Turned out excellent!

Hope your November is off to a great start!

Today's All Saints Day, so here is a Bible verse in recognition of Saint Martha, the patron saint of servants and cooks.

“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” (Matthew 5:6a)

We should prepare our meals with love and be thankful for the food we have. We should serve others and ultimately seek nourishment from God.

- LK Sisters

For the People, For the Planet, For the Animals

Being VEGAN that is! Here is a great video that we wanted to share with all of you - now most of you are vegan, but this just reinforces all of the reasons for being vegan. And share this with your omnivore friends and family!

Vegan - A Life Connected

Now we'll be back in a week or so after we've moved to Oregon. And THANK YOU so very much for all your thoughtful words and blessings. We are so grateful for such a wonderful compassionate vegan community.

God Bless, LK

Oregon, Oregon Here We Come!

Hey guys! It's been a while. Right now life is hectic but exciting... We graduated from Texas A&M University on 08-08-08 with a Bachelor's of Science in Nutritional Sciences, Summa Cum Laude.

Now, we're rushing to get ready to move this coming Friday to McMinnville, Oregon! It's been a blessing from God that we BOTH got job offers to Betty Lou's, Inc. and we will be working with each other! We will be doing quality control work(food quality/safety, record keeping, lab tests), nutrition labeling, and recipe/product development!

Our trip up there this past week was beautiful and inviting. The Portland Airport welcomed us nicely - they had natural, nutritious freeze-dried fruit and ABC Vegan cookies for sale. Cool! On our way down to McMinnville (1 hour southwest of Portland), we stopped into Blossoming Lotus Cafe (raw/vegan)! It was delicious and we will be sure to come back! We loved how it wasn't a vegan restaurant that served meat substitutes, but instead served creative, nutty, and nutritious vegan food!

For lunch, we enjoyed Blossoming Lotus' Live Pizza with a delicious buckwheat crust and fresh basil. We also shared the Live Wrap, which was so unique and flavorful and we definitely want to make one day! It contains: cilantro lime pate, tomatoes, cucumber, sprouts & avocado collard greens, with cashew sour crème.
We ordered a side of Garbonzo Lentil Soup, and splurged on dessert - a raw Apricot Date Bar and a raw Fudge (coconuty). Next time we will try their raw strawberry shortcake and their carrot cake! All of their drinks/smoothies sound refreshing - we tried the Berry Greens Mixed Berry Banana smoothie. And the nice thing about Blossoming Lotus- it is located inside a yoga studio, so it makes you want to take a yoga class before enjoying a nice vegan/raw meal!

McMinnville, Oregon doesn't have any veg restaurants, but it does have a farmer's market, an awesome natural food store "Harvest Fresh Grocery", and a nice supermarket with lots of local/organic produce.We bought some goodies:
Heaven Scent Windmill Almond cookies-nutty shortbread cookies, good with a cup of hot tea.
Lundberg Farms Wild Rice Cakes - nutty! Might be good with avocado and nutritional yeast, or hummus on top.
Amy's Indian Spinach Tofu Wrap - very good and green! We love spinach and we felt like Popeye eating this delicious wrap! Only thing I'd recommend is for Amy's to cut down the sodium and to maybe add sauteed onions and more tofu in it for a nice meal.
The No Cookie Cookie - vegan cookies with no refined sugars. Very soft and flavorful! We tried Carob Mint...they also have Ginger Spice, Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chip, Lemon Poppyseed, PB, and Island Coconut. They were reasonably priced, too!
Divine Mint Chocolate - 70% cocoa, fair trade, Andes mint flavor!

McMinnville, Oregon is a quaint and picturesque town that lies in the heart of the Willamette Valley, among wineries, farms, hills, and parks. It is 1 hour away from the coast and 1 hour away from the mountains! Flowers and beautiful trees everywhere, too. I don't know why we've stayed in Texas our whole lives!

Here are some fun Oregon facts:

• State Bird: Western Meadowlark
• State Colors: Navy Blue & Gold
• State Flower: Oregon Grape
• State Motto: "Alis volat Propriis" (She flies with her own wings.)
• State Nickname: The Beaver State
• State Nut: Hazelnut (Oregon is the only state with an official state nut.)
• State Tree: Douglas Fir

I hope that we embrace Oregon, enjoy our jobs, and make wonderful memories here! Cheers to new opportunities and God bless, LK Sisters

English Muffins, Carrot Pancakes, and Comforting Meals

The past week or so we've been compiling all the great recipes we have bookmarked so that we can print them off and bind them in a binder...that way we can cook these recipes and stop accumulating more recipes. There are so many great looking recipes out there, that we can't make them all. So, we will just work with the ones we will print off for now. (And that adds up to over 100 pages! Yikes!).

Yes, we love food and cooking! We decided this week to go back to what we love - baking bread/breakfast/dessert and making comforting, hearty meals. Who doesn't love the great yeasty fresh smell of bread rising, bananas in the oven, nutty rice cooking on the stove, and cinnamon filling the air?

Like many bloggers recently, we made carrot cake pancakes. Soft, fluffy, and we get our healthy orange fix in the morning! For the first time, we enjoyed them with some cooked apples, a little agave, and heavily doused cinnamon on top. This morning we also enjoyed the pancakes for breakfast, but ate them with more freshly shredded carrots, slightly warmed, and cinnamon. I think we had 1 Tbsp each of cinnamon on our pancakes! Yummy.


We also enjoyed making homemade whole grain English muffins! They actually we pretty easy to make - it just took patience to let the yeast ferment overnight and then let it rise. Easier than bread baking, and used less energy because they don't require an oven to cook. You just cook them on a skillet similar to pancakes. We served them with homemade beet veggie burgers, then tofu sandwiches. Really soft (more like a soft bread texture than a airy English muffin) and very tasty when toasted!

Another great treat we enjoyed was homemade banana-date-walnut-oatmeal bars. We tried to imitate Odwalla bars, but we still need to tweak the recipe. It was very soft and flavorful, it just needs to be less fluffy/bready and more dense like Odwalla's.

Banana-Date-Walnut-Oat Bars

1/4 cup + 1 Tb Scottish oatmeal
1/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Peppy Kernels (or rolled oats + some uncooked millet)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

6 large medjool dates (1/4 cup), mashed/pureed
3/4 cup frozen bananas, warmed and mashed with the liquid (or 3/4 cup fresh bananas mashed plus some liquid)
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal, added to mashed bananas
2 Tbsp agave nectar

Mix together dry ingredients. Add dates into flour mixture, then add mashed bananas. Mix slightly, then add walnuts and mix until just combined. Spread in a 1 1/2 quart glass bar pan (9 x 7 baking pan) and bake 13 min. Let sit before cutting into bars.


With the extra dates, we just mashed them onto a graham cracker and topped with walnuts for a quick and tasty treat. I never knew how soft and versatile dates are in baked goods!


For meals, we chose the hearty dishes - Homemade Sloppy Joe's with Chickpeas, Chickpea & Vegetable Shepherd's Pie, and Edamame "Fried" Rice.
The Sloppy Joe's reminded us of our southern roots - messy, tomatoey goodness! For leftovers, we served them in cabbage leaves for a lighter flare, and then another day served them mixed with cooked red quinoa as a "Quinoa bowl".

The Shepherd's Pie we adjusted from multiple Shepherd's Pie recipes we saw, one from Veganomicon. Ours had lots of nutritional yeast and Bragg's, plus a little thyme, sage, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, onion, olive oil, coriander, and celery seed. For the filling, we used local squash (it was like a cross between zucchini and winter squash; semi-creamy), chickpeas, and diced carrots. The mashed potato topping we had made a few days before, which made the dish less time consuming. It actually was half red potatoes, half cauliflower mixed with soy milk. We really loved the mashed potato/cauliflower mix! Lighter, yet still creamy and comforting. This dish was very tasty when doused with nutritional yeast and drizzled with a little olive oil and more Bragg's.

Our last hearty meal for the week was a healthy Asian bowl- edamames, diced carrots, scallions, diced bell pepper, toasted sesame seeds, and long grain brown rice, with just some olive oil and Bragg's. Sometimes the most simplest ingredients come together with the best flavors.


We have more great concoctions coming soon!

While we've been doing moving/job research (we may be moving to Oregon), we found this great website - walkscore.com. You can search an address, find how "walkable" it is, and even zoom in and see the streets/houses close up! ("street-level" view option)

-LK Sisters