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- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup asparagus stalks
- 1 medium-sized peeled carrot, chopped
- 1/4 cup red pepper, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 2 Tablespoons barbeque sauce + more for topping
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 4 Tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/8 teaspoon onion powder
- Sandwich thins or Ezekiel Bread
- 4 romaine leaves
- 8 tomato slices
- red onion slices
- banana peppers
- BBQ sauce
- 1 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
- 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/2 cup canned coconut milk
- 3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- tiny bit over 1/16 tsp salt
- 3.5 ounces 71% dark chocolate (I used Equal Exchange chocolate bar which is vegan)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- 6 Tablespoons coconut oil
- ½ cup canned pumpkin puree
- 3 Tablespoons So Delicious coconut creamer
- 1 flax “egg” { 1 Tbsp flax seed meal plus 3 Tbsp water}
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 4 Tablespoons coconut milk
5 1/2 months and counting
April 19th, 2012
Our little one has been growing SO quickly! I cannot believe that 6 months is approaching. As Ryan reminded me last night, “Hey, she has 10 days until she can eat real food!” Which meant Cheerios for him. More on that later!
Yes, I cannot believe we are approaching the time when we will shortly be introducing real food to our little girl. Her hands have been super active as she places every item she picks up in her mouth. Does it mean, though, that she wants to eat? No, of course not.
This past weekend I took Julianne to PF Changs to meet some friends and when my food arrived I almost lost the plate. She went towards the plate of vegetables and wanted in on everything mommy was doing.
Now I know how hard it is to hold a baby that is in the curious stage and to eat dinner.
What have we been enjoying lately? Walks! Even though I am trying to vary my exercise during the week, we do go walking now that it is starting to get nicer. I go to Zumba twice a week and Ryan takes Julianne for walks or he does errands with her.
She loves being in her Ergo and I think someone is also starting to be a Daddy’s girl. Julianne seems to have gotten oujt of the stage of crying when she sees new people. Instead, she becomes bashful and hides her head in my neck. It is so CUTE!
Every time Ryan comes into a room she REALLY lights up. If she hears his voice, she stops what she is doing and turns around to see where he is. It truly melts my heart.
We recently were gifted an exersaucer, so Julianne seems to have been waiting for it. We promptly placed her in it and she started bouncing her little bum in it. We have been laughing with her and she gets super excited jumping up and down. She even figured out very quickly how to rotate around in her seat.
Julianne has not quite learned how to roll even though she has done it once all by herself. She went from tummy to back, then from back to tummy in order to get a toy. I try putting her on my tummy a lot so she continues to strengthen her neck but sometimes we get like this:
Hahaha. Cutie Patootie! I actually have been trying different things in order for her to start rolling. I feel like the play mats restrict from moving to the tummies but that is just my opinion over this past week. I love trying new things to see how she will start moving more. I am taking one day at a time and really just being patient.
I believe taking a break from sugar will help a lot of things. I will be writing about my experience soon and how it has already helped my moods and my stamina. It has been great for this working-at-home mommy.
What are your tips or tricks for staying more alert and energetic during the day?
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BBQ Chickpea Burgers and Weekend celebration
April 16th, 2012
This was a lovely weekend for us. We enjoyed some sunshine, walks, great meals and some celebrations. I’ll get to the celebration part in a second.
This weekend was the last weekend for our indoor Winter Farmer’s Market located in the mall. I missed it last year and I almost missed going this year because I told myself I had too many cleaning duties. Well, forget that! I packed up my stuff and Julianne and I had our outing.
The farmer’s market was lovely but small so we continued to walk around the mall for a little more exercise. We would have walked outside but it was strangely humid and terribly overcast. I wanted to protect Julianne from those rays!
The rest of our outing was spent buying groceries, buying a NEW brush at Ulta and checking out the NEWLY remodeled Target. It was hard not getting sucked into buying too many unnecessary items. HA, but now that it is a SUPER Target it is hard to get in and out as quickly as possible.
We returned home and I quickly took a shower and got ready for a big night. Why?
My husband has officially completed his doctoral degree in Choral Conducting. He defended his document and took his last test and well, that was cause for some celebrating!
We got dressed and headed to a fancy restaurant with some friends where we proceeded to have a lovely time over delicious food and wine. I think the best part was trying to share this lovely carrot cake:
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| Sorry babe! Phone pics kinda stick inside this place! |
We definitely had leftovers! Overall, we had a lovely weekend
Well, as promised, I have been meaning to post some savory posts. As of today, I am taking a 2 week sugar break. No baking, no icing, no taste testing. Yes, it will be hard and challenging but I desperately need to take a step back and analyze my intake.
Any one else taking a sugar break?
This is nothing new in everyday life but after reading this ARTICLE I knew I needed to take a break. With that said, here is a yummy lunch option I prepared inspired by several recipes. It was delicious even when I made mine a double decker!
Do you have a FAVORITE veggie burger recipe?
BBQ Chickpea Burgers
by Noelle Kelly
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Keywords: grill lunch sandwich vegan chickpeas
Ingredients (4 patties)
Assembly
Instructions
In your food processor, add asparagus, carrot, red pepper, garlic, and red onions pulsing until chopped very finely. Add chickpeas, BBQ sauce, maple syrup, flour, salt, pepper, paprika and onion powder. Process and pulse until completely combined but not pureed. Carefully remove from processor bowl and form into 4 burgers. If you feel that your burgers and somewhat delicate, refrigerate for about 30 minutes. ( I just formed the burgers and cooked them as is)
Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Once hot, add burgers to the skillet and cook on each side until golden brown and crispy on the outsides, about 5 minutes. Be gentle when flipping and removing burgers so they don’t crack or fall apart. Serve on sandwich thins with lettuce, onions, banana peppers, tomatoes and more BBQ sauce.
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Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons
April 11th, 2012
So have I been making too many desserts lately?
No, don’t answer that.
No, really, don’t. What can I say? Desserts are my favorite course to make and even though I will be taking a break here in the next few weeks, I will be planning my dessert recipe.
Ever since I saw Katie’s recipe for her little Coconut Cookie Chicks, I knew I had to try her recipe. I have never actually ever made regular macaroons even though I have had regular egg white-ladened macaroons before.
I actually had enough unsweetened coconut to make this recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that it calls for so little ingredients. I had all the ingredients in my pantry and I could not wait to make them.
I adapted her recipe a tad because even after following her instructions the mixture did not thicken as stated. I had to add one more tablespoon of coconut flour, so perhaps it did depend on the type of flour that was originally used even though it was stated that I could use any type of flour.
I decided to use coconut flour since the recipe had coconut flakes and coconut milk.
Now if you have been reading my blog for a while you know I post a lot of recipes with chocolate so I HAD to dip these beauties in DARK chocolate.
One of my favorite chocolate bars is Equal Exchange’s 71% Dark Chocolate which is vegan. I melted it in a glass bowl over hot water and then dipped the cooled macaroons.
Something else I did differently was cool these macaroons a little further by placing them in the fridge. Trust me. You need to do this. Not only are they tasty but as you dip them into the chocolate, the chocolate will set much quicker.
After I dip them I place them on a cookie sheet to finish cooling and then place them in an air-tight container separating each level with wax paper.
I am sad to report that I only have one left in the fridge and I hope my hubby does not get to it before I do.
We’ll see! Thanks Katie for a lovely recipe!
Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons
by Noelle Kelly
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Keywords: bake cook dessert gluten-free vegan coconut
Ingredients (14 macaroons)
Instructions
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on the stovetop until it’s firm enough to scoop out in ball shapes. I added an additional Tablespoon flour to help bind. There was still too much liquid.
Scoop 1-2 Tablespoons on a cookie tray, forming in small mounds. Cook at 350 F for 14-16 minutes. Let cool before removing from tray. Makes 14 macaroons. I refrigerated them to harden them more.
Melt chocolate in the microwave for a minute in high heat or over a hot water bath.
Once the macaroons are cooled, I dipped each macaroon into the melted chocolate and place on a cookie sheet.
These are so delicious cooled in the fridge.
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Mini Pumpkin Scones with Coconut Glaze
April 9th, 2012
It is Secret Recipe Club time and boy do I have a treat for you!
This time around I was assigned to make something from Sweet Beginnings, the home to sweets, treats, and home cooked meals. Jaida, the creator of the blog, really likes to cook, bake and peruse blogs. There are many recipes to choose from, so when I saw the recipe for pumpkin scones I knew I had to make it.
Some of you might remember but I chose a pumpkin recipe last month called Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cinnamon Glaze. I shared with you how much I like pumpkin and well I simply had to chose another pumpkin recipe this month.
No worries. I promise I won’t choose another pumpkin recipe next month. Wait. Should I make that promise???
So, back to the scones. Am I the only one that likes Starbucks Pumpkin Scones? I usually have one when they are in season but other times I just wish I had time to make my own.
Do you ever feel guilty having purchased a huge baked good, wishing you had a good friend by you so that you could split with them? HA ha ha ha, yeah no. Me neither, but I decided to change this recipe a bit.
Pumpkin Scones made into mini scones. There is something to be said when baked goods are made smaller. You can eat more and not feel so sad that once you eat the regular size goodie that you can’t go back for more.
This was a simple recipe and very quick to make. I adapted and veganized Jaida’s Pumpkin Scone recipe and instead of 12 large scones, the mini scone recipe made 36 mini scones. If I remember correctly, my husband was out of town and after I put the baby to sleep, I decided to take advantage of some baking time, seeing that I had had a busy day with the baby.
I prepare the scones, cut them up, bake them, and cool them and BAM, the baby starts crying! The baby never wakes up an hour and a half after going to bed. I go in give her the pacifier and walk out.
I make the glaze and let it cool. I remove the scones from the oven and BAM, again, the baby wakes up. Whoa. What is going on?
Either way, I am happy I got these cuties out of the oven but they had to wait to be glazed the next morning. I did enjoy 3 or 4 of these before going to bed. I ended up going to bed early and bringing the baby with me. I think she missed her daddy.
Anyway, the coconut glaze is totally optional for this recipe, but it is a nice touch for those of you who like some more sweetness to their scones. My husband usually does not like scones because they are either too try or not sweet. Oh well.
These were great and delicious and MINI! They go well with some morning coffee and nothing else.
Thanks Jaida for posting this lovely recipe!
Mini Pumpkin Scones with Coconut Glaze
by Noelle Kelly
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 11-12 minutes
Keywords: bake brunch breakfast dessert snack soy-free vegan pumpkin
Ingredients (36 mini scones)
For glaze
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger in a large bowl. Use a fork to cut the coconut oil into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly.
Mix the flax seed meal and water together and set aside for 3 minutes.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, coconut cream, and flax egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle about 3 times as long as wide. Cut the rectangle in 3 strips.
Cut each strip in alternating triangles, cutting in diagonals. Each strip will have 12 triangles totaling 36 pieces.
Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 11 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
Place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 11 minutes, or until light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.
Glaze can be optional. They are so delicious on their own.
Prepare the glaze while the scones are cooking. Brush each scone with some coconut glaze. Allow to dry before storing.
For glaze
In a small saucepan, mix the milk and sugar and heat until dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil for 5 minutes and until sugar is completely melted. Set aside to cool.
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PB Crave Peanut Butter winner
April 7th, 2012I did say I was going to announce the winner today right?? I am 50 minutes away from it being a new day and hear I get a chance to post the winner for the giveaway from earlier this week.
Thanks to all who entered. Remember if you did not win, you can order these yummy peanut butters with FREE shipping until May 6th. Go to PB Crave’s SHOP and select what you want and then enter this code:
singerFS
So who won the giveaway? Kristina @Whipped. She has lovely recipes and a great site. Go check her site! Kristina, email me your address so the company can send you the goodies and so that I can get that cupcake corer to you. Thanks for entering!
Have a blessed weekend folks. Keep in mind that Easter is about the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, and not about bunnies, Easter baskets, and dyed eggs. It is not another holiday to celebrate food or trivialities, but about the reason we live and why we, as human beings, were created to do; to thank God for sending His Son to die for our sins.
