Posts by admin:
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup chickpeas, canned or cooked
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1/4 cup red onion, diced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dill
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 10 grape leaves, from a glass jar in brine
- 2 cups So Delicious coconut milk
- 2/3 cups vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup PB Crave White Chocolate Raspberry Peanut Butter ( or vegan peanut butter)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks Earth Balance margarine
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 Tablespoons So Delicious coconut milk
- 1 CoCo Banana
- 1 Cookie Nookie
- 1 Razzle Dazzle
- Follow Opera Singer in the Kitchen on Twitter and Facebook
- Follow PB Crave on Twitter and Facebook
- Tweet giveaway “Artisan crafted peanut butters–Enter for a chance to win a 3 pack & a cupcake corer #giveaway http://bit.ly/HDc0MW“
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon flax, ground
- 1 cup stout
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 Tablespoons So Delicious coconut milk
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 1/4 cup reduced stout
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 Tablespoons matcha powder (green tea powder)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups vegan sugar
- 1/2 cup Earth Balance Coconut Spread, melted
- 3 Tablespoons flax seed meal
- 9 Tablespoons water
- 1 3/4 cup So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Quick and Easy Stuffed Grape Leaves
April 4th, 2012
I know I have not had a chance to post savory recipes like I have been in the past but it almost feels like I hardly have time to post them! What has this mother been making? Well, I have been forced to prepare foods the night before so that Ryan and I could both eat the next day. Lately, I have had a hankering for Mediterranean food but I have not had time to make even hummus! How sad is that?
Look at this cute face I get to watch over all day!
Even so, I know I need to make healthy quick lunches or even dinner. When it comes to Mediterranean, I enjoy chickpeas a lot but I am usually the only one that likes them at home. Ryan likes hummus but, like he told me tonight, he likes hummus to taste like oil. Whaaaa??? He totally does not like the flavor of chickpeas. Silly silly.
Oil has too many calories honey! Anyway, every time he goes off to his weekly night meetings I take advantage of preparing something he would not normally eat. Tonight I felt like eating stuffed grape leaves but I was not going to buy them from my local restaurant. I wanted to make them!
After I got home from over an hour walking the mall with Julianne, at almost 7pm, I knew I was NOT going to make the recipe that I had laid out on the counter. I was SO disappointed and I STILL was not going to order out. What to do?
Grape leaves normally cook in boiling water and then they are doused in olive oil and lemon juice. I did not have an hour or more for this process. I took out my jar of grape leaves in brine and took out about 10 leaves and soaked them in hot water for 10 minutes. I drained and dried them and set them aside. Luckily I had already prepared my brown rice before leaving for our walk.
Next, I took a 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice and mixed it with a 1/2 cup of canned chickpeas. I added lemon juice, minced garlic, dill, red onion, sea salt and chopped tomatoes and mixed well. I divided the mixture between the ten grape leaves. I rolled them and ate them. All this took 15 minutes! SCORE! I drizzled a little olive oil.
What were these like? Well, they were like Mediterranean tacos if I say so. They were quick, easy, and delicious. I am so happy I made them. I was so satisfied and hope to make these again this week.
Try them and let me know what you think.
Grape Leaves
Filling
Assembly
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Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Raspberry Peanut Butter Icing and GIVEAWAY
April 2nd, 2012
Chocolate Cupcakes
Icing
For Cupcakes
For Icing
Assembly
I FORGOT the giveaway friends!
ONE person (US Reader) will win
A PB Crave Natural Peanut Butter Variety Pack (3 pack / 16 ounce jars) given by the company:
and
I will throw in one of those CUPCAKE Corer
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Chocolate Stout Brownies
March 31st, 2012
I finally got a recipe in this week! Yay for this busy mama….I am totally not being sarcastic.
I’ve been doing a lot of cooking, but the blogging and writing has been really hard especially this week.
Julianne has pulled a different card on us these last 3 weeks and it got a little challenging last night. Perhaps it is a growth spurt or maybe teething but hey, am I supposed to know all the signs now?
As a new mom, I know that I probably know my daughter the best but lately I feel like she knows me too well. For the last 3 weeks she simply refuses to sleep in her crib, so this means that while I work, I am either holding her, having her sleep on my boppy on my lap, or she is sleeping the Moby wrap or Ergo carrier.
Sigh. I feel so bad for my daughter, but I believe she is going through separation anxiety. I have read about it. I understand it completely.She loves feeling the warmth of my hand as she grabs it and holds it with all her might.
I simply cannot know what a baby feels but it really does break my heart. I constantly give her kisses and hugs and tell her how much mama and dadda love her.
As I held her last night, after she really could not sleep at around 4 am, I remember carrying her in my womb. I really feel blessed to have carried her for more than 9 months, and I almost miss being pregnant. I too go through separation anxiety especially since we have had to have an occasional babysitter. It has been hard not to have family around, to really have people you know you can trust.
So why am I talking about my life when we have chocolate before our eyes? Well, talking about my week and my life as a new mom helps me as much as baking as well.
This past week I was asked a few baked goods to a reunion party and I decided to make my Rocky Road Bars and a new recipe I stumbled upon last week: Chocolate Stout Brownies
Yes. You might be asking yourself why I made these seeing that St. Patty’s is over, but hey, what can I say? I did not get to make anything during that time so I am making up for it, besides, I had a bottle of a double chocolate stout in my fridge and it was calling my name.
While I do claim these as vegan, the only thing that really does not make it vegan is the beer. I photographed the brownies with Guinness, which is not vegan, but in fact I used a double chocolate stout that is also not vegan. Oh, well! If you are hardcore vegan you can find yourself some vegan beer and make these.
These brownies are so fudgy and decadent that I decided to cut them in 16 squares instead of 9 large squares. Do it. You’ll thank me and you;ll be proud of how disciplined you are. Yes, that you only had one small square.
Do you enjoy that occasional piece of dark chocolate?
I know I do and this is that one square plus a little more! The espresso granules give the brownies depth and the coconut oil a little tropical flavor, while the stout give it a rich flavor.
Have I tempted you enough? Make it for your next party and I bet you’ll it will be a hit.
It’s chocolate! Enough said.
Brownies
Stout Glaze
For the Brownies
For the Glaze
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Weekend Highlights
March 26th, 2012
I told my husband I was going to bed at 10:30pm but here I am writing a quick post to be ready for Monday morning. I realized tonight that I was not able to post a lot this past week because we were so busy.
Some exciting things happened as well this past week that I plan to continue doing in the upcoming weeks. I went on a nice walk with a Russian gal and her 9 month son. It was not quite a play date but more of a let’s- take-ourselves-on-a-walk kind of date. It was lots of fun and very hot.
Julianne has been a dear these past 2 weeks. She has been quite verbal with shrieking noises and exclamatory screeching sounds that I fear our neighbors will be disturbed but oh well, they know we have a little one. I believe she has been teething somewhat so we have tried having her chew on different toys in order to soothe her pain. I believe she is getting cuter by the day!
It has been a challenge getting Julianne to play on her tummy but I am not worrying because the time will come when she will enjoy it. As I was working this past week I noticed her roll from her back to her tummy for the first time! I love talking to her and telling her what a great job she is doing. She coos and smiles like she understands me and I take it all in.
I have put away a lot of Julianne’s clothing away…sniff….sniff. She is already wearing 6 month clothing because she is pretty snug in her 3-6 month clothing. Here I wake up daily thinking my child is not growing and I constantly have to be changing her out of clothing because it no longer fits. My little one is getting so big.
Something else that was pretty exciting this past weekend were my TWO singing gigs. Yes, after almost 5 months after giving birth to my precious baby, I am back performing and in a better way.
On Friday night I participated in a concert called The Great Showstoppers with 15 or so singers from the group we belong to in Holland, MI. We all wore our fancy dresses and went on stage to perform our numbers. I have to say that this was the first time I have not felt jittery with nerves.
I first started with Un bel di, vedremo from Madama Butterfly. I quickly got into character after leaving my poor baby crying with my husband in the nursery next to the room where we were performing. I was VERY scared that I was not going to be able to concentrate knowing that Julianne was refusing to go to sleep at her normal hour. Anyway, I got on stage and I decided to perform and sing, and boy did I feel great about it! I walked off stage with a tear in my eye. Note to self: having to much emotion can mess up the way one sings a piece but if done correctly it is fine.
We had intermission, so I went to check on Ryan and Julianne. Little did I know that she had been shrieking for a while and Ryan had to move her to another room in the nursery. Baby girl sure knew that mama was doing something else other than being at home hanging out with her daddy. I felt so bad that she did not want to go to sleep but she WAS asleep finally when I checked on her during intermission. I picked her up and placed her in the pack n’play so she could be a lot more comfortable.
That was my true test as a professional. Do I blow off performing and singing to take care of a baby who refuses to sleep like she always does, or do I trust that my husband or anyone taking care of her will be able to handle and take care of her? Yes, it was hard but at the end I know it will get easier for both Julianne and myself.
Intermission was over my next number was a duet. The flower duet from Lakme’ went really well and it was nice singing with a rich sounding mezzo. It was also lots of fun singing in 2 different languages too.
I will be sharing the recordings soon after my husband sends them to me. I cannot wait to hear how it sounded. All I know is that I got lots of people coming up afterwards telling me how I made them cry. Really? Yay!!! I know, I know, it does not sounds nice, but I thank God for the gift of singing so I can share my passion and delight to other people. Stay tuned!
What did you do on your weekend? Anything fun?
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Vegan Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake
March 21st, 2012
Chocolate Mixture
Matcha mixture
Wet ingredients
