Posts by admin:
- a. Chai-Spiced Pear Smoothie
- b. Fight the Cold Smoothie
- c. Hot Pink Smoothie
- d. Two G’s Smoothie
- a. Trail Mix Quinoa Cereal
- b. Berry Nutty Baked Oatmeal
- c. Breakfast Scramble Tacos
- d. Sweet and Savory Potato Hash with Caramelized Onions
- a. Burnin’ Love Chili
- b. Savory Cuban Beans with White Rice
- c. Miso Udon Soup with Sea Greens
- d. Butter Bean-Leek Soup with Fennel Relish
- a. Portabella Sushi Salad
- b. Fennel- Dill and Hummus Bruschetta
- c. Tempeh Taco Meat and Nachos
- d. Sloppy Joe-less over Greens
- e. Carrot-Zucchini Salad
- a. Potato-Sausage Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce
- b. Mongolian “Beef” and Red Jasmine Rice
- c. Carrot Marinara Fettuccine with Kielbasa Sausage
- d. Chopped Falafel Salad
- a. Almond-Lime Tea Cookies
- b. Chocolate Banana Muffins
- c. Tropical Berry Compote with Coconut Pudding
- d. Nutella-Swirled Cherry Bars
- 3 Tablespoons flaxseed meal + 9 Tablespoons warm water
We’re expecting!!!!
March 18th, 2011 |
| Noelle and Ryan as Kiddies |
Remember I shared with you a few days back that there were reasons why I had not been posting recipes or that I had taken a bit of a break? This girl has been sick as a dog the last couple of weeks, more like 3 to 4 weeks.
Ryan and I are expecting! We are going to have a little musician in the family!!! I am 9 weeks pregnant and I finally get to share it with you!! I know that there have many that have share their wonderful news over the internet, but I almost felt jealous. We wanted to wait for blood tests and doctor’s visits started before telling.
I have been enjoying reading Emily’s posts over at Daily Garnish because she is also 9 weeks pregnant. Pretty much everything she has shared over the past few weeks I have also be going through.
I have had really no desire to cook, most of all vegan foods have made be nauseous, lots of smells make me nauseous and I am nauseous 24 hours a day!! I read that it is helpful to keep crackers by the side of my bed, but who wants crumbs in bed??
I have been doing everything by the book and more when it comes to making my nausea better. I have been downing natural ginger ale, seltzer with fresh ginger, ginger teas, Vitamin B6, peppermint tea, and more! My poor Ryan has not been able to know what exactly to do for me except bring me a glass of water when I get sick. Thank God though that in the last few days the bathroom has not been my friend.
It is very strange to know what my body wants. My hormones are pretty wacky and I feel so much more emotional. Sometimes I feel like eating and when I do, I get sick. Sometimes I do not feel like eating but I force myself and feel better.
All my blood work looks pretty normal except for the iron. It is barely low but it was something that was mentioned to me. I was told to eat more greens and beans. Yes, folks, apparently I have not been eating enough spinach. Sheesh! Truth be told I have not felt like any vegetables or beans in the last 3 weeks.
Confession: I have had NO desire for any of the foods I have been eating. It has been so depressing, but it is something that as my hormones normalize, I was told the eating would be better.
Either way, we are super happy God is amazing and we thank him for this gift of pregnancy! I will be having an ultrasound in the next few weeks so I am even more excited about that! It looks now that I will be due sometime around October 22nd. I get to be pregnant during the summer and wear sundresses! Woohoo!
As of now, I leave you with this…
The baby is the size of a grape now! Smiles……
Sharing is Caring!
A sad goodbye to my favorite LÄRABAR + Giveaway!
March 17th, 2011I know you probably have noticed but my blog does not really consist of sharing with everyone my daily eats like other bloggers do. I just do not have that much time in a day to journal, or at least the energy to do it. I lead a pretty healthy lifestyle ever since I decided to focus on changing it.
It is pretty amazing how those choices affect those you live with. I believe I prepared an old favorite recipe of my husband’s to be nice and at his request that consisted of sour cream,yoghurt, white tortillas, and cheese and he had a horrific upset stomach and terrible indigestion. He realized he had been eating so well that those creamy and non-vegan foods were no longer really responding the same way as they used to.
I realize that once you start on a healthy path of eating right, it really makes it hard and the body feels awful when you try feeding it the wrong things again.
One of the snacks we like to keep in the house are LÄRABARs. It would be easier to make them but I usually keep them in hand for trips or to send some in my husband’s lunches when he has an extra long day.
Krogers usually runs wonderful specials where they are a $1 each so I buy a whole bunch. I like the Cashew Cookie bar. I also like the Cherry pie bar.
I recently heard that the company is retiring a flavor. They have a whole line of bars called JOCALAT that use organic chocolate products. One of my super favorites was the JOCALAT Chocolate Cherry Bar.
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Leprechaun Shake {Not your regular Shamrock Shake}
March 15th, 2011
I know! It has been a while. I took some time off to gather my thoughts and to spend more time on things I have been ignoring for a while…..like…..making jewelry, reading, and spending time with friends. Not only that, but somehow after my husband went out of town for more than 5 days, I really wanted to focus on everyday than be online all the time. It was refreshing!
What does this mean? Well it means I will be coming back with recipes but they will not be as frequent as before. more on that later this week.
As I was driving home yesterday I was trying to think up a recipe for St. Patty’s Day that was green. I did not want to just make a green monster and get by with that but I had been thinking about making a drink. Now, you know I have mentioned that I seriously decreased my sweet intake in the last couple of weeks, just because I totally do not have a taste for it, but somehow a shake sounded lovely.
How to create a shake without using artificial flavors or coloring? SPINACH! Please don’t be turned off by this, but like a Green Monster, spinach is a great base for bringing greens (iron, vitamins and minerals) into your diet. If you do not make frequent salads or dishes using greens, blending them into drinks is perfect!
Spinach was used to make this shake green but not as much was used as would be in a Green Monster. I used my favorite products, So Delicious and went from there. I used the vanilla coconut milk, the green tea coconut ice cream, and the vanilla bean coconut ice cream. This was so frothy and delicious!
Believe me…..not a hint of spinach was tasted in this shake. You only get the vitamins and the coloring while enjoying a yummy dessert.
You can make this alcoholic if you want, but I just added peppermint extract. A little whiskey (2 ounces for 2 glasses) will do just perfectly if you want to use this as a dessert. completing your St. Patty’s meal.
Stay tuned for a delicious yeasty recipe tomorrow! I can’t wait to share it with you!
Leprechaun Shake
serves 2
1/2 to 3/4 cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk
1 cup packed spinach leaves
1 cup Purely Decadent vanilla bean coconut ice cream
1 cup Purely Decadent green tea coconut ice cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
2 ounces whiskey (optional: leave out the peppermint extract)
In a high-power blender, blend the spinach leaves and 1/2 cup coconut milk first. Blend until spinach is completely blended in the coconut milk. Add the rest of the ingredients.
You can add the 1/4 cup more of coconut milk depending if you want a thinner shake. If you want a thicker shake, only use 1/2 cup of coconut milk when blending spinach.
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Creative Cuisine E-book Launched!
March 8th, 2011![Noelle's_book_cover[1]](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5509335696_8a85996efc.jpg)
The day has finally arrived my friends! I have done it despite some difficulties along the way, it is finished.
I have finally created an electronic cookbook of recipes I have been creating the last few months. What was the challenge? Creating recipes on the side whilst creating dishes for the e-book separately. Another challenge was my day to day schedule. I AM HAPPY it is completed because this means I get to share it with you!
I have shared all very unique dishes that can be made at any time. All these recipes are vegan and most of them are gluten-free or can be adapted. If you are looking for new recipes using day-to-day ingredients and even NEW ingredients, this e-book is for you!
First of all thank you to all of you who pre-ordered the e-book. I hope you have enjoyed the one recipe that was included in the order, which is now included in the completed e-book.
This Creative Cuisine E-Book contains 25 NEW recipes in different categories. Want a peek?
Table of Contents
I. Smoothies
II. Breakfast
III. Soups
IV. Lunch
V. Dinner
VI. Sweets
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| Potato-Sausage Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce |
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| Butter Bean-Leek Soup with Fennel Relish |
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| Trail Mix Quinoa Cereal |
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| Sweet and Savory Potato Hash with Caramelized Onions
|
| Creative Cuisine E-Book |
You purchase this at any time with the super easy Pay Pal feature. It will be available on the top left hand corner to purchase at any time. It will send me your email address so that I can send you a copy of this e-book directly to your inbox. How easy is that? Thank you to everyone for your support and for reading Opera Singer in the Kitchen!
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Vegan Hummingbird Birthday Cake and Nicobella Winner
March 7th, 2011
My birthday came and went! After I turned 25, birthdays seem so different now. I think since I got over the fact that I was turning 1/4 century old that anything else did not seem as important. HA! No, I thank God for being a year older. Do I feel wiser? No, I just feel older than my husband. ha ha ha. Anyway. I did celebrate with friends and with laughter.
On Friday, Ryan and I met some friends at a nice Mediterranean restaurant where I enjoyed a vegetarian delight plate. It had a little of everything! Baba ganoush, hummus, bulghur, lentils, cabbage roll, grape leaves,salad, and more. It was a great price for one dish too! My friend told me she felt like she should have ordered my dish. Oh well, next time! After dinner, we went over to their home and played a competitive game of Settlers of Catan. It had been a huge while since we played so we had fun. I tried not to be all mopey about that fact that I chose bad spots to play, but I was the first to lay down some choices. Next time!
During the game we enjoyed slices of the birthday cake I prepared. I have not made my own birthday cake in a long while but I felt inspired to try a new type of cake. It was quite simple to veganize and it was fun to frost too!
One of the things I did not expect was a super sweet frosting. Seeing that this was a one time deal, since it was my birthday, I decided to try the recipe as is. Come to find out that the frosting just turned out a little too sweet for MY taste, but that is only because I had not been eating sweets in the last 2 weeks. Lots of people do not believe that once you start cutting out processed or even natural sugars that the cravings are not very common.
Anyway, who wants to hear about that? The inside of the cake was marvelous. Who knew that bananas and crushed pineapple could make for such a great combination? The cake was like a banana bread but with crushed pineapple and toasted nuts. YUM!
Good thing we had friends to share this birthday cake because there was no way I could keep 3/4 of a cake at home. This weekend proved lovely since I could share the cake with friends!
Ryan gave some nice gifts including a chance to take some gourmet cooking classes about 20 minutes from where we live. I cannot wait to take a class on a type of cuisine I am not most familiar with.
Vegan Hummingbird Cake
adapted from Joy of Baking
print recipe
serves 10-12
1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups palm sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 flax “eggs”
3/4 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 – 8 ounce can crushed pineapple, do not drain
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium sized bananas)
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine, room temperature
16 ounces Tofutti cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound box (about 3 2/3 cups) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (for decoration)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the rack in the center of the oven. Spray two – 9 x 2 inch round cake pans.
Place the walnuts on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant. Let cool and then chop finely.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon.
In a small bowl, mix the flaxseed meal and water and set aside for 3-5 minutes.
In another large bowl, mix together the flax “eggs”, oil, vanilla extract, pineapple, mashed bananas, and finely chopped walnuts. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until combined. Evenly divide the batter between the two prepared pans and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. After about 10 minutes invert the cakes onto the wire rack, remove the pans and parchment paper, and then cool completely before frosting.
Frosting: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the margarine and cream cheese, on low speed, until very smooth with no lumps. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar and beat, on low speed, until fully incorporated and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract.
To assemble: Place one cake, top side down, onto your serving platter. Spread with about a third of the frosting. Gently place the other cake layer, top of cake facing up, onto the frosting, and spread the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup of walnuts in the center of the cake. Refrigerate cake for a hour for frosting to set.
You thought I forgot to announce the Nicobella winner, eh? Congrats to winner #43,
Becca said…
The blueberry almond intrigues me the most! (please email me your address Becca!)
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway!
