It’s here, Friday once again! I know it seems like every week Friday is the end goal, the day we all wait for, but I can’t think of anything better than anticipating the weekend, especially one that involves best friends visiting and a prediction of beautiful lakefront weather.  Just so many lovely things in one time and space, life is great.  Since my guests are flying to come to the Brew City, I am obviously repaying them with beer, hugs, and treats!  Among those in the works is this trail mix.  My lovelies and I are running a race on Saturday and need to carb up (oh darn, only if you make me).  Nuts are perfect for sustaining all that 5K energy and chocolate is just always necessary.

By the way, don’t put the raisins in with the nuts when they are roasting in the oven.  For some reason, I decided to throw them in for one go around and they came out like a nice leathery nugget. Gross. Just don’t think about it. My favorite part of this crunchy mix was the chocolate and peanut butter coating every morsel of goodness.  I know you are like me and pick out the good chocolate pieces in a trail mix and leave the rest to shrivel up to live a lonely, uneaten life in the bowels of the snack bag. Seriously, who is eating those pretzels first?   This is also a great cleaning out the cabinets snack too, especially if you are using up odds and ends of nuts and snacks.

It’s almost the weekend, live it!

p.s. The folks over at The Kitchn featured my popsicle recipe, if you want to take a look here!

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Too many times I’ll want to give up on eating the rest of a recipe just because I’ve been way too overloaded at once.  I love every single recipe I put up here, but really, if I am the only one eating it and it’s going down multiple times a day, I grow tired pretty easily. I want to be excited to eat my leftovers, not all “Blah why is this thing in my bowl again??” (um, that made me sound like a cat deploring his bowl of dry food, I digress, get cat food off your mind). But why would I waste a perfectly good recipe on my boredom?  

Remember this quinoa salad?  I loved the freshness of every piece of it, but it was time to breathe new life into the withering bowl of miracle grain.  I had just enough of the salad left that it needed to be used or eaten, but not quite enough to give away either. Enter, granola! I knew quinoa + granola looked like a match made in breakfast heaven from other food blogs, but wanted to try my hand at it.  So, I picked out the spinach leaves, stirred in some oats and maple syrup and baked the granola mixture low and slow to dry the fruits out. The best part is that the granola came out much better than expected.  Improvised recipes + excellent result= best feeling.

The leftover quinoa salad isn’t necessary for this recipe, just use up some leftover cooked quinoa or cook up a batch before throwing the granola together.  If your quinoa is already seasoned on the savory side, go ahead and try sweetening the mixture with the maple syrup.  You might need to use a bit more, but it’s worth the sweet second life to those little grainy suckers.   Also, feel free to sub in dried fruit or any other fresh fruit you may have.  I loved that the fresh fruit gave a chewy texture to the granola, while still adding a fair amount of moisture.  The method of baking the granola at a low temperature for an extended period is essentially dehydrating the fruit, so if you are using dried fruit, the bake time can be reduced.

I made this granola on a whim at night, so I don’t have any process shots, but had to hold back on eating all the the granola in a week in order to save some for photographing!

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Guys, it’s finally Friday! I hope you have fruity drinks and fun plans or doing a lot or nothing, depending on your style.  Let me tell you that I have fallen head over mason jar with the category of boozy booze known as spritzers.  Bubbly and usually on the sweet side, they appeal to both my sangria tendencies and my love of fruity liquors.  The cucumber infused vodka is a bonus for this drink, but can easily be replaced with regular vodka or any fruity liquor of your choice (schnapps,  etc.).  But really, infuse that booze, my friend. It looks totally fancy and is seriously so easy but makes you look like a fancy pants.

The cucumbers look kind of like weird alien fingers after they lose all of the color after infusing, but trust me, the elixir it leaves behind is totally spot on.  (Find the infusing recipe here from Shutterbean. )

If cucumbers aren’t on your short list, throw some strawberries, pineapple, or any other absorbent fruit in there.  Double warning, this is double boozy, so be careful if you are chugging.  (Why are you chugging anyhow?)  I’m planning on making a big pitcher of this spritzer, throwing in a few cool cucumber slices, and calling it a successful afternoon when a couple of girlfriends visit in a couple of weeks. Enjoy the weekend, spritz it!

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It’s really not that hot here, not hot enough to believe it’s June anyway.  For a split second I considered turning on the heat last week, what?  Regardless of the weather I am making popsicles. don’t care. Kind of like how I’ll still drink hot coffee when it’s hot. Who knows.  For dessert, with booze, with fruit, and for breakfast.  Popsicles for breakfast aren’t the usual route, but hear me out. It’s like a bowl of juicy fruit and granola on a stick.  Lord knows how things on a stick tickles everyone’s fancy like whoa! (See: every state fair ever)

I loved that this recipe ended up being easier than I originally planned.  Blend up almond milk and bananas, stir in the fruit and granola toppings, bada bing bada boom.  Of course, the hardest part is waiting for them to freeze, so make sure you have something super time consuming planned so you won’t keep peeking in the freezer every 5 minutes to see if they are done.

Also, don’t remove these fruit and granola popsicles until you are absolutely certain they are probably maybe frozen all the way.  You will be left with a half of a popsicle and a potential melting disaster on your counter. Just don’t, patience is key!  I had no problems with my molds and would highly recommend them if you are in the market. You can find them here.

I’ll just be here, eating my weight in everything frozen on a stick. Granola recipe in these babies is coming soon!

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When did it become Wednesday already? I love a three day weekend, but the flip side of this diggity of a weekend is that suddenly, it’s Friday again, yeah doggy!  Also, do you ever feel like throwing your computer out the window? I did, and it’s a good thing I had this skillet of goodness in reach because my laptop might have been a driveway top last night.

On to the positives, let’s talk about this cookie.  I wanted an oil-free chocolate chip cookie that could stand on its own or with a bevy of toppings.  Enter, this chocolate chip pillow of joy.  I’ve never tried baking a cookie in a skillet, so it was high time that I gave it a chance.  Verdict? I’m a fan!  It gives you the “bar cookie” feel while seeming rustic.  Is that even a good way to describe a cookie? Anywho, this topping was a product of the “but it just  needs a little something extra..”. Voila!

The date paste is easy to make, or you can sub in Sunsweet if you can find that as well, but I made a batch of the paste and have it on hand for baking now. To make the date paste simmer about a cup of pitted dates in 2 cups of water until falling apart (about 10 minutes).  Process the dates in a food processor with 3 tablespoons of water, more if necessary, until a smooth paste is formed.  Feel free to sub in your favorite nuts in the topping or use butter instead of date paste in the cookie.  But really, I think the recipe is wonderful untouched.

We are going to need bigger bowls..and spoons.

adapted from Hell Yeah It’s Vegan

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I like to play this game called “let’s use everything”.  It obviously consists of me, trying to come up with ways to delay going to the grocery and using up everything in the cupboards and refrigerator.  Sometimes, some pretty awesome things happen.  Other times, you just can’t make a dish out of walnuts and a big bag of corn. Not anything super amazing anyway. 

I’ve been trying to use up a huge bad of steel cut oats I’ve had for a while and made these scones a while ago but needed a way to use more and have something filling on hand for breakfast.  Also, if steel cut oats aren’t soaked in enough liquid, they tend to take on the texture of uncooked rice. Blegh. When in doubt, use more liquid!

The gorgeous thing about this is that you can use whatever you have on hand, as long as you throw in a liquid, fruit and some kind of binder. I don’t usually pick up fresh apricots at the store, but these were calling to me and are practically gone already. Any liquid would would, orange juice, almond milk, or apple juice (apple cider? I like where this is going).  The pumpkin could be replaced with applesauce or mashed banana as well. Maybe soak the raisins in bourbon before adding? This could get crazy. Bourbon in my oatmeal.

I got my baking spice blend from Penzey’s, but you can blend your own up as well.

Also, I used pumpkin in this recipe because I still had pumpkin on hand (from making my Pumpkin Beer Bread).  This can also be thrown into the lazy but awesome breakfast category and baked over a weekend and eaten throughout the week. Double breakfast score!

I’m thinking that if you fancy this up a bit, soak the raisins, use a few unique fruits and provide a topping bar, this would be a perfect simple brunch component as well.  Oats + mimosas= Hearty weekend.

Have a great weekend friends!

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Quinoa  is such a crazy grain.  Are you a rice? Are you a pasta? I can use you as cereal? Say what?!

Needless to say my love for quinoa abounds, especially as a vegan who looks for protein from non-animal sources, quinoa is like the little black dress of my cabinets.  Dress it up, dress it down.  Here, we are accessorizing our staple with shiny sandals and a laid back fancy necklace. It’s a throw it on deal, simple and stunning.

This dish came to be like my favorite outfits, throw it all in and see how it looks (or in this case, tastes), adjust until comfortable and just live in it.  I love cooking a big batch of quinoa and using it in a little bit of everything.  Only recently have I discovered the magic of quinoa as cereal. How didn’t I know about this by now? Fruit, almond milk, quinoa, done. Full until lunch ( a requirement if you’ve eaten all of your work cubicle snacks) and hardly any work involved.  I got lucky and found apricots and strawberries on sale, but feel free to throw in whatever you have on hand.

Throw on a summer dress and throw together this salad friend, it’s patio eating time!

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Real talk.  Who actually eats every piece of the trail mix?  The pretzels are like the busywork a girl has to do sometimes to get to the good stuff.  The chocolate pieces are obviously the surprise of a forgotten extended weekend or free nacho days at work.  Those dried fruit or veggie pieces? Those are like an unexpected fun work project.  Both are good for you, surprising, and always rewarding in the end.

I wanted to make something to incorporate more veggies into my daily snacks, while also giving the salty crunch that I usually crave.  Chips aren’t  usually the best option to eat daily, so enter these crunchy pieces of spicy goodness.

Crunchy chickpeas have quickly become a favorite snack, but I wanted to try the same high heat roasting method with other veggies.  Conclusion? Winner winner veggie dinner! The best tip I came away with for these was to overseason a bit, to make sure the water from the frozen veggies doesn’t absorb too much of the seasoning.  Also, be sure to taste test along the way, to make sure the best degree of crunchiness is achieved.  There is a fine line between blissful crunch and burn, so be careful!  The peas are the most likely to burn, since they are the smallest.

Happy almost Friday, the weekend is so close! Next week, sweets are back!

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Hey there lads and ladies! Can you even believe that it’s almost Memorial Day?  Memorial day= grilling and eating outside, my favorite!

Also, you know that the meal being grilled and the condiments are equally important. I wasn’t a mustard lover for a long time, but after easing back into the game with honey mustard, I wanted to start trying other kinds of mustard besides for the grossly bright yellow bottled stuff.  But, have you seen the price of those little jars of fancy pants toppings?! Heck no, let’s make our own!

My dad started playing with making his own mustard and I decided to jump in too.  The spice level of the mustard depends on how quickly you stick it in the fridge after blending up the ingredients.  If you like a nose blowing, eye watering level of spice, blend and stick in the fridge right away. But, if you are like me and like a milder version, let the mustard mixture mellow for a bit before chilling. The longer the chill, the milder the mustard, who knew!

In thinking about a different way to use the homemade mustard, I wanted something beyond burgers and sausages.  I love the contrast between the spice in the thin layer of mustard, the neutral flavor of the apple and the sweet of the sticky honey on this toast.  Select a thick, hearty slice of bread for this toast, it needs all the support it can get with all these flavors.

I also love this swirled into hummus and dipped with pretzels.

I found my mustard seeds at Penzey’s Spices.  If you are lucky enough to have one of these stores nearby, visit! The staff if awesome and helpful, not to mention the selection is outstanding.  (They aren’t paying me, I just adore them!)

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Pie. It can make a woman run for the hills,  a man run to the table and everyone else in between either loves it or could leave it. Please tell me you are a pie AND cake person? I know there are two schools.  Those who love pie and those who could do without. Personally, I can’t imagine turning down a shell filled with some sort of sweet fruit/chocolate/nut variation, sliced into as big of a wedge you desire, and possibly topped with ice cream. Come to mama.

Pie doesn’t have to be all rolling and kneading, it can be all “oh look at how awesome and simple I am!”.

I’m of the sweet and salty combo school of thought, so I wanted to make the crust a flavor addition to the filling, rather than just a shell of the pastry.  Feel free to sub in any combo of nuts in this crust, we’re going for chocolate/salty combination here!  If you choose to not bake the crust right away go ahead and leave it at room temperature until baked.  The applesauce in the crust can become too much of a glue in the crust if refrigerated and cause it to be hard to cut the finished product.  (Thanks for the problem solving and brainstorming on this issue dad!)

It is essential to let the tofu come to room temperature and the chocolate to cool slightly, or the warm chocolate with seperate from the cold tofu and create a grainy texture.   When in doubt, add more chocolate.

Enjoy!

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