Tasty Tidbits

This sunrise was totally worth waking up for! It's been super hot lately, so when Wed. morning was a mere 70 degrees, I decided it was the perfect day to roller blade. I just got new wheels & they're super smooth, which makes it that much more fun of a work out. Six miles before 7am with gorgeous skies!

We were at a family picnic last weekend & W spent a lot of time playing horseshoes. I played for about half a game, but aside from some bizarre twist of the luck where I got a ringer, my other throws were pretty bad.

This is W's birthday weekend, so we're at the cabin to relax & celebrate. It's been waaaaay too long since we were up there!

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Blueberry yogurt with Cinnamon Spiced Granola 
• Ashley's Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Burgers topped with pb - For some reason, as soon as I saw this post, I knew I had to make them right away. They didn't disappoint! Sooooooo perfect for a nutritious & filling breakfast with lots of flavor.
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread from the Peas and Thank You Cookbook
• Bananas, blueberries, & wineberries

  

Lunches

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Kale soup
• Mega salads - lettuce, beet greens, roasted sweet potato, beets, onion, almonds, & peaches dressed with peanut sauce
• Peaches, watermelon & plums

Dinners

Saturday:
Family picnic!

• Spaghetti salad with cucumbers & red peppers
• Orzo with almonds, feta, kalamata olives, & dill
• Easy Three Bean Salad (I brought this.)
• Italian pasta salad
• Guacamole & tortilla chips
• Watermelon, blueberries, & strawberries

Sunday:

• Zucchini & Eggplant Lasagna - We were obsessed with this last year & now we're obsessed with it again. Yum!

Monday:

• Corn on the cob
• Green salad

Tuesday:

• Pierogies sauteed with onions, zucchini, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, & fresh basil

Wednesday:

• Grilled tofu dogs
• Grilled green beans with lemon & seasoned sea salt
• Grilled hot peppers with Trader Joe's Merlot soaked cheese
• Green salad

Thursday:

• Cucumbers & carrots with dip
• Blueberries
• Oat pretzels with Top with Cinnamon's Healthy 3-ingredient Chocolate Fudge Sauce - This is SO good. I knew we would love it, so I doubled the recipe from the start. We've been putting it on rice cakes, graham crackers, & fruit. And our fingers & spoons...
• (So this wasn't much of a dinner...we both had a big lunch & weren't in the mood for a full-on dinner.)

Friday:

• Gnocchi with Roasted Broccoli & Garlic Vinaigrette

Treats

• Minimalist Baker's Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream - I used chocolate almond milk & put peanut butter swirl in this instead of the brownies the recipe called for. It turned out super chocolatey. Plus it was quick & easy to make. Yum!
• Brittany's Chia Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies - I could eat these as a dessert or a breakfast. They're very good! Not quite oatmeal raisin cookie type texture, but similar!
• Healthy blueberry crisp - blueberries topped with oats, cinnamon, & honey, baked until bubbly

Tasty Tidbits

It's been so hot, I had to pull out some pictures of cooler times. A few months ago, we had a campfire & had to wear hoodies! No fires lately...we tried one on July 4 & got so hot we let it die before we even had s'mores.

My phone's background is now a picture of skiing in Vermont. Just looking at that snow & remembering the fun we had cheers me up every time I see it!

Oh spring...I love seeing the crocuses come up. This was when I was wishing for warm weather...I'm never satisfied with the season we're in. Except maybe fall. Ever since I graduated college, I've embraced my love for fall. I always loved it, with the crisp weather, pretty leaves changing, & my birthday, but now that the back-to-school bit isn't involved, it's truly my favorite time of year.

We have some plans with family & friends this weekend, but nothing major. There's plenty to do around the house & maybe I'll venture out to work in the garden. I'm hoping for lots of rain!

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Blueberry yogurt with Coconut Granola 
• Mama Pea's Blueberry Muffins with peanut butter
• Oatmeal with peanut butter & coconut
• Puffed rice & millet cereal with sliced peaches, blueberries, & unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• Mango chocolate protein green smoothie
• Bananas & cherries

  

Lunches

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Lentil veggie burgers
• Guacamole with salsa & blue corn chips
• Chipotle black bean dip with whole wheat crackers
• Carrots & cucumber slices
• Peaches, watermelon & cherries
  
  
  

Dinners

Saturday:

• Mega salads

Sunday:

• My Food Diary's Mushroom Marinara Sandwiches on Nourished Kitchen's No Knead Sourdough Bread - I used steak cut portobello mushrooms for this. It was seriously delicious! (see pic above)
• Green Salad

Monday:

• Food Doodles' Lightened Up Zucchini Alfredo (made with zucchini noodles) - We really liked the flavors in this, but the sauce was pretty runny. It might be because we didn't use any regular pasta, just zucchini noodles, so I would like to try it again with the combo. Next time, though, I'd start with less almond milk & then add more if needed.
• Cucumber slices & carrot sticks with dip

Tuesday:

• Corn on the cob - Super hot summer days just scream for simple, fresh food. Hence, corn on the cob for dinner!
• Green salad

Wednesday:

• Grilled Eggplant, Mushroom, & Kale Pitas

Thursday:

• Homemade sourdough tortillas filled with a black bean, zucchini, eggplant, onion, mushroom, & kale mixture, topped with mango avocado salsa

Friday:

• Grilled romaine Caesar salads

Treats
(apparently this was a week for frozen treats...couldn't have been because of the crazy heat or anything...)

• Oh Lady Cake's S'mores Ice Cream - This was one of the easier ice cream recipes I've tried lately. It was also one of the tastiest. And it was vegan! You'd never know. S'mores + ice cream = summer food love.
• Banana soft serve with raw cookie dough bites
• Summer's German Chocolate Cake (gluten free) - Mom made this for dessert with my grandparents. It was very good - you would never know it's gluten free & it was super chocolatey!
• Rainbow Snow (cone w/ pb ice cream for me, choc milkshake for W)

Grilled Eggplant, Mushroom, & Kale Pitas

I made dinner the other night with no intention of it being anything worth sharing. We had some eggplant from the farm market & I wanted to make sandwiches, so I started building with what we had on hand.

We ended up loving these! They were quick & easy, with lots of room for variations based on what you have on hand. Kale could easily be replaced with other hearty leafy greens (chard, collards, spinach), eggplant could be replaced with zucchini, feta replaced with gorgonzola, and so on. We loved this particular combo & would definitely make it again, but if you have similar ingredients on hand, save yourself a trip to the store.

If you're looking for a quick dinner that doesn't require the oven, this is it! Great for summer nights. Enjoy!

Grilled Eggplant, Mushroom, & Kale Pitas
Serves 2

1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/4" rounds
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 medium yellow onion, sliced into half moons
3-4 baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced (or use 1/2 tsp. garlic powder to save chopping time)
4 large leaves of kale, stems removed & leaves chopped into small pieces
1/2 c dry white wine
2 whole wheat pita rounds, sliced in half
1/2 an avocado, thinly sliced
4 T crumbled feta cheese

Sprinkle eggplant slices evenly with garlic powder, sea salt, & red pepper flakes. On a grill (or grill pan) lightly coated with olive oil spray, cook eggplant slices over medium heat. After about 6 minutes, flip slices & cook the other side about 6 minutes. Eggplant should be soft & lightly browned.

In the meantime, use a nonstick skillet to cook onions over medium heat until they start to soften. Add mushrooms, cook for 4 minutes, then add garlic & kale. Once kale starts to soften, add white wine. Increase heat & simmer until wine evaporates.

Once eggplant is done cooking, slice rounds into strips about 1/2" wide. Open pita pockets & stuff all 4 halves with equal amounts of eggplant. Divide mushroom & kale mixture between the 4 pita halves. Then add sliced avocado to each, plus 1 T feta cheese. Serve immediately.

Note:
Both the eggplant & the mushroom/kale mixture can be made ahead of time & stored for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Reheat both briefly before stuffing pitas and serving.

Tasty Tidbits

This isn't the best pic of Tink, but she was being super active! We tried to brush her because she's been shedding with all the hot weather. At first she thought we had a new toy & she was playing with us. Then she realized we wanted to brush her & she wasn't happy. Maybe once she grows up a little! My parents' cat loooooves to be combed & she gets upset when we stop. She'll start meowing like crazy - Mom says she's scolding us.

Alex is in town for the weekend! It's going to be lots of fun!

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Peach yogurt with Coconut Granola 
• Oatmeal with peanut butter & coconut
• Bananas

  

Lunches

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Mega salad with spiralized raw beets & carrots, snow peas, & pistachios (pic above)
• The Kitchn's Broccoli & Feta Pasta Salad - I'm not usually a pasta salad person, but this is delicious! Great flavors, easy to make, & not drenched in dressing.
• Watermelon & cherries

Dinners

Saturday:

• Grilled cheese with tomato sauce

Sunday:
Dinner at Mom & Pops'

• Veggie Summer Rolls with peanut sauce
• Peanut Quinoa Soup
• Green Salad

Monday:

• Pan seared brussels sprouts
• Lima & white bean hummus with whole wheat pita crackers
• Green salad

Tuesday:

• Leftover Veggie Summer Rolls with peanut sauce
• Green salad

Wednesday:

• Cookie Monster Cooking's Sweet Potato, Black Bean, & Kale Quesadillas
• Green salad

Thursday:

• Cookie Monster Cooking's Sweet Potato, Black Bean, & Kale Quesadillas - These were so good that we had them 2 nights in a row.  The recipe made enough filling to serve 4-6, so I just stored it in the fridge overnight & made more quesadillas when we were ready to eat.
• Green salad

Friday:
Friends in town for the weekend!

• Vegetable paninis

Treats

• Cookies
• Banana soft serve with raw cookie dough bites

Tasty Tidbits

It's been awhile since I showed my garden! It's growing like crazy. We've picked 2 heads of broccoli so far, and there are many more on the way.

Here's an overview of the chaos. I love looking out the window in the kitchen & seeing so much green.

The kiwi has tons of fruit hanging off it, just starting to ripen. This will be our first year to harvest any, as long as the birds don't get to them before we do!

The zucchini is coming along well. Soon we'll have a few large enough to pick. I tried a new location for it this year in hopes that it doesn't get eaten as much. We love zucchini, so I've been disappointed in the crop the last few years. I'm not one of those people who gets overwhelmed by the surplus. This is one veggie we don't get tired of.

A few of the tomato plants already have fruit. These are the prettiest, with their stripes. We don't buy tomatoes in the store, so we're ready when tomato season comes to eat away. I think we planted more than usual this year, plus we have tomatillas as well.

Happy 4th of July everyone! Hopefully you had a fun day, didn't get rained on, & were able to relax & celebrate with family & friends. I was off, but Walter wasn't. :-(  We went to his grandparents' house (they had a picnic) during his lunch break to say hi, which was very nice. Then after he was done work, we had a campfire cookout of our own.

Here's what we've been eating in the last week:

Breakfasts

• Peach yogurt with Mango Granola & black raspberries
• Overnight oatmeal with chia seeds, blueberry pancake peanut butter, & black raspberries
• Brittany's Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough Ice Cream - So this totally counts as breakfast! I mean, I put banana on my oatmeal, so it's the same ingredients. Blending it all together changes it up & it felt so fun to eat "ice cream" for breakfast. 
• Ashley's Doughnut Waffles - I made these for a special 4th of July breakfast, but regular waffle size (and we didn't dip them in honey like she does). We topped them with black raspberries & they were so good! They didn't need anything else. Some of us are a little more ocd about having 1 raspberry per bite than others, as seen above. :-)
• Bananas

Lunches

• Sandwiches
• Leftovers
• Cabbage slaw
• Green salad
• Lima & white bean hummus with almond crackers, carrots, cucumbers, & whole wheat flax pita crackers
• Watermelon, cherries & strawberries

Dinners

Saturday:

• Grilled teriyaki tofu & zucchini kebobs (we ended up grilling them in our grill pan - as seen above - because they weren't cooking evenly)
• Grilled asparagus
• Green salad

Sunday:

• Take A Megabite's Zucchini Quesadillas - I altered this recipe, using cashew cheese, roasted garlic, & shredded sharp monteray jack instead of the goat cheese. These were fantastic on the Trader Joe's brown rice tortillas. I'll be making this again!

Monday:

• Ashley's Rosemary & Garlic Roasted Broccoli & Sweet Potatoes - These are my 2 favorite foods to roast, so when I saw this, I knew I had to make it. It was surprisingly filling! We dipped ours in almond butter dressing (me) & Makers Mark Gourmet Sauce (Bup). Both were delicious additions.
• Green salad

Tuesday:
Dinner at Mom & Pops'

• Grilled veggie & white bean burritos - So good! We had sauteed mushrooms & onions to put on them as well.
• Green salad

Wednesday:

• Angela's Rad Rainbow Raw Pad Thai - What a perfect summer dish! It was fresh & crisp, leaving us full but not feeling heavy. I can't wait to make it again!

Thursday:
Fourth of July campfire cookout

• Tofu dogs on potato rolls
• Vegetable foil packets - zucchini, mushrooms, onions & garlic

Friday:

• Brian & Rachel's wedding! Congrats!!!

Treats

• Blueberry Muffin Ice Cream
• Banana soft serve with raw cookie dough bites
• Cookies - We spent Tuesday evening baking cookies with my parents for my cousin's wedding. All in all, we made 4 flavors of pizzelles, coconut biscotti, choc pb biscotti, ginger snaps, apricot stars, & cookie peaches

Blueberry Muffin Ice Cream

I'm a die-hard chocolate ice cream fan. To the point of being obnoxious about it, I'll admit. I do not want vanilla ice cream, & get very upset when it somehow ends up in my bowl, especially when I thought what I ordered what chocolate & was led astray.

This ice cream, however, is a game changer. I saw the idea for it on Jessica's blog & couldn't get it out of my head. Her recipe calls for heavy cream & whole milk, both ingredients that I don't eat, but I had this feeling that I could do something similar with canned coconut milk. I probably considered making this for over a month, all the while knowing that I had 6 blueberry muffins waiting in my freezer. It was the perfect coincidence. I had to make this. 

It was far better than I expected it to be! While it does take some time (especially if you have to bake the muffins first), it's totally worth it! It's just the right amount of sweet, perfectly creamy, & chock full of blueberry muffin chunks.

This spells summer to me. You have to try it! And if you don't have an ice cream maker, this just might be the reason you needed to go out & get one. I got the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment for my birthday last year. It was really the gift that keeps on giving because not only do I get to enjoy making  healthified ice cream, we also get to eat it! I store the bowl in my freezer, just in case, because it must be frozen for a full day (15 hours, I think) before you can actually make ice cream. You just never know when the mood will strike! Anyway, if you don't have an ice cream maker & don't want to buy one, find a friend who has one. :-)

Blueberry Muffin Ice Cream
Adapted from How Sweet Eats
Serves 6-8
Easily made vegan & gluten free

2 T unsweetened original almond milk
1 1/2 T cornstarch
3 T cream cheese, room temperature (use vegan cream cheese if necessary)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 3/4 c unsweetened original almond milk
1 1/2 c light coconut milk (1 can)
2/3 c evaporated cane juice (or regular sugar)*
2 T agave nectar 
1 T vanilla extract
6 of your favorite blueberry muffins (I made these - they're gluten free & yummy)

Whisk together that cornstarch & 2 tablespoons of almond milk in a small bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, salt, & cinnamon with a fork. Set aside.

Pour 1 3/4 cups almond milk, coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, & agave into a large saucepan. Whisk together, then cook over medium-high heat until mixture comes to a low boil. Stir often, simmering for 4-5 minutes. Slowly drizzle in the cornstarch mixture, whisking constantly. Continue to simmer for another 2 minutes, then remove from heat. Pour about 1/3 of mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese. Whisk together until cream cheese melts. Pour remaining mixture into the bowl, whisking until it is all smoothly blended together.

Clear a spot in your freezer large enough for a 9x9 baking pan. Pour ice cream mixture into the pan & freeze for about 1 hour. Once it is cooled completely, pour into ice cream maker & churn according to manufacturer's instructions. Using the KitchenAid attachment, mine took about 20 minutes to change to ice cream. Crumble 3 muffins & add to ice cream. Continue to churn for about 2 minutes, or until well mixed. Put ice cream back into the 9x9 baking pan & fold in remaining 3 crumbled muffins. Place a layer of plastic wrap on the surface of the ice cream to keep it from forming ice crystals. Cover pan with foil (or I used one of those elastic plastic covers that look like hairnets). Freeze for 2 hours, or overnight. The longer you wait, the harder the ice cream will be, so judge accordingly.

*When I make this again, I'll probably only use 1/3-1/2 cup sugar. We loved it, but I doubt we would have noticed if there was less sugar, and that would make it a healthier treat. You may also want to vary the amount of sugar depending on the muffin recipe you use - the one I used was very low in sugar, but if you use one with high sugar content, it may add enough sweetness to really cut back even more on the sugar in the ice cream. Part of the flavor comes from the sugar caramelizing while it cooks with the milks, so don't eliminate it!