Bailey Likes Kale Chips

I couldn't resist posting this photo of Bailey, he's just so darn cute!

I can't believe he eats kale chips.

Raw Vegan Thanksgiving

Joan and I are planning a Raw Vegan Thanksgiving- I am so excited!

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No, it doesn't mean that THIS will be all we can eat : ) Pretty cute, though.

Here is our menu- everything on the menu is a brand new endeavor for each of us, so there is no telling how anything will turn out. I must say, though, that I have rarely been disappointed in any raw vegan recipe- even when the ingredients look strange, and I wonder how they will ever come together to taste good. But they do! Raw recipes are always amazing. So, I have high hopes for our Thanksgiving dishes.

Raw Turkeyless Turkey (TASHA)
*Equipment: Food processor, dehydrator
Time: Dehydrate 16 hours
Serves: ?
1/2 lb walnuts
1/2 lb almonds
1 pound carrots, finely grated
1 medium onion
1 Tablespoon raisins
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon caraway seeds, ground
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
Sea salt to taste

Raw Walnut and Mushroom Stuffing (JOAN)
Serves: ?
Equipment: Food processor
Time: Soak mushrooms 2-4 hours or overnight
¼ cup olive oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 cups walnuts
1 tsp salt
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 ½ tbsps fresh rosemary, chopped finely
2 tbsps fresh chopped parsley
½ tsp dried sage
3 tbsps olive oil
1 ½ cups grated carrot
1 cup chopped celery
½ cup pecans
½ cup raisins

Raw Vegan Mushroom Gravy (JOAN)
Equipment: Blender
Time: Soak nuts 4-6 hours. Before serving, can warm in dehydrator or blend until hot.
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup Brazil nuts, ideally soaked for 6 hours, rinsed and drained
1 shallot or 1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons dried mushrooms, ground to a powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Raw Vegan Green Bean Casserole (JOAN)
Serves: ?
Equipment: Blender
Time: Freeze sliced green beans 24 hours -OR- dehydrate for a couple of hours. Blend soup, then mix with green beans. Can be warmed in dehydrator.
Fresh green beans
¼ cup red onion, sliced very thin
½ cup chopped mushrooms
½ cup cashews
¼ cup white button mushrooms, chopped fine
½ teaspoon garlic
½ teaspoon salt
1 dash black pepper
Topped with Sarma’s caramelized shallots

Raw Caramelized Shallot (TASHA)
Equipment: Dehydrator
Time: Deydrate 2-4 hours
Shallots
Maple syrup
Nut or Olive oil

Fresh Cranberry Chutney (JOAN)
Equipment: Food processor / blender
Time: Blend
Fresh Cranberries
Orange
Agave
?

Raw Vegan Apple Cranberry Cheesecake (TASHA)
Serves: ?
Equipment: Blender, cheesecake pan, dehydrator
Time: Dehydrate cranberries, Soak cashews 2-4 hours, Dehydrate apples 2 hours, chill cheesecake for 2 hours
1 C Almonds
4 Dates, soaked until soft with pit removed
3 Apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1/4 C Agave
1/2 t. Cinnamon
1/3 C Dried Cranberries
2 T Coconut Butter
1/3 C Crust
2 C Cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
1 t. Lemon juice
1/2 C Coconut Butter (softened in dehydrator)
1/4 C Agave
1 t. Vanilla
1 t. Cinnamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg

I'll post how everything turns out, and the full recipes, after Thanksgiving.

p.s. Wait until you see Bailey's Thanksgiving outfit

I promise, it's not as bad as this (hee hee)

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Bailey Gets a Box

Bailey got a care package this week!

He knew it was for him. Seriously, he really knew. He usually ignores packages.

But with THIS package... his nose was glued to the box. Funny, when I opened the box, that's exactly where the treats were!

Is there something in there for me??? 

It IS for me! 

Treats!

I want that.

Oh yeah. Yum yum yum.

But mom, I know there are more of those treats up there...  pu-leeeeeze????

Thank you Nicole!

Gluten Free Vegan Halloween Krispy Treats

The inspiration for this recipe was a bag of puffed millet that I wasn't quite sure what to do with. If you are not familiar with millet, you will be happy to know that it is a low-calorie, gluten free grain with nearly 10% protein. Millet is high in magnesium; magnesium is beneficial to cardiovascular health, and can help prevent muscle cramps and migraines. Millet is also high in B-vitamins, folate, iron and zinc. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found this puffed millet is similar in texture to puffed rice. It is puffed and airy, but soft, not crispy. The only ingredient in the (Arrowhead Mills brand) cereal below is millet; nothing else.

The recipe below uses brown rice syrup instead of the marshmallows that are traditionally used in krispy treats. Why? Take a look:

The ingredients in Kraft marshmallows, large or small, are: corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, dextrose, water, gelatin, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, artificial flavor, natural flavor, and blue #1.

Besides the corn, corn, and more corn, fake laboratory ingredients with names I can't pronounce, and artificial colors and flavors- I won't even go into how gelatin is rendered. You can Google it... it's pretty disgusting. Blech! I'm not even vegetarian, but gelatin is an ingredient I'd like to avoid.

Dried apricots and raisins sneak in a little extra nutrition in this recipe, in addition to adding Halloween color.

Allergy-Friendly Halloween Krispy Treats

Ingredients
2 cups puffed millet
1/2 cup cashew butter (click here for how to make your own)
1/2 cup brown rice syrup
Dash himalayan salt (optional)
Dried apricots, diced
Dried zante currants (or raisins)

Method
Add cashew butter and brown rice syrup to a large saucepan over low heat.

Stir until melted.

Add dash of salt, if using. Stir to mix.
Add puffed millet.

Stir until millet is well coated with syrup mixture.

Add diced dried apricots and currants. Stir to combine.

Drop large spoonfuls of millet-fruit mixture onto parchment paper and let cool.

The mixture is pretty hot at this point, so just drop it onto the parchment paper, don't worry about the shape.

When it is cool enough to handle, shape into balls (just roll between your palms).

Enjoy!

Bailey is such a good dog. Since he is so darn cute laying there watching me take photos of food, I thought I'd let him pose with the treats too : ) He just likes the attention, he doesn't even try to swipe a treat : )

This recipe is linked to Cybele Pascal's Allergy Friendly Friday. Click to check out the other great allergy friendly recipes and the rest of Cybele's blog for awesome gluten, dairy, and egg free recipes.

Good Morning!

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So, our usual Saturday morning routine is:
get up,
turn on NPR,
feed Bailey,
make breakfast,
go to the Farmers’ Market for the week’s groceries,
socialize at the Farmer's Market, wag wag, woof <--- Bailey
come home, take pictures, and tell you what we'll be cooking with this week :)

But today, we are visiting family in Orlando- near DISNEY- and I am writing to you from here:

Like right there. I took that photo from right where I'm typing this very moment.

Therefore, today's Saturday morning routine was a little different:
Woke up,
Walked Bailey around the lake. Was in awe of the beauty of the bright orange sunrise over the lake. I didn't think to bring the camera- darn! It was SO beautiful.
As we kept walking, we saw a very large crew team getting ready to put their boat in the lake. (I'm sure there is a name for that kind of boat, but I don't know what it is?)
Walked back to the campsite,
Made breakfast- brown and wild rice with chopped apple. It was one of the first apples of the season, courtesy of family friends who just spent a month in North Carolina and shared some fresh picked Honeycrisp apples with the J's upon their return. That apple was delicious!

Bailey and I wandered out to the screen room (where we are sitting now) to eat breakfast, breathe the fresh air, and watch the world waking up. Right now I’m enjoying the beautiful weather, listening to the birds calling, watching the squirrels scamper around, and smiling at Bailey who is enjoying all of the sights, scents and sounds.

So I thought I’d grab the laptop to share this beautiful, serene morning with you.

That's a lake back there...

There is no internet here at the campground, so I’ll post this later when I have wi-fi.
Have a great Saturday!

p.s. woohoo! college football!

Garden Update

It's been raining a lot- look how green everything is!

Bailey has been pouting in the rain:

Here's the latest garden pic (taken in the rain, from my balcony):

I finally moved the bean sprouts and the spinach to bigger containers. This is the spinach outgrowing its previous container:

The spinach has these pretty little tendrils, and flowers: 

The beans were definitely outgrowing their container: 

Now they have these little shoots, and flowers: 

You know I don't have a clue what this means : ) 

Joan says, "Flowers are good"

I feel like a 3rd grader with a science experiment. LOL! I can't believe how clueless I am about gardening. No matter how much I've read about it, the best learning experience has been to just do it and see what happens : )

Look what just arrived!

The books are here!

Farmers' Market Saturday

Quick post... didn't get much at the Farmers' Market today.

Here's the haul:

Romaine, red onion, and star fruit. Yup, that's it! I also got peaches, but those were for Priscilla. Frankly, ever since we got that case of organic peaches and I made peach everything, I don't want to see peaches again for a while : )

I am not quite sure what I'm going to make to eat this week. But in the fridge I have watermelon, yucca, and a new vegetable I've never tried before called ñame, so I'm sure those will be appearing in this week's meals. Along with a blog post about what the heck is ñame (I don't yet know).

In case you are wondering where I find my cute little dishes and other kitchen goodies- it's usually thrift stores. I stopped at a thrift store on my way home, and here's the score from there:

I've realized I'm a sucker for tiny dishes of any sort. I'm already picturing ice cream or sorbet in those little white bowls with the handles : )

I also stopped at Big Lots, and here's what I found there:

10 hose washers for $1. The garden edging was 75% off- so it came to $1.25 for each roll. I couldn't pass that up. I have big garden/yard ideas in my mind right now... we'll see if those ideas ever actually make it out to the yard, hmm. Maybe in the Fall when the weather is cooler?

Big Lots also had a nice 3-shelf greenhouse on mega-clearance for $5, which seemed like a fantastic deal, but then I figured I don't know what to do with a greenhouse anyway. It's all I can do to remember to water and trim the herbs outside, ha! And I still haven't re-planted those peas that are way too big for their container. And the spinach needs to go in a bigger container too. So, yeah, the last thing I need is a greenhouse, even if it is $5. I can't keep up with what we've already got :)

I noticed some great deals on gluten free and other health food at Big Lots (who knew???), and I'm going to blog about that later. Right now it's time to feed and walk the B-meister.

Speaking of Bailey, I returned home from today's errands to this pouty face:

Bailey was sad he didn't go along this morning. Awww. 

We'll go for an extra long walk tonight.

Farmers' Market Day

As you know, Saturday means a trip to the Farmers' Market for Joan, Bailey and Tasha. Sadly, we did not encounter any crazy fruits this week - so no jackfruit and/or durian to report about.

But we did find an adorable little girl selling Quail eggs. How cute is this sign?

Here is her label, and the tiny eggs. It might be difficult to tell from the photo, but the eggs are about the size of the tip of your thumb:

Here is one open:

She even had samples- little, itty bitty, hard boiled eggs. Some were whole, and some were halved and deviled. I have never seen a teenier deviled egg. It was adorable. I tried a plain hard boiled quail egg. It tasted just like a regular (chicken) egg. Nothing unusual or strange. If you encounter one, try it! There is nothing to fear. It seems like it would be a lot more work to prepare 4 tiny eggs instead of one big one, but they taste just fine.

Bailey also tried a plain hard boiled egg. I think he almost swallowed it whole, though, so I definitely wouldn't give him another teeny hard boiled egg- choking hazard (hadn't thought of that)! That's a friendly tip in case you were considering feeding your 80lb dog a hardboiled egg the size of a gumdrop, ha. However, the girl's mother did say they feed their dogs 6 (raw) quail eggs a day, and that the yolks are great for keeping the dogs' coats healthy and shiny (just like regular eggs).

I just have to say the little girl was a great salesperson and she did a great job. Way to go, kid!

Here is some more info on different kinds of eggs

On the way home, we stopped at another local produce stand for watermelon- mmmm! They also offered fresh squeezed juices (click to enlarge picture):

And... orange watermelon! I've never tried an orange watermelon! Last year, we had a yellow one, and that was pretty tasty. I can't wait to try orange.