Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

    Easter is soon to be upon us! I do love Easter. The joyous mood is set because I am celebrating the eternal life I am able to have because of my savior. Secondly, it's of course fun to decorate eggs which I plan to do on skype with the rest of my family later today. And finally, I get to make and consume chocolate. Happy day.
    I am usually not a big Easter candy person, in fact when I lived with my parents, my Easter candy usually ended up in a box that would stay there till the next Easter when I would go to dump in more Easter candy. Yes, I was an abnormal child. Anyway, in spite of my lack of desire to eat the candy I got, there was always one little bit of goodness that I would consume on Easter morning : Homemade peanut butter eggs! Yum! This is my one Easter weakness, so, I of course set out to find a healthier way to make them that did not involve copious amounts of powdered sugar.
    Yesterday I grabbed my kindle and planted myself on the couch until I came up with a doable recipe for some form of chocolaty peanut butter goodness. After picking and choosing different ingredients from different recipes, here is what I came up with:

Healthy Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut oil (melted)

1 cup carob powder

1/4 cup + 1 tbs honey

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast 

1/4 tsp salt (if your peanut butter is unsalted)

Directions:

1) Mix together coconut oil, carob powder and 1/4 cup of honey. 2) spoon into a tart pan enough of the mixture to cover the bottom and then put it in the freezer 3) Mix together peanut butter, 1 tbs honey, nutritional yeast, and salt (if using). 4) take the tart pan out of the freezer and scoop a little bit of the peanut butter mixture into the center of each piece of chocolate (carob). 5) With the remaining carob mixture, cover each blob of peanut butter. 6) put the tart pan back in the freezer. 7) when they are frozen, poke each one out with a knife and wrap each one in foil. 8) Put back into the freezer until you are ready for them.

Yummzers!

Ode to Spring

Ode to spring
We love you for the excitement you bring
And the way you make us want to sing.
Ode to spring
We have expectations of extravagant beauty
And we feel you ought to submit to this duty.
Ode to spring
But when your day comes we are so disappointed
Because you and your schedule are very disjointed.
Ode to spring
So on this first day of spring cold enough for flurries to be flying
To say that you're here would just simply be lying.
Ode to spring
On this march 21st I have shivering knees
And all that I ask, spring, is that you just hurry please.

25 Years...

    25 years ago today, two 19-year-olds made a very important promise to each other-a promise that would change their lives forever.

    They promised...

...to to give themselves away to other as a gift that could never be taken back or given to another.

...to give their bodies to each other to hold and protect as if it were their own.

...to stay true to each other when God's blessings were being poured out  and the world seemed just right.

...to stay true to each other when they had a difference of opinion, everything was going wrong, and when the world seemed hopeless.

...to stay committed when they were blessed financially.

...to stick together when the money ran out, bills couldn't be paid, and the cupboards were empty.

 ...to stay committed when the other was sick and needed care-despite the inconvenience.

...to stay commited when the other was healthy and happy.

...to love one another in a way they could love no other, in a way that isn't easy as humans with imperfections, in a way that they could only do with God's help.

...to cherish each other, for they were about to become one till death they would part.

25 years ago despite the steep obligations, these two 19-year-olds made this promise and signed up for a journey they would never forget.

25 later they have come through better and worse, sickness and health, poorer and well...less poor and they have kept their promise to stay true.

    Today on this 25 year celebration I would like to applaud my parents for the commitment that have kept to each other that has been a form of security for four blessed kids and an example that is now Much more appreciated as I approach my own anniversary-celebrating three years of wonderful marriage. Thanks mom and dad! May the journey through the next 25 be even sweeter.

 
  

Happy St. Patties Day!

    Happy St. Patrick's day everyone! Now normally I wouldn't care this holiday at all since my Irish heritage is next to none, but when you live in a very culturally diverse city, every holiday is a big deal. Plus, I do enjoy creating delightful green foods, seeing people dressed up like leprechauns(doing crazy things), and having a reason to celebrate something.
    Yesterday was the big day for partying and of course all the bars were full and people were crazy. We started this green holiday with our own healthy version of the Shamrock Shake.

Shamrock Shake (vegan)

Ingredients:

1/8 cup mint leaves

1/4 cup spinach

1 tsp vanilla

1tsp honey

1 frozen banana

1 tsp carob powder

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients together and enjoy.

    In the evening Steven and I went to a little vegan restaurant called Karyn's Cooked, which was very delicious!

Steven's taco bowl with seitan.

My eggplant Parmesan with delicious grilled bread! 

We shared a potato soup and corn bread.
(We also had a vegan pizza for an appetizer)

    We then proceeded to carry our overstuffed bodies down the road to Trader Joe's where we picked up a pint of chocolate ice cream made with coconut milk as well as a bottle of Sparkling Chardonnay Grape Juice. Our evening ended with the consumption of our yummy purchases and an episode of Gilmore Girls. It's a wonderful thing to have a husband who doesn't mind having a chick flick evening here and there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

BBQ Shampoo

    Sometime last week Steven informed me that he and his good friend Austin, had been brainstorming the idea of teriyaki pizza. It was apparently suggested that I was a good match for the task. So, Friday evening Austin came over and we indulged ourselves with some delicious homemade teriyaki pizza.
    After this already unique experience, Steven decided that it would be a good idea to wash Austins hair with bbq sauce....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MITwjgzIH-c

Beet Chips

    Okay, it's time to reveal a truth about myself. I have always prided myself in being a lover of almost any healthy food. However, there is one vegetable that has been an exception: Beets. I have always crinkled my nose in the presence of others scooping those bloody looking pickled vegetables onto their plates. Having never been interested in the pickled version, I never explored other recipes for them.
    Last week, as you know I was doing a lot of juicing and one of the juices I made required beets. I have to be honest I wasn't a huge fan of the taste because all I could picture in my head was the nasty pickled thing, so I only drank it once. So, I had two beets left and didn't want them to go to waste so I started researching beet recipes. I ended up coming across Martha Stewart's recipe for Beet Chips. I just finished baking them and to my delight, they are delicious!
    Forgive my moment of morbidness, but I felt like a baker gone mad in a rat lab testing facility. Terribly confused? I'm pretty sure this picture says it all:

Tell me this doesn't look like bloody rat tails to you?

    Well now, after that I'm sure you are dying to eat some beet chips, right? Haha...

Beet Chips

Ingredients:

*Olive oil

*Salt

*2 beets

Directions:

(1) Chop of the the stems and the "rats tail" (2)thinly slice both beets 

(3) cover in olive oil and salt (4) bake at 350 till crispy.