Breakfast Cookies!

    No not really... Just breakfast AND cookies :)


    I've been on an oatmeal kick lately, especially with the breeze thats been a blowin and making it really feel like fall here, oatmeal is a great comfort food! Especially with bananas, almond butter, walnuts, and cinnamon.. mmm. I've been doing something with the banana though that I never thought of and it makes it taste like Banana Bread pudding, its so good. You just cook the oatmeal as normal and then you add a banana, mash it up really good until its like baby food and stir it in, and then put it back in the microwave for around 30 seconds. Don't knock it til you try it! Then add the rest of the fixins. 

      Now for the COOKIES! 

      These are whole wheat goodness. Well if you're like me and like healthier tasting stuff. They just have less sugar and are made with whole wheat flour... duh? But my room mate approves.. I think ;) Its the recipe in Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Moskowitz, my favorite vegan. Feast your eyes on these babies!

 

Thats it for now... Enjoy your first day of fall!

The College Life

      With my move to one bedroom where I am suppose to do all my living, also known as a college dorm, I was a little skeptical as to how my cooking would go. It will still take some getting used to, but here are some things I've made in these past two weeks!


    The first thing I made was hummus because it's super easy and I will pretty much eat it with anything. I also got this little food processor from target for 6 dollars. Yup. Pretty awesome. It works pretty well too. It was just the basic hummus recipe, no tahini, but still good. Just garbanzo beans, veggie oil and garlic!

Then my second adventure was trying sunflower "cheese". I usually buy sunflower seeds to toss in my oatmeal so I had a bunch and I saw a recipe on a blog, and I thought why not? I get to use my handy dandy food processor! So this was just soaked sunflower seeds, lemon juice, and water. The recipe called for dill, but I didn't have any in my limited pantry so I went with out. It could have used some spices or something but still not to shabby. Good with these Ezekial pocket breads I've come to love!

My first trip shopping I bought a bunch of bananas and I realized I don't use a bunch of bananas before they go bad, so I froze two of them. And here is the lovely creation they turned into...

ONE ingredient ice cream! So so good. 

I just like slurpees :)

Then I made another yummy treat, not all on the same day of course :)

CAKE IN A MUG!! 

And it was good for you too... well sort of.

I made up this recipe too :)

4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

3 Tablespoons Agave

2-3 Tablespoons rice milk

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

2-3 Tablespoons Applesauce

Heat it in the Microwave for 5 minutes and then drizzle some more agave on top and it is delicious!

I was talking to my mom the other day and we both share a love of figs so she told me they were buy one get one free at Publix. So I went and got two packages of figs. How am I going to use them all? I have no clue, but here is one way!

These are like super yummy and healthy fig newtons, but better!

I didn't make this one up I just changed one that I found. And I made it smaller in order to use my little food processor.

The crust is...

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats

1/4 tsp. baking soda

2 tablespoons Applesauce

1 1/2 tablespoons agave

 Mix all that up and spread half on the bottom of a pan.

The middle is where I changed it a lot and don't have exact measurements either. 

6-7 figs

2 pitted dates

a splash of lemon juice

a splash of water

a tablespoon of agave

couple dashes of cinnamon

Just mix that all up in a food processor until its pasty like. Put it over the bottom crust and then put the remaining crust mix on top. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until the top gets brown. 

This is one of my favorite things I've made! It is so yummy and it has no refined sugar! 

So that's all so far, more to come I'm sure! Especially now since I have a kitchen on my own floor and don't have to go all the way down to the base level. 

Ok I'm done :D

          Starting to wind down from the sugar train and jumping back on the feeling good, healthy train. Here's a few recipes you might find on that train. :)

         This would be a desert...

   Banana Chocolate Pudding

2 bananas

About 1/4 cup Agave

3-4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

A couple splashes of soy milk

Just mix it all in a food processor or blender and you can either keep it in the fridge for more of a pudding or you can do what I did and put it in the freezer and eat it like ice cream... yum!

Now for some bean dip. It's super easy and fun to make and most importantly, tasty!

This is caper hummus, it was really good. I had it everyday last week :)

1 can of Garbanzo beans

2 Tablespoons of Tahini

1 Tablespoon minced Garlic (or about 3 cloves)

1-2 Tablespoons of Capers

I used a hand blender but a food processor would work just fine. Just put all the ingredients in a bowl and blend away!

Then for my second round...

This one is pretty good, it's a little spicy though.

1 can of pinto beans

1 1/2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon garlic

2-3 teaspoons of hot sauce, I used Crystal

3-4 teaspoons of lime juice

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Same thing, just blend it all up!

Then for something sweet again (but still semi-healthy)

Rice Pudding!

2 cups brown rice (I had some left over so I just used that)

1 cup non-dairy milk, I used almond but I think next time I'll use rice.

1/4 cup brown rice syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Add rice and milk to a pan and keep on medium high heat until it gets a little thick. Then add the syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon and keep on heat to let it thicken a little more. Let it cool in the refrigerator for a little while, but I had some warm and it was really good! 

That's all for now, but I tried a new restaurant with my Gramma and of course I took pictures! But I'll save that for my next post. :)

Vacation Goodies!

             Daniel Fast is done! Very good, but glad to be baking goodies again. These are not very sugar conscience friendly, but they are tasty. Hey, its vacation! :) Yesterday was our first day off the fast and we went sugar crazzzy. Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows. Oreo Cupcakes, and Agave Vanilla Cupcakes (These had no sugar and were good, but then we put the oreo icing on top :o) I got all my recipes from my absolutely FAVORITE cookbooks Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by my easily becoming favorite chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I also got her cookbook Vaganomicon which I'm really excited about to get home and make some real meals :)

I had little tastes of everything, before and after it was baked and it was all tasty! Even the other 20 people of my family here for the week agreed. :)

Then Today...

My baking itch wasn't quite gone so I made Chocolate Chip Chai Cookies! I think these might be my new favorite. Mmmhm.

Almost Done.

          In one way I can't believe these three weeks will be over tomorrow and in the other way I've been ready for it. I can't deny that I feel better on this fast, but I must admit that I've been trying to suppress my desire for "normal", sugary, delicious food on my own. My first fast I knew from my previous failed attempts at dieting that the only way I could do this was total reliance on God, but this one I guess I just thought it would be easier since I wasn't giving up as much. One of my goals for this fast was establishing a mourning routine of prayer and devotion which I sort of did. I skipped some mornings because I woke up too late or stayed the night at a friends or whatever, but I have loved setting apart that time on the mornings I did and hope to continue improving on that. However with my first one my devotions were all centered around the fast or the principles of the fast and these devotions were what I would have done normally. Which was fine, I'm learning how much I need the word everyday and how it sustains me and fills me up, but it didn't relate to my physical surrender so my fast was more of a diet this time. I forgot how much I need to fill up on The Word and the Holy Spirit in my surrender in order to connect the body, soul, and spirit. My body is made from this world and will return to this world and wants things of this world. If I'm trying to turn away from the things that my body wants, then I better have my spirit and soul completely focused on Him. Everything I try to do on my own even if its something good like dieting, will fail. Without taking my body under control of taking every thought captive to focus on Christ, I can do nothing. Regardless of what I'm doing, in order to live the way God calls us to live, my body, soul, and spirit must be focused on Him, and in surrender to Him. 

"Jesus looked at them and said, "with man this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible."

Matthew 19:26

Daniel Fast Update!

           This fast has been completely different than my first one, in a good way. My first one I gave up a lot more and was more focused on the spiritual side of it mostly because I was giving up a lot more. This time I still craved the sugar, bread, sugar, Starbucks, tea, sugar, and sugar. Do I sound like I'm complaining? If you asked me about it two days ago I might have ripped your head off for a cupcake, but I think I've hit my sweet spot. (pun intended!) My last fast I got to this point where I began to love this way of eating and feeling so great and let me just say that if you put a cupcake in my face today I might throw it on the ground. I get excited all over again about the amazing affects that food has on our bodies. What we put in our bodies actually effects the way we feel, isn't that crazy? It's a new concept I know.
         God created all the food we need on this planet before we even got here, food that nourishes, food that heals. We don't have to take away or add anything to it or change the chemical properties to make it anything new. How can we make something better that the perfect, all knowing God already made perfect? When we try and alter it and then put it into our bodies that were not made to process something that has already been toyed with, we are not going to feel as fantastic as we want to.
        I think my "sweet spot" is the point where eating whole foods has replaced the sugar cravings and I feel so good because I'm running on good fuel, the fuel we were meant to run on. I'm two weeks into this thing and excited to finish it off, but I think like last time I won't ever really finish. God has shown us the way to live in every aspect of our lives, including food. I'm not saying I won't enjoy a nice vegan cookie and soy latte every one in a while, but that white addictive stuff that most people call sugar but reeks havoc in this body, will be very rare. Not to say I won't have anything sweet, there's a bunch of not so crazy sweeteners out there, or that I won't ever have sugar again, but I wan't to feel as good as God intended us to feel on this earth as I can. I firmly believe God has put this passion in my heart, a passion for health and healing body and soul and seeing other people experience it that He continues to grow more and more. I've loved having my Dad, Sister, and Gramma doing this with me and hearing about their different experiences! (One more week guys! ) I know I say it a lot, but I'm just excited, about everything!
  Ahh, Life is SWEET! :)

Daniel Fastin it up!

            You may have noticed that the majority of my posts on this blog have been well, sweet. And while living on the sweeter side of life is fun for a little while I think I have to relate it to my trouble sleeping, sluggishness, and of course, craving more sugar. Just because I will be getting rid of sugar doesn't mean being a vegan will not be sweet, in fact quite the opposite! I can't wait to have the awesome feeling of being rid of sugar and its nasty side effects. The feeling of balance and satisfaction I feel from eating whole and unprocessed foods way out weighs the momentary pleasure of those yucky foods that don't give me so much pleasure later. 
           When I first did the Daniel Fast it was in a way related to sugar but also to food in general. Since my first fast and becoming vegan I feel completely different about food and about myself all together. I can honestly say that the Daniel Fast changed my life and I loved those three weeks. (Maybe not the first week, but definitely towards the end! :) ) For this next one I feel completely different going into it, I'm excited but I'm also excited about the fact that my Dad will be doing it with me this time! The Fast is really healthy but that can not be the only reason for doing it, or else its just another diet, the Fast has to be for a spiritual purpose. My spiritual purpose on this fast will be one- to create a morning routine of bible reading and sitting at My Father's feet soaking in His presence. And two- prayer for healing for my Dad's blood pressure. Then for the food side of it, my goal is to be rid of sugar and processed foods and feel more balanced.
        So I won't be doing a daily post as I did last time but there will be updates! Also since the dessert posts will be stopping for at least three weeks, you will be seeing some of the yummy "Daniel Fast approved" foods I'll be creating. 
     It begins tomorrow! I have to be honest though I'm sitting here enjoying the last of my ABC cookies as I type this :) But if anyone (of three readers hehe) is interested in joining us feel free to ask me about it or visit Here. Can't wait for tomorrow but I will savor every crumb of my cookie! :)