Pumpkin & Pomegranate

I came home from work on Tuesday and for some reason was craving a smoothie. Not sure why, but I decided that a smoothie and a bath would not be a bad idea at all. Last time I went to Healeo I decided to nix the dates (I already shun agave) and I added in some blueberries to my usual. To my delighted surprise it was sweet enough! So today I made this interesting little monster sans dates. Behold! The Purple People Eater!

The color looked a lot better in person :-)

Purple People Eater

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Ripe Banana
• 4-5 Chunks Frozen Papaya
• 1/2 C. Frozen blueberries
• 3/4 C. Hemp Milk
• 1 T. Vitamineral Green
• 1 tsp. Maca powder

Method:

1. Um…well…just put all of that goodness there into a blender and let ‘er whirl!

A little housekeeping note. I am going to start replying to most of the comments in the comment section rather than e-mailing everyone separately. I will still do that from time to time too, but often the reply is something that others might benefit from, so don’t think I ignored you if you don’t get an e-mail back! Just check back with the comments :-)

Last Friday Matt spent the night at my place. Something that has only happened once in our year and a half relationship, and all because of my shared living accommodations. I wanted to do something special for dinner that night, so I began planning early in the day. I have never craved a kale salad, and honestly I haven’t had an actual salad in a while as it is hard for me to crave cold greens when it is chilly outside, but there you have it. I started thinking about this kale salad I had in Houston over Easter. I decided to take inspiration, but to go in another direction entirely. What I came up with is an epic kale salad. A salad I would serve in a restaurant, a salad I could easily CRAVE. And that says a lot considering I am not one for raw kale.  The components took a little while to get ready, but it was worth it. I made enough in this recipe for 2 with ample leftovers, or 4 as a dinner salad…maybe more. I can eat a lot of salad. Matt and I made this the main part of our dinner, with the addition of some sweet potato “fries” baked with a nut butter mixture, and I had another serving of salad the next day for dinner too.

The Rocksalmic vinegar comes from Rockridge Orchards and is made much like Balsamic vinegar. the main difference is that it is made from apple cider vinegar. It is sweet, tangy, and delicious. I bought a bottle a couple of weeks ago, and I am a little afraid they will run out of this fabulous stuff before I can stock up on more!

Kale salad with Roasted Beets and Caramelized Shallots

Epic Kale Salad

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

• 3/4 C. Raw walnuts
• 1/4 C. Fig preserves (I just boiled down some figs, no sugar needed!)
• 1/4 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/8 C. Rocksalmic Vinegar (Balsamic will also work)
• 1/2 Granny Smith Apple
• 1/4-1/2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
• Sea Salt to taste

For the salad:

• 3 Large Beets, cubed and roasted until tender and cooled
• Olive Oil or Virgin Coconut Oil
• Rocksalmic Vinegar (or Balsamic)
• 2-3 large shallot2, sliced
• 2 Large Bunches kale, cleaned & de-ribbed

Method:

For the dressing:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until creamy. I did mine in the Vita-Mix and it had a whipped consistency that was heavenly.

For the Salad:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan caramelize the sliced shallots in a little oil. Right before they are done add a couple of tablespoons of the Rocksalmic vinegar and stir until the liquid has evaporated. Set aside to cool.
2. Chiffonade the kale and put into a very large bowl. Use your hands to toss the kale with the dressing. You might not need all the dressing, add a little at first and continue to add as needed. Work the dressing into the kale leaves to soften them. Add the shredded apple and toss together.
3. When you plate the salad top each serving with some of the roasted beets and the caramelized shallots.

I promise a recipe tomorrow, but this morning I had to share my leisurely Saturday morning breakfast. Matt wanted some faux sausage, andI even tried some Fakin Bacon. I loved the smokey flavor, but it was honestly too sweet for me. Didn’t need the sugar at all!

Next up, fresh pastured eggs.

Just look at those orange yolks!

For Me a hearty hearty helping of sautéed veggies fills out my plate.

Beet greens, red onion, garlic, zucchini, and tomatoes!

And for Matt, some toast with mixed berry and chambord preserves (made lovingly by my wonderful aunt in Spring, TX)

Matt was stuffed after this

And of course I had to have my coffee :-) This time with MimicCreme, and my Texas mug. I wish MimicCreme came in to-go (and compostable) containers! They would be PERFECT to take with me to coffee shops. Just an idea MimicCreme!

And breakfast for two is served! Complete with a Pom Wonderful water combo. Combining it with water cuts the sugar some, whils still giving us a large glass of beverage to drink.

Later in the day Matt went home to watch the Hockey game on his HD TV, and my mother and I took a walk to get eggs from my friend with the amazing and enviable homestead. I took some photos of their adorable goats, and one of their ducks who happened to be perched on a roof.

Kahlua and Coconut, respectively

doing what they do best!

The 3 ducks roost on top of the house, and seem to have an understanding with the goats as they often lay their eggs in the goats’ yard.

First things first! Averie is giving away some chia seeds!!! Go enter her giveaway !

The weekend weather here in Seattle was absolutely glorious. I took my mother out for breakfast at Flying Apron where we shared a Berry flying Apron, a PB Joy, and an Asian kale salad. I think we got the salad so we could pretend we were eating a healthy breakfast ;-) My mother cut the goodies before I had a chance to photograph them. Clearly she hasn’t been schooled!

I am going to have to try my hand at the PB Joys, but with a few changes. I actually didn’t need the chocolate. Or rather, i didn’t need the SUGAR in the chocolate. I think when i make mine I’ll use 100% Cacao and not nearly as much sweetener on the inside either. The Berry Flying Apron was delicious though, a definite winner!

the Asian kale salad was good, but not nearly as good as the kale salad I made for dinner on Friday night (recipe to follow later this week).

We then made our way over to Theo Chocolate which is a local chocolate factory in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle. They have some divine chocolate bar flavors, gorgeous single source chocolate bars, beautiful little truffles, and a few of their items are even vegan friendly! I am not vegan, but I don’t do dairy so I just skip any of the items that contain milk products. For Mother’s day they had a special assortment of flower flavored truffles (sadly not vegan so i couldn’t test any) that my mother had to sample.

Flowers & Chocolate

My mother and I wandered around tasting the various tempting treats.

Mama & Chocolate, the perfect combo

91% cacao bar, my favorite!

I even picked up one of these bars for a certain mother to be :-)

Jane Goodall Collection

The above is from the Jane Goodall collection:

The partnership between Theo and Jane Goodall is inspired by “Cocoa Practices,” a ground breaking Theo Chocolate initiative that brings together small scale cocoa farmers, larger producers and non-governmental organizations from the world’s cocoa producing regions. Cocoa Practices is designed to give farmers the tools they need to grow high-quality cocoa beans while conserving indigenous wildlife and other natural resources in the tropical rain forest eco-systems that provide both their livelihoods and their homes.
Proceeds from the sale of these chocolate bars will benefit cocoa farmers, promote conservation in the tropical rain forest and directly contribute to the Jane Goodall Institute’s efforts to save chimpanzees, develop community centered conservation efforts and direct youth education programs around the world.

There was even a harpist

I picked up a Ghost Chile bar (I had to), 2 vegan confections, and the amazing 91% cacao bar for HEAB and the HEABlet. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like you can get the Ghost Chile bar through their internet store. Sad!

After we filled up on chocolate samples we went to the Ballard Farmer’s Market to see if there was anything we needed, and to just see the sights.

I LOVE watching these guys make veggies. looks SO GOOD. You can get a quesadilla, or just veggies in a bowl. Looks like something I would cover with refritos. And don’t forget the hot sauce ;-)

We listened to some musicians, my Mama was quite fond of them as you can see…

And of course we took a photo together

I bought 3 little succulent plants, my mother got some raw honey, we chatted with artists and artisans, and had a wonderful time. We then headed over to Healeo for Mother’s day health goodies.

That is a “heavenly hemp” smoothie with NO agave, and this time not even a single date! I just added in some maca and some blueberries. Delicious! My mom got the vegan hemp soft serve with cacao, maca, and mesquite powder. We then took our delights on a little neighborhood stroll and encountered some interesting characters.

First there was this cat I was talking with in a window…

He was ever so cute. I meowed, he would poke his head out…

And then we stumbled across 2 Guinea pigs and a dog who thought he was a Guinea pig.

Completely adorable

And a gorgeous Dogwood tree.

It looks like thousands of little butterflies have landed on its branches.

We then went back to the house to nap. It amazes me how sleepy I get when I eat sugar. I didn’t actually fall asleep, but I needed to rest before dinner.

Dinner was at Gojo (again). I have developed a serious love of Ethiopian food. We happened upon this family restaurant which isn’t too far from my house and I have fallen completely head over heels in love with it and the owners. We had a delicious meal, and luckily enough for us we were there while the coffee ceremony was going on. So after our feast we were given a small cup filled with freshly roasted (as in within the hour) Ethiopian coffee that was similar to espresso. We learned all about the origins of coffee, why it is called “coffee”, that I can roast my own coffee in a pan on my stove, and what amazing coffee really tastes like. No joke people, I didn’t even need to add sweetener or creamer of any kind! After I finish up my bag of coffee I have at my house i am going to try my hand at roasting my own. I LOVE Ethiopian coffee too, it has this very bold and non-fruity flavor. Knocked me over! The women were so very kind to us! And I tell you, these ladies were gorgeous! The woman who roasted and brewed the coffee was wearing a beautiful costume, and was kind enough to let me photograph her.

Stunningly beautiful.And the pot that the coffee is brewed in is made of clay, I am quite fond of it!

And of course I have to show you what dinner for 3 looked like.

I wish you could smell the spices, the coffee roasting, and the hint of incense in the air. A truly sensual experience. We left there VERY full, happy, and my mother with a beautiful yellow rose that the owner was kind enough to give her for Mother’s day. Since we are from Texas that rose was even more special!

Matt and I split our 2 vegan truffles later Sunday Evening:

Sunflower Banana Butter

Walnut Flaxseed Crunch

They were good, but not amazing. I have to say I prefer the Pumpkin confection.Matt then went home to call his mother :-)

I’ll leave you all with this photo. I came across these roses while walking with my mother after getting our treats. I dedicate this photo to two incredibly amazing women who were like mothers to me. I love you very much Rafi and Linda!Happy Mother’s day!

Head on over to Meg Kat and enter to win this Le Creuset bowl. I wish they had one in the new eggplant color. It would be so satisfying to make pancakes in this sucker.

Yesterday was Cinco De Mayo so of course I had to make Mexican food. I re-did the Mexican quinoa (with a few minor adjustments, which I also made to the previous blog), and I also tried my hand at some Marissified enchiladas. I admit that this first attempt was not perfect. in fact next time I will make one big change. Since I don’t do the grains I decided to make zucchini rolls. The problem is that I decided to try it with raw zucchini. Unfortunately this did NOT work, and so I ended up with “enchilada pie”. Tasty, but not what I wanted, Plus since the zucchini was raw it let out a lot of water during the cooking process, and I didn’t need for it to do that. Next time i will blanch the zucchini strips first, and then they will be pliable enough to overlap strips to make rolls. That, or I will use blanched collard green leaves instead. So, for this I am not going to tell you how to make the “pie” but I will tell you what I used as a filling, and I will give you recipes for the 2 yummy sauces. When I have this dish down pat I will tell you which method worked best for me to make actual Marissified enchiladas. Deal?

For Matt’s enchiladas I used corn tortillas, and I also realized I do not own a normal sized casserole dish. I need to get right on that as 2 pie plates and a small casserole dish are not the way enchiladas are to be done!

The first photo shows my “pie” and Matt’s actual enchiladas, and the second shows my pie again, and how much water was released while cooking. Not bad tasting though! but next time I will definitely pre-cook the zucchini and the spinach.

So, inside the enchiladas we have chopped and roasted sweet potato that has been combined with cooked black beans and some raw spinach. Next time I would cook and drain the spinach first.

The sauces were really good though. The cheese sauce would be great as a dip or spread as well.

Nacho “Cheese” Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 C. Raw Cashews
• 1 Large red Bell Pepper, cleaned and seeded
• 1/2 Small Red Onion
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• Juice from 1 Lime
• 1/4 C. Nutritional Yeast
• 1 tsp. Sea salt

Method:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process until nearly creamy. It will be more like dip and less like a creamy cheese sauce.

Red Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:

• Virgin Coconut Oil or Olive Oil
• 1 Small Onion, chopped
• 2 Cloves Garlic, chopped
• 4 Roma Tomatoes, diced
• 5 T. Chile Powder
• 6 C. Water
• Sea Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed pot sauté the onion and garlic in the oil until the onion is soft.
2. Add the chile powder and stir, sautéeing until it is aromatic.
3. Add in the tomatoes and the water and bring to a boil, cooking for 15 minutes.
4. Transfer the contents to a blender and blend until smooth. *Pour back into the pot.
5. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until sauce has thickened.

*If you prefer a smoother sauce you can use a food mill or strainer to strain the sauce before putting it back into the pot. personally I prefer keeping all of the veggies in there and don’t mind that the sauce is slightly chunky.

Gina!

I used the random number generator here and came up with number 18 which was assigned to Gina!

Congratulations! Please e-mail me your address and we will get those fabulous knives to you!

Yesterday I decided to make my own sunflower seed butter. I love Sunbutter, but find it to be prohibitively expensive. If you can afford it, great! if you are like me and trying to save your pennies, then you might try to make your own. Especially since sunflower seeds are fairly inexpensive compared to nuts usually used to make “butters”. For this batch I used some roasted sunflower seeds I bought at Trader Joe’s for $1.62. Next time I will get organic if I can find them. I poured the bag into Dolce (My Vita-Mix) and revved her up. Stirred once, and out came this:

Perfect.

And It tastes better than Sunbutter too because it is fresh. Fairly sure you could do this in a food processor too, it just will take a little longer. I also made more coconut butter in Dolce the other night and it took about 2 minutes. LOVE THAT THING.

So, last night I also celebrated the moving out of the roommate by dancing around in the living room in my jammies without a bra on. Definitely fun, but a little painful too. I had to close the blinds to do this, and was a tad embarrassed that my cats had to witness the shenanigans. I missed dancing around like that! I am not much of a public free-form dancer as I don’t exactly have “moves”.

I also celebrated my geekdom by finishing up the first episode in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries.

So far I am liking it, but am not completely loving it. I imagine I will get there though. I just need to have more emotional investment in the characters.

I then watched an episode of Star trek the Next generation, or TNG with my mother. She never watched it before, and I was a HUGE TNG Trekkie in my youth (i.e. Middle School-until it was over). So we are now watching the entire series from start to finish. Yay!

Now these characters are like family to me. I even went all the way to NYC to go to a convention to meet the gorgeous Jonathan Frakes

I actually had that poster on my bedroom wall as a teenager. I kid you not. I had Jonathan Frakes, Brad Pitt (from legends of the fall), Christian Slater ( a la Pump Up the Volume), and many a Jonathan Brandis from random Teeny Bopper magazines.

But my FAVORITE character has always been Counselor Troi (played by the fabulous Marina Sirtis). Oh how I wanted to be her!

By the way, the geekdom continues…I also read novels based on TNG. My favorite of course being Imzadi.

Good times.

For dessert last night I took a cue from Averie. She has been making me crave mint chocolate chip ice cream ever since she posted about making mint chocolate chip “soft serve. So last night I decicde make chocolate, chocolate chip soft serve (as I don’t have any mint extract at home). I popped a frozen banana into Dolce along with about 1.5 T cocoa powder, a little coconut milk and also a few chunks of a 70% chocolate bar, and let ‘er whirl. AMAZING. It was SOOOO good. Really hit the spot. Thank you for the inspiration Averie!I need to buy more bananas and make big batches to keep in my freezer :-)

I am going to start making my own “milk” soon. I read yesterday that carrageenan has been linked to both cancer in animals, and inflammatory bowel disease. Lovely. My precious So Delicious coconut milk sadly has carrageenan in it. Serious sadness. I was depressed all day because of this revelation. Now, apparently there might not be as much of a concern with cancer as it would take MUCH more than what is in foods to do anything (I think i read that correctly), but I already have IBS and I don’t need any more inflammation in my intestines if I can help it. So, I am going to limit my carrageenan as much as possible. It just doesn’t seem like something we want to be eating if we can help it…so…I will be making my own milk. probably from hemp seeds, and maybe nuts on occasion. Plus I can also get some coconuts and go that route. Young coconut meat blended with coconut water is WONDERFUL. I also will pick up some ready make “milk that doesn’t have carrageenan in it, just to keep around for when I don’t have time to make my own, but the ready made hemp milk that I found that is safe is super expensive. Making my own is just more economical. So Delicious…I love you! I wish you would keep allergens out of your milk! The coconut is all we need!

There are still a few hours to enter my knife giveaway! And I am so sorry,the way to follow my blog on facebook is by clicking on the “Networked Blogs” link in the box on the right hand side of this blog. That will take you to the facebook application. Or click here.

Hope you all have a wonderful Cinco de Mayo!

You might like Katie’s even more! Hers is also a CSN giveaway, but in the form of a $60 shopping spree! Wheeeeee!

There is still time to enter to win the fabulous knives I use on a daily basis! Enter here!

I have some odd little quirks. For some reason I LOVE when I get down to the bare bones in my pantry/fridge/freezer, and I equally love stocking it back up! Lately I have just not been in the mood to drag my butt to the store, and so it has been a bit of the former. Add the fact that my rent is going up $200 on May 1st and well, my budget is doing a lot of shifting. I know it must seem quite glam to everyone out there, but alas, for the past 2.5 years I have actually not had my own bedroom, and no I don’t live with Matt. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but basically my mother and I live together with another roommate, and this weekend the roommate is moving out and my mother and I won’t be sharing the same bedroom. It’s a bit of a secret as I don’t share this with too many as it seems “strange” to bunk with ones mother, and yes my therapist is aware of the situation. let’s just say that there was a necessity, and hopefully the necessity won’t arise again. I am not a huge fan of close quarters, and we have been living with a twin bed, a queen size, a chest of drawers, and a book case. Perhaps now there will be a spare corner in my room for a corner TV stand and I won’t have to trip over the sad couple of plastic milk crates (where my TV now sits) on my way to the bathroom anymore.  In any event, my kitchen is seemingly sparse, but mostly in the fresh department. Somehow last night I was still able to come up with a full meal and the only thing that I bought for it was 2 bags of frozen spinach. Luckily I am a bit of a squirrel and so I tend to have a lot of store-able items on hand at all times. I guess it is a combination of wanting to Spring clean, and a desire to cut back on my spending that has me in the mood to whip up meals out of thin air.

Along with these recipes I am happy to announce my First giveaway!
If you would like to be the happy recipient of a brand new set of Victorinox Swiss Army Paring Knives and also a Fantastic Victorinox Swiss Army Santoku Knife (the very same knives I use in my kitchen, and the knives that come highly recommended by Cooks illustrated Magazine) then please look for how to enter on the bottom of this posting!

But first, eye candy of those precious babies!

The Santoku is the knife on the bottom

This giveaway comes courtesy of CSN Stores. Thank you VERY much for this generous giveaway!

And now on to the food…

But first, some notes:

*I didn’t do a proper measurement for the spices in the spinach masala, so you might taste as you go along. I just kind of threw some things in there.

*For the spices in BOTH, you might want more…you might want less. Spiciness here is very personal, so you might err on the side of caution early on and add later if you want more.

*I thought about adding raisins to the spinach dish. I was glad I didn’t this morning as I used leftovers in a scramble :-) but you might want to toss a few in for flavor!

*for the chickpeas, I cooked some from dried last week and then popped jars full of them into the freezer. When I wanted them all I did was soak them in hot water for about five minutes and they were perfect.  Less expensive and healthier than canned.

*Also, usually I don’t eat peas because they are just a starch. I made an exception for these because I was cleaning out the freezer, they look pretty, and a pea dish a year isn’t going to kill me ;-)

Spinach and Chickpea Masala

Ingredients:

• Virgin Coconut Oil
• 1 Large onion, chopped
• 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 Dried red Chile Peppers
• 1.5 T Garam Masala
• 1.5 tsp. Cumin
• 1 tsp. Turmeric
• 1 Box Chopped Tomatoes
• 2 Bags Frozen Spinach
• 3 C. Cooked Chickpeas
• Sea Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a large heavy bottomed pot, melt your coconut oil. Add the chopped onion and garlic and sautée until the onion is translucent, being careful not to brown the garlic.
2. Add in the peppers and the spices and stir, heating until aromatic.
3. Add in the Tomatoes and chickpeas and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Salt to taste (and season with more spices if you like).

Curried Quinoa with Peas

Ingredients:

• 1 Small Onion, or 1/2 Large, chopped
• 1 Clove Garlic, minced
• Virgin Coconut Oil
• 4 T. Curry powder
• 2 tsp. Garam Masala
• 1/2 tsp. Cumin
• 2 Dried Red Chile peppers
• 2 C. Quinoa
• 4 C. Water
• 1.5 C. Frozen peas
• 2 T. Coconut Butter or Creamed Coconut
• Sea Salt to taste

Method:

1. Thoroughly rinse the quinoa.
2. In a pot, sautée the diced chopped onion and garlic until the onion is translucent.
3. Add the spices and stir. heating until aromatic.
4. Add the quinoa to the pot and stir. Add the water and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the water is almost fully absorbed, about 10 minutes.
6. Add the frozen peas and continue to cook for another 3-5 minutes, or until the water is fully absorbed.
7. Spoon in the coconut butter and sea salt to taste. Stir to combine and fluff with a fork.

And now for the giveaway!
To enter this give away you can do one or all of the following:

1. Make a comment at the bottom of this posting and tell me About the strangest dish you have ever made because you were dealing with a “bare pantry” dilemma.
2. Tweet about the give away. All you have to do is mention that I am having a giveaway and also include #PnPSwissArmy in your tweet.
3. If you have a blog, link to this give away in a blog posting.
4. Add me to your blogroll.
5. Follow my blog on facebook

You will get 1 entry for each of these that you do for a total of 5 entries. ***Additionally*** please let me know in a comment or an e-mail how many of these things you will be doing and please do make sure you tell me what your blog url is! I am going to assign numbers to each entry and then next Wednesday evening I will use a random number generator to select a winner!

Entries must be done by 8:00P.M. On May 5th 2010

I cannot wait to hear all about your bare pantry dishes! Bon Chance!

** I did not receive any compensation for mentioning the products or websites for this giveaway. I took advantage of an opportunity to be able to give one of my readers a fantastic gift, and the people at CSN Stores made that possible.**