Blueberry Hill Cornbread

We are so grateful to live in California where the produce at our local market is bountiful all year long. I am not a gardener, Larry thinks he is, but by the look of the potted plants outside, he tends to kill the earth. 

My late dad grew tomatoes and I would give him a blue ribbon for those "Land of the Giants" zucchinis his garden churned out every year. Between playing tennis, making museum worthy stain glass, (that did win blue ribbons), and almost blowing up the family and the block with his gas barbecue, my dad was a busy guy.

Remember when the blackening of every food imaginable, you know blackened salmon, blackened veggies, blackened tofu was all the rage back in the 80's? My dad started the blackened craze with his gas barbecue. On the day the barbecue gas line almost crucified the neighborhood, my dad managed to blacken a delicious Yves veggie burger and corn on the cob for me. That Yves burger was especially good with my dad's fresh tomatoes. Good thing my dinner cooked up first, before the neighbor spotted the faulty power line. Nobody else got their meaty sandwiches, so no animals were harmed on that executioner's grill.

In New York we had one tree that was vertical to the evil barbecue. It was a crab apple tree. That tree was kind of an asshole, annoying and useless. Even the tree was peeved at it's dead fruit bearing self, and was always trying to rid itself of it's rotten crabby apples. It was Heidi's and my job to pick up the post mortem apples and bag them. I think my mother paid us one penny per fifty croaked apples. Heidi and I were migrant workers in our own backyard. 

Ah the fruits of summer. I could never have whipped this sweet summer cornbread up with those pieces of crappy crabby apples. After five summers of picking and saving Heidi and I were able to purchase a clam of blueberries to feed our growing family of ten.

Blueberry Hill Cornbread
Feeds an entire family headed West

1.5 C of unbleached organic flour
2/3 C coconut sugar
1/2 C Corn meal
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/4 C rice milk
2 T flaxseed mixed with 6 T of water
1/3 C canola oil
3 T coconut oil
2 C fresh blueberries
1 T lemon
1/3 C coconut sugar or 1/4 C of agave.
(1 packet stevia if not sweet enough)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8x8 baking pan. 
Prepare blueberry mixture. Gently toss blueberries with 1 T lemon, 1/3 C coconut  sugar. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking power and salt in a large bowl. 
In medium bowl combine rice milk or plant milk of your choice with flaxseed slurry, canola oil and 3 T of coconut oil. Add liquid mixture to the flour mixture and mix until blended. Fold in the blueberry mixture. Pour in to prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10-15 minutes in pan on rack. Cut slices from pan. 

I suggest that you make this Blueberry Hill Cornbread right now, with no delay! Make this before blueberry season is over you and your family have to head to the hills.

Hugs,

GiGi

You Can't Beet That! It's Virtual Vegan Potluck Day!

    Welcome  Vegan Virtual Potluckers of the Global Blogosphere and Virtual Potluck Readers. Thank you to Ann of An Unrefined Vegan and all the Organizers of this exciting event. This year's secret ingredient "the Beet!!!"

Vegan misconception # 246. All vegans love all vegetables. If you follow my blog you would know that I have a gag reflex when it comes to cooked celery, and raw zucchini. Maybe I shouldn't have started this post off with "gag reflex" since I really want to entice you with culinary greatness.
Anyway,when it comes to root veggies, and beets in particular, I have a theory. I believe that there are two types of people in this world yeah just two, the Beet haters and the Beet lovers. 
Growing up, my dad always kept a bottle of borshdt in the frig. My sister Heidi has had an ongoing affair, (all her relationships should last this long) with beets since she was a kid. Back in our bad ass HS days we would come home late squinty and red eyed, and starving. 
The house would be dark and we would creep into the kitchen and pull everything from the refrigerator and place it on my mom's kitchen table. We would prepare a stoner honor roll student feast. While most kids were munching out on Mr. Nutter Butters, Heidi would concoct three beet sandwiches with whipped butter on pumpernickel, while I shoveled kosher pickles and my mom's coleslaw into my mouth. 

To prove my beet hater/ beet lover theory, I took to the streets to document the divide.

Roasted Yellow and Red Beets with Sweet Potato and Apple Doused with Creme Fraiche 

Pre- oven lovelies

4 medium sized red beets
1 large yellow beet 
1 sweet potato
1 pippin apple
canola spray
sea salt 
baked bread,or a pastry dough of your choice for a tarte, or pie, which was in my original plan but I was racing the clock
2T tofutti creme cheeze

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking pan with foil and spray.
2. Dice vegetables.
3. Spread vegetables and apple on pan according to a color scheme you enjoy.
4. Roast for 10 minutes on one side. Toss, make sure that you toss the red beets last so you don't get the red on the lighter colored veggies or apple. Remove from oven.

5.Bake bread, baguettes for 5 minutes at same temp. Spread bread bottoms with 1 T of vegan creme cheeze and return to oven for 2 minutes.

Roasted Hazelnuts (optional) for sprinkling on top

1/4  hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place hazelnuts on unlined cooking sheet. cook for about 7 minutes. Roll in clean kitchen towel to remove skins. Chop.


Quicky Creme Fraiche
3/4  vegan sour creme
1 T vegan creme cheese
2 T plain unsweetened soy milk
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
sea salt to taste


Add everything to small hand blender and blend for about a minute.

Click on the titles of the wonderful blogs before and after me. Before Yum For My Tum
and after me Lindsay is Vegan.

And hey, thanx for breaking bread with me today and enjoy the rest of the party.

Mofo Case # 12 Breaking News Press Conference and a Bread of Lies

We interrupt this blog with breaking LIVE news from a LIVE Press Conference and statement from the family of Missing Blogger, GiGi.
Then we will return  to your regularly scheduled recipe.

Food Chosen For a Press Conference 
Regularly Scheduled Recipe below
Pan Bagna is a very nice sandwich that originated in Nice. Pan Bagna means moist bread, or bathed bread. Crusty bread is often filled with a bunch of Nice fresh produce. After the sandwich is prepared it is a Nice thing to put several weighty objects atop the bread, much like a tofu press. A good weighty object to use would be something like Tolstoy's "War and Peace" or the vegan War and Peace equivalent, Isa Moskowitz's "Veganomicon".
Although we do have a copy of Veganomicon we did not have hours to weight down the sandwiches. We were pressed for time so came up with Cheater Pan Bagna.

Cheater Pan Bagna or Bread of Lies
4 crusty Italian breads or 2 packages TJ's bake it Italian Bread 
Tahini dressing of your choice with a squeeze of lime
1 16 ounce jar of hearts of palm drained and spears halved
4-5 heirloom tomatoes sliced
half a jar of 6.5 kalamata olives drained
3 avocados
enough arugula for each sandwich
TJ's vegan shreds or Daiya shreds

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or foil. Cut each bread in half horizontally and then slice vertically. Line bottom of the breads next to each other.
Pour dressing evenly onto each bread. Add each ingredient to each bread. Top off with bread and cut in half. Here is the faker cheater part. Hold the top of the bread down, suffocating the bottom of the sandwich for about 40 seconds. Bake for 6 minutes until the cheez is drippy and as a cheezy as a lawyer.

MoFo Case # 10 Psychic Hotline and Spinach

Larry and Jerry Call the Psychic Hot line

Spinach Mash Balls Recipe

Leftover Mashed potatoes or about 2 pounds newly boiled Yukons

2 C finely chopped fresh spinach

1 C diced onion

2 T Dijon 

3 tsp favorite hot sauce

3 T lite coconut milk

lots of seasonings salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mash everything together. Line 2 baking pans with foil and spray. Use a melon ball scoop to make small spinach mash balls. Bake for 15 minutes on one side and then flip with a spatula and bake for another 10 minutes.

Tofu Sticks

1 pound firm tofu drained and pressed and cut into sticks

1/4 C cornmeal

1/4 C unbleached or GF flour

1/2 C coconut milk mixed with 1 T apple cider vinegar

Lots of salt and pepper

Preheat oven 450 degrees. Already done if you are serving with Spinach Mash Balls. Line a baking pan with foil and spray. Pour liquid into one shallow dish. And flour mix into another shallow dish. Dredge tofu sticks with coconut milk and dip into flour mixture. Make sure you coat both sides of tofu stick. Place on foil lined pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Flipping gently halfway through cooking time.

Serving suggestions: Dipping sauces. Great with peanut sauce, guac, salsa or sea salt and vinegar.

Anyone with any information concerning GiGi is urged to call the number from our very first MoFo blog 2013 here. Thank you.

MoFo Case File # 5 Detective Briscoe and the Vegan Diner

Detectives Lenny Briscoe and Mike Logan investigate Missing Blogger, GiGi.
INT: Table at Vegan Diner

Detective Briscoe: Nice place if you like eating cardboard.
Detective Mike Logan: I hear the food is to die for.
Detective Briscoe: Or not die for. I thought, "VA- guns" didn't eat anything that was once alive.
Detective Mike Logan: That's  " V-gun" Veee and gun like your pistol. Remember your pistol Lenny?
Detective Briscoe: Yeah, but doubt any of my ex-wives do.

Detective Briscoe: Maybe the blogger disappeared because she wanted a pastrami sandwich, can't say I blame her.
Detective Mike Logan: Doubt it, the food can be really good, if you like beige.

Detective Briscoe: The blogger... Her old man was on the force when I was walking the beat. He was a commanding officer. Yeah, nice guy, funny honest officer, he found the Son of Sam through Parking tickets. Yeah I used to drink with her old man.
Detective Mike Logan: Does he know she's missing? 
Detective Briscoe: Only if she's with him.
Detective Mike Logan: Is he retired in Florida?
Detective Briscoe: He died in February.

GiGi's Dad

Waitress: What will you guys have?
Detective Mike Logan: I will have a decaf cappuccino with steamed soy.
Detective Briscoe: I will try the blintzes.They are usually tan.

Briscoe's Blintzes with Maple Creme
2 large tortillas
1 C chunky apple sauce divided
4 T peanut butter divided
spray oil

Spray pan with oil. Lay each tortilla flat spread PB down the center of each one vertically. Distribute apple sauce evenly on each tortilla. Fold blintz like. Heat pan, and brown side of tortilla and flip and brown the other side.

Maple Creme
1 silken tofu
1/4 C maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
2 T tofutti cream cheez

Add ingredients to food processor and process 'til smooth. For best results chill for at least one hour.
Keep the blintzes hot on the trail.

GF Raw Fudge, 2013, and I'm Back

Happy 2013 gang. This post initially said Happy 2031, because I am a dyslexic typist. If you have been fortunate enough for me to comment on your blog you would indeed be aware of this handicap. 

Many Two readers have asked of my whereabouts. My apologies for my MIA status since late November. When we got home from visiting my ailing Dad in LA Psycho Boy and I walked right into holiday crunch time. Veganville was slammed from Black Friday though New Year's. Thank you Etsy and Etsy buyers. Now the store is like a wild west shootout. Everybody's left town. The first few weeks in January are like that in the baking biz. Record numbers in the gym. Huge sales for Vita-mix, nada for sweets. I thought about sending smoothies through the mail, but mailing something liquid and green sounded too much like a bio-hazard.

I am still working out and running and playing tennis. My workouts have mostly been fueled by raw fudge. That's the Power of Fudge bahahaha. Remember that song? Maybe not. I am addicted to that stuff. It's finally out of the house. I'll give you the recipe, but alas no picture because who has time to set up a shot, when you are inhaling those babies.

I will give you a picture of Veganville's new gfxx or gluten free, (I forget how many xxx's there are in gluten free), cupcakes. Besides how would you even know if these are gluten free by the picture. I could be fibbing.

But I'm not. Oh to find the fudge recipe I've bee using go here. Double the recipe and put it in an 8x8 pan though.

Well it's nice to see you. Sorry my first post back is a little short, but I'm running a little late for my polygraph. 

MoFo 28 Video and Crazy Boy's Barley Soup Recipe

Anybody else writing up their final MoFo 2012 while wearing their Halloween costume?  As usual I shot for 31 posts and fell just short with 28 posts. I know I know I owe you a soup recipe from Psycho Boy and a parfait recipe from me. Look for Psycho Boy's recipe after the video. Hey if you are here for the Virtual Pot Luck Weclome. My entry was just before this, but do stay for the video :)

Here's the recipe Crazy Boy/Psycho Boy handed me. Please note I did not edit it. Perhaps you can now get a glimpse into PB's inner sanctum. 

He calls it Crazy Boy's Famous Crazy Mushroom Barley Soup

2 C pearl barley
6 C organic hearty veggie broth
1 lb  mushrooms sliced (his word) mediumly?
spray oil
1/2 large onion sliced and diced
2 large cloves of garlic minced
1 C baby carrots chopped
1 medium yukon sliced
1 tofurky sausage sliced nice
2 tsp each dried oregano, dried, basil, dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste
more water if the soup is getting too thick.

In your soup pot spray or add oil. and saute onion, garlic tofurky, potato and carrots until a bit brown. Stir. Sprinkle on herbs. Stir. Add salt and pepper. Stir. Add veggie broth, stir and stir. 
(no wonder he's stir crazy)
Bring it all to a boil then bring it Down to a gentle simmer.
Cook 40-45 minutes or until your barley is at your chewable desire. 
I am a mother hen stirring the pot. 
Add or don't add water for your preferred thickness.
Go crazy and enjoy your soup.

MoFo 25 Devil in the White Potato

Perhaps you think you know everything you need to know about Seitan.
Well do you know that Seitan is a voracious reader? I am. I am. Here are a few of my favorite cookbooks and books I have cooked. Of course I am the featured antagonist in all of them.

The Devil in the White Potato
Rosemary's Herby
The Exordish
Vegan With a Revengeance
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the Netherworld

I am quite fond of existentialism and Sartre. Are you familiar with the plot of No Exit? The recipes are mostly for disaster. The characters are damned, so they are cooked for sure. Their human vanity has given them a one way ticket to hell. Hell for them is a destination with no mirrors. Ah...but that is an old hell. In recent years I have given our occupants back their mirrors. They now have a fate much worse.....

You can have your beautiful reflections back. But ...

Tonight's recipe:
Devil in the White Potato
Serves 2

2 Bakers scrubbed
1 yukon
8 crimini mushrooms sliced
1 zucchini shredded and squeezed to remove water
1/4 of an onion chopped
1 clove garlic chopped/minced
1/2 package Upton chorizo seitan
1C plain soy yogurt plus 2 T
1/2 C daiya pepper jack shreds
1 tsp paprika
sea salt to taste

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place potatoes directly on oven rack and roast for 50-60 minutes or until tender and cooked through. The yukon will take about 40 minutes.
While the potatoes are baking do all the other prep. Saute mushrooms, garlic and onions and seitan for about 6 minutes, add zucchini and paprika and sea salt. Cook about 7 more minutes.
Remove  bakers from oven. Carefully slice off the top quarter of each baker and let them cool about five minutes. Scoop out the flesh of each baker and leave behind a 1/4 inch layer of potato on the inside to form a shell. Add the flesh, bahahaha, of the bakers and the yukon to a large bowl and mash. Add 2 T of soy yogurt and mix.

Raise oven temp to 475 degrees. Place the  potato shells on a foiled baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 12 minutes or until they begin to crisp.
While the potato shells are baking in the oven mix the with 1/2 C of and 1 C of soy to the zucchini mixture. Fold in the mashed potatoes.

Remove the potato shells from the oven and use a cupcake scoop to evenly fill each potato with several scoops.

These also go by the moniker, Seitan is Twice Baked!

MoFo 22 Breakfast For Din Din

Week 2 of Crazy Boy being out of commission. You know how every Wednesday Crazy Boy makes something, or signed on to make something for my blog. Well this is the second or third week in a row that he putzed around and didn't show up for his turn at the blog. As far as I can tell he is really sneezing. And he's coughing a little but not exactly hacking and he did sleep a lot today. I don't know. Do you think Crazy Boy is faking it? Do you think as Andrea from Andrea's Cook Easy blog suggested Crazy Boy might have to be confined to a bubble during allergy season? I could pump in some Michael Jackson music, visit once or twice a day and hand him some smoothies through the little flap in the bubble. Crazy Boy likes it when I dress up in my Haszmat suit. Do you think Crazy Boy might just be allergic to Wednesdays?

I made breakfast for dinner tonight in the hopes that CB would think it was Thursday.

 Homemade Granola with mixed fruit and an Orangenana Smoothie



I included Orange juice and coconut milk, flax seed and rice milk with a little Stevia and about 3 ice cubes in a blender. I flaked and did not pay attention to the measurements I used. :(

Here however is the Granola. It's based on Bryant Terry's black, brown and green granola  from the Vegan Soul Kitchen.

4 C old fashioned rolled oats
1 C chopped roasted almonds
3/4 C shredded coconut
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C apple juice
1/2 C melted coconut oil
1/2 C pure maple syrup
2 tsp non-alcoholic vanilla
1 C chopped dried dates
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment and evenly spread the oats. Bake for 20 minutes stirring every five minutes for even toasting. Remove from oven and transfer to large bowl. Add the almonds, coconut and cinnamon and stir well. Reduce oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl mix the apple juice, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla together. Pour over granola mixture and mix until the granola is well coated.
Pour mixture back on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes until golden brown stirring every 15 minutes.

Meanwhile combine the dried fruit in a small bowl and cover with boiling water to reconstitute. After a minute drain and return to bowl. Set aside.

When granola is done pour back into bowl, mix in dried fruit and pour back onto baking sheet to cool.

I look forward to making dinner for breakfast tomorrow.
So what do you think? Is Psycho Boy just a big baby faker?

MoFo 16 Sweet Potato Bowl and a Meteor

Crazy Boy aka Psycho Boy usually makes something on Wednesday nights. He went shopping for his ingredients and he even took a photo I call, "Still Life With Knife".

He had an allergy attack earlier today, slept a little and then met me on my run tonight. On our walk back from the track,Crazy Boy pointed up at the sky and said, look a meteor! Sure enough it was a beautiful star burst that we got to experience together. Crazy Boy can often see things that other people can't. He can often find the miraculous in the ordinary. I probably would have missed my first meteor if my hero had stayed home. I've probably seen a meteor before but somehow everything always seems more special with C.B.

We watched it fall from the sky and journeyed home, but again my hero was weakened by allergies. Perhaps what we witnessed was not a meteor at all, but a nugget of Krypton.

 

Psycho Boy tries to regain strength from warm towel.

Alas, he could not recover in time to prepare something so his sidekick took over.

Riffin' on Engine 2 Rip's Sweet Potato Bowl (changed up a bit).
Feeds one out of commission super hero and his sidekick.

2 medium sweet potatoes cubed and roasted
1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
1 red bell pepper seeded and diced
10 ounces pineapple chunks drained
1 handful of fresh spinach chopped
1 avocado pitted and diced
juice of one lime
2.5 T balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp of pink Himalayan salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Scrub and cube sweet potatoes. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with canola oil. Lightly spray sweet potatoes. Roast for about 25 minutes until lightly browned. Place everything in large salad bowl and toss gently.

Today:Look for the miraculous in the ordinary. Maybe wish upon a star, or be someone's super hero, you never know who's day you might brighten, just by being you.

MoFo 13 Sundays With Seitan

Hi. It's me again, Seitan, from "Sundays With Seitan." I didn't mean to frighten you away with this video I mailed you last week. Quite frankly I think you've just been brainwashed by all the bad things you've heard about gluten. Why remember when bran was banned and spinach was contaminated, and even certain mushrooms were condemned. Why sure there are always food scares. Damned if I don't remember the botulism scare of 1862. I could have said goodbye to refrieds forever, but what's a bashed can or a bad bean every now in then when you've got all of eternity to fan those flames. Hey you. Over there. The girl with the teff, come back!



She isn't coming back, Mommy!

That's okay Zuul. That just means that there will be more food for you and Mommy. Bahahahaa. They are all scaredy cats. This is the last time I will try to seduce you all with my culinary charm.
NOT! Bahahaha.

 

Seitan and Roasted Eggplant Wraps with Lemon Cashew Sauce

Serves 4 hungry demons

 

1 eggplant peeled and sliced into rounds

canola spray

1 box Seitan strips

1 clove of garlic peeled and chopped small

sea salt

1 English cucumber peeled and diced

2 vine ripened tomatoes chopped

1 Kosher pickled diced

4 spinach wraps

 

Lemon Cashew Dressing
 

3/4 C raw cashews

3/4 C tahini

juice of one lemon

1 C water

1/2 tsp dill

1/2 tsp salt

1 clove garlic chopped

 

Spray skillet and cook seitan strips with 1 clove garlic according to package directions. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, line a cookie sheet with foil and spray. Place eggplant slices on cookie sheet and spray eggplant again with canola oil. Cook for about 12-15 minutes.

 

Meanwhile place cukes, tomatoes and pickles in bowl and make dressing.

 

Place cashews in bowl of food processor and process until crumbly. Add tahini, lemon and remainder of ingredients. Process until smooth. Salt and dill to taste. A little dressing can be tossed into the cuke mix or drizzled over the wrap.

 

Assemble the wrap:
 

Place wraps vertically on clean surface. Layer with seitan, eggplant, tomato mixture, and drizzle cashew dill dressing. Roll and slice in half.

 

 

 

 

You take the top wrap Zuul.

 

Please join us next time for Sundays with Seitan. Don't make me come up there and get you. Please don't make me leave the confines of my home. It's way too cold up there where you are and you know that we hardly ever have a cold day in hell. 

 

Ta ta. That's a wrap.

Dessert Parfait Recipes as Promised to Go With MoFo12

RECIPES FOR MOFO 12 (find story there)

JAIL BREAK PARFAIT
espresso mocha cupcake, with double fudge mousse, and coconut creme

Espresso Cupcake can be easily made xgfx by exchanging flour and adding xanthan gum

1 C Rice milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4  C agave
1/4 C canola oil
1 tsp non- alcoholic vanilla
1 C unbleached flour
1/3 C dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 1/5 T instant espresso
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 and line a jumbo muffin tin with paper liners.
Whisk the rice milk with the vinegar in the bowl of your mixer. Add agave, oil, extract and espresso powder and beat until frothy.
In another bowl sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. Add to wet ingredients. Make sure you scrape down the sides. Pour into liners. Sometimes this only makes about 5 Cupcakes but hey they are big so it's really okay.
Bake for about 30 minutes, switching racks halfway through baking time.
Let cool on rack. After ten minutes remove cupcakes from tin and let cool completely.

Double Fudge Mousse

1 box of silken tofu
1.5 T of  can of coconut oil hardened
1/4 C cocoa powder
2 T agave
1/2 packet of stevia
1/2 C vegan chocolate chips melted (either in a double boiler as I do or you can nuke them)

Place first two ingredients in food processor and mix until smooth. Add next three ingredients and process. Lastly, add melted chocolate chips and blend well, scraping down sides of processor in between. Set aside.

Whipped Coconut Creme

1 14 oz. can of very cold coconut creme
1 T agave or stevia

tip: I usually freeze my hand beater whisks for about ten minutes before making this.
Scoop out coconut creme into large mixing bowl. Whip to soft peaks and fold in sweeteners.

 tip: Easy way to sterelize mason or canning jars. Preheat oven to 225 degrees.Remove lids and rims from jars. Spread out jars and lids and rims on cookie sheet and heat for 10 minutes. Remove promptly.
Enjoy!

Cut cupcake horizontally in half and then mush into mason jar. Follow with a layer of mousse, and then a layer of coconut creme. Continue to layer, making the top layer coconut creme.

This was the fancy ass jacked up cousin of a devil dog. Enjoy!

MoFo 10 Psycho Boy Makes Something Tasty Wednesday

Wow reading all these MoFo blogs is making me dizzy. My goal is to read about fifty blogs a day. Today I decided to make it easy on myself. Rather than read all these blogs separately, I decided to read all the blogs in my Blogger reading list as if they were one big blog post. I think this new fangled idea confused me more. Who knew that there was such a thing as an Ethiopian frozen yogurt and that Ethiopian frozen yogurt looks pretty much like pizza with bok choy on it? Why is that woman feeding her baby a blended pine cone on sour dough toast? Oh look there's that baby being used as a centerpiece. What does Freida Kahlo have to do with Day of the Oktoberfest?

It's Wednesday and Psycho Boy aka Crazy Boy aka the husband makes something. It's a good thing since I have to figure out how to comment on that gigantic twisted blog I just read.

Allergy Warning: The following recipe was made in a kitchen by nuts.

Cashew Walnut Maple Butter

1 C roughly chopped walnuts
1 C raw cashews
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp non-alcoholic vanilla
1/8th tsp sea salt
1-2 T pure maple syrup

Process nuts together until smooth like buttah. You can do this in your food processor or one of those fancy pants things everybody has now. Oh yeah the Vita-mix. Add remaining ingredients. Blend. We used a food processor that is scotch taped together. We found this to be very delicious.

Thanks for making something, Crazy boy :)

MoFo 9 Training Tuesdays Mr. and Mrs. Smoothee

 

Oh no not another frigging MoFo smoothie post! Wait! Before you go, it's not just any smoothie. Because, well, because I made it!
Oh well... they still left.
Besides I haven't made any smoothies so far during MoFo and it's Training Tuesday. Nutrient packed smoothies are good for training, but you knew that.

I've been working out this week, but differently than I have been in previous weeks. My running mileage has suffered at the hands of MoFo. I miss running, and so does Psycho Boy. He likes running after me. Sometimes he likes running after me with a sharp object. So lots of time my training regimen is for mere survival. Please don't try the running with sharp objects at home.

Right here, right now me and Psycho Boy pledge to be recommitted. I mean to recommit to our running agenda.

Last week, I ran 4 miles and tacked on 3 miles walking, and walked another day.
I did strength training and core ball with sit ups and a little cardio on 3 days. I actually played tennis with my friend Liz one day. We drilled and did court sprints - something called running the lines, and had a really good workout and a lot of fun. Running the lines is a great exercise for anybody, not just tennis players and I intend to video how to do it and share it with you next Training Tuesday. Still I really miss the running. Here is my workout plan for MoFo month. I have to stay realisitic or at least make an attempt to be realistic. Reality can be a stretch for me.

Run 16-20 miles a week with a three mile walk tacked on each run.
Core ball and strength training 3-4 days a week.
Tennis 1 day with hitting drills, ( and running drills).
100 sit ups daily
75 jumping jacks daily

Two Different Smoothies for Two Different People Because One is a Big Baby.
Made in the same blender

Strawberry Smoothie

16 ounces of frozen strawberries
1 large ripe banana
1C soy yogurt
16 oz cold almond milk
2 T ground flaxseed
2 T agave and 1 packet stevia (my "go to" sweeteners)
Blend until thick and creamy, pour 1/2 into one glass.

Green Smoothie

Add a handful of spinach to liquid remaining in blender.
Pour into the glass that is not the big baby glass.

How is your exercise program going this week?  Have you made any changes during MoFo?

MoFo 8 Octoberfest Plate and Gesundheit

 

Gesundheit! Gesundheit! Gesundheit. Dammit, Gesundheit again.
Yes, it's German fest MoFo Monday here, but I am sad to say that there is no video of me and Heimlich today. My allergies are kicking my Bavarian ass today.

But don't you worry your little shrunken heads, I still cooked something up to commemorate today. I really thought the horseradish and apple creme would clear up my nose but it only made me sneeze more. The funny thing if there is a funny thing about allergies, is that one can taste food, more so than with a cold. I chowed down and sneezed.
Do you mind if I play the sick card and post the recipes tomorrow. Thanx. Until then. Guten Nacht :)

Here are the recipes, as promised. Thank you all for the good wishes.

MoFo 7 Sundays With Seitan Bahahaha

Now that I've gotten you here, there's no turning back...really, is there? Even if seitan keeps you prisoner in digestive tract hell, you might as well stay and watch my special message. It's meant just for you. And besides... there is no where else go...really. Bahahaha.

Bracciole with Sauteed Spinach and Shitake Gravy
1 Package of wheat meat gluten bahahah
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 lemon juiced
2 T nooch
1/2 T sea salt
1 C unflavored wheat panko
3 T vegan broth
1/2 T sea salt
1 Can of artichokes drained and chopped
3 T chopped sundried tomatoes (let's revisit that 90's ingredient)

cotton twine

Stuffing
Spray pan and heat, add garlic, saute for two minutes, add artichokes, sea salt, sundrieds and cook for 5 minutes, add T of broth if it begins to stick, or spray again. Add panko, lemon and remaining 2 T of broth. Heat (we are already hot here) for about three more minutes, then transfer to bowl.
Lay seitan out on cutting board with the short end facing you. Spoon a big dollop of artichoke stuffing into each seitan. Roll up and secure with twine. Yes, twine has many uses. Meanwhile add the spinach to the fry pan and sautee 'til wilted.  Are you wilting yet? Remove. Set aside spinach. Add bracciole to pan and brown on each side.

Shitake Gravy
1/4 C shitake mushrooms chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 C vegan broth
2 T soy or tamari
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp thyme
1 T cornstarch mixed with 1/4 C cold water

Spray large sauce pan with oil. Saute mushrooms with garlic and seasonings for about 7 minutes. Add soy sauce or tamari, and broth and cook to simmer for about 13 minutes. Add cornstarch mix well for another two minutes. Serve over bracciole and spinach or on the side.

Worship the plate. See you when I'll be seeing you. Bahahahaha.