Hello & Breakfast!

 Hello, it has been 3 years since my last post! After a lot of writing and deleting I have decided just to jump right in instead of writing a long blog explaining myself! lol! So here it is...



This morning was a good morning! I was woken up by my very happy 5 year old, who wanted some mommy time... and strawberry pancakes! We have never made strawberry pancakes but my girls have been very interested in them ever since a Daniel Tiger episode featured them! So I popped out of bed... just kidding... I very slowly and quietly maneuvered myself from in between my husband and 2 year old (who had crawled into my bed sometime in the wee hours of the morning)! We were then off to the kitchen! I decided on this particular morning that I was going to try a new very easy recipe for pancakes that are gluten free. (I am attempting to cut back gluten so this what a +!) I found the recipe here! I love watching her videos!

Here is how ours turned out!

Gluten-Free Pancakes

1 cup oats
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 banana
1 tbsp vanilla (optional)
Fruit (optional)

Blend out into a flour. Add non-dairy milk and banana (+ any additional ingredients of choice) and blend. Stir in frozen fruit at this point.
Pour batter onto heated pan, once the corners start to turn brown and the top bubbles, flip over and cook for another few minutes.

These were really easy to make in the blender! We added fresh strawberries to ours, which I do not recommend. Even though they were very tasty I found that the juice from the sliced strawberries made the pancakes to damp in spots and would cause them to break apart when flipping! I want to make these next time with sliced bananas and maybe some cinnamon. YUM! 

With our pancakes we had some delicious fresh organic orange juice that my daughter whipped up while i finished cooking the pancakes.

Is this not the most beautiful face you have ever seen? 

(I may be a bit bias!)

She loves LOVES helping!

I wondered if I was ever going to actually use this funnel, but I found the perfect use for it!

15 oranges filled up this whole container, but the girls wanted some straight away! There is nothing like fresh orange juice! 

Painting!

The other day I was looking online at different activities to do with my daughter. I realized that she has never painted before! I went to the store and picked up everything she needed to do so. I set up a montessori-like tray for her. I took it to her play room, set the activity tray down, and stepped back!          (Other than opening the paints of course. lol)

She went right to work! It was amazing to watch her! She was thrilled! I could see her little mind working as she painted she concentrated fully on her works of art.

Busy working in what I am calling her activity area! (Note: I have not made her an apron yet so I used one of my old t-shirts for her to paint in. lol) 

I think that her paintings are amazing! She is so proud of them! She painted a total of 4 paintings tonight! I loved seeing how excited she was! I can't wait to do some more activities with her! 

Clean Up time!

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Here are her paitings!!!

Excited!!

Today I would like to share something that I love and am very excited about! First let me tell you that I am switching all of my daughters toys to wood! We have gotten rid of all the plastic toys so far and have taken them to goodwill. 

*Fact Time* Many plastic toys are made with a molecule called bisphenol A or BPA, which is known to cause dangerous hormone changes in children. There is also the toxic PVC phthalates from vinyl found in some toys which can damage the liver, kidneys, lungs, and reproductive system.

I want my family to be as safe, healthy, and simple as possible. So anyway, let me show you the exciting thing I have found... and I mean I am really really excited about this!!!

TADA!!!!

Yes... these are... adorable wooden bath toys!!

I bought these on etsy here! And there is also a lot of really great toys on there too! 

I absolutely hate plastic bath toys and the idea that something that is so harmful for my daughter is soaking in a warm bath with her makes me nervous. I also hate that they get mold inside of them and you can't get it out (or you can't tell its there). Gross! But anyway, I love these! They were shipped and total I paid $25 with shipping! I think that it is completely worth it! My daughter absolutely loves them! I am thinking about going back and purchasing some more for outdoor water play too! I 100% recommend these! :)

Mini Lentil Pot Pies

Hello beautiful! Yes... this is a delicious lentil pot pie! 

Full of protein and fresh veggies! 

With flakey crust and flavorful filling!

Is your mouth watering yet?

Mine is! 

lol

So for two nights I have been thinking about making pot pie! I was craving it so bad and I loved the idea of a vegan pot pie! I wanted to use something different other than tofu, seitan, or smart ground. It is easy to get tired of the same proteins all the time. I thought of a lot of different proteins that I could use and decided that I did not want a huge bean filling my pot pie so I decided on using lentils. I had never worked with them before but in my mind it seemed to all work together! I didn't take pictures as I went along mainly because I was not sure if this would actually turn out... but to my surprise they are delicious!! My mom was at her friends house helping her organize her kitchen and got home just after I finished baking these! She took a bite and could not believe how delicious they were, she went on and on about it was probably the best thing she has had since I came up with my Autumn soup! My mother is my expert opinion when it comes to my cooking, she is not afraid to tell me that something I made is not good! lol!  I am confident that everyone will love these if they try them! I ended up eating 2 of these mini pies and then eating it again for lunch today! Well enough of me rambling here is the recipe!

I used store bought pie crust that was vegan. This recipe can make about 18 mini pot pies or possibly 2 whole pies. I am not 100% sure though cause I made 6 mini and 1 whole lol! 

You will need:

2 1/2 Large Carrots Chopped

3 Stalks of Celery Chopped

1/2 an Onion Chopped

1/2 Cup of Frozen Peas

2 tbs. Earth Balance Butter

2 potatoes (Boiled and peeled before hand)

1 box of veg. broth

1 cup lentils

1/2 cup plain soy milk

1-2 tbs. of flour

2 tbs Parsley

To taste:

Salt 

Cracked Pepper

Garlic salt

In a pot melt 2 tbs. butter and add carrots, celery, and onion, begin cooking down vegetables. Add your peas and half a cup of the broth to the pot. Cook until the carrots are al dente. Add the rest of your broth, heat until boiling. Add lentils to the pot. Cook everything together until the lentils are soft. Broth should be cooked down a bit. In a small bowl mix together your milk and flour, add to the pot. Your filling should become thicker and creamy. Season to taste. Cut up potatoes and add them only when placing the filling inside the crusts. I found that baking a whole pie takes 20min. and the mini pies take 15min. baked perfectly! 

* A great way to make mini pies is to use a 6 cupcake pan! Makes super cute mini pies like above!*

I hope that you guys make and love these! Please let me know what you thought and anything you did differently! :)

Super Delicious Soup!

So I was really wanting use my homemade broth last night to make a soup! I didn't know what I was going to make since I was out of the usual soup veggies (carrots, celery, and onions). As I got to thinking I remembered that my broth had a very mushroomy flavor! I remember I had cabbage and zucchini. I could taste the flavors starting to build in my mouth. I was thinking how I needed a protein and great northern beans seemed to make since with the flavors that were going to be in there... add some eggless noodles... and VOILA! A soup was born! Here is how to make it....

You will need:

Veggie Broth (I used 32oz of broth and then added equal amounts of water)

1 Zucchini

1/2 A Cabbage

1 Can of Great Northern Beans (You should rinse the beens under cold water before adding when using canned) 

2 Cloves of Garlic

About 2 Large Cups of Eggless Noodles

About 1 tbs. of parsley

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a pot add your broth/water and heat until boiling. 

Chop zucchini into small chunks. Cut cabbage into shreds.

Add Zucchini to the boiling broth. Cook until zucchini begins to soften.

Peel and mince your 2 garlic cloves.

Add garlic to the soup. And stir.

Add the cabbage to the soup. Cook until cabbage is wilted.

Rinse and Add your Great Northern Beans! Add parsley.

I forgot to take a picture but next you need to add your noodles! Continue cooking to soup until the noodles are soft. Salt and pepper to taste!

Here is what the soup looks like! Honestly my mouth is watering as I write this! LOL I really like this soup! It is very filling and satisfying! Great for these chilly days!

Yummmmmmmm!

Enjoy!

Bean Nachos

So one of our favorite easy things to make is bean nachos! The are so tasty and loaded up with fresh ingredients! Its delicious! You can really make them however you want but one thing you have to do to have the perfect nachos, is throw your beans in the food processor. This will make the beans a little runny and perfect for covering your nachos. Tonight I used a large can of pinto beans. But you could also make your own beans. ( I have done it both ways) Its really up to you. :) Well here is how you do it!

Like I said before, get your large can of Pinto Beans (do not drain) and throw them into the food processor. Give them a couple good spins until they are to your ideal consistency. Put them into a pot to  heat up.

Yum!

I also made homemade Chili's salsa tonight to go with our nachos:

You can find the recipe here http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/11/chilis-copycat-salsa-recipe.html

We make this all the time it's Delicious!

(I saved some out before I added the jalapenos for Evie)

For our Nachos tonight I cut up:

1/2 an onion

2 avocados

1 1/2 heads of Romaine Lettuce

3 Roma Tomatoes 

This in my daughter's plate! Doesn't it look great? I really enjoy these! 

Don't you want to just dig in? 

Well let me leave you tonight with this picture of my little bed bunny!

Autumn Soup

I have been craving soup really bad ever since fall started! Well I got home the other night from work late and had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. I looked in the fridge and nothing sounded good to me. I decided to start just throwing things into the pot that seemed like a good idea and lo and behold it was amazing! I called my mom to come over and try my tasty Vegan soup (which we later called Autumn Soup)! My mom tried it and she ended up eating two large bowls! That is amazing because before I was a vegan my mother would not eat anything I made lol... it was always not very good. I guess being a vegan has turned me into a cooking genius cause she hurries over now anytime I ask her to come and try something! (It's super easy cause she lives next door... but still lol) I want to share this recipe because it is just way to good to keep to myself! So here it is....

1/3-1/2 package of meatless ground
2 carrots (peeled and chopped)
2 celery stalks (washed and chopped)
1 whole onion (red if you have it) (chopped)
2 handfulls of frozen green beans (thawed and cut in thirds)
3 potatoes (peeled and cut into small rectangles) (tastes best this way lol)
1 large can tomato juice
1 can diced tomatos
2 tablespoons Earth balance vegan butter

In a skillet combine meatless ground, celery, carrots, onion and butter. Cook until the veggies are al dente. Add the green beans after you turn off the heat and move to the back burner

Peel, cut and rinse potatoes. Boil until al dente. Drain.

Combine everything into the pot.

Drain diced tomatos and add to the pot.

Add the whole can of tomato juice.

Add chopped parsley (I didn't measure, but you can't really go wrong with parsley)

Let cook for about 15- 20min. and Voila! Deliciousness!!

Serve and eat with buttered Italian Bread!!! (Earth Balance of course)

Please enjoy! I know we have! I have made this twice in the last week! Yum!