Fennel Findings & Strawberry Pudding!

I've seen fennel randomly in all sorts of recipes. So I asked Joe to buy me some last weekend... and didn't know what the heck to do with it once I had it! Today I found a neat fennel tart recipe that I plan on trying tomorrow, but earlier in the week I could pretty much only find salad recipes. I didn't use a recipe, rather I got 'ideas' from random places and here is what I came up with:

Salad 1:

The ingredients! Spinach, Jicama, Sweet Onion, Cucumber, FENNEL, an Orange + the dressing ingredients, lemon juice, EVOO & Mrs. Dash!

I was surprised by the taste of the fennel. I had no idea what it would taste like, but it has almost a minty-sweet taste to it. Pretty good.

Salad 2:

This one was made with Spinach, Jicama, Apples, Cranberries and chopped Almonds. The dressing was made with a bit of Orange Juice, salt & pepper, and EVOO.

Not sure which one I liked best, they were both pretty darn good though. :)

I have enough fennel for tomorrow. I'm going to marinate it. Curious if it will make it softer. I will let you know!!

Strawberry Pudding with "make it yourself" Almond Milk

Ingredients:

4-5 raw almonds

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

4-5 medium organic strawberries

1 pitted date

2 Tbsp chia seeds

about 1/4 cup filtered water

Combine your water, raw almonds & vanilla extract. Blend! For about 5 minutes. I used one of these mini blenders. 

Voila, raw almond milk ;) 

I finally found some organic strawberries. I've been looking for them for weeks... I have absolutely no clue why it's so difficult to find them here. 

Yum. That guy to the right is my date! :)

Combine the rest of your ingredients and blend.

Yummy. 

Would you like a bite??

In other news.... We are on the search for my new car! Should have it before the weekend is over!

Wish me luck!

Also, tomorrow will make 8 months since Joe & I have been married.

Life is pretty darn crazy!

To come tomorrow:

Raw Pancakes

Raw Cookie Dough Balls

Raw Fennel Tart

And a few other things!

Have a beautiful night. <3

Sarah's Vegan Thumbprint's. Among Other Things.

These Vegan Thumbprint's are amazingly easy and slightly fun to bake.

Sarah's Vegan Thumbprint's:

Ingredients:

1 Cup Earth Balance at room temperature (or other vegan butter)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 cup Powdered Sugar

1 1/2 cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

Jam of your choice

(Joe chose Black Cherry. He says the other's had High Fructose Corn Syrup ;) somebody is learning)

 The line up:

 Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, cream together vanilla and room temperature Earth Balance.

Add your powdered sugar to the mix. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour mixture and sprinkle in your dash of cinnamon.

Add in your flour mixture to the butter mixture. 

Roll your dough into little balls and place them on your ungreased cookie sheet, roughly 2 inches apart.

It appears I need my cookie sheets! They're stained!

Then press lightly into each ball with your thumb to create a little dip. 

Fill the 'dips' with your jam. 

Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes on the top rack. You don't want them to get hard, so keep an eye on them. You want the edges to just barely get tan/golden.

 

PLEASE. Make sure you don't eat them immediately out of the oven. The jam will be extremely hot, and it will burn the roof of your mouth off. 

Yum! I even ate one or two. ;) I know wheat & flour seems to make my stomach angry.. But sometimes, you just can't quite help yourself.

I've strayed a bit from eating raw the past week or so. I've had an extremely stressful past week and a half or so. But it's a new week and I'm going to be making a lot more raw foods again. Keep your eye's peeled!

I also have some photos of our house, now that it's finally coming together. Our bedroom has changed since I've taken these photos. So I will take a new one and post it later. Everybody loves to peek into other peoples homes, right?

I'm pretty sure you've all seen the kitchen.

Here is my dehydrator, on the other side of the counter is my juicer and mini blender.

Living room looking into kitchen.

This is the other end of the living room. I'm not sure what we are going to set up here.. It's kind of a large amount of empty space right now.

TV.. This has also changed to a 42" LCD VIZIO. I love it.

Backyard. :)

'My' Bathroom.

'Joe's' Bathroom.

Again, it has changed, and slowly will be changing with time.

Study room. Obviously, still working on this, it needs a bit of furniture. :)

Yoga room. Still under construction as well!

All right, that's all for now! I'm hiding the ugly downstairs bathroom, storage  & closets for another day!

Take care & happy Tuesday!

<3

Pumpkin, Pumpkin.. I Love Pumpkin..

I know traditionally people only use pumpkin during a certain time of the year. I love the smell of pumpkin and could eat pumpkin dishes year round. It's a very warm and comforting ingredient. Last night I promised Joe I'd make him some pumpkin scones for breakfast. Lightly adapted from peasandthankyou.com, here are the glorious pumpkin scones!

Vegan Pumpkin Scones:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Silk Vanilla Soymilk

1/2 cup Pure Pumpkin Puree

1 teaspoon fresh Lemon Juice

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1/2 cup Organic Sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

pinch of Sea Salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Pumpkin Spice Seasoning

1/2 cup Earth Balance Vegan Margarine

Spiced Glaze:

1/2 cup Confectioners Sugar

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice Seasoning

1 Tablespoon Silk Vanilla Soymilk

Ingredient line up:

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Combine milk, pumpkin, lemon juice and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

In a larger bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt and pumpkin spice.

Mix all together.

Get your Earth Balance ready..

If you have a pastry cutter, use it to cut the butter into the flour. If you're like me and don't.. use a fork.. and then your hands.

I use the fork until the fork clumps to much, and then I use my hands to basically rub the butter into the dough until it forms a consistency.. basically of damp sand, like this:

Combine your pumpkin mixture into the flour.

Mix at first with fork, spoon or if you're cool and have a mixer machine.. that works too. ;)

If you don't though, mix with a spoon and then with your hands until it looks like this:

On a flat surface, lightly sprinkle extra flour. Plop the dough onto the flour and knead for just a moment. Then form into a rounded flat... mass. Not sure what to call it :) then cut into 8 slices like you would a pizza. It looks like this:

It's roughly 8-9 inches in diameter and 3/4" tall.

Place on your baking sheet.

Bake for 24-26 minutes.

When it's done, it will look like this:

For the glaze, combine all ingredients into a small bowl. Stir for about 4-5 minutes with a small spoon and drizzle over your scones.

Plate, serve, eat.

:)

Tomorrow I will post some catching up photos/recipes of a few meals throughout the week!

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!

<3