Sunday, August 30, 2009

Super Summer Yummer Salad

This is one of my favorite times of year! Not only is it nice and warm and flip flops are a must but summer gardens are in full production! And we have to find creative things to do with all the garden gives us.
Super Summer Yummer Salad is a cold salad perfect for a warm day, its easy prep and refrigerates well so make it in the morning and enjoy it in the afternoon, and don't worry if you have leftovers they are good the next day for lunch. Word of warning, I love garlic so my Pesto mixture is full of garlic if you want to cut the garlic down you may do so by a clove or so remember garlic becomes more potent as it sits so what might taste a bit to spicy today might turn into super garlic tomorrow!
Ingredients:
• aproximently 8 ounces of fresh basil, about the amount you would buy in the store
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 4 tbsp olive oil (2 used in pesto the others in the salad mixture)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 box pasta (your choice, bow ties are pretty fun for this salad)
• 3 to 5 fresh tomatoes depending on size
• 12 to 16 oz vegan mozzarella or cows milk mozzerella (if you are using vegan I suggest Vegan Gourmet by Follow Your Heart)
Directions:
Start by boiling the water for the pasta, you want the cooked pasta to be cool when you put the toppings on it so feel free to do this first or prep the topping and place in the fridge. On to the Pesto: clean and de-leaf the basil and place in to your blender or food processor along with 2 tbsp olive oil and blend until the leaves are in small pieces. Then chop your garlic and add along with the salt and pepper to taste. If the pesto seems a little dry feel free to add a bit more olive oil. Remove from your blending tool and set aside.
Pesto ready!
Next dice tomatoes and cheese separately. Put pesto cheese and tomatoes in large mixing bowl, and mix well with a spoon.
mixed and ready for pasta
After your pasta is cooked and cooled mix into the mixing bowl a small amount at a time for even distribution over pasta, add the other 2 tbsp olive oil for ease of mixing.

in the middle of mixing.

Serve with garlic bread and enjoy!

Super Summer Yummer Salad



Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Blueberry Betty

This blueberry betty is a great quick recipe and super tasty! I always pick way more berries than I need and freeze some for future use the blueberry freezes nicely as long as you don't have to much water in the bag make sure you let them dry a bit after washing them before placing in the freezer otherwise you have some nice blueberry flavored ice in your bag too! This particular betty was made with frozen berries.

Ingredients:
• 4 cups of blueberries
• 3 tbsp sugar (optional, use if you like a sweeter betty)
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup quick oats
• 1/4 cup vegan butter cold
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
berries and vanilla waiting for the topping

Directions:
Place berries and vanilla in a bowl and mix lightly set aside. Mix dry ingredients by hand until mixed throughly. Place maple syrup in and mix again then take small chunks of the vegan butter and fold in make sure its cold. this will give you lumps in your mixture which you want. Do not over mix, if you do so the butter will start to melt. You want a nice lumpy mixture here for sure
check out those lumps!
place berry mixture in a 8'' by 8'' or 9'' by 9'' and put topping over it poke some of the topping down with a fork for a more textured landscape! Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until golden brown on the top. Allow cooling time and serve warm or cold it is great either way!
ready for the oven!






Saturday, August 15, 2009

Chocolate Almond Butter Cookies


I have a confession, I love almond butter!  It is the best thing sense peanut butter!  It has a little less saturated fat and a bit more carbohydrates than peanut butter.  But for me its just the rich smooth taste and the texture!  It is great with everything, for your next peanut butter recipe switch it up and use almond butter, I bet you will enjoy the results!
As far as this cookie goes, its pretty amazing.  Because of its light color people usually think it is just a chocolate chip cookie but its much much more!  The best tip I can give you is use good chocolate chips they really accent the almond butter, I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips! 

Ingredients:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Ener-G egg replacer dissolved in
• 2 tbsp warm water
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup soy or rice milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients then add the egg replacer.  Add the milk, and the butter, add the almond butter slowly about 1/4 cup at a time and mix, after that add the vanilla.  When that mixture is smooth add the chocolate chips slowly about 1/2 cup at a time.  Drop onto a lightly greased cookie sheet a tablespoon at a time.  Bake at 375 for 9 to 11 minutes, check after 7 as to not burn them!  


done baking now cooling!