A Little Enjoyment

This week (thus so far) I have been thoroughly enjoying...

 These crazy beautiful head bands and all of Mignonne Handmade's other lovely pieces work! I definitely wouldn't mind owning one. Or all of them... hint hint... birthday in 7 days counting...

Sheenalu's blog! I have fallen in love with her blog. She's just about one of the cutest people I've discovered in the relmn of the blog world. Her photography is truly great, and her kids are just the darnedest models. I'm jealous of how much she runs! I want to run like that someday. I even brought up the idea of running a 10K to Ben... He said he might be able to do a 5K. At least it's a foot in the right direction!

These smooth, classic, creamy white heals that seem to contain an essence of spring. Their wooden-soles, literally "sole-d" me from Anthropologie.

Gemma Booth's absolute stunning photography. Just looking, admiring, and obsessing over her photographs I have been craving to take pictures. I want to build my coin collection and invest in another lens so I can start right away. 

The Soft Parade from Gemma Booth on Vimeo.

What things have YOU enjoyed this week??

Coconut Dessert Muffins

So I've been looking at a certain coconut cupcake recipe for over two weeks, and finally this evening i decided to give it a go! Sadly the recipe uses grams, and so forth. And I can tell you up front that I am terrible with that stuff... So I was left to decipher the recipe on my own. As I was making the icing, I had forgotten to let it simmer for ten minutes, and then the dough ended up being extremely thick. The look of it scared me, and made me sad at the same time. My hopes for a light and airy cupcake vanished instantly as the batter was dough on my spoon. I decided not to waste and try baking them anyways. While they were baking I took the icing out of the fridge to whip it... it didn't whip. Failure after failure it seemed. But i pressed on! 

They came out of the oven lightly dense but not doughy, mellow but not overly sweet, and covered with a deep earthy glaze. It went from a brutal start to a sweet and rewarding ending. 

Coconut CupCakes

  makes one dozen 

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup silken tofu

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 cup light coconut milk

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk* can substitute light also, may result in a lighter texture

2 Tbsp rum or apple juice or 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift together dry ingredients.

Cream together wet ingredients.

Scoop into muffin tins and bake for about 25 minutes.

Turn out of pan and let cool completely.

Coconut Icing

 could probably half the recipe and have enough 

1/2 cup full cat coconut milk

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 Tablespoon water

1/4 cup coconut oil

Let the milk, syrup, and salt simmer on medium heat for ten minutes.

Whisk the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl and add it to the saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a quick boil, remove from heat and whisk in the oil until fully welted. 

Let cool in the fridge until it is completely white again (two hours)

Cream with a hand-mixer and spread onto cupcakes.

Granola Di Alba

           Words can not even describe how delicious granola is. It has the ever perfect essence of crunch, chew, and sweetness that fills your heart with great warmth. I had been looking for that "perfect" granola recipe for days and nothing seemed to jump out of a blog through my screen. So I decided to just wing it. Not always a good approach, but one worth trying. Let me just say, I am more then 110% grateful I went with my gut instinct on this because it turned out like a charm! Enjoy this little delight on top of yogurt, ice cream, non-dairy milk, oatmeal, smoothies and whatever else you can come up with!

Granola Di Alba

1 1/4 cup puffed millet

1 1/4 cup roasted buckwheat

1 1/2 cup kamut flakes

1 cup sliced raw almonds

3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1/4 cup golden flax seeds

1/2 cup pure maple syrup*

1/2 cup brown rice syrup 

3/4 cup chopped dried apricots

3/4 cup dried pears

1/2 cup dried currants

1/4-1/2 dried ginger

1/4-1/2 sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350 F
Mix the grains, nuts, flavorings and syrups all together. 
Lie across a lightly greased baking sheet or on top of parchment paper ( just beware you might be peeling it off like I had to ha)
Bake for 10 minutes and stir. Bake for another 10 minutes and stir once again. This time add all of your chopped dried fruits. Place back in the oven roughly for another three minutes. 
Let cool and break apart. 
Oh, and of course. Enjoy : )

*If you want a sweeter version add more maple syrup and less brown rice to equal a half a cup. Over all you should have four cups of grains, two cups of nuts, one cup of syrup and two cups of fruit. Try your own variation next time following these simple guidelines!*

* Try a gluten free version by swapping kamut flakes with quinoa flakes, buckwheat flakes, or G.F. oats*

Apple-n-Carrot Shortbread

     A couple of Monday's ago the boy and I fled north to the local town of Cambria. He was determined to skate, once again. So we gathered some friends and headed out for the day. It was a crisp clear day after a couple of days of heavy rain, and the ramps were dry and ready to go! Chelsea, Didi, and I decided we'd be better off walking the streets then watching some clumsy boys.... well, be boys. hah. While walking around we went to an antique store where I bought a darling little bowl to use in one of my photographs, eventually. Then I also purchased a Dino-cookie cutter. Uhm, can you say, "best purchase EVER"! If you can't tell, I am really excited. It was the best $0.27 I have ever spent. Instantly I had an urge to bake cut-out Dino-cookies. I've only tried one vegan sugar cookie before and don't get me wrong it was good, but I wanted to do a healthier cookie. Something unique like my Dino friend. After searching around some sites i had two choices. One by Green Kitchen Stores and one by 101 Cookbooks. I decided upon the latter, an apple and carrot shortbread cookie. With a healthy, vegan twist. Those two words have a blissful ring to them don't they?

Apple-N-Carrot Shortbread Cookies 

(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

You're going to want to use metal (or sharp-edged) cookie cutters here, it will help cut through the shreds of apple/carrot more easily. 

1/4 cup semolina flour

1 1/2 cups spelt flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

6-7 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 brown rice syrup

1/4 cup carrot, grated and loosely packed

1/2 grated apple, Braeburn (squeeze juice and leave  aside, only use if needed to moisten the dough )

zest of one lemon

almond milk

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees, or 180C.
Sift the semolina, flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl, and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the coconut oil and brown rice syrup together until light and fluffy. 
Stir the carrot, apple, and lemon zest into the flour mixture, and mix until well coated and evenly dispersed. 
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until a dough forms, then knead a couple times to bring everything together. Split the dough in two, flatten each piece into an inch-thick patty, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes.
When you're ready to bake the shortbread, roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface 1/2-inch thick/1cm. Use a metal cutters to stamp out cookies, then place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush lightly with a bit of milk and bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown just a bit.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
*Variation- roll into small balls and press an indented thumbprint in the center, fill with unsweetened peach jam and bake*
{Also, If ever in Cambria, try Robin's Restaurant and check out The Garden Shed. Both two super cute fun places to see on a little day trip}

Veggie Burger and Gooey Chocolate Cookies

     Throughout the day Ben and I kept contemplating on what we wanted to make for dinner. Personally, I've been craving Chinese/Thai and anything Asian. That delicious eggplant and basil, ginger and tofu, or slippery noodles with a spicy red pepper sauce. Sounds like a "party in the mouth", huh? But when we got to the store we saw that some of the vegetables we needed were not available since they were not in their prime season. 

                Lately, I've decided that I want to make sure I purchase certified organic, fair trade, seasonal    and local products. The cost becomes less important since I know that there are numerous benefits granted when you take that step to start eating with a focus towards humanity and health, rather than the size of your wallet. 

                 In economics class the other week we watched a documentary entitled, "Is Walmart Good For America?" They showed how Walmart's motto of having the lowest prices has shut down many American companies and laid off workers. Walmart has demanded companies, such as RubberMaid, to produce products at a certain price, and if that company can not comply to their request, Walmart refuses to purchase that product. In return, the company is unable to produce a product that cheap in America and are forced to travel to China. Manufacturing in China allows the product to be produced at the price Walmart has demanded. But how does this cheaply produced product affect people? First off, it pays Chinese workers around 50-cents an hour, or about a $100 a month. Secondly, it has depleted the number of manufacturing plants in America as well as American jobs. So is it really good for America? 

                 Fair Trade- Fair trade is when a company, such as Sun Spire, purchases their chocolate from a third world country. They offer to pay the supplier a higher price for the chocolate, so long as the supplier will pay their workers more than the average pay. In return we pay a higher price, but it allows to help that third world country stabilize their economy by paying the employees the proper amount.

       But, now back to the dinner! We decided to go along with some classic, easy and always delicious. The burger. Our Sunshine burgers were on Ezekiel Whole Wheat Sprouted Buns, topped with sauteed mushrooms in garlic and thyme, smothered with Veganaise, Dijon mustard, ketchup, lettuce, sprouts, tomato and onion. It was a giant burger at that, but worth every bite! After waiting a couple of hours for a stomachs to go back down to size, we began making cookies. Gluten-free, vegan, healthy, delicious and loaded with chocolate. Take a look, make them, eat them ruthlessly, and devote yourself to a large glass of almond milk and quite a few cookies. NO shame to be taken here.

Mutant Flourless Chocolate Cookies
 (Adapted from Wing It Vegan)
Makes about a dozen cookies

1 tbsp ground flax seeds

3 tbsp cold water
1/2 cup dried shredded coconut*
1/4 cup sucanat
1/4 cup stevia
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup almond butter
4 tbsp almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup macadamia nuts

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or lay down parchment paper.

 In a small bowl or measuring cup mix the flax seeds and water.

In a medium size mixing bowl combine all ingredients except for the chocolate chips and nuts. The dry and powdery ingredients are better off in the bottom of the bowl to prevent a big powdery *POOF* when you start mixing.

 Mix for about 30 seconds or until a smooth dough forms. It will look chunky at first but keep mixing and it will become smooth. Make sure everything is mixed well and beat the dough vigorously.

Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Make them as chunky as you want, as you can see I like a lot of chocolaty and nutty goodness, but you can adjust the chunkiness to your taste.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop for perfectly round cookies) onto the cookie sheet and slightly flatten and shape each future cookie with the tip of a spoon. But then again you might not want to flatten them at all if you like them all round and poofy! Leave about an inch of space in between cookies.

Bake for 14 minutes. Let the cookies slightly cool for a minute on the baking sheet before you transfer them to a cooling rack.

If you manage not to eat them all right away and you need to store them, let them come to room temperature and store them in a paper bag. The paper bag keeps them from getting soggy

* You can grind the coconut to a fine powder in a blender or food processor if your not one of those people who just loves the texture of coconut!