Saturday Morning Reflections

Goodmorning Morning blog-reading folks, I had a total intention of getting to work this morning and bringing you a new recipe but I kind of failed. Last night I went out to Mezza, a traditional Lebanese restaurant, met some new friends had some great food and tried a Lebanese wine for the first time called Ksara. The NSLC details are here. We all had a great time and since it was a nice evening we walked home and even ran into my co-worker with her adorable puppy.

Once home around 10:30pm I realized my usually quiet neighbours, were having a backyard party. I don’t blame them it was a gorgeous night, so I got some water, talked to my boyfriend then headed to bed. 

What I have learned early this Saturday morning:

My neighbors can be total jerks who sing, outside, in unison, until the cops are called to stop them at 530am.

 
Being truely tired makes it impossible to do things right the first time and sometimes the second.
When it’s rainy and you are over tired from your neighbs shenans, don’t go on pinterest while still in bed, you won’t have an excuse to get up and start your day until much later than you anticipated. Second thoughts on this, if you can stay in bed pinterest has some really great recipes and DYI instructions you should check out and because of this, I really want to make fresh pasta, especially this one from The Italian Dish.

Do NOT leave an open bag of chocolate chips in your freezer for a multitude of  reasons.

Reason one, you are probably going to eat them before you ‘use’ them.
Reason two, you will inevitably open the freezer to get fruit for your smoothie and they will fall on the floor causing the morning panic of fending off two dogs from getting sick. Reason three, you may possibly enact the 5 second rule for emergencies, but then realize, eww no, not in my house, dog hair.

 

Green smoothies fix a lot of my problems, mine has:

• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 3 organic kale leaves washed trimmed and torn into bit sized pieces
• 2 tbs hemp protein powder
• 1/2 tbs of flax seed
• 1/4 avocado
• 1/4 cup of vanilla almond milk
• 3/4 cup of orange juice

Cooking bulgur in the morning makes the house smell homey and makes me feel blog focused and a little productive.
❤ Amy

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie Bars

Slutty brownies are all the rage (check out The Londoner for the original post). However not all of us like oreos, so I left them out. I thought about subbing in some chocolate bar pieces, or actually I really wanted whole peanutbutter cups but I refrained. I’m ok with downsizing the name and calling this version ‘promiscuous brownies’. 

I used a pre-made brownie mix… I know, gasp! It’s only because I had a package sitting in my cupboard that my boyfriend hadn’t used yet. Yeah I’m defending myself! You could, just as easily, use one of my brownie recipe here, or here (vegan version). Now for some Timberland – Promicious brownies, you’re teasing me, I got what you want and you got what I need.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownie Bars

for the cookie layer

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup+ 2 tbs of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

brownie filling or top layer

• one box of brownie mix or one single batch brownie recipe

Method

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter with sugar. Add vanilla and eggs, mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients  Add dry to wet, and mix well. Add chocolate chips and combine. Place dough in fridge for about 30 minutes while the oven heats up and you prepare the brownie batter.

Make one standard brownie recipe or if you are like me and are using a pre-packaged mix, follow the instructions on the box. When the brownie batter is complete, set aside and remove the cookie dough from the fridge.

Prepare a 9″x9″ inch baking dish with cooking spray. Press cookie dough evenly into pan and smooth out the top surface. Mine creeped up the sides a little and that was a-ok with me.

Pour the brownie batter over the cookie dough. Even it out by giving it a few shakes and place in the middle rack of the oven to cook for about 35 minutes.

The edges of the brownies should be set with a jiggly middle. If you cooked it in a glass container you should be able to see the cookie dough should be golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Once completely cool cut and serve. The middle should be a little undercooked and fudgy with chewy cookie bottom. Makes these asap and often.

Cannellini Bean and Pimento Dip

I really, really do love chickpeas, especially blended up into hummus, but sometimes you want something a little different. White kidney beans, or cannellini beans, blend up smooth and creamy and have minimal bean-like taste. I often add them to vegan soups for a creamy, dairy-like texture plus they add extra fibre and protein. 

I decided to make this dip as bring raw veggies and dip for snacks to work often.  I find it to be a very quick way to pack a lunch on a busy morning plus it’s very filling and easy for me to pick at through the day when(if) I get a moment. I don’t know about you but on busy days my lunch just sits on my desk meaning it sits at room temperature for at least a few hours which can cause a health issue if the dip includes dairy products. This dip is vegan and full of flavour, fibre and protein. Healthy snacking at work should definitely be a team sport so get your co-workers involved and share your grub. Otherwise you should plan to make and eat this dip asap while watching the last few days of the summer games; the Olympics never tasted so good or guilt-free. 

Cannellini Bean and Pimento Dip

• 1 can of cannellini/white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 small jar of pimentos, 4.5 oz (about 1/2 cup with liquid)
• juice of a small lemon
• 1 clove of garlic
• 6 large green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs of tahini
• 1 tsp of dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a food processor, mince garlic. Drain and rinse kidney beans and add them to the blender with the remaining ingredients.

Season with dried basil, salt and pepper.

Let the dip sit for at least an hour to let the flavours marry and the beans set up. Serve chilled with fresh cut up veggies, pop-chips and toasted or grilled bread.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Occasionally on weekends I wake up early in the morning with a glorious plan for my day. Other days I roll around in the sheets, with one dog sitting on my head and one laying on my legs and think, I want pumpkin pie for breakfast. Believe it or not, both of those things happened to me this morning.  I have the most busy and fun weekend planned with lots of things to do in between. I may have even started celebrating last night and woke up (lets say) a little dehydrated. Unfortunately the dogs don’t care, they still need out and to have breakfast and after that was done I was on the hunt for a healthy fix to my issue; it just happened to need to taste like pie.

Besides having an alluring smell, without even turning on your oven, this smoothie is packed full of good stuff to start your day. Plus it tastes like pie, did I mention that yet?

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

• 1/2 cup of pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond or soy milk
• 1/2 cup of strong brewed chai tea (I used a green cardamom chai)
• 2 tbs hemp protein powder
• 1 teaspoon of chia seeds
• 2 tbs whole oatmeal
• a pinch of cinnamon
• sweeten with agave or maple syrup to your taste
• sunflower or pumpkin seeds for garnish

Method

Boil water to brew chai. I used 3 tsp of green cardamom chai and poured a little over 1 cup of water over the loose leaves letting it steep for about 5 -6 minutes.

While your tea is steeping add chia seeds, hemp powder and cinnamon to bowl and mix with the almond milk and let rest.

In the blender, or vessel good for using your hand blender, add pumpkin (mine was frozen in an ice cube tray last week when I made the pupcakes), oats. When the tea has finished steeping, add almond milk mixture to the pumpkin, along with the brewed tea and blend well.

Garnish with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Makes one breakfast sized serving but doubles and triples well.

What’s the Word? Wednesdays

I’m starting a blog series! Right this second, and you are all invited!

It’s inspired by a suggestion from my friend Lee to make a series of posts using the alphabet as my guide, that highlight ingredients and techniques found in Vegetarian and Vegan cooking. I hope you all join me on Wednesdays for a little informal information on living the veg-life.

What’s the Word?

As you may have just guessed, I’m starting with A and in my books;

 A is for Agave Nectar

What is it?

Agave nectar or syrup is a natural liquid sugar much like maple syrup and honey. You may be familiar with the Agave plant once I mention tequila. The nectar is collected from agave plants. As far as I can gather there are two ways to process the aguameilo (honey water) to make agave nectar. One uses heat to break down complex sugars (poly-fructose) into simple sugars (fructose and glucose) while the other method yields similar results via fermentation. The USA deems production of agave via the fermentation process to be a raw food product.

What does it taste like?

Agave nectar can be categorized by light, medium and dark syrup. There are also flavoured version of agave sweeteners. It’s both sweeter-tasting and thinner in consistency than honey. The light version seems to be the most readily available and does not have a strong flavour, the medium version is the closest in taste to honey and the dark version is the strongest flavour. 

Where do I use it?

Agave nectar can be used generally as a substitute for most liquid sweeteners such as honey or maple syrup. Since it is plant based and processed without the use of animal products it is considered vegan as well. Unlike honey, agave syrup dissolves well in cold liquids making it a perfect sweetener for your chilled drinks. Some suppliers even make flavoured versions of agave nectar, check our Madhava Sweeteners!

Are there health benefits?

Agave nectar is still a simple sugar and sugar in general should always used in moderation, however compared to other sweeteners, it does boast a lower glycemic index. Agave itself is sweeter when compared teaspoon to teaspoon to other sweeteners, which in theory would mean you may need less to sweeten your food, thereby potentially consuming less calories from sugar.

V-Spot recipes and suggestion for using Agave Nectar:

I usually prefer agave in my iced coffee and iced tea as it has a neutral taste. In the morning for a quick breakfast I’ll top a sprouted grain or multigrain bread with natural peanut butter and agave syrup for sweetness. Other than that you can use it in place of the maple syrup in these Vegan Brownies, or to sweeten my Chocolate Avocado Pudding.

Agave Nectar Recipe Inspriation:

I did some food blog trolling and these recipes really stood out. I hope they offer additional inspiration!

• Chocolate Lapsang Ice Cream by Sprout & Pea
• Apricot Leather by The Little Red House
• Blue Corn Bread with Orange Agave Butter by Always…Leave room for dessert