No Chicken and Dumpling Stoup

I was given a vegeatarian cook book for my birthday and loved the photos. I couldn't wait to try the recipes. This past week I have been some what disapointed though. It kind of goes back to the whole sharing of recipes thing. I really think alot of recipes turn out the way they do because of the person making them. How you fold something in or how long you mix, or how you measure and more. So its always hard to get a recipe from someone and expcet it to be the same thing. This book seems to prove that,so far 3 out of 4 have been a bust. About half way through each one, I knew something was not working out?!!!! And today was no different. I set out to make a "cold weather casserole" and it just felt wrong. So I tweeked and improvised and the result was just lovely. SO as the snow begins to fall again in our neck of the woods enjoy this hearty comforty type dish.

You'll need
smart balance
1 leek, sliced
1 zuke, sliced
1 fennel buld, halved and sliced
2 potatoes, diced
2 good size carrots, diced
1 can of butter beans
veggie stock & boullion
Bay leaf & marjorum, S & P
In a heavy skillet melt the butter, add all the fresh veggies, cook them down on low heat for about 15 minutes. The potato should still be firm but the rest of the veg should be cooked down. Add about 2 T of flour and stir well. Add the liquid from the beans and about 2.5 cups of veggies stock, and spices cover and cook for about 10-15 more minutes. You want to check and stir this because you don't want it to mush but you want all the goodies of the veggies to come out and richen up. Transfer to a soup pot and fill about half way with water add 2 crumbled veggie boullion cubes. This is my favorite brand, they have a sea salt and herb one that just have the right stuff in it to make a yummy base. Let that cook down covered on low. You should get s texture thicker than soup but not a stew, STOUP!
Now for the dumplings... They are so yummy and easy.
Mix 2 cups of flour with about 2/3 cup milk. Mix this until's it is a sticky doughy like substance. Drop by small teaspoons into boilling soup and let boil for 10 minutes, then cover about lower temp cook for 10 more min.
Perfect to welcome home a cold hubby or brighten a neighbors day or bless a new family or heal a sick friend.....

Tea for Two..

We've been home for a week and busier than ever it seems.
Checking in with friends, doctors, Gram, skiing, swimming and more. This past week has been cold and I broke down and joined the Y to help keep my running on the move. Sophia and Jeff have been loving it too. The location that we go to has a pretty nice pool set up so it works out perfect that they swim while I run or like today when it was an awful mess outside, we were able to get a bit of moving it to our day.
After our swim today, the lunch request was in Grilled PB & J. There is something about PB & J that makes me smile and for us its a treat lunch and doesn't happen often, so like everything, I have to spice it up a bit. Cookie cut the bread (today was cat shaped), butter it up toast each side and add homemade PB and Peach Jelly pop it back in the pan to get it all gooey and melty...
A while back a friend of mine was inquirung about lunches for toddlers. For me lunch is mostly 1 of 2 things a salad or left overs, and it kind of is the same thing with Phi. I always try to keep it balanced though, so along with Grilled PB & J's we had peas, and yougart and just a few salty kettle chips (I have passed on my salt lick need)

I also was very strict with Sophia's diet for the first 2 years and it has paid off she doesn't crave or ask for the standar kiddie foods so it makes it easy. She will eat what ever we eat and I don't have to make any exceptions. I kind of feel that picky eaters are made. One thing I have caved on is tea. I have fond memories of having tea with buttered saltines with my mom after school watching General Hospital. I found these just for kid teas so she can enjoy it with me minus the GH.

Sophia also loves soup, pasta and peas or rice and peas, cheese quesdialla's, fruit and veggie plates, and hummus wraps for lunch what do you do for lunch at your house?
Oh check these out laptoplunches

. They are an update of the asian Bento Box and seem like the perfect lunch accessory. I have to get the family each one, they'll be great on picnics this summer. We've always been picnic people but I have a new beautiful picnic basket that my step mom gave me and I am just chewing wood to use it. So I am sure they'll some posts about that as the weather breaks.

"Orange you glad.."

I've never been an orange person but one day about a year ago, while roaming through my favorite market, a bag of beautiful orange globes just beckoned me..There they were

Cara Cara Oranges. I was smitten after the first bite
Here's what Sunkist had to say
Newly branded "The Power Orange." Cara Cara Oranges are a special variety of juicy, low acid, seedless navels packed with more natural nutrition and minerals to power a healthy immune system. An excellent source of vitamin C, A and fiber; a good source of foliate and potassium, and a natural source of Lycopene, the disease-fighting antioxidants.
So when we couldn't find them again, we went on an oragne taste test.
The test subjects include:

Blood Which made Sophia smile as they some what look purple. I've seen them in a lot of recipe's and have heard people rave over them. For me, not an orange I would pick up and eat, but I will use them in a recipe or 2. They were not a juicy, chin messing orange and had an odd sweetness to them.

Temple These were really sweet and sooo juicy but filled with seeds which, seem to be part of their make up. Good for me but hard for Sophia to eat.

Honey tangerine's These I can clearly say, I was not a fan of. They had a wonderful write up as the sweetest Tangerine for me, not so much!!
So I must say, for me it will still remain the Cara Cara will be my favorite. If you check them out careful, cause you'll want to look for the straight Cara Cara rather then the Cara Cara navels.
Enjoy your own fruit test and share/post your findings

Random things of Bliss

1st let me start with a running update:
Doing good, love feeling everything tighten up and really getting into the zone. I look forward to the calmness of me, myself and I out in the cold air. Most of my runs are at night after Phi is is bed. I have set my clock early for 5:15, but when I check the weather it is always too cold for me. I won't go out if its under 20 and wet.
Pretty much my training looks like this:
Mon & Wed I take a cardio and weight class.
Tues, Wed & Thurs short runs, so far 2 miles.
Sat long runs 3miles this week and they increase by a mile each week
Fri & Sunday ~ RESTTTTTTT.
After a long day at work and a drs app for the little one (answer to the temp and runny nose - Ear infection). I was in awe of a brown package at my door. Hmm, not out of the oridnary for me. Considering I had a panic attack when the tax man asked if I shop online.... Amazon (along with many more) and I are great friends. But I could not place the the address. Typically I return to sender these items (lesson I learned from joining 1 too many book clubs, unopened packages send back for free). But we were waiting for a package from Florida so, I opened it.
What was in it you ask?

Just the prettiest box of heavy weight, delicate, frenchy type stationery you've ever seen. But I don't know who to thank? Oh it made my day! I can't wait to write a note on it. I'm pretty sure it came from this site
which I posted about privously.. I am just giddy thinking about it. Sweet dreams of gel pens gliding on paper for me tonight.
And now on to the big day... Tomorrow I will be 34 and I must say, I have never felt better. I can honestly say I feel like life began at 30 rather then all the rumors I hear. Its a good number. People no longer say, "oh you're young you've got time" they give you credit for making it that far and having some sense about you. I have been given many amazing moments with my beautiful little girl and most say, she's taught me much more then I ever will teach her. Healed and mended some tattered fences along the way. Have weeded my life garden many times over and now feel like I have a good tool box for the mishaps and moments of ugg we all deal with. And much more, can't wait to see what God has planned for me this year?
So how do I start getting ready for the day? By sitting up in my kitchen blogging at 11pm, because I just baked cupcakes to bring to my kids at school and they need to cool before I can frost them.

They are pink and will be mfrosted with white an then adorned with pink jimmies. Not that I have any close connection with pink (I'm more green then pink really) but I had a huge bottle of jimmies left over from our Valentines treat so....
Here's my no fail quick, healthish Vegan Cupcake



1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 good cap of sprinkles

Directions:
1 Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan with paper liners.
2 Whisk the milk and the vinegar together and let sit a few minutes until curdled.
3 Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda
4 Beat together the milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and almond in a large bowl. 5 Mix wet into dry and mix with a wisk until no large lumps remain. Add the sprinkles.
8 Fill cupcake liners I use this scoop (You can't go wrong with the size) bake for 20 minutes or till done. Check you overn you know it best, mine only take about 16-18 on convection. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.

I love that there are no eggs in this, not a ton of fat and not a ton of sugar. Perfect for my Kinderbabes..

I'll let you know how the day goes....
Till then keep your Belly Happy

Valentines part II

So here's our treats

and

I must say, we had so much fun making them, I don't think we are ever buying cards.
And you can't go wrong with Rice Krispie treats and frosting! Between the glitter and the sprinkles my swifter vac got a run for its money.
So tomorrow we'll mail them off, they are a bit late but, it's always fun to get a treat in the mail to make you smile


And for a yummy souper quick lunch ~

Rainbow Veggie soup
(I don"t have measurements here as I was just kind of tossing it into the pot)
About a quarter of a mayan onion diced
A handful of portobella's diced
A quarter of a red peper diced A handful of diced carrots
Saute' these in a good pat of Smart balance till you can smell them
add about 4 cups of water and 2 crumbled veggie boullion cubes
(I love Rapunzel brand)1 bay leaf and some parsley. I diced up some Broccoli and gave it about 5 minutes or so to cook
I served with it over brown rice, oh so yummy.
Would go great with my biscuits from this post

Ventures into Valentines

So this year, I am so excited about Valentines and my bday which follows shortly after. This is not typical of me, I can only sum it up as, I need to be refreshed and Sophia is all about making crafts and birthdays lately so what better motivation....
Here's a litle peek into our weekend.
On Friday Phi woke up very early saying her head hurt, turns out she had a good temp going on with sneezes and coughs. Ugg the cold bug got her now. She slept all day Friday by Staurday she was pretty much back into swing but we laid low,I am a firm believer in quantines...., which meant, I kept her home from church as well, as not to catch anything else and continue the road to recovery.
So we got to work making a special secret cake for Jeff

Chocolate Cherry Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2cup sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups Almond milk
1 can of Cherry pie filling
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
4 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease 2- 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. I used my heart pan. 2. Sift or whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the milk, pie filling, vinegar, vanilla,almond and optional espresso powder until smooth and espresso is dissolved.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and mix with a whisk until combined.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the cake pans. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Careful with you over and pan here. Mine took 30 min on convection.
5. Once the cakes are completely cooled

We are going to make ganache tomorrow when we come home from school and poor it over the cake before we serve.

Phi couldn't help but make a seat to watch the magic happen.

While that was baking we started to make our Velentines. I'll let the pics speak for themselves...

SO much fun

Notice the pink arms!

All cleaned up and ready for lunch..
I'll post the finished Valentines later. Till then have a simple Sunday and keep your belly happy

What to do on a snow day

I made these little treats yesterday to take to Phi's play group, we had a few left over and of course they had to be enjoyed in the morning. But I have to laugh, after going to 3 doughnut stores at 8:30 at night to get powdered doughnut holes, mine were so not as perfect as the original and so I rolled them in a bit more powdered sugar which then caused my frosting to slide and their poor little faces lacked a bit.With all that, they were still such a hit. Highly suggest them, if you need your babe to drink any kind of milk. Phi kept laughing as she made the (almond) milk disapear from the snowman's tummy.

So we were closed today for snow, which didn't come but brought lots of ice and cold.
I just adore these days, often we are trully stuck in the house and enjoy playing with everything we can get our hands on. Today I bravely and probably not so wisely ventured out in the elements. So glad I did, we had a wonderful day at the pool with some great friends, an impromtu yummy lunch and by the time we got home a 2 1/2 hour snuggle nap with Sophia. To finish off the day, we made some finger paints and a yummy dish from Little House of Veggies (which has become my go to site lately)

Tasty Seitan Buffalo Wraps
Ranch dressing
1/2 cup Veganaise (vegan mayo)
1/4 cup soymilk
handful of fresh parsley
1 tsp dried dill or 3 tsp fresh dill (I used It's a dilly)
1 tsp garlic powder
cracked black pepper & a pinch of Spike

In a bowl add about 1/2 cup Veganaise. To that add a handful of fresh parsley, a tsp of dried or 3 tsp fresh dill, 1 tsp garlic powder, crack of black pepper, I added a squeeze of lemon too. Add the milk a bit at a time till you like the texture. Sometimes I want this thick and dip like others more of a thin dressing

Buffalo Sauce
1/4 Frank's Sauce
3 Tbsp. Smart Balance butter
1 tsp garlic powder
(adjust based on if you want them Zippier or not. I used more SB, for Phi
Melt the 3 Tbsp. of SB . Add the Frank's and garlic powder. Whisk well and set aside.

In a shallow bowl mix 1/2 cup flour, pinch of paprika, salt and pepper. Toss the seitan strips in the flour mixture.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet (enough to just cover the bottom of the pan, 3-4 tbsp.). Pan fry the strips on both sides. Place the strips in the buffalo sauce and toss to coat. (Just like WIngs)
Use a wrap of your choice, layer with some Romaine, shredded carrots, Buffalo strips and ranch.
Certian to make your belly happy