Vegan Blueberry Ice Dream

Blueberry Ice Dream
2 c. organic unsweetened soy milk
2 c. organic blueberries
3 tbsp organic agave
2 tbsp lemon, juiced

In a large skillet, heat blueberries, agave, and lemon juice until the blueberries are soft. Blend the mixture with a hand blender till smooth and slowly add soy milk. (you can strain the mixture to remove the blueberry skins, but the skins have tons of antioxidants, so i keep them in.)

Cool mixture in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Add mix to ice cream maker to manufacturers instruction.

This is a delicious fresh summer treat. I am seeing blueberry ice cream & gelato all over the place. This recipe at Coconut & Lime looked delicious and inspired me to try a vegan version of my own. I am still having difficulty using soy milk in the ice cream maker. It freezes like ice milk, instead of ice cream, but it is what it is and it is still yummy. I read recently that using coconut milk yields a creamier texture, I will try that next time.

Raw Cookie

I saw this amazing recipe on the beautiful blog taste memory. I love the idea of the raw food lifestyle. I thought I didn't have the patience to put the time into preparing raw food meals. This recipe proved me wrong. It took me 5 minutes to prepare, that's it. What a treat. These cookies are healthy and delicious, not necessarily low-fat, but very nutritious. I love that you can virtually throw anything into these cookies. I'm not putting a measurements for this recipe because you don't really need to follow any sort of recipe, just toss in nuts, seeds, dried fruit, chocolate, virtually anything you have on hand in your cupboard. You can play around with the portions too, I'll just post what I used. Just know that honey and nut butter is what binds the cookies together, the honey especially. After you mix the ingredients together, it will stick together, but it takes chilling in the fridge for them to really set and bind together. Give them a good 6 hours or more to set. Thanks so much taste memory!

Raw Cookies
(adapted from the recipe on taste memory)

2 1/2 cups mixed nuts, seeds, & fruits
-almonds
-pecans
-pepitas
-pecans
-pistachios
-flax seeds
-dried cranberries
-dried apricots
-dried coconut
approx 1/4 cup almond butter, crunchy unsalted
approx 1/2 cup honey

Mix ingredients together in a large bowl, add honey until the mix sticks together. Spoon cookie sized portion onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. The mix will be sticky but not firm yet. Refrigerate for a minimum of 6 hours until cookies are nice and firm. It's best to chill overnight.

Granola

I've been wanting to try making granola. I love granola but all the good granolas are fried and bathed in sugar. This morning I decided to make my own. I found a recipe for vanilla scented granola on epicurious. As always, I didn't really follow the recipe, but it provided me a good base to start from. The recipe I came up with still has quite a bit of sugar but I'm hoping it has less then the average store bought brands. I tried to make it healthy by making some substitutions. I used a small amount of olive oil instead of butter or vegetable oil. I significantly lowered the white and brown sugars and used blackstrap molasses instead of honey. Blackstrap molasses is still loaded with sugar, but it is full of iron, calcium, and potassium making it significantly more nutritious then white sugar. Blackstrap molasses is also a fantastic natural energy booster.

Plain Organic Granola

2 c. organic oats
1/4 c . organic brown sugar
1/8 c. organic olive oil
1/8 c. organic blackstrap molasses
1 tbsp. organic sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
a couple dashes of cinnamon
dash of salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet in tin foil and spray with olive oil spray. Mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together. Combine olive oil, molasses, and sugar in a small skillet. Briefly simmer over low heat. Stir constantly until it begins to bubble (you don't want the mixture to be too hot, a little bit of heat is enough to help the ingredients mix together.) Remove mixture from heat and add vanilla. Add mixture to the oat mixture and mix together with hands until oats are evenly coated.
Spread mixture onto cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Stir. Bake for 20 more minutes. Allow granola to cool.

This granola turned out okay. It isn't fabulous but I think it has potential. Mike tried it and thought it was a bit too sweet. I don't know if I agree, but I think next time I will decrease the brown sugar and add a bit more molasses. I like my granola really clumpy, and this one isn't very clumpy. This granola would be better as a sprinkling on yogurt then it would as a bowl of granola for cereal. I would also love to add almond slices or raisin's.
I will say that i keep sneaking into the kitchen to eat a little more. It's addicting. The molasses gives it an excellent flavor. This recipe needs a some tweaking, but I think it has potential and it is definitely is a healthier and nutritious alternative to store bought granola's.

Good Morning!

This is my idea of a "good morning." Acai bowls are just as delicious as they are healthy. Acai has the most antioxidants of any fruit and is filled with Omega 3's, protein, and fiber. I first had an acai bowl at Cafe Brazil in Santa Cruz, sometimes i would wake up craving acai bowls and head straight to Cafe Brazil. In March of 2005, Mike and I went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with his family. I started each morning with an acai smoothie from the local fruit stand. YUM! When I came home from Brazil I happened upon this fabulous product at my local health food store.

Now I make my own Acai bowls.

1 pack of unsweetened acai
1 scoop of soy base *
1/4 c. soy milk (you can use regular milk or apple juice)
3 strawberries, sliced
handful of blueberries
1/2 banana, sliced
granola**
I throw all these together and use my immersion blender to blend it all together, a regular blender would also work. Then I put it into a bowl and sprinkle some granola on top.

*I make my own soy base in my ice cream maker. I mix 2 cups of soy milk, 1 tsp of vanilla, sprinkle of vanilla bean, & 2 TBSP splenda (or sugar)... then i throw it in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes. Then I freeze it and use it in these smoothies. I do have a problem keeping the creamy consistency after I freeze it. It becomes a solid block. If anyone has any solutions to this problem, let me know. I end up having to microwaving the soy base for 30 seconds to make it soft enough to scoop.

You can also use a store bought soy vanilla ice cream, or regular vanilla frozen yogurt, if you don't want to make your own soy base. You can also opt not to use soy base at all, the acai will just be more liquidly and more like a drink.

**I use Trader Joe's vanilla almond granola...but I've really been wanting to make my own granola one of these days. If anybody has ever made their own granola, i would love a good low-fat granola recipe.

Grilled Polenta with Veggies

Another quick meal. Grilled polenta with veggies and tomato sauce. This dish seems a little strange, but it is soooo yummy and quite healthy. I use Trader Joe's pre-cooked polenta, but it is easy enough to make too.

Grilled Polenta with Veggies

pre-cooked polenta
organic veggies; carrots, cauliflower, broccoli (any veggies you like)
organic tomato sauce (any kind you like)
arugula
raw walnuts

Cut polenta into rounds about 1 inch thick. Grill on a grill pan for 10 minutes or until warm all the way through. Steam veggies. Heat tomato sauce. Make a bed of arugula and put a small amount of tomato sauce in three spots on top of arugula. Lay a grilled polenta circle on each tomato sauce spot. Garnish each polenta circle with additional tomato sauce and a walnut. Top dish with grilled veggies and additional crumbled walnuts.

It is surprisingly filling and so easy to make.

Oh yeah, I forgot, feta cheese goes really well sprinkled on top of this dish. Unfortunately I am dairy free for a while and am not eating cheese. BUT, if you make this dish, sprinkle feta on top and it is 10 times yummier.