In my drafts files... from my kitchen.

Quick share for my records and for anyone still reading this:

3 nourishing juices as of late:

1. Three organic carrots and two crunchy apples along with a piece of fresh ginger.
2. Three organic carrots and two organic oranges.
3. Apples, lemon, and blended with brewed green tea.

Smoothies:

*Chocolate almond milk, frozen banana, peanut butter powder, and Greek yogurt.
*Apple, pear, cinnamon, almond milk and spinach.
*Apple pie smoothie from the Practically Raw book ... scrumptious! Two apples, cored and cut in sections (I usually use a little circle thing that does all of this at once) ... almond milk, cinnamon,
POST ACTUAL RECIPE


Bok Choy! I have never eaten this before and I bought it for juicing or green smoothies but we got hungry!
We tossed some garlic, fresh ginger, water and stir fry sauce in the WOK and added a bunch of Bok Choy after cutting it in slices across and then down the middle. My daughter made this and her friend, Jordan made organic, brown basmati rice. We drizzled some Paul Newman's light Asian ginger dressing over the rice and spooned the greens over that. SO GOOD!

We also made our very own Pumpkin Smoothies. My again mentioned daughter (Lauren --- I should share her name, right?) was talking about some Pumpkin milkshakes she heard about and I told her we could make smoothie versions. She wasn't delighted but I set about having her help gather things for it none-the-less. We loved them! It took some tasting to get it right but in the end... they hit the spot.

Almond milk
Pumpkin
Pumpkin Pie Spice (we made our own from an internet recipe and used all of it for three smoothies: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger, 1/4 teaspoon or more of freshly grated nutmeg.)
Ice cubes
Vanilla bean sugar with a vanilla bean left in
Sucanat
We made these by blending well and then swirled some half N half in them SO GOOD.

Roasted beets with honey goat cheese ----drizzled with balsamic vinegar glaze or vinegairette.

Easy, delicious ice cream

My DIL, Ryann picked up my daughter, Lauren from Starbucks on her way home from work recently. They got here later in the evening and decided to watch a movie and the movie led to a movie snack and the movie snack was homemade ice cream.

Lauren & Ryann's "Made Together" Ice Cream

Half-n-half (a quart bag was 3/4th full)
Sugar (according to taste for how sweet they wanted it)
Vanilla extract (possibly around 4 Tablespoons)
cinnamon (around 1 1/2 teaspoons)
Cocoa powder ("we just kind of shook the container" ... ? 1/4th cup?)

They used the plastic food storage bag method:
A gallon size bag (press or zip sealed kind)  is filled less than half full of ice and 1/2 cup of Rock salt is added to the ice. The ingredients above are put into a quart size plastic bag and then the bag is pressed/zipped closed and placed inside the gallon size bag and then it is pressed/zipped close. Shake until the ice cream is thick and eat right out of the bag!

What they did:
My daughter put a little glop (her word) of peanut butter in each of their bowls. She microwaved it just until it was shiny and spreadable and she spread it on the bottom of the bowl and drizzled honey over that. They cut a hole in the corner of the ice cream bag and "piped" it onto the honey/peanut butter.
This was days ago and they are both still raving how this was the best ice cream!

One Bowl Cocoa Brownies on the Food Network

One Bowl Cocoa Brownies on the Food Network

My DIL and I just made these. The kitchen is cleaned back up and hopefully the chocolate goodness will be worth the oven heating up the house! Ryann swirled peanut butter over the top of the brownie batter and it looks SO good! My plan to keep away from white sugar will have to be upheld another day!

Snickerdoodle Ice Cream

I planned on making homemade ice cream on the 4th of July but didn't. I still had my ice cream maker  contaienr in the freezer so I knew I was approximately 20 minutes from cold and creamy creations and set out to search (cyber style) for a healthier version than those we've used for so many years now.
This Snickerdoodle Ice Cream was really good!

Yield: Makes about 3 cups

With the irresistible flavors of cinnamon and vanilla, this ice cream gives a nod to the classic snickerdoodle cookie. (See bottom of recipe for a vegan option.)

Ingredients

1 (13.5-ounce) can coconut milk (full fat)

3/4 cup unsweetened almond or hemp milk

1/2 cup (packed) pitted Medjool dates

1/4 cup honey

1-3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until creamy and smooth, 30-45 seconds. The dates should be completely blended with no chunks remaining.

Pour the ice cream into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Store in an airtight container in the freezer.

Go Vegan: Turn this into Maple Snickerdoodle Ice Cream by replacing the honey with Grade B maple syrup.

http://www.dailybitesblog.com/2013/05/21/snickerdoodle-ice-cream-dairy-free/

Easy & delicious soaked bread

Here is the bread recipe I am trying. I have some tried and true (lots, actually) bread favorites from the traditional white flour to freshly ground flour and more in my kitchen notebooks. We still have no shelves for my cookbooks so they are organized by type in tubs with lids and stacked in a corner.
Anyway, this recipe is way different than most I've made so I'll let you know how it goes after we try it.

Soaking grains and such...

I am sweeping through the pantry and fridge shelves to make use of what we have and have decided to share from where I am. If I ever find the many scribbled, copied, scanned, and hand given recipes and kitchen tutorials I have been saving to share here - I will share away. I've been far too much the perfectionist and wanted to have themed posting, pretty formatting, relevant pictures and so on.
Alas! I must serve from the humble place I am standing (and cooking, cleaning, soaking, simmering, and blending) or risk neglecting to share at all.

Here we go.
Recently, I cleaned the work table from our previous kitchen (now in the garage a couple doors from my kitchen) and got it ready for ... well, work. The dehydrator is set up and all nine trays are cleaned and ready to dry garden produce, farmer's market sells, and sprouted grains for milling healthy flours. I found my Kamut, hard winter white, hard winter red, soft pastry and a small bucket of spelt.

Last night, I soaked a mixture to make pancakes with today (didn't care for it but I might have modified it too much) and soaked some for whole grain bread, have some spelt sprouting to dry, and two kinds of grains are soaking to sprout.

We had these pancakes this morning:

Vegan, Soaked Whole Grain, Sugar-free Pancakes!

The night before making pancakes:
Make vegan "buttermilk" with:
3T apple cider vinegar
3 cups rice, almond, or soy milk
Whisk and let sit 5 minutes.
Then whisk into:
3 cups whole grain flour.You might be able to use brown rice flour to make them gluten-free...
Cover and let sit overnight.

The morning of:
Measure and mix into flour and "buttermilk" mixture from night before:
1/4 cup baking powder (yes! lol)
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup grapeseed or "light-tasting" olive oil
1 tsp liquid stevia
1 tsp vanilla extract 
Cook in a cast iron skillet greased up with coconut oil over medium-low heat. 

Now I want to figure out how to make all-natural sugar-free imitation maple syrup... I'm thinking xylitol, maple extract, and water... 

In a hurry but plan to share how the bread turns out later today! 

How our garden grows as of June, 2013

Our growing garden!

This is a view of our row garden. The first two are not big yet but they are (from seeds)  rainbow chard and sweet peppers. The next row is yellow squash, then watermelons, then yellow and red bell peppers, and two half rows of basil. All were from seeds I won (so awesome!) from Sustainable Seed Co. with the exception of the yellow and red peppers... they were from the store!

This is our "square garden" where my husband tilled up squares and we planted things in each and created walk ways around each one. The view here shows our cucumbers (from seed) and pineapple sage (plant) along with a tiny row of sweet peppers from seeds that are so tiny you can't see them here. It is hard to see... but there are a few eggplants, a daisy, a chrysanthemum, several varieties of tomatoes, several kinds of peppers and more. 

Cucumbers! My husband made the trellises! 

More of what I listed above...

Closer view of yellow squash...

Closer view of rows: Carrots (from seed), purple beans (from seed), broccoli (plants) and red and yellow pepper from plants. 

My harvest basket ...only $1.00 from the local farmer's market! I gathered broccoli, cucumbers, yellow squash babies, borage, nasturtiums, and dill. This picture shows our first melons... so adorable! 

So thankful for God's bounty and provision.