Benefits of Pomegranates

I wanted to take a moment to discuss my love of Pomegranates. They are a beautiful fruit that is so delicious & good for you. You can eat the seeds alone or put in blender for juice. Even can be made into a shampoo! (Haven't tried it yet, but will). Pomegranates have been said to help reduce blood pressure. It can also benefit heart & blood vessels & to inhibit certain cancers. It can amazingly stimulate serotonin & estrogen receptors that can naturally improve depression!!* Wow!!! My favorite way to enjoy this delicious fruit? The seeds mixed in with other berries in a fruit salad or even alone. As long as an organic & natural source, it can be enjoyable as a juice too. Such a perfect part of nature! What are your favorite ways to enjoy Pomegranates?                                       *Info from various research online( especially from Dr. Fuhrman's articles)

Going off to College

In my preparation for school, I've found a few special books that I think will help a lot! It's going to be tough to start college in a few weeks, especially as a vegan, but these books should be a big help.

PETA's Vegan College Cookbook is currently my favorite, because it's all about cooking vegan in the microwave or without cooking! It's pretty awesome.  I found it cheapest at Walmart for $8.99.

PETA's Vegan College Cookbook

The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College is a cool book that has nothing to do with being vegan at all, but a lot to do about college, and what to be ready for. I found it cheapest online at Barnes and Noble for $1.99.

The Naked Roommate

Babycakes is a great vegan, gluten-free, amazing cookbook.  It takes a little more effort to create the dishes, but they are delicious! Their bakery in New York is also #1 on my bucket list.  

Babycakes

Flying Apron's Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Book is another great vegan and gluten free cookbook, which also takes more effort, but is always worth it.  

Flying Apron's Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Book

These are my must-have books for school, what do you think? Do you have any to add?  I'm hoping these will keep me busy and fed at school!

Breakfast Cookie!

 A Breakfast Cookie? Why Not have a cookie for breakfast? They are delicious! Not to worry ~ they're healthy!! It tastes like a dessert, but it's disguised!! Hope you enjoy this delicious recipe:

Ingredients

You will Need:
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup natural applesauce
1/2 cup natural Peanut Butter(we like Smucker's)

oats, applesauce, and peanut butter

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3 TBSPNS. vegan mini choc chips(We Love" Enjoy Life" brand)

Vegan Chocolate Chips

4 TBSPNS. frozen raspberries
2 TBSPNS. Maple Sugar(You can substitute Brown Sugar or 1/2 TBSPN stevia if you wish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the applesauce with the peanut butter.
Add all of the other ingredients with the applesauce mixture.
With a cookie scoop, put on a greased cookie sheet(We use Spectrum organic all vegetable shortening)

Vegan, Organic Shortening

Bake for 15 minutes.
Take out & cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Onto the cookie sheet

Makes approx. 24 cookies, depending on size.

Black Bean Burgers

Yummy, these are!! We make these on a regular basis....at the very least, once a week...especially in the Summer. They're made quickly & they're better for you than those processed bean & other veggie burgers & great for protein! They're so good too!! Let us know what you think of them! Enjoy!(oh... and you can substitute other beans once in awhile too if you feel like being different one day. : ) )

Ingredients:
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
1 can black beans (or whatever you prefer)
1/2 cup all purpose unbleached  flour
2 slices of a healthy bread, crumbled
1 clove garlic
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. celery salt
1 tsp. paprika
salt & pepper to taste
1 TBSPN. natural ketchup, certain Hunt's brands are good, or homemade if you'd like
olive oil or avocado oil for frying

Directions:

1)Sautee the onion, pepper, garlic, with some oil.
2)In a Large bowl, mash the beans until almost smooth. Add the sauteed onion mix. Add rest of the ingredients minus the flour. Then add flour, 1 TBSPN at a time.Combine well, with spoon. Mixture will be mushy & thick.
3)Form beans into patties, to size preferred.
4)Fry burgers in rest of oil til browned well & crispy on both sides(approx.3 minutes on each side)

Makes 6 or more burgers depending on size.

I hope you can try these sometime. Enjoy!!

Chocolate

Chocolate, Chocolate, How I Love thee..... Dark Chocolate is the tastiest, most Heavenly creation ever invented!! It is loaded with antioxidants & benefits & it makes me happy!! There are a lot of ways to enjoy this Beautiful dessert. One way my family enjoys it is homemade. My kids made my husband & me heart shaped chocolates for our anniversary. They were yummy & beautiful. We also love it in milkshakes & ice cream, to name a few....Here are 2 of our favorites.

Homemade Chocolate

Recipe for homemade chocolate:
          1/4 cup organic cocoa
          1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
          1-2 Tbs.  real  maple syrup, depending on how sweet you'd like it.

*Place in cookie molds(or free form it) on top of wax paper on a cookie sheet. Place in freezer for at least an hour & enjoy.

Recipe for a homemade chocolate "milk shake" (vegan):
          Follow recipe for our chocolate/peanut butter vegan ice cream (below-one of our first postings)
          frozen rice whip
          almond milk (we just eye ball it for amount needed)
          pour in glass with shaved dark chocolate for decoration along with chunk in middle(we like Lindt or               use the homemade)
       

Tropical Smoothie

It's Summer & we all need a special treat once in awhile, so here's a recipe for a yummy tropical smoothie. Put an umbrella in it & sit out in the yard & pretend you're in the Caribbean!

Tropical Smoothie

Ingredients: 1/2 fresh pineapple, cored, peeled & chopped
                  2 bananas
                  2 cups  coconut milk
                  8 ice cubes
                  optional: sprig of stevia plant or mint

Blend altogether in a blender, put in a pretty glass with a decoration, lay out on a chaise lounge & Enjoy!!
Don't forget some Beach Boys music in the background...."and you'll have fun, fun, fun..."

Pineapple and banana

Nice Cream!!

This chocolate pb nice cream was put in a homemade choc. bowl!

We'd like to share a delicious Vegan recipe with you. It's a fantastic alternative to ice cream, but there's no dairy in it!! No one will guess that it's actually vegan! The secret ingredient is bananas & it is sooo creamy!! It's as delicious, if not more than, ice cream. The magic of it is you can combine many different flavors. We'd like to share with you our all time favorite: Chocolate Peanut Butter Nice Cream.

Tools needed:

A Freezer

Food Processor

Spoon or spatula

Ice cream scoop

Ingredients:

Bananas (6)

Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (We Love Smuckers Natural)(4 Tablespoons)

Organic Cocoa Powder(2 Tablespoons)

vegan cool whip(frozen) ( we like rice whip)(as much as you want)

optional: can add nuts, vegan chocolate chips, vegan oreos, any topping desired)

Directions: 

                 Cut bananas in coins, place on parchment paper on cookie sheet & freeze for at least 1 hour.

                 When bananas are ready, pour in food processor with remaining ingredients, minus the toppings)

                 with spoon or spatula stir around every now & then to work it in

                 Be patient....it takes a few minutes to get creamy. It's very crumbly & chunky at first.

                 With an ice cream scoop, scoop into your favorite dish or cone, put toppings on if you'd like &                      ENJOY!!! Yummm!!

This is a strawberry-flavored nice cream!