Blueberry Lime “Cheesecake” with a Kick

The internet connection I was getting in my house is now completely inactive.

That sucks.

Of course that’s what I get for not setting up my own internet connection.

So now I’m sitting at Starbucks, sipping on a sparkling water (my first time drinking this San Pellegrino stuff) and kicking myself for forgetting to download the pics of my newest bake from this morning!

Another time, another post I guess!

With the temperatures reaching the mid 70s yesterday, I was itching to spend the day outside. When I got home from work, Kyle surprised me with some yummy wraps for a picnic lunch. He roasted his own red peppers, caramelized some onions and placed them on top of a nice soft green onion tortilla with a layer of red pepper hummus and some romaine! He’s so sweet sometimes.

We packed up those wraps with some extra snackables I had in the pantry and headed out to the park to soak up some sunshine. Leave it to me to soak up too much and burn myself.

Darn my fair skin.

Lunch was DELISH!

Afterward we wandered around outside the strip malls to soak up some more sunshine in small doses. We would have preferred to play frisbee, but the ground was SOAKED from 2 straight days of rain. Sadness.

After a while we started to feel peckish again.

Kyle offered to take me to my absolute favorite restaurant in this town, La Villetta. I was ecstatic! This place is the only place in town I’ve found that is super vegan-friendly. However odd my request may seem, they always get it right. And get it right with a smile.

I left the camera in the car and was too excited to take photos with my phone. I just wanted to enjoy our meal. I know, bad blogger!

We started with a free bruschetta appetizer (it’s customer appreciation month after all) and their yummy fresh bread. Kyle decided to get the endless soup, salad and breadsticks. I decided on pasta. The part I was most excited about: the marinara sauce. I have an obsession.

I. Love. Marinara.

I had fettucini cooked in olive oil with tons of fresh sauteed veggies. Carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, onions and jalapenos all made it into the pool. Along with some garlic and oil. The marinara came on the side.

I have to say I was SO impressed with this that I will request it the next time we go in.

If you’re ever in the area and decide to go to La Villetta, be sure to ask for Melissa. She was the best server I’ve had in a long time (they’re all good but she was fantastic!)

After stuffing ourselves silly, we decided to walk some of that off by stopping at Walmart to pick up Season 5 of CSI. WOO HOO!

We hurried home to watch.

And make tarts.

This raw tart idea came from Vegan Culinary Crusade. I’ve been seriously drooling over this tart for almost 3 days and finally decided to make it. Kyle did deserve a yummy dessert after all his hard work from making lunch and taking me out to a fantasmic meal!

Boy was this thing worth the effort I put into it. I don’t think the filling whipped up as well as Lisa’s but it was tasty! To me it tasted just like cheesecake filling, but better! And way more nutritious!

Blueberry Lime “Cheesecake” with a Kick (adapted from Vegan Culinary Crusade)
1 cup raw walnuts
4 dates, pitted
pinch of salt

1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 2 hours
3 dates, pitted
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons non dairy milk (I used soy milk, but you could use raw homemade milk to keep it completely raw)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Fresh blueberries (or strawberries) to top

In a food processor, pulse the walnuts, dates and salt until fully combined and formable. Press the crust mixture into tart tins, little souffle cups, shot glasses, whatever you’ve got that’s tiny and cute. Make sure to press up into the sides a bit so you can see the beautiful crust after you put the topping on. I got about 3 small tarts and a shot glass tart out of this recipe. Plus I had some filling leftover (which I used in my chickpea bake this morning..) Place the containers in the freezer while you make the filling.

Without rinsing the food processor, toss in the cashews, dates and cayenne and let ‘er rip. While the processor is on, add in the lime juice and milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together. It will look like a thick cream cheese mixture. I think mine took about 10 minutes.

Remove the tart shells from the freezer and fill them with that yummy cashew filling. Even out the tops of your filling a bit and place back in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to chow, remove from the freezer, top with blueberries or strawberries and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.

You will enjoy this.

I guarantee it.

Check out Vegan Culinary Crusade. This woman is amazing and has fantastic recipes. I have so many of them bookmarked already and she just keeps adding more. I can’t wait to conquer another one!

Annivalentinese New Year Celebration

Happy (day after) Valentine’s Day, all! Kyle and I aren’t big Valentine’s Day people so we combined our half year anniversary, Valentine’s day and Chinese New Year into one big celebration!

Kyle hasn’t had much experience with Greek inspired cuisine, so that was his cuisine choice. I planned the menu, sent him a cute little Evite invitation, bought the ingredients and, come Sunday morning, got my booty to work on creating!

The first course was taken from Angela over at Oh She Glows. I saw her post for Garbanzo Bean Soup and knew it would make the perfect first course for this meal! The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute some sesame oil for some olive oil since I had no tahini in the house. This soup was mega-tasty and I will definitely make it again!

The main course. The big kahuna. This beauty was taken from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook I checked out from the library last week. I’m not sure how the reposting thing works with cookbooks so I’ll just say: you MUST, MUST find the book and try the recipe! It’s a quinoa pilaf flavored with celery, red pepper, zucchini, basil, mint and lemon rolled up in delicious collard leaves. Oh man.. this was delicious. My favorite dish I’ve made in a while. Kyle raved about it all night!

Of course, a celebration wouldn’t be complete without something sweet to top it off. This dish wasn’t Greek inspired, but I’ve been planning it for almost a month! Themed meal or not, it was making it to the table! I based my recipe on one I found over at Baking Bites. I subbed in 1/3 cup brown rice syrup for sugar and used SO Delicious unsweetened coconut milk. To top off the delicious ice cream, I decided to make some dark raw chocolate. 2 tablespoons dark cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon brown rice syrup and 1 tablespoon coconut milk mixed until uniform, rolled between wax paper and frozen makes a yummy bittersweet addition! It was a little soft for my liking, so next time maybe I’ll use something other than brown rice syrup to sweeten. The flavors, though.. spot on!

Served up in my "vintage" Garfield mugs!

All in all I would say the menu:

Quite a hit!

I hope your celebrations were filled with fun, good food and love!

Hot Enough to Melt Cheese

It is mind numbingly hot here. Now I’m not talking about outside; I’m talking about inside this very apartment. I mean, you know its hot when you’re standing there washing dishes with sweat pouring down your face. No more attics converted into apartments for me!

Over the weekend I had a family reunion for my Grandma’s side of the family. Our color was yellow – my favorite! It was a ton of fun to hang out with my family to eat, drink and be merry!

Kyle and I with Grams

Uncle Johnny and I

My 5-year-old cousin recently discovered Kool Aid’s new Fun Fizz drink tablets… he must have had 6 or 7 little bottles of them. He even shared! I have one in my purse right now!

After the reunion, my cousin Steve invited us over to his house to hang with he and his awesome girlfriend, Stephanie!  We drank some UV Blue and Lemonade and made some homemade pizzas!  We chopped up artichoke hearts, scallions, sun-dried tomatoes and added some browned italian sausage along with some garlic powder, pepperoncini and hot giardiniera.

Choppin' up the veggies!

We were really excited to eat it!

Stephanie with the first pizza!

Steve waiting patiently..

Yum, yum!

It was delicious!!  Mmm… pizza. Mmm… cheese. It’s so hot in here I think I could melt cheese on the counter.

Hey speaking of cheese, I threw together this awesome pasta dish tonight on a whim!  It was pretty tasty!

Mmm.. alfredoey!

It’s not going to cure that craving for homemade pizza I know you have now, but it will bring back the delicious taste of fettucini alfredo from your childhood!  And on a more figure friendly scale!  ;)  Enjoy!

Asiago Onion Pasta
2 ounces pasta (I used GF corn pasta I bought ages ago)
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
2 ounces asiago cheese, grated
1/4 vidalia onion, diced
Fresh basil to taste
Salt, garlic powder and pepper to taste

Cook pasta until al dente in salted water. While the pasta is cooking, sautee the onions in a small, dry pan until they just start to brown. In a separate bowl, mix together yogurt, cheese, basil and spices; set aside. Drain noodles but do not rinse. You want the noodles hot so they’ll melt the cheese! Return the noodles to the hot pot. Pour yogurt mixture over the noodles and the onions on top of that. Mix well with a wooden spoon, garnish with crushed red pepper and serve!

A New Take on the Bean Cake

I have this one really awesome ingredient in my cabinet.

Oops haha! I didn’t notice that “keep refrigerated” type on there before.. oh well!

Anyway, I wanted to make something with these little guys! The poor things were starting to feel neglected, having lived in my cabinet for 3 months! As luck would have it, I remembered seeing a recipe for a garbanzo bean cake.

“Why couldn’t I do the same with my adzukis??”

Well I could! And I did!

TADA!!

Man-o-man-o-man this cake is so moist and delicious! Who’d have thunk it?? Plus it has pretty speckles, contains lots of fiber AND it’s gluten free!

Adzuki Cinnamon Cake
1 cup adzuki beans, cooked and drained
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a one pound loaf pan and dust with granulated sugar.

Puree beans in food processor until smooth – mine were of a crumbly consistency since the beans were a bit on the al dente side. Pour beans into a large bowl; stir in eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and pineapple juice until well combined. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After removing from the oven, sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt on top. Cool thoroughly, slice and serve!

Fiesta in a Casserole Dish

“Can you help me search for a recipe? I want to make a vegetarian dish to bring to the lock-in,” Kyle says to me Friday afternoon.

Not one to turn down a recipe search, I accepted the challenge.

My first, and as it turned out, final, stop was the vegetarian section of Simply Recipes. I’ve followed Elise’s blog for years. Everything I’ve ever made from her website has turned out beautifully. Whenever someone asks me for a recipe reference, I point them in the direction of her site. So when Kyle asked me for a vegetarian recipe, I linked him her Polenta Casserole recipe. Little did I know that this would spark my own creative juices flowing.

Once I started digging through my pantry and fridge, I realized I didn’t have half of her listed ingredients. Never fear! Its in my DNA to substitute everything and anything in a recipe. Really, my mom does it, my Grandma does it… we’ve been trying for years upon years to recreate Grandma’s spaghetti sauce recipe. We still haven’t figured it out.

Mom says she spits in her sauce… I’ll bet that’s the secret…

Anyway, I pinched here, tweaked there, added some sauteed pork and came out with a Mexican inspired casserole recipe. Deliciouso!

Mexican Grits Casserole
1 pork chop, seared in a hot pan with celery salt and pepper and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 vidalia onion, chopped
1 large pablano pepper, chopped
1/2 cup kale, chopped
1/2 cup chopped mushrooms (I used dried shitake, since that’s all I had on hand)
4 garlic cloves, minced and divided in half
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes
3 cups water
1 cup grits
1 cup grated cheese (just use your favorite, I used Mexican melting cheese)
Celery salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat and saute onion, kale, pablano and mushrooms, seasoned with celery salt and pepper, until onion starts to turn clear and kale starts to shrink down. Add in tomatoes, pork and 2 garlic cloves. Simmer for about 5 minutes, remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, brush an 8×8 glass baking dish with canola oil and set aside.

In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add in garlic and a pinch of celery salt. Reduce heat to low, whisk in grits and cook until thick and cooked through. Be sure to wear socks during this step of the recipe… I burnt my foot from the spluttering grits!!

In prepared baking dish, spread 1/3 of the tomato mixture. Pour half the grits mixture on top of the tomato mixture, smoothing into corners. Sprinkle the grits layer with cheese. Repeat this process again, then top with the last bit of tomato sauce. I had a little cheese leftover, so I just piled it on top of the last layer.

Bake about 25 to 30 minutes and let cool about 15 minutes before serving. Like real live lasagna, this dish tastes delicious after sitting for a few days in the fridge.

The Amazing Purple GF Torte

I’m not gluten-free anymore, but I still enjoy baking that way once in a while. It’s refreshing to say that you’ve created something without flour! Though the torte was super difficult to get out of the pan, I enjoyed the bittersweet chocolatey pudding-y solidity of its consistency.

Yes that’s my technical term for the consistency of this cake.

Pudding-y solidity.

Want to hear the absolute best part of this recipe? I know you do…

It has 500 calories. No, not for a slice, for the whole entire cake! I know, it doesn’t seem possible, but oh my it is. I am tempted to sit down with a fork and the pan to eat the whole thing. Somehow I feel that would be a bad idea for my poor tummy, though. But hey, where else can you get such decadence for so few calories?

Purple GF Torte
1 14 ounce can beets (the kind with just beets and water), rinsed
1/4 cup cranberry sauce (I used canned, but you could probably use fresh, too)
1 tablespoon molasses
2 eggs
1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt plus more for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch cake pan, then dust with powdered sugar. Set aside for later use.

In a food processor, add beets, cranberry sauce and molasses. Puree together, then pulse in eggs, cocoa, extracts and salt until well blended. Pour mixture into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and sprinkle with coarse salt. Cool the torte, slice and serve as desired.

Sweet Potato Granola

I’d like to start off this post with a shout out to Kankakee Natural Foods. This is and has been my favorite store in the area since I discovered its existence about a year ago. Best unsweetened dehydrated banana chips this side of the Rockies. Well maybe. I don’t really know what the deal is with banana chips over there in California. Probably pretty substantial, though. Maybe if I go over there someday I’ll find out.

Anyway, so I’m standing at the checkout counter with my granola-making purchases when I suddenly acquired a taste for dried blueberries. I asked the girl behind the counter if they ever dried their own blueberries. She said they didn’t, but they did get in packages of them. She walked over and grabbed them off the shelf to show me. It saddened me that they were teensy bags.

Damn blueberries for being so tiny and delicious and not being grown in my area – therefore expensive!! I thanked her for showing me and proceeded to the door as she returned the blueberries to their shelf.

Then the clouds parted! She waved me down and walked toward me carrying several shiny, beautiful bags of dried blueberries. It turns out that they were a few months past their shelf date and they weren’t allowed to have them on the shelf anymore. She said they were mine if I wanted them and all I’d have to do is just throw them out if they weren’t any good.

I thanked her profusely, practically jumped up and down like a child going to Disney World! Free dried blueberries! Woo-hoo!!

I rushed home to make my granola!

This recipe is inspired by a recipe for Maple Pumpkin Granola I ran across on Sugar Plum. I already have a favorite granola recipe, but it’s not exactly the most figure friendly one. It has lots of peanut butter, butter, honey and chocolate… I have to save it for special occasions.

So here’s my granola recipe. And if by some chance there’s some ingredient you find appalling, just swap it out with something you like! This mixture seems to be pretty delicious completely unbaked or even partially baked. Filling and delicious in any form!

Sweet Potato Granola
1 cup steel cut oats
1/3 cup rye berries
1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 cup unsweetened banana chips
1/4 cup dried blueberries
1/8 cup flax seed
1/4 cup All Bran cereal
1/4 cup unsalted peanuts
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cooked
3 dried figs
1 tablespoon tahini paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (substitute Earth Balance or more oil to make it vegan)
1 teaspoon mango extract
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet with canola oil and set aside. In a bowl mix oats, rye berries, pumpkin seeds, banana chips, blueberries, flax seed, cereal and peanuts. In a food processor, puree sweet potato, figs, tahini, olive oil, butter, extract, water and salt. Combine oats mixture and sweet potato mixture. Spread onto the cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring the ingredients up halfway through.

The Unbearable Lightness of Bean

On Prudence Pennywise, a blog I follow, I was struck by her post about a recipe for “unrefried beans”. I am a huge fan of refried beans but the whole lard factor is pretty off-putting if you’re watching your girlish figure. Seeming to read my mind, my mom produced a bag of dried pinto beans from her magical pantry and my dream of reproducing this recipe became a reality! I followed the recipe mostly, adding a bit more water since I did not use a can of taco sauce. I diced up a few jalapenos and some garlic amongst a few other choice ingredients and my concoction has been simmering in the crockpot for a few hours. I look forward to tomorrow morning when I can mash the beans up and see how the recipe turned out. Beans, beans, beans!!

Update: This morning I padded out of the bedroom at 2:30 toward the heavenly aroma the crockpot was emitting. I removed the lid and peered inside.. Now for all the good smells in the world, pinto beans are just not pretty. You won’t find a photo of them here but I will tell you that they tasted just delicious. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. I turned that crockpot off (it had been simmering for 7 hours at that point) and went back to sleep. After waking up for real this morning, the beans mostly cooled, I followed a suggestion posted on Prudence Pennywise’s site. A clever blogger stated that he or she used a slotted spoon to ladel the beans into their kitchen aid and mash them up using the paddle on the second setting. This worked like a dream and saved me from having to use those arm muscles to mash em up. I saved the “stock” the beans created and used it to cook my fish for lunch. Protein OVERLOAD! =)

Mint Marinade

So a few nights ago, I was experimenting with some marinades for some eye of round I was cooking for dinner. My friend Amanda had dropped off some fresh mint leaves from her mom’s garden. I’ve been using it in everything from my coffee in the morning to crushing it for my lemonade. I figured I’d give it a shot with the beef! I chopped up a half of a jalapeno, some fresh garlic, a handful of the fresh mint and a few tablespoons of pomegranate balsalmic vinegar I had on hand. I marinated the steak, after cutting it into bite sized pieces, in the fridge for a day. I then seared it in a pan on the stove using a bit of extra virgin olive oil and stuck it in the grits I whipped up for dinner. Aside from salting the grits a bit heavily, the dish was pretty tasty. I mean, who doesn’t love steak flavored grits??

Crockpot Garam Masala

Thanks to a recent trip to the grocery store, I finally had a chance to create my own chicken recipe using the garam masala spice mixture Kyle so thoughtfully sent to me. I’ve recently grown very fond of green peppers, but if you’re not a fan you could substitute any other color you’d like. This recipe was rich in flavor, incredibly tender and would taste fantastic over a bed of rice. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Crockpot Chicken Garam Masala
4 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 plum tomato, diced
1/2 vidalia onion, diced
1/3 green pepper, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 1/2 cups water (or chicken stock)
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse chicken thighs and massage garam masala and ginger into chicken. Set in crockpot. Add all remaining ingredients and refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to blend. To prevent crockpot from cracking, allow dish to sit out for an hour before heating. Turn crockpot on low and simmer for around 8 hours. The chicken was so tender that the meat just fell off the bone. Pretty low maintenance, but definitely delicious in my eyes.