New brown sandals

New brown sandals, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

YAY! New brown sandals. I broke them out yesterday for the first time since when I got them, it seems like LA was hit with a cold spell!

I like these cause they have a high heel, are short so I can wear them with skinny jeans or shirts, can also wear under my boot cut jeans... and

SUPER COMFY! Ever once in a while, a toe will slip out, but I was really surprised how comfortable they are!

Pumpkin Ice Cream!

I had to improvise and adapt this recipe from 2 recipes... The recipe I was following called for eggs, but did not mention cooking them... I had never made ice cream before but had seen it done enough times on the Barefoot Contessa to remember... tempering eggs (cause it always scared me).

Pumpkin Ice Cream

2 cup Heavy Cream

1 cup Milk

2 Eggs

3/4 cup Date Syrup *** see recipe below

Cinnamon

Fresh Nutmeg

1 cup Pumpkin Puree

I whisked together the eggs. Then, in a separate container, I mixed the cream, milk, date syrup, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. I put that on the stove until it was hot enough I thought to cook eggs. Then I took two ladles of the liquid and quickly whisked it into the eggs. Then I quickly whisked all the eggs back into the cream mixture on the stove and continued to cook until it got thick and coated the spoon.

Then I put it in my already pre-frozen ice cream attachment and mixed according to my Kitchen Aid directions. 

About 20 minutes later, scooped it all out into an old Chinese food container and stuck in the freezer.

** this is how I would make the recipe again. This is NOT how it went down last night in my kitchen... I'll spare you the dramatic details!

It was quite yummy! I sampled enough of the cream before it got mixed... and licked enough of the spoon to know that totally hard, this ice cream rocks! Not super sweet, but sweet enough for me. And NO CANE SUGAR!

***  Date Syrup

 Ingredients 
10 Medjool dates, pitted (or 20 normal dates, pitted)
1 3/4 cup water
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Place all ingredients in a blender and process for a few minutes until smooth and completely blended. Start off slowing to allow the dates to break up initially, and then build up the speed. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.

Pumpkin Pancake/Cake/Kugel

Pumpkin Pancake/Cake/Kugel, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

Yesterday, I talked about my "disaster" with the spelt pancake.

I hate throwing things out, especially since 2 cups of spelt flour is not cheap. so I threw in some agave nectar, sprayed a glass pan and threw it in my small toaster oven... it smelt wonderful! But after re-baking like 3 times, I gave up. The texture and consistency is... well, what you see above. Very dense. I ate a piece for breakfast. :)

Chilled Rawvocado Soup with Coconut Water

Chilled Rawvocado Soup with Coconut Water, a photo by Petunia21 on Flickr.

I made this last night. It was reallllly good.
It tasted like liquid guacamole... which I'm so OK with. I thinned it out a lot with water. I thought I'd only be thinning in a little bit so I opted for water, just not to open a box of coconut water. If I would have known, I would have use the other box. I also added some salt and lime zest. Chilled, its like a refreshing dream!

Chilled Rawvocado Soup with Coconut Water

This recipe makes two servings.  If you want more soup, double the amounts accordingly.

Ingredients:
2 large, ripe avocados
1 cup coconut water (you could also use nut milk or filtered water)
juice of 1 lime (about 4 tablespoons)
½ cup cilantro leaves
¼ cup chives
1 shallot, minced
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

1.     Cut open and pit avocados. Scoop out flesh, reserving a small portion of one half for garnish.

2.     Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend on high until smooth. If the soup is too thick, add more coconut water until the desired consistency is reached (it should coat the back of a spoon, but not be solid).

3.     Pour into a large jar with a tight-fitting lid and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Serve when cold. Garnish with avocado cubes and chives or cilantro.

I used the recipe from this article:
http://wholelivingdaily.wholeliving.com/2011/07/meatless-monday-celebrate-the-holiday-with-this-chilled-and-raw-avocado-soup.html

Pumpkin Yogurt

I had a big of a spelt pancake disaster on Sunday.  Perhaps "Disaster" is a strong word but... once I combined wet to dry... the batter tripled in size, with the elasticity of... pizza dough?

What I think happened, because it seems to be the only factor that has changed... is the baking powder.  When I wrote the recipe, I used... very old baking powder.  Looking back... 3 tsp of baking powder to 2 cups of flour DOES seem a bit excessive, even for my non-baking brain.

I recently opened up a new batch of powder and this is the second time it's happened. The first time I as camping and blamed it on the "elements".

I ended up adding some agave nectar to the batter, and threw it in a pan to bake off... not quite sure WHAT it turned into, its a mix between a pancake, a cake... and kugel.

So I opened up this huge can of pumpkin (to make pumpkin pancakes) and what to do with the remaining pumpkin?

WELL...

This morning I added it to my Greek Yogurt!

So I made Pumpkin Yogurt?

Pumpkin Yogurt

Ingredients:

pumpkin puree
Greek yogurt
date syrup
cinnamon
pinch of clove
Voila!

 

I'm quite pleased with the turnout!

BBQ Pulled Chicken

My mother in law sent me this recipe below.  I was super excited to try it out because a) I miss bbq sauce. 2) I missed pulled meaty bbq recipes!

I swapped out 2 tbs of honey for agave nectar as I noted below.

Brian gave it a 2 forks up.  So this one is going in my new cookbook!

8 servings

Active Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 5 1/2 hours

INGREDIENTS

• 1 8-ounce can reduced-sodium tomato sauce
• 1 4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon sweet or smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced

PREPARATION

1. Stir tomato sauce, chiles, vinegar, honey, paprika, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, ground chipotle and salt in a 6-quart slow cooker until smooth. Add chicken, onion and garlic; stir to combine.
2. Put the lid on and cook on low until the chicken can be pulled apart, about 5 hours.
3. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and shred with a fork. Return the chicken to the sauce, stir well and serve.

COOKING Sunday!

I was tickled pink to finally have a caring-is-sharing Costco buddy! Now that Lisa lives 3 doors down, we went in on :

A huge bag of spinach - $3
A big bag of broccoli - $4
60 Eggs - $4
6 Heads of Romain hearts - $3

So, for about 8 bucks, we got a nice amount of produce that can be eaten in a reasonable amount of time. In the past, I had such a hard time passing up sucha good producer price, but felt like I was on a game show trying to eat everything out of my fridge before the time was up... or in this case, the mold for fuzz started to form.

Once I get out the food processor... I get out the food processor!

I made:

My fresh salsa
A cabbage slaw salad from a head of cabbage I bought.

My basil plant was in desperate need of some harvesting, so I picked off 8 cups worth of leaves and made fresh pesto for both Lisa and our household!

This morning, I made a date syrup that Michelle had found me a recipe for. Another natural sweetener, and by golly... its SWEET!

I am having quite a good time cooking up all these very healthy treats to keep in the fridge!

I kinda want to create my own little labels for the. Hee Hee.