Yummy Yummy Yummy I got Love in My Tummy

All I can say is wow.

It's too late for dark chocolate, but c'est la vie bars

1 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup lightly toasted walnuts

Melt your chocolate chips and coconut oil in a small pan on low heat, stir constantly to avoid burning. Once completely melted remove from heat, stir in walnuts, vanilla, and salt. Pour into parchment lined round baking pan and spread to an even thickness about 1/2 inch. Place in the fridge and let cool completely. Once hardened cut into slices and enjoy! So easy, so amazing, I could eat way to much of these!(Especially since Brian isn't partial to nuts... they're all mine...) Thanks again to Flying Apron for your amazing recipes!!

Buns and Burgers: Animal free style.

Brian smiles in anticipation of the magnificent meal we created! I marinated portabella mushrooms in toasted sesame oil, agave nectar and freshly minced ginger. Brian made Chebe buns, which were way tasty. We baked the mushrooms for 15 minutes, added some avocado, organic greens, sweet pea sprouts, baby dill pickles, and some of Brian's homemade BBQ sauce and ...viola!!

I didn't even know I could like BBQ sauce, but this was really tasty, I'll have to ask him for the recipe and add it to this post. Yummy, yeah for spring greens!

And so allergy season is at its worst here, literally it's really bad this year. So I've been keeping us pumped full of nettle tea, local honey, and lots of herbs. I recently made energy balls with ginseng and maca, I also made an iron tonic elixir and every other day make a powerful liver tonic tea. We are staying healthy, though the allergies have crept in a bit, a little sneezing, a little coughing, but we keep up with the neti pot and facial steams. I am so happy it's spring!

"cooked with her and did a little dance" -Greg Brown

Some fabulous treats from your chefs Natalie and Brian! Yesterday I made a soup that is the soup of endless possibilities, in other words I call it....

..... Oh... There Are So Many Veggies In The Fridge Soup

For this soup you will need a variety of vegetables, whatever you may have on hand that is needing to be used up. I'll give you a rough list of what I used in our delicious soup!

1 large leek

2 purple potatoes

1 yam

1 large beet

1/2 red onion

3 broccoli stalks, peeled

2 carrots

2 small parsnips

4 leaves of collard greens

(All above veggies should be chopped)

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbs minced fresh ginger

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground yellow mustard

2 tsp granulated kelp

2 Tbs dried nettles

Basically from here you can just throw it all in a pot, fill with water till almost covering all the vegetables. Personally I sauteed the garlic, onion, and ginger first, then added the rest of the vegetables, continued sauteeing for 5 or so minutes and then covered with water. I added the seasonings about half way through the cooking. I probably let it simmer for 20 minutes, then blended the entire soup in a blender, returned to the pot and let simmer for 5-10 more minutes. It was fantastic and rich with vitamins and minerals.

Serve with the bread of your choice!! Yeah

And tonight I found that the abundance of green beans in the fridge and that acorn squash were pleading to be consumed. I found a recipe for Asian green beans that sounded good, but since I lacked most of the ingriedients I went ahead and made it up, it turned out rather well.

Here goes

Why Is There Soy In Everything Green Beans

3 Tbs toasted sesame oil

2 tsp wild onions (ramps) minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 and 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 Tbs ume plum vinegar

2 tsp maple syrup

4 c. Aprox. trimmed green beans

1 large carrot, diagonally sliced

1/2 c. toasted cashews

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the ramps, garlic and cayenne pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes, add the ginger, maple syrup, and the vinegar, turn off the heat. While the garlic concoction is starting to heat, put the beans and carrots in a steamer. Steam till al dente. Remove from steamer and place in a bowl. Pour the garlic concoction over the beans and carrots, mix, and top with toasted cashews.

It turned out very nice and we ate it with steamed acorn squash, and red and white quinoa. Nutritious and delicious!!

On to desert.....

Brian made some vegan, gluten free, soy free, donuts. Oh me oh my!

He used the plain chebe bread mix, which is basically tapioca flour and tapioca starch, he followed their basic recipe adding agave nectar and his trade secret that I am currently giving away (with his permission of course)... nutmeg!

Fried those puppies up in a little palm oil, I like it! Keep on cooking friends! Keep those kitchens happy!

DreaMy EgGlets

Here's a shot of those avocado chipotle deviled eggs! Ooooheee!

BuNnieS and thEir egGs

Crazy winter has left the premises and spring came in the room like a good dance with an old friend. It is glorious here! The birds are singing, Morgantown is turning green again, daffodils are popping up everywhere. I never really appreciated spring to this extent, it's different when winter is so bleak, grey and white, and cold, not a green leaf to be seen. Anyhow, it's beautiful I ate breakfast outside in the sunshine, I want to live outside all summer.

I have been a serious slacker with my blogging, but oh well, I want to tell you about Easter.

Parker, Brian's nephew and his folks were down here on Sunday, the weather was beautiful, a perfect Easter day. Brian and I made our traditional Easter pancakes (this was the 3rd year, so it's tradition now). Then we got into dying some eggs. First let me tell you about Binion eggs, they come from a local woman and we sell them at the co-op. They are already colorful, green, blue, pink, brown, beautiful eggs! Aren't they? The pale ones in the picture are actually baby blue, so sweet.

We also bought some white eggs from the co-op and died them using our friend Susan's ideas, we used turmeric, red cabbage, yellow onion skin, beets, blueberries, and boysenberries. First Brian coated the hard boiled eggs with apple cider vinegar so the dye would stay better, then we mashed up blueberries, grated beets, boiled turmeric, steamed cabbage leaf ect...ect.

This is our outcome, I'll never do it any other way!

Parker got one of those egg dying kits, and the eggs came out super vibrant and neon, but quite toxic, not something you'd want to eat. I didn't even want to put the shells in my compost so I took the shells off before I composted them.

Which are your favorites? Yesterday I made avocado chipotle deviled eggs, they rocked. It's quite easy to do. Take 6 hard boiled eggs, half them and put the yolks in a bowl. Mash up one ripe avocado into the bowl, add a 1/4 tsp salt and a 1/4 tsp dried chipotle pepper. Plop heaping spoon fulls back into the cradle of the egg whites, and eat! Yummy!

We had our friend Ash over for dinner last night, we made that some curry dahl and those chick pea pancakes, it was quite good. Soon I will blog about the raw chocolate avocado pie I made, it was probably one of the best things I've ever eaten!

Enjoy the spring!!