I made oatmeal this morning using apple cider rather than water, a dash of cinnamon and topped it off with maple syrup – a delicious way to start a cool autumn morning!
Category : Food & Beverages, Recipes
I’m loving the dairy free chocolate sauce from Grown Up Kid Stuff! This is really thick – a fudgy thick topping for ice cream – or whatever else you want to slather in delicious chocolaty goodness. Grown Up Kid Stuff is a small family owned business in the Chicago area.
I was really happy to read the following on their website…what a cool company…
We use all natural ingredients. The sweeteners are pure cane sugar, and molasses from a company that supports an elephant sanctuary. The two Ghanian cocoas we blend come from a company that is involved with the International Cocoa Initiative and the World Cocoa Foundation, promoting sustainable farming practices, farmer training and support and development of farmer cooperatives. In turn, we are supporting local prairie restoration, returning the prairies to their original beauty, and to help prevent the loss of native species and birds.
Category : Dining Out
You may recall my post last year about Prasino in Chicago. I vowed to never return but the other day we were in a good mood and decided to give them a second chance. Thank goodness we did! We had a fabulous experience.
I had the tofu scramble with veggie sausage, diced potatoes and pancakes – yes – VEGAN pancakes! I was so excited to have them as my side over toast! YUM!! I also had a coffee with soy milk 
I have to say this was one of the best tofu scrambles I’ve ever had. I loved that the tofu was soft and fluffy rather than extra firm – which is what you typically get in a scramble. This time the service was great – our waiter was prompt and efficient. We will definitely be back!
**I do still wish they had apologized after I wrote them a letter after our visit last year but I’ll get over it
Prasino is located at: 1846 West Division Street Chicago, IL 60622
As a new mum hosting a meeting the other night, I needed to make something super easy for my guests. Lasagna is always easy but I couldn’t find no cook noodles without eggs in them and I really don’t enjoy using the cooked noodles which, if used immediately are always TOO hot to handle or if used once cooled then they stick together. So, I figured I’d make a lasagna style dish with rotini (the spiral pasta) – here’s how I did it…
Cook one bag of pasta, drain, pour back in pot and add one jar of sauce. In another pan sautee some diced veggies. I did 4 little Italian roasting peppers, some mushrooms and one zucchini (you could do this while the pasta is cooking).
Pour half the pasta into a lasagna pan, sprinkle with Daiya mozzarella…
add a layer of fresh spinach, then the veggies, sprinkle on some Italian Herbs and I used some M Salt (our FAVORITE seasoning!)…
top with the remaining pasta along with one more jar of sauce and sprinkle with more Daiya mozzarella…
Bake at 350 for one hour and serve – goes well with a bottle of red wine and a warm, crusty loaf of bread!
Category : Household
Category : Uncategorized
I’m super excited to check this out! Veganpalooza begins today, so get on over there and let’s see what’s going on!
Category : Beauty
I absolutely LOVE coconut oil – I slather it it all over my body every day but there are so many other great uses, which this article on Mind Body Green reminded me of…
(In my opinion the best coconut oil out there comes from Karyn’s in Chicago. It’s always creamy – even if it’s a bit cool and hard, it doesn’t seem dried and flaky as the other brands I’ve tried do. If you are in Chicago it is well worth going out of your way to get this particular coconut oil over any other one out there!)
Here are the main points, but check out the full article by Linnea Jensen…
1) Make up remover.
2) Massage oil.
3) Pre-shave and aftershave.
4) Deep hair conditioner and split end treatment.
5) Burn relief and scar reduction.
6) Toothpaste.
7) Oil Pulling.
8) Put it on your plate.
Category : Recipes
I was really in the mood for one of my dad’s strawberry pies tonight with the strawberries I got at the farmer’s market this morning but in order to make it I needed my rolling pin, pie plate and food processor, all of which require me to get on a tall step stool, which is not allowed at the moment. I’m 37 weeks pregnant and couldn’t wait for Eric to get home to pull the stuff down for me so I went ahead and revamped the recipe into bars!
Crust: (best done in a food processor but a mixer did the trick for me)
1/2 C vegan butter
1 1/4 C flour
1 T Sugar
1 T vegan milk (or enough to get the mixture to form a ball)
Pat the crust mixture into an 8×8 pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes
Cream cheese filling: (blend in mixer)
4 oz cream cheese
1 t vanila
1 T sugar
Strawberry filling: (on stovetop bring to a boil, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes then let cool)
2 C strawberries (mash with potato masher)
3/4 C sugar
3 T arrow root powder (cornstarch also works)
1 T lemon juice
1 t vanilla
Once the crust has cooled, top with cream cheese filling and lay slices of raspberries on top (you could just use more strawberries or any other kind of fruit you’d like!). Pour strawberry filling on top and let set in the refrigerator…then enjoy!!!
Category : Food & Beverages
Category : Recipes
Summer is here – the extremely hot 92 degree days that normally wouldn’t be so bad if I wasn’t 9 months pregnant! Anyway, I wanted a little something sweet that I didn’t have to bake so I whipped up my fabulous chocolate peanut butter bars again but this time added some Dandies vegan marshmallows to the peanut butter part (just threw them into the food processor with everything else) and for the chocolate I melted some chocolate bars that had bits of coconut in them! What a delicious combination! For the full recipe check out this post…and consider playing around with the flavors like I did! The combinations are endless!
