Grill Out
The other night Gary and I headed over to Emily and Eliott’s for a little impromptu grill out. I cannot say that I had a hand in planning or making any part of this meal, other than cutting the canteloupe, but I thought I’d post it because it was just so delicious.
First, there were some excellent black bean burgers.

Then some yummy veggie kabobs.

And what grill out is complete without sweet potato fries? With the added touch of plenty of vegan butter…

My plate. Our wonderful hosts provided plenty of juicy tomatoes and avocado to top the burgers.

And our friend Erin tried out a favorite dessert on us: grilled nectarines. Everyone else had theirs with honey, but mine had brown sugar. This was like a fruity marshmallow — the little bits of char brought me right back to girl scout camp. Pictured with aforementioned cantaloupe…

And, last but by no means least, you absolutely cannot have any sort of summer feast without an ice sculpture, am I right?

Yes, it’s a boat. With waves. Made of ice. This is why I love eating at Emily and Eliott’s.
In other news, Gary is settling into life in Illinois pretty well. We’re heading into Chicago this weekend for the fireworks — his very first Fourth of July! And I’m sure there will some excellent food to accompany the festivities… til then, happy holidays!
Filed under: desserting, supping | 3 Comments
Tags: avocado, black beans, burgers, ice sculptures, nectarines, sweet potatoes
Happy Dad’s Day, all! My family celebrated by making a big feast for my dad and grandpa — everyone else did ribs and chicken, but I feasted on the plethora of vegan sides that I lovingly contributed. Yum!

Alright, so I have no idea where I originally read this tip, but I know I’ve seen it a few different places around the blog world, and now I will never go back. I am officially in love with Green Pea Guac. It is the best guacamole I have ever had. Wow. Here’s what I did…
I processed one avocado, half a can of green peas, a small handful of chopped garlic, a bit of cilantro from the garden, and a healthy squeeze of lemon juice. Then I mixed in some diced red onion — divine! The peas make it so creamy. I think I actually might make more tomorrow…

I also made this cold salad using Israeli couscous, chopped carrots, red peppers, onions, green olives, and garlic chives. I made the dressing out of olive oil and rice vinegar. Pretty good, but next time I think I might go sweet and use some oranges and dates or raisins. We shall see…

Dad was grilling corn on the cob, so I made a little pesto to put on it. Just basil, pine nuts, olive oil, and bit of nutritional yeast. I love my corn this way — if you’ve never tried it, do!

My plate. Pesto sweet corn, couscous salad, plain salad, and green pea guac with Garden of Eatin’ spicy blue corn chips.
All in all, a pretty good Dad’s Day meal, I think.
I’m in the (hectic) process of moving to my new house right now, so I’ve not been doing much cooking or baking. But I’ll be in and settled soon (knock on wood) and will immediately set to christening the kitchen, no worries…. til then!
Filed under: supping | 5 Comments
Tags: avocado, corn, couscous, guacamole, pesto
Cheesy Spinach Spread
I just gotta share with you, because I made something good…

I was going to make some plain old cheesy cashew spread, but I had a bunch of spinach to use up before it went bad. Enter the best idea I’ve had in awhile.
1/2 cup soaked cashews
3 cups spinach, wilted with a teeny bit of olive oil and plenty of garlic
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
Process it up! It’s that simple!

I had it on top of broccoli with a side of brown rice two nights ago, and yesterday I just spread it on my toast. Real good.
Filed under: lunching, snacking, supping | 3 Comments
Tags: cashews, nutritional yeast, spinach
Lots of Raw!
So I know it’s Sunday (crazy!) but my thesis has been taking over my life this week due to an important deadline tomorrow (yikes), so I am just getting around to posting the last Raw Wednesday. My raw foods that day weren’t super exciting… For a snack, I used some of the almond pulp from my almond milk-making escapades to make a little crust. I just mixed it with some agave nectar and molded it into a cup. Then I topped it with some of the beet and lime juice-marinated oranges from the salad I made on Monday. Pretty yum, but nothing spectacular.

And I’d had a pretty big lunch, so I didn’t go all out for dinner. Just a simple salad!

Any salad is awesome with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes and olives. These olives were so good — I’d had lunch out at one of my faves here in Rockford, Cru, and these were leftover from that! Their olives are the best, and I just found out that you can buy them by the pound. I might just have to…
Anyhow, I got to really work on my raw food skills on Friday because my friends and I decided to have a little raw feast. I made some delicious raw cheese (if I do say so myself). I used it to make little radish sandwiches.

Mmm. The cheese was a total happy accident, and while I can remember everything I put in it, I wasn’t measuring. I’ll work on getting an exact recipe, but I can tell you now that it involved cashews, almond pulp, lots of mustard, garlic, nutritional yeast, and plenty of lemon juice. I also added dried tomato basil spices to each sandwich:

Mmm. The rest of the spread looked like this:

Tomatoes and broccoli for dipping in the rest of the raw cheese, olives, strawberries and cantaloupe, and a salad with sprouts and avocado with lemon-garlic dressing. We also tried to steam artichokes (the only not raw component) but either we did something wrong or they were bad chokes, because they were not good. Ah well.
For dessert we had fresh carrot juice, my favorite!

Super yum. I love dinner feasts that make you feel energized instead of sluggish. Awesome.
After my huge deadline tomorrow, I have three more coming up over the next month. This means you can expect some baking in the near future, because the oven is one of my stress relievers of choice. I think I might make beet brownies again, and perfect my veggie cake recipe. Also, Barbara Walters comes home sometime this week, so stay tuned for pictures!
Filed under: snacking, supping | 7 Comments
Tags: carrots, cheese, juice, radishes, salad
Colorful Memorial Day Salad
I picked up a huge bunch of radishes at the farmers market on Saturday and knew I wanted to use them for our family’s Memorial Day cookout. My inspiration for this salad came partly from my favorite beet salad and partly from a pretty picture on my lovely friend Molly’s blog. The union of the two salads, I have to say, was pretty sweet.

And simple, to boot. Combine the following in a salad bowl:
10-12 radishes, sliced thin
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 large beet, sliced thin
3 T raisins
2 T toasted sunflower seeds
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
zest and juice of one lime
4 lime wedges to garnish
Happy Memorial Day to everyone out there! We, unfortunately, had a cold and rainy day here in northern Illinois, but the cookout was a success nonetheless. I’m relaxing and watching the Cubs, soaking almonds for my next batch of almond milk… Ah, summer.
Filed under: lunching, snacking, supping | 1 Comment
Tags: beets, carrots, lime, radishes, raisins, seeds
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- Grill Out
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- Quick Question…
- Beet ‘Brownies’ Take 2 and Pizza!
- Welcome Home, Barbara! Oh, and Some Cookies…
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Who can get mad at that girl? Not me. Anyway, I finally got the baking/cooking bug back yesterday, so here are the fruits of my efforts…












