Lazy Sunday Morning

Lazy Sunday morning = PPK's Puffy Pillow Pancakes, a little veggie bacon (we could have been better, do some tempeh bacon, and stay away from the processed stuff, but it was in fact a lazy Sunday morning) and a little fresh pineapple. The hubby? In charge of the coffee! I'm ready to start the rest of our day!!!

Fruit Salad for the Sweet Tooth

Lately it has been difficult to find time and energy to cook at home. It's a shame, since I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen and we feel much better eating at home rather than just grabbing a "whatever" out of convenience. So tonight, this was my compromise: too tired to cook a full meal, but not too tired to try the awesome ginger fruit salad that arrived in my inbox earlier in the day. I had a couple of ingredients already at home: a nice chunk of ginger - we were fighting seasonal colds with homemade, super spicy, ginger tea (the best remedy!), and some local honey; I bought organic fruit on my way home, and took just a few minutes to throw the whole thing together. This just made my day.

Zucchini

We've had some zucchini from our weekly CSA seating in the refrigerator longer than I care to admit. Fortunately it survived long enough to make a loaf of zucchini bread.

For this, I didn't even bother looking through my recently grown collection of cookbooks - I have purchased several of them over the last year and they proven to be great sources of information and inspiration.

The experiment of the day

I'm anxiously awaiting Fall weather. I love the cool air leading up to winter. I also love dinner-time soups and stews. Unfortunately it has been a little too warm for soups still, but I couldn't help myself any longer. I had four large and very pretty tomatoes from our CSA and some home grown basil. After a little research I settled on a roasted tomato rice soup. I'm very happy with the results. It was hearty, but not to heavy. I might try a few tweaks in the future, but this works for now.

Yes to Oatmeal

I'm not really a huge fan of oatmeal. Yes, I know, shame on me. I don't dislike it, but I don't love it either - there's something about the mushy, sloppy cereal texture I just don't dig. If given a choice I'll take steel cut oats anytime over rolled oats. Until recently, that is. Last December we were walking around a desolate Whole Foods market (gasp! Is there such a thing?!), and I grabbed a few of those little cardboard pamphlets with recipes on it; after all I could really use some ideas and inspiration. The one that really caught my attention had what it seemed like a great alternative for a morning cereal. The oatmeal, instead of cooked and mushy is soaked overnight in almond milk and a little lemon rind.

Could vegan scones be actually edible?

Recently I have been on a coffee kick. It is very strange, I wake up in the morning and all I can think and crave is a little cup of espresso. I grew up drinking coffee, I used to love coffee, until one day I realized that coffee did not make me feel well: it makes me jittery, hyper, a nervous wreck and when drank in large quantities gives me the worst headache ever. So about ten years ago I stopped drinking coffee. However, after a couple of trips to the Old World, I couldn't resist it anymore.

Anyway, this past week I had a little cup of espresso at Sweetleaf LIC and tried their vegan chocolate chip scone. Ever since then I've been obsessed about trying to make my own.

Warm Quinoa Salad

Quinoa, roasted butternut squash, sauteed shiitake mushrooms, arugula, pan fried garlic, olive oil and toasted almonds.