So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer

I spotted So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer a Berkeley Bowl and thought I'd give it a whirl since it was dairy free.  What a huge disappointment!  It was very watery and didn't cut through the coffee at all. I had to keep adding more and more as I drank the coffee just to get it to reach the light brown color I like, and by that time, my coffee got cold!  I will not be buying this So Delicious Coconut Creamer again--it didn't do its job!  I need something that makes the coffee creamy and less bitter.  The So Delicious Coconut Creamer was not coconutty tasting at all or creamy, like the name suggests--it just seemed like I was pouring regular coconut milk in my coffee!  The amount I had to pour in just to get the color to lighten and the coffee to get even a little creamy was a lot, which is not the point of a creamer. 

So Delicious Coconut Creamer was so disappointing, what a misleading product.  So bummed. I thought I was going to have a nice change up for my coffee and wake up to a nice treat, but So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer was not it!  I am going to stick with the soy creamer instead--much better substitute for half and half because it actually cuts the acidity of the coffee and mimics half and half a lot better.

Sorry, So Delicious, you've let me down this time.

Cilantro Pepita (Pumpkin Seed) Pesto

Had to use up some cilantro before it got brown and gooey, so I decided to make some cilantro pepita pesto.

Super easy to throw together instructions (let the food processor do all the work!):

1 bunch of cilantro
1 small garlic clove pasted
1 cup pepitas (unsalted)
Dash of red pepper flakes
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup or so Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 lime

Paste the garlic with a hand held microplane into the food processor. Add all the ingredients and whiz it up! Taste and adjust seasoning to your preference.

This is a great dip or bread topper. Add it to some vegan mayo and spread it on a sandwich for extra zing. Stir it into soup as a garnish or saute some kale and beans and add some cilantro pepita pesto as a dressing/flavoring. Of course, this pesto is great on pasta or even whole wheat pasta or barley salad!  Mix it with vegan mayo and more olive oil for a creamy salad dressing. The applications are endless!

Lazy Day Experiment: Penne with Nutritional Yeast

Had to make a quick lunch and felt lazy--or exhausted is more accurate!--so I boiled up some penne pasta and drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled it with nutritional yeast to bump up the protein and fiber.

The result? It wasn't half bad. It was nutty and almost mimicked buttered noodles with cheese.  This is what I call a lazy pantry meal! :)

Rachael Ray's Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Soup

Found a beautiful eggplant at Berkeley Bowl and I just had to scoop it up and take it home to cook something yummy! I love Rachael Ray and saw her cook up this Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Soup, so I had to try making it.  What I love about Rachael Ray's recipes is that they are fairly simple and yet practically fool-proof and come out tasty every time!  The trick for this soup is finding time to roast off the eggplant and garlic (I woke up early and roasted them this morning so they could cook while I got ready for work, etc.), but once you do that, the soup itself is super easy and quick to throw together.  Rachael Ray describes this soup as Eggplant Parmesan in a bowl.  Since I didn't add the ricotta salata at the end as garnish, I didn't get that flavor similarity, but I did think it was a jazzed up tomato soup, kicked up three notches with the addition of the nutty roasted eggplant, roasted garlic and wine.  Let's just say this soup is very satisfying and it is a good way to "sneak" eggplant into your diet if you aren't sure how to cook with it! I love eggplant, so it isn't a problem for me, but I know some people shy away from it because it can be a bit daunting to cook with. The eggplant makes this soup heartier and almost creamy, especially after the immersion blender hits the pot--this soup is very yummy and worthy of staying on the menu in my house!

Thank you, Rachael Ray, for teaching me yet another wonderful recipe! This soup battles any cafe bitro soup you might find for a fraction of the cost--I could see a cafe charging $3-5 for a small cup of soup like this, but if you make it at home, you get to have seconds and not break the bank or offend your waistline! As Rachael Ray always says, "you ain't gonna find this in a can!"  This soup is "good and good for you!"

Ingredients

2 tablespoons EVOO, plus more for liberal drizzling
1 medium to large firm eggplant, halved, scored with paring knife
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bulb garlic, ends cut to expose the cloves
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetable stock)
1 cup dry white or red wine (I used red)
One 32-ounce can fire roasted tomatoes of any variety (whole, diced or crushed)
A few leaves fresh basil, torn, plus a few for garnish
Crumbled or grated ricotta salata, garnish (I omitted the cheese)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.Pour enough oil to coat the center of a baking sheet. Season the scored eggplant with salt and pepper, then arrange the cut sides down in the EVOO. Drizzle the garlic with EVOO and season with salt and pepper. Wrap in a foil pouch and roast along with the eggplant until very tender, 40 minutes. Cool to handle.Heat 2 tablespoons EVOO, a couple of turns of the pan, in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the thyme, chile flakes, onions and salt and pepper and stir to soften, 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir 1 minute more. Then add the stock, wine, and tomatoes. Scrape the eggplant away from skin and add the flesh, along with the garlic, squishing the cloves from the skins. Add the basil. Puree the soup with an immersion blender. Simmer to thicken. Cool and store for a make-ahead meal. Reheat the soup over medium heat, and top with the basil and cheese.

Thank you, Rachael Ray, for your yum-o recipe!

Minute Salad: Mixed Greens with Endive

Here is a quick side salad or light lunch salad that you can make in minutes. It tastes like a fancy cafe salad that you might pay $6-7 for, but you can make it for way less at home.

Ingredients:

Half a bag mixed greens and spinach 50/50 blend
One carrot, shaved into strips with a vegetable peeler
One Belgian endive, chopped into small pieces
Red wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of fennel seeds

Toss all ingredients with a drizzle of oil and splash of vinegar. Season with salt, pepper and fennel seeds.

This is a great side dish to any meal because it is super fast to make. I love the addition of endive and shaved carrots for extra color and crunch, but the fennel seeds make this salad so flavorful and special.

If you are tired and feeling lazy, this salad is refreshing and will pair up nicely with any main course, sandwich or soup! 

So Delicious Dairy Free Coconut Milk Mint Chip Frozen Dessert

Found a delicious Vegan frozen dessert: Mint Chip Coconut Milk! I cannot believe how yummy and refreshing this is. It tastes like a cross between chocolate mint sorbet and frozen yogurt. It definitely hits all the flavor and texture notes of ice cream, though!

For a 1/2 cup serving, there are 170 calories, 9 g of fat, 6 g fiber (wow!), 13 g sugar (not so bad considering this is a dessert splurge! That's less than most yogurt!) and 1 g of protein. But, if you get a craving for ice cream like I do, this will satisfy you!  It does not taste coconutty at all, so don't let that deter or disappoint you--it tastes minty with bits of chocolate in it and it is a perfect ending to a hard day at work!

Yummmmmm!!! TGI-dairy free!

Chia Seed Chocolate Pudding

This Chia Seed Chocolate Pudding is an amazing fake out dessert! It is so easy, all you do is mix the ingredients and let it sit for at least 20 minutes (I chilled mine in the fridge so it would mimic chocolate pudding).  I stumbled on this recipe at fooddoodle.com and now that I have tried this Chia Seed Chocolate pudding, I am sold on Chia Seeds!
Chia Seeds need to bloom in liquid and when they do, they lose their hard, crunchy, dotty appearance and become like a cousin to tapioca--soft, squishy and more like a thickening agent.  I was skeptical about this recipe at first, but now it has inspired me to experiment with Chia seeds. I am going to try adding Chia seeds to Coconut milk and coconut milk yogurt and mixing in shredded coconut along with the cocoa powder to make a chocolate coconut pudding.  I also want to try adding Chia seeds to juice and making a smoothie.  I saw some Chia seed smoothies at Whole Foods and now I know what they were talking about!  I am sold on how nutritious Chia seeds are for you and I love how they pack a punch with protein, fiber, potassium, calcium, manganese, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids! 

This Chia Seed Chocolate pudding leaves you satisfied (it's not too sweet, which I like) with only a 1/2  cup serving, and it doesn't make your blood sugar spike because regular white sugar is swapped out for agave, which has a lower glycemic index. Bonus: if you can get your kids to eat this, even better! Dip some strawberries in it and you are all set!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 Cup unsweetened almond milk(or your favorite alternative)
2 tbsp agave, brown rice syrup, maple syrup or stevia to taste
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla

Trader Joe's Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels

Tonight I was feeling lazy after work, so I decided to warm up some Trader Joe's Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels in the oven.  Trader Joe's makes buying Vegan convenience food super easy with the "V" symbol on the package!

I must say that these Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels were pretty tasty! They look like little "chicken nuggets" and bake up nice and crispy. The sauce is exactly what you would expect an orange sauce to be, sweet and gooey. I liked it overall and would buy it again to keep on hand for a lazy night when calling for Chinese food just isn't an option--plus this is better because it is 100% Vegan, whereas, you never know if any of the ingredients used at restaurants have animal  products in them. Half the time the order gets messed up, anyway, and there are ingredients that even the cooks and waiters don't realize are animal products.

I am so happy Trader Joe's offers Vegan alternatives to popular chicken dishes.  These Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels definitely hit all the flavor notes of ordering take out, with none of the guilt!

Plus, these Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels have 16g of protein per serving (about 10 pieces!!). Be careful, though, it is easy to eat the whole bag, so portion control is still important with these yummies!

Chocolate Kale Chips

Ate the whole bag of Chocolate Kale Chips with my friends...no regrets! I am going back to Whole Foods to get more on sale!  These chocolate kale chips have a nice chocolate flavor, creamy, but not too sweet at all. What a lovely guilt-free splurge, a great way to enjoy chocolate with some mega nutrition at the same time! Raw. Vegan. Dairy free. Nut free. Gluten free. Amazing super food...amazing treat!

Need I say more?

TGIF!