Monday, January 21, 2013

Potato Soup

On a cold winter day like today in MN this soup was perfect, it was creamy and delicious. We gobbled this down with Happy Herbivore's Beer Bread and used Guinness Extra Stout. This soup would probably be good with all regular potatoes but the red potatoes make it a little bit creamier and buttery like, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Makes about 8 cups:
4 large red potatoes, (or 6 small), peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
2 tsp garlic powder, or 2 garlic cloves minced
1 medium onion diced
1 Tbs parsley
1 Tbs chives
4 cups water
4 med/large russet/white potatoes, peeled and cut in bite sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced in bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups soy milk (I haven't tried anything else so I'm not sure how it would change the taste)
S&P to taste
*Optional additional ingredients: corn, peas, green beans, celery or celery salt.

-In a large soup pot saute onion with minced garlic until onions are translucent, add the red potatoes, spices, and water. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender (about 15-20 mins).

-When the potatoes are tender mash them with a potato masher to a creamy consistancy. If you use a blender add the potato mixture and some of the liquid and puree until smooth (still keeping the rest of the liquid for the soup), or use a hand held immersion blender. It really doesn't have to be perfect, if you have small chunks they will mostly break up while you continue to cook the soup.

-Add blended mixture back to the pot if you took it out and add the white potatoes, carrots, and soy milk, bring back to a simmer uncovered, stirring frequently until potatoes and carrots are tender. S&P to taste and eat it up, yum!

*Depending on the size of your potatoes if your soup seems too thick add a little more water or soy milk, if it seems too runny mix 2 Tbs flour with 1/4 cup water and stir into the soup for a few mins. It will also thicken as it cools.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Happy Herbivore Butter Bean Cookies

Just made these cookies from Happy Herbivore, they are delicious, a little fluffy and almost cake like, I ate 3 of them :) lol  Click here for her recipe.

Pero Instant Natural Beverage

 
Well I know it's been a few months at least since I stopped drinking coffee or any caffeine and so far so good. I have tried a few different drinks to take the place of my coffee including Teeccino and that was pretty good, however I recently tried Pero which is similar but not flavored and it's not brewed like coffee, it's just a powder that you add to your cup. This works well if you have a 1 cup brewer like the K cup machines, or just boil some water, no biggy. It is very delicious and I have to say I really like the smell of it, kind of a roasted smell, I really enjoy it and you get 3x as many servings as you would in 1 bag of Teeccino, so if your trying to kick the caffeine I would definitely give this a try, I add just a little sweetener and I'm good to go :) I picked it up at my local health food store, if you can't find it you can purchase it on Amazon.

Click here for more information on Pero

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Chickpea Noodle Soup



This soup is flavorful, comforting and has just the right amount of everything. This is the first time I tried a homemade vegetable broth powder, I used the recipe from SimpleHealthyTasty.com which contains something called nutritional yeast, this is not like regular yeast for making bread. I didn't like nutritional yeast the first time I used it, this however was a lot better and I think I must have a better brand or its more fresh because it even smells better than before, you can find it in the bulk section at most natural food stores Click here for more information on nutritional yeast. Since this broth powder resembles the flavor of chicken broth I cannot say how this soup would taste with regular vegetable broth liquid from the store, however I'm sure it would be just as delicious with extra seasonings, but still different :) You could also try Better than bouillon no chicken base which I have not tried either but have seen at the natural foods stores. Anyhoosle I hope you like it no matter what broth you choose to use.
                                                                    

Makes About 8 cups:
1 can chickpeas or garbanzo beans (I used eden organic) or 1 1/2 cups after soaking and cooking.
2 carrots cut in bite sized pieces
1 cup frozen peas
1 large onion, diced
2 oz. whole wheat spiral pasta, or favorite pasta
2 1/2 Tbs. Homemade Vegetable Broth Powder, or 8 cups vegetable broth
1 tsp. garlic powder, or 1 clove of garlic minced
1 Tbs. dried parsley
8 cups water or vegetable broth
S&P to taste (I usually do this at the table)

-Saute onion in a large soup pot until translucent, wet with splashes of water as needed, add garlic if using as well.
- Add water/vegetable broth, all the seasonings, and carrot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10-15 mins
- Add pasta, beans, and peas and simmer another 10 mins or so or until pasta is cooked to desired tenderness.

* If you would like to thicken up your soup a little you can add 1Tbs of flour to 1/4 cup water and mix well and stir into the soup.

*Feel free to add chopped celery as well, we are not big fans in my house so the flavor in the broth was enough for us :)

Monday, January 7, 2013

Baby Carrots Contain Chlorine


Hey guys I just found this out check it out- http://www.juliedaniluk.com/food-facts/throwing-out-the-baby-with-the-chlorine-bath-water.html , I will definitely be sticking to my "real" organic carrots, I think they just taste better like right out of the garden :)  Make sure your washing those baby carrots!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Vegan Cooking Show On Tonight


Hey everyone! If you haven't heard there is a new vegan cooking show starting tonight with a guy named Jason Wrobel on the cooking channel, I checked out some of his recipes and they do have some oil in them but you could always try to use something else like the liquid from your can of beans etc. otherwise the recipes looked delicious :) I'm interested in working around the oil for sure. Maybe if we all watch the show it will boost the ratings and help show the world how high the demand is for more vegan options out there.

Click here to read more about it.

Click here to find out what channel it is for you

*Update: So I watched the show and it was pretty good, he was really dorky lol however I didn't like how he seemed to promote "healthy" oils so if you can get passed the oils part it was alright, I will watch it again. He seems to be trying to get people to make better choices but not the optimal choice.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Stop Comparing Your Life. Start Living It.- by Joshua Becker


Automatically some of us see another person and just compare whatever it is you happen to notice, hairstyle, car, shoes, body size and/or shape, we really need to stop this and just be ourselves whatever that may be. My online friend showed me this blog post and I thought it was inspiring. We should all try a little harder to love ourselves for who we are and not be afraid to show it!

Hmmm No pictures?

Well I don't know whats going on but my blog creator won't let me upload any pictures right now, I'm seriously considering changing my blog source, there seems to always be something wrong that delays my posts, this bothers me. Until then I won't have any pics for you, sorry about that :(