Soups and Sides: Pressure Cooked Split Pea soup with Beer Bread

1 lb dried split peas
about 8 cups water
2 pork chop loins (cubed)*
1 onion (diced)
1 potato (cubed)
2 carrots (chopped)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp lapsang souchong tea
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Fill Pressure cooker with all ingredients. Make sure the pot is no more than half full. Place pressure cooker lid on pot and lock in place, also place the weight/rocker on top. Bring to high pressure and cook for 30 minutes.  Let cool a few minutes- it will thicken up.

*For more flavor, cook up in a pan prior to putting into your pressure cooker.

Simple Beer Bread:
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar*
1 12 ounce bottle beer (I used Kirin Ichiban Wheat beer)
a pinch of salt
Heat oven to 375* Mix all ingredients well, place into bread pan, Bake for 45 or so.

*I recommend reducing the sugar content- as this bread is very sweet. I got this recipe in the comments of this http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/11/beyond-easy-beer-bread.html blog. I think the blogger's recipe would be delightful.


(I will be tweaking this recipe to see what happens. I really liked how this turned out but I can tell there is room for improvements. I may even try to make a gluten-free bread to eat with the soup, I haven't decided yet.)

Spices: Tahitian Vanilla

If you are like me, you thought there was only one variety of vanilla, you know, the kind they make the extract from and that was basically it. Well, my friend, we were very wrong. There are a million kinds of vanilla! (Well, million is a bit much, but there is a lot! just look at this website: http://www.beanilla.com/vanilla-beans-c-1.html)

The normal everyday vanilla we use is typically Madagascar vanilla. Well, in research for a special recipe(more on this once he perfects it), my husband ran across this ingredient- Tahitian Vanilla. We ordered some to see what the difference was. It is definitely more smokey than Madagscar Vanilla, the vanilla is more delicate and the scent is a bit floral. It's good with sweet things, but because of the smokiness, it is also good with meats and savory dishes. Now a word of caution- a little goes a LONG way so don't use too much of it. We have been grinding the whole pod- which is really great for that smokey flavor, if you don't want that much of it, you could just take the seeds out and use those. This stuff is extremely fragrant, it fills the room for hours after we've ground it. All in all, it's a nice spice to add to your pantry. Something that comes in handy if you are looking for a little variety in your food. I hope you enjoy it as much as we are!

Breads: French Toast with Strawberry Lemon Syrup and Tahitian Vanilla Powdered Sugar

This morning we wanted some french toast- but we couldn't just have normal french toast, we had to jazz it up a little. This is a fun collaboration, I made the french toast, and my husband made the toppings. P.S. We eyeballed most of this.

French Toast Recipe: 

about 7 pieces of whole wheat bread (or however much takes up your batter)

about 3 Egg whites

2 Eggs

a splash of vanilla

a few sprinkles of cinnamon

1/8-1/4 cup Buttermilk

1/8-1/4 cup Almond Milk (Equal to Buttermilk)

Mix all ingredient except bread. Heat up a pan medium heat, oil or butter the pan. Dip bread each side and then cook in pan on both sides. You could easily substitute any kind of milk you would like. Also, if you don't want to use egg whites, you can use another egg in place of it.

Strawberry Lemon Syrup: 

1 cup (approx) Frozen or Fresh Strawberries

2-3 tablespoons water

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp balsamic vinegar

half of lemon zest (to taste)

Place water, sugar, vanilla, and balsamic vinegar in pan and reduce until syrup consistency. Turn the pan off and add lemon zest and strawberries. The heat from the syrup will cook the strawberries. 

Tahitian Vanilla Powdered Sugar:

1/2 a vanilla bean (we used Tahitian but it would be equally good with Madagascar vanilla)

White Sugar

Grind up vanilla bean, pod and all, and add sugar into the spice grinder. If you don't have a spice Grinder, you can use confectioners(powdered) sugar with just the seeds from the bean, give it a good whisk and let it sit for a few minutes.

Product Review: Follow Your Heart Mozzarella Vegan Gourmet Cheese Alternative

First off, can you tell it's my day off??? lol!
In general, I do not eat soy. That is to say I don't avoid it either. So if there is soy in a normal product I would probably eat it (such as chocolate...). I just believe since we eat enough of it in our everyday foods there's no need to seek it out as a food source. Until, that is of course, about one month ago I found out that the favorite vegan cheese, that tastes like and melts like cheese, I was eating at my new favorite pizza restaurant(http://brixxpizza.com/home) was soy-based. Oh and, by the way, they also carry gluten free crusts.
There is another cheese that is very awesome that is not soy-based: Daiya Cheese I might possibly do a Product Review of that cheese as well.
Well, out of the package, it is very soft. It easily shreds and is a very similar to mozzarella in consistency. Tasting it before melting is kind of like mozzarella but a little bit powdery tasting. From many times experience on pizzas and other items melted it is very delicious and is the best non-dairy cheese I've had out there. Many times they end up tasting like powder or some weird flavor. This is the best one cause there is not really an aftertaste, and it really does taste and feel like mozzarella when you eat it.
I give this a 5 out of 5 and now that I've found it in the grocery store, I am most definitely going to make things like Mac and Cheese, Lasagna, and other various items I haven't been able to have.
Yay me!
Have a great day all!
http://brixxpizza.com/wp-content/uploads/Vegan-Cheese.pdf

Soups & Sides: Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Recently I've renewed my love of the Sweet Potato. I really wanted to find something I could top with my new found amazing whipped cream. The salt really sets off the flavors of the spices. So delicious! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped up

A little water and a splash of your choice of milk

A dash of cloves, cinnamon, and ginger

1 tablespoon or so of butter or margarine

Approx 1 teaspoon of honey

A pinch of kosher salt

Whipped topping

Instructions:

Either boil in a pot or put in a large bowl and microwave with water and milk for 8 minutes or until soft. Mash to smithereens. Add butter. You can spice here, or if you want a smoother texture place in food processor or blender and blend. (I did this.) Add honey and spices to taste. Enjoy!

Soups & Sides: Thai Curry Pumpkin Soup

This is a very delicious recipe. Infact, I made this more than 2 years ago and I cannot believe I haven't posted this photo and recipe. It's actually making me crave it just looking at the soup. YUM! This recipe is an adaptation to several recipes that I combined to get the ideal flavor.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter/margarine

1 tbsp finely chopped lemon-grass

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 onion

1 granny smith apple (cored and peeled)

48 oz of cooked of pumpkin

12 oz of coconut milk

8 to 10 oz of chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon of red Thai curry paste

Instructions:

Put oil and butter to melt, cook garlic, lemon-grass, onion, and apple until all are translucent, add chicken broth, be careful not to burn vegetables. Add coconut milk and pumpkin. Cook covered for about 20 minutes (can be more if you need). Let cool a few minutes and then place in blender and blend all of the soup (it will take more than one go to blend it all). Place back in pan or in new bowl and add the curry paste. Stir. For a thicker soup, decrease the chicken broth, for a thinner soup increase it. For a vegan soup, substitute vegetable broth. For a less spicy soup, you can add yellow curry paste OR less red curry paste. Enjoy!

Product Review: Healthy Top from Mimiccreme

First off, I LOVE Mimiccreme. So, I might be a little biased. It is a great cream substitute for coffee and making frozen things. Several months ago I e-mailed the company with a question, and they personally called me and when I asked them about possibly having a whipped cream substitute, they told me they were working on it, but it wasn't ready yet. Well, it is now! So, when I saw in the grocery store that they made a whipped cream substitute, I HAD to try it.

This has Coconut oil, Almonds, Cashews, and Almond oil according to the website, among a few other ingredients. It is soy and dairy free, no casein(a milk protein) in sight which is GREAT cause even the "non-dairy" whipping creams have caseinate or casein in it.

Well, on to the review: The instructions say to let it sit in the fridge for a little while before whipping, as well as the typical whipped cream instructions of chilling the bowl and beaters. Which I did. It is not a resealable container so you will need to either find a storage container for any you did not use OR put your whipped cream in a container to keep for later. If you do choose to whip the entire container, use a LARGE bowl. I used one that was just adequate and I'm going to have to clean the floor, walls, and cabinet doors because of the mess it created. It doubled in size after a few minutes of whipping. Please note this is presweetened. This would make an excellent frosting for a cake, but it's not too sweet. If you would prefer to make this a little less sweet, you might be able to add some more coconut oil, though I'm not sure what that would do to it. It's delicious! The flavor is very good- it taste like almond flavored whipped cream.

I'm going to give this a 5 out of 5 stars because it is a perfect replacement for whipped cream. Sweet but not too sweet and not fake sweet. It's creamy but not oily. It whips up and stays whipped for quite some time. Below are some photos of the whipped cream afterwards and a link to the official website.

Hope you have a great day and enjoy your own food adventures!

http://www.mimiccreme.com/healthy.html

Breads: Pretzels

As a promise in a contest at work, I agreed to make a treat for everyone at my job. It was a close tie between Pretzels and Banana nut bread. Well, the Pretzels won out. Much to my delight! I've been meaning to make these in a while. These are my first attempt in a while and I am so pleased! I've made two recipes this is one:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html

And the other is: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/almost-famous-soft-pretzels-recipe/index.html (These did not turn out NEARLY as well as the Alton Brown recipe.)

OH, I should note that I substituted coconut oil for the butter in both recipes, mostly because I didn't have enough butter to be using like that.

Well, I hope you enjoy your baking adventures, and I am thinking about making some more of these delicious pretzels!

Breads: Scones

I wanted to make some scones this morning and have tried several recipes- this one is the most consistent and works even with substitutions!

So what's a girl to do when you don't have sour cream? Use yogurt! I don't eat yogurt, but I inherited some light and fit yogurt in toasted coconut and vanilla. The results were very good!

Instead of using a hand grater for the frozen/chilled butter I put it in my food processor with the grating attachment.

I am not a huge fan of having dried fruit in breads- it can be good if done right, however, to me dried fruits should be in trail mix, oatmeal, and cookies and that's it. Therefore, I skipped that ingredient.

Because the yogurt was light, it took a few extra minutes to cook. Top them off with some blackberry jam and you've got a delicious breakfast treat. Yum!

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/simple-scones/Detail.aspx

Product Review: Purely Decadent Coconut Milk non-dairy frozen dessert

I've been trying various non-dairy frozen desserts for a little while and I just had the chance to try two new flavors of my favorite brand: Purely Decadent. Therefore, I've decided to compile a list of reviews (I'll be adding to this post) of the various flavors that I find. My favorite type of non-dairy ice cream is coconut milk based. This is because you get the same creamy texture as with milk, without as many unique ingredients. In my opinion, coconut milk based ice creams are the closest you will come to real dairy ice cream. The only issue with coconut milk based non-dairy desserts is that it still has a slight coconut flavor in the background, which is a problem if you don't like coconuts.

Chocolate (5 stars)
If ever you could be in love with an ice cream, this could be it. Super creamy and just amazing. I've not tasted a chocolate frozen dessert that seriously rivals any ice cream, until this one. I don't even remember liking chocolate dairy ice creams unless it had other things in it. This one is great from the start, unlike others, it is creamy and doesn't have a huge cocoa powder taste like some do. I've even had some dairy ice creams that tasted powdery because of too much cocoa. This product does not that issue. The background of coconut flavor actually adds to the deliciousness of this.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/product.php?p=purely_decadent_cm_chocolate

Cherry Amaretto (4 stars)

This has a huge almond and cherry taste. I was surprised when I tasted it, though not too much so because the quality of this product is very consistent with the rest of this line. The taste in this is genuine, no artificial flavor aftertaste. And the cherries are a good size, you can enjoy a bit of cherry in almost every spoon. The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars is because it is not usually a flavor I enjoy- but because I did that's why it got 4 stars.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/product.php?p=purely_decadent_cm_cherry_amaretto

Cookie Dough (3 stars)

I liked the actual cream part of this dessert. It has the cookie dough, ripples of chocolate and basically all that you can ask from a cookie dough ice cream. I am not a huge fan of this because the cookie dough has a slight off taste too it- I can't quite pin it down. I also did not like that the chocolate ripples were of hard chocolate, it would have been much better as a ripple of fudge or something like that. It also wasn't creamy chocolate- but a kind of cocoa-y chocolate. While the effort was good, I just felt this was mediocre.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/product.php?p=purely_decadent_cm_cookie_dough

Mint Chip (5 stars)

What a great flavor! A friend of mine and I took this and made a shake out if it. It was amazing. Exactly what you expect out of Mint Chip. Actually talking about this one makes me want to go out and get some.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/product.php?p=purely_decadent_cm_mint_chip

Vanilla Bean (4 stars)

First off, let me explain that in general I don't like vanilla bean ice creams. I do not like the grit that comes with the seeds. With that being said, this is a good vanilla bean frozen dessert. I love vanilla as a flavor and in general vanilla ice creams. The flavor in this is excellent. The only thing is the coconut milk has the background flavor so that doesn't really mix well in this one.

http://www.turtlemountain.com/products/product.php?p=purely_decadent_cm_vanilla_bean

I've tried other non-dairy frozen desserts, and honestly, they just don't taste right. I've tried rice milk frozen desserts, almond milk frozen desserts, and even other coconut ice cream desserts and Purely Decadent is the best out there so far. If you have a different opinion- please let me know I'm happy to try new products and widen my view on things.

Flavors I would like to try:

Pomegranate Chip

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Chocolate Brownie Almond

Passionate Mango

Turtle Trails

German Chocolate

Swiss Almond

***11/15/11 I've recently discovered I am allergic to coconut milk, I've suspected it for some time, but now it has been confirmed. So, I will not be able to review the remaining flavors of the Coconut Milk Non-dairy frozen deserts. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.