Vegan Cauliflower Steak

I decided to cook a meal instead of making avocado with tomato or peanut butter and jelly toast or throwing together yet another sandwich. I should tell you that I hate to cook, so that makes being Vegan slightly more difficult for me.  Most of the organic ingredients were on hand to make Cauliflower Steak so I thought I would give it a try.  Here is the result:

Yes, I do realize that the crust on the steak looks a tad funny. That is because I accidentally poured the coconut milk into the bread crumbs by accident and then tried to just run with it. That did not work well, so I had to start over and actually dip the cauliflower into the milk and then into the crumb mixture and of course I forgot to use new crumbs and ended up with a paste. No problem, I mashed it all onto the cauliflower  cooked it and the sweet potatoes in some olive oil and it turned out  great! The tomato and cucumber are a nod to my Southern roots. We had those at almost every meal. This is something I will definitely cook again!

Ingredients:

One large slice of cauliflower

Bread crumbs

A shake of cumin

A shake of curry

A shake of salt and pepper

A shake of garlic

Olive oil

 

 

Mexican Hot Chocolate Roasted Pecans

I found this recipe on Ree Drummond’s Tasty Kitchen blog. As in Ree Drummond the Pioneer Woman. I actually cooked. I actually whisked egg whites into peaky meringue.

I did however leave out the “hot” part. Not only did I not have the pepper I couldn’t find it in the store plus we don’t like hot. Those things are still good. Especially on vanilla ice cream!

Salad?

I saw this in a magazine at the doctor’s office. I don’t remember the name of the magazine but I think it was the one with a photo of Michelle Obama sitting at a picnic table full of produce. I don’t have the exact recipe of course but this is the jist of it:
Fresh green beans, trimmed.
Onion,diced or sliced.
Peaches or Nectarines, diced.
Carmalize the onion in olive oil. Then throw in the green beans until they soften, then the fruit. Plate and squeeze some lime juice on it. It was wonderful.

My Rice Krispies Patty

Yes it looks like a giant hamburger because why mess another dish. Here is my recipe:
1. 1 stick of salted sweet cream butter, melted.
2. 1 bag of marshmallows melted and stirred a lot.
3. A cereal bowl full of Rice Krispies.
4. A smattering of some other kind of cereal. I used organic chocolate O’s.
5. Whatever nuts you have lying around.
6. More cereal.
7. 1 bag of shredded coconut.
8. 2 pouches of Quaker Maple and Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal.
9. Stir all together.
10. Remove from heat and add whatever chocolate chips are left in the bag from sitting around the house in front of your taste buds for the last few days.
11. Plop it out onto the non-stick aluminum foil and squash into shape with a piece of press n seal over your hand.
12. Sample as much as you can while cruising the internet.
13. Wrap it up nice and tight and hope the cat doesn’t want any.
Be very careful, the measurements are precise. Oh and have a glass of milk with it. Fat free milk. Then 🙂

I’m going to throw up now

I was just watching Jamie Oliver (cute as a button and sexy too) on The David Letterman Show and he said that vanilla ice cream is made with an ingredient called castoreum. Castoreum is made from beaver anal gland secretions!!!

From Wikipedia

Both beaver testicles and castoreum, a bitter-tasting secretion with a slightly fetid odor contained in the castor sacs of male or female beaver, have been articles of trade for use in traditional medicine. Yupik (Eskimo) medicine used dried beaver testicles like willow bark to relieve pain. Beaver testicles were exported from Levant (a region centered on Lebanon and Israel) from the tenth to nineteenth century.^[30] Claudius Aelianus comically described beavers chewing off their testicles to preserve themselves from hunters, which is not possible because the beaver’s testicles are inside its body. European beavers (Castor fiber) were eventually hunted nearly to extinction in part for the production of castoreum, which was used as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic. Castoreum was described in the 1911 British Pharmaceutical Codex for use in dysmenorrhea and hysterical conditions (i.e. pertaining to the womb), for raising blood pressure and increasing cardiac output. The activity of castoreum has been credited to the accumulation of salicin from willow trees in the beaver’s diet, which is transformed to salicylic acid and has an action very similar to aspirin.^[31] Castoreum continues to be used in perfume production.

Much of the early exploration and trade of Canada was based on the quest for beaver. See Canadian canoe routes (early) and related articles. The most valuable part of the beaver is its inner fur whose many minute barbs make it excellent for felting, especially for hats. In Canada a ‘made beaver’ or castor gras that an Indian had worn or slept on was more valuable than a fresh skin since this tended to wear off the outer guard hairs.

Oh the poor little beaver.

The Sneaky Chef

Are you like me always trying to sneak veggies into your husband’s food?If so then this is the book for you. I was so excited to see this book, The Sneaky Chef, at the grocery store today. Well as excited as I can be about a cookbook. I was going to buy it just for a laugh at the title with my husband even if I don’t use it. I’m pretty sure I will be using it though. Last month I tried sneaking green tea into our tea everytime I made it. Finally he saw the bags and said he thought the tea hadn’t been tasting quite right. I still told him it was his imagination. The man won’t go near a vegetable so this should be a nice experiment. Not too mention there is a recipe in here for healthy donuts!!!! And chocolate cake!

Chocolate Mocha Pot De Creme Recipe!!!!

Whatever you are doing right now, stop! Get in the car and drive to the nearest grocery store and buy the ingredients to make this!  Just don’t put a ring “in” it.

Groovy Smoothie

After reading the recipe for the Avocado-Banana Smoothies that I found on Lindsay Maitland Hunt’s blog, Lindsay Cooks, I decided to give it a try. It turned out pretty well. I’m not a huge smoothie fan but I love the nutritional aspects of it. I like one dish food. No silverware needed. I did leave out the ginger as I do not care for ginger at all. Also I used vanilla-honey and peach flavored yogurt.