& Were Off

It is officially vacation time & I couldn’t be more excited.

Granola? Check.

VOO and “Egg” salad? Check.

Apples? Check.

Bananners? Check.

& Were off to go camping on one of Michigan’s great lakes for the whole week!

No fancy restaurants, no Starbucks, no health food stores, no air conditioning, no hair dyers, no oven, no whining cats (sorry babes, mommy is going to miss you very much!), no familiar faces, no gym, no TV, no freezer, and no internet. 

I will bring the laptop but I doubt I will find wifi. I will be sure to share tons of beautiful photos next week. I hope you enjoy the posts I have lined up for the week! When we return, we have a big weekend ahead of us so be patient! (Details later! 🙂 )

WIAW week 27

 Breakfast

Coconut yogurt (for .29 cents!) topped with homemade granola, and a pear on the side. Later on I ate some oats and a muffin I baked for the market! Yum.

Blueberry Bran Muffin:

Recipe soon!

Lunch

Homemade mac & chreese! Yum. I made this out of gluten-free brown rice mac noodles and Tal Ronnen’s cashew cream (1 cup soaked cashews overnight, then blended in the Vitamix with water) mixed with a tomato, basil, nooch, S&P, turmeric, and Diaya. I baked in the over at 350 for about 10 minutes until gooey and creamy. I was very impressed with myself! Super creamy and still pretty healthy! It taste so naughty. 😉

Dinner

Fattoush salad and other random items such as a banana bread LARABAR, hummus, & tempeh.

 What did you eat today?

Gettin’ BAKED up in here!

Oat style!

I’m talking BAKED OATMEAL

Warm, crispy yet ooey-gooey, baked goodness.

Can you believe that I haven’t made baked oatmeal all winter? What is wrong with me?!?!?!

Remember that time I had 17 pounds of apples and made this awesome cinnamon apple baked oatmeal? Well, I was going to make that same recipe but then I got a little creative.

The new and improved:

Apple Pie Oatmeal:

Serves about four

• 2 apples, diced
• 1 1/2 cup instant oats
• 2 T cinnamon (I did use this much, I love cinnamon…)
• 2 cups non dairy milk
• 1 scoop protein powder (optional)
• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped
• 1 t vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, transfer to lightly greased baking pan (I used 8×8) and bake for 45-55 minutes at 345 degrees.

It’s that easy.

So many thoughts were going through my head while I was making this, it was crazy. “Oh I should add PEANUT BUTTER…” “Maybe a little chocolate wouldn’t hurt…” & “I WISH I HAD MAPLE SYRUP!”

But I’m going to save these ideas for next time because I am diffidently going to experiment with this. I also want to learn how to make this more crunchy, that’d be cool. My baked oatmeal always turn out more like an oatmeal casserole. Is this normal?

More baking with oats…

Quick Cinnamon Granola:

• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1/4 – 1/2 sugar (your choice, I used regular unbleached white but I’m sure Stevia or other sugar-free options would work)
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (safflower works too)
• 1/4 cup agave/real maple syrup/brown rice syrup
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1-2 T cinnamon (again, loving the cinnamon…)
• 1/2 cup nuts/dried fruit of choice (I used roasted peanuts)

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the oats on a rimmed baking pan, and bake for 10 minutes. Transfer the oats to a large mixing bowl, and add the sugar, wheat germ, and nuts or fruit. Stir to mix well, then add oil, syrup, and vanilla. Mix until everything is moistened. Place mixture back on tray and bake for 8-10 minutes. Stir after 4 minutes to brown evenly. Let the baked granola cool on the pan, then transfer it to a bowl and stir until crumbly. Store in an airtight container cause this stuff lasts for weeks.

This granola is really good used as cereal or on a SIAB 🙂

That’s all for today, I’m pooped! A few reviews coming up this weekend plus, VegFest on Sunday! Can’t wait to share it with you guys! 😀

WIAW week #9

Hey guys, sorry about that post yesterday. I originally posted my broc cheddar soup recipe then for some reason it got posted under March 12th. So this soup is awesome… check it out here.

Breakfast:

A bowl of home-made granola and a unpictured smoothie.

Lunch:

Oh my, a salad on my blog! Yes, I do eat them occasionally. My friend and I had a salad making party the other night and this was the leftovers. The sammich is an “egg” salad sammich I got from a new local health food store. I was so excited that they made “egg” salad! Actually, all of their salads are vegan. They have a yam potato salad, regular potato salad, tempeh walnut (like faux tuna salad), and lots of other salads I have yet to try!

Snackage:

Dinner:

A lovely meal prepared by my boy. Pasta with a “chicken” patty and garlic bread. Yes, I finished my plate, don’t worry. 😉

Blizzard:

Holy cow, that’s my iced car! It was so nice out and then BAM snowy freezing rain just when I thought it was over. Can I move now? 😦

What did you eat today?

Greatest Granola & Hempy Mango Crunch

 I’m over that little break down I had this morning. I am going to the college tomorrow morning to straighten everything out. I did make good use out of all that negative energy though and turned it into this:

Vegan Sunshine’s Greatest Granola:

This recipe is very flexible. I do not add nuts or dried fruit because I like making a big batch then spicing it up with whatever I like later on.

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/3 cup coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup ground flax meal
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup agave nectar (or maple syrup or even a combo of them both)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl combine oats, wheat germ, coconut flakes, flax, and salt. Mix well.
3. In a small sauce pan, heat agave, oil, water, cinnamon, and vanilla until it starts to boil. Remove from heat and add to oat mixture. Mix well.
4. Place mixture in a 9″ x 13″ pan.
5. Bake for one hour and stir every 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven and let cool.

For me this makes about a weeks worth of granola if you use it as cereal every morning like I do (and recommend!) if not, it keeps for weeks anyway if stored in an air tight container.

Once I finally got around to the gym today (umm 3pm?…) I made another wonderful post workout snack. You better believe I used my Greatest Granola in this!

Hempy Mango Crunch:

• 1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt

• 1 cup frozen mangoes

• 2 tablespoons hemp protein powder

• 1/3 cup almond milk

Blend until smooth. Layer the smoothie with Vegan Sunshine’s Greatest Granola and you have yourself a winner.

See? Even Maggie-bear loves it.

After I got home from a long day of work last night I practically drove right into one of these:

Two Boca” Chicken” patties between an everything bagel. Man, was I stravin’! Was this the least healthiest thing I could choose to eat at 9pm? Perhaps. It was so late but I forgot to bring a lunch with me and I sure didn’t feel like buying anything to eat. Have you ever had a job working around food that it grosses you out so much you eat there as little as possible? That’s where I am now. In need of a new job!

I did not attend power yoga this evening. Why? Because I didn’t feel like it. (Hint: my taking it easy post) Instead I went on the treadmill and walked to the last half hour of The Doctor’s and worked my arms. It was wayy too hot out for a nature walk!

Wow two posts in one day? You can tell this must be my day off.

Tomorrow is a new day.