Salsa in your pj's

Hello my dear friends!! Oh have I missed you so. Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I had a few tests this past week so I've been studying for those puppies. They went pretty well. I got a 90% in Statistics and an 80% in Chemistry. I will happily take both of those!! Also, I've been daydreaming a lot about Robert Pattinson of course.... BUT!!!!!! (yes, there's a but) there is this one boy who is absolutely adorable. He has Edward Cullen eyes and they just make me melt. I could stare at them all day. I sound like such a whiney girl talking about him, but I can't help it, damnit!

Besides that, I got a special delivery from my friend, Scott. He makes his own salsas and relishes by fermentation. They are living and vegan, so it's the best of both worlds. He lives in Pennsylvania and obviously, Pennsylvanians are really smart and can make GREAT food.

My sister and I really enjoyed these!! She eats the majority of the salsa in my house so the salsa vanished pretty quickly. She loved posing for pictures haha NOT. I always manage to get her when she's in her pj's with no makeup on, so that always cracks me up.

Scott sent us Mild Salsa and Hot Salsa. It was so cool because it bubbled when we opened the jar!! It was like a salsa volcano. The mild isn't very spicy so that's the one I liked more. My sister likes the hot one though.

But I'm more of a relish person myself, so I've been eating relish with everything. He sent the Garlic Dill Relish and the Horseradish Dill Relish. These are really good. In my house, we always have the regular kind with that Pelican on the jar, but Scott's is REAL relish. It tastes so different and it doesn't have that gel-like consistency of the regular kind. I ate mine on top of salads and on raw burgers.

So if you like salsa or relish, you should definitely give this a try. They are sold at some Whole Foods stores, but you can get them online at his website, too. I forgot to say that the fermentation process also makes the salsa and relish a lot healthier. Scott explains the science of it so much better than I ever could haha:

"Right now, we have 2 salsas (Hot and Mild) and 2 relishes (Horseradish Dill and Garlic Dill), all of which are preserved only through the ancient and natural art of lacto-fermentation. It’s a simple and live-giving process, where beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus Acidophilus convert the starches and sugars of the raw vegetables into lactic acid (hence the term “lacto-fermentation”) and preserve the entire food, with its full compliment of enzymes, vitamins and minerals. We use no sugars or sugar substitutes in our products, and we use only a small amount of raw apple cider vinegar in our relishes (none in the salsas)."

So there you go. Enjoy my friends and Happy SATURDAY!! Stay warm and misbehave ;)

Is that all you got?!?!

Hi, guys. How's your week so far??? Well, school went a lot better than I thought it would!! I wasn't shy at all and I met a few new people. It was fun. I mean, there's always those "oops" moments though. My car keys, coat, glasses, and books all got locked in the honors office so I had to get security to open it. The security guard is 95 yrs old, give-or-take. He had no clue what I was asking him and just stared at me for a while until i shouted- "Excuse me!! I need you to open the honors office, now!!"

Although my school day was fun and eventful, NOTHING beats last night. OMG wow. I decided to do a cycling class after months of not going. What was I thinking???!!! My friend, Ted, and I both signed up for bikes that were broken (we obviously didn't know this) so the instructor told us to take bikes 2 and 3. When we were all settled in, these two old hags walk in and completely bitch me and Ted out for stealing their bikes. First of all, they were late to class, and second of all, both of them will die lonely, old women! They forced us off the bikes and yanked them away. Don't get me wrong, though- I fought back. I don't care how old this lady is. You DON'T cross me and mess with my shit.

What ends up happening is the instructor gives me his bike and Ted steals somebody elses. haha oh Ted. I love that man. We always have push-up competitions and he usually kicks my ass. He's 70 yrs old and can do 55 push-ups!! I'd say that's pretty darn good. My average is usually 45-50 so I'm not too far behind.

But besides all my fights with the elderly, I've been going mad over Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I LOVE this cookbook. It's amazing so you have to buy it. I made the vanilla mylk today and it was just cheerful. I was proud of myself for not eating all of the dates before making my milk. I only bought about 20 dates so I had enough left after devouring over half of them... THANK GOD. I had to use cashews instead of almonds because I was out of them, but I'm sure almonds would be dashing as well. Make sure you enlarge the picture so you can see the vanilla bean!!!! It makes me so happy!!

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Mylk
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup pitted medjool dates
1 vanilla bean
pinch of sea salt
5 cups of water

Directions: Throw all that in the blender and mix until smooth. Keeps in the fridge for 4 days.

Movies and Pancakes- A Dynamic Duo

Good day, my friends. How are you doing on this bright Sunday morning??? I'm somewhat of a 'hot mess' right now. I've been doing a juice fast since Friday and I'm breaking out like crazy on my arms and back. It's sickening!! I have a green-minty-smelling mask on myself right now to try and help it. I'm thinking that it might be my body's way of releasing some of the toxins out of my body. That's fine though. As long as my body is getting cleaned out. I just got discouraged by the Dr Natura Cleanse since I haven't noticed a difference. I'm still taking it, but I'm just doing it with the juice fast.

In other news, I'm gonna be your personal movie critic for today. I saw 'Valkyrie' on Thursday night and I was NOT a fan. It was boring, and Tom Cruise didn't have any underwear scenes. I feel like they should just be a standard in all of Tom's films. I mean, if you have a butt like that, why hide it??? After the disappointment with that movie, last night, I saw 'Marley and Me.' I read the book and of course, the book is better, but the movie still holds its own. I got a little teary-eyed in the end, so thankfully, I brought a wad of tissues.

As for food, I've been drinking a lot of juice... A LOT. But before the juice fast, I made up a recipe for pancakes in the dehydrator. It was pretty yummy. I ate them with Earth Balance and Pure Maple Syrup. I love PMS (that is too funny) because it smells amazing (again, that is just weird). Forget I mentioned pure maple syrup.

Here's the recipe:
Nutty Pancakes
1/2 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 medium size carrot
3/4 cup fresh cranberries
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions: Throw everything in food processor and blend. Shape into balls and then flatten out and put on dehydrator sheet. I made 5 pancakes. Dehydrate for 2 and 1/2 hours on 105F. I wanted the pancakes to be soft and still have the texture of real ones, but you can dehydrate longer if you'd like.

Risky Cookies

Hey guys!!! I'm surprised you're up so early after all that partying you did last night. I figured I wouldn't see you until at least 2 hehe I went to bed around 1:30. My friend, Desiree, came over and we watched Risky Business. I was completely shocked by this movie- you guys didn't warn me!! It was all centered around sex and prostitution. I'm glad I saw it though. I feel like it's a trashy classic that everyone has to see. The lady at Family Video even told me "There's a really sexy train scene, so look out for that." Ummm, look out for that??? How could anyone with the sense of sight miss that???

Okay. I can already tell that this post is going the wrong way and my mom will read it and gasp.

So let's talk dehydrators. I don't have a fancy one, but it does the job. I got it from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I am obsessed with it!!! I use it every day and it's been going strong. It has 5 trays, but you can also buy more if you need them. I would definitely recommend getting one if you like dried fruits or want to make more RAW foods. It's so much cheaper to make your own rather than buying a bag of dried mangoes for 5 bux.

To demonstrate all that this dehydrator can do, here's a cookie recipe that I made up a few nights ago. I loved these!! I ate them drizzled (drenched) in agave nectar for dessert. I also ate them plain when I went to the movies yesterday with my dad. We saw an Egyptian movie about mummies at the Carnegie Science Center. Who doesn't love watching the mummification process on big screen?? haha

I've never described a cookie as "smokey" but this one was. They also kept me full because they are filled with nuts. I might add a few dates next time to make them sweeter, but I didn't have any. So as of now, they aren't a sweet cookie- more like an energy cookie.

Egyptian Energy Cookies

1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw shelled pistachios
1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
2 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 medium-size banana
1/4 cup goji berries

Directions: Throw all of that in the food processor until it's well-blended. Shape into little balls, flatten them with your palm, and dehydrate for about 3 hours on 105F. These don't have any liquid, so they dehydrate pretty quickly. You can dehydrate for a few hours longer if you like your cookies crunchy. I prefer a soft cookie. They taste good fresh and warm straight from the dehydrator. I made 8 cookies.

Crackity Crack Crack

Hello all you crazy people. Have the holidays been treating you well??? I sure hope so because I’ve been having a love affair. Yes, you heard me. It’s true. My dehydrator and I go at it every night in the kitchen. We’ve been making everything we can get our hands on- apples, watermelon, mangoes, pineapple, jackfruit. My cat is next to go. Haha Just kidding. I know you guys would send PETA after me.


Even on Christmas day, I had my dehydrator in the basement. He was making carrot crackers for me. They were the best crackers I’ve ever had in my life. I say that about most of the foods I eat, but would I ever lie to you??? The basement smelled soo damn good, but my stepdad said it smelled like pee. His sense of smell is obviously going with age. Tisk tisk. Hehe.

I found this recipe on GoneRaw (aka my savior) and it’s just too good for words. I’ve been eating these crackers with hummus, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives. You must try them if you have a dehydrator near you!!!! If you don’t have one, go steal one from Bed, Bath, and Beyond… or even SEARS!!! Haha I had a customer tonight who was buying a dehydrator and I didn’t even know we sold them. I guess Sears isn’t as bad as I thought… Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s on my good side for now.

Here's the Recipe:
Carrot Crackers
6 cloves garlic
4 tablespoon ground flax seed meal
1 cup almonds
salt and pepper to taste (I used about ½ tsp salt and a few pinches of pepper)
2 medium organic carrots
Directions: Ground almonds to make flour. Put in food processor with carrots, garlic, flax seed meal, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Make flat crackers and place on dehydrator sheets. dehydrate at 105 F for 10-12 hr. flip the crackers after 6 hr and continue dehydrating. I made about 12 medium-sized crackers.

Daring Bakers Challenge Numero Uno

Hello everyone!!! I am so excited for this post today. It is officially my first post as a Daring Baker. I have to post the phrase below because it’s part of the rules, fool.

“This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.”

This yule log was the most delicious dessert I’ve ever had. I mean, EVER. My mouth was in heaven. I am not going to lie- this was the most difficult dish I have ever prepared in my short life. I worked all day at my crappy job, came home, and stayed up late trying to finish it. Obviously, I made the whole damn thing in my bathrobe- we keep it classy here in the Schupp household.

The French Yule Log is so much harder than a regular yule log because it has 6 elements to it. It was also tough because the whole recipe was NOT vegan or gluten-free, so I had to play around with practically every ingredient in order to veganize it. I thought about not making it vegan, but then I came to my senses. I put my happy face on and said “Let’s rock this bitch!”

The first element is the Dacquoise. This is basically a thin almond cake. Naturally, I didn't have parchment paper so foil had to do. The cake got REALLY stuck to the foil, but nobody noticed when it was all assembled.

The second element is the Milk Chocolate Mousse and it is also layered through the entire yule log- thank god. This stuff was so damn good.

The third element is Praline Feuillete, and this includes gavottes. Gavottes are basically crepes and I had to chop them up and pour chocolate over them. Poor little gavottes haha. Luckily, I had a good bit of this leftover so I ate a huge slab of it at the end of my baking adventure.

The fourth element is the Chocolate-Cinnamon Ganache. Dear God. That's all I need to say. How could this ever taste bad???

The fifth element is the Creme Brulee. Now, obviously, I had to cut out all the eggs. I used tofu and it worked like a charm. I forgot to take a picture because I was just shocked it worked.

The sixth element is the Dark Chocolate Icing. I had to use agar flakes, and I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't know about boiling them to make them all "gel-like" so I just softened them in water. Ummm... that didn't work. I just stirred them with the chocolate icing and then poured it on top of the frozen yule log. I put coconut on top to disguise those damn agar flakes.

All in all, I wish I could eat this every day of my life. Everyone at Christmas also agreed. My cousin told me she would pay $80 for this log. I wish I could mass produce it somehow because it just took so long to make!!! It was a fabulous cooking experience though and my mother was so darn proud!!!

Here's some pictures from Christmas!!!
I took a damn big piece of yule log so it's weighing down the plate. ha who cares!!?!?!?!
My sister, Pls, and me. We look so darn cute!!!
All of the cousins in our fam-damily.
My favorite Christmas present of all- my PedEgg!!!! Ahh I laughed hysterically when I opened this, but I just can't stop using it. I decided to demonstrate it for my family and friends. Everyone thought it was disgusting and told me to get out.
It's love.

Are you feeling blue?

Good Morning guys!!!! It's freezing today. It snowed a crap-load last night. I would've cracked up if we were snowed in, but unfortunately, we're not. I do have some fun news for you guys though. Today is the first day of my DrNatura Cleanse. Have you heard of this before? My therapist told me about it because I've had digestive problems ever since I was a baby. It was pretty expensive, but that really didn't matter haha I just had to get it!!! It's vegan, too, which is always a plus. It's supposed to rid your body of all the toxins that you take in on a daily basis. The first month is the Colonix program and the second month is the Toxinout program. I won't EVER post disgusting bathroom pictures on here, but if you want to see them, then you're just nasty haha

But I won't leave you hanging there. I have a splendid and funky muffin recipe for you today. I found my inspiration recipe on eat me, delicious. I just love all the muffins she makes. These ones are some of my favorites, but I guess I say that about practically every muffin I make- they are also gluten-free. I was just in the mood to make blue muffins. I know there's no such thing as a blue food, but I just had to do it. I made two recipe attempts. The first was a blueberry corn muffin which was good, but I knew I could do better. The next was a blue raspberry muffin and I just loved them. I would feed these to my kids if I had any because kids always love blue raspberry shit... at least I did haha and still do.

Here's the recipe:

Blue Raspberry Muffins
1/2 cup soy milk
1 cup quick or rolled oats
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup millet flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp flax seeds
2 tbsp water
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup turbinado raw sugar
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup freeze-dried, dried, or fresh raspberries
approx. 1/3 raspberry jelly (depending on how many muffins you make)

Directions: Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray or cupcake liners. Make the flax eggs by combined the flax seeds and water in a cup. Stir together and let stand until it thickens.

In a medium bowl, stir together milk, applesauce, vanilla, sugar, and flax eggs. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flours, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In the microwave, nuke 1/2 cup blueberries for 30 seconds. Using a stand mixture, hand mixer, or blender, puree the 1/2 cup warm blueberries. It can be messy so I'd use a blender. Add the puree to the milk/sugar mixture and stir through. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and fold together. Stir in the 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and the raspberries. Fill the muffin cups half way with batter, add 2-3 tsp of jelly on top, and then fill the rest with the muffin batter. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

At least I have 9 left haha

Okay. I am in such a weird mood right now. Lord knows posting on my blog is the LAST thing I need to be doing, but I just can’t help it. The funniest thing just happened to me. I was taking my shoes off and my baby toenail fell off!!!!! Haha I had it coming though. About a month ago, I fell down the steps and slammed into the wall. My baby toe got all black and blue and fugly. I painted my nail red so I wouldn’t have to look at the black nail, but I guess I don’t have to look at any nail now hehe

This definitely isn’t the first time this has happened though. I lose toenails all the time. Well, I should say I break my toes a lot which causes the toenail to fall off. Either way, I just can’t stop laughing about it.

As for finals, I have one at 10:30 am, but would rather be updating this puppy instead of studying that crap. Wish me luck, guys!!! I’ll let you know how it goes (or doesn’t go) tomorrow.

But now, I have food for you. This is a raw cinnamon roll recipe I found on GoneRaw. It’s amazing and pretty time-consuming, but sometimes you’re just in the mood to treat yourself. It looks like a gigantic tootsie roll, but who doesn’t love that? I fooled around in the kitchen (not that kind haha) and made cashew coconut icing for them, but you can eat it with anything, I suppose. I followed the recipe for once in my short life and am so happy I did. Oh wait- I lied. Haha. I just remembered that I added about ¼ cup of water to the dry mixture because it was supposed to be a wet mixture and it wasn’t. That makes sense.

Here’s the recipe:

Cinnamon Rolls

1 1/4 cup almond meal
1 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
1 dash cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt
1 cup soft pitted dates
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup raisins, plus a little extra
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Preparation: Combine the almond meal, ground flaxseed, dash of cayenne pepper, 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon and pinch sea salt in a bowl and set aside. In a food processor, process dates, 1/4 cup water, and vanilla into a paste. Remove half of the date paste and add it to the dry ingredients, along with the olive oil and agave. Mix these ingredients with your hands until it forms a dough. You may need to add the extra 1/4 cup of water if the mixture is dry, but don’t let it get too wet.

Spread the dough out on a piece of parchment paper, and flatten/shape it into a 1/4-inch thick square. Add 1/4 cup raisins and 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon to the rest of the date paste left in your food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Then, spread a thin layer of the paste onto the dough square, making sure to cover the whole surface, and top with a sprinkle of extra raisins and the chopped walnuts.

Using the parchment paper to help hold everything together, carefully/tightly roll the square into a log. Chill in the refrigerator, and then slice into about 1-inch thick rounds. I got about 8 cinnamon rolls.


I also just found this great giveaway on Eating Bender!! Check it out!! If you enter, say you heard about it on my blog. Thanks guys!!

I'm Larry

Dun Dun Dun… It’s finals week!!! I haven’t started studying yet, but I plan on it sometime today haha I am the worst student ever!!! I just have better things to do than studying… like cooking, workout out, watching tv, twiddling my thumbs, and cleaning, just to name a few. I’m a good crammer though, so I’m not too worried. On Tuesday, I have American Literature to the Civil War. We get to use our notes (Thank God!!) so that right there is already saving my butt. On Thursday, I have Religions of the World and Biology; therefore, my Tuesday night and Wednesday will be devoted to those. I already know that they are going to demolish me haha. I’m so good at being optimistic. I just feel like I’ve listened really well all year in each of my classes, so stressing out about a few little tests would just be a waste of time.

As for the food I’ve been making to feed my non-studying mind, I have a recipe that I just made up. I was really hungry and just threw a bunch of pantry items together. I love when a random meal turns out really good. I would call this a noodle bean stew. That name cracks me up for some reason haha I really liked it. The only problem is that it’s all gone now, so I’ll be living off of apples until I make something else.

Here’s the recipe:

Noodle Bean Stew
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup carrots, chopped
¾ cup onion, chopped
1 ¼ cup vegetable stock
1 cup corn, frozen or canned
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp paprika
1 cup water
1 15.5 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
½ tsp blackstrap molasses
1 ½ Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp soy sauce
1 cup shell pasta (I used brown rice)

Directions: Sautee carrots and onion in olive oil for 6-7 minutes on medium-high heat. Add ½ cup veg. stock and cook for 2 minutes. Add corn, garlic, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and rest of veg. stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Add cumin, paprika, water, beans, molasses, nutritional yeast, and soy sauce and bring to a boil. When it’s boiling, add pasta, reduce heat to medium-high, cover, and cook for 12-15 minutes. Stir occasionally while cooking. This will thicken up the mixture so it’s stew-like.

Muffin Mania

Hello everyone. I have a question for you guys. Do you feel like you cook way too much? If you do, it’s okay because I do, too. It’s kind of ridiculous haha Maybe I’m home too much or something… I don’t know. I think it’s probably because I love it. And when you love something, you just can’t get enough of it!

There’s really no point I’m trying to make with that. I just felt like reasoning out my obsession with cooking. I wish I could just cook all my life in my kitchen and have no other job. Wouldn’t that be freakin awesome?!?! The only way I see that happening is if I win the lottery or marry a rich man. There’s probably more of a chance of me winning the lottery. I could never marry someone for just there money. I’ve thought about it, of course, but has the opportunity presented itself? No haha. It makes me think of the housewives of Orange County. I love that show!! My mom and I watch reruns of that. Some of the wives work, but the majority of them just go tanning all day… which isn’t such a bad life, I guess. So, I take back how I said there’s no point to this. I just thought of one haha Here it is: Do what you love!!!!!! Even if it means that you won’t make a lot of money. I mean, yeah, I like money, but when it comes down to it, it’s just paper… and it smells bad.

And speaking of love, I love muffins. So here’s another muffin recipe haha I’m so sorry. I’ll completely understand if you quit reading my blog due to the amount of muffins I bake. These are in my top 5 favorite muffins in the world. They were really moist and dense. I love that combination in a muffin. I found the recipe in Viva le Vegan. It was originally a bread recipe, but I changed up some stuff and made gluten-free muffins. Worked like a charm!

Apricot-Almond Muffins

½ cup oat flour
½ cup organic cane sugar
1/3 cup blanched almonds or almond slivers
1 ¼ cup millet flour
½ cup sorghum flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp sea salt
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 tbsp flax meal
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ cup dried apricots, chopped
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 ½ tbsp canola oil
Handful of blanched almonds for garnish

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, combine the first 9 (all dry) ingredients and stir together. In another bowl, combine the milk with the flax and stir through. Add the applesauce, apricots, extracts, and oil and mix well. Add wet mixture to dry mixture and stir through until well-combined. Scoop mixture into a prepared muffin tin and bake for 20-22 minutes. Makes approximately 8-10 normal size muffins. The baking time may vary because my muffins are always gigantic, so I’d check normal muffins at 16 or 18 minutes with a toothpick.

Shut up and Listen!!

Hello, folks. Aren't you happy it's Saturday? I thought so. I went to bed pretty late last night. I went down to the South Side with my sister and her boyfriend. I thought I'd feel like a third wheel, but I didn't. I will admit, though, that the drive down there was HELL!!! haha Her boyfriend, Mario, does not shut up. AT ALL. You know that friend you have who just won't stop talking? Well, imagine that person talking 100x more often (Yeah, I know it's hard to imagine haha). He was telling me that every way I was taking would take longer and I just wanted to slap the boy. We got into it a little bit and my sister broke us up. I had to refrain myself because he was in the back seat, and I'd probably crash the car if I turned around and expressed how I felt haha

When we finally made it down there, we went to The Cheesecake Factory. The menu had no vegan items whatsoever, so I just got a salad. Don't you hate that? I can make salads at home, and the salad I ordered just wasn't good. I got the Vegetable Chopped Salad. I just try to avoid being the one who doesn't order anything in a restaurant because I used to do that all the time when I had some eating problems. Thankfully, a little shopping made up for the bad salad. We went to Forever 21, and I got the cutest bows for my hair!!!! I love wearing cute hair stuff, so when I found these, I was in love.

As for food, I have a curry for you. This was the first curry I made and the house smelled insane!! Insane meaning ummm.... weird. haha It tasted very good, but I just don't like the smell of curries. I found this recipe in Vive le Vegan because I am just so dependent on Dreena Burton for her good food haha Do you guys have that one cookbook author/authors that you just love?

Here's the recipe:

Sweet Curry Chickpea Casserole
2 1/2- 3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 13/5 oz can light coconut milk
3/4 cup onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
1-1 1/2 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1- 1 1/2 cups apple, chopped (you can peel it but it's not necessary)
2 small-medium cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
1-1 1/2 tbsp mild curry paste
2 tsp mustard seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground mustard)
1 tsp cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground cumin)
1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp allspice

Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. In a large, deep casserole dish, combine all the ingredients and stir until well-combined. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Stir through, cover, and bake for another 30-40 minutes, until the veggies are tender. Makes 4-5 servings.

The story of the girl and the muffin

Hi guys. It’s been a pretty rough week so far. School is just taking its tool on me!! I feel so drained, mentally and physically. I hadn’t cooked anything since Thanksgiving, so a few nights ago, I made muffins. They are my “get happy” food. It was about 11:30 p.m. when I started, and my stepdad was noticeably annoyed by the clanking of bowls and spoons in the kitchen because he was trying to watch tv. I didn’t care though- I just needed some cooking time, so he was gonna have to deal. Cooking is just so therapeutic to me- I get in my own little world, wear my favorite bathrobe, and nothing matters anymore except for my muffins.

They turned out amazing!!! But that’s no surprise. You guys know I don’t bake crappy muffins haha They are Coconut Macadamia Muffins. I just love macadamia nuts. I don’t think you heard me. I LOVE macadamia nuts. Haha I’ve been eating them like a madwoman, but I’m okay with it. The original recipe called for almonds, but I didn’t have any. I found it on eat me, delicious. I had to change some ingredients to make it gluten free, and I substituted a few others just for my own enjoyment haha

Coconut Macadamia Muffins
1 cup oat flour
½ cup millet flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup organic cane sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp sea salt
¾ cup light coconut milk
2 tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 tbsp water (or egg replacer for 2 eggs)
¼ cup canola oil
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1/3 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Directions: Preheat oven to 400F. In a small cup, combine flax seeds with water and let stand while assembling other ingredients. In a large bowl, combine flours, shredded coconut, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together. Add in the coconut milk, egg replacer, oil, extracts, and nuts. Stir together until well-combined. Spoon into a greased muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Makes 10 muffins.

*There was a superman candle sitting on a shelf, and he really wanted to be in the picture. Can you blame him? Look at those two fine ladies!

Yay for Popsicle Molds!!!!

Good day everyone! I woke up so late today. I had a dream that I was eating barbecue chicken with my family. It was really weird. We were sitting at a picnic table and chowing down on drumsticks. When I woke up, I felt like it actually happened but was so thankful that it didn't!!!! Anyway, onto the important stuff. I got new popsicle molds in the mail yesterday!!! They are freakin beautiful. I ordered animal ones haha I got a bear, an elephant, a monkey, and a lion. The one in the picture is obviously the elephant. I used carrot-orange juice- Divine! The others are in the freezer and they are prune juice ones. Can't wait to try those. By the way, if you think I'm 5 years old, I am haha

As for food, I was really hungry on Thanksgiving afternoon and had no idea what to make. I didn't feel like looking at recipes, so I just made this up as I went along. It's just a simple tofu dish, but it was amazing. I am just OBSESSED with hoisin sauce. That shit is good. It makes everything taste good. I'm surprised I didn't have it with pumpkin pie.

Really Good Tofu

1 pkg of extra-firm tofu
2 T hoisin sauce
2 T soy sauce
1 T agave nectar
1 T worcheshire sauce
2 tsp sesame seeds

Directions: Drain the tofu, and cut into little cubes. Mix sauce ingredients in a large bowl and toss the tofu cubes in it. Make sure they are all covered. Put the tofu in a large skillet and saute on high for 10 minutes, or until crispy. I think my stove top just sucks so it might take you less time. Either way, it will taste good. I tried to burn mine a little because it just tastes so darn good that way.

Thanksgiving Time!!!

Hello everyone!!! I hope your Thanksgiving was FABULOUS!! I went to my aunt's, but I hung out with my sister Pls, my cousin Ali, and her friend Tina most of the time. They are such hilarious people, like myself haha, so we had a lot of fun hanging out in the basement watching Jon and Kate Plus 8. Wow that show kills me. As for the food, I didn't eat anything at my aunt's house because my stomach hurt, but by the time I got home, I just needed some food!!! I ate pumpkin pie, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with gravy. Let me just say- WOW!! It was all delicious. So here's some pictures from yesterday!!

My Beautiful Pumpkin Pie


My fake tattoo for the day


The measuring spoon that was in the disposal when I ran it haha


The Best Stuffing Ever


These bangin' mashed potatoes!!


The lovely fruit bouquet


These crazy girls- Ali and Tina


My adorable grandma- Mungie


My little sister- Apples


I hope you all enjoyed these pictures!! Since I had the camera, I didn't take any pictures of myself. My aunt took some pictures, but they are on her camera. If I ever see those, I'll put them up.

And since I feel like it, I just wanted to let you guys know how happy I am that you read my blog!!! I get so excited to see what you say about my posts, and you're so sincere about it. I love your blogs, too, so I hope all of you keep blogging forever!!!