Disappearing Act

**update: I found the pictures! They were still on my camera! Whoops! I added them to the post like I originally had planned!**

So I must be losing it. I've searched through all the pictures in my computer and cannot find the picture I know I took of my delicious smoothie covered in Grape Nuts. Oh well - it might scare some people anyway being so green and all! It was downright delicious and I got the idea from Peas and Thank You. I just concocted my own mixture for the smoothie base (while breaking my blender in the process... come to think of it, I even took a picture of that poor blender in the trashcan... where DID my photos disappear to??)



I also added the Grape Nuts. This kept me full for hours! Oh do I love Grape Nuts. Best invention ever, in my opinion!



Speaking of great inventions, I discovered a new favorite soap! It smells so incredibly good that I was even stopped coming out of Starbucks one morning and asked what I was wearing! Oh yeah, it's that yummy! Feast your eyes on:

THE MAGIC SOAP!!



It was even on sale at K3 Natural Foods! Score!

Green Smoothie with Grape Nuts
3/4 - 1 cup frozen spinach, defrosted
1 granny smith apple, chopped
1/4 cup fresh blueberries
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup Grape Nuts cereal

In a blender or food processor, combine spinach, apple, blueberries, ginger and milk until smooth. Pour into a bowl and top with Grape Nuts.

Purple Potato Eater

I said Mr Purple Potato Eater, what's your line?
He said eating purple potatoes, and it sure is fine
But that's not the reason that I came to land
I wanna get a job in a rock 'n roll band

Granted I changed the words around to fit my current purple passion, but I loved that song growing up! As many young girls do, I loved anything purple! It's only fitting that I'd love purple potatoes, too!

I discovered the beauties one afternoon while browsing in Kroger. While I'd heard of them, I'd never been able to partake in their purple wonderment. Until now. I snatched up a couple of those bad boys and hauled my expensive tastes up to the register. The kind woman there rang them up as baking potatoes, saving me $3 a pound in the process! Bless her heart! I was filled with happiness!



The happiness only grew as I arrived home, chopped up a potato and roasted it to perfection. Maybe they don't taste outrageously different, but they sure are gorgeous!

Roasted Purple Potato
1 purple potato, washed and chopped into large pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of kosher salt
Pinch of black caraway seeds
Pinch of dried sage

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cast iron skillet with aluminum foil. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. Transfer potato mixture into skillet and bake 30 minutes or until done to your liking. Enjoy!

Peas Check it Out!

One of my new favorite blogs, Peas and Thank You, is having an awesome cookbook giveaway! You really should check out her blog - her stories are hysterical and fun. She makes being vegan seem so awesome! I'm a "sometimes vegetarian" myself, but that craving for meat I get once in a while makes me a horrible candidate for veganism! Mama Pea is in the midst of making a cookbook - I'm so excited about it I even started to check for it at Barnes and Noble yesterday even though I knew it wasn't finished yet!

So check out her website, there's tons of yummy recipes to tide you over until the cookbook emerges!

Caffienated Goodness

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It's been so hard to get my butt over to Starbucks or Barnes and Noble for the wi-fi for my computer. Poor lonely little laptop sitting on my bookshelf with wonderous photos just waiting to be uploaded and posted!

*sigh*

Well this morning I decided to make my own coffee. I have some of Target's house blend in my pantry and I like to add odd ingredients to it. This morning's concoction was 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds, a pinch of lavender buds and a light sprinkling of cinnamon brewed in 5 cups of ice cold water. I poured it over some honey to sweeten it, ooooooh was it yummy!

So experiment with your coffee! You may be surprised!

LIMEY! It's Tuna!

So I must take a quick time out from this crazy Friday-before-a-holiday-weekend Bank Day and brag about my lunch. A lunch I was way too excited to eat to take a picture of!

It'll sound pretty strange, I know, but the combination was outright divine!

I dug into my refrigerator this morning and pulled out:
Goat Cheese
Greek Yogurt
Red Grapes
A Lime

I added these luscious ingredients to a plain ol' ordinary can of tuna and POW! I feel just like Emeril!

I ate my yummy tuna salad with my favorite crackers, Kellog's All Bran crackers - original flavor. Yumaliciously refreshing!

If you'd like my exact measurements, they're listed below!

Limey! It's Tuna
1 ounce plain goat cheese
1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
1/2 cup seedless red grapes, halved
1/2 teaspoon lime zest
1 3-ounce can tuna, rinsed

Mix together all ingredients, making extra sure to blend the goat cheese into the yogurt. Serve with your favorite crackers or on whatever "vehicle" of transport you prefer! Cucumbers, pepper slices, toast or even a spoon!

Turbinado Tornado

Do you ever have those days where the carbohydrate monster consumes you?



It rages and wars until you feed it? Does yours enjoy homemade bread as much as mine does? If it does, then you're in luck!

I've made challah bread before, but I wanted to try making a sandwich-type bread that I could toast without making an gooey mess. Or a crumbly, firey mess for that matter. I went to K3 Foods and picked up some stone ground wheat flour as well as some turbinado sugar, which I'd never used before. Then I turned to my trusty Kitchen Aid manual for some of their bread recipes!



I followed their recipe for Basic White Bread, but substituted in some of my wheat flour. The result was deliciously moist, but dense enough to hold up to slicing and toasting! Perfect with a swipe of almond butter with a morning bowl of Grape-Nuts! Mmmm! Fortunately for me, when sliced and toasted you can't see how lopsided the poor loaf is.



They'll be shaped better with practice! I promise!


Turbinado Wheat Bread
1/4 cup skim milk
1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 package yeast
3/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 1/2 cups stone ground wheat flour
1 - 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Place milk, sugar, salt and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool until lukewarm.

In a warmed mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk mixture and all of stone ground flour and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour to equal 2 cups. Using dough hook on mixer on lowest setting, mix about one minute. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. (I found that I used only that 1/2 cup more of all purpose along with a tablespoon of water - it was pretty dry and I was worried about how well it would mix. It turned out fine this way) Mix until dough clings to hook and cleans the sides of the bowl, roughly 2 minutes. Knead about 2 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic; it will be slightly sticky to the touch. (SLIGHTLY lol)

Remove and place into a lightly oiled bowl, rolling to ensure all of the dough is coated. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Punch down dough and place on a lightly floured surface. I floured the surface with the little bit of millet flour I had left that wasn't enough to make anything out of. Using a rolling pin, roll dough out to about 9 x 14 inches. Starting at the short end, roll the dough tightly. Pinch to seal the seam. Pinch the ends of the roll and fold them under. Place the dough seam side down in a greased loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise again for about an hour or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake the loaf about 30 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool overnight on a wire rack.

Mmmm... your carb monster will thank you!

Avocado Corn Chowder

The other day I got the craving to eat something green. I don't know why, I just did. I had an avocado that needed to be eaten before it went bad. Since I had no flour in the house I couldn't make those delicious Mayan Brownies. I decided to indulge my healthier, savory side and make a green soup.



To add some protein to that, I seared up some eye of round. Of course, you don't have to do this. Mmmm eye of round! STEAK!

Avocado Corn Chowder
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen lima beans
1 cup milk
1 avocado
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, puree milk, avocado, garlic and water until liquidy. Pour avocado mixture, peas, corn and lima beans into a crock pot on high. Stir in pepper flakes and salt. Cook about an hour or until heated through. Serve with a dollop of plain greek yogurt.