As soon as I start to feel the weather change I become obsessed with all things soup, stew, curry or chili. I love a pipping hot bowl with a side of warmed bread. I mean really what could be more warming and comforting? While the PNW can’t hold a candle to Vermont/New England in the Fall it still does a pretty good job of charming me. If you can’t tell Fall is my favorite season-side note do you say Fall or Autumn?
Lately I have been whipping up a number of tasty bowls of goodness. My most recent creation was my Kabocha Red Lentil Curry. Seriously this recipe is so good and incredibly easy. It’s filling and nourishing and paired with some warmed naan bread it is a perfect meal.
Besides drowning ourselves in warm bowls of soup (and the like) we have also been enjoying a number of Fall activities including evening walks down leaf covered path ways, a trip to the pumpkin patch and of course pumpkin decorating (I made a pretty awesome gold glittered pumpkin).
How have you been enjoying the season? This coming weekend we have our annual pumpkin beer tasting and I can’t wait!
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by foodie.com. All opinions are my own.
It’s Autumn a time for pumpkin patches, chai lattes and most of all apple picking! Use up your apple stash with these 12 tasty recipes. We haven’t made it out to the apple orchard this year but we have been stocking up on apples and can’t wait to make this Apple Walnut Cake and One Bowl Carrot Apple Muffins. I am thinking I might also try this Apple Tahini Toast because it is a combination I wouldn’t haven’t made on my own but it sounds so interesting; if you try this recipe before I do let me know what you think!
Edith was begging for a snack this morning so I listed off her options – applesauce, banana, crackers- I got a no after every option. Since we are lacking in the grocery department right now I tried to rack my brain as to what other options we might have in the house. I thought about baking muffins and then I remembered we had a few bunches of kale in the crisper. I proposed the idea of making kale chips to her and she jumped up and ran to her Learning Tower ready to make kale chips (I took that as a big ol’ yes!)
I usually go for a cheezy kale chip or just plain olive oil with a dash of salt but today I decided to make salt & vinegar.
Also make sure you have a cute helper and taster on hand. You can see more photos of E helping make these kale chips over on Naturally Family.
What are you favorite kind(s) of kale chips? I love cheezy kale chips made in the dehydrator but when I’m in a pinch I like to do olive oil, tamari, nutritional yeast and a dash of pepper (same directions as above) and toss them in the oven for quick crisping.
I am working on a number of new recipes right now (yay!) but until then I wanted to re-share a few of my favorite Fall recipes.
Chickpea Tomato Minestrone: This actually isn’t one of my recipes but rather a recipe that I had pinned and tried. It is super hearty and warming.
Vegan Pumpkin Pie:First off Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to my friends (and husband). This recipe while perfect for the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday it is really great anytime. Seriously rich and delicious.
Creamy Curry Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese (vegan):I crave this all year long and make it (or variations) at least once or twice per month. I haven’t made it myself this month but I think it’s long over due and with squash in season it’s the perfect time.
French Lentil Dahl:I am a huge lover of lentils and this rich and hearty soup is perfect for the cooling weather. I like to pair it with a nice green salad with French Vinaigrette and a slice or two of baguette.
Chickpea Potato Tagine:This warm and heart tagine is sweet, a little spicy and earthy. So delicious.
What are you favorite cool weather recipes? Have you tried any of the recipes above? Any cool weather recipe requests?
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by foodie.com. All opinions are my own.
It’s pasta time again! Who else loves pasta? I seriously could eat some sort of noodle dish every single day and for most meals. I love noodle soups, mac and cheese, Italian pastas, Asian noodle dishes and basically anything that includes some sort of noodle/pasta. Back in March I featured 12 Vegan Pasta Dishes for Your Sunday Night Dinner well here are 12 more perfect pasta dishes for any night of the week. This recipe collection includes a your more traditional Italian pasta dishes, Asian inspired and a few other favorites thrown in the mix. Some are hot, some are cold and some include non-traditional noodles such as butternut squash and carrots. I also wanted to make sure that I included a few really delicious recipes that could either be made in advanced or take around 30 minutes or less to put together for week nights.
This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds. As always all opinions are my own.
I’m back in the kitchen and it feels great! The past two months have been a little chaotic and I haven’t really been inspired or in a position to really work on any new recipes. Yesterday however I made it back into the kitchen and I brought Edith with me.
I really want Edith to love cooking as much as I do and I also think that having her in the kitchen and being apart of the process makes her more interested in food and healthy eating. As you can see she is also learning how to become a food blogger with her Cabbage Patch camera. I’m thinking I need to find one of my old point and shoot cameras or maybe an inexpensive kids digital camera for her so that she can take real pictures – any recommendations?
Anyways we headed to the kitchen to make a snack for the week. Now you might be thinking chocolate as a snack? YES! These bites are filled with yummy and healthy ingredients like oats and almonds and just a little chocolate to make them a treat as well as a tasty snack. I usedBlue Diamond Honey Roasted Vanilla Almonds in this recipe because a. they are super tasty and b. I thought they would be amazing with chocolate. Check out the recipe below and then head to the kitchen right away and MAKE THESE they are seriously insane!
1-6oz container of Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Vanilla Almonds
½ cup creamy unsalted almond butter
½ cup honey
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup dark chocolate chips
¼ tsp. Himalayan pink salt
DIRECTIONS
Place oats in the bowl a food processor fitted with the s-blade and process until it is small coarse pieces. Add the almonds and coconut and pulse 15-20 times until finely ground. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Add the almond butter, honey, coconut oil, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips to a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate chips are completely melted. Turn off the heat and stir in the salt. Pour the mixture into the bowl with the oat-almond mixture and stir together until everything is evenly mixed.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour out the mixture. Top with another sheet of parchment and roll out into a square or circle that is 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Place in the freezer for 1-2 hours until set and then cut into squares. Store in an airtight container the fridge or freezer
OUTTAKES
Edith enjoyed helping me make these tasty treats but she is only two so she is easily distracted by other things like putting stuff on top of her baby brothers head. At least he didn’t seem to mind!
I have been wanting to share this book with your for awhile now but honestly have just dropped the ball a bit when it comes to regular blogging due to pregnancy, birth and now moving (we move in 9 days!!). I have a moment this morning while Neil is our running, Edith is watching an alphabet show and Alder is napping in my arms so I wanted to share one of my new favorite books Plant-Powered for Life: Eat Your Way to Lasting Health with 52 Simple Steps and 125 Delicious by Sharon Palmer.
I received an advanced copy of this book to check out and to feature on the blog if I so chose (<–disclaimer). I often receive books and don’t end up featuring them because they just aren’t ones that I love or ones that I think you will be interested in but this book has easily become one of my favorites and is feature worthy. That being said if I didn’t own it already I would buy it for myself and I see it being a perfect gift this holiday season for family and friends.
This book is NOT about becoming a vegetarian or vegan but rather about incorporating more plants into your diet whatever that may be. The aim is simple: to show how anyone, from meat-loving omnivore to junk-food vegan, can benefit by making room in their diet for more whole plant foods.
Delicious Arugula Salad Pizza recipe that I made – so good!
The book is laid out so that there are 52 different steps that one can take to become more plant powered. Along with tips on how to incorporate more plants into your diet each step includes 2-3 recipes that go along with the theme of that step. One idea that I think would be great is to use this book as a jumping off point to add more plants to your diet by following one step and the recipes in that step each week for one year. It would be a great way to transition your diet to a more plant powered one without becoming too overwhelmed. Now I don’t know if that is why there are 52 steps but I think it would be a great plan and of course you can go in any order you’d like, although I would do step one first because it has you set a goal such as you want to go 100% vegan, you’d like to become a more plant focused vegetarian or a plant powered omnivore.
The steps are really inspiring and even though I would consider myself a plant powered veg I could always use room for improvement because it really is easy to become a junk food veg or slip into that at times especially when life gets chaotic.
So what about the recipes? I have been cooking up lots of the recipes in this book because they all just sound so good. I also love how easy most of them are to put together. There are a few more time consuming recipes or recipes that I have had a difficult time finding the ingredients for but the majority of the recipes are healthy, easy and tasty. The book also includes great photos for most of the recipes, tips and side notes and nutritional facts.
So far my favorite recipes are the Arugula Salad Pizza, Tofu Ratatouille and Neil and Edith love the Black Bean Brownies with Walnuts (recipe below). Have you read this book yet? If you do or if you try this recipe come back and let me know what you think!