Vacation Report - Chocolate Ice "Cream"

I am home from my vacation, and back into a work week routine. My week of laying (not) in the sun, eating and drinking was absolutely fabulous! We stayed at this lovely secluded camp on Richard Lake.

I read fashion magazines...

played lots of cards...

Swam...

Went hiking...

And explored an abandoned mine...

But that is not why you are reading. You want to read about FOOD!!  Here's a lil bit about things I made on the trip.

First off my sister's super veggie & chip dip from The Wedding Shower 

It's the perfect sitting on the beach lunchtime snack accompaniment.

We had summer extremely hot weather that required very cold beverages (alternated with bottles of water of course)

Iced coffee for a mid afternoon pick me up. Or a bottle of my fav cheap beer that we don't have here in Manitoba, Lake Port Honey Lager....yummm. If you've never made iced coffee before, it's simple. Brew double strong cold and chill it in the fridge for a couple hours. Pour over iced and add soy milk and raw sugar. I find for whatever reason that iced coffee needs to be sweeter than hot coffee. Not sure why, but it does.

But by far the best food creation was Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream!!!Oh yes, I did say chocolate ice cream. You should now be familiar with our good friend banana soft serve. This is just a twist on it.

2 frozen bananas, chopped
6-8 frozen strawberries, sliced
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 to 1 1/2 tbsps cocoa powder
1-2 tablespoons seed or nut butter of your choice (I used pumpkin seed butter)

Blend the frozen fruit in a food processor until smooth. When freezing fruit always do the peeling and chopping first. I tried to bring 2 ziploc bags of frozen bananas in the cooler out to the lake and with the long ride and extreme heat they turned into a brown liquid...ick. So I just chucked 2 fresh bananas in the freezer when we got there, forgetting to peel and chop them first. Let's just say my finger is healing nicely

The strawberries survived the ride but were one solid mass I had to hack away at. Once the fruit is well blended add the cocoa, seed butter, and maple syrup to taste. I'm not gunna lie, it's pretty banana-y, which is why I added the maple syrup. I recommend slowly adding these last ingredients and taste testing as you go. The end result should be a cocoa//nutty flavour with a banana undertaste.

Doesn't it look delicious?!

Anyways, that was my holiday. I hope you are enjoying the summer and staying cool!

Summer Vacation & a Bad Blogger

Hi There,

I know I've been a bad blogger as of lately. That's because I haven't been very excited about food lately. I haven't been doing a big weekly grocery shop (time & money poor) which means I haven't been following a meal plan, which means I've been making quick, uncreative meals. And who wants to see photos of that? Also I blame the heat. Winnipeg is still in a crazy heat wave and I simply don't do well with heat, I'm more of a fall/winter girl. That being said and this is a total tangent, but I love Winnipeg in the summer because it is SO ALIVE! Since we have super long, super cold winters, this city celebrates the warm weather like nobody's business. Festival after festival!!! This week is Fringe (my favourite week in summer) but I will be missing it this year :( As of today I will be out at Richard lake (where my banner photo is taken) for the whole week! Which brings me back to the subject of this blog: food. This morning my husband are doing a HUGE grocery shop, from a list made from my Lake Week Meal Plan. So you see my friends I am heading back on track. There is no WiFi at the lake, but when I get back I promise you a blog with lots of fun cabin photos!

This is what I do at the lake, read mags under a big hat

 

Enjoy the summer

Stay hydrated, re-apply your sunscreen & wear a hat!

Salad Days

I've been in a bit of a food rut the last few days. It's too hot to want to make food, or eat it for that matter. Life's also been a bit busy, so the grocery situation is not too great. But these are all lame excuses for falling off the wagon. I'm not sure I'm quite back on track yet, but here's what I ate for dinner tonight. Nothing too fancy, just pieced together from what was still in the house

 Some lettuce from my mother's garden (O SO FRESH) & some baby carrots

Frozen, quick cooking falafel balls

 Chop em up

Toss in some pumpkin seeds, sprinkle on some ground flax, wheat germ (high in iron), & touch of vegan parmesan

 A quick dressing of equal parts olive oil & balsamic vinegar,  a sprinkle of rosemary & lots of oregano

Mix it up and eat!

Canada Day Company

The weather broke yesterday and we wound up with a beautiful Canada day in Winnipeg. My husband and I invited a couple of friends over for some bbq, bevvies, & sunshine. I made a GIANT batch of pasta salad, some bbq'd yams, & Morgan grilled up some turkey burgers.

Here's a simple pasta salad for when you don't have time to go to the store. You can put any type of vegetable in it you want and the sauce has minimal ingredients. Feel free to halve this recipe...it makes ALOT

4 cups cooked pasta, rotini, penne, shells, or macaroni
1 can chickpeas (or bean of your choice) drained & rinsed
1-2 peppers, any colour, diced into lil bite size pieces
3 celery sticks, sliced
3 sprigs green onion, diced
1/2 cucumber sliced & quartered

After you've cooked the pasta, run some cold water over it in a strainer to cool it down. Mix a tablespoon of oil into it to keep it from sticking.

Morgan doesn't like the whole wheat multi grain pastas so we comprimised on this one.

It looks and tastes like white pasta, but it's high in fibre & iron

I like my chickpeas steamed a bit, but if you like them right out of the can, go ahead and throw them right in along with all the vegetables

I wanted a creamy type of sauce as opposed to my usual oil & vinegar

I was just winging it so the following measurements are an estimate, just mix 'em up and add more of any 3 of the ingredients to your taste

3/4 cup Veganese

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tbsp

I made up a few snacks, chips, pretzels, watermelon, rice crackers  & edamame dip

We ate them out on the steps... have I mentioned I don't exactly have a real yard?

 Sean & his Evel Beer...lol

Hope you had a wonderful Canada Day!!

Coconut Conversion

I have to start by saying, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA, I love you!! It's raining here this morning Winnipeg, but the day can still brighten up! Being total sucks, my husband and I plan to just hang around the house today, possibly have a visitor or two, and sit out in the yard with some food & bevvies. (I'll post tomorrow if anything interesting happens in the kitchen)

Today I want to share with you my vegan conversion of my mother's famous O'Henry bars. You've seen them pictured in the Wedding Shower post. My sister and I can't resist these treats, hence the needing a vegan update.

One Christmas my mom made my dad a whole box of o'henry bars and peanut butter squares

So here it goes:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
a few whole graham crackers...about 9

Layer the crackers in the bottom of a greased 8 or 9" pan

Melt the oil in a med sized pot, add the soy milk and sugar, & bring to a boil. Continue boiling for 2-3 mins stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add the graham crumbs. Mix well then pour over the crackers. Put the pan in the freezer to stiffen while you make up the icing.

Icinig:

4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup soy milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the oil, milk, and vanilla well. Slowly add in the icing sugar, mixing well. I tried to use my fancy cordless hand mixer I got as a gift a few years ago. The darn thing was so heavy it made my wrist hurt more than when using a whisk, and didn't do a better job. Plus the fully charged battery died after 20secs or so. It must have been a dud :( It is with me no more.

Spread the icing over the graham mixture. The longer you leave it in the freezer the easier it will be to spread the icing on. My mom's secret trick is dipping the knife in a cup of hot water. It helps :)

Enjoy in moderation ;)