First, for breakfast I made the **delicious** peanut butter banana french toast that I first learned about on Chris and Darlene's blog. I must say, I feel a deep and permanent sense of appreciation for them, because I am insanely crazy about it!
With breakfast we had fresh figs & fresh pears! Yum yum! These figs are great, my aunt and her boyfriend picked them yesterday. The pears are from the farmer's market - perfectly ripe!
Also! Here's a fig from our little fig tree! How exciting! I took a picture, and then I ate it!
I was just in the mood to bake... and I saw this recipe for "Lemon-Poppy Sunburst Bread" in an ad for "Joyva Tahini" in the recent issue of Vegetarian Times. It's really, really good! It's sweet like banana bread or something along those lines. Here's the recipe:2 T flax Seeds
1/3 c water
1/3 c sunflower oil
3 T tahini
3/4 c sugar
2 c flour (i used half normal & half whole wheat pastry flour)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c plain soy milk
1/4 c lemon juice
lemon zest of one lemon
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/2 c golden raisins
1-2 T poppy seeds
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.
In a blender, grind up flax seeds until coarse, then add 1/3 c water, and blend until thick and goopy. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine oil, tahini, and sugar. Beat with electric mixer on medium until well-blended. Beat in flax mixture. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend with mixer on low speed. Beat in the soy milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Fold in sunflower seeds & golden raisins until blended. Spread batter into the pan.
Sprinkle poppy seeds evenly over the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 min, then invert onto a rack to cool. Cool completely before slicing.
Beet Risotto! This is one of our favorite meals. I usually make it with normal dark red beets... and it makes a shocking, beautiful red dish. This time I used the pink and white striped "chiogga" beets... and it wasn't nearly as beautiful. But still really tasty. It's such a nice dish, and the recipe is from "Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone".
Once again, everything looks yummy. I'm so jealous of your fig tree. I remember my grandmother had a fig tree in her backyard when I was little. I don't like dried figs, but I love fresh ones. And I've been eyeing that tahini recipe too- yours looks just like the one in the ad!
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures! I saw that bread recipe in Veg Times too and thought it looked really good. Does it taste nutty at all, like pb and banana?
ReplyDeleteMmmmmmm.... I may have to attempt that french toast with almond butter :) yum yum yum!!
ReplyDeleteHi Everyone!
ReplyDeleteBazu & ATXVegan,
isn't that funny that we all noticed the recipe in that ad? What an effective ad! It's really a yummy recipe, though I can't necessarily say if it tastes "nutty"... It just tastes yummy, and you do taste the tahini, which I like.
Bazu,
I like the story about your grandma's fig tree. I love fig trees so much. We just planted ours this spring, so it is still a baby. I was quite suprised that we actually got a few figs!
Ben,
That's a good idea! I bet this recipe would be just as good with any type of nut butter. It's a neat idea to experiment with other ones.
:)
Hi Amey,
ReplyDeleteI just came back to answer your question. Daiku is not vegan. We have a deal that our house and our kitchen is vegan and since he cooks more than me, that makes him a de facto vegan cook. (If he buys cheese, it has to be rennet-free and he keeps it sealed in a tupperware away from everything else- am I obsessive enough for you?) But in the last year or so he has progressively given up more and more meat. Fortunately, like me, he never liked straight up dairy or eggs. So slowly, with some ups and downs, he's becoming more veg. If I had to estimate, I'd say his diet is 75% veg. He also teaches about animal rights in his ethics classes, and is a big fan of "crazy" vegan foods like tempeh, miso, seaweed, etc. etc. so it's a good arrangement we have going so far...
Sorry for the overly long answer to your short and innocent question!
Hi Bazu!
ReplyDeleteI love your long answer!! Sounds like a very good system that you two have. Our kitchen is mostly vegan, but that's because my boyfriend doesn't do hardly any cooking. We do have macaroni and cheese in the cupboard, and even hot dogs in the freezer (sigh). That said, he loves what I cook and doesn't ever go off and eat meat afterwords or anything like that. But he eats meat a lot when we go out.
Anyhow, thanks for answering my question... it sure looks like Daiku cooks you up some delicious vegan food!
:) Amey
Hi Amey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. I just spent the last - oh, I don't know how long - perusing yours and reading all about your trip to Croatia and Bosnia. I'm curious as to what made you decide to vacation there. It's really too unfortunate about the food. Before I became a vegan, eating in foreign countries used to be one of my favorite things about traveling. Oh well. I'd much rather be vegan.
Also, one last thing - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your hair. You are really beautiful. Pretty blue eyes. :) My husband thinks I should cut all of my hair off (he's all for simplicity and convenience) but I'm still a little scared. Isn't that weird? Why do people have such an attachment to their hair? Anyway, I was thinking that I would grow it a bit more (partly to work up the courage) and then cut it all off and donate it to Locks of Love. Have you had short hair for long? Do you like it?
Hi Vivacious Vegan!
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for such nice comments and compliments! :)
Regarding travelling in Croatia & Bosnia... it was really weird. Since being a committed vegan I have travelled internationally a couple of times: Italy, and India. Those are really easy places to be vegan (especially India) and you can still feel like an adventurous eater. In Croatia & BiH it was a lot harder to feel like I was participating in the local cuisine. By the end of the trip I had found a few small things that I could order at restaurants... but I was still always grateful that they provided us with a whole loaf of bread every place we sat down!
We chose to go to Croatia & Bosnia and Herzegovina because my boyfriend is ethnically Croatian. His last name is Mustapick and we found two little villages called "Mustapic" - both of which we went to! It was also just a very beautiful and interesting and thought-provoking trip. A combination of warm people, stunning nature, and war devestation. I am still thinking about it a lot.
We did a travel blog actually:
balkanadventure.blogspot.com
Thanks so much for the nice comments on my hair! Sometimes I feel self-conscious about it. I have always had long hair, but my boyfriend was always wanting me to shave it off! (Funny that we both have that, seems like most fellas like long hair on ladies). So, I grew it out really long and then last year on Persian New Year (also the Vernal Equinox), we both shaved our heads. My long hair was donated to Locks of Love and my boyfriend just did a solidarity shave. It was fun and shocking to have a bald head!
Interestingly, I fuss less with my hair now that it is short... but I actually find that I think about the image that my hair projects much more often. I feel like I look much more non-traditional like this, and I often perceive that people are sussing me out, trying to figure out the message that I'm sending with my hairdo... When in fact, I only wanted to know what a bald head felt like at least once before I died!
It is nice though, to be liberated from fussing, and it's a very interesting exercise in vanity & self-image.
why not, you only live once!
sorry for such a lenghty reply!
:) AMey
I can definitely understand how having a shaved head would make me think about the image my hair is projecting. I wonder if I would feel self conscious about it all the time or if I would feel free and liberated. If I felt self conscious, it probably wouldn't be a very good experience for me. I suppose it's all about attitude. You've definitely made me think more about this now.
ReplyDeleteDo you think you'll keep your hair short or is your plan to grow it back out?
Hi VivaciousV!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking now to grow it out again... although, I also like it short. Maybe I'll just keep going back and forth for the rest of my life!
:)