julie’s kind kitchen

So, yesterday was my sweetie’s birthday and I decided to make him a cake (see previous post). After many great suggestions about different cheesecake and carrot cake recipes (thanks everyone!) I decided to go with the one Nancy made awhile back for her dh’s birthday.

Well, let’s just say it looked delish, but it tasted too tofu-y. It was my fault though, –not the recipe’s fault. It called for soft tofu, but I only had firm-so, I made the substitution. I won’t make that mistake again! Oh, well! It was the thought that counted and neither Matt nor I thought it was that big of a deal.

oh, btw-I gotta give a “shout-out” to Leslie whos B-Day was also on the 28th!

Yay! My 1st time posting my Midweek Munchies. These groceries are from Sunflower Foods, Trader Joes, and the itty bitty Farmer’s Market by my work.

Midweek Munchies: What Julie is contributing for the week potatos tangelos bananas strawberries broccoli frozen blueberries an avacado a lemon almond butter(fresh ground) firm tofu Flax & Sunflower bread (for FREE!) fresh salsa tortilla chips Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia’s blog

View More Midweek Munchies Participants

I really wanted to make something sweet tonight. However, I wanted to make something semi-healthy and I didn’t want to have to buy something at the store. Then, I though of Leslie
and her quick and versatile recipe for treats. I decided that was what I was craving!

My treats have:

brown rice cereal w/ freeze dried fruit (Matt got a box for free through work)
dried plums
walnuts
sunflower seeds
Tropical Source Chocolate Chips
pb
honey (using it up-next time I’ll buy some agave nectar or brown rice syrup)

They were yummy! Thanks Leslie!

Ok, so Matt’s birthday is coming up and I really want to make him a nice cake. His favorites are carrot cake and cheese cake. So, I am looking for tried and true recipes for either one of those. Oh, and I do want to make them vegan…even thought we are both vegetarians. Thanks in advance!

Tonight Matt & I had pizza, salad, and beer to conclude our Spring Break from ASU. Matt made the pizza (mushrooms, peppers & cheese) and I made the salad (romaine, tomatoes, sunflower seeds & Goddess Dressing). Mmmm…

Matt came back yesterday from a 1 week cruise and was full of less than adequate cruise food. He said he mostly lived on pizza and eggs-bleck. So, this morning I made him tofu scramble and breakfast potatos to fill his tummy. He also made himself a smoothie w/ tons of fruit, soy protien powder and flax. (He’s the smoothie master).

The tofu scramble I made was based on http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=110
this recipe from the ppk. I didn’t have any tumeric or paprika, so there isn’t much color to it.

Matt came up w/ this silly title.

Here’s a picture of the Brooklyn Pad Thai from VwaV that I made on Sunday. (See a few posts down)

Inspired by Harmonia-here’s a non-food post:

3 to free…

3 things that have made me smile lately:

~Cooking again (even if I have wounds)
~Cleaning the entire house this weekend
~Reese Witherspoon winning Best Actress at the Oscars (she’s so cute & humble!)

3 things that have made me frown lately:

~All the studying I have to do before tomorrow
~the confusion in my relationship
~all the $$ I have spent on groceries lately

3 things I would like to accomplish this week:

~Study hard for my tests
~Not buy any more groceries-cause I’m leaving to visit my Grandma & Grandpa on Saturday
~Be confident & in control of myself and actions

Since I’m back on the cooking wagon, I made the Brooklyn Pad Thai from Vegan w/ a Vengeance. The finished product was yummy, but getting there was a pain. When I was cooking the tofu in boiling hot peanut oil, some of the oil splashed up on my arm. Ouch!! I have a big mark now. Plus, for whatever reason , I decided to ignore the directions (which say to cook it in two batches) and I cooked it all at the same time. Let me just say, a pound of pasta is hard to control. Everything barely fit in our huge wok! My kitchen is a friggin’ mess now…but oh well. I have tons of yummy pad thai for the entire week!

As far as the recipe goes, I couldn’t find lemongrass nor dried chilis (maybe I didn’t look hard enough?), so those weren’t included. Also, I used spelt soba noodles instead of rice noodles-cause I didn’t see rice noodles and the soba noodles were cheap!

I will be posting a picture later-Matt has his camera w/ him right now.

If you can’t wait–check out this pic, which is from the same recipe, but made by someone else. Mine looks more or less like this. http://static.flickr.com/44/107228164_c65c6c9037.jpg

These are my take on the Easy Pleasin’ Oat Bars from Vive. I had to bake them in a circular dish–so they are kinda funny shaped and a lot thicker than they would be if I had an 8 x 12 dish. Oh well! They are really good! I added chocolate chips & walnuts and it totally fooled my senses into thinking they were cookies! Matt says they are like cookie bars.

If you want more tips about cooking these bars, see http://vivelevegan.blogspot.com/