Making My Own Almond Milk

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well. This is going to be a quick post because I am exhausted. This weekend has been exactly the opposite of what I expected and has been very stressful. There is something wrong with TJ and we don't know what. He was fixed about 2 weeks ago and has not been the same since. Along with being lethargic it's like he was never house trained so I've been cleaning pretty much all weekend... and trying to figure out how to get him to go outside again... if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them because I have no clue what to do and I feel so bad for him because he is miserable.

At 9:00 tonight after almost 3 days here I finally got to a project I was meaning to do on Saturday... make my own home made almond milk for the first time. I remembered to get my almonds soaking this morning so I would be ready to blend tonight to make a yummy smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. Here's a few pics from the process...

I soaked 2 cups of almonds in filtered water. After about 5 hours I actually peeled the almonds. The skin was practically hanging off of them and I heard that it is better with peeled almonds so I made the effort and peeled them. I put the peeled almonds in a new container of fresh filtered water and soaked a few more hours.

After the almonds had soaked I drained them and rinsed them with more filtered water. Then I added the drained almonds to the high speed blender with 6 cups of fresh filtered water and blended away. After it was blended I strained out the pulp in a cheese cloth and was left with this beautiful creamy white almond milk. I'm really happy with how my first batch came out! I didn't add any sweetener (I'd probably add dates to it) or any flavorings because I'm going to use it for smoothies and didn't think I'd need it.

I'm also left with this beautiful snowy white almond pulp. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do with it? I don't have my dehydrator with me but would love to hear what kinds of things you make with almond pulp.

That's all for now. It's back to work tomorrow and I'm sure all I'll be thinking about is TJ and his sad face. I'll try to check in later on in the week with more of my raw eats.

Throwback Thursday: A Childhood Treat

When I was younger, summertime meant my mom would make one of my favorite desserts. It was so simple it seems silly to base an entire post on it, but after suggesting it to Shen recently I had a craving and decided to go ahead and make it. Truthfully, I don't know if it is supposed to be enjoyed on it's own or as an accompaniment but I definitely enjoy it either way. So today, I'll be showing you some macerated strawberries.

I feel like this is so simple it's borderline embarrassing to devote and entire post to it. But it's so damn good I think you'll love it and if you guys try it after this post then I've done my job. All you need is a lb of fresh, ripe strawberries, one small lemon and about 3/4 tbsp of sugar. You slice your strawberries, squeeze your lemon on top, sprinkle with your sugar and mix. Then you let the magic happen. Let the strawberries sit (I usually keep mine in the fridge) for a few hours and they get tender, sweeter and a syrup pools around them in the bottom of the bowl.

That is all there is to it. After you have your tender berries and sweet syrup you can eat them in countless ways. Spoon your berries on top of waffles or pancakes, enjoy on its own, top with whipped coconut cream or if you really want to indulge... spoon it on top of some ice cream (or banana soft serve). Oh, they also taste great on top of cake with some vegan whipped cream ;)

I attempted to get a before and after photo of the berries but they didn't come out great. I don't think you can see the difference or the amazing syrup but I'll show you anyway.

This is the before picture. Normal berries with a little glisten of lemon juice.

Here is the after. Softer berries, different color and you can kind of see the syrup. It's so simple but it's so good and in my house it means summer is here.

Clearly I've enjoyed some of my berries since I made them and I figured I would show you how I decided to eat them...

That's right, I decided to top my Trader Joe's Chocolate Sorbet with a healthy dose of these strawberries. You can definitely see the syrup in this (horrible, sorry!) photo. Chocolate and fresh strawberries is one of my favorite flavor combinations so this was definitely a great treat!

I hope you guys will give this super easy treat a try. I hope you are all doing well! 

Flashback Friday: Truffles!

Hey everyone! I've been slacking on my Throwback Thursday posts where I bring back my old recipes so they can live on this new domain. Truthfully I just forget to do these posts on Thursday. I got out of work late yesterday so I just completely forgot but I figured that a Flashback Friday is just as fun as Throwback Thursday. For this week I decided to bring back two truffle recipes! One is a little more involved and time consuming and the other is so super easy and quick to come together.

Here they are!

Half Baked Truffles

Cookie Dough Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance buttery sticks)

2 tbsp favorite plant milk (I use almond breeze unsweetened vanilla)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

Brownie Batter ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup vegan margarine 

2 tbsp favorite plant milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Chocolate shell:

1 bag vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

For cookie dough:

1. Add brown sugar, white sugar and margarine to a bowl and beat until fluffy.

2. Add plant milk and vanilla extract and beat to combine.

3. Add flour and beat thoroughly. Dough will be soft and sticky.

4. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Put in fridge for dough to stiffen up to allow for rolling.

For brownie batter:

Follow steps 1-3 above, also adding the cocoa powder.  Also refrigerate brownie dough to stiffen for rolling.

To make truffles:

Take 1 tsp of cookie dough and 1 tsp of brownie batter and roll together into one ball.  Place truffles on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Once all truffles are rolled, place in freezer to harden before dipping.

Pre dipped rolled truffles!

For dipping:

To dip the truffles I just melted a bag of vegan chocolate chips in a double boiler. this is the part of the recipe I may tweak a little because I felt the chocolate was a bit thick for coating, but it still worked!

Directions:

1. Melt 1 bag of vegan chocolate chips in a double boiler.

2. Take a few truffles from the freezer (they soften quickly so I only work with a few at a time). Place one truffle on a fork and dip in chocolate, making sure the truffle is completely coated.

3. Allow excess chocolate to drip off, gently shaking if you need to.  Place truffles on a second cookie sheet. *Tip: I froze a second cookie sheet and lined it with wax paper. This allows the bottom of the truffle to harden quicker and not spread a ton.

4. Place truffles in the freezer for a few minutes in between dipping to allow them to harden up a bit.

5. After all truffles are dipped, place tray back in freezer to allow everything to harden and firm up.  I stored them in the fridge before I gave them out since the heat makes everything melt so quickly! You can keep them in the freezer too!

I love this shot where you can see both parts of the truffle!

I hope that these instructions make sense! Like I said, I’m not the best at crafting recipes but hopefully this will work for you  They are time consuming but have a high yield and taste incredible! Enjoy!

Cookie Truffles

These are the ridiculously easy  cookie truffles made with just 3 ingredients! They make a great gift during the holiday season!

Ingredients:

1 package sandwich cookies (the original recipe called for Oreos but I made mine more festive for the holidays by making a batch with Candy Cane Joe Joe’s and a batch with Newman O’s Ginger Cookies)

1-8 oz tub of tofutti cream cheese

1 package vegan chocolate chips (if dipping the truffles)*

Directions:

1. Process cookies into fine crumbs in the food processor.

2. Mix softened cream cheese in with crumbs. Combine completely.

3. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let it set a little.

4. Roll mixture into small balls (I used a medium sized ice cream scoop). Refrigerate again until firm.

5. If dipping, melt chocolate chips and dip truffles until evenly coated. Refrigerate to set the chocolate coating.

5. Enjoy! 

*Note – Dipping any chocolate or peanut butter cream cookies in chocolate will always be delicious. I didn’t know how the ginger cookies would taste so I rolled them in powdered sugar. They looked great for a little bit but then there was a condensation situation and it formed more of a glaze (which isn’t bad either). You could also try vegan white chocolate for those.

Ginger Cookie Truffles rolled in Powdered Sugar

Candy Cane Joe Joe Truffles dipped in Chocolate

I told you it was really really easy. You can honestly just leave the mixture in a bowl and just spoon it into your mouth it is that good. 

So there you have it, some more Throwback recipes! I hope you all had a great week and have some fun stuff planned for the weekend. Happy Friday!

Throwback Thursday: Cookie Dough Sundae

I don't know about you, but here in NY I enjoyed a gorgeous, sunny, balmy 72 degree day. As the temperature climbs and we start to thaw from the winter it is time to shake the dust off of some recipes for frosty treats. That is why I decided to revive my Cookie Dough Sundae recipe for this Throwback Thursday. As some of you may recall, my theme for half of last year's Vegan MoFo was restaurant recreations. Included in this series was a recreation of Cold Stone Creamery's "Cookie Doughn't You Want Some." I could have easily recreated this sundae using store bought products but I decided to challenge myself to make a healthy version to enjoy guilt free. Let's stroll down memory lane and celebrate the leap into spring and with this delicious recipe. And the best part? You don't have to worry about bikini season being right around the corner.

So what makes this treat so healthy? That creamy ice cream is actually banana soft serve and the healthy cookie dough recipe comes courtesy of Chocolate Covered Katie (Healthy Cookie Dough Dip)!

Banana soft serve, the quickest chocolate sauce ever and little balls of Healthy Cookie Dough Dip. Probably one of the best recreations ever (if I do say so myself!) 

Vegan Cookie Dough Sundae

Ingredients:

1 1/2 bananas, frozen

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp agave

1 tsp water

1/4-1/3 cup Healthy Cookie Dough Dip, rolled into balls

Directions:

1. Make chocolate sauce by mixing cocoa powder, agave and water together. Set aside.

2. Add frozen bananas to food processor. Process until it starts to get creamy. Add vanilla and cinnamon (if you choose) and then continue processing until it reaches a creamy, soft serve texture.

3. Spoon soft serve into a bowl and top with cookie dough balls and drizzle with chocolate syrup. To achieve a more Cold Stone like sundae, mix half of your cookie dough calls into the soft serve and top with remaining. You can also add chocolate chips if you’d like.

I chose not to use caramel for several reasons, the biggest one being that I felt it was kind of unnecessary. Had I decided to use it, I would have made some date syrup and used that as my caramel. This is sweet enough as is though. 

The best part about this version is that it is…

vegan, of course! 

So there you have it, a decadent sundae made at home with just a few ingredients. A perfect dessert to impress your friends or to enjoy as a treat.

I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane. I hope you've all had a great week. I have Fridays off now so I'm deciding what I want to do tomorrow. I believe it is supposed to be another beautiful day so I'll see how long I can stand being outside before my allergies decide it's time for me to come back in ;)

Hope you all enjoy the end of your week! I'll be back on Sunday with a fun haul and review for you ;) 

Throwback Thursday: Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies!

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday! I'm here with another throwback recipe. This is one of my favorites and I was reminded of it a few days ago reading Shen's blog. I think I may have to make a batch of these after Passover ends because it has been too long!

Anyway, here is the recipe! I used this recipe as my start point and made a bunch of changes to create this new cookie! Enjoy!

Gluten Free Almond Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup gf oat flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup Alter Eco Mascobado Sugar*

1/4 cup white sugar (or coconut sugar!)

2 tbsp maple syrup or coconut nectar

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, drained on a paper towel

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups gf rolled oats

3/4 cups sliced almonds

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

*Instead of regular brown sugar I used Alter Eco’s Mascobado sugar that was sent to me to review. This was my secret for this recipe. It added a beautiful hint of caramel that was so perfect. I really love this sugar, definitely give it a try if you can find it! If not, feel free to use regular brown sugar..

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. Mix the sugars, syrup, applesauce, coconut oil and extracts in a medium bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Add oats, almonds and coconut. Fold mix ins into batter until combined then let sit for a few minutes.

5. Drop cookies on baking sheet (I used a small ice cream scoop to portion my cookies). Bake cookies 10-11 minutes until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes on tray then transfer to cooling rack. Enjoy!!

*Feel free to add in some chocolate chips as well, especially if you love the Almond Joy flavor combo of coconut, almond and chocolate!

These cookies are seriously amazing. I really love the almond extract in it too. I may add a little almond flour next time too 

That's all for tonight! I hope you all have a great Friday!