Day Seventeen

Whew! Today was a long and busy day but it did start off on a high note because I actually slept until 6:30 this morning. What a treat! Now I'm praying that it happens again tonight. Wish me luck :)

I did something different with my smoothie this morning. I mixed frozen banana and mango, a fresh peach, some soy yogurt, a bit of water and a big spoonful of ground flax seed. It made a nice change from the usual berry and banana.

After breakfast I got to work on the jam making. These are the ingredients I used along with about 4 1/2 cups of blueberries. I mixed it all in the pot: the blueberries, 1 cup of the unsweetened not from concentrate apple juice, 3/4 cup of agave nectar and the package of no-sugar pectin.

As it boiled I crushed the fruit slightly. Once it reached a hard boil I let it go without stirring for about 4 minutes. Then I took it off the heat, stirred it and let it sit for 5 or 6 minutes. When I canned the jars I had them in the water bath for 7 minutes. I made two batches for a total of eight jars.

Maddie's breakfast, heavy on the fruit and easy on the waffle. For lunch she was out with a friend and had a french fry from New York fries.. She checked and they use non-hyrogenated vegetable oil for their fries. I was pretty proud of her for checking.

The finished product. The jars look really pretty and they've all jelled and the lids have all "popped". I'll let you know how it tastes. Hopefully good :)

While I was on a roll I did a few other cooking projects before I cleaned the kitchen. I had some broccoli that was reaching it's end days and I didn't want to waste it. So I steamed it briefly and put it together with this vegan "cheese" sauce that I came up with.

***Vegan "cheese" sauce

I mixed 1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill baking flour (or regular, unbleached all purpose) with 1/4 cup nutrional yeast flakes and 1/4 cup vegan "parmesan cheese" with a little bit of water. Then I added more water (1 to 1 1/2 cups) and cooked it on medium, stirring it all the time until it was the right consistency. I made mine pretty thick. Add 1 Tbs. of melted earth balance spread and a smidge of cayenne and pepper. Since I had the Daiya "cheddar cheese" I tossed a large sprinkle of that in as well.

I liked it. As long as you're not expecting conventional cheese sauce the flavour is good and the texture is right. After mixing this with the broccoli I let it cool and then stored it in the feezer.

I didn't want the pretty purple cauliflower to spoil either so I roasted it, along with another funky head of cauliflower. These I stored in the fridge to have with dinner on Saturday.

Messing around with art supplies was on my to do list today as my fun thing to do. Please don't laugh at my poor little peach. I'm awfully proud of it, since I haven't picked up any kind of art supplies in a good 7 or 8 years at least...I know my perspective is a bit off, my shading isn't great and I know that I could truly go on and on about everything that is wrong with this sketch but I really ENJOYED doing it. And after all, isn't that the point? I also think that I should get points for posting the darn thing on this blog :)

I did my yoga and went for my massage today :)

Then I went to the doctor's :(
Then I cooked dinner.

I made meat chili for everyone else and a veggie chili for Maddie and I. In ours I put canned diced tomatoes, canned kidney beans, 1/2 package of Yves ground "meat", sauteed mushrooms and garlic and carrots. Then I added a handful of corn, a little kale and some chili powder. Let it cook until it was a beautiful dark sienna.

On the side I served a salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette and...are you ready? I figured out how to make cornbread vegan free!!

Much excitement and happy dancing in the kitchen. I didn't want to use a recipe that was untried so I figured I'd come up with my own. Smart ?!?! It could have been a real kitchen catastrophe. Luckily it wasn't.

***Vegan Cornbread

Set the oven at 425 degrees

Oil a 8X11" glass pan (that's what I used)

Mix:

2 1/2 Tbs. ground flax seed and 3 Tbs. water. Set aside.

Mix:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

2 cups Bob's Red Mill baking flour or unbleached all purpose flour if you eat gluten :)

2 Tbs. baking powder

1 Tbs. salt

Add:

2 cups unseetened soy or rice milk
The soaked flaxmeal

1/4 to 1/2 cup applesauce (I used 1/2 cup and it really didn't taste like apples.

Blend until smooth, then stir in:

3 Tbs melted earth balance and 4 tbs. olive oil.

Bake in the prepared pan for 2o-25 minutes, depending on your oven. It should be a light brown on top and a toothpick should could out clean.

Now I'm going to take an epsom salts bath and going to bed.

Sweet dreams everyone

-Carolyn