Saturday Summer Breads & Biscuits

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you all are staying cool as you celebrate! For us, we are enjoying our 3 day weekend at home - we've been traveling almost every weekend, so this weekend was our time to relax, do some cleaning, hanging out with our cats, and of course cooking and baking.

It's nice during the summer to have cool refreshing meals, which are quicker to make. Salads, dips, sandwiches, fruit smoothies, ice cream, etc. Yesterday we had fun making homemade oatmeal pitas and then had a healthy hummus pita! The recipe was so easy, from our favorite Bread Machine Magic cookbook. We will definetely make these pitas again!

Another delicious Bread Machine Magic recipe was the Shredded-Wheat Bread. This recipe called for crumbled shredded wheat (we used our favorite Arrowhead Mills Shredded Wheat Cereal). The bread had a soft yet slightly dense texture and a great wheaty taste; made perfect slices for sandwiches!

We love to start our Saturdays with breads and biscuits for breakfast. Ricki has an awesome Peanut Butter Biscuit recipe that we had to try! But instead of peanut butter (we try to avoid nuts), we used tahini. These Tahini Biscuits were devoured! Soft and fluffy, with a delicate crumb and a good nutty maple flavor. We served these with pear butter, maple syrup, fresh strawberries and cantelope, and a glass of soy milk.


Another Saturday biscuit that we enjoyed was Pumpkin Cornmeal Biscuits. Moist from the pumpkin puree, nutty and textured from the cornmeal coating on the bottoms, and subtle sweetness from the maple lemon glaze. A good biscuit for breakfast or with a meal. We served these with more maple syrup and coconut oil.

With our pumpkin biscuit we had a refreshing Raspberry Banana Fruit Smoothie with Healthforce Nutritionals Fruit of the Earth Mix. We also recently purchased Healthforce Nutritionals Vitamineral Green mix and both are so good! A blend of healthy energizing rejuvinating vitamins and minerals from natural wholesome raw sources. The Vitamin C and the Maca Vanilla Spice mixes were also very good. Everyday we make smoothies, and these blends have given us more energy! Reviews also say that overall their health improves too, such as healthy hair and skin.


Well, have a great weekend! Happy Independence Day!

We're Melting, We're Melting!

Texas is sweltering HOT. We had the pleasure of going home to see family and celebrate our grandparents 50th wedding anniversary, and it happened to be when San Antonio/Austin were getting record highs of 100-105! It was really nice when we flew back into Portland and basked in the breezy, sunny, 70-degree weather....












Don't you love photos and making memories with family? Our uncle, who is savvy with computers, made a DVD slideshow of 50 years of pictures of our grandparents and all of the children & grandchildren. It was so touching and memorable!

It's really hard to stay cool in such unbearable weather. Ice cream, fruit smoothies, lots of water, and fresh salads really help to stay hydrated. (Oh and dark chocolate is nice, too, lol..)

Speaking of heat, our mouths were on fire when we ordered take-out from our favorite local Thai restaurant. We enjoyed spicy red curry (with eggplant, tofu, bell pepper, bamboo shoots, onion, basil, and cabbage), spicy Pad Ga Prow stir-fry (with tofu, garlic, chili, bell pepper, onion, carrot, basil leaves, broccoli, and mushrooms), and spicy Tom Ka soup (coconut milk, lemongrass, galanga, kaffir leaves, lime juice, tofu, broccoli, cabbage, onion, tomatoes, and mushrooms). So flavorful! As summer continues, we hope everyone enjoys the outdoors and stays cool! And don't let little things in life (like hot weather) get to your mood - stay positive and cherish memories, no matter how unbearable things can get. :)

"Pop"!

In honor of Father's ("Pop") Day, here are two popular treats for a poppin' fun party :)


Sweet and Spice Popcorn

1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1/4 - 3/8 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
dash cayenne, optional
2 cups plain popped popcorn

Mix seasonings and sugar in a med sized bowl. Add popcorn and oil, then mix until popcorn is coated with seasonings. Serves 2.

Lemon Maple Three Seed Mini Muffins

1 Tb poppy seeds
1 Tb hemp seeds
1 Tb pumpkin seeds
1 3/4 cup oats
1 Tb sugar
1 1/2 - 2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
2 1/2 cup flour, such as spelt or kamut
1 Tb baking powder
3 Tb lemon juice
1 1/2 Tb flaxmeal
3/4 cup non-dairy milk
3 Tb maple syrup
1/4 tsp maple extract (or vanilla)
2 Tb canola oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine first 10 ingredients (poppy seeds through flour) in a large bowl. In a small bowl, add lemon juice and milk. Mix slightly, then add flaxmeal, maple syrup, maple extract, and canola oil. Combine wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Drop batter into a prepared mini-muffin pan, and bake for 13-16 minutes for mini-sized muffins, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Makes 12 mini-muffins, perfect size for parties.

And while you are having a party, why not watch Mary Poppins!



(Popcorn photo by Darren Hester)

Birthday Portland Excursion & Other Eats

It's been a while posting...partly because we've been getting burned out from 9-11 hour days at work. We had an especially bad day on Thursday June 18, which happened to be our 23 rd birthday. :(

Saturday was a wonderful day, though, hiking in Forest Park (the largest urban park in the USA), strolling through Portland's Pearl District (and stopping in at Storables, Powell's City of Books, and Whole Foods Market), and eating at Proper Eats Cafe! We had a wonderful refreshing hike followed by a fresh, healthy lunch. If you are ever in the area, you have to hike at Forest Park, it is so beautiful, scenic, lush, peaceful, and rejuvenating!

At Proper Eats, we shared a tabouli wrap with shredded beets, sauerkraut, spinach, and miso tahini sauce on a whole wheat tortilla, and a sample platter of raw crackers, raw veggies, sunseed avocado dip, hummus, and spicy black bean dip. For dessert, decadent Thai Chili Dark Chocolate Truffle and Peppermint Dark Chocolate Truffle! While the meals were very good, unique, and fresh, we felt like they weren't wow enough to get the next time. We really want to try their other dishes, because it was all so healthy, local, and vegan. The cafe is quaint and even has a small grocery store with local produce, bulk section, and vegan snacks.
Did we mention how much we LOVE our farmer's market? Last week we bought super sweet and fresh strawberries, zucchini, lettuce, bok choy, cucumber, and fresh aromatic basil.


Since we are behind in posting, here are some more delicious yet random eats to share with you!

Starting off the weekend with a fruit n' veggie smoothie, fresh sliced pears, and some Nature's Path Flax Waffles, drizzled with a little pear butter and maple syrup.









And, let's just skip to dessert! Vive le Vegan's Chocolate Chip Cookies!

We adapted them slightly (added in a little oats for texture, among other things), but overall these were the best chocolate chip cookies we've tried. Good texture, soft yet not too doughy or crumbly, whole grain, and very flavorful! This recipe can act as a base to be used to create other great cookies. Yummy :)


Using our huge farmer's market zucchini, we made zucchini hummus. This recipe came from our raw "cook"book (Raw Food Made Easy for 1-2 People), but our tahini was non-raw, so this hummus is semi-raw. The hummus has zucchini, tahini, garlic, a little cumin and paprika, and some salt just blended together. It is slightly thinner in consistency, but very tasty and unique. It is more than just hummus - it can be used as a creamy sauce, as a dip, or as a dressing, and you can change up the spices to create different flavors. We loved it especially over pasta (chilled or warm), fresh basil leaves, and veggies (in this case some sundried tomatoes).
So, celebrate this summer by buying fresh local produce, traveling/exploring new places, eating healthy delicious meals, and indulging in decadent desserts!

Portland is a great place to travel, with beautiful bridges, parks, shopping, and restaurants.


Have a nice week everyone! We will share some more product reviews soon.

Let us know what your favorite places/cities to travel are, because we love to travel!

Basil and Cilantro

Don't you do just love fresh herbs? Dinner tastes like it was made in the garden!


What are your favorite herbs to use in meals? When we think of herbs, we think of basil, cilantro, oregano, sage, thyme, parsley, and mint. But those are typical herbs - can you think of any other herb that's unique but really good to cook with?

We especially love that different ethnic cuisines use the same herbs but in different ways. Basil in Thai and Italian. Oregano in Italian and Greek. Cilantro in Mexican and Thai. YUM!

Basil grows so well in Texas, and we used to have a garden of herbs, but our favorite was the basil! Although it dies every winter, it thrives in the summer once it's replanted. We love basil in Italian food - on homemade pizza or with simple bow tie pasta and olive oil and tomatoes.

Basil is also great with Thai food - we love Thai Country Restaurant in McMinnville, especially how they add fresh basil to curry dishes, fresh spring rolls, soups, and stir fries. Here we brought home leftovers of Spicy Green Bean and Tofu, Pineapple Red Curry, with some fresh asparagus, quinoa, and sticky rice. Try some Thai Tofu Saute with sweet Thai basil!


Cilantro is so cheap, but often we don't know what to do with all of it before it wilts. We jazz up our Thai Red Curry Tofu Scramble, served with some quinoa, corn tortilla, and white radish. We didn't have enough quinoa, so we thought a corn tortilla might go well with dinner :)

For a Mexican meal, we used the cilantro in Harmony House Foods Black Bean Soup and in a fresh Mexican salad, with avocado, tomatoes, chives, and a local greens mix. Delicious on a summer day! Try some Tortilla soup too!

Please let us know your favorite dishes to use basil and cilantro, and your favorite herbs!

Have a great Friday!




(Photos of fresh herbs taken by ethangeorgi)