Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Summer Treats

Aloha! ....from Texas unfortunately. It's so hot here that you just walk outside and start sweating. We've been enjoying refreshing treats to help cool us off!

We decided to use one of our Amazon.com gift cards for an ice cream maker! Now we have a whole list of ideas to create! (But with just us two, the ice cream lasts a long time) We had a beautiful watermelon to use, and decided on Watermelon Sorbet with a hint of spearmint. It turned out very refreshing, more like shaved ice.
The ice soy-cream we made was Banana Pecan Frozen "Yogurt". We used strawberry soy yogurt (the flavor we had on hand, next time we might use plain flavor), frozen bananas, vanilla extract, soy milk, and Equal Exchange's Roasted Pecans (which were soo flavorful and made the ice cream taste praline-ish.) Yummy! Now we can have all the unique flavored ice cream we want without all the preservatives, sugar, and cost that commercial bought soy ice creams have!

We also made cookies with extra nutrition.

We tried Avocado Lime cookies, which are supposed to be like healthy shortbread cookies, and added some hemp seeds. These were very unique in taste, with an avocado-lime taste. We think that you could use some portion of margarine in any cookie recipe with avocado so long as there is no lime to recognize the taste, and so long as the cookies aren't cooked at a high temperature. Interesting and zesty!


Another nutritious cookie - Raw Cashew Mango cookies. We were intrigued by Shannonmarie's (from Rawdorable blog) Raw Girl Scout cookies! Who knew that girl scout cookies could look so good and be good for you! We didn't have all of the ingredients, and don't have a dehydrator, so we kind of adapted the shortbread recipe ("Chewy Trawfoils").

We didn't have coconut, but we did use coconut extract. We used dried mango, soaked and processed, instead of dates. And we just made them into no-bake cookie balls instead of dehydrating/baking them. It's a quick and nutty snack, although I'm sure the original recipe would have been outstanding.


Happy Summer! We are celebrating because we have no more school and graduation is a month away! By the way, we've been updating our blog to make it more appealing and accessible, so if you've seen weird changes, sorry about that!

Here is a cute "Kitchen Prayer" we found that is just too cute not to share:
Bless this kitchen, Lord and those who gather here each day.
Let it be a place where we can meet to love and laugh and pray. Amen.

-LK Sisters

4 comments:

Rose said...

Lucky you! I've always wanted to own an ice cream maker. The avocado-lime cookies sound like something I'd love.
Believe it or not, I've also thought that you and probably your sister (since you guys are twins), were quite similar to me. How interesting, right?

P.S. Cute little prayer at the end!

Ruby Red said...

i've always wondered about making my own vegan frozen yogurt. the kind you guys came up with sounds amazing! i really have not used my ice cream machine enough this summer, even though i'm sweating all the time down in my area of texas too!

i'm in love with your cookie ideas also -- raw girl scout cookies and avocado cookies sound awesome. you're so creative!

Unknown said...

I know exactly how you feel about the Texas weather...I'm ready for the fall! All of those treats sound perfect...especially the beautiful watermelon sorbet...AND cookies with extra nutrition- I'm there!

eatme_delicious said...

Ooo those raw cookies look really good! I never even thought about making a raw cookie. Now I want to try them.