Sunday, January 24, 2010

Great Lunch Meals and Delicious No Bakes!

Hi everyone!

It's been awhile ---- we are super busy this time of year at work! Finalizing new Betty Lou's organic vegan bars that taste great and are packed full of nutrition and antioxidants! Get excited for new snack bars that are better than Larabars, Pure Bars, and Cliff Bars! Check out Betty Lou's blog and website for any updates.


January has been milder in weather, but still rainy and damp, so we always enjoy some warm comforting food, especially one-pot meals. One of our New Years Resolutions is to make a dish from one of our vegan cookbooks. So, the past few weeks we've tried Vive le Vegan's Greek Basmati Rice, Veganomicon's Samosa Potatoes, among other great meals and breads.

The Greek Basmati Rice is probably one of the best rice dishes we've tried! Great flavor, not too strong in any particular spice, just an addicting bowl of deliciousness. Full of onion, garlic, olive oil, olives, zuchinni, chickpeas, rice, parsley, and spices we could eat this every day!

Samosa Potatoes was a yummy spiced meal perfect for lunches. Spices like mustard, coriander, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and cumin, this dish was great complimented with olive oil and Food Should Taste Good Olive chips! We didn't stuff the potato with the mixture, we just cooked diced potatoes in the pressure cooker, and added peas, parsley, and carrots.


In one of our bread cookbooks, we've been baking whole grain breads. We discovered a great technique for making great sandwich bread. We mix the dough and knead it, then let sit for 1 hour or so, knead again, then let sit another hour or two. We bake it at 400 degrees F as a round loaf, and we put a pan of water in the oven, so the crust is nice and the bread is airy and soft! Try putting some Bob's Red Mill cereals in your bread (like 10 grain cereal, kamut cereal, or just cornmeal), as it gives a great nutty flavor and great texture.
We love Greek food, and we found on vegweb.com "Real Deal Falafel" recipe. We made modifications, but it was tasty and great with condiments such as olive oil, mustard, tomato sauce, and avocado. When you get home from work it's easy to whip up a delicious dinner.


Of course to polish off a delicious meal you need some sweet treats! Delicious No Bake Oat Bites from Vegetarian Times Oct 2005 issue. We used sunbutter instead of almond butter, reduced the syrup a tad, added chocolate covered cacao nibs, and drizzled heavily with 73% Dagoba chocolate. Messy to roll, fun to make, and awesome to eat! Would be good to try an oatmeal cookie dough version with cinnamon and more raisins.



For some fun time outside of work, we've been busy with scrapbooking. Here's two pages we did, one of the Oregon Coast (we used an old calendar photo for the background), and one of our u-pick excursions this past summer!





Have a great last week of January!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Amazing Food for Life Reflection

Hi Veg Friends!

So we were sorting through our email and came across this great article. Thought we'd post and share - life is bountiful and full of joy!



It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best & more powerful when eaten raw. We're such slow learners...


God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God's Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.




Psalm 46:19 'Be Still and Know that I AM GOD'


~Amazing food, amazing life~




Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

We hope 2010 will be a year full of joy, success, peace, and growth!

How was your Christmas? Ours was quiet, fun, and joyous. Our Christmas meal was delicious, healthy, and full of flavor. We wanted to review 4 of the recipes.

Ricki's Tofu Frittata was outstanding! Full of zucchini, mushrooms (instead of potatoes), tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, and olives! A great flavor, with subtle tarragon, and texture like an egg frittata or an egg salad. We would love to try this recipe again with different spices like Mexican spices, Greek spices, or Curry spices.


Another winner - Veganomicon's Cornmeal Masala Brussel Sprouts! We love brussel sprouts, and the subtle masala spice complimented the nutty cornmeal. Lots of cornmeal crumbs, but great as leftovers with beans or other veggies.


We made cranberry sauce, and served it over Italian cornmeal cake. The cranberry sauce was slightly tart, but very tasty, and with a little bit more plum nectar and agave, it turned out great! This is our recipe adapted from the Yoga Journal:

Naturally Healthy Cranberry Sauce
Makes ~ 4 cups.

3 cups frozen cranberries, thawed (or fresh)
1 cup diced apples (about 1 apple) - or try pears
1 cup plum nectar (or other juice like apple juice, cranberry juice, or pear nectar)
1/4 cup - 1/2 cup agave syrup, to your preference
1/8 tsp salt
2-3 tsp currants
1/4 tsp agar powder

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium to medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occassionaly until apples pierce with a fork, 18-25 minutes. May need to cover the saucepan and let simmer.

The Happy Veganarian's Speculaas cookies were perfect for a not-too-sweet snack. Could use a tad more cinnamon, but otherwise spiced and nice with hot tea! We made about 25 round soft bite-size cookies.


So did any of you Southern guys and gals have your black-eyed peas? We enjoyed a black-eyed pea soup with celery and garlic and broccoli for New Years luck! :)


"Glory to God in highest heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth."
~Martin Luther