The Oregon Outdoors

Easter weekend and this weekend were filled with rejuvenating fun activities, and good outdoorsy-eats! With our mom and stepdad visiting for Easter, we toured the McMinnville/Willamette Valley and enjoyed Oregon's beautiful landscape. And this weekend we toured Portland and basked in the sun at our local park.
On Good Friday, we drove east of Salem, Oregon to Silver Falls State Park. A huge park, filled with lush plant life and tall ancient trees, steep hilly terrain and windy trails, peaceful rivers and flowing waterfalls, this state park was paradise in Oregon. It seemed like we were in a northern rainforest. We hiked over 3.5 miles (1.5 hours!) up and down canyons around the river - even underneath the waterfall! The rock lining the waterfall included 3 periods of lava rock. Definitely a place to get lost in; a time to re-energize, exercise, reflect, and bask in God's beauty.

Then, Saturday we strolled around McMinnville's downtown in quaint shops, and enjoyed a lunch out at the local Thai restaurant. A popular place, this Thai restaurant was impressive (despite being located right near a tatoo place..lol...). Everything was fresh and full of spices/flavors. What was nice about this restaurant is that they offered tofu and listed some vegetarian dishes. We even asked them if they "hide" fish sauce in their food, and they do not use fish sauce in anything.

Our mom enjoyed a spicy vegetable soup and fresh tofu spring rolls. We shared fresh tofu spring rolls as well, which contained cilantro and mint leaves, and a pineapple red curry dish. The red curry dish was delicious - filled with FRESH pineapple chunks, FRESH steamed green beans (not frozen), and other vegetables, and covered in a spicy yet creamy smooth curry-coconut sauce. The rice was exceptionally sticky :) We love trying ethnic authentic foods that we can't otherwise make easily at home.

After such a filling lunch, we took a road trip around the valley to two organic wineries. Our grandfather makes wine as a hobby, so our family is pretty big into wine (although we don't really drink, and haven't experienced a winery before). Our parents did some wine tasting, and we sampled them in tiny sips - at first it is hard to get used to the taste, especially white wines. It was interesting to learn about the different flavors (hints of raspberry or mango, etc...) and the different grapes. We will start experimenting with red wine in cooking!

Overall, we loved having our parents visit, and being able to cook/bake vegan for them. Easter meal was a zesty orange veggie pasta salad, fresh canteloupe slices, raw pepita and sunflower seed pate, crackers, and crudites, with raisin spice cinnamon roll muffins for breakfast!


This weekend we planned a day trip to Portland - the drive is always scenic, with rolling hills and blossoming Cherry trees, tulips, dogwoods, ferns, and daffodils. Our trip included a visit to a local bookstore, eating out at an authentic Lebanese restaurant, strolling down the "vegan mini mall" and enjoying dessert at the vegan bakery, and stocking up on grains/flours at Bob's Red Mill store.

First (after finding parking in hectic downtown), we perused for an hour or so in the BEST bookstore in the world - Powell's City of Books. It is a huge, yet quaint bookstore, with many compartmentalized rooms, almost like a maze where you turn at every corner and enter a new world full of books. What was also great about this bookstore was that they intermingled used and new books, and so the prices are cheaper. We love used books, not only because it's re-using, but also because they hold a history and are more enticing with slightly worn pages ready to be open to a new reader! We purchased a bread machine cookbook, with many whole grain recipes, and Vive le Vegan cookbook. We also bought North and South novel by Elizabeth Gaskell (after seeing the great movie by BBC productions).

The other items in the photo besides the books are from our stroll down vegan mini-mall. The mall is basically just a strip of 3 vegan stores - Food Fight Vegan grocery store, Herbivore clothing store, and Sweet Pea Bakery. It is nice that Portland is so vegan friendly and popular! We found two cute vegan wallets - handy and fashionable, with many compartments to store all the cards, cash, and other info. (The shirt is just a cute shirt from Target)

Lunch was at a delicious, family-owned, SMALL yet POPULAR Lebanese Restaurant, Nicholas. We love trying new ethnic foods, and the food here was so tasty!

They had a great stone oven, authentic - shipped all the way from Lebanon, where they make large pita breads and flatbread pizzas. We were stuffed after lunch - the platters were huge. We ate crispy (yet soft and not greasy) falafels, creamy hummus, cooling tabouli salad, a side of garbonzos, comforting lentil and rice dish ("Mjadra"), vegan stuffed grapeleaves, and "Manakish (zahtar)" a flatbread pizza coated with sesame seeds, thyme, oregano, sumac, and olive oil. Everything was so flavorful and interesting, and they indicate which dishes are vegan; will have to go again! We were debating between Nicholas Lebanese or Vita Cafe, and so next time we will try Vita Cafe.

Dessert at Sweet Pea Bakery included two huge chocolate graham cookies sandwiched with a creamy filling and coated with THICK chocolate, as well as an oatmeal breakfast cake. Next time we plan to try Piece of Cake for other vegan delicacies! (Sorry no food pics)

Today was another outdoors day in the warm sun (around 76 degrees!), with the windows open wide, and the sunglasses on! :) We went to the local park and watched kids play, dogs chase frisbies, and athletes throw baseballs on the field. We brought lunch to have a nice picnic, relaxed, and read books in the sun, then we drove to a nearby nature park and went walking along the trails. On our way home we toured around neighborhoods and day-dreamed about our own home someday!

What a refreshing, adventurous past two weekends....we love Oregon and all it has to offer, and are excited about summer at the farmer's markets again! What are your favorite outdoor activities, and what is a favorite outing you all take for fun? What is your favorite ethnic restaurant?

Soaking up the sun and spring,

Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies

Hey! Hope you all had a great Easter - we had company and took lots of pictures and had some great fun! Some great eats too! But until we get all the pictures uploaded, here's something tasty!

The past two weeks we've loved our evening dessert - Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies! Just like it is - soft yet chewy. Ginger gives a nice bite. We adapted this recipe (did 3/4ths the recipe) and are very pleased with the results, especially the texture. If you like a more molasses flavor, these cookies are great! For more zing, we will add a tad more ginger and cinnamon and a little less molasses.

Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies

Makes 13-15 cookies

1 2/3 cup spelt or whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp or more cinnamon
3/8 tsp ground cloves
pinch of salt
1/2 cup + 1 Tb softened coconut oil
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tb applesauce
3/4 Tb water
3 Tb molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the first 6 dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.

In large bowl or mixer, cream together the coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Beat in the applesauce, then the water and molasses. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture.

Shape dough into round cookie shapes, and place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungrease cookie sheet. Depending on the size of the cookies, bake 8-13 minutes, or until slightly golden yet still soft. They will firm up slightly when cooled.

Yum! LK

Whirlwind of Seasonal Eats Part 2

Since the warm weather didn't last, we also enjoyed hearty comfort foods:

Calazones stuffed with mushrooms, kale, onions, bell peppers, garlic, and balsamic sauce. - We got this idea from Dreena's Moraccan Vegetable Phyllo Rolls. We made calazone dough, sauted veggies, then stuffed the dough with the veggie mixture and baked in the oven. Then we served the calazones with balsamic sauce, which was SO good. The leftover sauce we ended up using later in the week over sauted greens and tempeh.

Tempeh Sausage and Hashbrowns - We got this recipe from iamglutenfree.blogspot.com (adapted from the Vegan Chef blog). A great idea but WAY too salty. Should cut down Braggs to like 1/4 cup or less instead of 1/2 cup. It would be good to make different variations - serve with mushroom gravy, tomato sauce, or mustard sauce; add balsamic; add different spices like curry powder or italian seasoning.

Tandoori Tofu with rice and broccoli - We got a tandoori spice packet from the store (these spice packets are great!), and added it to plain yogurt. Served the sauce over rice, tofu, and broccoli and it was a spicy authentic Indian meal!


Miso Soup with tofu and cabbage - We used Vegan Planet's miso soup, and it made tons - leftovers for the week! Great easy soup, nice on a cool day to sip on healthy miso broth.

and Baba Ganoush Pizza - For the pizza, we used Vegan Planet's baba ganoush recipe minus the fresh mint leaves, spread on homemade pizza crust and topped it with bell pepper, tomatoes, and onion. DELICIOUS! Another easy pizza would to use hummus instead - both make the pizza creamy, and are great substitutes for cheese.


Looking foward to more spring! And Happy Easter! We wish you a great blessed day. - LK

Whirlwind of Seasonal Eats Part 1

Spring is finally here, with a hint of summer this week (high 70's and sunshine)!! But sadly, it is only temporary. In terms of meals from the end of March to the beginning of April, we have cooked meals that have wavered like the wind- from winter, spring, and summer meals.

To celebrate the sunshine, we enjoyed many meals outdoors and ate crisp, refreshing, summer/spring-type foods:

Raw Buckwheat Pepita Pate with carrots, cucumbers, and collard greens. Very palatable, much like fancy tuna/chicken/chickpea salads. Good with lots of celery seed.






Raw Creamy Tomato Soup, with fresh red bell pepper, onion, herbs, and garlic for enhanced flavor, and with avocado for richness.


Fresh corn on the cob. We're ready for more sweet corn to make some corn soup. But for now we enjoyed the corn with some buttery olive oil on it.

Tempeh BLT's (no bacon of course), based off of this recipe. Awesome. We just started experimenting with tempeh, and it is so versatile, nutritious, and tasty. We love hearty healthy sandwiches, and the marinated tempeh with avocado and red onion was delicious!

Cheezy Quesadillas with pinto beans, based off of this recipe. This was almost too rich, slightly sweet. We love the idea though and feel this is a great idea to branch from. We are making cheezy hummus quesadillas when our parents come up to visit this weekend.

and Tofu Scramble Fiesta Wraps, with potatoes, black beans, salsa, avocado, onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno.

For breakfast, we made a refreshing Raw Buckwheat Porridge with fresh blueberries and sliced oranges on the side. Zesty, fresh, and flavorful! For a nice snack, we chomped on Kettle's Baked Potato Chips (the best potato chips, and baked, too). And, we savored some Homemade Root Beer Banana Ice Cream.


Stay in tune for Part 2 of "Whirlwind of seasonal eats" post - about the winter eats. :)
-LK

Summer Dreamin'

Winter here has seemed forever, and we are so happy that the flowers are blooming and that there are finally signs of spring. Even so, we are missing Texas weather at this time of year, when it's 70 degrees and sunny, versus still a mid-40 degree cloudy weather in Oregon. Furthermore, we keep on dreamin' of sunny warm t-shirt days during the summers ...


...with fresh produce to bring home from the markets, such as:

...ripe sweet red tomatoes
...crisp yellow sweet corn
...juicy sweet strawberries and blueberries
...and juicy ripe mango

...all to make wonderful delectable fresh meals, such as:

...Fresh Tomato Basil Soup

...Homemade Spicy Salsa


...Fresh Corn Soup or Corn Chowder (we love Passionate Vegetarian's Corn Soup!)

...Corn Chive Pancakes (again, from Passionate Vegetarian)

...Creamed Corn

...Spicy Tortilla Soup (with fresh tomatoes and corn)

...Black Bean and Mango Rice

...Strawberry (or Blueberry) Muffins

...Mango Crisp with Raspberries


Oh, we could go on and on, dreamin' about sunny picnics with fresh salads and sandwiches and fruits and vegetables...

All the leaves are bloomin'
Yet the sky is grey
I went for a walk
On a cool damp day
I'd be safe and warm
If it was sunny May
Summer dreamin'
On such a cool damp day.
- (Our Version of The Beach Boys' California Dreamin')

Smiles! LK