Raving About New Amy's Products

Amy's Products always saves us when we are hungry and want something quick, easy, and tasty. Check out their new product line! So excited about the low sodium beans and rice burrito, as this burrito is our favorite and even better with less sodium!

We recently tried the new Gluten-free Roasted Vegetable Pizza - awesome! The rice crust is both crispy and soft, delicious in flavor, and you don't expect it to be gluten-free. And the flavor and vegetables are delicious; are only suggestion of course is more vegetables and tomato sauce, but that is easy to do at home - we just added more tomato sauce and veggies. The cheese is non-dairy and suprisingly we liked it and it didn't remind us too much of milky pizza cheese (which we don't like). We loved it so much, we just split one pizza even though the serving size is 1/4th :) Definitely try this!

Another product we enjoyed - Non Dairy Baked Ziti. Very tasty, like going to a family-owned Italian restaurant. Very filling! Sometimes Amy's meals aren't as filling, but this was big and hearty, lots of pasta and tomato sauce. The peas added a nice touch, and the cheese again tasted good. It would be delicious with added spinach and then you have a complete meal! Try this delicious authentic vegan ziti!



For those vegetarians wanting real cheese, our coworker eats Amy's Indian Mattar Paneer almost every week. She highly recommends this meal, which includes a delicious Indian spiced sauce with carrots, garbanzos, peas, and rice.


It's always nice when you visit family out of town, to always suggest Amy's products for a quick lunch or dinner. Our family knows where to get Amy's and they eat it too, so we all enjoy an Amy's meal that's vegetarian.


So I know we've mentioned Amy's before, but we just HAD to let you know about these finds!
Until next time, wishing you the best,

Mezza, Bread, and the Staples

Hi Yall!

Sorry for the absence in posting, but we've been busy during the weekends with cooking/baking and being creative doing crafts and scrapbook!

Our lovely Mom is visiting us (she says hi to the bloggers out there!) and so we've been having fun with her here.



We visited the lovely Ya Hala Lebanese Restaurant in Portland, one of the best restaurants in Portland! Fresh out of the oven pita bread, with mezza platters that include hummus, tabouli, falafel, kibbeh (bulgur tomato pate), and swiss chard lentil soup! Great feast for a rainy day!



Our bread baking this week was soft wheat rolls! We are having some for dinner with lentil pumpkin seed veggie burgers and a spinach bean dip with tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and parsley.


Tomorrow we plan on getting our food staples! Kamut flour, spelt flour, grain cereals, porridges, and flakes all at Bob's Red Mill! Our mom loves Bob's, so she's excited to go to the visitor center, and we also we will be doing the plant tour!

New to Bob's? Check out our visit back last October.


We are apart of the CSA Community Supportive Agriculture program and we've been enjoying fresh greens. Here we made pasta with greens, garlic, leeks, and olives!


Have a great week!

And thank you Fayinagirl for giving us a blogger award! Check back next week for more awards given to bloggers who we feel are extra special!

Mama Mia, Let's Eat Mediterranean Fare!

Ciao! Don't you love Mediterranean-Arabic Food? Italian, Greek, Lebanese, etc...

Our favorite Lebanese restaurant is YaHala in Portland. They serve authentic food--the hummus, pita bread, and tabbouleh are to die for. They have such a huge menu that we haven't tried a lot of their food, but they serve delicious 'Foul Mudamas' (a lemony garlicky fava bean dish), Falafels, stews, soups, zaatar, and other meals. We love how they mark which items are vegan.

We were craving Greek/Lebanese food so much that we attempted to make a Lebanese feast. Hummus (good authentic hummus has to have a lot of olive oil and tahini--extra creamy!), tabbouleh, and oaty pita bread.The tabbouleh was so refreshing and flavorful, it was nice to have leftovers for lunch. Fresh parsley and mint with local cucumbers, onion, tomatoes, olives and lemon! Yummy. We used a 6-grain porridge-type grain that cooked up similar to bulgur, and it worked perfectly.

We've figured out that we like a little cumin in our hummus. Our coworker loves hummus without cumin, but we found that the cumin enhanced the hummus' flavor slightly and gave it a richer flavor. What do you all prefer? Extra Virgin olive oil and tahini make this hummus taste exquisite, otherwise it's just another bean dip.

One important thing about Meditterranean food is that you must never forget the olive oil. Good for your health, delicious, and authentic. We love buying different olive oils each time and distinguishing their different tastes, depending on the location the olives came from! Buttery and delectable.

For our Italian fare, we had the opportunity to use a pasta machine and make homemade pasta! It was labor intensive but a lot of fun. We mostly made fettuccine-style noodles as well as ravioli, but we also made a few bow ties. All of them were 100% whole wheat. Next time it would be fun to try a pasta with spinach or tomato paste or herbs for a flavorful pasta.

Here we are putting the dough through the pasta machine -- it has to be repeatedly run through in order to thin down. It was hard to keep the noodles straight as we laid them down to dry, because they were so long!


The fetticcini was the best, we just drizzled extra virgin olive oil and served it with some sauteed garlicky greens. The raviolis we stuffed with a tofu spinach dip mixture and served them with homemade spaghetti sauce with lots of veggies. The raviolis were a bit messy (some disintegrated in the pot while cooking), but they were delicious.
Buon appetito!

Artisana Raw Nut Butters Winner!

We had a lot of fun with this giveaway--everyone had such great ideas! From breakfast to savory meals to sweet treats, it is wonderful how versatile nut butters can be with a little imagination!

For breakfast, Animal Friendly loves a heartwarming stick-to-your-ribs breakfast, with nut butter melted into oatmeal. Yummy! Ricki says nut butters are great made into a sweet sauce of nut butter, mylk, and spices, poured over baked sweet potatoes--a great alternative to the usual cereal breakfast!

Sweet Karoline is inspired by the coconut butter to make a Thai chickpea pancake, which can be enjoyed for a savory breakfast or as part of a meal later in the day.

Meghan uses nut butters to enhance sauces and pestos. Vegetation and Sara agreed with Meghan, that nut butters could transform soups or curries into "creamy deliciousness".

Most everyone has a sweet tooth, right? Vegetation also listed some easy ways to use nut butters-in smoothies, ice cream, or popsicles. Refreshing! Erica specifically loves raw banana soft serve--a blend of just nut butter, frozen bananas, and cinnamon. Vegan Lisa and Sara both love to top cakes, cupcakes, and caramel apples with luscious raw "buttercream" frosting.

For coconut oil, Deb Schiff recommends Ani's Pineapple Icebox Cake, a big crowd pleaser. She also suggests replacing oil in brownies with tahini--what a nice way to enhance nutrition and flavor in brownies! Rachel H also uses coconut oil for decadent melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies!

For those of you who love sweets so much that you'd also enjoy them for lunch or dinner--make dessert hummus and serve with cinnamon pita chips and some fresh fruit. Courtney is inspired by the idea of using different nut butters in hummus and changing up the flavors: Pecan butter with pumpkin and cinnamon, Almond butter with cranberries, Macadamia butter with cocoa powder and a touch of vanilla, or Walnut butter and Cacao bliss. Sounds heavenly!
Personally, we (LKSisters) have been using the nut butters in many ways--with fresh fruit over waffles, added to scones, cookies, and bread, swirled into a creamy smoothie, and spread on top of homemade graham crackers...

What wonderful ideas! Now, we're salvating for some delicious food and nut butters!


Alright, now to the results:

Random.org's Random Integer Generator was used to make this as fair as possible. We generated a winner in a more complex way just for something different and fun--Each person entered was randomly assigned a number between 1 and 200, using the random integer generator. Then, the random integer generator was used again to generate numbers between 1 and 200, and the first number it generated that aligned with a person's assigned number was the winner.

The winner will receive a sample of Artisana Nut Butters (tahini, pecan butter, walnut butter, macadamia butter, almond butter, coconut oil, coconut butter, and cacao bliss), plus a few brochures/coupons from the Portland Veg Fest!

Drumroll please....The winner is-----------Erica from Discovering Raw blog!

CONGRATULATIONS ERICA! Erica, let us know where we can send you the Artisana sample pack! We will also email you through your blog just to be sure you get this message.

And thank you everyone for your entries and inspiring ideas! May you all try some Artisana nut butters and continue to be creative in the kitchen!

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!

Tempeh

Only this past month or so have we been eating more tempeh. We have found that it is a good ingredient for veggie burgers, "meat" patties, pastas, and sandwiches. It's also better in nutrition than tofu, because it is made of fermented soybeans and is not as processed as tofu. (Although tofu is still nutritious and we love it!) Tempeh is a good source of protein, riboflavin, magnesium, and other nutrients.

We made tempeh meatlessballs from happyveganface, and they turned out delicious. Kind of like Veganomicon's bean balls. We think this would be a great recipe to make many times and change up the herbs and spices. These balls were delicious with spaghetti - organic tomato sauce, onion, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini, herbs, and olive oil. Another tasty way to eat the meatlessballs - in a wrap!

At the health food store/cafe in Salem, we enjoyed a tempeh-salad sandwich. This would be nice to recreate at home - a little herbs, mustard sauce, bell pepper, shredded carrots, and celery served on rye bread with lettuce and tomatoes!

More tempeh delicacies - tempeh "sausage" patties for breakfast! We adapted the recipe from Vegan Chef, and while it was a great idea and tasty, it was EXTREMELY salty (and we even cut down the Bragg's/salt). Next time we will make this with less salt and enjoy it with hashbrowns and biscuits for a real "Southern" breakfast.

For future cooking, we have eye-balled these tempeh recipes:
Tempeh Sloppy Joes
White Bean Tempeh Sausage Gravy
Tempeh Miso Breakfast Patties

What are all your favorite ways to enjoy tempeh?
Enjoy your evening!

Veg Links and Lemon Herb Pasta

It's already March - time for flowers and St. Patrick 4 leaf clovers. Pray for spring to come soon, we're sick of the winter and cold!
Just wanted to let everyone know that we've placed a section on our blog's front page for information about vegetarianism/veganism, Christianity, and animal welfare.
Back in college, we took a great class that discussed the world food supply, the degradation meat has on our land/environment, and other issues. The class actually helped lead us to vegetarianism. We've posted some links to websites providing statistics about meat-eating, and the importance of vegetarianism. Feel free to explore! Even if you already know this information, these websites are great resources for telling your family/friends when they ask you veg questions.

• Go Veg.com
• Jesus Veg
• Christianity & Vegetarianism
• All Creatures.org
• Christianity Veg. Association
• All Creatures Great & Small
• Eco Eating
• Resource Page for Many Veg Topics
• Statistics About Eating Animal Products
• Veg Statistics
• Vegetarian & Animal Rights Quotes
• Ethical Reasons to Not Eat Meat
• List of Animal Products In Food
• Why Choose Organic

P.S. Here's a great and simple meal we enjoyed a few weeks ago - lemon herb pasta and steamed brussel sprouts with shallots. The pasta dish just had olive oil and a lemon sauce over some whole wheat rotini. Yummy!


Happy reading and learning, (and eating veg!)
LK Sisters

Weather and Delicious Italian Dinners

Last Sunday was Oregon's official start of winter, even though it doesn't really start until the 21st. We've been having snow, snow/rain, and just yukky winter weather all week. We are quite sick of it, b/c not only can we not drive in it (our back tires are just skidding and we don't have enough traction) but we are badly in need of groceries and in need of getting our flat tire fixed!

So enough about our frustrations-

How about enjoyable meals to make you all warm and delightful inside?

We made Veganomicon's Meatball Bean Balls, but instead of using kidney beans, we used garbanzo beans. Of course we made some more changes, but they turned out delicious! (We used some wheat germ in place of some bread crumbs, we used less thyme, & we added nutritional yeast)So addicting to pop a ball in your mouth! We served them with spiral pasta and the best spaghetti sauce - Seeds of Change Tomato Basil.

We loved these bean balls so much, we made another batch, but with a curry flavor! We used 1 1/2 tsp curry mustard, 2 Tb wheat germ and 1/4 cup each of cornmeal and oats instead of the bread crumbs, more oregano and no thyme, and some lemon juice. These were delicious with curry mustard dressing and served with homemade biscuits, greens, and cranberry sauce. Other ideas we want to experiment with include black bean Mexican balls, falafels, and balsamic flavored balls.

Have a great weekend! LK

Catch Up!

Instead of the raw dessert post we promised, we'll wait till the weekend since we plan on making a tasty raw treat with our new ultra exciting member of the household - a Vitamix!

Until then, here are some photos and quick rants on our most recent foods.






A Farmer's Market feast! Our last time at the farmer's market for the year, and we'll miss it so much until mid April when it starts up again. Curly kale, broccoli, Danish squash, pumpkin, eggplant, garlic, bell pepper, banana pepper, corn, red onion, and yellow onion.

Savory Millet Breakfast - with tofu, Braggs, nutritional yeast, basil, and garlic powder







Orange/Yellow Watermelon - tastes just as sweet, juicy, and delicious as red watermelon!


Crisp Juicy Red Grapes!




Thick sprouted wheat pasta with sauted kale, garlic, onion, tomatoes, and eggplant (farmer's market produce!)



Wonderful salad with local salad greens, tomatoes, bell pepper, and lemon pepper tofu.



Now that the farmer's market is over, we signed up to be apart of the Community Supported Agriculture, and we get produce every week from "Growing Wild Farm". Carrots, spicy radishes, lots of bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, turnip greens, fresh bay leaves, and (not pictured) wonderful mixed salad greens.


Indian Sweet Potato Stew - Sweet potatoes, cabbage, pecans, onion, bell peppers in a spiced Indian sauce served with chewy red rice. Got the recipe from online somewhere. Great hearty warm dish for a chilly day.



We've been enjoying the outdoors whenever we are blessed with a clear sunny day - such beautiful scenic drives, farmland, and trees. The leaves are changing colors! - LK

Cooking Minimally

Lot's of good finds at the Farmer's Market and the local natural food store, but a challenge to cook this past week. Why? Because the darn movers haven't shown up yet - and all of our kitchen appliances and utensils are packed away. We do have a minimal amount of cooking essentials, which include one large skillet, one cutting board, cookie sheet, some knives, two wooden spoons, and small plastic plates and spoons. We are cooking only on the stove or in the oven (that includes reheating), and we do dishes constantly at every meal.

Hungry for oatmeal but without a pot or a microwave? It IS possible with a shallow skillet pan! Want Italian but have no pasta pot or strainer? Again, the shallow skillet pan works! We've discovered that the skillet pan is very multipurpose and handy!


Grains and Nuts Bob's Red Mill Hot Cereal - with bananas, dried cranberries, flaxmeal, cinnamon, agave, and a dash of almond milk. Ate breakfast this morning outside in the crisp air on our porch!






















Organic Tomato & Grilled Zucchini Spaghetti Sauce - with sauteed onions, garlic, yellow crookneck squash, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with basil and oregano. Pasta shells were excellent (Delallo Organic Whole Wheat Shells) despite the minimal cooking technique in a skillet!

We were anticipating a tasty "fajita" meal with Tofurkey's Spicy Veggie tempeh that we bought at Whole Foods. Sauteed onions and purple bell pepper, avocado, and spicy Muir Glen Garlic Cilantro salsa tasted good; too bad we DISLIKED the tempeh! It tasted like bad cheese, and we never were cheese fans in the first place. We ended up only having a veggie fajita on these whole wheat flatbreads. We also had Jalapeno Hummus Tortilla Chips, made with stone ground corn.





At the local food store this week, we bought:


Vegetas' Jalapeno Hummus Tortilla chips (great crunch and whole grain nutty flavor, just not spicy or baked)
Lakewood Pure Mango Juice (our favorite brand of juices - fresh pressed instead of from concentrate)
Drew's Sesame Orange Dressing
Real Foods Multigrain Corn Thins (a thin rice cake with popcorn)
Bob's Red Mill Millet Grits
Bob's Red Mill Grains and Nuts
Santa Cruz Organic Apple Cherry Sauce
Artisana Raw Pecan Butter (which we absolutely love! Great with rice cakes, banana, in desserts, in smoothies, in cookies.)
purple cauliflower!


With our local "Canadian Harmony" variety of juicy peaches, we made a simple quick-n-easy Peach Crisp:
No-Fuss Peach Crisp
Homemade Granola
1 cup oats
~ 4 Tb agave, enough to coat all the oats
a pinch of sea salt
lots of cinnamon
sunflower seeds

Lay out oats on a cookie sheet, then add agave and mix thoroughly to coat. Mix in a little salt and lots of cinnamon. Spread out evenly over the sheet, then sprinkle sunflower seeds to your liking. Bake at 325F, checking/stirring frequently, until aromatic and lightly browned. Let cool to harden.

Warmed Peaches
4 large juicy ripe peaches, chopped

Put in a skillet and cook at med-heat until warmed and syrupy. Then serve with granola on top for a simple and healthy treat. Could also serve it with yogurt for a parfait.


Sometimes the simplest things are life's sweet pleasures. Kudos to the skillet and those green Preserve plastic plates!

Mmm Creamy Delights

Don't you just love the feel of creamy-smooth foods in your mouth? How about soft-fluffy? And sweet-fudgey? And creamy-cooling?


Veganomicon's Pasta Della California was the perfect fresh summer meal, with lots of creamy-smooth avocado. Spiral wheat pasta with chopped broccoli, LOTS of garlic, lime zest and lime juice, spinach... and LOTS of creamy-smooth avocado to hit the spot! Will definetely make again!


Our soft-fluffy delight: Sweet Potato Yeast Bread. Instead of using canned pumpkin for Celine's Pumpkin Yeast Bread, we bought some canned sweet potato puree, added ingredients in our bread machine, and 3 hours later, enjoyed the best bread ever. Seriously! So soft and fluffy with a lovely sweet-potato flavor!

To use up the rest of the sweet potato puree, we made some sweet potato brownies (found recipe online). We underbaked them so much, that they turned out to be sweet potato fudge, but all the more decadent! Sweet and fudgey! We froze them so they would be fudgey yet somewhat firm. You can taste the sweet potato flavor, and it is quite rich. Always good to try new recipes and concoctions, though we think we'll stick to our fudge recipe and just make variations from that.


And we also made creamy ice cream - Strawberry Vanilla! A creamy-cooling treat.

Cheers, LK Sisters