Making dinner healthier, one slow cooker at a time.
You can tell when it’s getting near St. Patrick’s Day by all the green non-vegetable food that pops up. I was looking at some other redos of this minty shake and was shocked to see that many people are putting in food color to make their shakes green. I think that’s a huge missed opportunity! In my household if it’s green there are green veggies in it – and there may be some greens hidden away even if the dish is not green! [Read more...]
Today I have a few more things that can make your weekend even more special! This time I’ve remade some syrups that will make your Sunday morning coffee awesome! [Read more...]
My friend Gail Davis from So Delicious reminded me that today is oatmeal day. I can’t believe it almost past me by!
Since we’re so close to Halloween I selected 13 of my favorites for you to warm up with. So stay toasty and dry, and eat your oatmeal! [Read more...]
Tapioca is not a pretty food, but there’s something wonderful when you bite into those mini spheres. Slightly gooey but matched with its creamy almond milky pudding it becomes the perfect texture. Straight from the fridge it’s my favorite hot afternoon snack in the summer.
In the summer the last thing I want to do is put a pot of anything on the stove. The slow cooker is the perfect answer. It doesn’t heat up your kitchen and even though the cooking time is short you don’t have to stand there waiting for it to cook. Take a walk, pick some herbs from the garden, or just make the dog happy and go on that walk around the block. It will cook without you. to recipe →
While some people avoid the “perfumy” flavors of rosewater, orange blossom water and lavender I just love them. In fact, I use them as much as I can.
At one of my favorite restaurants, La Shish in Cary, I get this amazing drink called Lebanese ice tea. It’s a mix of lemon juice, sugar, and black tea with a little something special. It can turn a bad day good with just a few sips. to recipe →
You guys know I tend to get on a tangent and now I can’t stop making frozen coffees. I guess it’s too warm to re-start my oatmeal obsession and they are so much better than you-know-who’s.
Since the CSA has been making veggies magically apear at my house so I haven’t gone to the farmers market every weekend. But I did go last Saturday and found a new coffee cart waiting for me, Cocoa and Cinnamon. Looking over their menu I saw my new favorite coffee combination – cardamom and rosewater. If you are in or near Durham you must try their coffee! to recipe →
Here’s another green tea variation, this time a little closer to you-know-who’s. The color of this one is a faint green, though it didn’t capture well in the photos. You could also throw in some Swiss Chard or Kale to get a darker (and healthier) green.
Here’s another inexpensive coffee house frozen drink. When I’m super busy and a little stressed out I tend to get a frap on my way to work. It’s an expensive and unhealthy habit. Once I catch up a little I always go back to making my own.
It takes about 10 minutes, has less sugar than the one from the chain and can even be made completely sugar-free by using unsweetened So Delicious Almond Plus Milk. to recipe →
I originally made this as a Valentine cocoa, but romance shouldn’t be limited to just one day. Surprise your someone special with the yummy dessert cocoa. The lavender and rose flavors blend together to form its own taste that’s not as floral as you think.
I used lavender extract which I got at Savory Spice Shop, but if you can’t find any you could fill a muslin tea bag or tea ball with 1 to 2 teaspoons of culinary lavender and add this at the beginning of cooking. This will infuse the milk with a great lavender flavor too.
I do use real sugar in this recipe, because it helps to thicken it up. The longer you cook it the thicker it will be. You can substitute stevia or agave, but the hot chocolate will be thinner.
Slow Cooker Lavender Rose Cocoa
soy-free, gluten-free
Serves 2 to 3
**Uses a 1 1/2 to 2 quart slow cooker**
Add all the ingredients and cook on low for 2 to 3 hours or on high for 1 to 1 1/2 hour.
Stir once or twice during this time with a whisk to help the chocolate mix in well. Whisk a final time and serve.
Trying to cut down on sugar? Today, it may be a little more difficult. Valentine’s day candy seems to find its way into work break rooms, lunch bags, special deliveries, and even in your own home.
What can you do? Make some yummy stevia sweetened donuts. These donuts are the perfect Valentine’s breakfast, afternoon snack, or even a cute dessert. The best part is you won’t feel deprived at all. Plus each mini-donut only has 47 calories and 1.4 grams of sugar.
After the glaze debacle the first time I made these, I decided to go for a powdered sugar look. Typically I hate powdered sugar, but this concoction is really quite good. I’ve even saved the leftovers to sprinkle on pancakes one weekend. (Maybe with a lavender vanilla syrup? hmm…)
I used cornstarch as my powder base because it’s actually used in regular powder sugar. You could probably use arrowroot or another base, but be warned that I’ve only used corn starch so far myself.
I also ground some culinary rose petals separately to get the pink color you see in the photos. The middle donut got rubbed in it and I sprinkled it on the others.
Make sure to check out my Baked Almond Donuts with Chocolate Glaze and Lemon Donuts with Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting - they are all sweetened with stevia too!
Baked Lavender-Rose Donuts
soy-free
makes 12 mini donuts
wet ingredients:
dry ingredients:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another. Spray your mini donut pan with a little oil so they will be easier to get out.
Then add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix just until it’s mixed. Divide the batter between the 12 donut molds. Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes.
Let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then carefully remove. (If you don’t wait they will stick in the pan even though you oiled it.)
Take donut by the top and dip the bottom into the rose powdered stevia (recipe below). You may have to rub it in a bit to get it to stick. (Why the bottom? It has more moisture on it from cooling in the pan.)
Rose Powdered Stevia
The Virtual Vegan Potluck is over, but the virtual feast lives on!