nutella and concerts

Yesterday was warped tour. For every non-teenager reading this, it's basically a 10 hour long concert, with over 50 bands. Also a perfect spot to get sunburned, see scantily clad under-age girls, and sweat in the summer sun. Regardless of those three adventures, I had a ton of fun. My shoulders are potentially tomato red, but seeing A Day To Remember was well worth it. Woohoo!

Today I had to work, although I'm a bit sun-tired from yesterday. I kept thinking ahead to coming home and making some sugar-free nutella. We all know nutella has milk in it, and can't be eaten by vegans. However, it's basically just chocolate and hazelnuts. I browsed a few recipes, but asking me for 1 cup of powdered sugar didn't seem to delicious. Here's my attempt at making my own nutella!

Nutella between two multigrain crackers

Ingredients:
-2 cups raw shelled hazelnuts
-1/4 unsweetened powdered cocoa
-1/4 cup maple/agave syrup mix
-1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-1-2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk*

*You can also use soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, any milk-substitute.


Method:
-preheat oven to 350 F. Place 2 cups of shelled hazelnuts in oven to roast. When golden brown, place hazelnuts between sheets of paper towels and rub off skins. You can eat the skins, but they are pretty bitter. When most of the skins are off, place nuts in a food processor.

roasted hazelnuts

skinless hazelnuts

-process nuts until they make a nice nut butter. To do so, scrape side of processor every 30 seconds or so, to bring all the nuts into the middle.

not quite butter

-When you have a nice nut butter, place cocoa powder, syrup mix, vegetable oil, and almond milk in processor.

nut butter!

adding ingredients

-Give processor a nice whir, until you have nutella. If it is not smooth enough, add more almond milk or vegetable oil. If it is to bitter, add more syrup mix.

not so smooth, feel free to add more almond milk

Yum! Can't wait to put it on my toast or oatmeal tomorrow morning! Hope your 4th of July is awesome tomorrow!

meat market and sunshine

It's so hot today my chocolate chips melted on the drive home from trader joes. I'm not kidding, the corners were all melted.. If i hadn't rushed them into the fridge I would have taken a picture.

In other news, I'm still a vegan.. There was no real meat at this "meat" market my friend Emily and I went too. It was strictly all vegetarian [and mostly vegan] "meat". It was actually quite an adventure. Here is the link to their website. The place is called layonna, and resides in Oakland's chinatown. I heard of this place from my vegan co-workers, who said it was pretty amazing. Although I was slightly disturbed by how real some of the food looked, I was pulled into the fake chicken. This is the same chicken that a very delicious vegan restaurant called Herbivore in Berkeley uses in their dishes. Emily and I HAD to buy it.

We went back home to cook- stir fry!

We threw in onions, zucchini, fake chicken, and some japanese noodles that were surprisingly high in protein. Here's the chicken package:

The veggies were picked up at a farmers market that we randomly walked by on the way back to the car. Both were extremely cheap, but tasted delicious! You have to love local food.

Here is the finished dish, with some trader joe's soyaki on top!

Overall, layonna's was a good experience. Although really pricey, I felt like the chicken was a good buy.  I have so much leftover, I'm not sure if I will be able to use it before I leave for NYU. Looking forward to more stir frys!
I'm off to run in this heat, maybe I'll make some ice cream later!

pancakes and lead falls

There is so much to share in this post!! First, I took my first lead fall yesterday! For all that don't climb, that means basically falling 5-15 feet, with the rope clipped below you. Kind of confusing, but non-the less scary. I screamed both times I fell. Quite a thrill.

In other news, I made the most bomb pancakes this morning for Irene's "knee-surgery-recovery-menu". She said "these are the best pancakes ever," so that basically means you'll have to go and try them out.

I actually created this recipe from scratch, and my own knowledge, so hope you like them! 

Ingredients:

-1 & 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour*

-3/4 cup GROUND flax seed

-2 tbs brown sugar

-2 tbs baking powder

-1 ripe and mashed banana

-1 & 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk

Method:

-pre-heat skillet or pan to cook pancakes

-whisk together flour, flax seed, brown sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl

-mash banana and mix with the almond milk

-add the wet to the dry and whisk together

-spoon heaping spoonfuls onto greased/sprayed pan, and cook until golden brown on both sides

-feel free to add blueberries, strawberries, or any type of toppings. Chocolate chips might be delicious..

*whole wheat flour would be fine, I just prefer pastry flour since it makes the pancakes lighter and fluffier, since the flour isn't as thick or dense. 

They kind of look like hot cakes, or larger pancakes! Irene loved them, and so did I. I had to sneak in my own of course.

I smashed the sides out to make my pancake flatter, but man oh man was that good.

Later today I'm cooking with my friend Emily, after we go to a vegan "meat" market in Oakland. I'm excited for the options that they have! Expect some delicious crazy meal later on.

Also, I made my sister chocolate chip oat-bran muffins yesterday after her surgery. You can see my original oat bran muffin post on my first post. I shifted some ingredients and threw in some choco chips. Yum!

Have a great day everyone!

Knishes and work

Today I went from helping the gyms kids camp climb outdoors from 8:30-11:30.. then babysitting from 12:30-4:00... then back to Berkeley to coach the middle school girls team from 5:00-7:00. Naturally after work I climbed super hard, since I needed to exercise. It was a long, tiring day. I didn't have time to cook much, just ate food we cooked yesterday.

Knishes!!!! From Vegan with a Vengeance! So delicious. From left to right it goes potato, sweet potato, then spinach. Yum yum yum! Although super hard to make, these turned out AWESOME! I'm not going to reprint the recipe, since it is in the book. Here's another picture to feast your eyes on:

These are the knishes straight out of the oven, and cut slightly. Super delicious!!! My older sister Irene also made soup, which was super delicious. It was green, so I didn't feel like a picture was necessary.
Tomorrow Irene's having her knee surgery, so expect some bomb recipes for her to nosh on while she can't walk. I'm planning muffins for tomorrow morning, but we'll see. It's been a long day-goodnight!

Reeses mixed with rain

No one told me that it rained at the end of June in California. I'm appalled at how much water is coming out of the sky right now. My hatred is subdued however, because the kids I babysit and I re-created Angela's vegan Reeses recipe. Delicious!!

Here are our modifications:

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
-3/4 cup creamy unsalted peanut butter
-3/4 cup crushed graham crackers
-1/4 cup white sugar
-1 cup chocolate chips
-1/4 cup almond milk

Method:
-mix applesauce, peanut butter, graham crackers, and white sugar in a bowl
-microwave for 30 seconds, then stir
-spoon mix into molds of any sort, filling 1/2 of the way
-place chocolate chips and almond milk in a bowl
-microwave for 30 seconds, then stir
-if the chocolate isn't melted, continue to microwave for 15 seconds and stir until fully melted
-spoon chocolate onto peanut butter mix, covering completely
-freeze for 60-75 minutes, depending on size of peanut butter cups
-devour!

They were delicious! The 6th grader who disliked our last vegan creation went back for seconds... and bypassed the real reeses in doing so.

Later today I'm tackling knishes... potato, sweet potato, and spinach filling. We will see how it turns out! Hope you're enjoying your day, rainy or not. I'm off to drink a big cup of hot chocolate

waffles and new rope!

Morning all.. today was a waffle day from the second I woke up. Definitely needed some antioxidants as well. The only breakfast that met both? Blueberry waffles!

Original recipe is from here, but I switched it up a bit of course.

Ingredients:
-1 ripe banana
-2 cups water
-1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
-1 & 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
-1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp nutmeg
-package of blueberries


Method:
-heat up waffle iron so that it's ready
-mash banana and mix with water in large bowl
-place all other ingredients inside bowl and mix, leaving it a little lumpy
-fold in a bunch of blueberries, as much as you desire
-spray waffle iron on both sides
-spoon batter onto iron, and cook until golden brown


I put applesauce, more blueberries, and a tiny bit of maple syrup/agave on top, but feel free to add whatever.

Yum! Such a good breakfast. The blueberries cook nicely in the middle, and soften out a bit. Delicious antioxidants!!


In other news, I acquired a free lead rope last night! Although pink, it functions and saves me $100+
Look how beautiful she is!

I'm off to run later, and then babysit and work at the gym! Enjoy your waffles

First post

Hey all, I guess this is me kicking off my very own blog. If you know me at all you know I follow multiple blogs a day, to get vegan recipes, and to read about the lives of complete strangers. Just kidding... they actually post bomb ass recipes that I quite often recreate or change a bit. Every morning I check these blogs, almost religiously. This is just a test run to see if I want to be a blog writer or just a blog reader. We'll see what happens

Regardless.. Today I made some delicious oat bran-blueberry-banana-muffins. They were modified from some recipe I found online, which can be found at this link. Oh the glory of search engines..

Irene (older sister) and I made these for brunch, and they turned out pretty good. A little sweet for me, but for sure delicious. Here's my adaptations:

Ingredients:
-1 cup oat bran
-1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal (uncooked)
-1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
-1/4 unpacked brown sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 cup unsweetened almond milk
-1 banana
-1/4 cup maple syrup/agave mix
-2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
-handful or 4 of blueberries F

Method:
-preheat oven to 425°F
-Line 12 muffin cups with paper baking cups
-combine all the dry ingredients in big main bowl
-In a smaller bowl, mash up banana until its mostly gooey
-Add almond milk, applesauce, and maple/agave mix to small bowl and mix
-Mix in wet ingredients to dry until mix looks delicious
-gently fold in blueberries
-scoop into muffin tins, making them pretty full. Vegan muffins (most vegan baked goods) don't expand at all
-bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown, test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean
-enjoy!


I would lower the amount of sugar and or maple syrup/agave mix, since these came out to sweet for me.
No pictures since they are all gone! Of course I brought some to work to share with my co-workers, but the ones at home are gone too. We also made tofu scramble, but I'll save that recipe.

Hope you enjoyed this, hope to post again soon. I'm off to go climbing in a bit.. Tchuess!