Food – Page 17 – a hippie with a minivan

Lime Cardamom Pumpkin seed cookies…

I got this recipe from Annie and decided to tweak it a bit…

These are my new favourite cookie… I made them today to make me feel better and also to bring to my meeting tonight to share…

This is for a double batch… (I like to refrigerate half and bake them when I need a fix)

2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Zest of 3 Lime
2 large Egg
Juice of 3 limes
3 1/2 cup Unbleached Flour
1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds, toasted and roughly chopped
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 heaping tsp Cardamom

Preheat oven to 350?
Cream sugar, butter, oil, and zest together until light and fluffy. Add egg and lime juice and beat to incorporate.
In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add to wet and mix together well.
Make balls with batter and slightly flatten on a cookie sheet. Leave enough room for cookies to spread a bit on sheet.
sprinkle with sugar before baking.
Bake about 8 minutes or until edges and bottom golden.

Enjoy!!

baking…

I have been really making an effort to make all the bread products we eat from scratch… breads, rolls, sourdough, ciabatta, hotdog/hamburger buns, tortilla’s, pizza dough and more…

(simple crusty bread)

It does take time and effort and planning but really the more often I do it the easier it becomes… the first times I made tortillas it took me about an hour tp make a batch and now I can make them in less than 30 min… and I even make a 1/2 batch more so that we have leftovers and can freeze them if we need to…

Here is a simple wrap made with my tortillas, grilled veggies and tofu with an avocado-wasabi mayo…

Our everyday bread I make about once a week and I make 3-4 loaves at a time… it takes a few minutes to make the dough and then all that is left is to let it rise and make the loaves and bake…

Hotdog and hamburger buns are very simple and it takes a few minutes to make the dough and then they rise quickly and bake in a few minutes…

Though I use WW flour often, I use Unbleached flour as the usual flour because it bakes really well and makes a lighter bread which the family enjoys, and I add a 12 grain mix (especially to our everyday bread) to make it healthier and more nutritious… I also now I have a new flour (local organic flour that I have been using)… but that will be another post!

(Yorkshire pudding)

There is a lot of work in cooking from scratch, but I know what we are eating, the taste is so much better, the smell of bread baking and food cooking is so worth the effort, and we are saving money and eating better….

(garlic and cheese flatbread)

(pumpkin cinnamon buns)

and honestly doing it makes me feel proud…

Vanilla update…

I first started this Vanilla in January…

It looked like this….

Now… it looks like this…

After about 6-7 weeks I was able to start using it and haven’t looked back… Every now and again I add a bit more alchool or a vanilla bean after I used the seeds in a recipe to keep it replenished and it is the most amazing Vanilla I have ever had… and the cheapest!!

With this vanilla, when a recipe calls for a tsp, you only need a tsp… if you use more, the vanilla flavour will stand out even more but for somethings it can even become overwhelming if you use too much… and I am a vanilla lover!!

Quinoa salad…

I hadn’t tried Quinoa until last year but since then I have been hooked.

My favourites are the coconut quinoa that Annie shared with me… and this Quinoa salad…

it is so easy to make, simple and fresh and full of flavour…

It is one of those non-recipes…where you just throw things in and adjust the taste as needed…

First, cook the Quinoa the same as you would rice….

When cooked and cooled a bit (but still a bit warm), add some chopped up veggies…I like adding peppers and carrots and celery. Then add a bit of olive oil, some salt or tamari to taste, some fresh (or dried) parsley, a bit of garlic powder and I like adding a bit of curry powder which seems to bring all of the other flavours out…

This is just a simple salad that can be eaten as a side, and because it is so complete nutritionally it can also be a meal in itself and keeps well and travels well…