Life is sweet

Nothing says Summer in Manitoba like fresh strawberries, picked by none other than yourself of course!

I have enjoyed picking strawberries for the last 3 years now. I always end up going to Grenkow's U-Pick because it is nice and close to our house.

Support your local strawberry U-pick's and buy local berries! I know it is tempting to buy cheap berries at the grocery store, but nothing is sweeter then a strawberry so sweet and ripe off the vine that it melts in your mouth.

No time to pick your own berries? Go to the Farmers Market on Saturday for the berries already picked for you. But be forewarned, they cost almost double what you would pay to pick them yourself.

Vegetarian Lasagna

This recipe was originally adapted from the Vegan Spinach Lasagna from myvegancookbook.com.

I have made this recipe two times now with great results. My kids love this lasagna and eat up every last bit of it. My version is not vegan. I did add a tiny but of organic Cheddar cheese to the top of the lasagna. But I am going to bet that even without cheese my kids would eat this.

When I made this recipe the second time I decided to make a veggie Ground Round layer(what is veggie Ground Round?). I pan fried the ground round with some chopped up mushrooms and used that as my bottom layer. The only changes I made to the original recipe aside from adding an extra layer was not using the nutritional yeast and adding cheese.

The "ricotta" spinach mixture for this recipe is so good. I bet even tofu hating people will really enjoy this one. Give it a try, you will be very pleasantly surprised.

For the love of beans

I know many people never eat beans and if you do it is usually by accident or because your mother forced you. But if you prepare them right you may actually enjoy them.

I saw this recipe on another blog (you know who you are). It looked very yummy so I just had to try it.

Tomato and white bean salad with dill and lemon

2 15-ounce cans white kidney beans, rinsed, drained
2 1/2 cups halved grape tomatoes (about 12 ounces) or cherry tomatoes
2/3 cup diced red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 garlic cloves, pressed

Toss all ingredients in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Let marinate at room temperature 1 hour. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Bring salad to room temperature before serving.

I could not find white kidney beans without EDTA so I purchased some organic navy beans. I also just used a few whole tomatoes cut up instead of cherry tomatoes and I added some olives which added a nice bite to the flavours. Oh yes, and no fresh dill so I used dried instead and it still tasted great. Don't have a fresh lemon? just use the stuff in the fridge, no one will know.

Switch it up. Greek Bean Salad. Do you love Greek pasta salad? The bean mix would taste wonderful with the Greek salad dressing I posted below. Instead of pasta just use beans for a healthy high protein side dish. White beans or black beans would work just find, or heck if your feeling creative mix the two!

Where is my milk from?

Have you ever wondered where your milk cames from?

There is a very cool website created to just do that very thing. http://whereismymilkfrom.com/

We have decided to stop drinking milk completely in our house. Have you ever given it some thought that humans are the only species to consume a milk product after they have been weened from breast milk. It would be quite a funny thing to see a cow ween her calf to only have it go and drink Emu milk or human milk. All mammal species go from drinking their mother's milk to drinking water and it only makes sense for humans to do the same.

The Best Chocolate Cake

I signed myself up for some cake decorating classes a few weeks back. It has been a lot of fun and one thing I have to do each week is bake something to decorate. This past week I had to bring some cupcakes. I ended up trying the Chocolate Cake recipe from myvegancookbook.com

I was so pleasantly surprised. I have made my fair share of vegan cakes in the past and this by far is the best I have ever made. The cake is so moist and tasty, you wont be disappointed.

I made the cupcakes and can not wait to make the cake for my kids birthdays.

Enjoy!

Oats & Rice Sausage

I tried this Oats & Rice Sausage recipe from My Vegan Cookbook. They were very easy to make and tasted great. I pan fried mine(with a tiny bit of oil) on a cast iron skillet and they turned out very good. Give them a try!

Granola Bars

I recently tried this new Granola Bar recipe from where else, My Vegan Cookbook(.com)

I made the original recipe first and it was fantastic. So my mind got thinking on how could I make this so my son could eat it at school(must be nut free).

Here is my version of the granola bars, nut free.

1/4 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/2 Cup ground Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 Cup Coconut Flakes
1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sunflower seed butter
1 Tablespoon Molasses
1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
1 Teaspoon vanilla

To grind the oats finally I put them in a clean coffee grinder. This will make an oat flour which worked great in this recipe. I may also try grinding up some flax seeds in my next batch. I also didn't have any sesame seeds so I chopped up some pumpkin seeds instead.

I also added some yummy choco chips, butterscotch chips, marshmallows and coconut to the granola bars. I let the granola bars bake for 25 minutes then I sprinkled on 1/4 of chocolate chips, 1/4 cup coconut and a handful of marshmallows. I placed the pan back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt the chocolate. The bars were very goopy since the chocolate wasn't spread on, so next time I will sprinkle the chocolate on alone and bake the bars for 5 minutes and once the bars are out of the oven I will spread the chocolate around and then add the coconut and marshmallows.