Counting on God.

NOTE: scroll down and on the right side pause the blog music.

VERSE 1
I'm in a fight not physical
And I'm in a war
But not with this world
You are the light that's beautiful
And I want more
I want all that's Yours

PRE-CHORUS
Joy unspeakable that won't go away
And just enough strength
To live for today
So I never have to worry
What tomorrow will bring
'Cause my faith is on solid rock
I am counting on God

CHORUS
I am counting on
I am counting on God

BRIDGE
The miracle of Christ in me
Is the mystery that sets me free
I'm nothing like I used to be
Open up your eyes you'll see

A Peek Into Our Garden...

I am as always excited about our garden! Above are the tomatoes I picked just today. They are small, but so amazing and sweet. My purpose in buying the plant was to make salsa, pasta sauce, and pizza sauce but I can't stop eating them long enough to make anything. Oh Well!

These flowers are the first to come up out of the many mixed flower seeds that we planted out front on our porch. The Convolvulus 'Blue Enchantment' are small ground covering flowers that do well in heat and drought. They are SO beautiful!

More to come as we continue to grow!

Fruit Cobbler

I love summer fruits, specially raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and peaches! I buy fresh all summer and enough to freeze for winter. Last week peaches were on sale and I bought several pounds with the purpose of freezing some for the winter and some to eat fresh. I realized today I better hurry up and make a cobbler and get some frozen before the husband eats them all... he LOVES fresh peaches!

Here is a basic fruit cobbler recipe we love - you can add any fruit to it, today I did peaches of course!

Serves 6

Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar (white, brown, anything you have)

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup milk (I use lactaid, soy, or coconut)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups of your favorite fruit (fresh, frozen, or canned)

Directions:

1 Combine all of the ingredients except the fruit in a bowl.

2 Pour it into an 8x8 pan coated with cooking spray.

3 Add the fruit right on top.

4 The crust will come up over the fruit and cover it.

5 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

Let cool and then serve!

Farmers Market + Tastefully Simple = favorite!

I have two obsessions... ok well probably more than two but who is counting!

I love summer because of all the Farmer's Markets in our area; we can never seem to get enough of them and come October when they end we are sad all fall and winter. Click on the following link to see what ones might be close to you - Colorado Farmers Market 2011 - our personal favorites are Boulder and Golden. We highly suggest checking one out and supporting local farmers.

My 2nd obsession is Tastefully Simple! I started my business with TS as an independent consultant back in 2010. After several months

I took a break and am now resigning again! I have never been more excited about the opportunities I have with TS and am jumping in as fast as I can. If you would like to learn more about the business and or check out products (many of which I will be using and referencing in this blog in posts to come) click on the following link - Heidi Gunn's Tastefully Simple Website - or email me at justataste2010@gmail.com.

Now on to a recipe using both my favorite obsessions!

Summer Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 lb Italian Herb Pasta (FM)

1/2 red pepper (FM)

1/2 yellow pepper (FM)

1/2 red onion (FM)

15 garlic stuffed olives (FM)

1/2 cucumber (FM)

1/4 cup + 1 1/2 TBS Roasted Garlic Infused Oil (TS)

2 TBS Dried Tomato Garlic Pesto Mix (TS)

Key:

FM - farmers market

TS - tastefully simple (click on item to see product)

Directions:

* cook pasta w/ a little salt until al dente, drain and rinse w/ cold water, set aside - mix pesto mix w/ 1 1/2 TBS roasted garlic oil and 2 TBS water, set aside - chop all veggies and place in a large bowl - add pasta, pesto mix and 1/4 roasted garlic oil - mix well and let set in fridge for several hours - ENJOY!

Hummus... again!

Here is another hummus recipe that I am totally in love with this month! Olives are my weak spot especially stuffed olives: jalapeno, red pepper, almond, garlic, etc. My favorite as of lately are the garlic stuffed olives. We buy them in bulk from either Whole Foods (9.99/lb) or Sunflower (6.99/lb). This is what I came up with...

Garlic Olive Hummus

Ingredients:

1.5 cups Garbanzo Beans (save $$ by buying dried in the bulk section and cook until soft in crockpot)

20 garlic stuffed olives

1/4 cup grapeseed oil (any oil will work, such as EVOO)

2 TBS lemon juice

Place ingredients in food processor and blend together, add a little water to get a creamy consistently.

* note I did not add any salt to this, the olives did that for me - you could add pepper to taste if you wanted that flavor

The garlic in this recipe is perfect because it is already tender and marinaded from being stuffed in the olive so you don't have to worry about a strong or bitter flavor. this just might be my favorite Hummus yet! :)

image from: Food For Laughter

Dairy-Free Sausage Gravy

image from: blogchef.net

When I ask Kevin for dinner menu ideas he normally doesn't have many but lately he has had one and at first I wasn't sure I could make it dairy free and pull it off but here it is and it turned out fantastic!

Dairy-Free Sausage Gravy (serve w/ hash-browns or biscuits)

Ingredients:

1 lb ground sausage

2 cups lactaid milk (could use rice, soy, etc)

1 cup flour

salt and pepper

Directions:

brown sausage in pan, drain but save the grease - set aside sausage and return grease to pan - on medium heat slowly add flour to grease, stirring constantly until it is think, but not clumpy - add rice milk and stir continuously until it looks thick, almost like a soup - add salt and pepper to taste - fold in sausage and serve.

Peach Salsa

It is PEACH season in colorado, well first of the season but my family is celebrating! We LOVE peaches!!! I bought 3 lbs this past week at the grocery store and this week has been full of breakfast peach smoothies, fresh peaches for snacks and now peach salsa on our tacos tonight for dinner. Here is my simple recipe:

Ingredients:

2 roma tomatoes

1 peach

1/2 onion

1/2 yellow pepper

salt - pepper - cumin - cayanne - garlic powder

(other options: cilantro, green pepper, jalapeno, etc)

Directions:

Chop tomatoes, peach, and onion into small diced pieces, add seasonings and let sit in fridge over night to marinade together.

Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

(photo credit: http://www.thekindlife.com/post/chocolate-peanut-butter-cups)

I have recently been reading The Kind Diet, by Alica Silverstone. It is an incredible book about feeling good about your body and what you consume; plus it includes AWESOME recipes! I made these vegan choc pb cups for Kevin today. I can't wait for him to try them since Reese's are his favorite treat! and the added bonus (other than they are vegan and for the most part healthy) it is a great dessert that doesn't take the oven on a hot day!

MAKES 12

INGREDIENTS
1⁄2 cup Earth Balance butter
3⁄4 cup crunchy peanut butter
(preferably unsweetened and unsalted)
3⁄4 cup graham cracker crumbs or 10 graham cracker squares
1⁄4 cup maple sugar or other granulated sweetener
1 cup grain-sweetened, nondairy chocolate or carob chips
1⁄4 cup soy, rice, or nut milk
1⁄4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, or peanuts

STEPS
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. (If You Care makes unbleached liners made from recycled paper.)
Set aside.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Stir in the peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, and maple sugar and mix well. Remove the mixture from the heat.
Evenly divide the mixture, approximately 2 tablespoons per cup, among the muffin cups.
Combine the chocolate and milk in another pan.
Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted.
Spoon the chocolate evenly over the peanut butter mixture.
Top with chopped nuts.
Place in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Pumpkin Enchiladas

(photo credit: http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-enchiladas-442034)

I know pumpkin enchiladas sound like a weird combination. However this is a must try recipe, one that my husband even rated to be a 9.5 out of 10 tonight at dinner. I am still trying to use up the 10+ lbs of pureed pumpkin that my mom did for us and froze while she was here last October. I will for sure be using more up on this recipe! YUM

Pumpkin Enchiladas (vegan)

serves 2 - easily doubled

Ingredients:

2 tortillas (we used flour, but corn would work great too)

3/4 cup enchilada sauce (used the green chili kind)

2/3 cup pumpkin (this could be canned, ours was frozen)

1/3 cup chopped onion

Seasoning: chipotle powder, salt, onion salt, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, pepper (I don't measure so just eyeball it, make sure to watch for how spicy you want the dish)

Optional Ingredients: cheese, sour cream, green onion (we kept this dairy free/vegan but I would have added green onion if we would have had it on hand! and the cheese would have tasted great too!) At the end of the meal we also decided some fresh guac would have been great on them as well!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Chop onion and cook in skillet until it begins to brown

3. Add onion, pumpkin and seasonings to bowl, mix well

4. Spray a casserole dish w/ non-stick cooking spray and fill tortillas with mixture, leaving some to layer on top at the end (about 1/2 cup)

5. Bake for 15 mins in the oven, let sit before serving. Enjoy!

Freezer Meal It:
* Prep and Assemble then cover pan with plastic wrap, then a layer of foil and then the lid if the dish has one. (these steps just help ice and freezer burn from setting in).
* This freezes great and is easy to pull out and heat up - Dinner in 15 minutes. We love to serve with diced avocado and a side of corn with Tastefully Simple Fiesta Seasoning mixed in. 

Garden

We love summer for tons of reasons including our garden. This year we decided to have a container garden on our back porch. We used our front space for flowers as we knew whatever we plant in that space will be tramped by the neighbor children. This way our garden is safe!

Our Tomato plant! Already about 100 green tomatoes hanging and it is said to produce over 40 lbs total!

Products I Love... part 1

Since going dairy-free I have learned about a lot of great products. Here is my list of products that we are now using as staples in our house. Things we love AND they even taste amazing!

In my list you will find a lot of vegan options as well. No, we are still not vegans but I could be and I think Kevin could too with a little bit more convincing. However, for now we believe that education is key and taking a proactive stance towards what we put into our bodies is important. Finding out where our food comes from and supporting local businesses is really vital for our community.

Here is the start of my list:

(hint - if you click on the item it will take you to the website)

PROTEIN:

* Tempeh Bacon - organic soy tempeh, tastes like bacon!

* Smart Ground (mexican for tacos and original for everything else) - replaces ground beef or turkey in anything - when using the original you can season to make it taste like whatever you need it to (ie. chili, sloppy joes, etc)

* Boca Chik'n Patties - tastes just like breaded chicken patty!

* Sunshine Burgers - these GF veggie burgers are the BEST, the BBQ flavor is my personal favorite (we also love making our own vegan burgers and you can find them on this blog; search for almond or black bean burgers)

DAIRY:

* Earth Balance Butter - great vegan butter substitute comes in a tub or sticks

* Amande Yogurt - almond yogurt, Peach is my current favorite

* Green Valley Lactose Free Yogurt - this is some of the best and often more affordable yogurt

* Coconut Milk, Coffee Creamer and Yogurt - if you like coconut this is awesome - their milk and yogurt is both fantastic!

* Silk Coffee Creamer - French Vanilla is my favorite, I love it in Chai!

* Luna and Larry's Coconut Bliss Icecream - personal favorite is Mint Galactica - but really they are ALL so good!

PROBIOTICS:

* Good Belly - family size quarts are the best deal price wise - we like mango and watermelon

* Attune Probiotic Chocolate Bar- mint chocolate, yes please!

SNACKS:

* O.N.E Coconut Water - best one on the market - very refreshing

* Nut Thins - try BBQ or Ranch (not dairy free) for a chip type snack but if you are looking for something to eat with hummus or dips the Pecan are great

* PopChips - all flavors!

* Seneca Crispy Apple Chips - when I don't have time to dehydrate my own these are great, try them in Caramel

Well this gets us started for now... more later! Enjoy!

Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette

Lately I haven't been baking much as I hate to heat up the house on a beautiful summer day when I can have the windows open and the air conditioning off in the house. Today I went back to experimenting with salad dressings. I love making my own and have realized how simple it is. My creation today is Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette

Combine 2/3 cup EVOO - 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or white) - 1 Tbs dijon mustard - 2 tsp honey - salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a screw-top jar (I used an old jelly jar). Shake jar vigorously.

Let sit in fridge to blend flavors for several hours. Oil may settle so make sure to shake before using. Can't wait to try this on salads or as a marinade on meats!

Other ideas: add fresh herbs - garlic or shallots - swap orange juice for some vinegar.