Whole Wheat Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie

This is one of the best desserts I've made in a while, healthy, vegan, or not. It's perfect for those nights when you have a sweet tooth and your husband is more than willing to share.

Sunny Weekends in the PNW

I promise that I don't just eat out every weekend but lately we've been hitting up some seriously wonderful establishments. This weekend we drove up north to Bellingham, one of my favorite towns. We spent the day combing old bookstores, antique shops, hiking a little, and even stumbling upon some blue herons.

Enjoying a happy hour beverage at The Black Cat.

I had the crepes stuffed with swiss cheese, applewood bacon, broccoli, and spinach! They were dreamy.

The weekend before, I took my mom to Honore Bakery, renowned for it's espresso, specialty baked goods, and their french macarons.

We shared a chocolate and salted caramel macaron. I'm sure you can only imagine...

The past few weekends have been warm and full of sunshine and boy, have I been appreciating it! We just planted basil, spinach, snap peas, and sweet peppers in our raised garden bed and I can't wait to concoct some delicious recipes incorporating my homegrown ingredients!

 I may start documenting my seedlings' progress in the next few months, hopefully I don't find out that I have a brown thumb!

The Other Coast Cafe

                                           This past weekend we hit up this place. Wow. 

And how rad is that label? Seattle eats at it's best.

St. Patrick's Day 'get up and go' Smoothie

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I am indeed half Irish, so I certainly can relate to the merriment and pride of this day. To celebrate, we're having some friends over for corned beef (in the slow cooker!), sweet potato fries, Guinness, and some green ice cream! I had grand plans of making whiskey chocolate bundt cake, but I got a little sidetracked with the St. Patrick's Day Dash 2013. I started doing this race last year and think I'll stick with it! It was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle, which is quite rare for March and we had an amazing brunch after at Cal's. If you haven't headed to the new foodie scene in South Lake Union, you're seriously missing out! We've already hit up Cactus, so our next venture will be Tom Douglas' new Bravehorse Tavern.

Anyways, enough with this rambling. I recently concocted the most delicious smoothie. It's dreamy. All you need is the green (to make it Irish... and extra healthy) and the rest of the ingredients you can vary. I've made a tropical variation and a straight banana and spinach version. While it is certainly perfect for St. Patrick's Day, it is also fitting for breakfast, lunch, or a post workout snack.

One thing is not to forget is to freeze your bananas, people, freeze them! As soon as I pick them up from Top Banana or the Ballard Market, I usually take about half and break them all into bite sized pieces. You can use them for banana peanut butter ice cream or throw them in a smoothie, like here. Try it, you won't be disappointed.

Ingredients:

2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach
2 c. soy or coconut milk (I prefer coconut)
1 large frozen banana (cut into chunks pre-freezing)
1/2 c. Greek yogurt
1 1/2 c. frozen berries of your choice
1/2 of a ripe mango
Juice from 1 large orange
Sprinkle of powdered ginger
Any other ingredients, such as almonds, oats, or grapefruit juice

Method:

First, grab your handy dandy blender (I've had mine since college, and I treasure it!). Then dump your milk in first, followed by the other ingredients. Blend. If you have difficulty reaching the correct consistency, add more liquids or more solids (bananas or spinach.) Drink.

Don't be surprised you experience a productive work day, followed by a exhilarating workout. All the vitamins and antioxidants flooding your body will get you through any rough day, I promise. I've found that I don't need coffee on the mornings I have this for breakfast. It's that impressive.

Also pictured here is some Ezekiel bread topped with homemade almond butter (recipe to follow soon!) As you can guess, it was a productive day.

Cheers to your St. Patrick's Day and the morning after!

Easy Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

It's this easy:

2 frozen bananas, sliced
2 tbsp. peanut butter
Optional: 1 tsp. shredded coconut or nuts, or a dash of cocoa powder

Place bananas in food processor and purée until smooth. Add peanut butter, purée a little more, then scoop! Garnish with anything and be amazed at this clean ice cream.

It's so simple.

... In only a few hours...

Spring is on it's way

First crocus of the season! Time to start planting!

Sunday specials.

On Sundays I like to make a special meal, I call it the Sunday Special.

Here's a little preview, Swiss chard pesto!