Hollandaise

This winter has lacked that whole "wintery feel" with repeated weeks of 50 and 60 degree temps. So what better time to start a yard reconstruction project than on a Saturday night- by the glow of truck headlights- only to finish during the only snowstorm we've seen this year.  Totally normal right?!  The  true feat of the weekend has been the relaxed vibe that settled in, sometime Friday afternoon-while a stylist set free the split ends of my hair!!  One dinner date at Emilio's later, with sangria obviously accompanying the boiled octopus tapas and the stress of the last few weeks drifted away.
Enter Saturday morning. While cruising cooking light online, I came across and ultimately started craving this.  Not having Canadian Bacon didn't discourage my morning masterpiece. Not really feeling the heaviness of traditional Hollandaise sauce, my goal was to create something lighter while keeping the full flavor intact.  Thankful to the many vegan recipes dedicated to egg/butter free Hollandaise Sauce- this blend of ideas was created and savored, mentally stored for my next fancy feeling feast- and 1 less chicken loses it's life! Win-win for everyone, don't you think

Holy Healthy Hollandaise
1/4 cup drained and rinsed Chickpeas
1/4 cup Plain Greek Yogurt
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Splash Worcestershire
Salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
1/2 Tsp Turmeric
3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
1/4 cup water

Give it some alone time in the food processor- enough to take the grainy texture from the chickpeas and make it smooth.  Warm in a sauce pan and server over everything... eggs.

Greetings From...

SUNNY FLORIDA  er, Wintery Weather VA is more like it! We woke up yesterday to a wet, ice covered deck, followed by morning rain.  Though today has been dry, the cool temperatures remain.  Not to worry we are looking at high's in the 60's this week, because that makes a lot of sense!  For some odd reason, I have been on a mid-winter smoothie kick. Last week it was pumpkin laced, today we have "Hi- wish I were on a warm beach, but not in a bikini yet" flavored variety.  Your standard frozen strawberries, banana, and mixed fruit that you need to either use or get rid of blended with 1 cup greek yogurt, 1/2 cup 1% milk, 1/2 cup water, and topped with unsweetened shredded coconut.

Its pretty standard, but if I lean up against the fireplace (after I fight for a spot between these two heat hogs, like hubs demonstrates above), close my eyes really tight, I am suddenly sitting on a beach- with nothing but the sand, ocean, and my strawberry smoothie. Where did your breakfast take you today?

Late Morning!

It seems like every time we get a week going, there is another weather system moving in.  I do love my fair weather state- we are lucky to have 4 beautiful changing seasons- but I wouldn't mind a mild end to the Winter Season!

So with a few extra hours this morning, I was able to make muffins- but not just any muffins, Carrot Cake Muffins!

After yesterday's cleaning extravaganza, I headed to the gym for a much needed sweat session! I was cruising along on the treadmill- running intervals of 30-40 second sprints, with 1 minute recoveries (OUCH!!)- and somewhere 20 minutes into my work out I was salavating thinking about a carrot cake breakfast muffin.

With a little extra time on my hands this morning, I decided to google my craving and see what I could come up with for breakfast.  There were plenty of cupcake recipes, and I do love a cupcake- just not for breakfast.  I came across this muffin recipe on Food.com. I made small changes to the recipe, and they were just right!  Steve couldn't get over how moist they are- my healthy whole wheat baking tends to be dry compared to the real stuff ;-)

Carrot Cake Muffins- adapted from Food.com

1 1/2 cups white wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/2cup brown sugar

1 egg 

3 tablespoons coconut oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup 1% milk

1 (8 ounce) can drained pineapple

3 carrots shredded

1/2 cup chopped Walnuts

3 Tbsp unsweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350- line a muffin pan or spray with nonstick spray.  Toast walnuts for 5 minutes.

Mix ingredients flour through brown sugar in a mixer or bowl.  In a separate bowl beat egg, milk, vanilla, and coconut oil together.  Mix pineapple bits, and carrots into the liquids.  Combine the liquids with dry ingredients, and mix until everything is moist.  Fold in walnuts. Spoon muffin mixture equally into muffin pan, and top lightly with coconut flakes. Bake for 20-23 minutes. When finished baking, pull out and let cool!

What is your favorite thing to make for breakfast, when you are surprised with a couple extra hours?!

Pumpkin Flax Smoothie Recipe

This was enough for 2- perfect for me and hubs to each enjoy!
2 frozen bananas
1/3 cup 1 % milk
1 container Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
4 Tbsp Coconut Oil
4 Tbsp Ground Flax seed- which can absolutely be left out! It makes it super grainy
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp ground Ginger

It definitely needed some water to get it going in the blender... perhaps a new blender is in my future?!

Between the flax, pumpkin, bananas, and coconut oil I stayed full until lunch (which is around 11:15)!

birthday bliss

I woke up this morning... ahem... December 11th.... my birthday- in a full on birthday snuggle from the hubs! It was super sweet- and then he asked what I wanted for breakfast- well pumpkin pancakes and turkey bacon seemed like perfection on a plate.  After being spoiled by girlfriends, having a fantastic dinner at Mekong- including a tasty Belgian beer, the perfect way to spend today is with my hubby- with some serious quality time, i.e. food, wine, and Christmas movies!  We celebrated out on the town earlier this month with our Dashboard evening, so today will remain low key.

Without any prior pumpkin pancake experience, my faithful man set out with the help of Mr. Breakfast to create delicious pancakes- topped with greek yogurt, laced with syrup and blueberries. To satisfy the bacon craving, he 'whipped up' a veggie omelet- with asparagus, onion, mushroom and green peppers! He topped it with crumbled bacon and cheese...  We shared the omelet, went back for seconds on the pancakes!

We originally planned a hike- however it's getting a rain check! We bumped it to the week before Christmas- even more reason to finish all the shopping, wrapping, baking, menu planning now!