daily food

Almond milk has been a staple in my kitchen for quite a while now. I like it over cereal and in my tea and smoothies. I figure if I go light on the dairy in certain areas it will help make up for the times when I just can't resist a bowl of ice cream. Unfortunately store bought almond milk has a bunch of additives that I would really rather not ingest, so I've been experimenting with making my own. But it always came out too... almondy. And a bit too gritty. It was alright mixed in with things and I could live with it in tea, but any type of cereal I tried it with ended up just tasting like soggy almonds. Between that and the effort involved, it made it really hard not to just reach for the carton in the store isle, despite all the gross stuff I know is hiding in there.

But I think I have found a solution. Cashew milk is my new favorite thing. The flavor is much milder and closer to milk and the cashews seem to soften up more than almonds after a night of soaking so they blend up better, leaving less of a gritty texture. It passes the cereal test and it tastes nice in tea as well. Win!

Cashew Milk

1 part cashews
3 parts milk

Soak nuts overnight or for at least 8 hours. Rinse and put in blender. Add 1 part water and blend thoroughly, then add rest of water and blend again. If you have a nut milk bag then use that to strain into your storage container. I don't have one yet so I just passed it through a fine mesh sieve a few times until all the cashew bits were strained out. Cheesecloth would probably work too.

There are all sorts of flavors that would be nice to experiment with: vanilla, dates, cinnamon, chocolate, maple... so many possibilities.

the best part of may...

Tis the season for strawberry rhubarb. I made a my favorite crumble recipe yesterday, and I can't wait to have it in pie. I could live off this stuff. 

the perfect pancake

I can't resist a good pancake recipe. This became very clear when I recently counted exactly how many pancake recipes I have bookmarked: 31. That's thirty-one DIFFERENT recipes, all for pancakes!

But testing those recipes will have to be put on hold for a little while, because I have a new favorite. To be honest, I didn't really expect much from this recipe. It seemed pretty basic and I worried it might be a bit bland. Since I had some fresh blueberries I decided to throw those in too.

Oh my.

These turned out to be the most fluffy, golden, delicious pancakes I've had in a while. The cornmeal added texture and there was enough baking powder to really let them puff up, even though I used almond milk instead of real dairy. And I'd forgotten how much better blueberry pancakes are with fresh berries versus frozen.

Next time I make these I'll probably use more whole wheat flour, but they were lovely just like this too. Yum.

daily food

Breakfast and polaroids... what a perfect combination. These two are some favorites of mine that the boy took recently.

eat. your. greens.

Do you crave bright green in the dead of winter? Lately it's all I can think of. Rather than getting my greens in boring old salads, I much prefer to hide them in smoothies. Spinach is my favorite since the mild flavor blends especially well with fruit. I love starting my morning with a glass full of green.

Yes, I realize it looks like something out of a swamp monster movie, but it tastes delicious. Here's my recipe of choice at the moment.

Spinach (I use roughly 2 cups)

1 Banana

1 TBS ground flax seed

Frozen strawberries

Frozen raspberries

Almond milk (I don't use a precise measurement, just use a bit at a time until the consistency is right.)

Combine in blender and enjoy!

Sadly, my stash of strawberries from the summer is all used up as of this morning, but there are so many other combos to try! Some of my fast favorites included blueberries and melons. For more ideas check out this site.

golden goodness

As I mentioned last week, I've been having a serious craving for pumpkin pancakes. So this morning I made some before the boy left for work. I used this recipe, but I had to get a little creative because we didn't have all the ingredients. Our pancakes lacked cloves and allspice, and I used buttermilk in place of heavy cream and milk with no ill effects. These pancakes were super soft and delicious with the most beautiful golden color. I'm already looking forward to using up the leftover batter tomorrow!

everything with a side of green

Asparagus season is here, in all it's glory. It's brand new and exciting to me, since these heavenly green stalks are a newly acquired taste. But now that people are bring bunches of locally grown asparagus into the co-op, I can't get enough of it. My favorite way to cook it is in the skillet with butter, salt and pepper. Above is a picture of what my lunch looked like today and it was the perfect meal. This season is fleeting, but I intend to enjoy it as much as I can while it lasts.

breakfast: german pancake

This is what I had for breakfast this morning.

Two nights ago I woke up from a dream about eating a German pancake and knew I had to find a recipe to make one. It was basically like the largest, most delicious popover imaginable. Really good with maple syrup. Of course, in my dream it was also shaped like a dog... but the dreamworld is a funny place! Check out the recipe.