Last round at PSU & Momma Luzz's Favorite

This will be my fourth year at Penn State, and my last semester here. I can't believe how much time flew... feels like only a year ago I graduated from high school, and in 2 weeks I'm going to turn 22, and then in a couple months I will be a Penn State graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Nutrition- like seriously? I don't want to grow up!

Sylly week was unexpecting. This pitcher of just plain strawberry starburst is a good recap of it. I had to cut out early though and go home because of poor Hershey :[. The little dogs are going nuts without the big momma bear right now. 

Anna and I decided to make an awesome dinner! Her mom told her about beet greens and if you sauté them they make a great saladish side...oh my goodness they were heavenly. I'm never throwing those puppies away ever again! We also made some gluten free pasta with an amazing pesto- vegan of course! It was so delicious, the recipe for both the sauteed beet greens and creamy pesto spaghetti are on her blog : Dolce Vita. Check it out- she just posted an awesome recipe for mushroom burgers that look amazing!

 As for me, I don't have much recipes up for tonight- I'm still kinda bummin' over the Hershey shmeal. But hey- I made so many awesome treats this weekend- coming to a local blogger near you will be some banana chocolate chip brownies with a rich chocolate frosting, zucchini pizza crust topped with Anna's creamy pesto recipe, some zucchini fries (obviously there is going to be a blog post attributing zucchini), and an awesome cucumber "cumber" salad.

Right now, I have a simple little recipe that I recreated for my mom. My mom is so cute, she's trying to be a vegan! One of her favorite snacks when she was younger were tomato and mayo sandwiches. I cannot tell you how many times she told me this. So I decided that since she is trying oh so hard to be veganized, I decided that we needed to start on something she'd love. I made these as little appetizers for the Penn State vs. Ohio University game (don't even get me started on this game) and she fell in love. Not only was she astonished that there is such thing as vegan mayonnaise, but also at how tasty and delicious this was! And- it was gluten free. Bonus? Only took me less than ten minutes to chop the tomatoes, assort the crackers, and whip up this delicious herbed mayonnaise. Iggy loved it too- he hounded the leftovers and ended up snacking on the mayonnaise!

Tomato and Herbed Mayo 'tizers

vegan~glutenfree

Herbed Veganaise

1/2 cup veganaise

1 tablespoon minced chives

1 teaspoon stonground mustard

2 tablespoons minced basil

2 tablespoons herbes de provence

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Setup

3 heirloom tomatoes, sliced, then quartered for each piece

1 recipe of Herbed Veganaise

24 gluten free crackers (I used Mary's Gone Crackers- Herbed; but any works obviously!)

Himalayan Sea Salt (or any salt)

For the veganaise

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until creamy

For the preparation

1. Place crackers of choice on a serving plate

2. Dollop each cracker with herby veganaise

3. place 2-4 slices of tomato on each cracker

4. sprinkle salt on top of each!

Easy peasy :]

Eden Cafe and Italian Vegetable Soup

What a tremendously hot day it way! I've been working my little booty off lately for the opening of the season. I've been managing to keep up with the cooking, the working out and whatnot- but I've been eating a little more every day: WOOPS! It's tough to go sometimes an entire day without eating and my willpower slowly begins to deteriorate. Thankfully, starting tomorrow I'm probably going to go on a diet consisting of eliminating processed foods and focusing on natural, simple ingredients. My face breaks out tremendously at work being around all the fryer oil; on top of that having to sweat and have a rather unhealthier diet than usual. 

Before my mother went to Wanderlust in Vermont (the lucky duck!), she took me out to my FAVORITE vegan cafe- Eden. It is located in the city of Scranton, PA- probably 30 minutes away from us (which isn't bad at all!). It is right next to Lackawanna College, where one of my good friends went to school. I had a carrot-almond soup that was so heavenly. I am definitely recreating this and I could probably make it into a raw soup, chilled for those summer days. Then we had a hummus and veggie platter and since the place is gluten-free friendly, they gave us some toasted almond bread on the side. The hummus was homemade and it was so delicious! I brought home some mock tuna salad for dinner as well as a grilled chicken cheesesteak for Bill. It definitely was a good day for me :]

                     

The next day, I decided to try and recreate one of my family's traditional recipes: our italian vegetable minestrone. I have been in the mood for soup lately, because it has been rather chilly every day except the last two days. The idea first came up when I was in the grocery store browsing for dinner idea's and I saw Amy's Rustic Italian Vegetable Soup. I decided to recreate it a little bit and use their secret ingredient for the little baby noodles: CHICKPEAS! And instead of spinach, I used kale. These were probably the only two things I really used from the Amy's...but the chickpea idea was so perfect! I'm not sure if I want to give out my momma's italian vegetable soup recipe, because her "broth" has been our family's grandest pride because it is a homemade "broth" that my father taught us and we use it for many bases for italian entrees; ie there's not gonna be a recipe for this :x But I will give you the vegetables I used to make mine!

Italian Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

1-15oz can chickpeas, drained (reserve the chickpea water)

2 medium shallots, diced

2 teaspoons minced garlic

4 red bell peppers, chopped

2 zucchini, chopped

2 bunches curly kale, taken off the stem

1 cup oyster mushrooms, destemmed

some vegetable broth (this is where my broth is secret :])

1 tablespoon EVOO

2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

sea salt and white pepper to taste

1. Preheat EVOO in a 4-qt saucepot medium-high heat. Add in your shallots and cook for 2 minutes.

2. Next, add in your garlic and cook for an extra minute.

3. Add in salt, pepper, and your red bell peppers and zucchini and cook for approximately 5-10 minutes, until they are pretty soft.

4. Add in a good amount of vegetable broth that just covers your mixture and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and add in your chickpea water, oyster mushrooms and chickpeas. Simmer for 12-15 minutes.

5. When your water has reduced a good amount and your mixture seemed very thick, mixe in your fresh basil and take it off the heat to serve.