a post dedicated to delicious coffee cake!

i have many, many photos to upload. however, i felt that it was necessary to dedicate one post to the most delicious coffee cake i have ever tasted. well, this might be a slight exaggeration, but it was entirely enjoyable.
when it was finished baking, i poked holes in the top with a fork and poured the juice from the blueberries in and then finished it off with a drizzle of maple syrup before placing the crumbles on top.



i found this recipe sometime last semester and had put it on my list of recipes to try. of course, since i am the only vegan in my household it sucks b/c this makes so much. but when my brother comes home i am able to make it and have him eat it. so! this morning when he wanted something for breakfast i offered to make this.

a catch-up post...sooo many food picturesss

i made pita bread the other day. however, i debated whether i should freeze it or if i should make pita chips. since my mom said she would eat some pita chips [&& i am having a hard time keeping up with eating the food i make] i decided to make them into chips.
i froze three of them and used the rest for the chips.


i enjoyed them with this hummus my aunt had at her house on the 4th of july. i don't love this brand, but it wasn't bad. i've had soooo much hummus lately, it's insane!


the following apple pie was made from apples i got at an auction my dad goes to.


i made my own crust with coconut milk, rolled oats, water, flour, mayple syrup, and vanilla.


it was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. it probably would have been much better with a scoop of ice cream. it looks seriousy lacking...



preparing to grill outtttt!


a different grill-out day of summer squash, tomatoes, && fresh garden onion.

eggplant hummus. soooo good! i remember sabra being my favorite hummus, but this definitely comes in close to being better. i ate it with these rice crackers that i found at our international food store. these rice crackers are vegan. and are delicious. and they will be taking the place of tortilla chips in my life from now on.

there are only 110 calories per serving and 0 grams of fat.


they are natural and delicious which makes me a happy camper.

food. food. foooooooooood.

i found a recipe for roasted cabbage but i lost it. this cabbage is the only one that came from my dad's garden--all the others died. :( this is sad b/c i made up my own recipe and it was to die for! i used spicy brown mustard, olive oil and oregano to marinate the cabbage. then i roasted it in the oven until tender. it was soooo good!



my dad goes to an auction every week. last week, i decided to go with. i ended up spending a ton of money on fresh fruits. we ended up with a watermelon, 2 cantaloupes, golden delicious apples, and grapes. the watermelon was my favorite with the cantaloupe coming a close second.






these smoothies are from awhile back. just frozen banana with black raspberries. the little thinger on top of one is a rice cake. i lovvve rice cakes.

summer's passing so quicklyyyyyy!

i got two bags of grapes the last time we were at the grocery store b/c i cannot stop eating them! they're so plump and sweet.



when i was younger, my family would go to our local bike path [which used to be a train track] && pick ice cream buckets full of black raspberries. it's one of my favorite memories. i've been back twice within the last week or so. this is one batch.


we froze some which i will use in smoothies after awhile. i eat them plain. and i have been concocting various recipes. this one is simply toast with some orange jelly and a pile of raspberries.


and this one looks completely disgusting and could have been photographed better if i had waited to put the black raspberry vinaigrette on it. anyway, this probably sounds revolting, but the stir fry i made has broccoli, onion, cauliflower, and jalapeno peppers in it. the sauce is lemon juice, onion salt, 1 clove garlic, a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette and white wine vinegar with a couple handfuls of berries all mixed up in the food processor. it was really yummy, except the seeds are somewhat difficult to eat.


i love edamamme [not sure if i spelled that right?]. LOVE IT. like, i am addicted. i started eating it on salads at ruby tuesdays and then decided i needed to buy some at the store. so i did. and i ate two bags of it within 2 days. i could eat it everyday for the rest of my life.

a veryyy outdoor-sy post!

these are my dad's three gardens. it's hard to capture them all in one--they are too big in my opinion.




the ingredients for this salad [except for the dressing && pickles] comes from the above pictured garden...

as do the sugar snap peas. there are so many, i am getting quite sick of them. this cookie recipe i got off a random internet search. it's amaZing! i think i'm going to use the base and adapt them to my mom's sugar&spice cookies, b/c those are what i've really been wanting. the cookies && this fruit were for a picnic i went on. we sat along the rock river and fed the ducks popcorn and parts of our pb&j sandwiches. it was great! i had so much fun. some v-8 low sodium juice for my day in the sunshine--not very good. i prefer the extra sodium to be truthful.

apples && puffed red wheat. those apples were to die for! and finally, a little treat of rice cake, fresh pineapple, and shredded coconut. topped with a drizzle of hershey's syrup.


YUM!

my brother's birthday is next week, but he was home this week so my mom made strawberry pie for him. it's vegan!


i enjoyed a nice sliver of this guy. it's just sliced strawberries with a glaze she buys at the store and a graham cracker crust.


i love how simple it is, yet how delicious!


this is my own version of chipotle's cilantro-lime rice. it's made with brown rice, cilantro, the juice from 2 limes, onion, two cloves garlic, and i added mushrooms.



i top it with a dash of balsamic vinegaratte and it's perfect.


the last of my dad's asparagus is in this dish. i am so, so incredibly sad to see the end of it. it was so good and simple. :(


my breakfasts have revolved around banana and pumpkin butter for awhile. i really, really like rice cakes--i feel weird saying that, but i really do.


this is just two rice cakes with pumpkin butter and a banana sliced and split between the two cakes.

a few quick treats

gala apples w. pumpkin butter [the edward's orchard kind]. i happily finished the last of the pumpkin butter from the farmer's market. it just didn't compare to the kind from our local apple orchard in poplar grove.


this little concoction was made on accident really. i used too much garlic and cilantro in the guac i was making so i had to add more ingredients for a nice balance. i opted for a corn, black bean mix which did the trick wonderfully. i also added about a quarter of a jar of salsa, and quite a bit of sweet baby ray's bbq sauce.


the result was delectable. i pretty much ate all of it in one sitting.


as i'm sure i've mentioned earlier, i have been accompanying my parents to garage sales. this takes up about 6-7 hours of my day b/c they are very hardcore. i brought along this sandwich of pumpkin butter && bananas. i love the way the bananas look nestled in there. i grill it when i'm at home which makes it even better!


we got a fresh pineapple [several actually] and i decided to make my own little popsicles. not as good as edy's fruit pops, but the pineapple accompanied the 7up flavor quite well.