Blissful Bites Cookbook Review & Giveaway

Posted on December 12, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys!

Hope you all had a FANTASTIC weekend. Mine was full of holiday dinners and mucho time spent with family and friends…gotta love this time of year! 🙂

So I’ve got a little something that’s guaranteed to perk up your Monday, but first things first…let me tell you about a cookbook that I’ve been enjoying for the last couple of months.

Toward the end of summer, I was contacted to review a “hot off the press” vegan cookbook written by Christy Morgan, a vegan macrobiotic chef and cooking instructor. If you want to learn more about Christy, check out her blog The Blissful Chef.

I’ll be honest, when I first received the cookbook, I was a bit overwhelmed…but in a good way. Out of the 175 recipes in the book, I wanted to make, oh…about 100 of them! There were SO many fantastic recipes to try covering many different cooking aspects that I was curious about…gluten-free, raw, and ethnic flavors…all made into nourishing vegan meals.

I loved the way the recipes were organized too.

Each section was divided seasonally to help make the most of the freshest ingredients.

When I finally narrowed down the recipes, I decided on about 5-6 to try first. One of them being the Millet-Black Bean Burgers

I’ve always loved playing around with different combos for homemade veggie burgers and I knew millet made a good filler from making my Edamame-Millet Burgers, so I was excited to try a version incorporating so many more veggies and textures.

The recipe is a large one, but they freeze really well…perfect for making lunches during the week!

Mine came out a little crumbly…I think I should’ve added a bit more of the liquid from the beans…but after adding a little oil and sqooshing (that is totally a word btw) them a bit, the fried up well in my skillet.

The texture and flavor of these vegan burgers is incredible…sure to satisfy any lover of burgers…vegan or not!

And of course, since I tried a savory recipe, I had to have a little balance and dabble with the sweet stuff!

I’m not a huge dessert person (I find that the more sweets I eat, the more sweets I want…and since I can’t say no, I usually end up with quite the tummy ache) so I figured this pumpkin hot chocolate would be perfect for me…

Plus, it has pumpkin in it…how could you go wrong there?

Well, the answer is…you can’t!

Unbelievable! Pumpkin spicy and perfectly chocolately!

I swear you guys, it was just like a decadent dessert…only in liquid form. Mmm!

So back to perking up your Monday…

How would you like to receive your very own copy of Christy’s wonderful cookbook chocked full of tasty vegan dishes full of flavor in the mail?

Just call it an early ~~Christy~~ Christmas present! 😉

This giveaway will be open until Thursday, December 15 @ 11:59pm CST and is open to residents of the US and Canada.

Here are the ways to enter:

MANDATORY:
1. Tell me your favorite vegan or vegetarian meal (feel free to drop a link)

EXTRA ENTRIES:
2. Like Kiss My Broccoli on Facebook

3. Like The Blissful Chef on Facebook

4. Follow The Blissful Chef on Twitter

5. Follow Kiss My Broccoli on Twitter AND tweet the following:
“Christmas is coming early! Check out Kiss My Broccoli’s giveaway for one of the newest vegan cookbooks to hit the shelves! http://goo.gl/wupOb”

Posted in Giveaway, Product Review, Vegan | Tagged chocolate, cookbook, pumpkin | 115 Comments

Show Me Some Love!

Posted on December 9, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Not that I need anymore!

You guys are so sweet! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes yesterday!

No, what I’m really here to talk about is:

L.O.V.E

I’ve fallen…

in love with…

Granola!

What did you think I meant, silly?! 😉

A couple of months ago, a lovely lady by the name of Laura sent me some samples of a new-to-me-granola…ever heard of Love Grown Foods before? If you read many food blogs, I’m sure you have. I swear I felt like the only blogger on the planet who hadn’t tried these babies!

I got three full-sized varieties:
Sweet Cranberry Pecan, Raisin Almond Crunch, and Apple Walnut Delight

And three minis:
Most importantly, the Cocoa Goodness 🙂

I knew from the moment I opened the package, which flavor I would be trying first!

Sweet Cranberry Pecan

Oh my gosh you guys, I cannot even begin to express how delicious this flavor is…hands down, my favorite one!

It has the perfect amount of sweetness to it and it totally jazzed up a bowl of Almond Dream Praline Crunch (which by the way is equally amazing) and was the perfect compliment to my Pumpkin Bread Pudding Pancakes!

Next up, my second favorite:

Raisin Almond Crunch

Since I was a kid, I’ve always been a big fan of raisin bran.

Ok, maybe I was a weird little kid at times…but don’t worry, I also had my fair share of Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, and Sugar {Coma} Smacks 😉

Anywho, what I’m getting at is this:

Raisin Almond Crunch + puffed kamut + Kashi Heart to Heart =
childhood nostalgia!

Definitely took me back! 🙂

And for more of a substantial breakfast, it added just the right amount of crunch to my pumpkin stuffed French toast!

Love pumpkin and raisins together…and look at those HUGE coconut flakes!

Moving along…

Apple Walnut Delight

I was a little disappointed that the apple flavor didn’t shine through a bit more in this one, so my idea was to pair it with some apple infused oats to amp up the flavor a bit.

It worked!

Tasted like a warm bowl of apple pie…and um, can we just take a moment to appreciate the size of that walnut?

Oh yeah!

And last but not least…

Cocoa Goodness

I was disappointed the most in this flavor. I’ve heard a lot of great things about it, but it just didn’t do it for me. I’m not a chocolate fanatic but I can appreciate a good dark chocolate flavor, but this was a lot more bitter than I anticipated.

Can’t win ’em all I guess…

But I’m totally over it…because you know what? There’s still plenty of LOVE to enjoy!

I only wish the bags were still that full! 🙁

Please note that while Love Grown Foods did send me these samples free of charge, I was not compensated in any way for the above review…

But I’m totally using it as a shameless excuse to plug myself! 😉

As you may or may not know, I’m in the running to be the next Love Blogger…basically a title that will give me the opportunity to spread the LOVE every day here on the blog. And you know what that means?

C’mon, it’s not that hard…

More LOVE filled recipes from your favorite broccoli kisser! 🙂

So do me a favor and pop on over to Love Grown’s facebook page and ~~like my picture~~ show me some LOVE!

Posted in Product Review | Tagged Love Grown Granola | 19 Comments

Birthday Recap

Posted on December 8, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

What’s is up my peoples?

Have you all had a fantastic week so far?

How about yesterday?

Any good?

My day was pretty great…oh yeah, maybe because yesterday was

MY BIRTHDAY!!

Although I had to work for most of the day, I couldn’t wait until that evening. After I went to the gym and knocked out a decent 5 miles (felt great to run…haven’t done that in weeks), I went home, showered, and headed to my parent’s house for my birthday dinner.

But before I left, I got a text in reference to these babies:

My birthday presents that BB wrapped all by himself this weekend!

Wanna know what was under that wrapping paper?…Of course you do!

He got me a tripod and a gorillapod!!

And I never even ONCE told him what to get me! I may or may not have done a little happy dance in the middle of my living room. 🙂

But anywho, back to that birthday dinner…

My mom asked me the other day what I would like to have and the first thing that came to mind was her homemade chicken pot pie. I remember it was always my favorite meal that she made when I was little and for special occasions (like birthdays or high test scores) she would make it and we would eat by candlelight.

Obviously she remembered that tradition too 🙂

It was just the three of us (my dad had to work), but we had quite the feast!

The spread…please note those square bowls with the salad fixings totally vintage…straight from my great grandmother’s kitchen! I love that my mom brought them out for the night!

I swear I’d forgotten how much I love walnuts on salad!
I ended up having this bowl x 2!

And then there was the pot pie

Warm, creamy, with a perfectly buttery browned biscuit crust…JUST like how I remember it!

After dinner, we rolled ourselves into the living room where we lusted over my mom’s newest Ikea catalog and chatted about Christmas, cooking, and decorating.

Even though I was still completely stuffed from dinner, I managed to find some room for birthday ~~cake~~ pie…because there’s always room for dessert when it’s your birthday! 😉

I confess, while I didn’t actually COOK the pie, I did mix up all the ingredients at home and took it in a bowl for my mom to pour into a pre-made crust and bake.

I was trying to redeem myself from Thanksgiving.

I used the same recipe as before and followed all the instructions carefully
(I remembered to add the milk this time…ugh)

annnnnd…

It was ok, but it didn’t have that tradition pumpkin pie taste that I was hoping for. Now I’m on a mission…a mission to find the best healthy pumpkin pie recipe ever tasted in this world!!! Suggestions and link droppage is more than welcome!!

Do you have a special meal or restaurant that you like to go to on your birthday?
My favorite restaurant is The Melting Pot and BB’s never been so I’m hoping to introduce him to it this weekend to celebrate both our birthdays…oh yeah, his birthday is today! 🙂

What was one of your best birthday presents when you were younger?
I’d have to say the My Child doll I got when I was three. I named her Heather Baby and I still have her to this day.