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Pancakes and Turnips

Posted on March 6, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Sunday everybody! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I’d have to say that mine was pretty dandy! Hmm, now that’s a word I’ve never used before…where did that come from??

Soooo THAT’S why they call him Yankee Doodle Dandy!! Duh!

Anywho, my dandy Sunday…Dun-day? started off with a celebration in honor of Pancake Sunday with some lovely whole wheat pumpkin pancakes! Wha, don’t tell me you’re one of THOSE people who reserve this wonderful veggie for autumnal feasts and then never think about it again? Kate and I may have to take you out back and teach you a thing or two! 😉

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes: (serves 1)

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
scant 1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
sweetener if desired (I left it out and went with a sweet topping instead)

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Mix wet ingredients.
3. Combine wet and dry and spoon batter into a skillet heated to medium-hight heat.
4. Cook 4-5 minutes, flip.
5. Cook an addition 2-3 minutes.

I served my cakes layer style with 1 cup of Greek yogurt that I spiked with agave and cinnamon and added a dollop of TJ’s cranberry apple butter and a handful of toasted pecans.

Check out that topping waterfall!

Close up bite shot before it was all gone!

After breakfast, I did some blog reading and then got ready to head to Nashville to meet the lovely HEAB for lunch. We met at the Turnip Truck, a locally owned natural market that, even for it’s small size, rivals the bigger companies like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Heather and I chose to have lunch from their hot bar (much cheaper than WF’s by the way).

Ok, see? I told you not all my pictures are pretty! I totally blame this on the bad natural lighting since it was another cloudy/gloomy day in Nashvegas today! Bleh!

Talk about not being able to make up my mind! I got falafel with tzatziki sauce, a buttermilk biscuit with gravy, seaweed salad, barbeque seitan (first time trying by the way…loved the meaty texture), greens, rice pilaf, and roasted cauliflower. There’s also a slice of bacon under there somewhere! Ha! The greens were definitely my favorite with a nice hint of maple syrup in them!

Picture time!
Aren’t her eyes just gorgeous?!

After getting back into town and taking care of a few more secret squirrel details (don’t worry, I won’t leave you guys hanging much longer!) I came home and had a light and colorful dinner!

Edamame hummus wrapped in collard leaves Christin style, mini sweet peps, and a sunflower butter/nooch quesadilla!

And tonight, I will leave you with something I like to call “my amusement for the day”!

Seriously? Since when did cash the boot?

How was your weekend? Was is “dandy”?

Posted in Breakfast, Pancake Sunday, Shopping | Tagged blogger meet up, Greek yogurt, hummus, pancakes, pumpkin, shopping | 36 Comments

Butter Toffee Almond Butter

Posted on March 5, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Saturday my peoples! It was so good to hear all of your random confessions from yesterday’s post! Nice to know I’m not the only OCD/quirky chick out there! Oh, and remember how I said I was feeling drowsy from my chamomile tea? Ha, how about I woke up at 5am on the couch with my laptop beside me!

Today was a gloomy, cold, and rainy day. I always tend to forget that Tennessee doesn’t really have seasons. It goes a little something like this:

COLD (Winter)

RAINY (Spring)

HOT as Hades (Summer)

And yeah, we don’t usually get a Fall 🙁

I woke up this morning and knew today would be the perfect day finally try Ashley’s Coconut Cream Blueberry Buckwheat Bake. I whipped it up according to her directions, popped it in the oven, and went to get my sweat on with J Dub (yeah, we’re tight like that now!) before I had a chance to let the gloominess of the day make a lazy bum out of me!

Oh my goodness! It was even better than I imagined! The coconut cream “surprise” on the inside is out of this world! Creamy, chewy, warm, and delicious!

What’s that blob of stuff on top you ask? Well that’s just my butter toffee almond coconut butter! Such a cinch to make…I broke out with a little Sandra Lee on this one, if you will.

Butter Toffee Almond Coconut Butter:

1 cup butter toffee almonds (made by Blue Diamond)
2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut butter

1. Throw in a food processor and blend, scrape, blend, scrape, etc until smooth and creamy!
2. Scoop your newly discovered favorite nut butter into a jar and proceed to lick the bowl of the food processor. Don’t worry, we won’t judge! 😉

I feel pretty ridic posting this as a recipe, but hey I’ve seen worse…anyone seen Ellie Krieger’s Dark Chocolate as a Snack recipe? Food Network actually took it off the site so I had to search it out. View the super complex recipe here and check out some hilarious reviews here.

The rest of my day was SUPER busy with cleaning, cleaning, more cleaning, and a some more of my secret squirrel activities! Hopefully I will be able to share some great news with you guys on Monday!

My super quick dinner after a busy busy day!

What’s in a salad?

collard greens
mini sweet peppers
button mushrooms
roasted broccoli & cauliflower sprinkled with turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon
roasted tomatoes
1 fried egg
TJ’s masala veggie burg, crumbled

Mmm, spicy breakfast meets crunchy salad! I love pairing this veggie burg with eggs. I swear it taste just like a spicy hashbrown!

Well, I’m off! Gonna try not to pass out in the floor from drinking more tea! 😉 Have a good night lovelies! I’ll “see” you tomorrow for Pancake Sunday!

What is your favorite way to eat almond butter? What’s your favorite flavor?
Definitely on top of oats! (duh) and my favorite is Justin’s Maple Almond Butter followed oh so closely my MaraNatha’s Dark Chocolate Almond Butter

Posted in Breakfast, Entree | Tagged almond butter, blueberries, coconut, eggs, salad, Trader Joe's, veggies | 27 Comments

These Are My Confessions

Posted on March 4, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hey foodies! Hope everyone enjoyed the little surprise at the bottom of yesterday’s post! Anyone else ever tried the Saltine Challenge? If you haven’t, I definitely recommend going with the unsalted tops…I think it might have helped! But ya know, that does pose a VERY interesting question: how can an unsalted cracker be referred to as a saltine? Shouldn’t it be un-saltine or a just tine? I’ll leave that for you to ponder! 😉

Forgive my lack of modesty, but I must say that my breakfast this morning was a beauty!

Siggi’s Vanilla Icelandic Yogurt, 1 medium banana, 1/2 cup strawberries, 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean, handful of butter toffee almonds, and a sprinkle of ch-ch-ch-chias!

L-O, L-O, L-O, L-O-V-E!

Turns out that breakfast was the first AND last beautiful meal of the day!

So as not to totally ruin my reputation when it comes to good-looking food and do a regular post, howabout a few confessions for tonight?

Random Confessions of a Broccoli Kisser:

1. Sometimes my food just ain’t purdy! Tonight’s dinner was a prime example! Close your eyes (No, not yet! You have to finish reading this sentence first!) and use your imagination on this one: 1/2 cup cooked quinoa mixed with a 1/2 cup steamed edamame, topped with HEAB’s cocoa roasted sweet potatoes, warm cinnamon apples, a few raisins, all topped with a drizzle of Justin’s maple almond butter!

Now doesn’t that sound a whole lot better than this looks??

Let me just say that the buttery taste of edamame rocks this girl’s world!

2. I intentionally put too much milk in my cereal bowl. That way I have an excuse to add more cereal to the bowl after the first serving is gone! Can’t waste the milk, right?

3. I never rinse my quinoa before cooking. Not too ashamed to say I’m just plain lazy…but hey, I don’t taste the difference!

3. Hello, my name is Heather and I am addicted to Twitter! I never thought in a MILLION years that I would “tweet” or even know how to “tweet” for that matter. Now, I find myself making special bathroom breaks at work just to check my Twitter! Wait, that sounded kinda dirty! 😉

4. Dressing up makes me feel pretty! And for this I must take pictures of myself!

I love this dress I found when I was supposed to be shopping for a New Year’s Eve outfit! Hey, it was on sale!!

5. Speaking of clothes…my clothes hangers must ALWAYS point to the left! Call it OCD, but whenever I hang my clothes up, if the hook of the hanger doesn’t point left when the piece of clothing is facing me, then I have to take it off the hanger and turn it around!

6. I don’t just take pictures of my food! And believe it or not, this pic was taken with my point and shoot!

7. I am extremely sensitive to chamomile tea! I started drinking a mug at the beginning of this post, and now I can barely focus on the screen! I’m such a lightweight! Haha!

And I totally just added that last one so that I could have 7 confessions! Love my lucky number 7! Oh and since titling this post I’ve been singing that Usher song in my head!

Got a random confession of your own? Please, entertain me!