Favorite Summer Drink

*Casie Here* ~ Long time no post! Yikes!!!

This has been my go-to summer beverage of choice lately. I made this for our daughter's birthday party and have kept it going ever since.

 I bought a big bag of lemons, limes and box of oranges at Costco and wanted to use them up before they went bad, so I washed them real good and sliced them up (usually one orange, one lemon and 3 limes) as well as a sliced peach and then any other extra fruit I have left from lunch. There really is no rhyme or reason, just whatever I feel like. There were some grapes, blueberries and raspberries in there too. I just fill it up with our filtered tap water and put it in the fridge. I keep refilling it for about 3-4 days, then dump out the fruit, wash the container in the dishwasher and start over. The longer it sits the better. It is REALLY tart so I add a little squirt of my liquid Stevia (Skinny Girl is what we have) and it is delicious! I have used the Skinny Girl with vanilla and I think it tastes like an Orange Julious! 

 I will warn you, I go to the bathroom a lot, but that is good! I'm staying hydrated and my kids love it too.

Enjoy this pretty drink at your house too!

CARROT Hotdogs!

*Casie Here*

I have ONLY known about carrot dogs for about 3 years (thanks to Ashley), but this is the very first time I have attempted to make them. Don't ask me why it took me so long to try them, because I truly don't know. And I kinda knew this would happen, but they are simply one of the most awesome "meat" replacements I have tried. I am sorry I haven't tried to make these sooner. How can a carrot taste like a hot dog????

 Ummmm, these really do!

 I didn't take picts of the other steps,, but I should have. It was really easy. HERE is the recipe I followed from a fellow Omaha vegan girl! The only thing I did differently was add some vegan Worcestershire sauce to my marinade, everything else was the same as her recipe.

 Everyone LOVED them. The kids gobbled them right up and all the adults just raved about them. They don't taste like carrots at all. They tasted like a gosh darn hotdog, BUT without the yucky feeling you get from knowing all the animal parts that are ground up and unhealthy additives (nitrates, etc..) in real hot dogs. 

I put sautéed onions on the bun as well as DILL relish (NOT sweet relish, just plain dill relish) and then ketchup and mustard on the top. OMG it was just delicious. 

 I promise you will love them if you try them!
I used real minced ginger instead of powdered ginger, that is why mine have "chunks" on them. But you can't even taste the ginger in the final dog. It's just part of the magical marinade! 

 It's as simple as boiling them until fork tender, stopping the cooking process by shocking them in ice water. Putting them in a ziplock baggie full of marinade. Leave them overnight and when you are ready, heat up in a skillet with some of the marinade. They are easy and amazing great!
GO MAKE THEM TODAY. DON'T wait 3 years like I did.

Isa's Fake CHICKEN!!!

*Casie Here*

I made a batch of Isa's fake chicken out of her new cookbook Isa Does It. I will give you the ingredients and how you make it, but I will not give out the amounts of everything. You will have to get her book if you want the amounts! Sorry, but her book is SO worth it! I have made almost every recipe out of her book and they have all been good! 

 Pepper, Salt, Sage, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Nutritional Yeast. 

 Vegetable Broth, Pinto beans, olive oil, soy sauce or liquid aminos, and vital wheat gluten.

 This is the pot I use to steam.

 Mash up the beans completely. I think next time I will use the food processor to make sure they are ground up better. 

 I just mashed with a potato masher.

 Add all the ingredients in the order she tells you. Easy as dumping it in.

 Mix it all together with a fork.

 Portion it out and you can form it into a patty shape.

 Fold each foil packet up.

 Place in the steaming basket. 

 Let it steam for 40 minutes. DONE. 

 This tastes and smells AMAZING. Seriously, I want to eat a whole patty the second they are cool enough, but instead I refrain and just take off little pieces! It is so, so good. Mine were pretty square because I was running out of foil and had to make my pieces smaller. But really who cares what they look like. 

 I let them cool off a little and them wrap them in cling wrap and stick them in the freezer. 

 You can take out how ever many you need when you are cooking dinner. I usually only use one with a meal. I thaw, chop it up and "brown" it a little or sautee them on the stove. You really would not need to do anything except warm them up and eat. They are good any way you fix it! I will crumble one up and use as "meat" in a spaghetti noodle dish or slice in strips in a veggie, rice stir fry dish or on a sandwich with hummus spread and vegetables. I use this one interchangeably as "chicken" or "beef". It really works for either. 

This batch will last me a good couple months. So, its not a lot of work, time or money for the easy results!!! 

She has other kinds of fake meat recipes in there too. I have made the italian sausage recipe and absolutely love that one too for Italian dishes! 

Please go purchase Isa's book HERE! You will NOT regret it! I PROMISE. 

AND her restaurant Modern Love will be opening soon here in the big O!!! YAY!!! We will be first in line. I wanted it to be open by our anniversary, but I don't think it will be done. :(

Vegan Banana Nut & Date Muffins

*Casie Here*

I had some ripe bananas to use up, so I decided to make some banana muffins. I looked up some recipes and tweaked it to make it my own.

Here is what I did:

Chop up 10 Dates (I get ours from Costco)

 Prepare 2 chia 'eggs' (take 2 TBS. Chia Powder + 1/2 cup water ~ mix, let sit for at least 5 minutes)

We have gotten our Chia Powder Whole Foods, Trader Joes or Hy-Vee and we have also gotten it from our favorite online supplier for a lot of our food (www.vitacost.com) make sure it's the POWDER. I have use the seed before and it works fine, I just prefer the more ground up texture of the Powder.

 After a little while it gets thick and goopy like and EGG! 

 I mixed my chopped dates with the chia goop to help separate the sticky bits of dates and get them more evenly distributed (otherwise they stick together in one big clump). 

 Mash 6 Bananas

 Add 2 containers of applesauce or 1 cup total)

 Mix all the wet ingredients together.

Add 1 cup Almond Milk. This is absolutely my favorite milk EVER. There are a lot of new variations of this out there, but I love this one the most and I don't care that it has 20 more calories than the reduced sugar one.

 I didn't take any picts of the dry ingredients bowl except for when I mixed the two together. Here are the dry ingredients. Pretty standard.

2 1/2 cups whole wheat and regular organic flour mixed (use whatever flour you have on hand. I just like to buy both and mix it together)

1 1/2 cup oats (just regular Quaker Oats, not the quick cook ones) You can get a HUGE box at Costco

1/4 cup flax seed

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt (I use pink Himalian salt from Costco)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts (also from Costco)

 The flax seed we use from Costco.

 Ready to be put in the muffin pans.

I use this scoop to get them even. I didn't fill it quite full, just 3/4 full for each muffin. This batch makes 36 muffins.

 And done.
Nice and warm!

 Honestly you can not even taste the dates in this muffin. They are mostly to make the muffin moist. I LOVE dates in all my muffins. It adds sweetness so you can cut down on the sugar  you use. Another one of my very favorite muffins are my Orange Date Muffins HERE.

 These were so, so good. My kids snatched a bunch up as soon as they were cool enough to touch.

In a bowl mix together

2 1/2 cups whole wheat and regular organic flour mixed 

1 1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup flax seed

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt (I use pink Himalian salt)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup walnuts

In a separate bowl mix together

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 chia 'eggs' (2 TBS. Chia Powder + 1/2 cup water ~ mix, let sit)

6 ripe bananas (mashed)

2 containers Organic Applesauce (1 cup total)

3 TBS. Vegan Butter (we use Earth Balance) this could be optional

1 cup Almond Milk

Stir the two together. 

Scoop into muffin tins 

Bake 350 for 25 mins