Post Workout Elixer...

This is just a little something I’ve been drinking lately, that I knew I just had to share with you all. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it’s absolutely delicious, and after a good workout it is so refreshing and quenching. It was actually after a workout a few days ago when I threw this thing together. See I wasn’t hungry enough for a full on smoothie, but just plain old water or even plain old coconut water wasn’t going to cut it either. What I really wanted was some fresh juice but since the juicer I ordered hadn’t arrived yet I had to think of something else. After thinking it over for a few minutes I decided to make a blended drink but with the spirit of a juice.

What does that mean? Well, there aren’t really enough solid ingredients in this to make it a ‘real’ smoothie, but it’s not quite a juice either. It tastes more like a juice because it doesn’t have much pulp or fiber, and it does foam up a bit like a juice. Overall it’s lighter then a smoothie and yet super satisfying at the same time. Surprisingly it’s also quite sustaining, meaning I was pretty well sated until lunch rolled around.

Now, you may be wondering why I chose these particular ingredients. Well ordinally, I was going for a Thai sort of flavor hence the lime, the coconut, the ginger, and the basil. However just a few weeks ago I came across a delicious new smoothie recipe in a cook book that included dried plums and a quarter of a whole lemon. I love dried plums and always have them on hand, and I just happened to have lemons though I’d never considered using either in a smoothie before. Long story short that smoothie was fantastic and I loved it, and so when I was making my morning drink I decided why not pop in a bit of lemon for that extra kick of citrus and why not through in a few plums for added fiber and sweetness. In the end it worked, and I was super impressed with this drink. So for the past three days I’ve been downing a glass after each workout and I’m absolutely loving every drop of it. FYI - the color of the finished drink does leave a little to be desired thanks to green basil and dark purple almost black plums but hey, if it tastes good who cares what it looks like right?  Try it! You’ll see!

Post Workout Elixer 

1 1/4 C Coconut Water
2 ½ Tbsp Lime Juice
1/4 Lemon Seeded and Peeled
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
3-4 Dried Plums
4 Basil Leaves
2-3 Ice Cubes

- Place all ingredients into a high-speed blender and blend on high for 60-90 seconds until completely smooth.

- Pour into a glass and enjoy with a slice of lemon to garnish. This drink is particuarlly refreshing when drunk after any workout that has you sweating buckets. I’m sure it would be equally quenching on a hot day.

Vegan Mofo #21 Terry’s Black Current Plum Crisp...

Vegan Mofo #21 Terry’s Black Current Plum Crisp

The Book - Clean Start
The Author - Terry Walters
The Recipe - Black Current Plum Crisp
Page # 85
Difficulty - Easy
Duration - Roughly 1 hour

Who doesn’t love a crisp? They’re so warm, gooey and soul satisfying. The perfect sweet treat to accompany a hearty yet simple autumn or winter dinner. Apple crisp always seems to be the popular favorite, it’s the one with which people are most familiar, but I love inventive and creative crisps that use a variety of ‘non-traditional’ fruits and pairings. So when I saw this recipe in Clean Start I was immediately drawn to it. I love plums, and yet had never thought to use them along with currents in a crisp before. Even though this recipe is listed under the ‘Summer’ section of the book when plums began flooding my local groceries here in mid September I promptly bought up about four pounds, and the first thing I did with them was set to work on this crisp.

My husband is not a huge lover of plums, stone fruit in general I think don’t quite catch his fancy. So I wasn’t sure how he’d feel about this crisp, and I suppose to tell the truth I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it either. What with the seemingly strange additions of coconut oil, currents and almonds. Turns out neither of us had to worry, the crisp exceeded all of my wildest expectations. It was moist, gooey, well spiced and delicious. It had everything you could possibly want in a crisp and no one flavor shone more brightly then another. It was a perfect marriage of late summer early autumn flavor.

I was however forced to make one change to this recipe. I did not have teff flour on hand and wasn’t in the mood to drive out and buy some. So instead I used extra Almond meal, and rolled oats to replace the teff flour. You can do the same though if you’re gluten free make sure you get gluten free oats. Taste wise it was delicious and I’m fairly certain I wasn’t missing anything by neglecting to use teff flour. Also a wonderful idea is serving this crisp alongside a large scoop of Vanilla Almond Milk Ice cream. Mm-mm....

Autumn Cinnamon Plum Pancakes....

There is nothing I appreciate more than creative cookery, yet I find that when it comes to breakfast there is a severe lack of imagination. I like to try and make a nice breakfast for my husband at least once a week - pancakes are his favorite - and at this point I’ve used and reused every single pancake or waffle recipe from every single cookbook I own. Even breakfast menus in restaurants are always the same. Pumpkin or ginger pancakes in the fall. Blueberry, and black berry pancakes in the summer. Traditional pancakes all year round along with banana ‘bread’ pancakes, apple pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, and pecan pancakes. A person can only wolf down so many blueberry pancakes in a lifetime. What’s worse is I find that so many pancake recipes call for either dried or frozen fruit, so few use fresh seasonal fruit, and I find that really unfortunate. So I’ve decided to make it my mission to develop and create interesting pancake recipes using fruits and other ingredients you might not normally consider.

Variety is the spice of life after all, so I hope you enjoy this recipe that utilized warming fall spices along with fresh fall produce, and even if you’re not a fan of plums this recipe might just surprise you.

Autumn Cinnamon Plum Pancakes

1 3/4 C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
2-4 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 ½ tsp ground Cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
1/8 tsp Cardamom
1 C Unsweetened Almond Milk
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 plums = 1 C Plum Puree
Extra plums for garnish (optional)

- Put a medium sized pot of water on the stove and bring to a roaring boil. Place plums in the boiling water and boil for roughly 5-10 minutes until soft and skins are starting to come loose.

- Drain plums in a colander reserving and blanch in a bowl of ice water. After a couple of minutes in the ice water the skins should be loose enough to rub off or peel away. If the skins give you a bit of trouble don’t worry peel away as much as you can it’s okay if a little skin is left.

- Remove pits from the plums and then puree in a food processor till smooth. Should yield roughly one cup.

- In a medium sized bowl combine pastry flour, baking powder, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, and nutmeg. Mix until well combined.

- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the Almond milk, canola oil, vanilla extract, and plum puree. Mix until just combined. Taste and adjust spices and sugar as needed.

*** NOTE - Keep in mind that if your plums are a little on the tart side the batter is going to taste tart and possibly unpleasant. However once the pancakes are cooked the tart flavor will have mellowed out completely. If your plums are sweet, and the batter tastes sweet you may want to consider using only 2 Tbsp of brown sugar or less, it’s up to you. If the plums are tart I recommend the 4 Tbsp of brown sugar. ***

- Use a quarter cup measuring cup to pour batter in a greased heated pan (medium to medium-low heat) or
electric griddle and cook until edges of batter start to brown and top is bubbly. About 3-4 minutes.

- Flip pancakes over and cook another 2-4 minutes until pancakes are nicely browned on both sides.

- Serve garnished with fresh plum slices, a dash of powdered sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup. I think fresh blueberries would go very well with these pancakes as well if you have them on hand.

Enjoy on a beautiful sunny fall morning with a mug of chai tea, and a glass of orange juice while you watch the leaves change color outside your window.

PS: The Farm Sanctuary Walk for Farm Animals Charity Walk on Saturday September 10^th was Fantastic. We had a lot of fun, got to talk to some wonderful people including Gene Bauer (The Co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary.) Got to sample some delicious treats from local restaurants and just had an all around great time. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny with a nice breeze and even though we were about $35 short of our goal we had a fantastic time, I can’t wait to do it again next year. Thanks again to all who supported us.