Semi-failed Attempts
Some days, you stumble across a recipe, try to add your own touch and end up with a semi-failure. Or as I like to call it a “semi-success,” because alliterations sound better and because I try hard to be a “glass half full” kinda gal.
When I came across Angela’s recipe for vegan shepherd’s pie and coincidentally had all the ingredients for it (ingredients I needed to use up before leaving for vacation because lord knows Joey wasn’t going to be finishing off any carrots or celery) I scrapped my quinoa plans and decided to go for the pie.
I love when recipes sound time consuming but turn out to be relatively quick, minus that whole cooking in the oven part, but that’s when you do things like read up on blogs and avoid any homework or packing you still have to do.
Sometimes you need a wine buzz to get through the day. Kidding, this wine definitely went into the meal.
I used zucchini instead of parsnips because I’m cool like that.
Is it just me or does this piece of carrot look like a pacman?
I opted to make this meal into two smaller portions with the help of some ramekins. Again, I’m cool like that.
I’m also cool/creative/a total weirdo because I used sweet potato instead of regular potatoes because:
SWEET POTATO > REGULAR POTATO. PERIOD.
The veggies and gravy are peeking out. See?
Don’t worry, I used regular potatoes for Joey’s portion as he’s slightly less adventurous odd and might think sweet potatoes don’t belong in shepherd’s pie.
His and hers. Or hers and his if you read pictures like a book from left to right.
And this is what happens when you assume a mini ramekin portion has to cook for the same amount of time as a regular sized casserole portion.
Whoops! Oh well, I’m okay with weird looking food. Obviously…
How about you, “semi-failure” or “semi-success” and/or how do you feel about shepherd’s pie?
Homemade Almond Milk (finally!)
Remember when I bought that bag of almonds?
Yeah, that’s the one. Remember how I said I’d tell you what I did with them? Yeah, you probably forget I said that by now, considering that was a week ago. Oops, I apologize for the delay, but like I said yesterday: better late than never.
I should also mention that I have a slight obsession with Healthy Exposures as of late and after seeing Jess make her own almond milk, I was convinced I needed to do the same.
Turns out it’s really easy. Gena of Choosing Raw has a nice tutorial, if you’re looking to follow in my footsteps (and you should).
I measured out a cup of almonds.
Then this sequence of events happened:
Hold up.
“Should I have bought raw almonds instead of buying roasted because I live my life on autopilot?”
Race to computer and goggle “Can you make almond milk with roasted almonds?”
Turns out you can. Pretend you can read the text because I have no idea how to make screen shots bigger.
Phew.
Almond soaking continuted.
I soaked mine over night.
The next morning I woke up to some cloudy almond water.
Which I tossed into the blender, which may or may not still be sitting in my room. Just the bottom part!! The dirty part went to the kitchen. I’m gross, but I’m not that gross.
I added some vanilla and a couple dates, for fun plus some natural sweetness. Why does it feel like I run out of vanilla on a weekly basis?
Blend away, friends.
At this point, you strain your almond milk with a cheesecloth or the like and if you’re me you just use your produce bag (washed, of course). I swear I get more use out of those things than my actual strainer. Then you can let the milk drain on it’s own of if you’re impatient, and I am, you can squeeze the liquid out.
When I told my mom I made my own almond milk she said, “Did you have to milk an almond?” And I said “yes!” because that whole squeezing out the liquid part definitely seemed like milking an almond to me.
Result: creamy almond milk. The picture of which is reminding me of coffee right now and you’re right, Starbucks does sound good right about now.
This beats any store bought almond milk by a mile. And you should see how creamy this makes oatmeal. Really.
The bad news? This won’t last long. Mine started tasting a liiitle funky about two days later. I used it in my oatmeal anyways (told you I’m gross) but I recommend you grab a cookie and drink it right away.
The good news? No almonds were harmed in the making of this almond milk. In fact, they weren’t even wasted because you can save that “pulp” — you now have almond meal for cookie baking or pancake making, or whatever else rhymes.
Have a good one 🙂
St. Patrick’s a Day Late
I’m one of those post-the-night-before-and-schedule-to-publish-the-next-morning kind of girls. This method has it’s advantages (read: not having to wake up and delay my breakfast eating because I’m posting), but it also has it’s disadvantages, one being that I constantly forget that by the time my readers see my post it will be the next day and sometimes the next day is a holiday.
Example: Yesterday’s post should have started with HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY but alas, on Wednesday night I had all but forgot Thursday would be a holiday. So while bloggers who know how to plan ahead everyone else was writing up fun St. Patty’s Day posts yesterday, I’m here today because it’s better late than never, right?
Consider it an excuse to still pretend it’s a holiday.
I made it to early morning yoga (with green headband, mind you) then raced back home for some breakfast. And what’s oatmeal on St. Patty’s Day without a little extra something something, assuming that “something something” is something green.
I’m fairly positive that if I told anyone outside the food blog world that I mixed some blended spinach into my oatmeal they might gag. You couldn’t even taste it, I swear. Except I probably have spinach pieces in my teeth. Remind me to check before I go out in public.
The sun was not working with me so the green color is looking a little washed out but I assure you the real deal was bright green as could be.
Toss on some toppings and hey, why not throw an egg white in there while you’re at it. It makes for some extreme creaminess.
Two granolas and some nut butter and jelly action. Check out those green flecks.
Did I mention I’m officially on Spring Break and am heading to Arizona for the week? In fact, I’m probably on my way as you read this post! Unfortunately, I have tons to do before I leave.
- Pack (NO FUN)
- Work
- Shop
- Run
- Post (trying to schedule some to go up while I’m gone)
Eeek, best get to it!
Happy Day After St. Patrick’s Day (otherwise known as Friday :P)
Lauren Loves Good Food 
