Chocolate-Chip-Lettuce-Pie-mazing!

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Oh. Whoa.

With quark.

Frozen Chocolate Chip Lettuce Pie is such a keeper.

Will you marry me, Chocolate Chip Lettuce Pie?

Wait, I rescind the marriage offer.

Because then it would be weird if I ate you.

And probably unethical, too.

So delicious. Sweet, rich, decadent, and over-all divine. A treat for the living - because you must savor every moment, every bite, and every thought.

3 people I knew died yesterday. 2 were patients, one was in the family. Bad things happen in threes? But cancer is awful and he was suffering and 82. He was ready. So it's not really a bad thing - just a sad thing.

But life is for the living - so live! Enjoy the pie of life (especially when it's this deliciously amazing and, though the lettuce prevents the pie middle from solidifying when warm, it makes for a delightfully fudgy texture when frozen and/or lightly thawed at room temperature, depending on your preference).

My recipe makes 12 large slices of delightfully delicious pie with a light green flavor (think reminiscent of a green monster...but just a bit, like in green tea baked goods). Don't cut back on the oil or do a fat-free alternative, Don't reduce or omit the nuts, Don't use cheap chocolate, and Don't think '2 cups of honey is a lot - I'll cut back on the sugar or sub in stevia/splenda/chemicals.' It has beans, greens, and whole grains and the fat helps you absorb their nutrients. And the sugar won't kill you either (honey even has some healthful properties). There's a difference between healthy and orthorexic/anorexic.

Orthorexic/anorexic isn't living fully. And life is for the living. Live your life fully, without calorie counts, portion measurements, hunger, or unnecessary pain.



A Challenge for You: Tell someone whom you love that you love them. It can be your mom, your dad, your sister, your brother, your lover. But take the time to live and love.

Do you like one big slice of pie, or two small ones? I like one big one. :) See above.

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Embracing Your Veggies

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You've heard of Hug A Veg*n day, right? Well, what about hugging a vegetable?

No, but seriously. What about it?

And I don't mean literally hugging a vegetable (see above), because then your next of kin might cart you off to a mental hospital.

And that doesn't sound like fun.

No, I mean embracing your veggies. With veggies, there's a lot of either this or that: either the person loves eating salads and salads and salads and salads (or so they claim) or they try and "sneak" them into stuff.

'Ooh, watch me sneak cauliflower into my mashed potatoes!' 'I snuck zucchini into my chocolate chip muffins!' 'Could you tell that I snuck beets into my homemade ketchup? Could you? Could you?'

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

But what about embracing your veggies instead? Think about it: carrot cake. Zucchini bread. Pumpkin pie. Rhubarb torte. None of them try to hide their veggies - the veggies are the stars! And they're all the better for it!

So I decided that, since two people died at work today and I needed something fun and light-hearted to do, I'm going to set out* on a mission to make the next Star Veggie Dessert! *Set out, because chances are slim that it'll be awesome on the first go. How many tries did the lightbulb take? Case in point.

After all, I like baking for breakfast, baking with veggies, baking murfins, baking with beans, baking with tofu, and baking quick-and-easy. Maybe I just like baking. :)

Try #1: Chocolate Chip Lettuce Pie

1 c. lettuce, rinsed and torn

1/3 c. canola oil (or other oil of choice)

100g. sliced almonds

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

250 grams canned/jarred white beans, rinsed

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 c. quick oats

2 c. honey

100 grams sliced almonds

150 grams high quality dark chocolate (I like the Lindt 70% truffle bar), chopped

2 Tbsp. flaxseeds

1.) Make lettuce mush- blend together the lettuce and the oil:

2) Add remaining ingredients (except chocolate and half of the sliced almonds!), blend until smooth.

3) Stir in chocolate.

4) Pour into a lined or greased skillet pan (or other baking form):

5) Sprinkle on remaining 50g of sliced almonds, as well as 2Tbsp of flaxseeds, for prettiness.

6) Bake at 350F for about 35 to 45 minutes (until it passes the toothpick test).

Of course, I baked in my geriatric oven again, though I said that I wouldn't. But, quite frankly, I'm a poor college student and am not about to buy a new oven for the 6 weeks that I'm still here. Especially as I currently have no income (full time unpaid internship, remember?). So it's either (a) suck it up and deal with burnt/unevenly baked baked goods or (b) don't bake. I'm more of an (a) kind of person. :P

And is it just me, or does my this look a little bit less burnt than last time? Maybe the oven just needs to be brought back into gear. We'll see...:P

Have you ever seen a dead person?

What's your favorite baked good?

What do you want me to try baking veggies into?

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Zucchini-Walnut-Prune Murfins

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This was actually meant to be a late-night rendition of OhSheGlows' Zucchini Bread, but because (a) I like changing things and (b) I started without checking that had all (or even half) of the ingredients, it ended up being its own thing. A recipe for Zucchini-Walnut-Prune Murfins (ZWP Murfins, for short).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole grain spelt flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp kosher iodized salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar (I use organic cane sugar) generous 1/2 cup honey (leave it to me to run out of sugar)
• 1/3 cup raisins 1/2 cup chopped prunes
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water, mixed and set aside for 5 minutes)
• 1 & 1/4 cup shredded zucchini (leave skin on), packed
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice 2 tsp. lemony stuff (?)
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener)
• No oil 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 & 1/4 cups non-dairy milk (I used vanilla almond milk) 1 cup whole cow's milk
• Cinnamon Streusel topping: 2 tsp non-dairy margarine/butter 1 tbsp Artisana Pecan Butter, 1 tbsp coarse sugar (like turbinado) 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F according to Angela's directions - my oven still sucks and this is the last recipe that I'm baking in it! Seriously, I'm not baking anything else until I get a new oven. It keeps messing everything up! Mix the flax egg and set aside.
Oil a regular-sized loaf pan and then line it with parchment paper so you can easily pull out the loaf when cooled.
Line a muffin pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, powders, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg,
sugar
,
raisins
prunes, and walnuts).

3. In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (flax egg, shredded zucchini,
lemon zest & juice
lemony stuff, honey
maple syrup
, milk).

My funky face when I realized, at 11:30pm, that this was the closest thing that I had to a lemon. My (big, not to be confused with little) sister [who turns 20 today, yay for Big Sis!] says that if the whole medicine thing doesn't work out, I can scare small children for a living. So what would that make me, in professional terms? A clown? The Boogeyman? Lady Gaga?

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just mixed. Be careful not to overmix the batter as spelt flour is delicate. I might have over-mixed - whoopsies!

5. Spoon the batter into prepared
loaf
muffin pan and spread out evenly. Prepare the cinnamon streusel and then sprinkle on top. Bake for about 37-40 minutes at 400F or until toothpick comes out clean. Trust Angela with this step, my oven was a total fail, as usual - overdone on the top, underdone on the bottom!

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Product Review: Artisana Pecan Butter

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Wouldn't it be fun to try one new thing every Saturday? It would be a great way to make sure that you're still trying new things and having fun with life!

So today's new thing is Artisana's pecan butter!

A short ingredients list, as always:

And a creamylicious texture, as always:

NUMMY!

 

I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did, but it was very tasty! The mild cashew flavor really brought out the pecan flavor and, when paired with dark bread and honey, it tasted sooooooooo much like pecan pie!

Good stuff. I tried a little with wildberry jam, too, and that was tasty. ;)

New, different things are good, but I like some 'same' things, too. Keeping with the cardigan-love:

My 'bwahaha' moment of the day: I read this somewhere (can't remember where): "I just hate it when I'm making a milkshake and all these boys just show up in my yard."

What's your BWAHAHAHA moment of the day?

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Product Review: Artisana Cacao Bliss

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I've never really tried coconut butter before, so I decided to give Artisana's Cacao Bliss a go:

It's solid, unlike other nut butters, and has the consistency of fudge.

My first reaction was 'eh...not tasty.' But as I kept eating it, I realized that it wasn't that easy to write it off. By my last bite, I had my mind made up:

Cocoa Bliss is a rich, flavorful nut butter/bar (seriously, you could eat it as a chocolate bar - it was that solid) but it's just not for me. I'm not a coconut fan and, quite frankly, it tasted like coconut. Which, in some people's opinion, is probably a good thing! Just not in mine.

Oh, and my mom tried the plain coconut butter and wasn't a huge fan, either. We'll stick to the walnut, almond, and cashew/cashini butter (which my little sister LOVES).

Do you want to try Cacao Bliss? Today is your last chance to enter my giveaway for an 8oz jar of an Artisana nut butter of your choice and an assortment of the squeeze packs!

Do you like coconut?

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Making It Up As I Go

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That's pretty much how I live my life, actually - I just make it up as I go. And it's working out pretty well for me, thus far. Sure, I've got that something-year plan and an image/big picture in the back of my mind, but as for the details, I tend towards spontaneity and seizing opportunities as they come. For me, that's the most fun way to enjoy life and I love it!

One night, at about 8:30pm, I decided that I felt like making up a recipe. Something healthy, that would use the rest of my agave syrup and that big old jar of white beans that's been sitting in the back of my cupboard for a while. But it needed to be tasty, too. And I wanted something fruity...and chocolatey, too...

Making It Up Murfins*

* 525g white beans, rinsed and drained

* 1.5 tsp. baking powder

* 1/4 tsp. baking soda

* 1/3 c. olive oil (though any veg oil would do)

* 1/2 tsp. salt

* 3/4 c. agave syrup

* 2/3 c. oats

* 1 tsp. cinnamon (heaping)

* Frozen berries (about 1/2 to 1 cup)

* 1/4 c. unsweetened baking cocoa

1) Mash the beans with fork, if you're a poor college kid like myself. Of course, if you own a fancy vitamix (drool), you could blend them up in that. Otherwise, just mash for about five or ten minutes, or however long it takes you to finish reading your chapter of your book-of-the-day.

2) Stir in everything but the berries and baking cocoa. Mix well, pour a little each into 8 lined muffin cups.

3) Sprinkle most of the frozen berries (your choice; I'm not quite sure what the ones I used were. I tend to tell my 6-year-old sister not to eat things if she doesn't know what they are - unless, of course, they might be made of chocolate. But I made an exception, because I was pretty confident that the berries were edible) on top of the batter in the muffin cups.

4) Cover the berries in six of the muffin cups with more batter.

5) Stir the cocoa into the remaining batter. Cover the berries in the other two muffin cups with chocolatey batter.

6) Fill the remaining four muffin cups likewise, but chocolatey this time!

7) Bake for about 30 minutes at about 350F. If your oven actually listens to you...

Sadly, my old oven doesn't. I mean, okay, it's seen the better part of a century. But so has my dad! Thus, that's no excuse to require me to cover everything with aluminum foil (making ugly tops as the muffins puff up and then cave in once they touch the foil), to turn the tray a gabajillion times while baking, and still make my treats look like this:

GAH! Oh well, at least they're tasty. Even if they're murfins only a mother could love. That just means more for me!

* That's not a typo- these are denser than muffins/cake/cupcakes, but they're still sweet and delightful treats, so I figured that they're murfins. Somehow, the name just fits.

Do you have any idea of how to make my age-old oven obey me?

Do you know how I could check what the temperature really is in there? I don't have a special candy thermometer, but I doubt that it's really just 170C in there, when I turn it to 170C...

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Falling for Pumpkin!

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I know it's pretty much unheard of in the blogosphere, but I'm not the biggest pumpkin fan around.

Correction: I wasn't the biggest pumpkin fan. But, after this tasty-licious-ness (I know it looks gross, but the taste makes up for it) I'm firmly on the pumpkin bandwagon.

My grandmother (Oma in German) had a HUGE pumpkin in her garden and ended up chopping it up yesterday. We munched on some roasted pumpkin seeds for a bit, but I decided that I wanted to try some of the innards, too. So, wa-la: sauteed pumpkin mash! On a bed of lightly dressed (olive oil) lettuce for a scrumptious salad!

1) Start off with a generous layer of high-quality olive oil in a trusty cast-iron skillet. Why do all of my savory recipes seem to start out this way?

2) Add some chopped pumpkin. I didn't really measure how much, but I'd guess it was somewhere between a 1/2 cup and a cup?

3) Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring with a fork. Because you ran out of proper cookware. Or maybe that's just me...

4) Sprinkle on some salt, pepper, ground paprika, oregano (a heavy-handed shake of the good stuff ;) ), and a good couple tablespoons of Nooch.

5) Simmer for another ~5 minutes, stirring. I'm not sure when it turned into mash, as I was reading a pretty gripping book while stirring. But somewhere near the end of the chapter, I glanced at the pan and there was this pumpkin mash!

Though it looks kind of like a light-colored cow patty, it tasted soooooooo good! And it was quick, easy, cheap, and converted this non-pumpkin-eater into a pumpkin fan!

YUM YUM YUM. Now I have one more thing to love about fall. :)

On the side, I had a tasty toasted German rye roll (Roggenbroetchen) with butter and a glass of Oma's apple-raspberry juice.

What are your top three fall favorites?

Do you mind if your food looks disgusting, if it tastes delicious?

What are you up to this weekend? I have this weekend off - again! I'm actually starting to get super-psyched for next week's weekend shift. :P

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The Chemistry of Clever Chocolate

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Sorry guys, I'm just in an alliteration kind of mood today (even if it's only spelled, and not spoken, alliteration). It's a wearing-the-nerdy-glasses kind of day.

Anyway, here's a little fun chemistry: radicals earn their negative reputation! Literally - radicals are molecular species with electrons that have unpaired spins (an example of a radical is NO). Because of the unpaired electron spins, radicals are energetically unstable and highly reactive.

HINT: Highly reactive compounds tend not to be something you want to have inside of you. :P

Antioxidants are compounds that react rapidly with radicals, (hopefully) before they can do any/much damage. Consuming antioxidants can thus delay the effects of radicals on your system, keeping you healthy and young longer! And guess what a tasty source of antioxidants is?

Clever chocolate!

So what's clever chocolate?

I'd call this Peppermint Ulimana Truffle clever - made of just a few, simple, organic, raw ingredients and super-delicious to boot!

They're dark and awesome and fudgy as can be. I ate one just like that and then chopped up the other two to make a crazy-awesome sandwich (because you just can't eat three, even though they're small, plain - they're too flavorful).

Whole rye bread topped with a thick layer of plain quark, chopped peppermint truffle, and walnuts from the garden. I had to cut the slice of bread into thirds, because the mountain of toppings would otherwise slide off, and didn't think to take a picture until the last third (above) was the only one left.

So yummy!

Do you understand why certain things are healthy?
Do you care about the 'why'?
What's your favorite subject?

AND: What do you want to be when you grow up (even if you're already a grown up)?

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Curious George Cookies!

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So, first off, my little sister loved these cookies. That means they're officially six-year-old approved. And yeah, she's a Curious George fan.

The short of it is that they're:

• Soft
• Fudgy
• Huge
• Filling
• Sweet
• Don't taste healthy (or fruity) - just decadent chewy double chocolate cookie goodness
• Very rich and great with the extra walnut crunch and melty pockets of chocolate chip goodness throughout

So what if they're a little crumbly? They may make a bit of a mess, but it's so worth it. OH MY GOSH, are they delicious - and very chocoholic friendly. Plus, the ingredients make them mom approved. ;)

My only reservation about Nana's Double Chocolate Cookies, that keeps them from being LivingLearningEating's perfect packaged baked good, is that the folks at Nana's Cookies, nice as they are, are guilty of Pop Tarts Packaging.

What I mean by that is that they pack 2 servings into what any unsuspecting consumer (especially little kids) would think is a single serving packet. And, though it's a massive, mall-sized cookie that most people (unless they're trying to gain weight) don't need, it's hard to stop at just half of the cookie. Besides, the cookie is filling and flavorful enough that half of it (aka one serving) would otherwise do.

That said, the whole cookie filled me up as much as a sandwich would and kept me going (I had it as a work snack) from the ER, to the blood lab, to the endoscopy, to the ICM, and back again. ;)

You know I love these! Chocolate? Walnuts? Fudgy goodness without refined sugar and with whole grains as the first ingredient? Yes, please!

What were your favorite childhood shows/books?

What's your favorite snack on-the-go?

Have you ever tried fruit juice sweetened baked goods?

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Crazy-Awesome Giveaway! (And Some Smart Snacking)

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*****LIVING, LEARNING, EATING's VERY FIRST REAL LIFE GIVEAWAY IS UNDERWAY! CHECK OUT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST FOR MORE INFO!*******

I made my very first (I think) non-vegan green monster!

 

It's quark (think greek yogurt - about 1/2 cup), frozen spinach, frozen blackberries, agave nectar. By making it non-vegan, I added more of a nutritional punch (more protein and fat, specifically). For me, that's a good thing!

It was good....but then - SHAZAM!

I'm going to push aside false modesty for a moment and just be brutally honest: I was struck by brilliance. Tastylicious brilliance - YUM!!!

Though, as far as the straight-up green monster base goes, this one beat it:

I finally got my grandmother's aged blender to kick (er, whirr?) into action and have been green monster-ing up my afternoons these past few days. Check out this delightfully delicious green monster made of frozen spinach, a dash of cinnamon, half of a pomegranate, and about 1 cup of this soy-rice milk:

Nom-nom-nom. I swear, green monsters are just as addicting and cravable as ice cream and cookie pie.

I rounded out my snack (of the top green monster and walnuts) with a slice of whole rye bread, Artisana almond butter, and strawberry jam.

Now that's smart snacking! Vitamins, minerals, protein, carbs, sugars, and healthy fats - everything that my brain needs to do this chemistry properly!

Seriously, I actually notice that I'm smarter when I eat lots of fats and carbs. It makes sense (we could get into a long, scientific explanation, if you want), but isn't that cool? I encourage you guys to try it out! FAT. IS. AWESOME. :)

Do you eat a lot of fat?

What's your favorite source of it? I like nuts and nut butters, but that's just me. :P

**************LIVING, LEARNING, EATING'S GIVEAWAY!**************

After I reviewed Artisana's amazing organic almond butter, it's not a big surprise that people wanted to try it themselves - after all, it's pretty fantastic! SOOOOOOOOO...the generous folks over at Artisana (thanks, Jaisan) have agreed to let me giveaway an assortment of their tasty nut butter squeeze packs, as well as an 8 oz jar of the reader's choice of any of their nut butters (except Cashini and Tahini) to one lucky reader (in the United States)! I'm choosing the winner the old fashioned way (name out of a hat - er, handbag). Here's how you can get entries:

1) Subscribe to my blog, then let me know in the comments section of this post.

2) Follow me (Live, Learn, Eat) on Twitter, then let me know in the comments section of this post.

You get two entries if you do both. ;) And don't forget to let me know what flavor of Artisana's awesome nut butter you want for your 8oz jar! The giveaway ends next Wednesday, October 12, and I'll announce the winner on my blog!

Good luck! :)

*The giveaway is now closed*

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Success Among the Walnuts

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'Love Among the Walnuts,' by Jean Ferris, was one of my favorite books as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed tween. Jean Ferris is so very talented. But this post isn't about Jean Ferris, or even about novels.

It's about the fact that I have successfully gained twenty-some pounds and am now at a healthy weight.

YAY ME! :) For those of you that are still working on it, persist! The pay off is awesome - I feel so accomplished and healthy. I still have to get used to my new body, though, with my new feminine curves and soft bits. Sometimes I catch random guys staring at me on the street and people stop me (not too rarely) to tell me that I'm beautiful. That's definitely odd, since I've never been the pretty (try awkward, or weird-looking) one. But I can't say that I mind it, and I'd call it a lovely plus to growing up and gaining health. ;)

Anyway, my good health warranted a celebration. And what better way to celebrate than with a good book and a delicious snack plate - featuring Artisana's organic walnut butter?

A ripe banana, granola, quark, cinnamon, and Artisana's walnut butter.

The nut butter is made out of organic walnuts and organic cashews, but you don't really taste the cashews - they're mainly just there to make the texture awesome. It tasted mild and walnutty and delicious. This was a tasty snack plate, indeed!

The squeeze packs are too cute and I bet they'd be super-handy for travel, work, and marathon shopping. ;) Don't forget to enter my giveaway, so you can win your own set of squeeze packs and an 8oz jar of your choice (including the walnut butter!) nut butter from Artisana!

Some close-ups, because they're pretty...

Anyway, I just wanted to share my good news! I wouldn't mind gaining a few more pounds, but I"m glad that I no longer need to. Eating doesn't have to be work at all, anymore. Now, when I sit down to an ice cream sundae, it's purely because I want to - and I don't have to chase it with a PB sandwich, a banana, granola, and some chocolate. Unless I'm still hungry, of course!

What's your latest success?

If you've reached you & your doctors' weight gain goal, how did you celebrate? What was the best part?

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Soygurt? Yosoy?

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Whatever you want to call it, I've finally found a vegan substitution for yogurt!

Y'all know I'm a yogurt addict (sorry, my North Carolinian is showing :P ) and I've always said that yogurt and ice cream are the two biggest reasons that I could never be vegan. Well, and honey, but I've already found a sub for that. Plus there's nooch for cheesiness...

But after discovering delicious vegan ice cream, the only thing in the way was yogurt.

Until today...

There was a little bit of separation going on, which looked a little funky, but let's be honest - cow's milk yogurt does it too. And when it was all mixed up, it was lovely:

And voll lecker (totally delicious)! There's definitely a distinct soy-milk flavor, but it's so good. Who doesn't love soy milk? And it was creamy-licious as can be. The perfect base for a yummy yogurt-granola-pumpkin seed-flax seed-dried fruit bowl:

Since I'm trying to gain weight (and it just doesn't make sense to me to eliminate anything if you're trying to gain - now isn't the time to become vegetarian/vegan, unless you already are one) I'm NOT GOING TO BECOME VEGAN NOW. But maybe after I've gained all the weight I want to gain and maintained it for a few years.

Why?

Because (a) veganism is better for the environment, (b) I'm already a vegetarian and I don't like eggs, and (c) I like milk but it doesn't like me (I'm a bit lactose intolerant, so what I currently eat doesn't make me feel as good as I could).

But, again, I don't think everyone should be veg*n and I don't judge people for not being it. Veg*ns aren't better than anyone else - and not necessarily more environmentally friendly, either! I use boatloads of AC and love to travel (plus, I like fashion and am not a let's-all-wear-hemp-potato-sacks kind of girl) so being vegetarian is just how I try to even out my carbon footprint a bit, without compromising my desired lifestyle.

Because being eco-conscious SHOULDN'T be a burden. :)

Anyway...did you notice something new in the bowl?

I bought my first whole pomegranate! See my exotic fruit kick? I threw 1/4 of one into the bowl and ate the other 1/4 straight-up.

I've eaten pomegranate before, but only from the packets of pomegranate seeds/innards, never straight from the fruit.

I'd definitely say they're tastier and juicier straight from the source, but it's such a pain to get them out...I'll probably stick to the pre-seeded ones for the most part.

Unless...do you have any tricks to make eating pomegranates easier?

What's your favorite exotic fruit?

I'm curious about star fruit...have you tried it?

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