(814) the october country

It has gotten quite cold around here lately. I know that the temperatures will fluctuate, as usual, but for now I can enjoy the slightly cold weather and try to brace myself for the cold! 

using some more green smoothie cups with extra honey, flax, and peanut butter for a healthy breakfast after a night of pizza and beer.

I used the rest of the pumpkin hummus I made last week to make a healthy lunch: sandwich with hummus, tomato, and mesculun greens. I really wish I would've put avocado on here! 

my tidy little autumn kitchen. note the pumpkin dish towel!

Things I do while baking: 1.//Line up all of my tools and ingredients. 2.//Make fresh dish water to clean as I go. This is a great time saver and you can actually relax while your baked goods are in the oven. 3.//Baking and cooking for me is impossible with out good music. This particular morning, I put my apron on right out of bed, so I needed Fleet Foxes to coax me out of my sleepiness.

I love banana bread. This is a known fact. Apparently, almost none of my co-workers care for it (which is fine because I have eaten almost 3/4 of it by myself). I love all different types of banana bread: walnut, lemon olive oil from Heidi, chocolate chip banana bread...but Deb's crackly banana bread with millet takes the cake, or bread in this case. It uses coconut oil, maple syrup, and raw millet for the perfect crunch. This is my favorite so far. I subbed: 1/2 C sorghum flour, 1/2 C tapioca starch, 1/2 C millet flour (trust me), and 1.5 tsp xanthan gum.

Pho dinner with my favorite people.

Leftovers for a cold rainy lunch = win

If you have 10 or so minutes, then I suggest you make this polenta dish. It took no time to put together and I added extra vegan butter and red pepper flakes. I actually ate the leftovers for breakfast and it was lovely! A really nice, warm meal. 

I have been eyeing this steamer for a while now. I decided to use some of my almond milk before it goes out today. The only things I changed was adding cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice!) to the hot milk, and a touch of brown sugar. I also let a pumpkin chai tea bag steep in there for about 7-8 minutes. It was so perfect! Next time I will try to make foam at home. We'll see...

I have neglected and hated tofu for so long now, until I realized it's just one of those things you have to know how to cook properly. Tofu is cheap, cheaper than meat is (at least to me) and has so much protein. I have been trying to eat tofu, tempeh and even mushrooms (which I used to hate) every week now. I made tofu breakfast wraps and am amazed. It uses nutritonal yeast, I used 1/4 C GF all-purpose flour to sub for regular flour, onion and garlic powder, GF soy sauce for Braggs, and tumeric. It was so easy to put together and delicious with salsa on top. I am considering making a huge batch of these and freezing them for later.