Scraps and Snippets ~ Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

Strawberry Cheesecake Dessert...

10 Oreos (whole, including filing) or Trader Joe's Jo-Jos

10 Oreos or Jo Jo cookies (This is 10 whole cookies equaling 20 cookie shells. Scrape the middles into a bowl for the filling).

1 TBSP Earth Balance or coconut oil

In a food processor whir the 10 whole cookies, twenty cookie shells and 1 TBSP of Earth Balance or coconut oil.

Press the mixture into a 7 x 11, 8 x 11, 9 x 11 or 8 x 8 square pan. 

Filling:

Move the bowl of the cookie middles to front and center. Pop the middles into the food processor or mixer bowl. To them add:

8 ounces cream cheese (I used Trader Joe's Not Cream Cheese) 

3 TBSP Strawberry Jam (I used organic) 

1/4 Cup powdered sugar

Whip with mixer or food processor. 

Fold into: 

1 can whipped coconut cream. I use Trader Joe's again. You don't have to let this one chill as long as other brands and it's mostly coconut cream whereas others are almost 1/3 water. To prepare, Scrape the thick cream into a mixing bowl. Add a couple of TBSP of powdered sugar. Beat until the consistency of whipped cream, make sure to scrape the bowl frequently. 

Spoon over crust and refrigerate until ready to serve. I've decided the day before you are going to serve is perfect because everything sets up fabulously. 

This is a not too sweet dessert. Several omnivores scarfed it down at my house recently. My mother-in-law who lives with a cook who makes all sorts of deliciousness commented that I could bring it to her house anytime because it was delicious. 

I loved it because it was stinking easy to make and satisfying. My daughter-in-law who hates/detests/grosses out over coconut ate every bite. The coconut flavor is a subtle undertone. If you wanted it a little more strawberry or sweet you could add one more TBSP jam. Also I intended to make a strawberry chocolate drizzle (melt 2 TBSP chocolate chips in double boiler with 1 TBSP of jam. Place in a ziploc with corner cut off and drizzle over the dessert. 

Love, Love, Love

Scraps and Snippets ~ Chickpea Noodle Soup

Chickpea Noodle Soup

7 Cups vegetable broth
1 Can (or 1 1/2 of prepared) garbanzo beans/chickpeas drained and rinsed
1-2 stalks celery (I used one massive one) chopped
1-2 carrots (I used three small ones) chopped 
1 Small onion small dice
2 Cloves garlic minced
1 TBSP miso (I used the darkest one which darkened my soup)
4 ounces noodles (I used Udon) 
1/2 TBSP oil or Earth Balance

Chop the vegetables. In a dutch oven melt the margarine. When heated toss in vegetables and sauté until tender. Add the vegetable broth, chickpeas and miso. Simmer for a half hour or so. Add noodles about 20 minutes before serving. 

Easy and delish.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Smores Cookies ... Vegan

 Smores Cookies (Vegan)  

Makes about 60 cookies

1 Cup coconut oil

1 3/4 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup agave or maple syrup

6 TBSP nondairy milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 Cup cocoa

2 3/4 Cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Smores Topping

2/3 Cup crushed/broken graham crackers or graham cereal (check for vegan ingredients)

2/3 Cup chocolate chips (check ingredients)

10-12 large Dandies (vegan marshmallows) chopped/ripped into small pieces, about 8 per marshmallow.  Preheat oven to 350.   Crush grahams and rip up marshmallows and mix those with the chocolate chips in a bowl.   In a larger bowl mix the coconut oil, syrup, sugar, vanilla and milk until well mixed

. Add the baking soda, salt and cocoa and mix very well. Add flour and stir dough. Then roll dough into balls about the size of a walnut. Stick the ball into the marshmallow bowl and press a mixture of at least one piece of marshmallow and some graham crumbs into the cookie dough and place onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Peanut Thai Soup

I needed to take soup to a church event and had some coconut milk that needed a home. So this is what I came up with. And well, to quote an omnivore teenager. "If I could eat this soup every day, my life would be complete." 

So maybe I paid her in Smores cookies to say that, but still. (Not really, no money or favors were exchanged in this transaction. Her enthusiasm was real. For reals.) (And if you refrain from snarky comments, I'll post the Smores cookie recipe, too.)

Peanut Thai Soup

serves 6+

1 medium onion small dice

3 cloves garlic minced

1 1/2 cup peanuts, chopped (additional for garnish) 

1 TBSP coconut oil

2 stalks celery, small dice

5 Cups vegetable broth
1 Cup broccoli slaw (or a diced broccoli stem)

1 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro (with additional for garnish) 

Juice of one small lime (or to taste) (additional lime for garnish) 
1/3 Cup soy sauce
2 TBSP sriracha (with additional for garnish)
1-2 Cups coconut milk (unsweetened)
4 ounces Udon noodles (1 sleeve, broken) 

Saute the garlic, onion, peanuts and celery in the coconut oil in a dutch oven or larger saucepan.  When onions grow translucent add the vegetable broth, broccoli slaw sriracha, soy sauce, lime juice and noodles. Simmer 20 minutes or so. Add the coconut milk and cilantro 5 minutes before serving. 

Provide extra sriracha, peanuts, shredded coconut, lime wedges, Vegan sour cream, and minced ginger if desired for garnish. 

I'm posting this recipe at Ricki Heller's Wellness Weekend. Click to see all the other recipes available there. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Stuck in Traffic Jello?

I spent several hours in a seminar on rewiring your brain on Saturday. 

Fascinating. 

The speaker gave a word picture. At birth our brains are grassy, pristine, beautiful parks. Just glorious sunshine, blue skies and perky green grass ruffled by the gentle breeze. 

Our first experience causes us to walk across the grass. But if it's a one time stroll, the grass pops back up and all is well. But let's say it's a repeated experience like being picked up when we cry, or a smiling face talking baby talk to us, or emptiness when our cries are ignored. We travel that scenario more than once and we create a path. By the time we are adults we have a "park" that looks like a map of mega-sized city streets. 

The main streets and super highways represent the thought paths we most travel. 

Everything we experience through our senses and every thought we have creates the potential for a street, avenue or highway. 

The good news is that we can change our maps by the beauty of neuroplasticity. (Our brains keep regenerating and making new pathways). We can create new roads and change the way we travel and avoid the roads we no longer want to drive the car of our life on. 

I can create a new series of main streets I want to travel on. Repetition makes the roads we use stronger. 

For example. I've been telling myself I don't get violin. Oh, I'm still working on it. But every time I say that I don't have rhythm and I can't do the fingering, the reading of music and the timing of the notes at the same time I am telling my brain to make that a truth, a pathway for me to travel on. Therefore, my brain makes it so that I don't get it because I'm telling it that that's a truth, that I don't get it. I'm basically ordering my brain to make sure I don't get it. Really???? Augh!!!! This totally resonates with me because I do travel "I don't get this" boulevard. I want to get it, I get so frustrated, and I'm doing the time. I don't want to calculate how much energy and money I've put into this goal because that's going to depress me. All the while I'm plugging away, I'm telling my brain to avoid turning on the musical/math section of my gray matter. 

My mom told me she saw a video about a guy who took a decent blow to the head and got a concussion. A few days later he was at a friend's house and they had a piano and he sat down and played for hours. Not Chopsticks, but real, complex music. And he wasn't musical before his accident. If a whack in the head can turn on his music center then I'm not going to tell my brain to keep my music center quiet. "Hey, Kelly's brain, yeah you, ramp up the math/music section of my brain. I have some music I want to play. Got it?!? Good." 

My brain is moldable and is making new pathways all the time. And I can and will get this. My brain is going to click and this reading of music, timing of notes and finger placement is going to become second nature and I will be a musician and I will play the violin so well that I can play with other musicians.  

How about you? What are you telling yourself you can't do? Can't or won't? Quit ordering your brain to keep you stuck. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Punny, Very Punny