Showing posts with label craft beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craft beer. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2011

Pumpkin pancakes and vegan mac and cheese

On Friday night I made Angela from "Oh She Glows" (see her link in my blogs I follow list, you can find the recipe on her site) Vegan mac&cheese- it was scrape the pot good!! 


yummy sauce!!

 
 I really liked the fact that the sauce was tasty without having a ton of calories like normal mac and cheese sauce, and that it had pumpkin in it (because I often neglect vegetables in my life, yes I could probably use a mom telling me to eat my broccoli lol...)


Ty also loved it and has requested I make it again :) And he used to be a huge cheese addict!

On Saturday morning Ty was on shift at the firestation which sucks because we usually cook together on Saturday and make a nice breakfast. :( I decided to make a yummy breakfast anyway and made pumpkin pancakes! (I'm on a bit of a pumpkin kick I guess!!)

They were delicious, and the house smelled so good for hours after I made them! They also fueld me through an hour and a half long workout later and kept me full until about 4pm!


I basically used one cup Hogdson Mill's whole wheat baking mix, 1 cup of pumpkin,  1 tablesppon of molasses, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil,1 tablespoon of fat free sour cream as my 'egg', 1 teaspoon of allspice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and about a cup of almond milk (as much as needed to get it to a batter consistency) Mix all of that together, plop dollops of it in a lightly oiled nonstick pan until browned on both sides and then drizzle raw organic honey on top..mmmM!!

If you dont have ready mix you could follow this recipe:

 1/2 cups milk
1 and a half cups pumpkin puree
1 tablesppon sour cream as 'egg'
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons brown sugar (or molasses- I used molasses

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger ( I didnt have any but it would add to the flavor!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, sour cream, oil. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.

Spray your griddle or frying pan with non stick and put it on a medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Really good with hot chocolate too.... :D




Reading Tina's blog post  from "Carrots and Cake" reminded me of our visit to Swamphead brewery! Ty and I were in local brewery withdrawal after our trip to the awesome city of Asheville, and decided to go visit Gainesville's one and only local Swamp Head Brewery. http://www.swamphead.com/

 I wanted to try the cask of pink beer they are tapping every Wednesday night and selling snifters of for breast cancer awareness month but it was gone already :( Their other beer was wondeful though, made right on site- we stood around with friends amdist huge containers filled with brews.



A pic I stole off Google

The brewery has a tasting room with all their beers on tap, and I got to meet one of the owners/creators :) Swamp Head has a variety of brews, my favorite was Wild Night Honey Cream Ale wich adds tupelo honey from Apalachicola, the area northwest of Gainesville that's the only place in the world tupelo honey is commercially made. The brewery is sustainable, and their spent grain feeds local cattle, isn't that neat?

You can also buy a 'Growler' (yes this is Gator country!) of beer, basically a little barrel of it for $18, a great gift for the men in your life!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Good news - I CAN lose weight quickly after vacation!

I gained four pounds in four days....and am back to normal after three days of eating right and going to the gym! (phew!) =D> Im SO happy to see my body rebounds so quickly after debauchery (believe me, in the past those four pounds would have stuck around for MONTHS)....basically Ty and I just spent four days constantly eating and drinking on our mini vacation to the N.C mountains!

I really wanted to see some fall foliage and some mountains (yes, we dont have either in Florida to any awe inspiring degree!) and so we packed the cooler and tent into the car, got the dogs sweaters out the attic (they despise the cold) and took off to North Carolina.

Whats your favorite place to see fall color?
Ellie, happy to be in TWO sweaters thank you very much!

We drove through Atlanta and stayed the night, as I've been dying to go to the Georgia Aquarium (the worlds largest) and see whale sharks!


Thats a whale shark behind me!
 I got to touch sharks and manta rays too! The rays were slimy and the sharks felt rubbery.


PS- Pardon all the shots of me, I had to take self portraits for photography class and I really like some of them and want to share :)

If only I had the place to myself I could relax and watch fish for hours

We stopped for some Indian food at an all vegetarian place called Chaat Patti, because whenever I find an Indian place I just HAVE to go for nostalgia's sake!




Yummy- and ALL vegetarian!

Dai vadda! YUM


Indian 'street' food- Phav bhaji!


Basically- indian nachos


Idli- with coconut chutney! I could eat a bathtubs worth of coconut chutney!
  The next day we journedy along the Blue Ridge Parkway to our camping spot, Mount Pisgah park at an elevation of 5000 feet!

Where we ate more....hot chocolate, smores and vegetarian kebabs made with mock duck, chicken, mushrooms and veggies and slatherd in BBQ sauce...I ate about five I think....

Mock meat is great because it is cooked already, well at least the cans of it we get at the Asian Market. So there are no worries about the meat not being cooked through etc, you just need to get the veggies grilled :)




  We went to the town of Ashevill in the foothills and tried lots of local breweries samplings! They were SO good! And had calzone's too...

At the Asheville brewing company, they have Shiva on their menu- too cool


Loving the decor!

LOL

Another brewery

The Thirsty Monk- brewery and pub
After a breakfast of vegetarian hot dogs, we visited Ty's parents and they made us cheesecake, and lots of yummy vegetarian food!
His mum made me Indian puris and paneer subji with brown rice!

Oh, and the entire weekend I hydrated with hot chocolate cos it was so darn cold....at 200 calories a pop...

It was a beautiful trip though, and I've lost the weight already even after eating cheesecake leftovers last night- fitness really does change your chemical composition because there is NO way my body would have lost the weight so quickly in the past!



The Blue Ridge Parkway!
 
Having fun at Looking Glass Falls

Romantic Asheville




I'm back in Florida now, and its 85 and humid.....oh well, at least I got to see some real fall! Sometimes I wish I could live in a giant RV and travel the USA, there is still so much of this beautiful country I havent seen....