Happy New Year Poi Balls

Before we left Hawaii I bought four of these since I knew there was no way we would be able to get poi in Omaha. For those who do not know, poi is taro. If you still have no clue what I am talking about click HERE. That will explain it. Anyway, this is what I used to make my poi balls.

I posted this picture on facebook and one of my aunties said, oh mushrooms? I didn't even think about it but they do look just like mushrooms! They are suppose to be in ball form, but oh well. This is what my husband requested for New Years, so here it is!

Poi Mochi Balls

1 bag poi
1 cup Sugar
1 + 1/4 box Mochiko four
2 cups Water

Mix poi and sugar until smooth. Add Mochiko and slowly mix while adding water. Continue adding water until batter is consistency of thick pancake batter. Drop by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown. Ta da!

I have been cleaning all day and stopped to finally eat a bite of food.

Apparently, I was being very rude eating in front of people and not offering any.

The pictures are blurry because Sonic is so hyper and moves so quickly. My cutie pie. I don't know what my resolutions will be, but when I do I'll let you all know. Everyone please have a happy and safe new year! 

Hawaiian pancakes on a cold day

Here's my usual green smoothie. I think this one had kale, apple, avocado and chia seeds. My husband hated it, so I drank it all.

Rahjah, the inquisitor had to make sure this was safe for consumption.

Here are the Hawaiian pancakes. They are basically like crepes, but without the cream filling. I had an old recipe that I had to veganize and they turned out just lovely.

Hawaiian Pancakes

4 egg replacers (I've been using Ener-G)

1 cup flour

1 1/3 cup unsweetened organic almond milk

1 Tbsp organic agave

1/2 tsp vanilla

Pour all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. I normally whisk it to make it very smooth. The smoother the better! Pour about...a tennis ball size of batter in a hot pan on stove. Move your pan around so that the batter spreads all over the whole pan. I normally use a small pan that is the size of a large pancake. Cook on one side until it bubbles, flip it and serve! I eat mine with Earth Balance and Grade B Organic Maple Syrup, my fav!

This was lunch yesterday. I bought some garbanzo bean flour the other day and wanted to try it out for making some hummus. Not so good. I don't think I have the consistency right yet. I will let you know once I get a good recipe. I don't like to post recipes on here unless I reallllly like them :)

My parents gave us a gift card for Panchero's Mexican Grill, so we went the day after Christmas. I got the burrito bowl without sour cream or cheese. It was pretty tasty. It's so funny the looks I get from the employees at some of these places. They are like, no meat OR sour cream OR CHEESE!! 

This picture wouldn't let me rotate it. Oh well. We went to Blue Sushi last night near our house. I got the vegetarian lettuce wraps minus the yogurt sauce. These were really good! I love the peanut dipping sauce! 

Sonic looks so innocent doesn't he. He's tricking you.

This was his new toy he just got yesterday from Costco. I wish I could show you about 5 minutes after he started chewing on it. There is cotton all over the floor and couch now. Thanks so much Sonic. He loves to shred his toys.

Christmas & Pictures!

 Mele Kalikimaka & Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

(Merry Christmas & Happy New Year)

Breakfast of grapefruit, kiwi and tofu scramble

A little coffee to get me through my last minute shopping. I got an iced soy toffee nut latte, mmm.

This was my Christmas dinner. It was my first time ever trying Tofurkey Roast. I have to say that I am not super impressed with it. I think I am just not a big fan of mock meat. I guess it's because I don't really even like anything that resembles the taste of real meat. I suppose if you used to enjoy turkey you may like this. I have a ton left over and the only way I have been able to eat it so far is to slice it up and put it in a sandwich with cranberry and Veganese. Oh, and I didn't like the mushroom "giblet" gravy at all. 

So... in this picture I was attempting to take a good picture of my smoothie and then noticed Sonic outside just staring at me. 

This was about 5 seconds later. He LOVES to run and especially loves when people watch him run. It must be the greyhound in him. 

This was a sign I found at a craft store. I love it! It's up in my kitchen now.

I wanted to share this present that I got because I thought it was so sweet. We stopped by a friend of my husband's home on Christmas day and one of them gave me this lovely VEGAN gift basket! How sweet huh? I was so excited and happy for the thoughtfulness of the gift! I mean, no one has ever bought me a vegan present before besides my husband. It had lots of goodies in it too :)

This was a Chinese tea set that my brother bought me for Christmas. I love it!

My Christmas was great! Did everyone else have a good Christmas?

Thoughts leading up to Christmas

My random Christmas thoughts...

• This is the first Christmas that any of us three have been away from our families for Christmas. I hope there isn't too much crying...
• For the first year ever, none of my cats have tried to climb the tree...yet.
• Please let there be a hedgehog, great dane, snake or tarantula under the tree on Christmas! Please let there be a hedgehog, great dane, snake or tarantula under the tree on Christmas! Please let there be a hedgehog, great dane, snake or tarantula under the tree on Christmas! 
• I still need to buy one more present for my husband and brother, thank goodness I get paid on the 22nd!
• I wonder if the church we are going to now does a candlelight Christmas Eve service?
• I love Advent!
• Thanks little brother for buying me a life sized stuffed reindeer! 
• What in the world am I going to make for Christmas dinner?
• I miss my family and friends.
• I still need to get stocking stuffers.
• I wonder if it's too late already to do an angel tree gift?
• Soy Peppermint Hot Chocolate at Starbucks, I must try you!
• I want one of those "Keep Christ in Christmas" magnets for my car.
• Is it going to be a "White Christmas"?

6 days to go!

Pinky Smoothie

Strawberries

Blueberries

Banana

Agave

Chia Seeds

Apple Juice

Udo's DHA Omega Oil

Raw Protein Powder

A B K Juice

(Apple, Beet & Kale)

Ingredients I used to make some pancakes this morning. They were very coconuty. I wasn't thrilled with them, so I'm not going to post the recipe :)

This was breakfast this morning of tofu scramble and coconut pancakes. I try to stay away from soy lately so this was a treat. I bought some tofu the other day and decided to use part of it for scramble. This is what I used for the tofu scramble:

Organic Tofu

Sweet Green Bell Pepper 

Onion

Garlic

Spinach

Nutritional Yeast

Turmeric

Himalayan Sea Salt

Pepper

My husband took me out for Thai the other day. In case I haven't said it before, I absolutely love Thai food. We had vegetable dumplings, tofu pad thai and basil coconut curry. Oh, and how could I forget, I got a Thai iced tea as well. Love those. 

This is pretty much how the weather has been lately. Ew. 

Nano found his new hide out. I don't know if he thinks no one can see him in there or what. I wanted to throw that away, but it looks like I can't now. He loves it in there! Sorry for the dirty laundry on top, but this picture was just too cute to not post. 

Only 7 days left...

Merry Christmas time everyone! This is by far my favorite time of the year. We are kind of sad right now because we are so far away from home and family, but we are making the best of it :) First off, and most importantly, a few pictures of my Christmas babies.

Rahjah's santa outfit from last year no longer fits him. He's gained a few pounds since then.

He was NOT impressed with his Christmas outfit.

I am really low on cash this year, so one thing I made was some dog biscuits for my friends and family who have dogs. They are vegetarian biscuits, not vegan so you can alter it to be vegan. Just make sure all the ingredients are doggie approved :) Here's the ingredients I used:

3/4 cup Milk 

1 Egg

1 cup Plain Peanut Butter (no added sugar)

1 cup Brown Rice Flour

1 1/2 cups Oat Flour 

1 Tbsp baking powder

Roll out, cut into shapes, and bake at 375 for 15 min. 

*I would like to add that I don't normally just have oat and brown rice flour lying around. If you have a good quality blender, you can just make your own. Simply take the brown rice and pour it into your Blendtec (what I use) and blend until it is flour! Same goes for the oats.*

This is how mine looked after. I used my Christmas cookie cutters. 

Here is the bird feeder we made for our birdie friends. All it is is a pinecone dipped in peanut butter and covered in bird seed! The birds love it!

This was the easiest, funnest homemade Christmas gift I made. These are some homemade soap crayons that I made for my nephews. They are super easy! All you need is:

1-2 bars of Castile soap

Warm water

Food coloring

Take the soap bar and grate it with a cheese grater. Mix it with warm water and your choice of colors. Put it into any type of mold and let it sit in a warm, dry place for 2-3 days. Then your soap crayons are ready! 

My little brother having fun decorating the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas everyone! I will try to post again before Christmas. I have really been slacking and for that I am sorry. I need to do another food post. This was doesn't have any food in it! What was I thinking? 

Happy Late Thanksgiving

Sorry everyone for the super late Thanksgiving post. Better late than never though right? In this picture above I brought Sonic inside, because there was a squirrel in the tree and he was going nuts! I know that Sonic wouldn't intentionally hurt the squirrel because I have taught him better than that. I was just worried that the squirrel would have heart failure from all the barking. This was Sonic's first squirrel sighting ever I think. If you look on the first branch on the right you can kind of see the squirrel up there. 

Groceries!

Rolls

 Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates 

• 6 Tbsp Earth Balance butter
• 1 vanilla bean
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pound Brussels sprouts

Mix all above ingredients. Put on a baking pan and roast in oven at 375 for 20 min. Take these out and set aside.

• 
  
• 3 Tbsp pomegranate molasses
• Seeds from 1 pomegranate

Pour pom and pom molasses over brussels sprouts. Eat!

Pumpkin Orzo

This was awesome!

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin
• 2 Tbsp Earth Balance butter
• 1 tsp agave
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
•  Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 1/2 cup orzo
• Fresh Sage leaves (to taste, I added about 10)

Combine the broth, pumpkin, butter, agave, balsamic vinegar, ginger, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then add orzo. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the orzo is tender.Add sage last.

My vegan feast of cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans casserole, pecan pie, yams and pumpkin orzo. 

Panther sunbathing. He enjoys basking in the sun whenever he can. It's not often sunny here like he was used to. Good bye fall, hello Christmas!