Happy New Year from WAHFE!

I've been really quiet on the blog this month but I thought I'd post our family photo from our "Happy New Year" cards that went out to friends and family on Christmas Eve.  It's become a tradition that I send out Happy New Year cards after Christmas because...

1. I'm a procrastinator when it comes to getting a family photo done for the card and
2. My husband's side of the family doesn't celebrate Christmas because they are Hindu! 

So it gives me extra time to get a photo done and seems more appropriate and cost effective that we send out Happy New Year cards so I don't have to get two separate sets of cards done.

I hope that all of my blog followers had a mostly great 2012 and are ready for a fresh new year of great things in 2013!

Some of the highlights of 2012 for me personally and on the blog include:

• My attendance at the 2012 Food Blog Forum at Disney World where the chefs greeted me with wonderful vegan food and I got to reconnect with all of my Food Blog friends.
• A weekend of workshops at the first annual Florida Herbal Conference in Ocala, where I gained new knowledge about the use of herbs for health.
• My daughter's participation in the Portion Size Me Snack Wars Challenge
• A week long trip to Paris with my husband as an early celebration of my 40th birthday

 

• Joining the Raw Food Jump Start and Teacher Training at Eva Rawposa's Uncooking School.
• And lastly, my daughter Anika's successful first year of competitive gymnastics and participation in the USAG state tournament...all in good health and free of injuries

So many great things happened, I feel truly blessed and ready to take on 2013! 

 

Simple Collard Chips

Yes, you read that right!  Collard Chips.  Kale Chips are so last year.  And since I don't have a dehydrator, I like to cook them at a low temperature for up to 40 minutes so they still have a slight bit of "chewyness" to them.  I don't really have a recipe for this other than to say you need 2 heads of Organic collards and a bottle of Organic Low Sodium Tamari.  Then follow these directions....

Step 1: Tear 2 heads of unwashed collards off the thick stem in chip size pieces
Step 2: Soak in filtered water for 10-15 minutes and put through a salad spinner
Step 3: Hand toss/massage with 1 1/2 tbsp of Organic Low Sodium Tamari and let it sit for 10 minutes to absorb. Heat oven to 200F.
Step 4: Spread the collards out flat on several trays lined with parchment paper.  Do not spray with oil.  I use a Silpat silicon mat to keep the collards from sticking.
Step 5: Keep an eye on the chips after 25 minutes.  Some of them will dry out faster than others.  You can start removing the really dry ones so they don't become paper thin and fall apart when you pick them up :-)  Depending on your oven it could take up to 45 minutes to cook them all this way.
Step 6: These are not dippable chips, but you could lightly spoon some hummus on them if you wanted to.  Enjoy with your kids!  They will love them.  And the best thing ever is sending them to school in their lunch and hearing how everyone thought they looked disgusting but really wanted to try one.

Homemade Vegan Sushi

Most people are surprised to find out that sushi doesn't have to contain raw fish.  You can normally find several vegetable rolls on the menus of most Japanese restaurants where you can choose from tempura sweet potato, tempura asparagus, avocado, carrots, cabbage and tofu.  You can also order miso soup and a salad with ginger dressing and you have a completly vegan meal!

The sushi pictured above has carrots, tofu and avocado.  I added nutritional yeast for extra nutrition. I also used Organic Eco-Farmed Basmati rice, so don't think you need to buy special short grain sushi rice...or a sushi mat for that matter.  You just need the sushi nori (seaweed sheets), which you can get from any health food store or asian store.

This past week has been a big sushi week as I have packed it in my kid's lunch boxes every single day.  The trick is making the rice the night before AND cutting up your tofu and carrots in little pieces.   Then it's literally a 3 minute assembly process per roll in the morning.   There's a nice step-by-step recipe with pictures at wikihow.com.  You don't need to flavor the rice the way they did it, though it probably does taste better.  I just season mine with rice vinegar and dip in low sodium Organic Tamari.  And as I mentioned, you can also add nutritional yeast!

Very Pumpkin Smoothie

 

 

It's that pumpkin time of year again where we must find creative ways to eat pumpkin!  This smoothie is not raw but I am going to try a raw version using an organic pie pumpkin in the near future.  Pumpkin is a nutritional powerhouse.  We all need to eat more of it, but not so much in baked goods where a lot of the nutrition gets lost :)  According to Nutritiondata.com, pumpkin is a good source of Vitamin E, Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.

 

So eat more pumpkin...in a smoothie!

 

Makes two 24 oz smoothies + extra

 

1 cup cooked pumpkin (I used Organic canned)

2 frozen bananas

2 cups ice cubes

2 1/2  cups unsweetened Almond milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 tsp Cinnamon

 

Toss everything in a high powered blender and blend until smooth.  This smoothie is very pumpkin flavored and not very sweet.  If you want it sweeter you can add a medjool date or two or agave nectar to taste.