Blueberry picking is dangerous work.

One of my favorite things about summer is berry picking. I don't get to do it as often as I would like, but when I do, I go all out. This past weekend, the boyfriend and I went up to Butlers Orchard to pick some yummy berries. (More info on Butler's Pick Your Own here.)

Between the two of us, we left with quite a hull. One pound of blueberries and almost three pounds of blackberries to be exact. Not to mention a horrible insect sting on the back of my knee. The little bastard landed there and when I went to bend down, I smooshed him, and he stung me in retaliation. Word to the wise: WEAR BUG SPRAY and use a bucket or an old coffee can when picking blackberries. We had used our re-usable nylon produce bags and they were squishing the berries. I had to dispose of the evidence. Nom nom nom.

So. Now that I have all these damn berries, what to do?

The blackberries are up for discussion and I could really use some suggestions.

As for the blueberries, behold, the best darn cobbler this side of your mom's house. That's right. I said it. My cobbler is better than your mom's cobbler.

Blueberry Cobbler

What you need:
3 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup butter (or Earth Balance for the vegans), room temp
1 egg (or egg replacement for the vegans)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash of cinnamon or apple pie spice

What you do:
In an 8 inch square baking dish, mix blueberries, 3 tablespoons sugar, and orange juice. Let soak for 30-60 minutes.

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

In a medium bowl, cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture, stirring just until ingredients are combined. Add a tablespoon of flour if the batter is a little runny. Pour over blueberry mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbling. Check after 30 minutes and add more time if needed.

Vloppy Joes

That's right. Vloppy Joes. Vegan sloppy joes. Just as awesome as the meaty sloppy joes and equally as sloppy.

You can even switch it up by using either pinto beans or textured soy protein. I started out using the pinto beans. They turned out great!

What you need:
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 large white onion, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
4-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
2 Tbps. tomato paste
1/2 C. ketchup
3 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 tsp vegan worcestershire sauce
1 C. pinto beans or textured soy protein

What you do:
Heat the oil in a large skillet, and saute the onion and celery until soft. Toss in the garlic. Cook a few minutes longer.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, ketchup, tobasco and worcestershire. Cook until it bubbles, then turn to low and let cook for about 10-15 minutes. Mix in the pinto beans, or textured soy protein and cook for approximately 5 minutes.

Serve on a whole wheat burger bun and enjoy!

Break Time

Hello all!

I will be taking a break for the next month or so to focus some other activities. Feel free to keep up with me here.

But I wanted to leave you with one last post. It's a really yummy vegan one too!

Fantabulous Oatmeal Cookies

What you need:
1 C. earth balance
1 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs (or EnerG replacement)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 C. quick cook oats

What you do:
In a medium bowl, mix earth balance, sugar and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs (or egg replacement) and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Add the oats and mix thoroughly. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375. Scoop out walnut sized balls and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Bake for 8 minutes if using a darker cookie sheet. Allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes before transferring to a plate to cool completely.

Another Lazy Dinner Post.

I'm sick. My annual sinus infection is rearing it's ugly head over my normally productive life. I can't even do yoga. Seriously. I tried last night and fell into an embarrassing coughing fit. Woo woo.

However, since the boyfriend wasn't home to make me a dinner (that I couldn't taste anyway), I had to make something to eat. Toast just wasn't cutting it anymore.

So here is a simple, tasty, sinus clearing dinner that only took about 30 minutes out of my day. :)

Curried Potatoes and Peas

What you need:
3/4 c. bulger
2-3 medium red potatoes
1 tbsp. fresh grated ginger
1-2 tsp. of red curry
1 c. of frozen peas

What you do:
Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add the bulger and cover. Simmer until cooked.

Meanwhile, dice the potatoes and cook over medium-high heat until browned (about 12-13 minutes). Add the ginger and curry. If you don't like the heat, only use 1 tsp., otherwise, use as much as you like. Add the frozen peas, cover, and turn the heat down to low. Cook until the peas are no longer frozen.

In a large bowl, mix together the bulger and the potato mixture. Enjoy!

I poached an egg!

Yeah, that's right. I actually poached an egg. By myself. And the yolk didn't break.

I love poached eggs, however making them can be a tad intimidating. So, after watching many videos and reading every single helpful tip I could possibly find, I finally decided to try it for myself.

First, I brought the water to a rolling boil, then brought it down to a gentle simmer and added 1 tsp. of vinegar to the water. The reason for the vinegar is to help the egg coagulate more quickly while cooking.

*deep breath*

I started stirring the water to give it a whirlpool effect, cracked the egg and dropped it in the pot. Two and a half to three minutes later, I had a poached egg. A really tasty poached egg.

I served the egg over the best veggie hash in the world.

The Best Veggie Hash In The World

What you need:
4 red potatoes
1 med onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
garlic salt to taste
sea salt and pepper to taste
Old Bay to taste
2 medium broccoli crowns (steamed for about 5-6 minutes)
1 1/2 tbsp. Safflower oil

What you do:
Dice and boil potatoes in lightly salted water. While potatoes are cooking, cook the onion and read pepper in the safflower oil in a large skillet. Cook for about 3-4 minutes of until tender. Add the potatoes and the steamed broccoli. Add spices to taste and cook on low heat for about 8-10 minutes or until potatoes are slightly browned.

Make the poached eggs last and serve together in a blissful breakfast combination. Mimosas optional, but highly suggested.

*picture borrowed from whatscookingamerica.net.

Baked, not fried...

That will be my new motto when making falafel.

Bad things happened in the kitchen tonight. I tried to improvise and I made a mess, ruined dinner and ended up making pasta.

I'm not even going to go into the horrid details.

But I will say that the stupid falafel balls tasted great even though they fell apart and...wait...not going to talk about it.

So here's the recipe. DO NOT fry them in sunflower oil, like I did. Instead, turn on the trusty oven and sit back with a glass of wine while the magic happens.

Spicy Falafel

What you need:
1 can of chickpeas
1 small red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
dash of garam masala
dash of cayenne pepper (or more if you like heat)
1 egg white
1/2 tsp baking powder
chickpea flour for shaping
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

What you do:
Lightly drizzle a baking pan with the olive oil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pan in the oven to preheat.

Toss the chickpeas, onion, garlic, spices and egg white into your food processor. Process to form a firm paste, with some texture. Stir in the baking powder.

Coat your hands with the chickpea flour and form into 1 1/2-2 inch balls. Recipe should allow for about 9-10 falafel balls.

Place the balls in the preheated pan and bake for 10-15 minutes.

***Disclaimer***
I've not tried this baking method yet, but I have compared a couple different baked falafel versions and this seems to be the consensus. I will report back later this week when I try this again. Luckily, I have lots of pasta on standby.

This _______ is missing something...

These words are spoken quite often when the boyfriend and I are making dinner. No matter how good a recipe sounds, it sometimes is missing that little extra something to make it awesome.

Perfect example was tonight's dinner. Thanks to a very generous friend that let me borrow her copy of the vegan soup bible, I've been in total soup mode. Tonight I tried the Arborio Rice Soup with Spring Vegetables. Very simple spring soup that packs a lot of flavor and has an awesome texture thanks to the rice. Arborio rice is most commonly used in risotto because of the creamy texture it provides. TMYK!

So, after the soup had a chance to simmer for about 20 minutes, I gave it a taste. I thought it was good, but I wanted a second opinion. After tasting, the boyfriend said those few words that makes me do a mental inventory of my kitchen..."It's missing something...".

What you need:
*items have been added for awesome flavor

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 32oz carton of low sodium vegetable broth
4 C. water (although I only used 3)
3/4 C. raw arborio rice
8oz of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp. dried basil
2 C. slender asparagus stalks, cut into 1/2 inch lengths
1 C. thawed frozen peas, or fresh peas
1 C. diced fresh tomatoes
1/4 or 1/2 C. minced fresh parsley
1/4 C. sliced, oil cured sun dried tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
*2 whole sprigs of fresh rosemary

What you do:
Heat the oil in a large soup pot. Add the onion and garlic and saute over medium-low heat until both are golden.

Add the broth, 2 cups of water, rice, mushrooms and basil (if your using dried parsley instead of fresh, add it now and use about 1 tsp). Bring to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the rice is tender.

Stir in the asparagus and remaining cups of water (this is where I omitted one cup of water). Add the rosemary. Cover and cook for 5 minuets longer.

Add the peas, tomatoes, parsley (if using fresh), and dried tomatoes. Heat through, and add more water as needed to give the soup a thick but still soupy consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste.