Coconut Yogurt - By Request!

At last, the Coconut Yogurt!

Coconut Yogurt 

• 1 can coconut milk (NOT light)
• 1 cup cornstarch
• ½ cup soy yogurt, (it has to have live, active cultures)
• 6 cans water

• 1.Stir the cornstarch into a small part of the milk until smooth. Then add all the milk. Boil for 1-2 minutes, until thickened. Allow to cool to 105-112 degrees.

  2.Mix in the yogurt. Keep it around 105 degrees in a covered container overnight (or about 8 hours) to culture.

If you don't have a yogurt maker, yogurt can be kept warm in a dehydrator, or in a gas oven with just a pilot light on. In the summertime it can be kept warm in a hot car (not in the window!) or on a windowsill in your home.
Yogurt can be used in salad dressings or smoothies, or flavored with all-fruit jelly and/or fruit. It can also be sweetened with various flavors of pie filling.
If the yogurt looks lumpy, you can blend it lightly in a blender or food processor before adding flavorings.

Please forgive, the above picture is NOT mine, as I have misplace my picture. I'll work to either get a new one or find the few that I have (or I may use yours if you send me one). Thanks!

Naughty, but Less So (Brownies!)

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

These are very important for snowed in days. :-)

They're pretty intense, so a small recipe is good, here.

• 3 tablespoons Carob powder
• ½ teaspoon Roma powder
• 5 teaspoons oil
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon flax seeds
• ¼ cup boiling water
• 6 tablespoons flour
• ½ teaspoon vanilla flavoring
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• Peanut Butter Swirl
• 3 teaspoons margarine
• 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8 inch round baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.Bring a small pan of water to a rolling boil. In a small, heat resistant bowl, place flax seed and pour 1/4 c of boiling water over them and stir. Set aside.

3.In a bowl, mix carob powder and Roma, then stir in boiling water and oil, stirring mixture into a paste. Stir boiling flax water again and allow to settle briefly for a couple of tablespoons of this sign into the carob paste. Mix in sugar.

4.Finally, add the flour, vanilla, and salt and fold until flour is just Inc., taking care not to overmix.

5.Mix peanut butter, margarine, affectionate sugar and vanilla until smooth.

6.Pour carob batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Then drop peanut butter mixture in blobs onto the top of this and smear out in swirls with a knife.

7.Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until like toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Now that everyone is over being sick of Holiday food, I'd like to share a recipe that is reminiscent of Pumpkin Pie but healthier and lighter! Enjoy...

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

1/2 cup Pumpkin Pie Mix (from a can)
1 large frozen (very ripe) banana
1/2 cup water
6 ice cubs
1/4 cup Better than Milk powder (or powdered milk of your choice)

Blend all until very smooth in a blender, about 1-3 minutes.

Orange "Chicken" Rice for Potluck Today

Orange "Chicken" and Rice

2 1/4 cups brown rice, dry (Uncle Ben's?)

2 1/2 cups water

2 cups Light colored TVP

2 1/2 cups hot water

2 Tablespoon oil

1 cup cashews (raw is best!)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Sauce

1 cup orange marmalade

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/3 cup water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 T chicken-style seasoning

Put rice and water in a covered pot and bring to a boil, then lower temperature to low-medium. Leaving covered, cook for another 20-25 minutes or until steam lessens significantly and rice is soft. 

Mix TVP and water and allow to set until moisture is soaked up.

While rice is cooking, "fry" cashews in oil until they brown slightly. Add TVP and coconut and stir well. Set aside.

Mix sauce ingredients thoroughly. 

Combine all ingredients and serve warm.

Blessings!

(Are you Weird??) and Raspberry Millet Breakfast

Raspberry Millet Breakfast - and Are You Weird?

Please forgive my lengthy absence. Trying to get computer troubles fixed over the next couple of days!!! :-)
 
Take a minute to read through my ramblings, and you'll be rewarded with a recipe at the end. :-)

Anyone who knows me knows that I am quite open and not political. You are "different." You already know it anyway, so why not just talk about it and see if we can learn together how to succeed despite our differences? (That can be understood in more than one way, I guess.) People are so touchy and ridiculous and changeable. We all have these things that we know about other people that are impolite to talk about, so they just hang between even close friends like a stink in the air. That’s one thing I think I learned from all my Korean friends. Just say it! They freely ask and share each others’ ages and incomes, and whatever. They’ll tell you if they think you’re fat or even ugly. Why not? No fat person will be surprised. In America, we try to wear clothes to hide our fat or just never mention it, and hope no one notices. REALLY? In Korea, they told me that I have a witches’ nose (in contrast to small and flat!). They didn’t show any disdain, though, just thought it was less attractive. I think that was a great lesson for me. I don’t have some gorgeous nose, but my nose is just fine by American standards. AND THEY WEREN’T HATEFUL or “superior” about it. It was just a fact that people all noticed and that set me apart. They also freely joked about my size - I am about twice the size of many Korean women, lol.

I’m passionate about this concept, and it’s part of what makes me socially different - and threatening. This is isn’t to say that I don’t struggle with what people think about me, especially when I’m tired or ill. It’s not to say that I don’t look in the mirror (at my THIN) self and see a huge butt or a crooked smile just like others do. But I know that the reality is often very different than what we tell ourselves.

Different can have many advantages, but one of them is that the pain of isolation can cause us to stand back and evaluate who we are and why we’re here. If we come to terms with our uniqueness - even our “flaws,” we can evaluate each one on it’s own. If my “different” is a short temper, it’s something that Jesus can overcome in me. If my “different” is ratty, big hair, I can come to terms that God allowed me to have a Brillo Pad for some reason. I should seek to be as beautiful as God made me to be and learn to properly care for what I have. It may be VERY different - I do not ever comb and almost never brush my hair. I keep it clean and style it with my fingers (gasp!!). Funny thing is, it took me THIRTY years to embrace my hair and stop fighting it. Now I get compliments on it continually, even though it’s certainly not “normal,” and not “fashionable.”

WHY do we fight what God made us? I mean the physical, the personality, etc. God loves a rainbow. He INTENTIONALLY made you what he made you, and I think he just shakes his head in sadness at all we do to fight what we have and be what we think others expect. Be your own beautiful self and embrace it!

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I'm not that into millet - it's "different." ;-)  But I believe in encouraging tastes to expand for the sake of variety and nutrition. Here's a yummy breakfast for a cool winter morning!

Raspberry Millet Breakfast

1 cup millet (a dry cereal in the cereal section at your grocery or health food store - birdfood. :-)
3 cups milk (I like almond milk best.)
1 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

plain yogurt (your favorite kind - love homemade coconut yogurt)
raspberry preserves (yummy!)

Blend millet in a blender or food processor until grainy, but not fine flour, about a minute or less in a powerful blender like a Vitamix.
Over medium-high heat, in a sauce pot, bring millet, milk, water, sugar and salt to a boil, stirring well, to prevent lumps.
When it reaches a boil, cover it and turn to low. Simmer until thickened, 20-30 minutes.
Serve with yogurt and raspberry preserves.

Banana Bread Lunch Box

Hi Everyone... here's some yummy, wholesome banana bread that will keep you full 'til supper. Happy Fall!! 

Banana Bread

¾ cup sugar
⅓ cup oil
1 cup water, warm
3 small bananas, broken
1 tablespoon vanilla
¼ cup flax seed
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup Pecans, chopped


1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Blend in blender: sugar, oil, water, vanilla, bananas, and water. Add to dry ingredients and stir well. Pour into a well greased 9 inch loaf pan.

3. Bake until knife comes out clean, about 2 hours. Cool for five minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.

A Blizzard is Coming ... after such a long absence

When my little sister was about 2, my mom loaded up a car-full of kids and took us to school. We were living in Indiana at the time and the weather was starting to turn (kind of like now...). On the trip to school, my mom mentioned that it was actually looking like a blizzard, so of course, we were excited!

When Mom pulled into the driveway back at home, little Marion, who'd been sitting quietly, expectantly, in her carseat, burst into tears. She was devastated because they hadn't stopped for the blizzard she'd been promised!

Well, apparently some of you have also been crying because I've been naughtily absent for such a very long time. Apologies!! Getting adjusted to working night shift has been - painful. :-)  But God is holding me up and I'm beginning to be able to function again a little. Thank you so very much for your patience.

Here is a family favorite - great for the holidays that are coming up. I make it once every couple of years because, as you will see, it's pleasantly intense!! ENJOY!


Blizzard Pie

1 carob cookie crust
8 ounces Cool Whip
8 ounces Tofutti cream cheese
2 cups candy or fruit, crushed or chopped

This delicious pie is wonderful served cold or exceptional served frozen.
Mix Cool Whip and cream cheese with a mixer or food processor until smooth. Stir in crushed candy or fruit. Spoon into pie crust and smooth it into a puffy, fluffy look, with peaks and ridges.


Butterfinger - Mix in 1 cup crushed "Chic-o-sticks" and 3/4 cups of carob chips. (You can melt, spread, cool and break the carob chips for a more authentic feel.)


Carob Cookie Crust

25 vanilla wafers
3 tablespoons smart balance light, melted
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar
1 tablespoon Roma powder
3 tablespoons carob powder

1. Process all together until smooth and press into an 8" pie pan.
2. Freeze and use as is or bake for 10 minutes at 400.