Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

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I’m over at Guinea Pigging Green today sharing the recipe for this absolutely delicious, healthy, sweet treat. How did it take me so long to try making banana ice cream? The texture is exactly like soft serve, and it doesn’t even taste that much like bananas! I’ve been craving ice cream so much lately, and eating this feels like I’m tricking myself. It’s an absolutely perfect, no-guilt-needed dessert. And the best part? It couldn’t be easier! It takes about two minutes to make (not counting the time needed to freeze the bananas, of course) and I can make it in my tiny little kitchen using my hard-working little immersion blender. Check plus.

It’s been kind of fun to try to make new recipes in a new space with less equipment than I’m used to having. I created a Pinterest board for things I want to try to cook this year without an oven, food processor or even a proper mixing bowl, and it’s really been inspiring me. I’ve been learning lately that having restrictions actually makes me more creative. It’s funny how that works.

You can find the “recipe” here!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

20140415-152642.jpgI’m over at Guinea Pigging Green today sharing a recipe for homemade, raw, and vegan peanut butter cups! I’ve already eaten four from the batch today, so it’s lucky they’re rather small.

These peanut butter cups are pillowy, naturally sweetened, nutty, and delicious. They’re a great little sweet treat and miraculously I was able to make them in my tiny Korean apartment without a real mixing bowl (I used a shallow bowl I got when I bought strawberries off the street), or a muffin tin (I used an empty plastic egg carton), or an oven (they’re raw)!

It felt good to mix ingredients up in a bowl, to use strong cinnamon, and to take food photos in a new space with new light. Baking while photographing the process is one of my favourite things to do but I always seem to forget how much I love it until I’m doing it again. Today I was reminded that I can always make good things happen for myself, even in a small space in a foreign country. It comforts me to think that as long as I have peanut butter and a wooden spoon, I can feel like I’m home. 

Check out the recipe here!

Classic Poutine

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I swear, I’m having a salad week. No, really. I really am. I sauntered over to the grocery store yesterday with visions of veggies dancing in my head, and I packed myself a massive layered salad in a jar for lunch today. I think it has something to do with saying the phrase “plant-based” approximately one bazillion times this week on the podcast. It also probably relates to the fact that this past weekend I ate like as if I was a four-year-old who is allowed to drink alcohol. I basically consumed carbs, sugar, salt, and alcohol. And a whole lot of goldfish crackers. Oops. It was my birthday. Yolo?

Clearly, vegetables are the move in this situation.

So, I promise to share some of my fave veggie-heavy recipes and salads and all sorts of delicious rabbit food soon. But until then, will you hate me if I unload some poutine onto your Wednesday?? (sidebar: it’s Wednesday already? double take)

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This poutine is actually not totally *un*healthy, because the fries are simply baked potato wedges and there is only a small amount of cheese (which I bought local, holla!), and as for the gravy: it’s homemade, contains a plethora of mushrooms, and you can control the salt content. See? Guilt-free snacksies.

I loosely used Joy the Baker’s recipe for baked french fries, but didn’t use most of the spices she did. I used salt, granulated garlic, pepper and cornstarch! I basically followed this recipe for wild mushroom gravy but adjusted the proportions because I only needed a small amount. I ended up with a not-very-liquidy gravy, but I liked the taste a lot. The thyme made this dish!

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I’ll leave you with a happy (for me) little anecdote about shooting these photos. It was late in the afternoon when I decided I wanted to make this poutine, and was immediately bummed out (as I usually am when I spontaneously decide to make food that I want to photograph late in the day) until I realized that I had enough daylight hours left to make poutine and take photos of it! So then I did, and it made me very happy. The end. Not much of an anecdote, I guess, but I was happy and grateful and noticed that taking food photos while listening to This American Life made me feel just like myself. Hallelujah, thank goodness for Spring.

Happy Wednesday!

Best Brussels Sprouts

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Okay, everybody and my mother (literally: my mom is reading this and rolling her eyes) is sick of hearing about my newfound love for brussels sprouts. I’m sorry, I am. But also, I’m not. Because they are so good! And I am so happy to be incorporating new veggies into my world. Also, please note that there is a great big love for these sprouts all over the internet right now (check ’em out here and here, for starters), so I am not alone.

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Here’s what I do (original recipe I used is here!): for one serving (me, myself & I), I use about 7 sprouts. I lop off their stems and peel off the dirty/old first layer. Then I chop them up, usually into eighths, then diagonally slice off any bits of the stem that remain. I pan-fry them in butter, letting them get nice and browned. After a couple minutes I usually add a couple chopped cloves of garlic or a little onion, and salt to taste. A couple minutes after that, I add some chopped pecans. Stir it up until the sprouts are fairly tender, then add parmesan cheese! Delish. I fry a couple of eggs and put them on top and eat as is. For real, so good + easy too.

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