Frozen Sandwich Treats and Backyard Chicken Coops

Have you seen my post for Pumpkin-Vanilla Ice-Cream Sandwiches? The "creamy, dreamy," vegan banana "soft-serve" smushed between two chewy, oatie cookies that I lost my heart to:

Well this morning I tried a new flavor variation: Ginger-Pear & Vanilla. I also tried thinner cookies (I thought they were much too thick last time) and a new shape--square, instead of round.

Here's how I made them:

Make sure you have a frozen banana (chunked) in the freezer handy, like you would for any soft-serve recipe (if you haven't already seen those recipes, there's a link above). Before all else, to prepare for the vanilla center, stir together a 1/2 cup of almond milk and 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Pour this into ice-cubes in an ice-cube tray and place in the freezer to solidify.
*Note: the amount of vanilla "soft-serve" that this makes is actually more than enough for the three cookie sandwiches. I just delighted in the extra stuff while I was cooking, or I could've just scooped it into a glass and stuck it in the freezer to eat soon after I was finished. If you don't want to have any extra (although I can't think of why you wouldn't--that stuff is delicious!), just lower the amount of milk.

Once you've gotten that out of the way, you can start the cookies. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a food processor of blender, puree one ripe pear, two tablespoons of almond (or other) milk, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. At this point, you can also add any sweetener desired (like stevia, cane sugar, honey, etc.), but I skipped this; for me, the pear alone is enough sweetness for the cookies, because I don't have much of a sweet tooth and rarely use sweeteners (I usually get it all from fruit).

In a separate bowl, make a flax "egg" by stirring together a tablespoon of flax meal with two tablespoons of water and letting it rest for a few minutes. Then stir in 1/2 cup oats, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger, a pinch of baking powder, and an even smaller pinch of baking soda. Mix the pear blend into the bowl, incorporating the wet with the dry to make your batter. Spoon this into a small baking dish (shallow is better) and spread into a thin (about 1/4 inch?) layer. Then bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Remove and let cool for fifteen minutes or so, then let chill in the fridge for twenty, and then place in the freezer, leaving it in for at least another twenty, or until they're nice and cool and firm to the touch.

At this point, take out the dish and cut the cookie into six (for three, bar/square sandwiches) even pieces. If you wanted you could also funk things up a bit by cutting them into some other shape, or you could make different-size sandwiches. (Have fun with your food! I know I always do. ;-) ) Put the cookies back into the freezer. Before you use them for the sandwiches, they have to be very cold--if the cookies aren't cold enough, they'll make the filling mushier and your sandwiches will get very messy. Believe me.

Now you're ready to put together your sandwiches! Blend the frozen banana and milk-cubes (if your blender/processor can't handle ice, just leave the cubes out for a minute until they melt up a little) into smooth, creamy goodness. Immediately race to the freezer, grab your cookies, and get to spooning the filling onto half of them, topping each cookie with another to make your sandwiches. Get them into the freezer lickity-split before they start to melt! Leave them in for at least an hour, or until they're nice and solid and don't fall all over the place when you try to pick them up. You want them super cold (but not frozen solid, of course--I don't recommend leaving them in too long).

You can see how the vanilla filling got kind of smushy when I was putting them together. I was trying to get as much on there as possible. I should have cleaned them up a bit for their photoshoot, but I just wanted to eat them with all their yummy creamy center. ;-) I'll remember next time to make sure they come out nice and neat. Despite their sloppy appearance they were delicious, and gone in a flash--you don't have to worry about them melting when I eat them! ;-)  Pear, ginger, and vanilla make a great team. And I was right to thin out the cookies--I like the sandwiches better that way; the Pumpkin-Oatmeal batch had too much cookie and not enough filling, and they were kind of hard to bite into, too thick. This way the filling-to-cookie ratio is perfect.


Moving on to another topic that isn't so mouth-watering: I might be getting pet chicks (which, of course, will eventually grow into chickens)! I think it would be so fun to have two downy little chickens to take care of. Especially when they're babies, but when they become full grown chickens as well. I think it'd be interesting to have pet chickens! Of course, I won't be eating the eggs (though my family will), but I'd love to have chickens as pets; I just like the idea of it. It has a kind of a coziness and hominess to it.

Aren't the little chickies just adorable? <333

We're going to build a little coop for them in the backyard. It'll have a little closed in area for them to peck around, though I'll let them out in the yard sometimes when I'm there to watch them (especially until we get the fence fixed up; right now there are holes and things, and we need chicken wire to keep out predators). I'm taking full responsibility for these chicks (no way I'd give any to my sisters, anyway!). I'll be constructing their coop with my dear ol' dad. What color should I paint it? Red? Bright green? Blue? Lavender? I can't decide!

I've been researching chickens--breeds, basic care, etc. Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Brahmas, and a few other breeds are said to make the best pets. As soon as the coop is done, of course, we'll need to actually get the chicks, and I'm not quite sure where we're going to do that yet. If you're reading this and you know something about raising and caring for chickens, I'd love to hear any tips in the comments!

I'm superduper excited!!! :-D

QUESTION:

What do you think of having chickens as pets?

Some people are bird people; some are not. I personally think it's wrong to clip a bird's wings and keep them in a small, confined cage inside a home. I always feel sad when I see them like that. Birds belong in the open air, where they can fly and live as nature intended. With having pet chickens, I won't have to clip their wings, and of course I won't be keeping them inside. They'll be living relatively naturally in my backyard. I'm convinced that they'll be happy there. :-)



Missing My Food Processor

Never buy your food processor at Walmart.

About a week ago, our old Cuisinart mini-food processor kicked the can. It'd done it's job well, having lasted for such a long time--especially since I'd been using it at least four or five times a day lately. That little processor and I had a close relationship. We were tight. But it was time to move on. It had to happen eventually.

So, low on money, dad and I headed out to Walmart to pick up a new one that very same day (with my insisting that I needed another one immediately).
Of course, I would have taken so much more delight in buying a processor at a real kitchen appliance store, but, of course, such things were out of our budget--and I (and dad too, probably) would've gone straight for the most expensive, bad-butt model.

You get what you pay for, though.

And Wally-World is definitely not the best place to buy kitchen tools. The selection was limited to a mere single processor--not a selection at all!--and it was cheap (fifteen dollars) and didn't look like much at all, rather plastic-y. But we figured it would do the job, so we bought it.

At first the food processor worked okay. Although the motor was a little weak and it took a while to fully blend frozen fruit and nuts and things and usually needed some added liquid to help out, it still managed to do it well enough.
But just a few days later it died. Piece of crud. Turns out my previous fears about the motor and such were correct. Never again will I buy cheap tools.

I'd learned my lesson, so I went online to Ebay to find a new processor: a good, solid one that would last. Of course, I couldn't afford a really nice, state-of-the-art model, but I was able to find a new, "buy now," free shipping, twenty-five-piece Magic Bullet set for sixty dollars. I've heard from others, particularly from other bloggers like CCK, that the Magic Bullet works really well and is really good for personal (and other) processing.

But the package isn’t going to arrive until Monday. How am I supposed to live that long without my beloved processing abilities? After just one day I’m already suffering from a processor “withdrawal.” I can’t make my morning soft-serves, shakes, or smoothies; I can’t blend nuts or dried fruit or other goodies to make into my favorite snacks—the raw, homemade bars, balls, and bites I love so much. There are so many yummy vegan recipes that just aren’t practical without a hand-sized blender. I need it. I can’t wait until Monday. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself until then. I miss my dear mini processor dearly. </3

I’d had banana oatmeal the morning last, so I went with something a little different: Figgy-Flax Granola (I said a little different; it was hard to find a way to shake up my brekkie without my [beloved] food processor. I ended up still having to go with oats). Except I didn’t have enough time to make a real granola—very slowly cooked for a very long time at a low temperature—and I added a fourth a cup of almond milk, so it ended up turning out more like a baked oatmeal, very soft and not too crispy. It was basically like a baked cereal. I loved it anyway, of course.

To make the Figgy-Flax Bake, I combined a serving of oats, a tablespoon of wheat germ, and a tablespoon of milled flax (but I’m sure whole flax seeds would work just as well, if not better for a granola). I chopped up four dried mission black figs superfine and then mixed them into the dry stuff, then added a teaspoon and a half of pure vanilla extract and the fourth cup of almond milk. Next time, if I’m going for granola, I’ll skip the almond milk, or at least only use one or two tablespoons, and I’ll bake it at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for at least an hour or so, probably more like two or three.

But this time, to get more of a baked-cereal kind of thing (and because it was breakfast time and I was hungry for some breakfast munchies) I spread the mixture on a baking dish lined with parchment paper and popped it in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for thirty-five minutes or so. But halfway through I upped the temperature to 400 because I got impatient. ;-P If you wanted to use this basic recipe to make a baked oatmeal, you’d just add more liquid in the beginning and cook it like I did, maybe longer. What I did was a little too moist for a cereal, so I think next time I want to use it that way I’ll only add half the almond milk.

Once it was out of the oven and had cooled a bit, I scooped it into a cereal bowl, topped it with some fresh, juicy, in-season blueberries and enjoyed it with a little (just a little—it didn’t need much at all) almond milk.

The recipe for Figgy-Flax Oatmeal Bake/Granola will be posted after I get a chance to perfect it, but as you can see its pretty basic; just play with the ingredient amounts a little to see what works best for you. For full-on granola, you might even want to add extra seeds, nuts, dried fruit, or anything else. Maybe make a Figgy-Coconut Granola, with unsweetened shredded coconut? Coconut and fig makes a good match. J

So somehow I’m just going to have to deal until Monday afternoon—using/crafting recipes that don’t need a food processor (agh!) It will be EXTREMELY AGONIZING. Ants in my pants! (Though that saying doesn’t usually really describe how I feel… it’s more like there are ants in my head.) I’m anxiously awaiting that day... but I think I can manage. ;-) Either way, I have to. For now, if I want to make anything that needs blending, mushing, or any kind of other processing, I'll just need to do it by hand the good ol' fashioned way, with a fork or a spoon (which is fine and all, but I just don't get the same consistency, and I can't do nearly as many things... *sigh*).

QUESTION:
Do you have a kitchen tool that you just can't live without?

My Favorite Meal

Breakfast. The most important meal of the day.

Serving it up, Shannon's way!

Wake up, sunshine! Breakfast is gives us energy to kick-start our day. Eating a good-sized, healthy breakfast boosts our metabolism and keeps us from getting too hungry later. It also keeps our minds awake and attentive and improves our mood. A yummy, nutritious breakfast makes a healthy, happy teen (or anyone, for that matter)!
Because it's summertime and I barely ever run anymore due to the excessive heat, breakfast is usually my carb-&-sugar pre-workout meal--the energy for my swimming (or sometimes jumprope) workout. I usually have some combination of fruit and whole grain.

And one of my favorite breakfasts? Why, oatmeal of course! Oatmeal is full of healthy grains and carbohydrates and is great for your heart! It also has fiber and a fair amount of protein, so it's a perfect way to start your day. And there are so many different ways you can shake up your oats! OATMEAL CAN BE SO MUCH MORE THAN A BOWL OF GOOP! Use any fruit or combination of fruits (fresh and/or dried); use different, new, and interesting extracts and flavorings; play around with spices; add your favorite nut-butter; throw in some cacao nibs or chocolate chips or WHATEVER. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!! ;-)

This morning I went with a classic: banana oatmeal.

My favorite oatmeal method is overnight and raw, especially during the summer when I like my oatmeal nice n' cold. (Have you ever tried cold oatmeal like this? I lovelovelove it.) So last night I mixed all my ingredients together and popped the bowl, covered, in the refrigerator. I use CCK's voluminous oatmeal trick to get extra-plumped oatmeal, 'cause that's how I prefer my oatmeal--like Snooki likes her hair: the bigger the better. ;-)

^Snookilicious^
(Hairstyle and facial expression)

In the morning, when I was all right-n'-ready to enjoy my lucious, pumped-up banana oatmeal, I just grabbed it from the fridge, gave it a stir, sprinkled a few cacao nibs and a skosh of extra cinnamon on top, and Shannabananafeefifofannah! delectable banana oatmeal for me to luxuriate in. Simple, wholesome goodness. <3

 I very much enjoyed it.



Questions:

So what's your morning like usually? Do you eat breakfast? If so, what are they like--do you have larger breakfasts or small ones, maybe for on the go? What's your favorite breakfast?

I can't wait to read your responses! :-)

For me, it's hard to say, but I might have to go with Mocha-Banana Soft-Serve. (Although, of course, I'd eat it with something else too, since I'm so big on breakfasts! And I couldn't have it too often; I love variety way too much.) Espresso and banana just go so good together (actually, a lot of things go good with banana!), and I am just absolutely head-over-heels for that creamy, dreamy soft-serve that the frozen banana works for so well. Mmmm. <3

My blog has been inching along since I started it, a few days ago. It's still pretty small and needs a lot of construction and organization and, of course, time, but I'm hoping it'll grow so that I have it running well and get lots of feedback and connection. If you're reading this, thanks bunches for helping me! Just by visiting my blog you're improving it. ;-)