Ω (Omega) Muffins

This is a real quick post of a real quick muffin I just made for our trip! We are leaving early tomorrow morning, like I have to wake up sometime between 2:30 and 3:00 in the morning! I would try not to even go to sleep, but I have issues sleeping, such that I can't sleep on planes..I can't sleep during the day..so I need to try to sleep tonight (this evening I guess..) But I also can't sleep when I'm nervous/excited, so I might just need one day of recovery, which is fine because it's a twelve day trip!! Okay, onto the food!


I call these ones Omega Muffins because they have three ingredients that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids that we all need! Chia seeds, flax seed meal, and walnuts! They are basically a banana nut muffin. However, Michael's favorite things ever include coffee and chocolate, so his are kinda mocha! After making the recipe, I put half into a muffin tin, and then added instant coffee to the other half for him!


Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour (I used white whole wheat)
1/2 cup oats 
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 bananas
3/4 cup nondairy milk, divided (I used unsweetened vanilla almond)
1/4 c maple syrup
3 T flax seed meal
2 T chia seeds


Toppings/add ins (optional):
Walnuts
Chocolate chips
Instant coffee (I used vanilla)

Add all of the dry ingredients to a bowl and mix together (flour through salt; If you want the coffee flavor, add the instant coffee now, I used 2 individual serving packets for half of this recipe).

Add the flax meal to 1/4 cup of the milk and let set.

Mash the banana and mix in the remainder of the milk, maple syrup, and chia seeds.

Add the flax mixture to the wet ingredients, mix, and then add all to the dry ingredients. Mix until you have your dough and pour into greased muffins tins. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes.


And here they are, half topped with walnuts, and half with the coffee with some chocolate chips added to center!

These muffins really are so versatile, I just usually go off what I have on hand! You can change up the flavors however you like!

My New Life

Just found this and it's exactly how I feel! :)

Source

Tofu Sammie and Graduation!

I've been super busy lately because we are going on a TWELVE DAY VACATION!!! I am soo excited! I graduated yesterday and we are leaving this Thursday! So, there won't be any posts for awhile, but I'm going to have some amazing pictures when I get back! And I'll also do food reviews, of course :)
My parents, sister, and Michael came to the commencement. Also, I got honor cords! I had no idea I was going to get them until I signed in, so that was a good lil surprise! It was apparently supposed to tornado yesterday, but luckily the storms stopped so we could have some photo moments outside of the venue (because the place was PACKED!)
Here are some photos from last night:

The other day I made these tofu sammies! I love making baked tofu and I had some extra Daiya lying around, and that always makes everything better. The sandwich is just baked tofu that had been seasoned with garlic powder, basil, and oregeno. I also cut up tomatoes and put the tofu and tomatoes on a cookie sheet in the oven until browned. I then flipped it over and browned the other side, and this is when I added the daiya onto the tomatoes. I served this on Ezekiel bread.

Friday Favorites!

Ooohhh I just realized it's Friday, and I get to do my favorite things!! Being out of school for a week has made me completely lose track of what day it is. I went through most of yesterday thinking it was Wednesday until my mom told me otherwise..

Anyways, here are some of my favorite things lately!

This is something I saw on Oh She Glows, and I wish I would have made it the second I saw it! Basically, you take your favorite nut butter, I did peanut, and add in some non dairy milk, I did Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (the recipe calls for a few other ingredients, but I did just the PB and almond milk). It makes it soooo smooth and creamy!! I can't believe how amazing it was!! And it basically cuts the calories in half.. which won't really matter for me because now I want to eat even more! You can add as much non dairy milk as you want to achieve whatever consistency you like. We didn't add as much as in her photo below, ours was super creamy and fluffy like frosting though!!

These broccoli burgers look so good! It has all my favorite things, broccoli, cous cous, and chickpeas!

This family photo is too cute!

I love these pear pillows! I love when things are made to look like food :)

I also started an Etsy shop! I love thrifting so much and I am currently not working so I decided to open this shop! If you're interested in any of the items (I know there's not much there right now, I just officially opened it yesterday..) you can get a 20% discount on any item by using the code "CLEMENTINES". My favorite item from the shop is this dress. It's sooo cute!!! It's going to be hard to part with some amazing items I find, but I just don't have room for them all! This shop will help me to not pass up those items and help them find a home! (Am I crazy?! haha it's like I'm talking about homeless cats or something)

PB & J Smoothie + Lil' Plants!

Smoothies are my favorite thing, as I said before I eat one just about every single day!
Today, for Michael and myself, I made us peanut butter and jelly smoothies!

It consisted of these ingredients:

1/2 cup Almond milk (I use unsweetened vanilla, this stuff is good)
1/2 a banana
1/2 cup quick oats
2 T PB
1 T organic strawberry preserves
1 T chia seeds

(Michael's consisted of Soy milk instead of almond and flax meal instead of chia seeds)

Before blending:

After:

These smoothies are so good, I never get sick of them! They're really thick, like (soy)milkshakes!

A few months ago (2-3??) I bought these little pots that came with soil and seedlings from Target. One is for strawberries and the other is for bell peppers. This first one sprouted about a month ago (I forgot to mark them, so I'm not sure which is which :) ).

I didn't think the other one ever would, but I didn't give up hope! I just kept watering and watering.. until...

A lil baby sprout!!!!! So excited! Especially because we have to move so I won't be getting a veggie garden this year :/
So these little Target potted plants better grow so I can have some fresh food this year!!

Product Review

We picked up this Instant Chocolate Pudding from Trader Joe's when we went a couple of months ago. Has anyone tried this stuff before?! Some of the pudding mixes you find in the regular grocery store are accidently vegan, but they don't thicken up right! They usually make more of a pudding soup than actual pudding. Well, this stuff was amazing! I'm bummed out we didn't get more of it! I had to keep Michael from eating the entire batch in one sitting, it was so good! It thickened up just like pudding is supposed to too.

All you do is mix the pudding packet with 2 cups of nondairy milk (we used a mix of soy and almond, only because after we started pouring the soy, we ran out and used almond to make up the difference). Mix it up! We used our whisk attachment for the immersion blender (favorite kitchen tool!). Then let set for 5 minutes and try to control yourself from eating it all at once!

Quick Fajitas

This is a really quick fajita recipe. You can use the flavors I did or do your own! I used seasoned tofu, in which I dry fried* it. Because my tofu had seasoning on it, I only left it on the pan until the seasoning turned blackened, so my tofu was left nice and soft. If you want, you could dry fry your tofu first and then season it later so it has more of a firm/crunchy texture. I don't have specific measurements for this recipe, but here is basically what I did:

Ingredients:
2 carrots
1/2 large onion
1/2 red bell pepper
2/3 block tofu, pressed
Cumin
Dried cilantro
garlic powder
Green Pepper Tabasco sauce
Sazon (Mexican seasoned salt)


*If you haven't dry fried before, I recommend it! Just press your tofu and slice it however you want. Then add it to a heated non stick pan without oil. Then you just let it cook until brown on both sides, it creates a really interesting texture!

First, I chopped the veggies and started cooking the carrots by adding them to the skillet with some water. Once they started to get soft, I added in the onion and red pepper. Once everything was tender, I added in all of the seasonings to taste (except for the Sazon) and the Tabasco sauce.

I prepared the tofu by coating it in the Sazon and then dry frying it until it was blackened. Then I sliced it and added it into the veggies. I served this on Ezekial Sprouted Grain Tortillas.