Taco Night

One of my favorite nights growing up was taco night; I loved being able to skip the tomato, peppers, onions... well everything except meat, cheese, lettuce, and more cheese. It was wonderful being able to make my own without hearing "This is what I cooked for supper, so eat up!" 

When Emma-Leigh asked for tacos the other night, I was ready to jump all over that; but there was one problem... I had never made vegan tacos before... or vegetarian for that matter!! Off to google I went to search for something that caught my eye. After searching a couple ten or twenty blogs with nothing really catching my eye, I created this following recipe. The kids loved it; omnivore approved.  

Turn burner to medium heat; add 1 tbsp of oil and 1 onion to pan.

We use purple onion here quite a bit as it is my husband's favorite, but I am sure it will turn out beautifully with sweet or white onion as well.

Once onion is softened add 4 cloves of minced garlic. 

After about 2 minutes add in 1/2 a red pepper. 

Then add 1 seeded tomato. Cook for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Isn't is just looking wonderful!

Add some spices and stir.

Now add 1 cup of lentils. I did not soak them and the end result was slightly crunchy; I will probably soak them for half and hour in future batches. 

In this recipe I used 1/2 cup green and 1/2 cup red lentils; 1 cup of brown lentils will give it a 'meaty' look. 

add enough water to completely cover the lentils. 

Stirring often; continue to cook until water is completely absorbed; in this photo it is about half way there.

Throw on a taco, add your favorite toppings, and enjoy my friends!

Vegan Tacos Recipe

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion; minced

4 cloves of garlic; minced

1/2 red pepper; minced

1 tomato; seeded and minced

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp cumin

 1 cup of lentils; your choice of color

water

taco toppings of choice

Step One: On medium heat place olive oil and minced onion in frying pan, saute until soft

Step Two: Add minced garlic, saute for another minute of two

Step Three: Place minced pepper in pan; cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally

Step Four: Add minced and seeded tomato; cook for 7 minutes stirring often

Step Five: Add chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin; stir

Step Six: Add lentils and enough water to completely cover mixture; reduce heat to medium low, and allow water to absorb completely.

Step Seven: While mixture is cooking prepare your toppings of cheese, tomato, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, ect. 

Serve and Enjoy :-)

And look at these beauties I am currently working on! They will be coming on the blog some time in the future. For now I am going to listen to the rain, read a good book, and wait for my wonderful second half to get home. Have a lovely evening everyone!

Almond Milk

When I first was introduced to almond milk, I must admit I was not a fan, I mean really? who would give up cows milk for almond milk, and how the heck would you milk an almond! Oh how naive I was, now I 'milk' almonds weekly, and you can too. 

First put 1 cup of raw almonds into a bowl. 

Raw almonds will always work better than roasted almonds. They have a better taste, and they still have all of their lovely nutrients.

Next fill the bowl with filtered water. 

The almonds will soak up a lot of the water, so put at least an inch of water over top of the almonds. Let these soak at least 8 hours, I usually do over night. 

-Once they are finished soaking I walk around with my almond bowl and watering my Bonsai Tree, Peace Lily, Orchid, and multiple other plants around my house. This water is no good for consumption but extremely good for the plants. 

Once all the water is dumped out, rinse the almonds. 

In your blender put 3 cups of water, and skinned almonds.

How do you remove the skin off of the almonds? Don't worry! If you have raw almonds you just need to pinch the almonds at the fattest part, and they usually just pop out. I have shot some clear across my kitchen before. :-) and don't worry if you don't remove all the skin, I miss some too! (See photo above)

If you are not planning on keeping the almond pulp to make almond flour (listed below) you can skip the peeling of the almonds and just toss them in the blender.

Blend for 2-3 minutes!

Place your nut bag (or cheese cloth) over a bowl, or large measuring cup and pour in the almond milk. The one pictured is a 4 cup measuring cup and works perfectly. 

Once poured, remove nut bag and start squeezing, until you can get no more liquid out. 

 and there you go! you have almond milk! At this point you can add vanilla, cacao, cinnamon, or other favorite extras to customize your flavor. 

Pour into a milk jug, mason jar, or other seal-able container so you can store it in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What do I do with my almond pulp? 

I make some almond flour! 

First I throw it into my Excalibur dehydrator on 115*F for 8-12 hours.

Don't have a dehydrator? Neither did I at first. I would grab a cookie sheet and put some parchment paper down. (not wax paper, wax paper would melt) and dump the almond pulp onto the paper. Throw it in your oven on the lowest setting with your door slightly open for 2-5 hours.

Doesn't that look wonderful! 

Place it in your blender (I use my single serve for this)

and pulse it until finely ground.

You may need to shake your container a bit to get everything evenly ground.

 Place in a air tight container, and you have fresh almond flour for all your baking needs. 

I am looking forward to posting more of my favorite recipes! But for now, it is time for me to go cook up some supper for the littles before they decide to murder each other due to hunger eat all my apples.

Almond Milk

Ingredients

1 cup of almonds
soaking filtered water
3 cups of filtered water

Directions

1) Place almonds plus enough water to cover them with over an inch of extra water.
2)Set aside for 8 hours. or over night. If it is really warm place in fridge
3) drain water. this water is great for plants.
4) put 3 cups of water into blender
5) add peeled almonds into blender. blend for 3 minutes
6) poor through nut bag or cheese cloth, squeeze out as much water as possible.
Enjoy!