Chocolate, Playdough and Pumpkin Pie!

No, not Chocolate Playdough Although that sounds awesome! *giggle* OH man, this post is longer than I meant it to be lol, I guess I need to just post more often and shorter ones!

These are the chocolate and coconut melties I made, inspiration courtesy of Chocolate Covered Katie of course! At her suggestion, I made her very own homemade Cacao Bliss as well as using the plain coconut butter (awesome in itself!) and used my very cool (no pun intended hahah!) lil skullie’s ice cube tray! OMG. *drools a little* These are SO good! I have to say, my favorite way to eat them, though, is a little nibble off the coconut one and then a little nibble off of the chocolate one and chew it together. Mmmmm! Hey, I should try making swirly ones! Thank you SO much Katie!

The playdough thing is this: My son is almost 2 1/2. He’s a kid. He’s a boy. He wants to play with playdough. (Well, actually he wants to lpay with everything, but I digress.) SO. What to do with the whole “playdough is stinky chemical-ly Hmmmm.  He has some playdough, and he’s played with playdough – at school, etc. – but for like, everyday use I’m not so hot on the idea. So I went online in search of a homemade playdough I’d be proud to have my kiddo eat grind into the carpet *ahem* play with, every day even! I found a bunch! So happy   I chose to make this one, not for any specific reason, just, it felt good to me. Lol.  And then I colored mine with plant colors, because artificial dyes I soooo have a problem with. Here’s the rundown:

• 1 1/2 c. white flour
• 1/3 c. salt (I used sea salt cause it’s what I had)
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Mix the dry ingredients with a whisk in a saucepan, to make sure they’re well blended before you add the liquids. Turn your burner to medium heat, pour in the water and oil and then start stirring!! It doesn’t take long, I’d say less than 5 minutes, and the liquid quickly becomes lumpy, and then sticky, and then starts all clumping together.  When it’s completely clumped together and you have one big ball, whirl it around a few more times in the hot pan and then dump it onto a plate to cool. I kinda of mashed it flat on the plate so it’d cool faster. **NOTE: If you’re going to add coloring, add it WHILE it’s ‘cooking’ because trying to knead color in once it’s done is a PAIN! Our yellow playdough I colored with maybe 3/4 tsp of ground turmeric, and the pink I added (while cooking) about 2 Tbsp of (boiled down to a concentrate) fresh raspberry juice.  OH and If you’re using like, a juice, for example, to color, cut back the water accordingly.  I ended up with too runny play dough and had to toss some extra flour in real quick. Still came out perfectly though!

Let me know if you try this! I did let the wee man help stir the dry ingredients in the pan before I turned on the stove… so this is definitely something you can do “with” your toddler/kiddos too!

First pumpkin-ey goodness of the season! OMG. We’re having a work potluck for Thanksgiving this week, and I have been wracking my brain to figure out what to take. There’s always pressure to have something really good, because everyone knows I’m vegan.  I think people assume vegan food will be weird/boring/bland/pile of sprouts/etc? So I always feel like I should go a little above and beyond when I’m going to be sharing with others…. THIS, however was just a “I have a huge can of pumpkin, what can I make with it!” experiment.  I’m also limited by ingredients right now and with no $ to go buy a bunch of extras, I was trying to work with what I have here. AND I am always trying to make recipes healthier so there’s that too.

I went insearch of pumpkin recipes… I found (two actually) what I wanted on Susan’s Fat Free Vegan site – for those of you who’ve never explored there, DO! Now! She rocks – Anyway, I figured I’d go for her Impossible Pumpkin Pie. OMG doesn’t hers look amazing?!

MMmmmmm! Ok so mine looks ok too, I mean, it looks like a pumpkin pie so I guess it looks ok right?   I did ‘health-ify’ her recipe (not a whole lot further you can go with Susan’s creations they’re alreayd so healthy!) a bit more, by cutting out the sugar. Well, kind of. I was actually thinking of a friend of mine who eats no sugar and thinking what if she could have a piece of this? SO, I subbed 1/2 c. date sugar and 1/4c dark agave for the 3/4 c sugar in this. And guess what? It’s awesome and you’d probably never know. And my friend can have a piece! Date sugar and dark agave both have a rich sweetness, which I think added to the overall effect. I love it! OH and did I mention this is crustless and gluten free? AND is so awesome tha even without it’s crust, you can pick it up and eat it like pizza. OMG I want one now. Lol. Puh-LEASE, you have to try this. Wow! (Note: I did happen to have rice flour on hand, so the sugar is the only subbing I did.)

Finally, just some random Beebit-cuteness… and “other news”

I asked him, "What is that?" He says "Onions mommy." Lol! Love his cute little mind. Nope not onions! "Potatoes mommy." Nope! Baby coconuts! "Ohh...."

Cutie patootie sleepin...

"Ball cap Mommy"... He's wearin his hat just like B-pa

OH I came across this picture and remembered I made these for the lil guy not too long ago – and though it’s very autumn-esque for baking so… voila! Baked Apples!  And ya know, all I did was core them, sprinkle some cinnamon into the cavity and then stuffed it with raisins. Baked at 350 for.. bout half an hour and SO tasty! Easy peasy (and sweet!) healthy treat

They were so good, I think I actually ate more of it than my son lol!

Ok y’all I think I’ve probably strained my eyes (and yours!) enough for one day… Enjoy your evening! Answer this though… What’s your favorite pumpkin-y dish to make?