Lovely Saturday Morning

Went out with a dozen friends last night and had a blast, but I was thrilled to come home and get back to reading some the the incredible books my sister Kylie sent me. She’s been collecting these since I was in Costa Rica, reading most, but decided that during her last couple semesters in school I’d have more time to read them. Check out all that she sent:

The only thing not pictured is a pink heart shaped Pez dispenser with “Dream” printed on it. I gave it to Jim as he loves Pez and I wanted him to feel included in the package receiving.

But seriously, look at all those goodies!!! I had already read most of Skinny Bitch and Food Rules, but I’m happy to get to read them again. (I already read Food Rules in the bath tub 2 days ago.) I’ve also been reading Ani Phyo’s book (which Kylie won in a blog giveaway!) and The Coconut Oil book. I’m coo coo for coconut in all it’s forms but I had no idea that coconut oil has helped so many fight yeast problems. This was awesome information for me as I am highly susceptible to yeast problems (which I’ve been able to keep under control only by diet and daily probiotics). All the other books I’m so excited to finally read, rather than just flip through in airports or bookstores. Also, I’m pumped to watch the documentary Food Fight. Kylie actually got to meet the maker, helped do some promotion for the L.A. premier, and got to attend the premier too. I’m loving how many documentaries on food have been coming out. Totally rad.

So after reading until my eyes started to close, I went to bed, sleeping in! This is such a luxury since I wake up at 5am Monday through Friday for my new job as the baker and sous chef for Gindi Cafe (which I love). OH! I also had my first catering gig for 12 people a couple weeks ago. It was such a success but I’ll tell you more about that another time. For now, let’s get to breakfast…

This was awesome! Gluten free oatmeal (cooked) with chia seeds, some coconut flour, and coconut butter. I then topped it with large flakes of coconut, walnuts, a dash of cinnamon and a splash of almond milk. So coconuty and SO GOOD! I also had a glass of Amazing Grass’ Original Amazing Meal blitzed with frozen bananas and almond milk. It was good, but I’m obsessed with their Chocolate flavor!

Next up, Lafayette’s Peach Festival!

Homemade Nutella!

I don’t know about you but Nutella is one of my favorite things ever. Unfortunately the brand Nutella has stuff in it I don’t want to be consuming. I’ve found other kinds, but I was curious if I could possibly make my own as I’ve made other nut butters. I tried and succeeded! Thick, Creamy, Rich, Spreadable, and Delicious!

I love it on tart green apples, but I also had some fun making Ants On A Log, using both black and fire ants! Aren’t they cute?! Goji berries are awesome by the way.

Yum! Jim found this to be a big hit too! He savored half of the plate with me.

The day after (I actually had some left) I used some as a topper/mix-in for Banana Mango Soft Serve for Jim and I. SO GOOD!

To make it I used a combination of hazelnuts (which I toasted for their incredible flavor), cocoa power, vanilla, and some finely blitzed dried sugar cane crystals. To make this raw next time I’ll be using raw hazelnuts, cacao powder, vanilla bean bits, and raw agave.

Seriously, if you haven’t tried making this and you love Nutella half as much as I do, you must make it. All you need is a food processor.

For Kylie with Love

So my sister Kylie (AKA Zippaloo or Zip) of All Things Food has been nagging strongly encouraging me to get back to blogging about food. Every time we talk or Skype I tell her about all the fun and tasty things I’ve made since we last spoke. She’s been requesting photos, recipes, etc. So here’s a few desserts I’ve made since moving into our new place…

Carrot Cake (free of animal products, gluten, and refined sugar)

Cashew Creme

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cashews, soaked for 3+ hours then drained

7 dates, pits removed

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1/4 +1/8 your choice of nondairy milk (I used my homemade almond milk)

Tiny pinch of Sea Salt

Optional:

Spices like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, etc.

Directions:

Blitz ingredients in food processor until creamy.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

Next up…..

Mmmmm Mango…

Raw “Cheesecake”

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 rounded cup Almonds

3 Dates, pits removed

Filling:

1 cup Cashews, soaked overnight then drained

Agave to your liking (I don’t like mine to be too sweet)

2 tablespoons Lemon Juice (If you make it too lemony you’ll end up with Lemon Bars like Kylie’s did.)

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

pinch of Salt

Directions:

Blitz Almonds to your desired consistency in a food processor then add dates and blitz again until it forms into a ball.

Press the crust into a bread pan, slightly oiled if you’d like (I used a little coconut oil). Put in freezer until you’re done with filling.

Blitz  all the filling ingredients in a food processor, blender, etc. until smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness and spice if adding. Layer the filling over the crust, smooth it out, then put in fridge until ready to eat. Cuts easily and is great with fresh fruit.

Note:

Keeps for a week in fridge.

And a very common dessert in the Ahern household…

Banana Soft Serve

It was just frozen bananas this time, but I love to add other fruit, nuts, cocoa, almond milk, spices, etc. Check out my next post for a delicious mix in I made.

P.S. Kylie, thanks for your encouragement to get back to blogging!

The Community Garden

Our friends Heidi and Noah petitioned to their HOA to build a community garden. It passed and they/we built one. Not many people were interested in it so we were granted a generous amount of space. The sides of the raised beds and the door are made of old fencing that their HOA replaced, the soil and rebar came from Heidi and her connections with the Broadway construction project (she had a buddy dump the dirt over the fence, and some of the fencing was donated too. Noah and another guy along with Jim’s help did most of the work. Then, between Noah and Heidi and Jim and I, we got a bunch of bags of top soil and compost and Noah got some llama manure. Before adding all those goodies to the dirt, we sifted all the large rock out of the dirt with a giant sift Noah made. The soil is awesome!

The Boulder Community Gardens had a plant sale a few weekends in a row and Noah, Heidi, Jim and I went wild and purchased a ton of plants and seeds. It was way too cold for a couple weeks after getting the plants so they had to stay inside. (It has snowed 6 times since we got back at the end of April!) When it got warm enough we planted. Most of our plants and seeds went to the community garden, but the herbs and edible flowers were planted in pots at our place. We’ve also planted some more seeds at out place. I see the whole thing as being a massive science experiment on growing and sustainability. I planted a tea garden at the preschool I used to work at, have had potted flowers, tended to the preschool’s garden, and planted lilies last year at our old house (which have grown back this year!) but other than that I haven’t had a proper garden since I was a kid (and that was really my mom’s garden). I’ve been so impressed by the generosity and hard work of our friends. It’s fun to be apart of something you do as a group, each of us checking on the garden to see if things need to be watered, pruning, weeding, and replanting when critters have dug things up. It really turned out to be an awesome garden.

These first photos were taken a few days after planting. Jim and I love riding our bikes there when it’s warm.

Two weeks after planting we stopped by the same time our friends Noah and Heidi did. They had planted a week earlier but our seeds had started to sprout too!

Three and a half weeks after planting we were delighted to find that our tomato plants were bearing fruit and our cucumber and yellow squash seeds were sprouting (which we had only planted a week before)! The rest of the plants really burst with life.

Jim and I went again today to check on them and even with cold temperatures and 3 days of rain everything looks great. I’ve been educating myself on how to care for plants, esp. pruning and harvesting. It’s quite fun. One of our spinach plants is ready for it’s first harvest!

Setting Up Our New Place

Our new place is a walk-out basement of a 100 year old house. Our address includes “1/2″ which I find to be charming as if it belongs in Alice in Wonderland. Luckily all our windows look straight out above ground. That makes the space so light and cheerful.

We lucked out with this place by knowing the previous tenant (who just bought a house). The landlord was born in this house and then moved to the house next door when he was young. He inherited both houses when his mother passed away. Another thing about our landlord is that he’s hard of hearing and very adamant about us being non-smokers (which we both are, thankfully) as both his parents died of lung cancer. He and his wife (with the help of some others) did a ton of work on the place before we moved in, including new carpet and linoleum, paint on the walls, adobe-like plaster on a few walls, and a new stove and hood. His wife also gave us a bunch of huge pots to plant in which I was ecstatic about. The funny thing about our landlord is that he really likes all the old details (check out the cupboards) that keep the place looking like it did when he was a boy. Our landlord’s main handy-person is this man who rents a room in a trailer, wears a crystal around his neck, talks like Jimmy Stewart, and communicates with cats via his higher self. He’s pretty much awesome and loves Sasha and Lita.

So our place is pretty great. It’s 3 blocks from my favorite Sip House, Ideal Market (AKA mini Whole Foods), and a bunch of other neat things. We’re also 5 blocks from Pearl Street, which is rad. It’s been great to walk down to Pearl for dinner or to meet up with friends. As for the house itself, we’ve got a great big open yard that we share with the house next door. It’s got a lovely apple tree (which is great to hang a hammock from), a picnic table, and along one side of the house there is garden space. Inside it’s about 600 square feet, 1/4 the size of the townhouse we owned before leaving for Costa Rica, but we’ve found we don’t need much space. We still haven’t really used the space off the kitchen. Jim pointed out that no matter where we live, we always don’t use one space. My favorite part of our place is our red claw-foot tub.

The first night at our place (which was the day the stove was put in) I cooked up a curry meal for us and we watched a movie, before sleeping on our blow-up mattress (which we did for almost 2 weeks before getting out bed). We hadn’t moved everything into the place yet, so check out the plants on chairs, and our nifty laptop console.

The following day Jim built a fence for the girls. Actually, it’s really for us, so that we don’t always have to put on a lease when they just need to go potty or want to lay in the dirt in the sun.

Check out that cute butt!

The girls were very interested in sniffing everything out in their new hang out place. They approved!

While Jim put the last touches on the fence I planted in the massive pots we were given. Lots of flowers, including organic edible ones, and a bunch of fresh herbs, which took 2 weeks to become fully vibrant and cheerful.

My next post will be on the garden space along the side of our house, but here’s some lovely Irises that were there already.

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