No-Bake Blondie Gems for Gems

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Hannah

Last week, my two current housemates and I, plus the lass whose room I have been subletting, got together for a night of delicious food, laughter, and friendship.

I count myself truly lucky to have found at this sublet not only a bed to sleep in and a kitchen to dance around (ooh! and stairs to get concussed falling down on!), but also three inspiring, passionate, driven, and wonderful women to become friends with.

Erin, thank you for sharing your career- and life-wisdom, and for the joy of playing duets together on the keyboard. Maíra, thank you for allowing me to borrow your room, for the Brazilian chocolate, and for always keeping an eye out for opportunities for me.

Sarah, thank you for everything that you are, for every late-night heart-talk and gigglefit, and for being someone I can’t conceive wasn’t always in my life.

Whole Foods, thank you for your contribution to our spread. Olives, thank you for hiding almonds within your depths; that was a delicious surprise. San Pellegrino, thank you for being so fizzy, both alone and as part of the cocktail I didn’t partake in because orange liqueur was involved.

Medjool dates, pecans, almonds, coconut sugar, and vanilla, thank you for being perfection. Thank you for joining together to create these no-bake vegan blondie gems for my housemate gems. Thank you for being delicious, and for providing a sweet ending to a night that was already very sweet.

No-Bake Vegan Blondie Gems for Gems

Adapted from Amber’s Famous Five-Minute Raw Vegan Blondies

1/2 cup raw pecans
1/2 cup raw almonds
2/3 cup rolled oats (certified gluten-free if need be)
1 cup Medjool dates, gloriously squishy and sweet
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch sea salt

1. Process the pecans, almonds, and oats in a food processor until fairly finely chopped (but not a complete powder).

2. Add the dates, coconut sugar, vanilla extract, and salt, and process until the mixture is cohesive and sticks together when pressed between your fingers.

3. Roll into small balls and store in the fridge or freezer, or alternatively on a plate to wonderful friends, right now.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Fridays, and Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Canadian Snack Reviews: Birthday Cake Oreos and so on

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Hannah

A few weekends ago, somewhere between the eighty-hundredth snowfall and the snow that fell several days ago (six months of winter what), I was sitting at the table sipping coffee and thinking about how the “5C and rain” forecast made me want to stay inside.

Then I looked up the actual weather on my phone. 18C, it said. 18C. I screamed (literally) and leapt across the room to wave my phone in my housemate’s face.

“Is this real?” I shrieked. “Is this real?”

It was. I immediately left my coffee half-finished on the table, pulled on a light jacket and boots, and ran outside into the sunshine where it seemed the whole of Toronto was basking in the sudden warmth of this one single day.

After ten minutes of walking through bustles of people in the nearby park, I looked down and realised that I was wearing my grey thermal underwear. Just that. Just long johns.

I’m blaming this for why I darted into the nearest grocery store and ended up with Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreos. I’m sure you would have done the same.

Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreos Can I ask you North Americans something? What, pray tell, is “birthday cake flavour”? To me, birthday cake is any cake that is made for a birthday. How can that be one flavour?

From my dedicated efforts at deduction (looking and eating), all I can surmise is that “birthday cake” means sprinkles and a taste like straight sugar on steroids punched in the face by vanilla frosting on steroids.

I ate all but the first cookie in this package heaped with salted peanut butter, for that was the only way I could cope with the sweetness. Never again.

Can I ask you North Americans something? What, pray tell, is “ranch flavour”? To me, a ranch is a place where cattle and horses are bred. Why would you want a chip that tastes of dirt, animal sweat, manure, and grass?

Thankfully, these tasted more tangy and salty than manure-y. I enjoyed the airy and crunchy texture. But still.

Such a shame. I was really hoping for an unripe tomato flavour. Be better, Be Better.

Points for hexagonal chips, though. I ain’t ne’er seen that before. These were a bit taco-y, tangy, salsa-y… easy to eat.

However, Kettle Corn remains my favourite, so I wrote it a poem:

Oh light and crispy
Salt and sweety
Kettle Corn
You I will eaty.

The end.

My First Canadian Easter, and Brigadeiros

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Hannah

This Easter long weekend could easily have trickled past in a mopeyhearted way for me, as Easter has always been a family-centric holiday in my world. More often than not, Easter has meant a long lunch out in the countryside with my parents, brother, grandparents, assorted other (beloved) relatives, and a table laden with much deliciousness.

In other words, I could have been very homesick this weekend. Instead, I was only a little bit homesick, because I found myself with more invitations to Easter events than I could accept. To everyone who extended hands and homes to me – thank you. So much.

I spent Saturday, the first beautifully-truly spring-like Saturday of the year, in the gloriously stunning new home of one of my favourite Canadians (and work colleagues), Kristy. She and her husband have an eye for art, design, and interior decorating that takes my breath away, and yes. Before you ask, yes, I did ponder whether the poofy skirt of my dress could adequately hide beneath it the vintage pink typewriter you see above.

But then I realised that I’d rather keep Kristy’s friendship than a stolen typewriter, so I stopped my plotting. (Convict roots.)

Kristy put together a wondrous spread of fresh fruit, fluffy scrambled eggs that I think she magicked into existence, and two epic breakfast casseroles unlike any I’d seen before.

In the foreground, we have a Canadian bacon casserole made with English muffins, and in the background a French toast casserole with a cinnamon sugar topping.

Warning: the below photo may surprise some of you.

People, I have found a way to consume the devilfruit.

It is called a mimosa, and it is delicious.

Considering that our brunch spread involved representation from Canada, England, and France (at least in terms of the dishes’ names), it makes sense that my contribution to the day was a batch of Brazilian brigadeiros, right?

Right.

Chewy, sweet, chocolate-y, eminently moreish, and rolled in coconut (rather than the traditional sprinkles), I can only hope that these simple treats in some small way conveyed how happy I was to be a part of Kristy’s Easter celebration. Dear Kristy: you are gorgeous and generous and amazing.

My heart soared.

(P.S. Get the recipe for the brigadeiros here.)

Northern Ontario Wilderness Magic with Heathy: Part Three

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Hannah

If I were to create new titles for my Northern Ontario adventures last year, Part One would be renamed “Magical Friendship and Raw Vegan Dessert Heaven” and Part Two would be called “Flights of Fancy and Carob Cashew Marvellous Mousse”.

Today’s post, Part Three, would be known simply as “The One Where Our Faces Show Up A Lot”.

Do you want to know the signs of true friendship in the North? They include:

Being driven into town every day by your non-coffee-drinking friend so that you can buy a cup of coffee from the lovely local cafe;
Having your friend come up with reasons why she “needs” to go into town every day so that you never have to actually ask for said coffee run; it simply happens;
Walking through the snow while laughing over Elvis sightings and then gasping with glee because MINIATURE HORSE-PONY-CREATURE-THING-JOY-PATTING-PATTING;
Not being made fun of when you have to use the absolute lightest weights during an impromptu workout together over a fun girly movie;

Making raw vegan sushi in the kitchen one night after exhilarating in the joy of a yoga class led by Heathy (who is, no word of a lie, the best yoga instructor I’ve ever had… why are you so far away, Heathy? Why?);
Giggling wildly upon later discovering that, while you were smiling serenely at the camera, Heathy was wielding a knife like a gorgeous fiend behind you;

Finding someone who will not only be silly with you in the kitchen, but will respond to your pleas not to roll the sushi “because I’m not any good at it!” by handing you the nori and stating that “you only learn by doing”, thus further reinforcing her soulsister/spirit-guide status;

(Mmm, delicious sushi and delicious Ontario white wine…)

Feeling like you’ve known each other for longer than you can remember, and wishing you lived close enough to have movie-dessert-wine nights every week;

But, because you currently don’t live close enough for that, being given a plate of your favourite of Heathy’s pumpkin treats (the raw vegan pumpkin pie) as well as the one you hadn’t yet tasted (the traditional baked, but still gluten-free and dairy-free, pumpkin pie) to eat on the four hour Greyhound bus back to Thunder Bay, en route to Toronto; and

Knowing that even if it’s months before you see each other again, the memories are strong enough to keep your friendship shimmering like gossamer.

Northern Ontario Wilderness Magic with Heathy: Part Two

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Hannah

To read the first two installments of my Northern Ontario adventure, click here and here.

My first day with Heather in her winter wonderland home was marked by naught but joy, deliciousness, laughter, secret-sharing, and the forging of soulsister-bonds. I awoke the next morning wondering if our second day could possibly be as magical as the first.

It could.

After making and enjoying a nourishing breakfast together as the fire crackled in the fireplace behind us, Heathy and I headed out to watch her partner, J, take off from a lake on his fancypants waterplane-machine. (It probably has a more technical name than that, but “fancypants waterplane-machine” makes sense in my head.)

Planes that take off from and land on water! Who knew! This world of ours!

Then lo! More exclamation marks! Suddenly Heathy and I weren’t simply watching J take off from the water from inside a warm building on land; we were inside the plane.

Girls on a plane!

I was giddy with excitement.

Up, up, and away!

Heathy was kind enough to let me sit in the front of the plane with J, and thus I was able to witness, first-hand, J’s astounding skills as a pilot.

I mean, look at all those gadgets and gizmos and thingamabobs I’ve got twenty! (Wait, no, that’s The Little Mermaid.)

We flew over lakes and houses, over trees and snow, down and up and around until we finally landed on another lake and slowly made our way through shards of ice to the shore.

Thank you, J, for an incredible experience unlike any I’ve ever had.

Unfortunately, Heathy was feeling a little unwell after the flight, but it was nothing a little soulsister firepit dancing couldn’t heal.

And a little more, for good luck.

As I’m sure you could guess from the dessert extravaganza of my first night, no day with Heathy is complete without enjoying some sort of epic raw dessert of wonderment. Heathy knows I love carob and nuts, and that I was interested in playing with Irish moss, and so we danced in the kitchen to create the most amazing, luscious, I’m-still-craving-it-now-why-can’t-I-have-an-everlasting-supply-of-it raw vegan Carob Cashew Mousse.

We took the carob topping from Heathy’s Double Choco Strawberry Cake in Raw Food Carob Desserts, increased the amount and switched up a few proportions, and dear holy squee. We done good. We done so good I forgot language speak proper.

And then Heathy went and garnished our dessert with lucuma coconut cashews.

I can’t even. So much wanting. This is why I’ve taken so long to write up these posts; I almost can’t cope with the levels of wanting that accompany the remembering.

Only almost, though, because the remembering in fact makes me deliriously happy, and such happiness is something I never want to forget.

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Category Archives: Household Fun