Pumpkin Spice Latte (Vegan)

It's Fall!  The best time of year for cozy warm lattes and good books.  This is my favorite season.  

Here is a delicious recipe for a healthy pumpkin spice latte made with almond milk.

You will need: 

1 cup Almond milk (Soy or Coconut milk would be fine too)

1 Tablespoon pumpkin puree

1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup (optional)

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 cup of brewed coffee

Brew your coffee and set aside.  I used my french press.  You can brew it however you would like. 

Add the almond milk, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and maple syrup to a small pot.   

Cook on medium heat and whisk the ingredients together, stirring frequently.  Take off the heat once it starts steaming.   

Whisk or froth the milk.

I love my milk frother.  Makes my milk super fluffy like whipped cream, but without the extra calories.   If you don't have a frother, just use a whisk.  

Add the coffee to your mug, 

Then the frothed milk.

    Top with ground nutmeg.   

Drink in a cozy place with a good book.  Take time to enjoy. 

How To Make Lefse (Norwegian Flatbread)

My Norwegian prince charming took me to Epcot for my 30th birthday (if you've never been, you need to go).

The second we walked into the Norwegian bakery, Matt's eyes lit up when he saw lefse (I had never heard of lefse before Epcot).  Matt's grandmother used to make large batches of lefse when he was young.  His Grandma Evy used to feed him lefsa when he was only 9 months old!  This is Matt enjoying the Epcot Lefse.  He was going down memory lane.  I had to get photos of him savoring the lefse.   

I thought lefse was just a tortilla, but I was very wrong.  Now I've learned how to make it, I will share with you the art of making lefse with you.  

I would highly recommend using a pastry cloth and a rolling pin cover.  You will be able to roll it out thinner and it won't stick as easy.   

The make lefse, you will need:

3 cups, riced potatoes

3/4 cup, white flour 

1 Tbs. vegetable shortening

sugar

salt

Peel and cube the potatoes.

 Place them in a pot with water.  Heat the water and potatoes together.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium heat.

Keep the potatoes on medium heat until they are fork tender (about 25 min.)

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain the water and let them cool down.

Mash the potatoes through a wire strainer to make riced potatoes.  They have a tool called a "Potato Ricer," but this is what I had in my kitchen. Sorry for the terrible photo.  My hands were a mess and it was bad lighting.  You get the idea.  The potatoes become fluffy and smooth.  Makes the best mashed potatoes ever! :)

Measure out 3 cups of the smooth and creamy potatoes and put in a big mixing bowl.  

pour in the melted vegetable shortening.

Sift in the flour

 sugar

 and salt.

Mix everything together and form a big ball.  

From that big ball roll out 30, 1-1/2 inch balls. 

 Lay out the pastry cloth and put the cloth cover on your rolling pin.  You will want to make sure the pastry cloth and rolling pin cloth is covered in a nice layer of flour.  Once the dough sticks to your pastry cloth, you will need to get out a new one.  Just make sure you have plenty of flour to prevent that from happening. 

Put a greased flat pan on medium-low heat.

Roll out the 1-1/2" lefse so it's paper thin.  This photo is a little dark, but you get the gist.

Use a lefse stick to pick the lefse off the pastry cloth.

Carefully lay it down on the heated pan.

The lefse is ready to turn when it is no longer transparent. 

Take off the stove and repeat until you've made the whole batch.   

You will need to clean the flour off the pan a couple of times or else you will have burnt flour flavored lefse.  :)  You don't want that.  

It is not a quick process to make lefse, but it is so rewarding once you get that paper thin delicious flatbread.  

    You can roll it up with cinnamon and sugar butter, or homemade jam.  

Use your imagination.  You'll feel like you've gone back in time while making this Norwegian flatbread.  Have fun!

Grab-and-Go Pancake Muffins (vegan)

I am such a breakfast girl, but don't always have time in the mornings make a good breakfast.  Today I decided to prepare my breakfasts for the week.  These pancake muffins are super easy, delicious and fluffy! 

This is what you will need:

1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
1 eggless egg
1 1/2 cups soy milk
If you want to spruce them up a little, add 1 ripe mashed banana and 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Greased muffin pan
freezer baggies for storage

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, then mix in the wet.  Fold in the mashed banana and chocolate chips.  Don't over-mix.

Grease your pan.

Scoop in the batter so the muffin tins are about 3/4  full. 

Place in 350F oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until you slide a toothpick in and it comes out clean.

Carefully take the muffins out of their baking pan and let them cool.  

While mine were cooling, I had to do a taste test. :) 

Yep. they're good! 

Put two muffins per bag, or how many you want for breakfast.

Place those small bags in a large freezer safe Ziplock bag and put in the freezer.  When you want to grab one out for breakfast, throw them in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until they are warm and enjoy!

Quiet Time In American Fork Canyon

Today I went up American Fork Canyon to get some peace and quiet.  The peace ended with a frantic mom yelling for her son to get out of the canyon road, but it was really nice up until then. :)  Do you remember when you were a kid and the days seemed to never end?  Well today is one of those days.  These days don't come often enough!  

While I was laying in my hammock eating homemade truffle popcorn with Dorothy, I wrote this in my journal.  

"As I'm laying in my hammock secured to two trees, I can feel the mountain breeze gently pull the stress out of me.  

I'm swaying back and forth feeling the tension release with every swing.

Off in the distance, birds are dancing in the tree tops.  The river is gracefully dancing.  The leaves are singing a song to me.

Makes me think of the quote by John Muir: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  For natures peace will...."

A little boy just ran into the road and a frantic mom is screaming and running after him.  She let him go on his own for about ten minutes and when she went to look for him she found him playing in the road.  She is yelling at him while he slowly walks behind her with his head hung low.

I am super distracted now so I'm going to tat."

Take some time to relax in nature.  There's nothing quite like it! 
What a perfect day.  Once I got home from the canyon, Matt and I had veggie burgers with spicy sweet potato fries and sweet sun tea. 

We ate out on the back patio.  What a beautiful evening!

How To Brew Sweet Mint Sun Tea

I love sweet sun tea.  It's a perfect refreshing drink in the summer and is so easy to make.  

You will need: 
Glass container for brewing tea
6 cups filtered water
3 tea bags (black tea)
3-4 stems of fresh mint
1/2 cup simple syrup
Lemon for garnishing your cup
Gather stems of fresh mint leaves.  You can get mint at the grocery store also or opt out of the mint.

Washed and pull off the broken leaves.

Fill up the glass container with fresh filtered water, and add the mint and tea bags.  Set outside for the remainder of the day.   Make sure it gets a lot of sunlight.  

This is what it looks like after nine hours of brewing in the sun.  

Bring the tea inside.  Take out all but one mint stem and all the tea bags. 

Make the simple syrup.  
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Cook on medium high heat for about 3 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved.  Stir continuously to prevent burning.  
Add the simple syrup. 
Add lemon slices and ice to your drinking glass.
 If you add the lemon to the brewing tea, it will make the tea bitter.

Pour the sun tea and enjoy!

If you want your tea to be stronger, put it in the fridge over night and skip the ice.  I couldn't wait to drink it, so I had to add the ice. 
The tea turned out perfect, and is not bitter.
Have fun and enjoy!