Asparagus Cashew Stir-Fry

This dish was pretty scrumptious! It is a nice meal that you can make vegetarian with tofu or with any type of tasty meat you wish. It is very flavorful and depending your taste... you may want to substitute more garlic for the ginger. I don't mind ginger but its kinda strong. It's bright and colorful and the cashews make the meal a tasty treat.

Serves 4 

Time: Varies between 30-45 minutes

Ingredients:

Soy-Ginger Sauce
2 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 ½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger or replace it for garlic
1 teaspoon sesame oil or wok oil (any other oil will work too but its not as tasty)
¼ red pepper flakes, or to taste dash of ground pepper

To Complete Recipe:
2 tablespoons oil
3 cups asparagus cut into 2-inch lengths
4 medium scallions (green onion) coarsely cut
1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic (if you want less garlic that works too)
1 cup raw cashews

Directions:
Cook rice (rice takes about 20-45 min. depending of type of rice) or you can start boiling your water for noodles

Sauce: Stir together the water and cornstarch in a medium bow until smooth. Whisk in the vegetable stock, soy sauce, ginger-garlic, oil, and pepper flakes; set aside.

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large nonstick skillet or a wok over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and brown for about 1 minute. This is the time to add any meat you want let it cook until almost done. Add asparagus, scallions, bell pepper. Cook stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender.

Reduce head to medium. Stir the sauce mixture; pour it over the vegetables and stir gently for about 1 minute or until it is thickened and bubbly. The last 5 minutes or so you can add the tofu (if added before it will crumble apart). Lastly, fold in the cashews.

Serve stir-fry mixture over rice or noodles.

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Discovery Park—Seattle Adventure!

 
This weekend we decided to take advantage of our nice weather.  We were going to Seattle for a birthday party later in the evening and so we decided to go and check out a new park beforehand.  We looked on Google and saw Discovery Park.  We noticed it had a beach, and some neat looking hiking trails.

We wandered around and found a nice sandy patch to relax and people watch.  It’s amazing how different Seattle parks are from Bellingham parks.  In Seattle there are people EVERYWHERE!!!  It can be fun for a while, but Matt and I prefer quiet solitude compared to annoying college students using drift wood as drumsticks!! HAHA

  I found some pretty beach glass to add to my collection.  Some day I am going to learn how to do something cool with the 3,948,239,847 pieces I have!!! Haha!  I really want to learn how to make earrings with all the cool pieces I have.  We also saw pretty sail boats with their bright colored Spinnakers.  The Olympics were out and the sun felt SOOOOOOO good!

Samoa Girl Scout Cookies

I Love, LOVE,  LOVE! Samoa Girl Scout cookies!!!! Every spring when the girl scouts come out and sell their delectable cookies I always cave in and end up buying the ridiculously expensive box of Samoa cookies! I was browsing through some recipes online and found this cookie recipe and couldn’t pass it up! I ended up making them into bars, which is much speedier than the cookie version! The coconut caramel mixture is good and the melted chocolate is also pretty tasty!

Oven Temp: 300 @ first to brown coconut then 350 to bake cookies

Bake time 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:

Cookie Base:

• 1 cup of butter

• ½ cup sugar

• 2 cups flour

• ¼ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp salt

• ½ tsp vanilla extract

• About 2 tbsp of milk

Cookie Topping:

• 3 cups of shredded coconut (sweetened)

• 12 ounces of good chewy caramel (I used Werther’s soft caramels but most any will do)

• ¼ tsp of salt

• 3 tbsp milk

• 8 oz of chocolate chips ( semi or milk work just fine)

• 2 tsp of milk to help keep chocolate from getting to hard

Cookie Base

1. In a bowl cream together butter and sugar. Slowly mix in flour, baking powder and salt.

2. Next stir in vanilla and milk, adding the milk in as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky. The dough should come together into a soft not really sticky ball. You can add extra flour if your dough is too sticky.

3. Roll your dough out in batches (2-3 batches). You can roll between pieces of wax paper to make it about ¼ inch thick. Use a 1 ½ inch round cookie cutter to make your rounds. Place it on wax paper. You can use a knife or something smaller to make the center hole.

4. Bake cookies 10-12 minutes until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. Let cool

Cookie topping:

1. While making cookies Preheat oven to 300 and put coconut in a pan to brown. Toast for about 15-20 minutes and stirring it about every 3-5 minutes, until coconut is golden brown. Set aside and let cool in baking sheet

2. Unwrap caramels and place in large microwave safe bowl. Add milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes and stopping it to stir it up a few times to help the caramel melt and mix in the milk evenly. When it is smooth fold in toasted coconut with spatula. You will want to wait for this until you know most of your cookies are cooled off. If you need to you can reheat caramel mixture in the microwave.

3. Once when caramel is soft take about 2-3 teaspoons of caramel to put on the cookies.

4. While letting the topping on the cookie cool off melt chocolate in a small bowl. I added about 2 teaspoons of milk to the chocolate so when it cools it won’t be hard as rock!

5. Transfer remaining chocolate into a Ziploc bag. Snip the corner off and drizzle chocolate on the finished cookies.

If you want to make these into bars, all you do is roll out the dough onto a cookie sheet with wax paper. Let it bake until golden brown. Take the caramel topping and use a spatula to spread across. Cut with a pizza cutter to sizes you want. After it cools top with chocolate and if you want dip the bottom in chocolate!

Enjoy!!! These are highly addicting and yummy!

(pictures courtesy of bakingbites.com)

Winter Hike to Sauk Mountain

Over President’s Day weekend we decided to take an adventure to Sauk Mountain. I was super excited test out my snowshoes I got from Matt’s family for Christmas! We were hoping for somewhat decent weather; however, when it was time to get up we woke up to a torrential downpour of rain! Ugh! I don’t like being wet.

Thanks to our lovely presence of our “Dear Friend” El Nino, we have had one of the worst winters for snow! Last year we had snow coming out of our ears at this time! Unlike last year, we were able to drive up to 3,500 feet (about 1.25 miles from the trail head)!!! If were going there at this time last year you wouldn’t have even been able to get off the main highway onto the forest road! That is 7 miles from the trail head!

Our friends Matt and Crystal joined us and then at the trail Grant and his roommates met up with us. Matt and Matt skinned up and Crystal and I snowshoed up. Once when we started hiking up the weather tried to clear up. We were hoping for some view at the trail head. Sauk Mountain is pretty steep so Crystal and I on our snowshoes were not able to go very far because of the steep avalanche fields. We found a cozy spot to sit and enjoy the fading view of the Skagit River and watched the boys ski down the hill. Grant and his roommates made a jump and it was entertaining to watch them jump off it. I must say it looked like it hurt! You wouldn’t catch me jumping of sketchy a stump, that’s for sure!

Cake Batter Cookies With Colorful Frosting (Easy!!)

This recipe is super easy and scrumptious! Let’s just say that I am a sucker for things on sale. :) When I see things that I like or see that I could use, I buy a few and store them away until I need them. At times is comes in handy, but there are times where things just sit in my cabinets! This recipe was spurred because I had too many cake mixes in my kitchen! They are like sugar cookies but they are really moist and addicting! Keleen, they remind me of the cookies you buy in the summer from Fred Meyer with the delicious frosting that is caked on the top!

Preheat oven to: 350 degrees

Bake for: 15 minutes

Makes: About 4 dozen

Decorating: Varies in length depending how adventurous you are!



Ingredients:



• 1 package of cake mix. Any flavor will do. I usually use the Funfetti cake mix, its colors are fun!

• 1 large egg

• ¼ cup of oil

• ¼ cup of water

• 2 containers of vanilla frosting

• Various food colorings for cookies

Directions:

1. Put cake mix in a large bowl and add the water, oil and egg. Stir until well blended. (I always use my kitchen aid, but hand mixing works just as well!)

2. Drop a teaspoon of the mix down on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. ( I usually drop them in rows of 3 and columns of 3)

3. Bake them anywhere between 10-15 minutes. My oven is kind of sketch, so for you it might be more in the time of 15 minutes. But check them at around 10 minutes just incase!

4. Let them cool and then decorate as you so desire! I used stared tips with my cake decorating bags. It took a long time but the outcome is beautiful! :)

Devilishly Delicious Vegan Pumpkin Bread

OMG!!! This is the best pumpkin bread I have ever sunk my teeth into! I was a tad bit skeptical about this recipe, but I was absolutely stunned about how delicious this bread was! It makes about two loafs and let me tell you they are addicting! Here is the recipe:

Prep Time: 5 min.                          Cook Time: 1h 15min                       Makes: 2 8x4 loafs

Oven Set: 350 degrees

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped walnuts (if desired)
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or any cinnamon & nutmeg mixture)
• 2 cups pumpkin puree (or one can of pumpkin pie filling like Libby’s)
• ¾ cup of apple sauce
• ¼ cup of oil (I used vegetable oil)
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup flaked coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.

2. Spread walnuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking sheet. Toast in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, salt, Pumpkin Pie spice (cinnamon/nutmeg mixture). Add the pumpkin puree, oil, and coconut milk, and mix until all of the flour is absorbed. Fold in the flaked coconut and toasted walnuts. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.

4. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven, and cover loaves tightly with foil. Allow to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil, and turn out onto a cooling rack. Tent loosely with the foil, and allow to cool completely.

I hope you like it as much as Matt and I did!!!!

Foodie Thought

This past month Matt and I decided to embark on a new food journey! We were getting bored of our current dinner situation. So we decided to mix it up a bit! Every week we have a goal of eating at least one vegetarian and vegan meal a week.


I thought, "Hey why not?!?" We wanted to have more meals from different countries and I’ve noticed that many cultures are vegetarian. It makes us learn new foods from different cultures and it also helps us become more health conscious eaters. To our great surprise, this transition has not killed us! From eating meat at almost every meal to cutting that out at least by twice a week it really has been quite enjoyable!

I have never bought so many vegetables in my life!!!! There are many I have never tried before and we are using things such as nuts & tofu in lots of our meals! Since we have embarked on this food journey, we have enjoyed vegetarian meals so much that we have them more than once a week!!! The vegan meals may be a different story… I’m hoping we can keep that one up, but it’s a hard one to keep up!

Welcome to our blog of Adventures, Food, and Crafts!

Ever since I've moved out to my first house, I have been cooking and baking things that people always want the recipe for.  Today, is the day where it will be easy for me and others to get my recipes, to see the adventures Matt, Callie and I take, and lastly to see all of the crafty things the two of us crazy cats think up!

I am hoping this is something I can keep up and hoping that people find it enjoying & interesting! 

<3 Kayla, Matt & Callie