Happy Birthday CANADA!!!

Considering that rain was predicted, we had a fabulous day! The sun even made a few appearances for time to time. I lazed around in bed until 8:30 before I decided to get up for some food. I enjoyed my favourite combination of flavours, to boot!

• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
• cinnamon, vanilla, salt
• banana
• PB2
• carob chips
• sprinkle of Dorset cereal

Yummy in my tummy! And yes, it tasted as good as it looks!

After some internet time I decided to bake some treats. I’ve been meaning to transform my favourite vegan cookie (cherry pistachio) that I buy at the market all the time into a treat that I can make at home simply. I fiddled with a biscuit recipe and the finished product was stellar! It’s kind of a cross between a cookie and a biscuit.

Cherry Pistachio “Cookies”

• 1.5 cups oats
• 2/3 cup Bisquick
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tsp light margarine (I used Becel)
• 2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup shelled pistachios

Glaze

• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• just enough USAB to thin it out

1. Pre heat oven to 400*
2. combine first 7 ingredients
3. Fold in cherries and pistachios
4. form into 8 “balls” and place on greased baking sheet
5. Bake for 17-20 minutes
6. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over top of cookies once cooled

Stats courtesy of Spark People Recipes;

Calories	190.7
Fat	6.3g
Fibre	2.9g
Protein	4.2

I’m quite satisfied with the way these babies turned out. The only thing I would do differently next time is make them smaller so the recipe yields more yumminess. I also whipped up a batch of rice crispy treats using a 1/4 cup butter (melt in a big pot), a small bag of mini marshmallows (stir into butter until smooth), 2 tsbp chocolate PB2 (stir into melted marshmallows) 1 cup puffed wheat, 1 cup puffed millet, 1/2 cup 3 Sisters Honey Oaties (combine with melted goodness in pot). Press the mixture into an 8 x 8 greased pan and let cool in the fridge before cutting into 9 squares.

When I got the kitchen cleaned up I took advantage of the dry (er) weather to get all the weeding done in my backyard flower beds and veggie garden. That took a wee bit longer than I expected which made lunch later than I had intended. I wasn’t starving so I made my favourite summer salad which is VERY easy to do. I chopped up a red, yellow and kumato tomato into a bowl, added some chopped up feta cheese and sprinkled with salt and pepper. That’s it!

Now you all know my favourite way to eat tomatoes! I ate one of the above cookies and a small piece of crispy treat, too. I had to make sure they were edible! :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent puttering around outside and relaxing. At 3:30 I popped a pork roast in the oven with some carrots and onions. One hour later a sweet potato joined the party and 45 minutes later dinner was served. I used some of Ruth’s mole sauce as a dipper for the pork and the carrots. T’was very good! Thanks, Ruth!

I ate some camera shy ginger chocolate for dessert as well. I really like that combination.

We may go see the fireworks later on tonight. It all depends if the rain holds off. We had a bit of a shower an hour ago which has since stopped, but they sky is still pretty dark. I’ll leave you tonight with some pictures of my furry boys, Octavius, Charlie and Pepper;

My cutie patooties!

Bye for now!!