How Do You Say It?

We had an experimental food day today with the Italian pasta knowkee nokey gnocchi... there we go... Rahel decided last week that she wanted to try it out, and it seemed easy enough, so Caleigh and I joined in. Rahel found an easy recipe here, and away we went.

Rahel decided that baking the potatoes would take too long (we were all hungry!) so we decided to boil them instead. As soon as they were done we smashed them up with a fork.

Then we added the flour, olive oil, and salt, and added some garlic powder just for fun. After some back-breaking work kneading the dough, we rolled it out and cut it into little pieces.  

Then we rolled it over the end of a fork to give it some shape. 

Boiling the pastas came next. When they came out of the pot they looked a wee bit soggy. Oh, well. First try, right?

The final product tasted wonderful, I think. I'm not really sure what gnocchi is supposed to taste like. We had lots of fun making them, though!

~ Karly

You know you like peanut butter cookies.

So this afternoon I convinced my boss that I should try out some peanut butter cookies. This is what we made: 

First we made beautiful fluffy gluten free peanut butter cookies. 

(for any of you gluten-freers, you know that's a miracle)

Next because the last ones tasted so delicious, we decided to try our hand at making cookies without a recipe. We also decided to make these one sugar free. Extra healthy! We dumped, poured, added a little of this, and a bit of that. They were looking great but the consistency was a little glutenous. We continued wondering what was wrong. Then it hit me--we forgot the baking powder! Oops, too late now. So they turned out little peanut butter gluten steaks. Yuck! 

Not wanting to end on a bad note, we decided to make one more batch. Practice makes perfect right? These, non-gluten free and non-sugar free. Just normal, yummy peanut butter cookies.  

Don't you crave some peanut butter cookies now?     

                                                                                                           ~ Rahel

Today was a banner day!

Krista was trying to think of creative ideas for her senior pictures: everyone has done the jumping, pensive thinker, and running through an orchard shirtless poses before. So what should she do to avoid the "poser" look? Make a banner to hold!

Enter the ADRA bin: where everyone dumps their unwanted everythings.

A few trips later, she was well stocked with 3 cute swatches of fabric. One corner cut from a fitted sheet, one snipping from a flat sheet, the bottom of both leg part of pajama pants plus a tank top just in case we ran out of fabric.

Whitney cut out 12 triangles of fabric plus A,C,F,L,O,S,S,0,1,2,4. Can you guess what that spells?

When you don't have the right color fabric, just color it!

We'll keep you posted if she actually uses it for her pictures.

Life Lesson #1

Ever treated cough drops like candy?
Never try it if you haven't.

I'll stand corrected if someone can prove to me that some cough drops taste decent, but NEVER suck on a cough drop if your palate is craving candy and you're not sick.

See, cough drops are intended to coat the throat and obviously the mouth. If your throat needs no soothing, don't try to soothe it.

The drop of doom ended up tasting like unripe fruit that makes your mouth pucker and you feel like you got dry cotton stuck to your throat.

Poor Whitney.

She couldn't handle the new consistency in her mouth.

"So gross!"

"It's good for you!" *pat on the head*

The feeling doesn't go away even after you eat the BEST Lindt Dark Chili Chocolate.
Let me repeat: the feeling doesn't go away.

Rahel LOVED the cough drops until the next morning when she woke up with a tickly throat.

(Full Disclosure: Whitney spit the candy out as soon as Rahel left the room.)

Vegan Sweet Potato Risotto

Sweet potato soup was our goal.
The sweet potatoes were perfectly cooked, and we just wanted to add a little rice for texture variety.
As we went to add it, the whole pot of rice fell in, sending soup flying all over the kitchen and us.
Good thing it was a small pot of rice.
We love rice, so we embraced it.
Then we tasted the soup--BLAND.
No wonder babies spit out their food.

Emilie brilliantly offered to bring a can of mock duck--the PERFECT solution!
So we just kept adding stuff and it turned out more like risotto.
Oh well, at least it tasted good.

Here's the recipe:

• 7 small sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1 tablespoon miso paste
• 3 tablespoons of Korean pepper paste
• 1 can vegetarian mock duck, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Place sweet potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Cover and boil for 20 minutes or until soft enough to smash.
2. Drain some of the water and smash sweet potatoes. Blend if a smoother consistency is desired.
3. Add remaining ingredients and stir until warmed through. 
4. Serve!

This recipe can serve as an appetizer for 7 girls.

Lazy Sundays

So today we slept in. 

And then we ate all day.

 

It all started with the sweet potato donuts. 

Flaxseed makes everything healthy, right? 

 Then it was the sweet potato soup risotto.

The spice didn't agree with Elise.

 Amanda made cupcakes and we tagged along. 

 Rahel was excited to say the least. 

The pan tells the story of this superb lasagna...

...and we're still eating....

Meet us!

Whitney: The sweet potato lover. 

Krista: The short and sweet one.

Tristha: The absent author. (We haven't told her yet!)

Karly: The sophisticated smarty.

Caleigh: The stylish little one.

Elise: The tough and tender one.

Rahel: The colorful character.

Emilie: The princess.