Daniel Fast Whole Wheat Drop Biscuits

I tried to modify a vegan biscuit recipe to make it Daniel Fast friendly. This obviously makes them less fluffy, but the Tapioca flour/starch is key to making it more like a biscuit and less like a rock! This recipe makes biscuits that are crunchy on the outside and a bit doughy in the middle. For a little less moisture, you could another 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, or make smaller biscuits.

There would have been more in the picture, but they smelled so good, I ate them...

Ingredients:
1 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 Cup Oat Flour
1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch/Flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp Olive Oil
1 cup almond milk

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees
2. Mix flours and salt in a bowl
3. Add the olive oil, and stir with a fork until crumbly
4. Add 1 cup of milk and stir until just mixed
5. Drop onto a baking stone, or pan with parchment paper
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until light brown

Makes 6 Biscuits

They tasted like fresh whole wheat bread! I was kind of surprised that this more or less worked the first time I tried it! Obviously they aren't your mama's biscuits, but they are nice for feeling a little more full on the Daniel Fast, plus, they are way healthier than normal biscuits.

Daniel Fast Adventure #1 - Miso Soup with Spinach and Kale Salad

I've always wanted to make miso soup. It's one of the few soups my husband actually likes, and in this cold weather, soup is an absolute must. I felt like it was the perfect recipe for our first dinner after starting our Daniel Fast.

I decided to combine this recipe: http://veganyackattack.com/2012/11/13/mushroom-onion-miso-soup/and this one: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/miso-soup/ to create a miso soup that was more to my liking.

I personally like to take recipes and adapt and change them as I see fit. I'm sure you'll do the same. I've even made the recipe flexible in the ingredients listed below:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 package of silken tofu, diced
4 cups miso broth and 3 cups water OR 7 cups water and 3tbs miso paste
4 green onions, sliced or chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
1tsp sesame oil
2 cups kale, spinach or seaweed mixture  (I used kale and spinach as the store had no seaweed at the time)
2 cups mushrooms, sliced (I used Monterrey Mushrooms, only because they were half the price of Shitake mushrooms)

I bought all of my ingredients at Sprouts. You really can't beat their prices when it comes to farmer's market grade quality. 2 hours were spent in that store and I enjoyed every minute of it. Gotta check those labels when you're doing a Daniel Fast! (That said, I might have cheated a little bit....) I also bought some of their Fruit and Veggie Wash.

One of my students did a science project about Fruit and Veggie wash, and I was convinced. Don't even get me started on the one that kept a McDonald's Cheeseburger for 30 days without it rotting a single bit. That's part of why I'm trying to eat healthier!

Full disclosure: The Miso Broth pictured does contain cane sugar. The store did not have miso, so I was stuck buying this. I would have rather done things a bit more authentically, but all of their other miso replacement products seemed less healthy than this one. Next time I will go somewhere else to look for miso.

Directions:
1. Place the both types of onions into a large pot over medium heat, along with the 2 tbsp. of water and cover with lid. If the onions start to stick to the pan, add the olive oil one tbsp at a time. Stir the onions every 2-3 minutes and add the garlic in once they start to turn clear.

2. After roughly 7-8 minutes, add the mushrooms to the pan and cover with lid, stirring occasionally until they reduce in size and become soft.

It smells AMAZING at this point, just sayin'.

 3. Carefully pour the miso broth (or 7 cups of water and miso paste) into the pot. Cover with lid and bring to a simmer over low-medium heat for 10 minutes.

4. Add the seaweed or kale and,tofu pieces and sesame oil, stirring until mixed and warm.

Tofu looks so weird

Pretty yummy! Husband approved, too!

For the salad, I used the leftover pieces of the kale/seaweed mix and I cut up some peppers. I mixed a little olive oil and sesame seed oil and garlic powder for a simple salad dressing. It was yummy. I may even use more sesame oil if I do it again.

What I would do differently:
If I made this again, I would definitely find real miso, chopped the onions into smaller pieces, and try and find seaweed. I'll post again if I repeat the recipe with a variation!

What a New Year Brings

I have a few goals for 2014. I wouldn't really call them New Year's resolutions, but there are some things I have been wanting to do or planning, and many of them are going to happen in 2014! Not all dollar store related, but I figured I might as well throw in a few person touches on this blog and it might transform a little along the way.

1. Run a 5K
I did a 5K fun run before, but I did no training, ran for about a mile or so and then felt like death walking the rest of it. I actually want to train for a 5K and run the whole thing. I've never been much of a runner. I basically hate running and have no desire to do it at all, but I need some sort of fitness goal, and if training for this gives me a goal, then I will get in better shape along the way. I also want to get back into Pilates, which I love. My husband is all for this one. He ran when he was in Middle and High School a little bit, and he definitely thinks we should get our butt off the couch a little more. We did a little running before the Christmas holidays, but now that the busy season is over, we can get back in gear.

2. The Daniel Fast
If you don't know what the Daniel Fast is, read more about it on the website, here: www.daniel-fast.com
It is basically vegan diet with even MORE restrictions. The idea comes from the book of Daniel in the Bible. To most people, this is a 21 day fast, but of course I have to be different. For me, this is to have more of a lifestyle change in my diet by eating only healthy foods for 4 out of 7 days a week. The plan is to eat vegan-extreme Tuesday - Friday and then unrestrict myself Saturday-Monday. That said, I'm not going to go crazy on the weekend just because I can. I simply know that if I did such a limited diet all the time, I would be more likely to cheat and give up than if I had some built in cheats. It will simply be a time to add in meat and bread, and is more convenient on days that I know I'll be eating out or eating with my husband's family (which we do every Monday).

Both of these first two goals I feel very spiritually convicted about. I've been a lazy, idle, and gluttonous person very often in my life, and it doesn't honor God. I feel a very real confirmation that this is from him and he is going to bless it. Hopefully that helps me keep going. As this is going on, I also plan to study the words of Jesus daily; really prayerfully consider the words he spoke, and what they mean for then and now.

3. Travel. lots of travel
The hubs and I want to take a big vacation before we have children, and we've decided on Italy. He's been there before (as well as pretty much all over Western Europe), but I've never been anywhere outside of North America. It's really exciting for me. We will go in the summer, since I teach. We know it's the busy season, but it can't be helped. Now that it's the year of the trip, we are going to start planning, and I'm really excited about that process.

I'm also going to be visiting Washington D.C. as a sponsor for a school trip. The awesome thing is, if 10 or more kids participate, I don't have to pay a cent for anything. I haven't been to D.C. in over 10 years, before their was a World War II memorial, so I'm really excited.

We have a tentative plan to visit Las Vegas over a long weekend during my Spring Break as a sort of anniversary/just for fun trip. We don't gamble, but I've been wanting to see Cirque du Solei's LOVE (their Beatles' show). Now that Britney Spears has a residency there, we might have to check that out, too.