Yumm Sauce & Bowl!

I just love cooking simple & colorful dishes! Bowls are one of my favorite things to eat (sounds weird, but hopefully you know what I mean! lol). The combinations are endless, but I'm going to share with you the bowl (and sauce) I made tonight.

In Oregon there is a very small chain of resturanuts called Cafe Yumm. I have to say right now, I've actually never been to one! lol! A location recently opened in Portland though, so SOON I'm going to check it out!

I found out about Yumm when I was browsing sauces at Whole Food's looking for something yummy to add to a rice bowl dish. I saw the Yumm sauce, the name sounded cute, it looked tasty, and so I tried it! Mmm, it was love at first bite! It's creamy, spiced but not hot and very refreshing tasting. The jarred sauce was a bit spendy though, and since I like to cook I thought I'd scour the internets for a recipe.

I found this, and with only a couple of minor tweaks it became perfection!

Ingredients
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almonds (I chopped them roughly before adding)*
1/3 cup nutritional yeast (must be nutritional, not bread or brewers yeast)
1/2 cup garbanzo beans
1/2 cup silken tofu (the original recipe called for soybeans)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 garlic clove
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
dash of dried basil, or several fresh basil leaves

*if you can find it, you can use almond flour for a smoother sauce. Or pre-grind the almonds until they are almost powder.

Dump everything into the food processor and whirl away until relatively smooth! 

Mmm, lookin tasty! You should end up with your sauce looking something like this...

This sauce works great on rice bowls, over eggs, as a salad dressing, veggie dip, sandwich spread... it's very versatile! Be sure to make this ahead of time, because it needs at least an hour in the fridge to let the flavors mingle. You can also add water if you feel it's too thick, but I like it like that.

I used my freshly made sauce to create a classic Yumm Bowl (with added eggs as per my daughters request).

My Yumm Bowl Recipe 

Cooked rice (any kind you like, this time we used Basmati, reg. white or brown rice works great too)

Black beans

Scrambled eggs

Grated cheddar cheese

Sliced olives

Diced avocado

Pico de Gallo salsa

Yumm Sauce

Sour cream

First cook your rice. While that's going I get the rest of the ingredients ready. Slice the olives, dice the avocado, scramble the eggs and grate the cheese. Once the rice is ready, assemble in any order you like, and chow down! 

If you try this recipe, let me know how you liked it! I think it works equally well on cold & hot days, it takes minimal prep (which I love) and travels well to work too! Enjoy!

Heartsy!

I'm so happy with my Heartsy experience! They were an awesome group to work with, I gave my customers a GREAT deal, and hopefully earned some new business in the process!

It was a great experience, and if you're looking for some exposure, new customers, or just want to give your customers a great deal, check out Heartsy!

I also made my first Heartsy purchase, and I'm so excited about it! Now I'm checking out Heartsy almost every day to see what new deals they've got.

Thanks again Heartsy! <3

Lots of new goodies!

Hi all :)

I've got lots of new goodies in the shop, & coming your way soon! First up, new face care products! I have a new cleansing face scrub, made with creamy whipped soap, camellia seed oil, vit e, and scrubby apricot kernel seeds and adzuki bean powder!

I've also added organic essential oils of lavender & tea tree to help heal and balance troubled complexions.

Next up I've got 2 new DRY face masks. First, Chocoholic's Therapy!

Made with real dark cocoa powder, kaolin clay and creamy coconut milk powder! This is formulated for most all skin types!

Next DRY face mask is Revitalizing Papaya!

Perhaps for most all skin types, but especially beneficial for oily and problem skin! Made with real papaya extract and creamy coconut milk for a skin pampering experience!

Check out the shop to see all my new products! Take care lovelies & hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Cooking 101

Hi everyone!

So this post will be a bit of a departure from the norm around here. I usually talk about my soaping adventures (or disasters! lol), my Etsy shop and product ideas and so on. Today I'm going to post about... food!

I don't necessarily consider myself a foodie (well... maybe just a little bit, lol) and I've never had any formal training, I just love to cook! I like experimenting, and I'll often just make things up as I go along. I understand that can be hard for people who feel they can't cook, but it's honestly very easy.

Unless this begins to take over, I'm planning on writing foodie posts every so often. I like sharing my food pictures on my Facebook, and I thought hey... why not share recipes too!

A couple of my fav ways to create dinners are "bowls" or "fancy salads" ... this is also a great way to get kids to eat loads of veggies I've found!

With a bowl, it usually starts with rice (sometimes noodles) then I add a variety of things, depending on what's in the fridge. Chopped tomatoes, chopped avocado, grated cheddar, varies salsas, black beans, grilled chicken, fresh cilantro, broccoli florets, red onion... as you can see, the combinations are virtually endless! It's yummy, satisfying and can be eaten hot or cold. Mmm!

Fancy salad is my fav lunch, or hot summer day dinner... starts with various lettuce and spinach leaves. Next add any combination of the following .... chopped tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced hard boiled egg, grated cheddar, blue cheese crumbles, crumbled bacon, grilled chicken strips, mini corn (Is that what it's really called? I'm not sure.. lol), sliced olives, various salsas, black beans, crutons, and any dressing you like. This also makes a super satisfying meal, and is very filling! Sorry, no pics of the fancy salad at this time... we always devour them, and then I think... oops, forgot to snap a pic! Oh well, next time!

If there's interest in learning my recipes and cooking style, I might make a separate blog for that. For now, enjoy and if you try a yummy bowl, or fancy salad, let me know!

Soaping Disaster!

Oh man I had a soaping disaster last night! lol It's funny now, but wow was I feeling frustrated last night!

First, I haven't soaped in a couple of weeks. I've been busy with the start of the new school term, and then I've been sick, and felt too weak and dizzy to try and soap. Over the weekend I began feeling much better, so last night I got out my equipment and began.

I decided to make Honeysuckle soap, since honeysuckle and lilac got the votes on my scent poll. :o) First disaster, I spilled the bottle of fragrance. On the kitchen floor. It smells faintly floral in there now. ha!

So I grabbed the bottle of lilac fragrance, and violet soap coloring and got to work. On a whim (never a good idea once the soap is cooking!) I decided to add titanium dioxide to the batch, to hopefully, give it a more pastel look.

Second mistake! This caused my soap to heat up so fast, and become a thick, pasty mess that when I tried to add my color it didn't want to incorporate. Grrr.

All in all, the soap got into the mold, smelling like lovely lilac, but looking rather like .... mud. lol

We shall see, colors often change slowly over a period of days/weeks so it may turn out all right yet. Fingers crossed! If the color does NOT pretty up, then I'll offer this soap at a discount, it smells great, and will work just wonderfully, it just won't be so pretty to look at. lol

I think I'll soap another Spring/Summer scent today, maybe Blue Hawaii! Mmmm, I love that fragrance. :)

Fingers crossed no disasters this time!

Giveaway over on Little Chief Honeybee!

Go check it out! Kaelah is having a giveaway on her blog LittleChiefHoneybee and she's giving away a really cool, Lomography fisheye camera! It takes amazing looking photos! Check out her blog for a couple examples! :) If you have a minute, follow her blog and enter the contest! You won't be sorry, her blog is the cutest! 


Talk to ya later friends! 

Hello friends!

My poor neglected blog! lol I had some good posts planned, and then wow I got busy! I guess that happens! Sorry blog. *sad face*

I'm just heading into finals week, so I probably won't be back here until after that! But, when I do, I think it's time for another contest!! I tried doing one on Facebook, and well... it didn't go so well! LOL

I do have plans for some lovely Spring products, as well as plans to expand my hair care line, with more scents, and a couple new products. Yay!

I mentioned this on Facebook, but I also have plans for a Princess style line of goodies. *grin* I saw Marie Antoinette (with Kirsten Dunst) and just loved it! All the beautiful colors and frills and girly-ness was just inspiring! So stay tuned for that! *wink*

Also Mother's Day gift ideas will be popping up soon as well!

Take care everyone & see ya after finals!