“Walkin’ on Elf-shine”

Gosh, Y’all! It’s March already and we are thinking spring stuffs, green stuffs, and songs about spring to keep that spirit goin’. Katrina and The Waves “Walking on Sunshine” is one of the top 15 songs about spring, so we co-opted it for The Elf. Today is one of those days that you just LOVE—sunshine and low 70’s! It doesn’t get any better.

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We want to report right off the bat about the FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe we selected to try this past week…the Guacamole Potato Skins. 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2016/02/guacamole-potato-skins.html

 The Elf wrote Susan when we made these to tell her how AWESOME they were!! They are actually listed as an appetizer or finger food but we ate them like a side dish! We had very few left over, maybe 8 skins (4 potatoes). AND! The next morning, the container with the remaining 8 skins only held 3! Somebody got a cravin’ flung on ‘em during the night, it appeared.  Anyway, these are SUPER EASY and really FUN to make. First, we boiled the potatoes to soften them up a bit. Next we sliced them in half and scooped out some of the potato with a melon ball thingie.

 

The potato that was scooped out was put in a bowl to serve as the base for the guacamole. Next, up, we baked the little skins until the edges started getting brown. <PICS> Then we made the guacamole by mashing up an avocado, the potatoes plus some spices (literally no added fat AT ALL! And avocado is so GOOD for you). Here’s what the final recipe looked like. We are not big chive folks, so we went with just the chopped red onion. Y’all these little things are the bomb!!

Our FFVK recipe for this week will be Susan’s Best Rigatoni and Vegetables.

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2015/04/the-best-rigatoni-and-vegetable-casserole.html Big solid is not a big pasta man (too many calories for him) but I think we can get by with the amount this one dish meal calls for. We are so into one dish meals these days since we are usually late getting home from The Crossroads Café and don’t have time to put together a big fancy meal. The Elf will most likely make this ahead of time and warm it up! So, we are looking forward to this lovely dish, for sure! Thanks Susan!!

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Speaking of The Crossroads Café and workin’ there, we will be helping out extra this week since several of the staff are off on spring break! The Elf BARELY remembers those days. So we’ve been pre-cooking some stuff for the week this morning. Today, so far, we’ve made plant-based Bratwursts for a brats sandwich and two family sized batches of ‘chikun’ for chikun shreds. No need to see pics of them since you see ‘em almost every week.

BUT!

Wait! We are also trying out a new cookie for The Café. It will be a variation on our Vegan Oatmeal cookie with the newbie having toasted pecans, toasted coconut and jumbo flame, golden and Thompson raisins. Not everyone is a fan of raisins or coconut but some folks are…if they sell, we did right. If not, no problem not to make again. Just out of the oven! Well, we HAD to try one…pretty YUMMY! We will call them “Nuts for You!”

We made some seitan during the week last week and did a bit of a cooking experiment with the recipe. We’re having it tonight in one of The Elf’s favorite seitan dishes called Seitan ala Teronja along with Spicy Roasted Brussels sprouts!

 

http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/seitan-a-la-taronja/

http://sharedappetite.com/recipes/honey-sriracha-roasted-brussels-sprouts/

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 So we leave you this week with a snapshot of The Elf in her new apron specially done for working at The Crossroads Café.

We look forward to every day that we can feed someone something healthy and delicious!! So, until next Sunday when we gather again, y’all breathe deep, laugh a lot, be kind and DO EPIC!

Your Elf