Homemade July leftovers
Happy Monday, everyone! Get this—not only was last Friday’s Cavewoman Bars review my 200th post, but last Thursday, August 5th, was the two-year anniversary of my first post! I can hardly believe I’ve been doing this for so long already. My interaction with YOU, my readers, is the #1 reason I keep it up. So here’s to two more years of blogging—at least!
Since this seems to be a week of twos, I suppose it’s only appropriate that I ate so much in July that I have to split it between two posts. Today I’ll show you some random homemade leftovers (mostly sweets), while tomorrow I’ll run through my awesome restaurant meals for the month.
A long time ago, I bookmarked the recipe for maple cupcakes in VCTOTW
I stopped in Lawrence on my way back from Oklahoma City, and found these heirloom cherry tomatoes at The Merc (the locals’ pet name for the Community Mercantile). They were just too precious to resist.
For my birthday (July 10th), my friend Hillary (of The Anti-Chef) made a cupcake version of my best-ever chocolate cake recipe, adding her own flair with a delectable swirl of cashew butter-chocolate icing. Thanks again, Hillary!
When my best friend Rachel and I have our wine nights, one of us brings the wine (a bottle each of white and red) and the other makes the hummus. I had hummus duty this time, and served a simple, lemony garlic hummus with whole grain crackers.
One night I made a mini-batch of peanut butter-banana soft-serve ice cream (using Naturally More PB), garnishing it with homemade raw chocolate shavings.
Experiencing the joys of raw tacos in Dallas was momentous, as I discovered from it that
a) it is the first-ever (and so far only) way I’ve found that I can tolerate – even enjoy! – lettuce, and b) it’s a raw meal that Matt will happily gobble down. I’ve already made raw taco wraps for us several times.
This particular meal contained hearts of romaine (as the wraps), Averie’s spicy, cheezy Doritos dip, taco nut meat, and our favorite storebought salsa from Costco. Sorry for the bright flash on this pic, but you can see we made the most of our little self-service taco bar!
Matt’s breakfast of choice is oatmeal, and he’s been begging me for awhile now to make him a batch of overnight steel-cut oats, so I finally did. We topped our bowls with fresh blueberries we picked ourselves—but that’s a story you’ll have to wait till later this week to hear!
If you like this, you might also like…
June leftovers
May leftovers
April leftovers
Almost Vegan 
So many delicious cupcakes and tacos and oats! Yummy!
Thanks Joumana! :]
Your maple cupcakes look SO GOOD. I really think I’ve been cupcake-less for too long…
Hahaha ohh look at that big heirloom tomato on the right. I’m sure you had fun cutting that one…
I love the swirly effect on the cashew-chocolate icing; it reminds me of latte art!
I don’t make lettuce wraps that often because I find them so hard to eat. Did you just carefully nibble at it? Haha I can never get it to “wrap” up like a burrito!
You can’t be cupcakeless for TOO long; that’s practically a crime! 😛 You’re right, icing does look like latte art; I hadn’t thought of that.
I’m definitely not well-versed in the art of lettuce wraps, but the hearts of romaine I had were pretty bitty, so each one was only a couple bites. I guess we didn’t really roll them, we just picked them up and ate them boat-style.
Those maple cupcakes were DELICIOUS! And you are going to have to tell me how to make that peanut butter-banana soft serve! It sounds great!
I’m so glad you liked those cupcakes!
The banana soft-serve is beyond easy—you don’t even need an ice cream maker. Let a couple of bananas get really ripe (so that they’re covered with black spots), then peel them, break them into large chunks, and freeze them. They should freeze for at least 6-8 hours; the longer, the better (you can leave them in there indefinitely, so I always have frozen bananas in my freezer). Once they’re completely frozen, put them in a food processor along with a big glop of PB, a splash of vanilla, and a small drizzle (maybe 1 Tbsp) of agave nectar, honey, or maple syrup. Pulse the mixture together a few times to combine, then blend it until creamy! That’s it!
Btw, I realized last night I forgot to put our wine night hummus in this entry, so I updated it to include it :]
Those maple cupcakes. Oh my heavens. Maple syrup is one of my favourite flavours in the world, and it pains me greatly that it’s currently outside my budget. Can we please have a maple-candied nuts atop one of the mini cheezecakes in the buffet when I visit? 🙂
We can indulge in tons of maple-y goodness when you’re here! Matt hates maple syrup (I know, the nerve!), so I don’t use it too often anymore, at least not when its flavor is likely to come through loud and proud. Plus, like you said, it’s way pricey =/ But I’m thinking, instead of just candied nuts atop your cheezecake, we can go whole-hog and make a maple pecan pie 😀
Maple pecan pie? What a waste of a pie crust! ;-p
Thanks for the honorable mention on the chocolate cupcakes! The cashew butter really was fun to add….!
But of course! Thank you again for the b-day treats :]
Of course, the peanut butter banana soft serve ice cream looks yummy to me! But then, so do the muffins and cupcakes at the top. The oatmeal looks satisfying too!
Like I told Rachel above, the banana soft-serve is mainly just frozen bananas and PB blended in a food processor till smooth. You could make it yourself at home in no time.