Memorial Day Dessert

Here's an healthy, easy, and best of all delicious dessert to serve or bring to your Memorial Day BBQ. This recipes if from Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love. It can be made vegan or with dairy yogurt, if you prefer.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Pie

Cookie Crust:

18 crème-filled sandwich cookies, finely crushed (1 1/2 cups) -- (Newman's cookies are vegan and organic)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or nonhydrogenated margarine, melted

Combine the cookies and oil in a small bowl or food processor and mix until well blended. Press evenly into an unoiled 9-inch pie pan or springform pan. Freeze for 15 minutes before filling.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt (Makes 1 quart)

2 1/2 cups strawberry or vanilla yogurt (can be dairy or nondairy)
2 cups halved strawberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar or agave syrup, if needed

Combine the yogurt and strawberries in a blender and process until smooth. Sweeten with the sugar to taste, if needed. If the mixture is cold, it may be frozen immediately; otherwise, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Note: If the strawberries are very sweet, omit the sweetener. With fresh ripe strawberries, I usually don’t need it; but sometimes with frozen strawberries, or those at the start of the season, I do.

Assembly:

Spread the frozen yogurt in the frozen pie crust. Top with strawberry halves--or chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or whatever sounds good to you. Cover the pie with parchment paper, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil and freeze for at least 3 hours, or until firm. Serve with the sauce or whipped topping of your choice, if desired. This is a great dessert to make ahead, but once it's frozen solid, you will need to let it sit at room temperatore about 20 minutes or in refrigerator about 1 hour to soften enough to slice.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Celebrate Pregnancy Awareness Month

May is Pregnancy Awareness Month! Check out these cool flags and decals for your car from Sign of Labor! You can publicly celebrate your pregnancy, while raising awareness of your precious cargo. Five percent of all sales go to Pregnancy Awareness Month.

What better way to celebrate by cooking up some healthy food for mommy and baby with recipes from The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook. How about some:

Sunflower-Sesame Molasses Cookies
These are packed with iron, calcium, and whole wheat goodness. Great with a cup of mint tea.

1 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1/2 cup sesame seeds, toasted
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup maple syrup, brown rice syrup, agave nectar, or honey
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg or egg replacer
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk or yogurt (dairy or nondairy)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil cookie sheet(s). Coarsely chop sunflower and sesame seeds in food processor, blender, or by hand. Place in large mixing bowl with flour, spice, salt, and baking soda and whisk together. In separate bowl, beat together oil, sweetener, molasses, egg, vanilla, and milk or yogurt. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture. Stir until combined. Scoop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes, or until bottoms are golden. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 4 1/2 dozen

Note: If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

Got a kindle????

I just found out that you can get the e-book version of Lick It! Creamy Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love for the Amazon Kindle. It costs $9.99 -- of course, they sell the print version for 10.17 so it's not much cheaper but you do get it instantly and of course there is no charge for shipping. Either way . . . now that the weather is warming up, it's time to start thinking ice cream.

Since it's strawberry season here in CA . . . I'll share this yummy recipe for Strawberry Sorbet.

Strawberry Sorbet
Makes 1 generous quart
This sorbet just bursts with sweet strawberry flavor. Best of all, it’s quick and easy to make.

5 cups halved strawberries
1/2 cup agave syrup
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. If the mixture is cold, it may be frozen immediately; otherwise, chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Strawberry Daiquiri Sorbet: Replace the lemon juice with the juice of 1 whole lime and add 2 tablespoons of light rum. Serve it soft, like a slushy, or harden the sorbet in the freezer for a few hours.