Hannah's Heartstrings

You really have no idea how ecstatically excited I am about this. I mean, literally, I almost cried when it was finished, and I jumped and danced around the kitchen for a good fifteen minutes after taking the first bite.

I am just elated over this.

I have not had pumpkin pie for over four years.


This year, I was determined to figure out how to make it so I could eat it.

It started with putting some pumpkin puree in a smoothie. Hey that was pretty good...with some pumpkin pie spice, it tasted like pie. The hankering has begun.

I read up on some other recipes for super vegan pies based with nuts and coconut milk/butter/oil. So I took bits and pieces of different ideas, plus one or two of my own...and this happened.


I soaked 1 cup of raw cashews overnight, and then pulverized them in my Magic Bullet.


Then I added about 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree, 1-2 TBSP of warm, melty coconut butter, and sweetened with stevia.

That's the filling.

The Crust: I pulverized some almonds (enough to make about 1/2-3/4 cup of course flour), added stevia to sweeten and 1-2 TBSP of warm coconut oil and a little scoop of coconut oil to help it harden up better.



I smooshed the crust mixture into the bottom of my springform pan. So really, this is more of a pumpkin cheesecake than a pie. But anyways. That's what I did.

Poured in the filling...



...and let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours. Really, because of the nature of coconut butter/oil, only an hour or so of refrigeration is needed. Its awesome. So quick and easy!!

And there you have it. The best, most happiest thing I have tasted in my whole life. Well, at least in the past four years. Well, one of the best... :)

Life is always interesting.

I ended up crashing with a cold that has been circulating Kyle's family since July. Took its good old time getting to me, but alas it caught up to me and thankfully I had the weekend off to fight the worst of it.

I do have a point to saying this, other than just complaining. I have noticed over the past few months that I have the tendency to bruise easily. Like, really easily. Doesn't take much of a bump to give me a nasty looking bruise. So I read up on that, and it turns out that one of the main causes of bruising easily is a lack of Vitamin C. Which explains a lot since, with my diet the way it is, I eat very little fruit. I try to drink lots of lemon water and eat plenty of carrots and other veggies, but I guess maybe its just hard to take the place of stuff like apples and oranges?

Well, over the weekend I started taking a powdered Vitamin C supplement. I really upped my intake of it to try to kill the bad sicky germ in me. It helped that cause, but I also noticed that within about 48 hours of upping my Vitamin C intake by supplement, two good sized bruises on my leg had completely disappeared.

So that proves that theory! Now the challenge will be how to get more Vitamin C in me without always taking a supplement. Hmm...

This weekend was made even more interesting by my husband breaking his collar bone on Sunday. Yep. snapped it clean in two. Makes my stomach turn every time I think about it. So after a quick trip to the ER, he will be spending the next six weeks in a back/shoulder sling and learning how to do almost everything with his left arm.

Being the health nut that I am, I instantly got him started him two homeopathic remedies, rubbed him with arnica gel and even got him to let put French Green Clay on the spot where its broken once so far to help with inflammation and to try to draw the bones back together. My mom reminded me that homeopathic remedies are the only natural medicines that do not interfere with conventional medication, since the doctor gave him some Motrin and Vicodin to help with the pain. I'm not sure yet if what I'm doing is helping any, but its neat to try and I'm thankful he's willing to let me experiment on him!

And now for the best part. I've reinvented Dandy Candy.

Dandy Candy originally came from the La Leche League's "Whole Foods for the Whole Family" cookbook. The old one. I don't believe its in the new one. But its one of the best, easiest treats and kids always love making it. It basically consists of peanut butter, powdered milk and honey, and then you could roll it into balls and add whatever sort of additions you liked. stick them in the fridge and BANG. Dessert. Or breakfast. Or lunch.

But lately I've been missing such delicacies. Since honey and powdered milk are out of the question, I decided to come up with something better. And boy, did I ever! I have created the best possible treat in the whole world.

100% vegan, gluten free, soy free, sugar free, grain free, non-chocolate, no caffeine, dairy or eggs. What more could you want?

I was first introduced to Pesto when my friend Michele C. gave us some with her homemade bread. We ate way too much of the wonderful stuff. :) As my diet changed over the past 2 years, I found that I could not eat Pesto in its original form (parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, olive oil, basil). So my mom discovered that our local Whole Foods Co-op (where she and my brother Charlie work) makes and sells a Spinach Pesto that was perfectly clean! She was able to get the recipe, and after a bit of tweaking, I came up with this recipe. It's ctill very true to the original, but my process is a bit different, and I always aim for a different texture and taste that what you would get at WFC.
But without further ado...here is the recipe for Spinach Pesto.


Spinach Pesto

Baby spinach
walnuts or almonds, chopped fine
garlic, fresh or powdered
lemon juice