Happy Anise Seed Day!

Blogger of the Day: Ann at vegAnn's Kitchen

Anise cookies are a family favorite, especially around the holidays. You'll find various versions depending on where you bake:
• New Zealand Aniseed Wheels...cute wagon wheel shapes!
• Italian Pizzelles...delicate wafer cookies made with a patterned iron
• German Pfeffernüsse...full of pepper and spice and traditionally covered in powdered sugar
• German Springerle...charmingly sweet biscuits with pressed designs
• Austrian Anisbögen...potato chip-shaped cookies!
• New Mexican Bizcochitos...crunchy cinnamon anise cookies, the state cookie of NM
plus Peruvian Picarones...crispy spicy pumpkin and sweet potato doughnuts
and Netherland muisjes ...candied anise seed sprinkles!  :)
Source

Ann is a whirlwind of talent...after completing the Chef's Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute and an internship at crazyfamous Millennium Restaurant, she served as the pastry/salad chef at the award-winning Ravens' Restaurant. Currently she's creating fabulous meals at the beautifully serene Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. You can't get a better resume than that! She has generously shared many of her yumful recipes on her blog including these easy glazed anise cookies with sprinkelz! If you don't like anise you can leave it out or experiment with other extract flavors. If you love anise try her Apricot Anise Cookies too!  :)

Italian Anisette Christmas Cookies

Double Chocolate Cookies

Carrot Sunflower Oat Cookies

Blueberry Peach Oat Muffins

GF Banana Oat Muffins

Lemon Poppy Muffins

Garlic Knots

GF Rice Flour Pancakes

Apple Walnut Donuts

Cinnamon Rolls or Chocolate Pecan Buns

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting

A sampling of anise...
From Savory Spice Shop
Anise Seeds
Ground Anise Seeds
Pure Anise Extract
Pure Anise Essential Oil
From The Spice House
Spanish Anise Seed
Anise Extract
From LorAnn
Super Strength Anise Oil ~ 1 dram size
Super Strength Anise Oil ~ 1 ounce size

Have you tried anise cookies? Which are your favorite?  :)

Find more feasts in our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Chia Seed Day!

Blogger of the Day: Deryn at Running on Real Food

Deryn is a talented graphic designer, recipe developer and nonstop plantpowered fitness fiend! She thrives on working out and competing so she relies on high energy foods like nut butters, oats, fruits and seeds...especially chia seeds! These little wonderballs bust out with calcium, fiber, protein and more, plus they make superdelicious puddings and overnight oats...yumza!

After you fuel up, check out Deryn's fitness guides and free workout planners...time to burn off all that pie you ate over the weekend!  ;)

Chia powered goodness...

No-Bake Chocolate Chia Energy Bars

Blueberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Chia Seed Pancakes

Mini Peanut Butter Oat Cups

Cashew Butter Chocolate Chia Oats

Nut and Seed Nutrition Bars with Chocolate Ganache

And altenative fuels...

Smashed Cumin Lime Avocado Chickpea Sandwiches

Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Linguine with Peas and Kale

Healthy Breakfast Burritos

Tomato Lentil Soup

Spicy Chickpea Veggie Burgers

Grain-Free 5 Ingredient Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

What do you do with chia, the superwonderfood?  :)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Pumpkin Seed Day and Carve a Pumpkin Day and Happy Halloween!

Blogger of the Day: Angela at Oh She Glows
Pubs: The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Vegan Recipes to Glow From the Inside Out

Hell's Bells, it's Halloween...yippee! You can spin the day in three different ways...celebrate the wonders of pumpkin seeds, the art of pumpkin carving or the joy of sugarslamming til your head pops off! Angela's got all three covered with a tantalizing treatbag of glowing goodies and devilish delights!  :)

Angela is like a lovable best friend and a dependable mom and a favorite teacher all rolled into one...supersweet and soooo helpful! Each post is a microchapter of her life, a colorful peek at what's baking, brewing and bouncing about (congratulations Angela!). She's been a guiding light for me and a vast multitude of vegloving munchers for years, providing easy-to-follow, fully photographed recipes, and all sorts of encouragement and heartfelt advice. Her website features over 500 recipes and her new cookbook is a tempting cross section of the best of them. If you need a simple sandwich or a full on holiday meal, or you just want to hang out with a rompingfriendly blogging bunch, swing over to Oh She Glows!

But first...kick off your wild Halloween weekend with these wickeddelicious treats!  ;)

Easy, Crunchy, Perfectly Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Soft & Chewy Baked Granola Bars

Favourite Homemade Granola

Creamy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie for Two

Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding

Spiced Up & Stacked Pumpkin Butter Pancakes For One

Pumpkin Butter Swirl Butternut Pecan Bread

Pumpkin Pie, Three Ways

Homemade Crispy Twix Bars

Homemade “Kit Kat” Bars

Homemade “Rolo” Knock-Offs

The enchanted edibles don't stop there...zoom to Angela's recipe collection for zillions more! A few of my favorites...
Blueberry Vanilla Bean Pancakes with Blueberry Glaze
Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Roasted Tomato, Onion, and Basil Pesto Pizza with Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Perfect Veggie Burgers
Nut Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries
Chocolate Chunk Toffee Bars
Turtle Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans, Chocolate, and Medjool Dates

If you could only have one of the above as a treat, which would it be?

Happy 6th Blogiversary to Oh She Glows...wishing you many more!

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain/Beltane everyone!  :)

Celebrate some more with our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Caraway Day!

Blogger of the Day: Linda at Free Range Cookies

Every spice has its day and today it's Caraway Day! Often found sprinkled atop loaves of rye bread, caraway has an anise-like flavor and FYI is actually a fruit, not a seed! It pops up in cuisines around the world, popular in European scones, slaws and stews, hot chili pepper harissas across North Africa and puddings made to celebrate Ramadan and the birth of a baby in the Middle East. Chewing it is thought to settle your stomach and freshen your breath, and if you're feeling lucky it may act as an aphrodisiac!  ;)

Linda Daniels is an awardwinning professional baker in St. Louis specializing in glutenfree treats, including of course cookies! If you live in the STL area, she offers classes at the Kitchen Conservatory. I don't need to be glutenfree but that doesn't stop me from diving into GF baking, plus it's always fun to try new ingredients...especially if you get spectacular scones like Linda's! 

Linda's Seed Bread is just how I like a loaf...superseedy with a rich mix of flavors and textures. Plus she crisps it up for crackers too...ohsogood with homemade hummus or cheezy spread. Crack open your caraway and start a loafin'!  :)

Seed Bread & Caraway Crackers

Seeded Buns

Double Carrot Scones

Chocolate Orange Scones

Cowboy Scones

Sticky Buns

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Coconut Sugar Stars

Almond Shortbread

Chewy Chocolate Almond Shortbread

No-Bake Chocolate Tarts

Source your spices...
Frontier Co-op
Mountain Rose Herbs
Penzeys Spices
Savory Spice Shop
Spices Etc
Spices Inc
The Spice House

Do you like caraway on (or in) your breads? How about in sauerkraut? What's your favorite caraway recipe? Where do you shop for spices?  :)

Find more feasts in our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!

Happy Sunflower Seed Day!

Blogger of the Day: Joy at For the Love of Leaves

One of our most fun friends has a Very Big Birthday next week so we'll be wrapping up two of his favorites...Irish whiskey and some slabs of "manly" chocolate. No dainty delicately painted truffly sort of things. He likes something hefty with bold complex flavors. Joy's chunks of chocolate, chockfull of sunflower seeds and blueberries, rock a manly profile, plus they're packed with superpower nutrients. Much appreciated when the Very Big Birthday Boy tipples a little too much whiskey.  ;)

Chocolate Bark with Sunflower Seeds and Blueberries

Double Chocolate Muffins

Raw Blackberry Crumble Bars

Garlic Whole Wheat Flatbread

Simple Summer Squash Salad

Barbecue Black Bean Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Bell Pepper Rainbow Salsa

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Vanilla Almond Freezer Fudge

Mojito Ice Cream

Sunflower secrets...
• Pick up tips and trivia on growing these gentle giants.
• Plant the right varieties like Sunzilla or Russian Mammoth.
• Learn when and how to harvest sunflower seeds.
• Snack on raw or roasted sunflower seeds, salted or unsalted, sweet or spicy, or scatter them on pancakes, salads, pudding and ice cream!
• Easily roast them yourself! Just spread out your shelled seeds on a pan and roast for about 30 minutes at 300 degrees.
• Spread your sunflower love...give a spin to homemade sunflower seed butter...go ahead and sprinkle in some other seeds and nuts too!

Or buy your sunflower power!  :)
• MaraNatha Sunflower Seed Butter
• Once Again Sunflower Butter
• SunButter
• Yumbutter

Do you munch on seeds and nuts? Roasted or raw? Salted or not? What are your favorite non-peanut butters? Do you grow your own sunflowers?  :)

Check out the rest of our 2014 Daily Food Holiday and Featured Blogger Series!