Warmth

It's cold outside! On this icy Kansas day I avoided being outside at all costs and spent the day in my kitchen. Who would've thought? I was originally going to spend the day in the classroom but a quick school cancellation changed that plan. My mother stayed home from work today as well, so we spent some time together in the kitchen. 

First creation: Mostly fat-free vegan cinnamon buns, adapted from Happy Herbivore blog. We started out with the recipe from Happy Herbivore and then we altered the final product just a bit. I happened to have a container of sticky bun filling/topping in the fridge so we went ahead and made the fat-free vegan cinnamon buns some slightly fatty topped with nuts sticky buns. 

All vegan here:

Topping that makes it not so vegan or fat-free:

Finished product of gooey somewhat healthier sticky buns!

Second creation: Sweet Potato Gnocchi, from Kath Eats Real Food blog. Gnocci is definitely something I've been wanting to try in quite a while. It was surprisingly simple and after eating two different methods, it is quite tasty. Typical Gnocchi is made with a heavy creamy cheese sauce which would be swimming in fat, cholesterol, and calories, so we went with the simpler, lighter method. Kath serves her gnocchi with steamed kale. Since we were fresh out of that we used spinach. Honestly, it was a little lame and I'm not a big fan of wilted spinach. 

So then I went for the salad method with gnocchi, sheep feta cheese, dried blueberries, roasted almonds, and a delightful orange vinaigrette.