The Suburban Hippie - she's one resourceful cookie: An afternoon of baking

The results of an afternoon of baking

This week was one that allowed plenty of time for reflection during some down time because of the inclement weather. In setting some aspirations and goals for this year, I renewed my commitment to a holistic mindful approach to health and fitness after a bit of indulging over the holidays. I was not nearly as ambitious as my fellow Zen Gypsies partner, Aurora in my undertakings for the new year (see her story about her new year's efforts here). I used a 21-day raw vegan challenge, a vision board and a few newly found resources for recipes to help inspire me to get me back on track.

My vision board to inspire me to healthy eating

This weekend offered an opportunity to spend a fun afternoon baking with my son so we could stock up on nutritious, all natural whole grain goodness to round out our meals of colorful, hearty warm salads and warm soups that are our staples for the winter months. We checked out a new music playlist he created for me to review as possibilities for dance events like the upcoming Return of the Light - a dance celebration. The music inspired me to dance around the kitchen while we waited for the bread to bake so I managed to combine baking and fitness into one experience! I'm hoping that I burned enough calories to cancel out at least one of my samplings of the finished products.

The recipes we used are inspired by the cookbooks listed below:

Cookbooks

Traditional Vegetarian Cooking: Recipes from Europe's Famous Crank's Restaurant David & Kay Canter, Daphne Swann (this provided inspiration for the whole wheat dark chocolate chip cookies and the two granary loaves pictured above)

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Jeff Hertzerg, MD and Zoe Francois (the whole wheat pitas pictured above came from this cookbook)

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Raw Food Recipes, Ani Phyo (donut holes recipe that makes little nuggets of goodness great for snacking and giving a little boost of energy anytime during the day)

Websites, blogs and vlogs:

Raw. Vegan. Not Gross, with Laura Miller of Sidesaddle Kitchen - check out the link on her website to her videos on the Tastemade YouTube channel

Bondi Harvest - a great resource for simple, fresh recipes and videos from the land down under that will appeal equally to vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike

Sweet Potato Soul: The Nourishing Vegan blog - simple vegan recipe videos

I hope you are inspired to spend some time creating nourishing meals in the kitchen.