Vegan Chicken Broth

This is pretty much Karinna Ball's recipe... I just changed it over for vegetarians/vegans :)

2 T McKays *Vegan Chicken Seasoning
2 Pints Water
1 Whole Chopped Onion w/skin
4 Stalks Whole Chopped Celery w/leaves
4 Carrots (optional)
6 Cloves Whole Garlic w/skins
1/8 C Apple Cider Vinager
1 T Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 tsp. Cumin
1 T Garlic Powder
1 T Dried Cilantro
1 T Dried Basil
1/2 tsp. Cayenne
Salt & Pepper to taste

Simmer **10 to 20 minutes. Can be strained for broth and frozen as broth-ice-cubes, or eaten hot as soup.

*There are two kinds of this fake seasoning, plain and vegan. The plain does have milk. They also have the same two versions of fake beef seasoning.

** Since there's no meat to cook, it's just a matter of lightly tenderizing the veggies, and cooking in the great flavors :)

Plain Strawberry Banana (or Nectarine) Fruit Cream

I'll start this off with a teaser.  This recipe makes about 2 servings.  For the whole recipe (both servings), you get:

4.5 g fat

152 mg sodium

640 mg potassium (about 1/7 what's needed in a day)

51 g carbs (28 g fruit-sugars, 10 g fiber)

3 g protein (a great protein to fat ratio!)

50% RDA of Vitamin E

25% RDA of Vitamin D

175 mg. Vitamin C

240 mg. Calcium

If you use nectarine cubed pieces instead of banana coins, you can knock off about 15 g of carbs (about 5 g sugars).  So the whole thing, about 2 servings worth, would be about 36 g carbs or 23 g sugar and 9 g fiber). What you get in vitamins also changes, but it's not significant enough to worry about, really.  The two main points of this desert, as listed below, is that it's insanely low in fat, and high in fiber, and you get a whopping 3 grams of protein.  That's not as high of protein as in ice cream, but as deserts go, and really, as fruits go, that's a lot of protein.  Plus, you're beefing up on Vitamins C, D, and E, and on your calcium.  What's important here about the calcium is that it won't be leached out of your bones by animal-milk proteins. In fact, because the calcium is coming with vitamin D, it's a little easier to put on that sun screen when you're supposed to (after 10 to 15 minutes of moderate sun exposure in the mid morning or early evening).

Frozen Ingredients

1 large banana, peeled, coined and frozen
8 oz. frozen strawberry pieces (cut vertically into 3rds and then in half, then make a horizontal half cut)

Liquid Ingredient

1 C Almond Breeze Original Almond Milk (or water)

Instructions

1.  Pre-freeze the strawberries and bananas (or nectarine chunks, about 2 nectarines worth) for at least 6 hours in ziplock freezer bags.  Ideally at least 12 hours.

2.  Pour Almond milk into blender, then add the frozen strawberry chunks.  Use the "chop" and "pulse" modes on your blender, or the "smoothie" mode, to chop through the strawberry chunks until the milk looks pulpy, but there aren't any major chunks left.  (Stop the machine often, and before using the spatula, to help rotate the frozen chunks.)

3.  Add frozen banana chunks to the mix in the blender to create an ice cream like consistency.

4.  Use the lowest regular setting (furthest down button on the right) to make the Vegan Fruit Cream a bit smoother.  After a few seconds of using the "low" setting, use "medium" for a few seconds, and then "high" for a few more seconds.

There's another recipe in here from May that's similar to this.  It's worth checking out, but it's a tad more complex (and, I think, even tastier, and it's a great thing to drink if you've kinda overloaded on the Indian Fry Bread, as the caffeine will help you burn those same-day calories, once you go on a walk!).  I wanted to post this simpler version, 'cause having cool summer fun shouldn't be overly complicated, unless you want it to be :)