Vegan Potato & Spinach Pierogies

Can I just start off by saying that July is almost over? I will just let that sink in for a bit. I do not know where the time has gone! Perhaps it's a getting older thing, but days and weeks, months and years are just flying by lately!

Alright, back to right now. After working on this recipe a few times, I finally deemed it ready to share with all of you. Ready for a really good pierogi? 

One thing I was concerned about giving up once becoming vegan was pierogies. I love a good buttery pierogie. The kind filled with potato and cheese and topped with sour cream. Oh my. Yum! I have seriously alway loved them, and who wouldn't? Seriously?

My fears quickly vanished once I whipped up these puppies though!

To be honest, once I popped one into my mouth, I didn't even realize the cheese was missing - these were so flavourful, and the texture was really great, even though there was no sour cream or butter in the dough. To make it even better, I didn't even feel guilty as I munched on these! Granted, I don't eat much, but still!

Related: Vegan Sour Cream

Sure, they were quite the process, but they didn't take eternally long to make, and it really was worth it. The best part is that these freeze extremely well, so making a lot at one time is possible and saves you time and energy on a rainy day (not to mention, gives added joy). Of course, if your family eats as many as mine does, you may not have any left to offer to the freezing process. They're super good with vegan sour cream - whether you make it (recipe here), or buy it. And don't forget the caramelized onions. Mushroom lovers can add those, but I personally stay as far away from mushrooms as I can.

Vegan Spinach & Potato Filled Pierogies

For the Filling:

• 3 cups Russet Potatoes, diced

• 2 TBSP Nutritional Yeast Flakes

• 1 TBSP Earth Balance (optional)

• 2 TBSP Non Dairy Milk (I used almond)

• Sprig of Rosemary, finely chopped (optional)

• ¼ cup Fresh Spinach, chopped

• ½ tsp Sea Salt

For the Dough:

• 3 C All-Purpose Flour (plus some for dusting)

• 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

• 1 Cup Water

• 2 TBSP Olive Oil

what to do:

1) Bring pot of water to boil and put potatoes in to cook for about ten minutes

2) While potatoes are cooking, make the dough by mixing the flour and salt together. Then add water and olive oil and fold until combined

3) Knead on a lightly floured surface until the dough becomes slightly sticky (not too sticky) and elastic. Divide the dough in two pieces, wrap in plastic and place in refrigerator. 

4) Once potatoes are tender, drain, and add all ingredients to pot. Mash until smooth. Set aside.

5) On a very lightly floured surface roll out one ball of dough until it is about 1/16” thick. Use a 3 ½" - 4” round cookie cutter and cut out rounds of dough.

6) Place a good amount (a bit less than a TBSP) of filling in the center of cut dough. wet the tip of your finger with water and dab along half of the circle. Fold dough over, gently pressing and sealing the pierogie. 

7) Place on lightly floured cookie sheet. If you wish to freeze them put them between sheets of wax paper to avoid sticking.

8) If cooking right away, place finished pierogie in boiling water. Cook until floating (about 3 minutes) and remove. Do not overcook or else they will fall apart. 

Optional: After boiling, fry pierogies in pan with a little bit of oil or earth balance till brown.  

Serve with vegan sour cream and caramelized onions - whatever your heart desires!

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Are you as much a pierogi fan as I am? How is your favourite way of eating pierogies? Let me know!

Trying these out? I want to know how it turns out! I will always find you when you use #MapleAlps!

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Vegan Sour Cream

I love sour cream. Seriously. When I decided to switch to a plant based diet, sour cream was one of those things that was harder to let go. There's nothing like a good dollop of sour cream with a burrito or pierogi. Thankfully, Tofutti exists, and tastes delicious. Unfortunately, I can't always find it, so I had to improvise.

I experimented with a few different ways of making vegan sour cream (including trying with cashews and apple cider vinegar), but this has been by far my favourite. I might tweak and play a bit more with it, but I was quite pleased with this result! It was creamy and had just the right amount of tang.

It is great on tacos, fajitas, or pierogies, or anything else that requires sour cream, really. I fully intend on finding out what else it can do. Stay tuned to see different ways I've found to use it!

Three Ingredient Vegan Sour Cream
Makes about 1.5 cups

What you need:

Block of Firm Tofu (16oz. /454g), drained
1/4 cup Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Garlic Salt

What to do:

1) Blend all ingredients together till smooth using blender or food processor.
2) Chill a few minutes and serve.

Store in refrigerator up to one week.

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Have you ever made your own vegan sour cream? Want to tell me about it? 

If you try this one out, let me know how it goes for you! I'll always find you at #MapleAlps :)

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Women of Intention Week Twelve: Finances

Welcome to week twelve of the series, Women of Intention! So glad you've decided to stop by! For more information, and a list of topics, visit our introduction post HERE. 

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THIS WEEK'S INTENTIONAL WOMAN:

Today, we are going to meet Deb from Saving the Crumbs, an amazingly practical and informative blog written by her and her husband. They talk about finances, economy, frugality, efficiency...you name it!

Because of this, I think it quite appropriate that Deb will be sharing with us about intentionality when it comes to finances today! After reading this post, be sure to check out Saving the Crumbs and share this post :)

Find Deb on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

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Briefly tell us a bit about yourself: What are your passions, work and interests?

Hi! I’m Deb, and for the last year I have had the privilege of being a stay-at-home mom with my little girl. So my greatest interest and responsibility right now is the enormous task of molding her little heart and character to love what is pure and to desire to do what’s right. I’m realizing this is the most challenging job I’ve ever embarked upon!

Besides being a mom, being economical and living simply are probably some of my greatest passions and tend to trickle into just about every aspect of my life. So my family’s interests usually revolve around our little garden, nature, ministry, and saving money. In fact, we love good deals and being thrifty so much that a few years ago, my husband and I started a personal finance blog called SavingTheCrumbs.com where we share things like eating for less than $60 a month and paying off our house in 2 years. We just share what we’ve done and hope that it can benefit other people who might be needing encouragement or ideas in this area.

Why would you say approaching finances intentionally is important, and how can one practically begin doing so?

It’s true that money isn’t everything in life, but money does affect just about everything in life. Ultimately, our material possessions, our families, our relationships, and even our spiritual walk can be positively or negatively affected by how we approach finances. The problem is that it’s so easy to like expensive toys, brand name clothes, and fancy vacations -  and it’s easy to want them now even if we don’t have the money for it. But it takes very intentional effort to see past our present wants to our future needs, find joy in the simple things surrounding us, and have confidence making these decisions even among our peers.

Probably the most important first step is to find out where all your money is going. It’s amazing how it seems to just disappear without us even realizing we gave it away! But it has certainly gone somewhere, and your first job is to trace down every penny - groceries, utilities, cellphone bill, stopping by Taco Bell on the way home, restocking toilet paper, Amazon purchases, even that soda from the vending machine. Once it’s all down on paper, you might be pretty shocked where those pennies have been rolling off to and turning into pretty big bills! The necessary game plan is usually fairly obvious at that point.

How does your intentionality with finances affect the other areas of your life?

Before we had our daughter, both my husband and I worked. We didn’t earn a lot, but we minimized our lifestyle enough to live on just one salary and put the other into savings. So when our daughter arrived, we were already accustomed to a one-income lifestyle. I was able to quit my job and become a fulltime mom. What a privilege and blessing it has been! I know not everyone is in the position to do that, but it definitely wouldn’t have been possible for us if we hadn’t been intentional with our financial decisions ahead of time.

In addition, because we choose to live fairly frugally, my husband is able to work for a ministry doing what he really enjoys and has a passion for. He doesn’t feel like he has to get a high paying job doing work he may not enjoy in order to sustain an inflated lifestyle. Having these options is part of the “financial freedom” that we strive for.

What is one piece of advice you would give to encourage someone who is struggling with intentionality in the area of finances?

Be willing to look past the present. Take a visit to your future self 5, 10, or 20 years from now. What does it look like? Owning your own home, traveling the world, being a missionary, being a stay-at-home mom? Once you have a clear picture in your mind, decide how you will get there. Then start being intentional now to take steps along the paths that lead toward your goals.

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What about you? Were you inspired by this post? Are you intentional when it comes to your finances? Why don't you tell us about it in the comments, and connect with us on social media?

(Don't forget to use the hashtag #WomenOfIntention16 so no one misses it!)

The Most Delicious Vegan Soft Pretzel

The past few weeks, I've been thinking a lot about the time I spent abroad. Let's face it, I'm still abroad, and I still experience things I haven't before, but I was specifically thinking about my time in Europe. It was a grand time. Food-wise, a highlight of mine was the amazing soft pretzels I could get pretty much everywhere. They were as big as my head, and delicious. When I got home, I made some for myself, but a few days ago, I really hit the jackpot when I decided to play around with the recipe some more. 

I had some Earth Balance left over from my cupcake making days, so I figured, why not? 

The result was the softest, buttery, delicious pretzel to come out of my oven to date. I decided to share with the rest of you - because I'm really nice like that. 

I always thought making pretzels would be a lot more complicated, but such is not the case! I remember the first time I tried a soft pretzel. I also remember that there were none left the next day. Seriously, every time I've made them in the past, those lucky enough to nab one, scarf it down pretty quickly. Imagine my surprise then when these turned out better that the former attempts. These are not as big as my head, but the flavour sure is!

The secret to that beautiful brown pretzel is baking soda - baked on a baking sheet and then added to the bubbly pot of boiling pretzels. Mhm. Without it, it is just not the same. 

Anyway, enough from me. I bet you are drooling as much as I am ... ;-)

The Most Delicious Vegan Soft Pretzel

What You Need:

• 4 cups All Purpose Flour

• 1 ½  cups Warm Water

• 2 ¼  tsp Active Dry Yeast

• 1 TBSP Organic Cane Sugar

• 2 tsp Sea Salt

• 4 TBSP Earth Balance

• Olive Oil  

• 2/3 cups Baking Soda

• 10 cups water

• Coarse Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

What to Do:

1) Mix warm water, yeast, sugar and salt in large bowl. Let sit 5 minutes till foamy

2) Add melted vegan butter. Stir in flour one cup at a time.
 
3) Knead on counter until elastic dough forms. 

4) Grease bowl and let rise 1 hour.

5) (Baking Totally Optional) Twenty minutes before dough is done rising, spread baking soda on baking pan lined with parchment. Bake in oven at 300 degrees F until ready to boil pretzels.

6) Once dough has risen, divide it into 8 equal parts. To twist pretzel into shape, roll the dough into long ropes. Hold at each end making a U shape, create a twist, and press ends down. 

7) Boil water. Carefully add the baking soda. 

8) Gently put pretzels in boiling water and let them "bathe" for 30 seconds. Put pretzels on parchment lined pan. Sprinkle with coarse pink himalayan sea salt.

9) Bake in oven at 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, until perfectly golden brown!

10) Allow to cool and enjoy either plain, or with some dipping sauce!

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Do you love soft pretzels as much as I do?

Going to be trying these out? I want to know how it turns out! I will always find you when you use #MapleAlps!

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Women of Intention Week Eleven: Mental Health

Welcome to week eleven of the series, Women of Intention! We are now over halfway through and Maple Alps will continue to feature a woman every week who will talk about intentionality in specific areas in her life for the next 8 weeks. So glad you've decided to stop by! For more information, and a list of topics, visit our introduction post HERE. 

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THIS WEEK'S INTENTIONAL WOMAN:

Today, we are going to meet Melinda who blogs at Fruit of Brokenness, a very real, helpful and inspiring blog about mental health and faith.

Today she will be talking to us about intentionality when it comes to mental health. Her answers may surprise you and will inspire you, so be sure to stick around till the end!

After reading this post, be sure to check out Melinda's blog and share this post :)

Find Melinda on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

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Tell us a bit about yourself: What are your passions, work and interests?

I’m a homeschool mom, and freelance writer and editor, stepping back from freelance work to focus on building my blog. 

Sometimes I feel like major depressive disorder sucked all the passion out of me. There were times I didn’t have enough energy to do the most important jobs God gave me: wife to Jeff and mom to Jonathan, Joel, and Nora. There isn’t much energy for anything but the basics when your brain kicks you into survival mode.

But the darkest times don’t last. What I love to do now is use my struggle to help others find hope.

There are still many bumps in the road, but it’s good to once again be able to enjoy things more consistently. Like visiting Lake Ontario beaches and reading.

Often times, people say that Christians having mental illnesses is due to a lack of faith. What is your stance on this?

I wholeheartedly disagree, and it’s one of the foundations of my blog. If we consider the symptoms of depression when we read accounts of various people in the Bible, we see that some of God’s most faithful servants struggled with depression. In the Psalms in particular we also see what we should do with our overwhelming feelings: be honest with God about them and choose to trust Him in the midst of them.

In God’s example in Scripture, we don’t see the dismissal or harshness with which some in the church treat those who are depressed. For example, when Elijah felt that all he had done for the Lord was in vain, and that he was all alone in the world, all he wanted was to die, to be done with life. God didn’t just tell him to be stronger and snap out of it, and he didn’t send him off to consider what unconfessed sin he was harbouring.

Elijah had plenty of faith, but he was still overwhelmed by the storm in his mind. After he called down fire from heaven, prayed away a drought he prophesied several years before, and outran a chariot, all he wanted to do was die.

Before putting him back on the job, God ministered to Elijah by taking care of his basic needs and letting him rest. He built up his energy to travel to a place he could hear Him in a new way.

While we need to understand that faith does not ensure perfect mental health, we must not swing too far in the opposite direction. Refusal to take God at His Word and trust Him makes us more susceptible to the negative thought patterns that spin out of control in bouts of depression.

Made in God’s image, we’re not merely physical beings. In these bodies we have minds and emotions. If we are unhealthy in any of these areas, the others suffer. We can’t compartmentalize health. Mental and emotional health impact, and are impacted by, our physical and spiritual health. 

What does intentionality in mental health practically look like? Are there any other factors that play into it?

We’re not one-dimensional. Being intentional in mental health is being intentional in each dimension: physically, mentally and spiritually.

• Eat right. Drink plenty of water. Take medication as prescribed if you need it. Exercise.
• Be careful what you feed your mind. Think about what you’re thinking about. Don’t accept lies.
• To recognize lies, you need to know Truth. Read, meditate on, and memorize God’s Word.

What practical advice would you give someone who is struggling in this area of their life?

Start with admitting you’re struggling. Let go of any shame you may feel that you’re not a “good” Christian if you struggle with depression or anxiety. Take responsibility for making healthy choices, and do not be ashamed to seek professional help.  

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What about you? Were you inspired by this post? Are you intentional when it comes to your mental health? Why don't you tell us about it in the comments, and connect with us on social media?

(Don't forget to use the hashtag #WomenOfIntention16 so no one misses it!)