Adopt A Gluten-free Blogger -- Sea Maiden from Book of Yum

A little over a month ago, I was "adopted" by Sea Maiden at the gluten-free, vegetarian blog, The Book of Yum.

This time around, I decided to return the favor, and I "adopted" her.  I wanted any of my readers who had not yet discovered her well-written blog to learn about it.  Sea writes about being a mom, a student, a wife, and an all-around busy woman.  She writes with humor and in an easy style.

Part of this process is that I picked out a few recipes from Book of Yum and made them myself.  It was tough deciding what to make.  Some of Sea's recipes aren't right for my home; although she's a vegetarian, she's not a vegan, so some of her recipes include eggs and dairy.  She also uses nuts, which we don't in our house.  Since I was doing this for Welcoming Kitchen, I also wanted to pick recipes that fit in with our model (vegan, gluten-free, and free of the top 8 allergens).  With that said, however, there were still lots to choose from! 

The first recipe I picked out was a chocolate mousse.  I've seen recipes for avocado-based chocolate puddings, but I had yet to try one that I liked.  Sea's recipe is delicious!  It's creamy, rich, and really tastes decadent.  I loved that it had very few ingredients, and it came together in minutes.  

I was really intrigued by the raw foods marinara.  I loved how you could put together a sauce for pasta, crostini or pizza quickly and without cooking.  This sauce was a little sweet for me, because the recipe calls for two dates, but I loved the freshness of it.  I served it over some wide rice noodles that I got at the Asian market earlier this week.  I would definitely make this again, though I would eliminate the dates probably.

 Although it's ok to make just two recipes, I couldn't leave it at that.  I also made an amazingly spiced chili-garlic roasted broccoli.  My absolute favorite method to prepare cooked vegetables is roasting.  I usually just toss my veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper.  It's funny how just spicing it up a bit can make such an enormous difference.  My sister and I ate the whole head of broccoli with our fingers -- it was that good.  This recipe results in broccoli that is definitely all grown-up.  It has a great kick and so much flavor.  I will definitely make this again.

 I had such a good time snooping around Sea's blog.  I hope that you get to know her and The Book of Yum a little better, too.

Happy Cooking!
Kim