Molly's Recipes: Quick & Easy Hot Chocolate

With winter soon approaching, I wanted to share one of my all-time favorite cold weather treats with you guys! It’s my quick and easy hot chocolate, and it’s so simple to make. In my opinion, it tastes just as good, if not better, than regular hot chocolate, and I hope that you guys love it as much as I do!

 Ingredients:

- 1 and 1/2 cups soy/regular milk

- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder

- 2 tablespoons sugar

- ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract (optional)

1. Pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl. Then, whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar until well blended.

2. Microwave your hot chocolate on high for 2 minutes, or until fairly hot.

3. When the hot chocolate is done in the microwave, wisk it again to combine everything, pour into a mug and let cool for a few minutes.

4. (Optional step): You can also make a peppermint hot chocolate by adding the peppermint extract right after you take your hot chocolate out of the microwave.

Serves: 1

Cook Time: 2 minutes

Molly's Recipes: Vegetable Medley Soup

This soup is perfect for lunch or dinner on a cold, rainy day, or really any time you feel like eating something warm and rustic. One day, I just felt like making some soup, so I pulled all of the leftover vegetables that I had in my refrigerator out, and started chopping. By luck, I ended up making this delicious vegetable medley soup. It is completely vegan, and is full of nutritious vegetables. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

 Ingredients:

- 4 medium carrots

- 3 medium potatoes

- 1 small onion

- 4 cups veggie broth

- ½ cup mushrooms

- ½ cup cooked broccoli

- ½ a bunch collard greens

- ¾ cup soy milk

- ½ teaspoon oregano

- ½ teaspoon basil

- ¼ teaspoon thyme

- ½ teaspoon salt

- Pepper

1. Slice the carrots, potatoes and onion and put into a large cooking pot. Add the veggie broth. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 10-15 minutes or until the carrots and potatoes are soft.

2. Add the mushrooms, broccoli and collard greens and cook for 5 more minutes. Blend the vegetables in batches in a blender and pour the mixture back into the cooking pot.

3. Add the soy milk, oregano, basil, thyme and salt to the soup. Stir and reheat on the stove. Add extra salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy while still hot.

Option:

You can replace the mushrooms, broccoli and collard greens with any other leftover veggies that you may have in your fridge.

Serves: 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Molly's Recipes: Bagel Sandwiches

I absolutely LOVE these bagel sandwiches for lunch! They are so easy to make, and they taste amazing, too. My family and I were inspired to make this recipe because we love the veggie sandwiches that they sell at Nugget Market, but they were kind of expensive. (Shhh, don’t tell Nugget I said that!) So we decided to try and recreate them, only on a bagel instead of bread! So here you go, I’m handing over the recipe to you now. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

- 1 plain bagel

- Salad mix or sliced lettuce

- Sliced cucumbers

- Sliced red bell peppers

- Sandwich pickles

- Condiments of your choice

1. Lightly toast your bagel, and then spread condiments of your choice on either side of it.

2. Pile on the salad mix, cucumbers, peppers and pickles, cut in half, and enjoy!

Option:

You can put on whatever condiments you like. My favorites are honey mustard and Vegenaise (a vegan mayonnaise). You can also change up the veggies on the sandwich to suit your own personal taste as well.

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Molly's Recipes: All-Natural Soda

Looking for a healthy (but equally delicious) alternative to soda? Then you should love this recipe! This soda is so refreshing, and is much better for you than regular soda is. It is perfect to have on a hot day when you need something cold and hydrating. Me and my family love this recipe, and it’s so simple and inexpensive that anyone can easily make it at home. Enjoy!

 Ingredients:

- Any flavor of 100% juice

- Seltzer water

- Crushed ice

1. Fill a large drinking glass with the crushed ice.

2. Then fill the drinking glass about 1/3 of the way full with seltzer water.

3. Fill glass the rest of the way with the fruit juice, stick a straw in, and enjoy!

Option:

You can change up the flavor of your soda by changing the juice flavor. You could make grape soda, (grape juice) cranberry soda, (cranberry juice) or even orange soda (orange juice.)

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 1 minute

Game Review: Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection

Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection is so fun! I’d probably recommend this game to anyone who loves playing video games or anyone who loves animals. So this game is perfect for me, as I love both. Despite the E rating, people of all ages can enjoy this game, which is awesome. It can be a bit laggy, but I have a really crappy computer, so probably you’ll be just fine. (System requirements are listed on the case.) I would definitely recommend buying Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection over buying the regular Zoo Tycoon 2, just because you have to buy the expansion packs in order to get all the animals for Zoo Tycoon 2.

Basically the bottom line is that I spent $40 dollars on this game, and it was well worth the money. By the way, I bought it at Target if anyone is looking to buy it. If you’re still not sure, I’d say to watch some playthroughs of it on YouTube, and see if it looks like a game you’d enjoy. There are also free game demos available to download on the Zoo Tycoon 2 website.

About: Make way for more than 100 amazing animals from Zoo Tycoon 2 and all the expansion packs-Extinct Animals, Marine Mania, African Adventure, and Endangered Species. Build the coolest zoos ever! Plus, unlock super animals in minigames, create marine shows, capture dinos, and much more. It’s the ultimate zoo… and it’s yours.

Rating: E - E10+ (Cartoon violence)

Genre: Business Simulation Game

Mode: Single Player

Release Date: November 2004

My Rating: ★★★★☆

Molly's Recipes: Easy Fruity Ice Cream

This ice cream is so refreshing and fruity that it’s perfect to have on a warm summer evening! I wanted to make a completely vegan ice cream recipe that didn’t require much work, and so I started to play around with my blender. I ended up with this recipe that I think is delicious, and tastes exactly like regular strawberry ice cream. What’s nice about this recipe is that you can change out the frozen strawberries for whatever fruit you’re in the mood for: peaches, pineapple cubes, or even blueberries all taste amazing in this recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

- 8 frozen strawberries (or any other frozen fruit you prefer)

- 1/4 cup soy milk

- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons organic cane sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Place all ingredients into your blender and blend on low speed for 2-3 minutes, or until all the strawberries have been blended up.

2. Pour mixture into serving glass or bowl, and enjoy immediately.

Option:

If you prefer your ice cream hard serve, put it into the freezer for a half hour or so, or until it has firmed up some.

Serves: 1

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Magic Happens At 2AM

Let me start by saying this: we were supposed to be able to see the northern lights in California on the early morning of Saturday, July 14, 2012. Apparently, you could see them as far south as Alabama. So my brother and I go outside at 2 AM and start looking for these northern lights to appear. 20 minutes later… nothing. But I’m actually not disappointed. In fact, I’m very glad that my brother and I got up at 2 AM.

The reason why? I SAW A BARN OWL! I know, I know. Barn owls are actually pretty common, and probably lots of you guys have seen one in the wild before. But this was my first time ever! I’ve of course seen plenty of owls in zoos and that sort of thing, but there’s something awesome about seeing owls in the wild, and out in their element. So this barn owl that my brother and I saw must have been patrolling its territory, because it flew over us heading in a westerly direction, and then about 5 minutes later, it flew over us again heading east. It’s so amazing how quietly owls can fly, too! This barn owl flew over us, with its wings flapping, and both my brother and I could not hear a single noise coming from that thing. The first time it flew over us, you could just tell that it was staring us down, too. It was probably thinking something along the lines of, “WTF? What are two silly humans doing outside? They’re never out when I’m patrolling!” Well, to answer your question owl, we “silly humans” were looking for the aurora borealis. And we never saw it.

Another thing that was fun about going outside at 2 AM is just how utterly quiet everything is. There is the occasional sound of a car, train or plane, but other than that, absolutely nothing. Everything is very still, and it feels like you’re the only person on the face of the planet. So I am recommending that all of you reading this just get up and go outside at 2 AM, and if you see anything magical, let me know! I’d love to read about it in the comments.

<< A lovely little barn owl.

(This is NOT a picture I took. It would be awesome if it was, though!)