Vegan Alfredo

We made this the other night as per the recipe food on this site. We decided we would adjust it more to our tastes.

I found the original too peppery, Hubby said it was not garlic enough, (I agreed.) JT insisted it needed Parsley. :)

so here is our preferred version.

2T olive oil
4 cloves garlic smashed and minced
2 1/4C almond milk
3-3 1/2C chopped Cauiliflower
3/4t salt
1t peper, oregano, basil
juice of half a lemon. (or 1T lemon juice)
1/4 C and 2T nutritional yeast.
Pinch or 2 of parsley

In med pot, heat oil, and garlic until garlic is turning brown.
add in Almond milk and let com to a boil
Turn down heat. add cauliflower, salt, pepper, oregano, and basil. cook until cauliflower is soft. (8-10 mins)
let cool until safe enough to put in your blender.
blend cauliflower mix with lemon and nutritional yeast until creamy.

stir in parsley.

add over your favourite noodle, or noodle type substitute.

We easily fed 6 with this recipe. But 3 of the 6 are under 10. :) so it is probably a 4 adult meal.

faux red lobster buiscuts. veganized!

so, with my oldest having stomach issues currently. I am looking to perfect a faux red lobster biscuit recipe... dairy free.
ahhh
 so. here is my current work in progress. We shall see how much tweaking is needed!!
we tried it, it is pretty good, but we will be adding more nutritional yeast next time.

2C all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 T granulated sugar
1 T garlic powder
¾ t kosher salt
½C coconut oil (or butter substitute)
1/4C coconut oil (or butter substitute) 
1C Almond milk
1/4C nutritional yeast
½t  dried parsley

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar, garlic and ½ tsp salt.  Whisk until well combined.  Add melted coconut oil and milk and whisk just until flour is all wet, do not over mix.  Add Nutritional yeast and fold in with a spoon.

Drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown.

Meanwhile melt remaining ½ stick (¼ cup) of coconut oil in small mixing bowl.  Microwave for 5 seconds or until it is melted.  Add ¼ teaspoon salt and parsley.  Stir with pastry brush. 

grab those biscuits out of the oven and give the a brush.

Enjoy!!!

Vegetarian/Vegan Mexican bake with Quinoa.

My Son was recently at a youth program. I made a dish to help with the feeding of all the pre-teen monsters. The recipe was apparently a hit, and after testing the leftovers when he got home, I have now made it again, and again! it was adapted from this recipe. I didn't add as much spice as the original called for and as usual played around with the measurements a bit. :) here is my version.

• 2 1/4C veggie broth
• 1C uncooked Quinoa
• 15 oz can black beans
• 1 1/2 C frozen corn kernels
• 16 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/2C chopped red peper
• 1/2C chopped green pepper
• 1/2 med onion
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 1T chili powder
• 1/2t salt
• 1t ground black pepper
• 1t ground Cumin
• 1t oregano
• 1C shredded cheese (optional)

So, I like easy..

throw everything into a crock pot minus the cheese.

turn on high for 2.5 to 3 hours. If you want to set it longer set it on low. I have cooked this for up to 6 hours, and then reheated it the next day and it is just as good!! 

I like to leave the cheese to the side so those who want can add it.

Love cooking once and eating twice.. ( or 3 or 4 times) 

'I will add a photo if I remember to take one next time. :)

And we give tuna rice casserole a try.

We periodically order grocery boxes. These are great. we often get things that I love but would not normally buy because of cost, and no one in the house but me would eat. Like swiss chard and garlic scape.  Our boxes generally come with recipes that incorporate some of the items.  

 The kids and I generally try them out when DH isn't home. Of course, the kids are by far my biggest food critics. CJ at this point will eat just about anything I put in front of him. (he is almost a teen now, man can that kid pack it away!!) But he lets me know what he thinks. I am glad for that. he has learned to be pretty easy with it. 

This one got a big thumbs up from CJ, a tolerable but I don't really love it from JT and AJ and, of course, the Princess wouldn't even try it. This is not the recipe as it was written. This is it how I made it. Taste testing it before the oven I felt it was written to be so bland. This is my spiced up version. Feel free to drop the seasonings if you are out or if they are not your thing.

Tuna Rice Casserole serves 4

    *2 C water                                  1 can tuna drained 

*1 C rice                                    1 can green beans drained & rinsed

2-3 tbsp butter or oil                  1 can mushroom pieces drained

1 sm onion chopped                   pepper to taste

3 tbsp flour                                dash of garlic powder and seasoning salt (or just salt)

1 1/2 C milk                              grated cheese enough to cover top

1tsp Worcestershire sauce

*Use 2 1/2 - 3 cups of left over rice OR Make rice to package directions.

(usually 2C water, boil, add 1 C rice. Lower heat and cover until rice is tender and water is absorbed. approx. 20 mins.)

While rice is cooking... make the sauce (you can also skip this whole next paragraph and heat a can of mushroom soup with a half can of water in your saucepan)

Melt butter or heat oil in lg saucepan. Add onion and cook until soft (3-5 mins). Add flour, stir while cooking (about 5 more mins). pour milk in slowly while stirring. Add Worcestershire sauce. Allow to boil and thicken.

Remove from heat and add cooked rice, tuna green beans, mushrooms and mix well. Add seasonings to taste. Put casserole into a lightly greesed 8x8x2inch baking pan sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20 – 25 mins or until hot at 375F or 190C

crock pot mushroom barley soup

This is a quickie for the lovely Ms. Melly!!
Based on the recipe found here.

I am completely trying to fall back in love with my crock pot.  Here is the Mushroom barley soup I made a full crock of today. Love that I can start it and have it ready when I am. Tonight is a busy one with C.J. and J.T. off to their scouting groups. above web site is filled with vegan crock pot recipies. I am so happy to have found it. The whole cooking one meal for Todd and the kids and then something for me with enough for all the kids to try, is getting a bit exhausting to think about. Most often then not I end up losing out and eating something that maybe I would rather not. So, I'm trying to make mine the main meal and then a little bit of something for Todd. Mostly since chances are the kids will eat what I make for me anyways. so, enjoy, and stick around. I will eventually keep this up a bit more.  ;)

MM MM Mushroom Barley soup in a crock.

• 10 ounces mushrooms ,
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, 
• 1/4 Med onion 
• 2 stalks celery,
• 1/2 cup barley
• 5 cups veggie stock. (I use home made. YUMM!)
• 1 teaspoon thyme (or 2 sprigs fresh thyme)
• salt and pepper to taste

So I like quick and easy for supper. So toss all this in a crock pot. set on low for 6-8 hours. A great filling meal ready when you are. (inexpensive too!!!)

I should add, this came out pretty thick and a bit starchy for me this first go round. so, I would also highly recommend properly soaking and rinsing your barley before hand if you think a head. I made this on a whim today. And upping the stock or adding water. I added about 8 oz of water when I was about ready to serve and let it get good and hot again! 

so, for some bizarre reason my 3 boys do not like sweet potatoes. we have tried giving them to them baked, mashed, fried like fries and chips mixed with other stuff. no go, they ran if you mentioned them. Weird right?!? At our local farmers market we buy these huge sweet potatoes One would easily feed the 6 of us. so really besides refrigerating the left over, which is a lot, what do I do with all this sweet potatoe. so, today I decided that there must be a sweet potato muffin or bread I can make. So surfing I went. I found several pages that all had muffins and bread loaded with tons of sugar, not at all what I was looking for. then, I foundit. the answer to my get the kids to eat sweet potatoes with out loading it with sugar prayers. Sweet potato biscuits. the original recipe is at the Ontario sweet potato  Web site. I, Of course, can't resist changing things up a bit, so here is my version...

Ok... and again with the no Photos.. so sorry. will post them when iPhoto loves me again.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 C all-purpose flour 1/2C Whole wheat flour 1 T baking powder ½ t. salt 3 T. coconut oil 1 C cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (i didn't peel mine, but do what  works for you) ¼ t. ground cinnamon 1/8 t. ground nutmeg ¼ C Almond  milk In a lg mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  drizzle the room temp oil into the dry mix. using the back of a fork mix into flour mixture until it's crumbly looking. you could use a pastry knife as well. this worked just fine though. add in sweet potatoes and spices. blend well.  Add milk all at once and stir with fork until mixture comes together. ** note I found this a very wet mixture** Roll out on generously floured surface to ½ inch thickness.  Cut with biscuit cutter or the open end of a drinking glass, which is my usual method.  Arrange on ungreased baking sheet Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes or until golden and puffed up place on cooling rack. theses little suckers are HOT!! So the kids went crazy for these. they even helped make them J.T. was in charge of the biscuit cutting! so, I will be making these again in the future! I don't mind them eating lots if the nutrition value is there! I think the only thing I would change is next time put the potato's through the ricer so they mix easier.

Pizza bread

YUM. I got this out of a cook book on my shelf that I have had forever. It is called "school Days Lunches"  by Jean Pare. It is from her company's coming series. Great book. Even though we homeschool I live to have easy to make projects for the kids that turn into portable lunches and snacks. Cause homeschooling is not about staying home!! This is a great recipie since it is easy to make vegan. (I generally make a vegan version) I will present it here as I make it and put the extras that I don't use in brackets.
Please pardon I have no photo's on here.. iPhoto is being a royal pain in my ass and I will get those up wen I figure out what the issue is!!!


1T coconut OR olive oil.
1C chopped onion
2 garlic cloves (org. calls for 1. we LOVE garlic...)
2t Paprika (I often skip this if I don't have it)
1/2t Pepper
(3/4C chopped Pepperoni slices)
1/2 C all purpouse flour
1C whole wheat flour
(really any combination of flour will do. Just need to make sure you have 1 1/2 Cups in there... i tend to try to use more whole wheat)
2t baking powder
1/4t salt
4 egg replacers (or 4 eggs)
3/4 C nutritional Yeast  (or 3/4C parmesan Cheese)
1/2C tomato sauce
1/3 C coconut oil in liquid state (OR hard margrine or butter melted)
3/4t dried Oregano (OR if you super lucky and have some fresh, I would totally do that. so 1T chopped)

You also need; a frying pan, a small mixing bowl, a LG mixing bowl, and either a 22cm (9") greased round pan or a greased muffin tin.

Ok I know that list looks long, but I promise these are super easy and you can substitute the extra's you don't like.

As a side note to the Oregano, I I happen to not have enough I just wing it with what ever spices smell good that day.

so, your going to take that first bit of coconut (or what ever cooking oil you are using) and heat it in your fry pan.
in the pan add your onion and cook until softened. then add in the Garlic, Paprika if your using it and pepper. Just heat it until it smells yummy (about 2 mins)
if you are using the pepperoni. add it now and cook until browned.  then transfer to your smaller bowl to cool. if not, then transfer and cool.

Hey! this is a great time to make a tea while everything is cooling. Or do something really exciting like throw in a load of laundry... Yeah, I'll stick with the tea too...

Preheat your oven to 375.

Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in the Lg bowl and make a well in the centre. add your cooled mixture from your small bowl into your well in the lg bowl, and then add in the last 5 ingredients.

I find this mixture very wet. so if your used to making bread be ready for it. I also find it mixes better when you flour your counter top and give it a quick knead. although the book says just to stir until moist. I found stirring left it not well mixed.

This is also a great time to add your extra pizza toppings you may like. I loved a few handfuls of mushrooms and black olives (rinsed and drained!) Just add until it looks good in the dough. go crazy!!

Now you can either dump it into your round pan or put it into your muffin tins. I fill my muffin tins about 2/3 of the way. This way they are a great size for small hands and make cute sandwiches if you chose to stuff them.
toss them in the oven and let them bake for about 20 mins. the tops turn a pretty golden colour and your should be able to stick a toothpick or fork through the middle and have it come out nice and clean. I've found the muffins took as long as the round. keep half an eye on them as all oven are different. and some have hot spots.

This recipe freezes awesome (if they last that long).
Hope you enjoy them.

Inside out Carrot cupcakes

 I know.. Another food post. Sorry. I love the kitchen!

So, this past weekend we went to the farmers market here in town and got a huge steal on carrots and apples. So Now the big question... What to do with all these carrots before they go bad. The kids have been loving them. they taste so good. But we can only eat a bushel of carrots so fast. This morning I was looking at them and realized we needed to do some thing with them fast. some were starting to turn. Ahh Carrot cake! But how do you easily store a carrot cake and only take out what you need.. Maybe something smaller... carrot cupcakes.. Perfect. I had most of a whole package of cream cheese left for icing and away we go. I've frozen Cream cheese icing before and know that it's fine.. But now how do I frezze cupcakes with the icing on them... I could ice them when I need them, but that defets the purpose of just being able to pull them out and thaw... ahh the icing on the inside.. Perfect. So here is my inside out carrot cup cakes!!

The recipe I used came from the King arthur flour site. I just altered it a bit to fit our preferences And I doubled it. so this is easily halved. But, like I said we have a whole bushel of carrots

• 4 1/2 C flour (I use whole wheat for everything!)
• 1 C raw sugar ( you can use reg. sugar. I happen to have raw.)
• 1/2 C firm packed Brown sugar
• 1T baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1T ground Cinnamon
• 1 1/2t ground ginger
• 1t salt
• 4 lg eggs
• 11/2 C water
• 3/4 C coconut oil
• 3/4 C apple sauce. ( with all the apples I made my own. lol)
• 2C grated carrots

(If your dividing the recipe, use either the oil or the apple sauce. or split both)
All the ingredients from the top to the salt goes in a big bowl combine them together.
your eggs go into a second bowl and beat them well. them add everything down to the Apple sauce. combine these all together. add the egg mix to the flour and spice mix.
stir everything together. Add the carrots and mix until combined.

Cream Cheese icing.
so this is the way I like cream cheese icing, it is a ton less sweet then traditionally. But thats just our preference.

• 1PK of cream cheese. (8oz)
• 1/8 cup coconut oil
• 1/8 C butter
• 1/2 cup Icing sugar
• 1T vanilla extract

Dump everything into your mixer and mix away until it looks a bit light. If you want this to be stiff enough to actually ice your cupcakes you will probably need more icing sugar.


NB: it is generally 4 cups, so you can go up to that amount. but it is really sweet. I never add more then 2 cups and just deal with it being a bit runny.

Put just enough batter in your greased or papered cupcake pan to cover the bottom.



Plop 1 1/2 T(ish)of your icing filling in the middle of each cupcake and then cover with more batter. ( I tend to fill mine to much...)

and then bake at 350 for 20 mins or until they are done.





OH so yumm!!

Spaghetti bread!!

Ok, so I've had several requests. So here is the spaghetti bread I made the other night.
I used to make "baked sandwiches". It had been a long time though. I'm not sure why I stopped boredom I suppose. But a few months ago I was cruising "pinterest" and saw a pin called spaghetti bread. I. Love. Spaghetti. My mom cooks us what ever we want for dinner for our birthdays, and has for as long as I can remember. And for as long as I can remember I get spaghetti. So I pinned it and then clicked through to check out the recipe thinking maybe it was similar to a pizza bread I do for the kids. Nope. It is a baked sandwich with spaghetti in it. Crazy. Thinking who would eat spaghetti in bread... Then remembered my hubby likes it (oops sorry hon;) )I scrolled down an was unimpressed that is was made of frozen dough ( just not my thing. If its yours great!) then noticed that is was a frozen dough website. (I will put the site here when I am not on my phone..)
But I totally live the braid so anyways enough of the babble and on with the how to!!

The bread part!!

I used a white bread recipe out I the book that came with my mixer. I don't like white bread so I used while wheat flour. Really use what ever bread recipe you want. This makes two loaves of bread. I uses just under half to make this and them made a loaf of plain bread with the rest. If you want thicker bread on the outside of you loaf, use more and don't roll it so thin.

• 1/2 C Low fat milk. (I should note that I use milk made from skim milk powder. We live frugalish)
• 3 T sugar
• 2t salt
• 3T butter 
• 4 1/2 t active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 5 to 6 C flour (If you use whole wheat you won't use s much.)

Place your yeast in a warm bowl with your warm water. (If you are going to use a mixer, do this right in the mixer bowl) While that is dissolving, heat milk, salt, butter, and sugar over low heat in a sauce pan (duh) cool to luke warm. After it has come down to temp add to the yeast mixture hanging out in the bowl. Add 4 1/2 cups of your flour. If you are using a mixer and dough hook you will want to mix it on a low setting for just a few mins. If you are a hands on kinda person then start kneading away. Slowly add more of your flour until it becomes a smooth dough ball that no longer sticks to your hands or counter (Or bowl) Place in a greased bowl and cover. set aside to rise for an hour or until double in bulk.

Turn your dough out and divide into two. (I do one slightly smaller then the other for spaghetti bread.)

While your dough is rising you need to cook yourself up some pasta. and then mix it in with your fav sauce... OK now set is aside.

Get out your rolling pin and roll out your dough. I rolled mine to about a 1/2cm thick. I like thin sandwich bread though. so you kinda have to figure out what you like here. I rolled mine straight onto my stoneware sheet that I was going to put into the oven. you may have to roll it on the counter and then transfer if your sheet has an edge. (I didn't take photos) will next time Promise!!) lay your pasta right up the middle 1/3 of your dough. I also added cheese and extra garlic to the middle of mine. To do the braid make slits in 4-5cm increments up the edges of the dough sticking out and fold them over one side then the other. (check out the link to the other web site above until I get my photos.) I stretched mine a bit while I did it. Let it sit and rise for about an hour (Then I rubbed olive oil and sprinkled garlic powder and parsley to the top of mine.) I baked it along side my other half of the dough that I just popped into my stoneware bread loaf pan and let rise With it, for about 40 mins at 375(F)

You can do tons of stuff with this idea. CJ used to love individual sandwiches with ham and cheese baked in. It will go as far as our imagination. 

Guess it's been a while... and cookie update!

Well I keep meaning to do this, but time is getting away from me. I just realized I am closing in on 5 months to go in this pregnancy. Wow. Every time I think of it I think of the million things that I need to get done. LOL. House work catch up is a killer. 2 1/2 months of being too ill to move really did a number on the house!!
Anyways. I figured out the cookie recipe. It's pretty good. (in fact the kids are sitting on the couch with the bucket downing them now.. so I"m pretty sure that means they are a winner.)

CJ's real food cookies.

1C Butter Melted
3/4 C honey
3/4 C Unsweetened applesauce
2 Lg eggs
1 1/2t Vanilla
2 3/4 C Whole wheat Flour
1/2 t salt
3 C Steel cut/rough cut oats
2 cups Bitter sweet chocolate chips.

Pre-Heat oven to 350 F

Combine butter, Honey, Apple sauce and Vanilla. In a small bowl. (In all honestly, I just put it all together in the pan I melted the butter in, After I take it off the heat) Beat eggs well and mix with the butter mixture.
In a Med size bowl combine Flour, salt and oats.  All butter and eggs mixture to flour mixture. Mix well. Add chocochips and mix well again.


Put on baking sheet in tablespoon sized portions. these are not going to get bigger. So keep that in mind. You are going to want to kind of flatten them a bit so then cook even. So no big balls of dough on your tray. Bake for approx. 12 mins. (remember this depends on your oven so watch them the first few times) they should go a light to med golden brown. (again, this depends on your preference)

These would also be great with a hand full or so of dried Cranberries added, a Teaspoon of cinnamon. Or really anything else your heart desires. it is a wet enough dough that adding stuff isn't an issue. If you are thinking of adding a lot of something that will dry it up a bit omit 1/4 cup of the flour and just add it in as you think necessary after the extra ingredient. You may want to wait and add the chocochips after you add the extras and make a decision on the flour though.

So this is mine and Cj's second try through this. The first one we had 1t of Baking soda in them. and they rose quite a bit. So If you like a softer more cake-ish cookie, I would add the baking soda in to the flour mix.
Ok well thanks for joining us on our baking experiment! Glad we didn't have any huge disasters.. this time!! LOL

Our new Food experience

Well, let me be honest. It's not entirely new. We have been working sloowwllyy towards a more healthy eating lifestyle for a while now. But now I'm doing a Thirty day "real food" Challenge with a group of ladies I met online. (and a few I know IRL). We are all doing our best to follow the rules found HERE On this great website full of amazing information. (Really, go check it out... I'll wait...) My oldest, who is 8,  has volunteered to do it with me. Todd says he is glad he works at Starbucks and can get his fix at work. LOL. I'm sure not going to force him to stick to the rules around all that yummy temptation! So the trick is to find things to satisfy my pregnancy sweet tooth and still stay within the basic guidelines.. Toast with honey did it today, but I'm not holding my breathe on that one! Thankfully we have an awesome chocolate vendor at our local farmers market who sells fair trade chocolate made ethically right from the cocoa pods. There is no added sugar so that will take care of my chocolate cravings!! So anyways, I have looking for a great snack to have on hand so I didn't switch to auto-pilot and grab and handful of pre-packaged crackers for a quick snack fix and I think, after looking at a zillion Granola recipes I made one that I really like. I just sort of took the things I liked the most out of a bunch of recipes I liked (and I can't remember them all.. sorry) and mashed them together. So here is my version.

Granola

3 1/2 C rough cut oats

Enough water to cover oats in a bowl

2 T vinegar (I used cider 'cause that's what was easiest to grab)

appx. 1 cup each of

Almond slivers

Dried cranberries

Peanuts

unsweetened coconut shreds

sunflower seeds

(I think if I could have found pumpkin seeds I would have thrown those in too. But they weren't at the bulk store I went to this last trip.)

2T flax seed. (next time I would soak these first, but they were a last min addition)

2 t Cinnamon (plus the bit that "spilled" while I was scooping)

1 1/2 t ground Ginger

1/2 t nutmeg

1/2 cup honey

6T butter

2 1/2 t Vanilla Extract

OK so first on the soaking.

I have been informed, and it makes good sense, that because Seeds are meant to reproduce the plant they are not really all that meant to be eaten. and if you do eat them, They are build to be passed through your system. They have a layer built on the outside that stops them from being broken down by the human system. So, all thought we know that there are oodles of awesomeness inside seeds (and nuts) for our bodies, Lets be honest, If you can't absorb them, it's kind of a waste (Ahem). So In order to break down this barrier we need to soak the seeds and nuts to kind of confuse the seeds into saying "Hey! Lets grow a plant!"And that they signals the seed to begin to germinate. At that point our bodies can break down all that great stuff that makes your body strong.

Ok enough yapping.. On with the granola.

First the night before I put the Oats in a bowl and filled it to cover with room temp water. I then added 2 T of vinegar. I Think the exact instructions for soaking I read said 1T to 2C water.. I'm a winging it kinda girl though so I didn't remember exactly. This really only have to soak for 6 hours. I'm lazy, so overnight it is.

the next day I drained the oats, I just left them in a strainer lined in coffee filter for a while while I made breakfast and cleaned up... and I'm pretty sure half way through breakfast to.

Mix in with the oats all your dried ingredients. So al the way down to the nutmeg on that list up there.

Take a smal pan and melt together the butter and honey. then add the vanilla extract.

Dump the honey/butter mix into the oat mix. Mix well.

in a Lightly Greased baking sheet spread a layer of the granola mixture approx. 1.5cm thick. Pop into a pre-heated 250 degree oven. Now heres where is gets tricky..

If you want it kind of a chew granola bar texture. you only need it in there until the top is really firm but you can still push into it if you really try. This is how my kids seem to like it the best. this will take about 30-40 mins. If you want it crunchy granola you will need to keep it in the oven for about 60 mins. These times are not exact. (in case you haven't noticed, cooking for me never is!) And I strongly suggest you don't stray to far. They will burn fast once they start to go. (Ask me how I know....) if they hit a med brown colour pull them out otherwise you will end up throwing them all out too.. Keep in mind that it will cook for a few mins after you take it out of the oven.

I hope you like them. Really you can add anything you want to them. I'm sure mine will vary a lot to keep us from getting to bored. If I come up with any spectacular one's I'll update here!!