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. :)

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! 

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.

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

Home made Oreo Cookies.

Ok, Today I was supposed to be making cupcakes for AJ's birthday party. But the thought was just much to daunting for a night of no sleep, a pounding pressure headache and too much heat outside. So, these seemed like the way to go. Although I'm not sure they were to much less work they were a lot less ingredients. To me, the means less finding and putting away.
The original recipe I used was from "The Cupcake Project" It is an awesome blog that I've been loving and is really what kicked me in the butt to start a new Blog. I've been thinking about it, but it's time for doing.
Anyhow...
I should now mention that I did not do it as the recipe is written there. I'm sure had I, these would have tasted way more like regular Oreos'. However, I don't like sweet. so I cut the sugar in half. So here is the original recipe from the cupcake Project . and here is the version I made today. For the butter in the recipe,  I cheated and set mine in a glass bowl outside in the 35 degree Celsius heat for 5 mins, so the butter was plenty warm and the bowl was to. so it softened up really nice with a fork.


The Cookie

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Cocoa
• 1t Baking soda
• 1t Baking powder
•  1/4 t salt
• 1C sugar ( I used Raw sugar)
• 1/2C + 2T butter (room temp or softer)
• 1 lg egg

Mix flour, Cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. 

soften the butter in bowl with the back of a fork and add egg. mix and then add to flour mixture.

combine the two together until you get a mass of dough. 

Roll 1teaspoon pieces of the dough into balls then squish them onto a lined baking sheet (you want them fairly flat.)  And really one teaspoon is enough trust me. lol

Bake these off for 9 mins in a pre-heated 375 degree oven theses will burn fast. pay attention!! Cool on a rack. I strongly suggest letting them either sit on the sheet until they start to cool or just lift the whole sheet (I used Wax paper) and set that on top. Trying to move them before they are ready will result in lots of broken cookies!!

The filling... MMMM

• 1/2 cup  minus 2 T of butter (room temp or softer)
• 2T of coconut oil
• 1C confectioners sugar
• 2t of vanilla extract

Put Butter coconut oil and Vanilla extract in a bowl. Using a mixer blend together adding the sugar a little at a time until you get a nice fluffy icing. If you want it stiffer add more sugar. (Original recipe calls for 1 more cup). Now.. try to keep your fingers out or you will run out before you fill your cookies!!

Grab 2 cookies halves of completely cooled cookie that are close to the same size and put a spoonful (teaspoon or so) amount on the bottom side of the cookie. get your other half and put it on. Give the top a little 1/4 turn to help cover the whole cookie in filling and voila! enjoy.

review

CJ loved the cookie part but the filling, not so much. I think he would have liked it better with all the sugar in it. JT and AJ loved them and asked for more. I'm a big fan. But think that they would stay together better with more sugar. But that's not important enough for me to put it all in. I may try some though with it all just to see the difference. Maybe do a batch half and half.  I took some over to my trusty taste testing neighbours so I'll see what they think when they get home. Todd I'm sure will be into them right when he gets home from golfing this afternoon. I'm pretty sure they will be a hit with him. He, like me, isn't to into the sweet and is a fan of Vanilla which you can definitely taste in the filling. I was a little concerned the coconut oil taste would show up too much, but you don't really notice it. The vanilla definitely over powers it. Maybe swap out more butter for it next time.
Update;
Todd thought they were really good, and the neighbours (Angela and Erin) told me I was awesome. (that could partly be because they came home to treats already sitting on their counter.)  I told them I only used half the sugar and they replied that they were sweet enough for their tastes to. Angela's 6 year old apparently loved them to.