Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

Well, this was suppose to be posted on Christmas last week, as it was out Christmas breakfast.  However, I've been having just to much fun with my dear husband home to make time. Sad I know. :)

I hope your holidays have been as good as ours.  I was excited to receive "The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook" for Christmas.  I also received some new mixing bowls and some bamboo cutting boards.  Watch for those to make an appearance soon. :)

On to our food.  As I said above, I made these rolls for our Christmas morning breakfast and they were a big hit.  I did most of the prep work the night before after the kids were in bed, so that in the morning I could just bake them.  Gotta say, I love having a bread machine for just these occasions.  So much easier!  We did not do a sugary glaze on top because we don't like things too sweet.  If you want a glaze, here is a basic one (replacing dairy butter with your own dairy free one of course).  We thought they were perfect without the sticky glaze though.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup room temp water
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 large egg
Filling (recipe below)

Measure carefully, placing all the ingredients except the filling in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Select Dough cycle (do not use delay cycle).  Make filling and set aside.

Remove dough from pan.  Gently push fist into the dough to deflate.  Flatten the dough with your hands or a rolling pin to approx. 15 x 10 inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface.  Spread the filling onto the rectangle.  Roll it up tightly, beginning at 15-inch side.  Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal.  Stretch and shape to get it even.  Cut roll into 1 inch slices with dental floss or a sharp serrated knife.  Place slightly apart in pan.

*If you are looking to bake these later:  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator.  You will need to remove the rolls, cover them loosely with the plastic wrap and let them rise in a warm place for an hour or two (until they have doubled) before baking.

*If you are going to bake now:  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place about 30 mins or until doubled.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove rolls to a wire rack and let cool a few minutes.  If desired, drizzle a glaze over the rolls now.

Enjoy!

Jump Start Breakfast Granola

Well, really I eat it all the time as a snack, but it is a good start to your day if you don't have time to cook something.  Half a cup of this granola is 222 calories, so its pretty calorie packed.  That's because its full of super foods: cacao nibs, goji berries, hemp seeds.  I usually pour some coconut milk on top.  If you need it sweeter, go ahead and add some more honey.

Jump Start Breakfast Granola
4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup shredded coconut
2 Tbsp chia seeds
2 Tbsp hemp seeds
2 Tbsp ground flax seeds
2 Tbsp cacao nibs
2 Tbsp goji berries
2 Tbsp almond butter
4-5 Tbsp raw honey

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large mixing bowl, add chia seeds, hemp seeds and flax seeds and mix so they combine.  Add the almond butter and 1 Tbsp honey and mix well with the seeds, creating small "balls".  Add coconut, goji berries and cacao nibs and combine.

Add one cup of oats at a time with 1 Tbsp on honey, mixing until well incorporated before adding the next cup.  When all the oats and honey have been added, pour mixture into a baking dish and press down lightly.

Put granola in the oven for 30 mins, mixing it up every 10 minutes to evenly bake.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Enjoy.

Kung Pao Seitan

I'm sorry I've gone so long without blogging.  I haven't been cooking much for two very good reasons: 1, I was doing NaNoWriMo last month and 2, my lovely husband is working long hours.  I expect my cooking creativity to snap back into gear as holiday's just scream cooking and baking.

I've been meaning to try seitan for a while.  While we do eat meat, we are trying to greatly limit how much we eat.  Both for health and price reasons.  I try to buy grass-fed, no antibiotics/hormones, cage-free, etc. meat, which can be pricey.  So I thought, if seitan doesn't taste to bad, then it might be a cheaper solution for meat (since we aren't big tofu fans around here).

The base for this recipe is from The Accidental Vegan, but as usual I did tweak it.  Can't help myself you know.  The basic seitan recipe is also from this book, but you can find others online as well.  The one created in this cookbook looks kinda like cut up and cooked chicken (as seen in the picture).  My daughter thought it was chicken just by the look, but I will admit that she didn't like the taste.

(Basic Seitan, before being added to the kung pao.  Tastes better than it looks!)

The verdict?  While the seitan turned out fine and was far better than tofu (IMHO), it still wasn't that great. It does soak up the sauce well, so it was really like eating really big flavor bits. haha  I'm not sure if I will make seitan again, but I will do this kung pao again.  My husband and I both agreed that just beefing up the zucchini and mushroom quantity would make it a great dish, or you could try tofu or meat in it too if you really wanted.  So on to the recipe.

Kung Pao Seitan

1 Tbsp oil (I used grapeseed)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 carrot, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
1 cup chopped bok choy
6 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup basic seitan (or meat or tofu)
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained
1 can bamboo shoots, drained
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp Sriracha sauce (this makes it pretty spicy so do less if you can't take to much heat!)

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium low heat.  Add the onion, garlic and ginger and saute for about 5 minutes or until onions are soft.  Stir in the soy sauce and carrots and cook a few more minutes.  Stir in zucchini, bok choy, and mushrooms and cook stirring often, for another 8 to 10 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Stir in the seitan, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, sesame oil and Sriracha sauce.  Cook stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes.  Serve hot.

What Do Dairy-Free Kids Eat?

The idea for this post came from a birthday party we attended over the weekend.  The birthday girls family were very thoughtful towards my daughter in their planning and purchased a small cheese-less pizza and a vegan cupcake for her.  When getting the pizza, they asked what she would like for a topping and I answered with her favorites: Canadian Bacon and Olives.

Well, at the party I had several parents question the cheese-less pizza and I would explain to them the reason.  I'm sure you are all used to that.  But then something else happened, they were extremely surprised at her liking canadian bacon and olives.  The other parents seemed to think this was a "sophisticated" taste. ??? right?  This idea surprised me.

The fact is, when people find out that my daughter is allergic to dairy, they always wonder what she eats.  This is, I gather, because the average 3 year old eats a LOT of dairy.  Cheese, yogurt and cow milk are the top three things every child I know eats.  A few fruits and vegetables, sure; meat, maybe.

So here is a typical lunch for my dairy-free kid.

Edamame, carrots, applesauce and a super cookie.  Other possibilities: watermelon, dairy free chicken nuggets, apples, sandwiches on dairy free bread, beans, rice.  You name it really.  There is just so much available, isn't this what other kids eat?  Even if my child weren't allergic to dairy, I'd like to think the above is more common than just dairy items.

Your thoughts?

Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries

At the beginning of the month, I blogged about a giveaway happening at One Frugal Foodie.  Well, I ended up winning the 8 boxes of cereal.  Can you believe that?!  So I thought I would post some reviews for the cereals I got.  All of the cereals are dairy free, and a lot of them are free of other allergens too.

Today I tried Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries (my daughters first choice).  As I poured it into the bowl, I could tell that the crispy rice would be on the sweet side, as they had the look of a sugary type glaze to them.  However, the berry pieces was real freeze dried berries, not just some colorful fruit flavored blobs.  As I poured coconut milk on top, I was reminded of childhood: the sound of crispy rice talking.  I told my daughter to listen carefully, her cereal was talking to her.  She thought that was pretty cool.

I can say that my daughter categorically loved this cereal.  It was a little sweeter than I normally like for breakfast, but it was tasty.  I definitely give this a positive review, but will I buy it again?  Probably not. We don't generally buy a lot of cereal in this house.  Breakfast normally consists of eggs and veggies for the adults and an egg and a quesadilla for the girl.  Cereal is more of a snack food here when we have it.  If, however, cereal is actually requested by my daughter this is one I will definitely consider over the many others.

Crispy Brown Rice with Mixed Berries is dairy, wheat, gluten, fish, shellfish, tree nut, peanut, and soy free.  This particular cereal contains honey, so not vegan.

Cheddar Flavored Crackers!

We were doing our normal Monday shopping at Whole Foods this morning when what does my daughter spot, but some cute crackers.  I initial see the Eco-Planet Cheddar Organic Crackers, and my thought is no way she can have these, then I spot on the box non-dairy.  I do a little jig of happiness, then go on to read the ingredients.  They are vegan, so no dairy or egg and they are soy, peanut and tree nut free.  They are manufactured in a facility that processes wheat, dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts and soy, so if cross contamination is an issue, these may not be a go.

Taste? Well my lovely three year old daughter thinks they are awesome.  Before being dairy free, one of her favorite snacks were Goldfish, so you can imagine her joy at having something similar.  Plus they have fun shapes; a sun, the earth, a windmill and a car.  For me, they don't quite taste like cheddar, but they are very tasty none the less.

We are very happy with this product and I hope if you try it you will be too.

Jen's Awesome Veggie Burgers

I know I've said it before, but I'm not a huge fan of beef.  In this family, cow in every form is just not welcome.  So alternatives to meals that would normally have beef must be used.  I typically will buy either pre-made turkey burgers, or ground turkey meat to make burgers.  They are good and we are happy.

I, however, in an ever increasing attempt to bring us closer to a vegetarian diet, am looking for the perfect veggie burger.  The ones I've bought pre-made are (in my opinion) pretty plain and dry.  So I figured I should give making my own a try.

I started with a recipe from Food Network that was suppose to be fantastic.  We all agreed it was ok, but dry.  Which I figured was from being all beans and oats.  How can that be "juicy"?  So then I googled "Best Veggie Burger" and got lots of hits.  I read about why people claimed certain ones as best and came to this conclusion: Mushrooms are the closest to giving you the meaty texture people like.

Great, but I still wanted the protein one got from beans.  So... here comes my hybrid veggie burger recipe.  I think it is Awesome, thus the title.  I hope you enjoy it too.   I also make my own buns from this recipe (replacing the butter for dairy free margarine of course), top it with your favorite burger toppings and, as my daughter says in gymnastics, ta-da.

Jen's Awesome Veggie Burgers
1 cup mashed beans (I used half black and half white)
1 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 a large red bell pepper, chopped
3 artichoke hearts, chopped
2 Tbsp black olives, chopped
1 cup fresh white mushrooms, chopped
1 egg
2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder

In the olive oil, saute the onions, red bell pepper, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and black olives.  Meanwhile, mash the beans in a large bowl.  When the onions become translucent, add them to the beans and mix well.  Add oats and mix.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix really well, I find using my hands works best.  When its all mixed, use hands to form balls (4-6 depending on size of burger you want).  Place the balls in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

When ready to eat, pull the balls out and press into burger shapes (they will be thick).  Heat a pan to medium heat and fry each burger for about 5 minutes a side.  Place on bun and your done.

These freeze really well, just press them into burger shapes and wrap in cling wrap and put into freezer bags.  Just defrost in the fridge on the day you want to use them.

Quinoa with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Have I mentioned I love quinoa?  Because I do.  There is something about that little grain that I can't get enough of.  It doesn't even have to have any fancy sauce, just some plain quinoa with a bit of soy sauce will satisfy me.  The same can not be said for my family though, so in an effort to "spice" it up, I'm always looking for new ideas.

Today's recipe was derived from a Whole Foods Market recipe.  I didn't have all the ingredients required for the original, so mixed it up a bit.  I am sad to say, that while I thought it was tasty, it was not a hit with the family.  My husband hates sun-dried tomatoes, and my daughter... well I'm still trying to convince her that quinoa is good.  I will say playing with this recipe has given me ideas, so watch for more to come!

Quinoa with Broccoli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 Tbsp virgin olive oil
1/2 cup red onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cup broth (I use chicken, but vegetable would work too)
1/2 cup dry white wine
juice from half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup small broccoli florets

Heat oil over medium heat in a pot.  Add onions and garlic and cook until soft / translucent.  Add tomatoes, broth, wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil.  Stir in quinoa and salt and pepper.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Add broccoli to top of quinoa, cover and simmer another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and gently toss to combine.  Serve and enjoy.

Pumpkin n' Spice Scones

Saturday was Halloween, and I hope it was a good one for everyone.  We had a blast this year, we went trick or treating with some friends, then hung out their house for a little after party.  My 3 yr old got to walk around with two big 1st graders, and she was very proud of that.  She was also completely worn out after.

Before the festivities, we were just hanging around the house, when my wonderful husband asked if I was bringing something.  Crap-cakes!  For someone who loves to cook and bake, you would think I would remember things like oh... bringing a little something to a party!  So now I was in a mad rush to figure something out.

I started looking towards my usuals: croissants? - no definitely not enough time for that; banana bread? - nope, only one banana left; cupcakes? - kind of overkill on a night when we will have just been trick or treating.  Wait I know, scones.  Sure their sweet, but not quite as bad as a cupcake, right?

Let's see, I thought to myself, there was a recipe I wanted to try on Food Network.  I don't have the exact ingredients, but I do have oranges and cranberries, so maybe that flavor instead.  Hmm....  Wait I know, I have pureed pumpkin, I should make pumpkin scones!  Genius.  lol

Since adding pumpkin is very different from just changing the berry and zest in a recipe, I did a search.  I found this wonderful sounding recipe for imitation pumpkin scones from Starbucks.  It had great reviews, and yet, being who I am I couldn't leave well enough alone.  So here is my version of pumpkin scones.  They were a huge hit.

Pumpkin n' Spice Scones
2 cups all-purpose flour
5 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
6 Tbsp cold dairy free margarine
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Zest from half an orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp coconut milk
1 large egg
powdered sugar glaze (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spice in a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter or 2 knifes, cut butter into dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly (butter should be about pea sized at most).

In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, zest, vanilla extract, milk and egg.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until you have a very soft dough.  Form dough into a ball.

Pat the dough out on a lightly floured surface to form a 1 inch thick rectangle (should roughly be 9" x 3").  With a knife (* I recommend flouring the knife!), cut the rectangle in half length wise.  Then into thirds width wise.  Cute each mini rectangle diagonally to make triangles, you should end with a total of 12 triangles.  Place on prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, they should be lightly browned.  Place on a wire rack to cool.  Once cooled, top with powder sugar glaze.

Powder Sugar Glaze
1 cup powder sugar
2 Tbsp coconut milk

Whisk ingredients together until smooth.

2 Month Breakfast Supply Giveaway

One Frugal Foodie has another giveaway going on.  This time you could win a 2 month supply of cereal (all dairy free, some vegan and/or gluten free) from some varieties of US Mills brand cereals.  Just hope on over to One Frugal Foodie for a chance to win.

Biscuits and Mushroom Gravy

The baby decided to go back to sleep this morning at 7 am-ish, so I decided to get creative with our breakfast.  Biscuits sounded good, then my husband requested gravy to go with them.  So our breakfast this lovely Halloween morning was fried eggs with biscuits and gravy (and yes on our real plates, the biscuits were covered with gravy!).

The biscuits were just a basic recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook.  I just replaced the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and the milk with soy milk.  They tasted ok, a little dry.  Since they aren't anything to shout about, I'll skip that recipe.  And yes, I used a heart shape cookie cutter.  An odd choice for Halloween morning, no.

The mushroom gravy was an adaptation from this fantastic mushroom soup recipe.  I highly recommend trying this recipe, it is SOOOOOOOOOOO good.  I was never big on mushroom soup before going dairy, used it in some recipes but that is about it.  This homemade one is so good I can eat the whole pot of soup by myself!!

Mushroom Gravy
1 cup plain coconut milk
3 Tbs dairy free margarine
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 Tbs flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp black pepper

Heat the milk in microwave while you saute the onions and mushrooms in margarine in a sauce pot until onions get translucent.  Whisk in flour, salt, onion powder and pepper.  Cook over medium heat until bubbly, stirring constantly.  Slowly add the milk, whisking constantly to make a thick creamy gravy.

Enjoy!

Jen's Super Cookies

I like love to bake.  I always have.  However, I don't generally like to eat what I bake.  I'm not a huge sweets person; savory for me please.  Luckily, I have a wonderful husband that is more than willing to take my baked goods to his workplace and "force" them on his co-workers.

Now that I have a 3 year old though, I find she not only wants to help with the baking, she wants to actually eat what we bake.  With her allergy, letting her eat my baked goods meant coming up with new recipes and/or adapting those that I already used.  I've found this endlessly fun, to be honest, and my husbands co-workers don't notice the difference.  Win - win I say.

That said written, I also find myself not wanting my children to consume mass quantities of sweets.  So healthy alternatives are my goal, and my daughter certainly eats her fair share of fruit and vegetables.  But... kids like cookies.  So here is a relative healthy cookie option for your kids.  I've added notes where things can be adapted for different allergy needs (at least when avoiding the top 8 allergies).

Jen's Super Cookies
2 cups oats (You can find certified gluten free ones)
1/2 cup ground nuts or nut butter (I used the leftover ground almond from my fresh almond milk.  Got a nut allergy? try sunflower seed butter)
3 Tbsp ground flax seed
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 Tbsp raw Cacao (or if you don't have that 1/4 cup chocolate chips is nice)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup apples sauce
1/3 cup honey (or maple syrup if your vegan and don't eat honey)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.  Pour wet into dry bowl and mix together.  Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.  Cookies will look dark and dry, but they are actually very chewy and quite delicious!

Giveaway @ Dinner at Christina's

Another cookbook giveaway.  Head on over to Dinner at Christina's to enter to win two fabulous cookbooks; Go Diary Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living, and My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert.

The Ultimate Breakfast

Or at least I like to think so.  I try to incorporate vegetables in all of our meals.  This is one of the simplest ways for me to get veggies into our breakfast.  Use whatever vegetables your family likes (and in season), simply saute them and have them with scrambled eggs (or scrambled tofu if you can't have eggs).  Below is my favorite melody, but for my daughter; olives and zucchini only please.

My Ultimate Breakfast
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup zucchini, chopped
1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp red onion, chopped
1/4 cup artichoke hearts, chopped
2 Tbsp black olives, chopped
1 large egg

Heat a pan on medium heat, add oil.  Add zucchini, bell pepper and onion and saute till onion is close to translucent (about 2 minutes).  Add artichoke and olives and saute another minute.  Remove to plate.

Add egg to pan and cook to your preference (scrambled in picture).  Place on top of veggies and enjoy.  I will often add some hot sauce to my plate after cooking as well, because I like a little spice.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

I'm always looking for ways to cut costs in our grocery budget.  The cost of food has gone up substantially in the last few years, add to that an allergy, and your looking at a pretty large food bill.  What's a budget conscience girl to do?  Homemade goodies as much as possible of course!

With this in mind, I have been in search of a great granola bar recipe.  One that is dairy free (of course) and not to costly to make.  Buying items in the bulk bins can bring costs down, and will certainly beat out any pre-made goodies.  This recipe is a hodge podge of different recipes that I've found over the last few months and makes a good replacement for pre-packaged granola bars.

Once baked, I cut the bars up and put them in an airtight container.  They are tasty, though a bit crumbly.  My husband likes to break up a bar and eat it as cereal.  Play around with the ingredients to find your families "perfect" granola bar.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bar
4 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread oats and coconut on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Let the mixture cool completely.  Mix all the ingredients together then add the cooled oat mixture.

Spread mixture into a greased 13 x 9" baking dish, pressing it firmly down.  Bake about 25 minutes or until it is golden brown.  Cool completely before cutting.

Almond Milk

I don't have a picture for today's experiment, but.. I mean... you know what milk looks like right?  I realized yesterday as I emptied the last of the soy milk into my daughters cup that I had not bought enough soy milk for the week.  What could mommy do?

Sure I could go to the store and buy more, but I'm trying not to make extra trips to the grocery store since they ALWAYS result in un-needed purchases.  I admit it, I'm an impulse buyer.  I always find something we could use it seems.  As we I am trying to 'reel' in our grocery budget, I decided to try something else.  I knew I had raw almonds in the cupboard, we use them for snacks.  Is it possible I have enough ingredients to make a decent almond milk?  After a quick google search and a peruse of a couple recipes, I decided this was a possibility.

The milk turned out fine.  Although I wish I had a finer strainer for it since I did still end up with some pulp.  If I were to make a habit of making my own nut milk, I would purchase a nut milk bag.   I like the idea of making my own nut milk, it is a great way to control what is in it.  However, unless I can find some source of very cheap raw almonds, it is definitely not economical.

Almond Milk

What you need:
1 cup raw almonds
4 cups water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
natural sweetener to taste (I used honey)
a really good blender
a strainer of some sort

Soak the almonds in water overnight.  After almonds have soaked for at least 8 hours, drain and rinse until water runs clear.  Put almonds, 4 cups of water, vanilla extract, and sweetener into blender and blend on high until you stop hearing rattling.  Pour milk through your strainer into your storage container and there is your milk!

I read that you can keep the pulp for other purposes so I am doing that and am looking for something to make now.  So watch for that post.

Sneaky Mommy

I love being able to sneak veggies that my daughter would not normally eat into her food.  This morning, said daughter woke with a cold.  I am hopeful it isn't the flu, she only seems to have the sniffles.  Regardless, I knew meals PACKED with healthy fruit and veggies were the best thing I could do for her today.

This morning, instead of just a fruit smoothie, I whipped up a green smoothie.  Good tasting fruit with some healthy greens in it.  It consisted of mango, raspberries, kale and zucchini (with some coconut milk as my liquid).  Pretty tasty.

But that isn't what I am featuring in this post, my spur of the moment veggie - noodle soup that I made for my daughters lunch.  Not only did she proclaim it was tasty, but she did indeed eat the whole thing!  The inspiration came from my new blender.  I had a pretty poor blender that died on me last week, and purchased a new one that I am extremely happy with.  I purchased this Oster blender.  It can blend anything compared to my old one, haha.

Quick Veggie-Noodle Soup

3 cups stock (I did use chicken, but I think vegetable would be great too)
5 baby carrots or one regular carrot roughly chopped (I only had baby)
1 large kale leaf
1/4 of small onion, roughly chopped
1/2 a small zucchini
1 oz rice noodles
And a good blender!

In a pot, bring stock and veggies to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove soup from oven and pour into blender jar (I'd only do this if you have a glass one, if its plastic let the soup cool).  Puree the soup until its all liquid again.  Put soup back into pot and bring to a boil again.  Once soup is boiling, add the noodles and cook until they are done to your preferences.  Enjoy.

Best Bars & Brownies Contest

The Mixing Bowl is sponsoring a brownie contest, deadline is 11/13/09.  Show off those baking skills and enter today.  Winner gets $250.  Head over to The Mixing Bowl with your best original recipe (and a picture of it).

Huge Gift Basket Giveaway

They have another giveaway going over at One Frugal Foodie.  A new online specialty food shop has opened for business: Dairy Free Market.  They have put together a big gift basket of dairy free products and this is your chance to win it.  Head on over to One Frugal Foodie and leave your comment.

Gingerbread Men

I like to include my 3 year old in my cooking endeavors whenever possible.  Its a fun activity for the two of us, and can be a great tool for learning to follow directions (and later on math practice).  We mostly stick to baking; as one, in general, sticks to precise measurements.  We count out the cups, 1/2 cups, etc, together, I fill the cup, she empties it into the bowl.  She does some stirring, then I do the real stirring; she rolls out the dough, then I do the real rolling; etc.  It's a great activity.

This week, we have been doing a gingerbread man theme.  You know the story "Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man."  So we baked gingerbread men (we truly ended up with an army!) as another part of our theme.  These are, of course, dairy free gingerbread men.  Make them with your kids!

Gingerbread Cookie Dough

1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbs non-dairy margarine (we use Earth Balance)
1 Tbs coconut milk (you can use any milk substitute you have on hand; rice, soy, almond, etc.)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Heat molasses to boiling over medium high heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning.  Stir in sugar, margarine and milk, remove from heat.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Pour molasses mixture into bowl and stir well.  Make the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll out the dough on a floured counter and cut into shapes.  Bake the cookies on a non-stick cookie sheet, 5 to 7 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheets and let cool on a rack.  Decorate with frosting and/or candies.

Soup is On

Its that time of the year, fall has hit and I'm craving soups.  Well, to be honest I'm not that into soup, but I love making it.  I would love to think of myself as a foodie, but really I'm just really into cooking.  Luckily, I have a husband that enjoys good food (I put the word good in there because he will NOT eat my failures, lol).

Back to soup, as the weather is turning colder, I get the urge to fill the house with the good smell of soup and fresh bread.  This will be my first soup season that everything will be dairy free and I am excited to find some new recipes (and changing old ones).

So my question to my readers (all one of you, thanks to my dear husband!) is what are some great dairy free soups to try this fall/winter?  I'd love some suggestions.

Giveaway

Passing on the word about this awesome giveaway from One Frugal Foodie.  I find vegan cookbooks so helpful on our dairy free journey.

So head on over and enter to win the entire Sweet Vegan E-CookBook Collection by Hannah Kaminsky.  Entries will close at noon on Tuesday, October 6th.

Chimichangas

On a whole, we don't often eat beef.  It tends to feel like a gut bomb in my stomach, and my husband says the same.  When I try a new recipe, though, I usually feel I should follow it exactly the first time through before I make changes.  So I go out and buy the exact ingredients the recipe calls for, only to end up changing it as I go to fit our tastes.  I don't in general think there is anything wrong with adjusting the recipe, I just wish I would plan for it ahead of time.  So I can say that when I make these again, I will be using ground turkey instead of beef.

The recipe itself is from the book Don't Panic - Dinner's in the Freezer.  Like I said above, I made a few changes, so that is the recipe I'm posting.  One thing I did that I wont write in the recipe is make some special ones for my 3 year old.  She is not a fan of spicy things, so I mixed the beef mixture with just the sour cream and then made her chimichangas with that, then put in the rest of the ingredients for the adult chimichangas.  She enjoyed them just as much as my husband and I, so I can say its a winner meal.

Chimichangas

1 tsp salt

1 lb lean ground meat (beef, chicken, turkey or pork would work)

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp crushed oregano

1/2 cup canned green chilies, chopped

1/2 cup taco sauce

1/2 cup sour cream * I use tofutti brand sour cream, which is soy based

2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

10 - 7 inch tortillas *use corn for gluten and wheat free

enough vegetable oil to get about 1/2 an inch depth in an 8-inch skillet

Sprinkle salt in medium skillet.  Place over medium heat.  Add meat, garlic, and spices.  Cook until meat loses pinkness.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Remove from heat.

In an 8-inch skillet, add oil and heat to medium heat.  Place 1 tortilla at a time in skillet and "fry" for about 5 seconds a side and let cool on the side.  Mound filling on the center of the tortilla.  Fold tortilla in envelope fashion.  Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7 baking dish.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Bake until crispy, about 15 minutes.  Optional toppings; soy cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and additional sour cream.

BBQ Pork Fried Quinoa

Not the best picture, but I shouldn't expect much more from the iphone. Anyway, this was dinner last night. We had some leftover BBQ pork meat from some ribs made earlier and I am big on reusing leftovers.

Quinoa is one of our favorite new finds. Known to the Incan's as "Mother Grain", Quinoa is an excellent replacement for rice being tastier than brown (in my opinion) and much healthier than rice in general. It also happens to be gluten free, which makes it another plus for allergy families.  Of course, if you prefer to just use rice you can.

BBQ Pork Fried Quinoa

1/2 cup BBQ Pork Meat, diced (*always check the ingredients in your BBQ sauce)

1 1/2 cup Quinoa

2 cups diced carrots and peas

2 eggs

2 Tbsp soy sauce (check ingredients for gluten/wheat items)

1/4 cup chopped green onions

Cook quinoa like you do white rice (2 cups - 1 cup). In a large skillet, saute the peas and carrots until soft. Add BBQ Pork and cook for another 3 minutes , until meat is reheated. Remove skillet from heat and add cooked quinoa. In another pan, quickly scramble the eggs. Add eggs, green onions and soy sauce to quinoa mix. Stir it all up well and serve.

Simple meal, but very delicious.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought I would start us off with a good dairy free treat, cookies.  These are a hit in our house and I hope they are in yours as well.

I often hear people asking about chocolate, "doesn't that have milk in it?"  While it is true that some chocolate is made with dairy products, not all are.  I personally get the vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips available from Whole Foods.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup non-dairy margarine (we prefer Earth Balance)

1 egg

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 F.  In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg until creamy.  Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Stir in chocolate chips.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart (do not flatten).  Bake cookies 8 to 10 minutes, until very lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet about 5 minutes, then move to wire rack.

An Introduction

Welcome to my food blog dedicated to dairy-free recipes. My name is Jen and I am fortunate enough to be a stay at home wife and mother to two.

Before our daughter arrived in 2006, the only food we had to avoid was shrimp; an allergy my husband had developed as a teen. My husband is also allergic to dog and cat dander, the pollen of various weeds and trees, and he seems to have a citrus sensitivity.

My husbands allergies meant any children we had would have a higher chance of having allergies as well. So it wasn't too surprising to discover our daughter was dairy sensitive. Since I was breastfeeding, this meant I had to avoid dairy. At around six months she seemed fine and we moved on.

At about two and a half years of age, our daughter finally gave up breastfeeding. Within a week she had bad congestion. She would also complain of a tummy ache when she drank a glass of milk.

After a couple months of this, our doctor suggested a dairy elimination diet. The first week I made several mistakes. I couldn't believe how many things had some sort of dairy in it, and I was not in the practice of looking for it on labels. The second week was successful and we saw a huge improvement.

After being completely off dairy for two weeks, we reintroduced it with a slice of cheese pizza. The congestion was back and with it the realization that we now had to be dairy free. We are lucky she doesn't have a severe reaction to dairy, and we've found that she can handle trace amounts.

Our son was born just about two months ago (August 2009) and he too has dairy issues. So I have found myself off of dairy again. This time it was different though, I found myself feeling better as well. Many of my relatives have IBS, and while I do not, my digestive system does seem better. So my husband and I have decided to be "cow" free.

This blog will be about our getting used to all of us being dairy free and what I am cooking to keep us all happy. Every dish posted will be dairy-free and, when appropriate, free of other allergens. I hope you try and enjoy our dishes.