Vegan nachos

I haven't blogged, cooked or baked in forever. I have subsisted on various holiday parties and eaten a ridiculous amount of cookies.

And I feel gross because of it.

Today we had salad for breakfast, and now at 3 p.m. I'm enjoying vegan nachos: black beans, my home canned corn salsa, home canned garden grown salsa and avocado topping.

The avocado topping is almost gaucamole except we didn't have tomatoes or onions. Not that I use onions.

Avocado topping:
- 2 avocados
- juice of one lime
- a pinch of cumin
- a pinch of garlic powder
- a pinch of chili powder

Mash, mix and let flavors blend for an hour or two in the fridge. Way better than cheese!

Cherry pancakes

My husband tricked me into making vegan pancakes. Or at least mixing a batter. I don't handle the holidays well and this year has left us with fairly empty cupboards since my daughter had a double ear infection and some unexpected medical expenses.

This batter was fairly pasty and we're still adding almond milk to thin it out.

- about 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup organic white flour
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup sourgum flour
- 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
- about 3 tablespoons liquid coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- pinch salt
- about 2 cups vanilla almond milk
- 1 cup cherries

The flavor is delicious!

Peanut butter banana frozen dessert

I cook with an eight and a half year old. This dessert has two ingredients:
Equal parts ripe bananas & peanut butter

I had one ripe banana in the freezer and an almost ripe banana on the counter. So we heated the ripe banana and combined it with the fresh one and mashed them with a potato masher.

Then we took the banana and the peanut butter and placed it all in the blender with just a splash of water to lubricate it.

It tasted how I remember the filling in a "funny bone" cupcake to taste.

We put it in the ice cream machine and since it took forever to get the sticky mess out of the blender we ended up with a thick layer that was just like peanut butter ripple in commercial ice cream and a creamier filling on top.

I got it all out and mixed it well before I transferred it to the freezer.

No sugar.
No dairy.
No soy.

Puff pastry wheels

My husband has a Christmas party in his office tomorrow. He wanted to make little broccoli pot pies, but I didn't have store bought pie crust and Target didn't have any. So I bought Pepperidge Farm puff pastry.

The first sheet was a cup of berries and some strawberry syrup ground in the food processor.

I used the leftovers and added sliced banana for the second batch.

The third batch was Green Giant broccoli and cheese sauce, Frank's Red Hot buffalo sauce, and crushed red pepper. (In the food processor)

The final batch was another pack of the broccoli, shredded Parmesan and a sprinkle of Romano.

Super veggie vegan chili

Old Mother Hubbard's cupboards are certainly getting very bare.

So, I started chili.

My chili is always bland or five-alarm delicious. Maybe if I followed a recipe, this wouldn't happen.

Today's batch:

In my Le Creuset pot I boiled and then simmered for one hour:
- one can petit diced tomatoes
- one can sliced carrots
- about 1/2 a big can of pineapple chunks ( and the juice)
- about 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- way more cocoa than I intended (about 1/4 cup)
- similar amounts of chili powder
- 1 teaspoon hot indian chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- about 1 cup frozen spinach

Stir every 15 minutes.

Add:
- 1 can reduced sodium black beans (rinsed, drained)
- 1 can reduced sodium red kidney beans (rinsed, drained)
- the equivalent of 2 cans mysterious beans from the freezer (pinto? Not labeled. Don't remember)
- 1 cup water.

Boil. Pour into crockpot. High for an hour. Low for the rest of the day. Add water if needed.

Super Sweet dairy free ice cream

It's darn cold outside so of course I choose today to make ice cream.

In the ice cream maker I place:
- 1 1/2 cups very vanilla soy milk
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/4 cup strawberry syrup imported from Beirut
- 1 teaspoon Bols blue curaçao liquor

(The preliminary tests indicate this is going to be WAY too sweet)

Breakfast for lunch

Ham, spicy cheddar omelet and parsleyed fried potatoes

Leftover Lunch

Child decided to pack lunch today. I packed her the pork leftover from Friday's meal in her thermal bowl. (Pork, pears, dried cranberries.) 3 ginger snaps. A small salad with croutons and Amy's Goddess dressing. A banana. Apple juice.

Molasses dairy-free sticky rolls

First note: you can not make caramel with brown sugar and coconut oil. But, if you stir in blackstrap molasses and stir like crazy, you can make a syrup that solidifies into molasses candy as soon as it cools. I'm thinking Popsicle sticks and spinning it into lollipops...

For the dough:
- 2 cups organic white flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup sourgum flour
- 1/4 cup ground flax meal
- small handful granulated sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup warm coconut oil
Combine.
In another container, mix:
- 1 cup warm soy milk
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 1/4 cup local raw honey

Combine and knead. Let rise until double. Could take 90 minutes.

Make caramel (see my note above)

Preheat oven to 350. Have daughter roll dough into rectangle. Sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans.

Roll and pinch ends closed. Shape into nice cylinder.

Put some "caramel" on the bottom of a cake pan. Slice into buns. Place buns in pan. Top with "caramel."

Now you're supposed to let them rise 30 more minutes, but I forgot.

Bake 30-35 minutes.

Crock pot pork chops

It is never a good idea to put a good cut of meat in the crockpot. But I worked until 5:15, child had to be dance at 6, and husband had to play chauffeur to all of us.

So I browned some boneless pork chops and threw them in the crock pot with the following sauce:

- black currant juice
- mixed berry juice
- golden brown mustard
- brown sugar
- water
- fresh pears, chopped
- dried cranberries

The meat was very tasty, but dry.

Cheater dinner of scallops

Tonight is my last psych lab. Last night of a quick dinner before running out the door to attend a three-hour night class.

So, over the weekend I used some coupons at Target. $1 off an Archer Farms purchase of three dollars or more... I got the bacon wrapped scallops, regularly priced $6.99.

In the frozen veggie aisle, many varieties of Green Giant Steam-in-bag vegetables are on sale this month for 5/$5. I can't use any of them with butter or cheese sauce so I decided to try the plain asparagus tips.

Add that to the brown rice my husband made for dinner last night and voilà!

Mixed up ravioli

Last night I had a delightful dinner with friends at Valenca in downtown Easton. I brought home a lovely piece of salmon that I recycled into the following hot lunch:

- dairy free roasted red pepper ravioli
- Wegmans feta spinach peorogies

In a sauce just slightly warmed in the cast iron skillet:
- Extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed, imported from Beirut
- garlic pepper
- Italian seasoning
- a teaspoon of lemon juice
- zaatar spice