Coconut milk fruity ice cream

We had a yummy food night. 

Dinner was homemade kale chips and peanut butter and fresh strawberries on Wegmans apple oat bread.

We're ending the night with homemade dairy free ice cream: vanilla coconut milk, fresh strawberries, the leftover fruit purée I froze after making quick pops last week, local raw honey, fresh raspberries, and chambord.

Modified lemon poppyseed muffins

I don't even know what to call this crazy batter:

- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, in liquid form
- about 1/2 cup flax meal mixed with warm water
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup local raw honey
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup organic white flour
- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup poppyseeds
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 pinches salt

Scooped into muffin tins.

Baking at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

Very delightful.

We tried them plain and with a smear of local raw honey, both were awesome but the honey overshadowed the lemon flavor.

Culinary experiment of the day

I have a favorite corn muffin recipe from a local vegan cooking teacher Eileen Bresslin.

Today, I swapped out a ridiculous combo of ingredients.

DRY INGREDIENTS
- 1/4 cup flax meal
- about 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1.5 cups white corn meal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- hearty pinch salt

WET INGREDIENTS
- 1 tablespoon flax meal that has rested in 4 tablespoons warm water
- about 1/8 cup coconut oil, in liquid form
- 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1/4 cup local raw honey
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 cup soy milk
- 1.5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine dry and wet ingredients in separate batches, then combine.

Stir vigorously to quickly get the lumps out of the coconut flour and get in the oven while still bubbling.

Bake 20 minutes.

I have no idea what will happen with this.

Update: a tad dry but yummy

Mini fruit and almond balls

In my house, this recipe may be colloquially known as "baby balls."

It's based on a recipe I found on a gluten-free paleo blog, which I mentioned in my first adaptation of this recipe: http://bit.ly/XCh5On

MINI FRUIT AND ALMOND SNACK BALLS

Ingredients:
- 1 cup (and a few more) raw almonds, soaked in water a few hours and then well drained
- 8 fresh medjool dates, pitted
- 1/4 cup dried blueberries
- 5 dried pineapple rings

Grind the nuts in a food processor.

Place them to the side.

Grind fruit.

Add nuts.

Process until combined.

Shape as desired.

Refrigerate until cold. Store in fridge.

Attendance contest

I haven't exactly made a secret of the fact that December was a lean month for us. With unexpected medical bills and the new-ish car payment and the quarterly bills, we didn't have much left for groceries.

We ate more beans than usual, gave up meat and ate most of our summer canning stock.

Plus we made the most of some of those holiday party leftovers...

And as the retail season gets busier, Target offers employees food in the break room and we always have peanut butter and jelly available. So that helped.

Speaking of Target, to get back to the point of this post, every year we have an attendance contest that extends between Black Friday and January. It's a nice little motivator to keep working during a hectic time.

First, you make a snowflake and write your name on it. It goes on the wall. If you call out sick, show up late (more than 5 minutes later than your scheduled shift-- I love that they give you some wiggle room), or screw up one of your punched at the time clocks, your snowflake comes down.

At the end of the contest, all of the remaining names come off the wall and they get entered into a drawing for a $250 gift card.

I won. This was my third year in the contest and I won!!!

Now, while Target is far from a Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or farmers' market, they sell food. And in this economy, when you're a family that isn't making ends meet, and you're underemployed and looking for a job... The choices often come between paying the doctor, keeping the house warm, or buying food, well it's hard.

I mention this only because I know other families face the same choices.

So while in an ideal world, I'd love to get meat and dairy from the farm, organic vegetables and spent lots of money at Wegmans, the reality is that I can't.

That means we will get our produce and non-perishable goods from Aldi and Target.

We will continue to run mostly a dairy-free household for the ear infection prone child. Any dairy products we buy I would prefer to come from the farm (transitioning from commercial half-and-half to farm fresh raw milk for coffee, as one example).

So here's to the New Year!

Zippy Egg Wrap

In a tortilla shell:
- one egg fried in coconut oil
- half a spicy black bean burger from Morningstar
- home canned salsa

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.

Crêpes with coconut flour

We invented these crêpes and served with berry filling:
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 1 tablespoon local raw honey

These were delicious.

Broiled grapefruit and dairy-free French toast

For the French toast:
- 3 eggs
- Very vanilla soy milk
- juice of one orange
- two slices blueberry bread
- one heel from a wheat loaf
- five large slices of multigrain
(the heel and the blueberry bread I sliced into French toast sticks so I could divide them evenly)

For the grapefruit:
- halve desired grapefruits and loosen segments
- sprinkle with a touch vanilla
- cover with brown sugar
Broil on low until hot and bubbly

Aldi ramble

My daughter's school has given her two hearing tests in the last two weeks and the little love failed them both. Today she had her regular appointment with her "ear doc" who is actually a physician's assistant at the allergy practice I go to, and he used to work for an ENT. Because she had pressure in her ears and two failed tests, our "doc" thinks it's time to head to the ENT. We go Wednesday.

Meanwhile, my daughter may be going as vegan as possible. It's always seemed to help in the past.

My husband has off work today so he's run me ragged with home repair and errands. We have $52 to make it until next Friday, and he's scheduled for a haircut in the a.m. He wanted to head to Aldi, so I gave us a budget of $25.

We spent $22.37.

I noticed Aldi has 14 pounds of cat litter for $3.99. That's cheaper than Target's 27 pounds for $8.89 but with my discount it's close.

We bought:
- 2 pounds green grapes, 2.98
- bananas, 43 cents a pound, $0.99
- wheat ritz-style crackers, $1.79
- regular ritz-style crackers, $1.69
- broccoli crowns, $1.49
- cornbread crackers, $1.49
- pumpkin pie pop tarts (yes, I've lost my mind) $2.69
- carrots, $1.39
- 2 bags flour tortillas, 99 cents each
- spring mix, $1.29
- Parmesan Romano cheese, $2.39
- 4 cans mandarin oranges, 55 cents each

Dairy-free trip to Giant

My version of processed dinner: spinach nuggets and sweet potato fries

So, based on the report from my daughter's ear guy, I decided to make some dairy-free transitions in our household. Tonight is dance, which means a late night for daughter, and tomorrow I work from the early afternoon onward which limits cooking time. I hate buying processed foods, but it seemed like Amy's Organics might be in order.

I spent $50.06 (for a total grocery expenditure in March of $280). They no longer carry Amy's Organic Vegetable Dairy Free Pot Pies, so instead I bought two Moo Moo vegetarian cuisine cashew stir fry dinners. These were $4.99 each and will serve as dinner for Daddy and Daughter tomorrow. Tonight we will have spinach nuggets ($5.49-- gasp! have prices gone up) and Ian's sweet potato fries ($3.49 and yes, I can make them cheaper myself but I don't have time.)

I purchased some plain soy milk (Nature's Promise, $2.39 for a half gallon) and organic Earth Balance margarine ($3.99, only 20 cents more than the regular). Broccoli crowns, a personal watermelon, romaine hearts (2/$5) and lots of tea and coffee. (Coffee deal yielded a $1 off coupon for next purchase.)

Wish I could say more, but it's time to leave my wireless internet and take daughter to dance class...