Red almond smoothie

I've been making smoothies for a long time. My husband used to make them as a cold summertime treat but after I fell and broke my teeth four years ago, my blender and I became more intimate.

Now I use my smoothie skills to combat two phenomena: when I'm too lazy to eat  (drinking is easier) and when I can't motivate myself to eat fruit. 

Today's smoothie is based on the success of yesterday, but cooler and more tart.

For one big smoothie:

- about 3/4 cup plain yogurt

- 1 packet vanilla carnation breakfast essentials

- about 1 cup frozen strawberries and cherries

- about 3/4 cup unsweetened organic cranberry juice

- about two tablespoons black chia seeds 

- about 1/2 cup ground raw almonds

Strawberry Birthday [Short]cake

Sometimes the best things happen by accident. Child knew she wanted to bake a cake for her birthday and it should have layers and strawberries.

So we started with a Betty Crocker Starlight Yellow Cake adapted slightly since I didn't have shortening.

I used a jelly roll pan for one layer and the corresponding sized cake pan for the second.

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease and flour pans.

The cake:

(Put all ingredients in, 30 seconds mixing on low, 3 minutes on high.)

- 2 1/4 cups flour

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/4 cups soy milk

- 3/4 cup butter (softened)

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla

- 3 eggs

We cooked ours 30 minutes.

The filling:

I had leftover cooked strawberries frozen from a previous dessert and used fresh strawberries and homemade lemon whipped cream to stretch it out

The whipped cream:

(In a cold mixing bowl with a cold blender)

- one pint heavy whipping cream

- one tablespoon powdered sugar

- one teaspoon lemon extract 

Mix until it "creams"

Take the layers out of the oven. Cool the pans on wire racks for ten minutes. Invert them and the layers should fall out. When cool, spread strawberries and whipped cream on one layer, top with other layer, ice with more whipped cream. Decorate with strawberries. Store in fridge.

My ten-year-old did all the work. I supervised.

Mom's Cream of Wheat

- slightly more than 1/3 cup cream of wheat

- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

- 3/4 cup vanilla coconut milk

- 1 tablespoon local raw honey

- about 1 cup strawberries

- about 1 cup homemade applesauce (local apples)

Boil the coconut and almond milk with the honey and strawberries. Add cream of wheat. Continue to boil about two minutes while stirring constantly. (The cream of wheat will stick to the strawberries making a kind of fruit nugget. I like these.)

Let simmer on low while casually stirring until desired consistency. Stir in applesauce before serving.

Summer Fruit Molasses Bites

I really need to learn to follow a recipe.

I wanted to make strawberry rhubarb muffins. I researched a few recipes online and had to work with a few substitutions since we don't have eggs or milk in the house.

I made something delicious and very dessert-like, and hearty, but because I decided to throw in some coconut flour... Well, I was concerned my dough would be too dry and as a consequence I made it too wet. Oops.

I put about one cup strawberries and two cups chopped rhubarb (and sprinkled some white sugar onto it) into the food processor and made it into something the consistency of jam, or maybe chutney. I set that aside.

Preheated the oven to 350 and smeared 30 muffin cups with a generous layer of room temperature coconut oil.

In a BIG bowl, I mixed the following dry ingredients:
- One cup unbleached white flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- about 1/2 cup coconut flour
- about 1/2 cup sourghum gluten free flour
- about 1/4 cup flax meal
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon

In my kitchen aid mixer:
- 1/4 cup local raw honey* (Omit for true vegan cooking)
- 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1/2 cup agave nectar
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup warm coconut oil

In a mixing cup, combine:
- one cup coconut milk
- 1.5 teaspoons strawberry basil balsamic vinegar
Stir and add to mixer when it appears "curdled"
(this is my substitute for buttermilk)

Combine dry to wet ingredients, add fruit.
Poor into muffin tins. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.

I think I baked these for an hour.

They have a crisp outer coating and are gooey in the middle like a brownie.

Crazy rhubarb crumble

This is my crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants cooking at its. At least, I hope it's the best. Looks good. Smells intoxicating. How can we go wrong? It's in the oven now...

Gayle gave us our annual batch of rhubarb. My husband started cutting and we got a yield of about seven cups. This recipe required three. The rest went into the freezer.

My daughter went to work making crumbs. I monitor her dairy intake so I reduced the butter and included some coconut oil. She didn't really listen when it came to "we're making crumbs, not stirring it into a solid mass" so I ended up with a wet solid mass that we had to keep adding solids to. But if I had to guess, these were the final ingredients:

- one cup unbleached white flour
- one quarter cup whole wheat flour
- about one third cup coconut flour
- about one third cup local raw honey
- about one cup sugar
- about one third cup brown sugar
- about two cups oats
- a ridiculous amount of cinnamon
- 1/2 stick butter
- close to 1/2 cup coconut oil

We greased the bottom of my huge Le Creuset skillet and sprinkled about half the crumbs into the bottom. To combat any residual over wetness, we sprinkled even more oats into the pan. Then we sprinkled a few cherries and about 1 cup strawberries into the pan. And then added three cups rhubarb.

Gradually, we heated the following ingredients to a near boil to make a sauce:
- About three tablespoons blackstrap molasses
- one cup water
- two tablespoons corn starch
- one cup sugar

We poured over the fruit. The we added more cinnamon. And dollops of unsweetened applesauce. And topped with the crumbs. And added about 1/4 cup sliced almonds on top of that.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. I'll let you know if it's incredible. *I hope so*

Verdict: yum!

Chocolate covered strawberries

I had some strawberries in the fridge.

I have Ghiradelli 72% dark.

I have a child willing to assist.

We made chocolate covered strawberries. We had just started cutting and melting chocolate when the neighbor boy showed up on our doorstep with a valentine for our daughter.

He always wants to help. He is very good at measuring and following directions but every time I give him a knife, he cuts himself. He's going to be 8 in a few months.

I gave my daughter-- almost a year older than neighbor boy-- my chef's knife and she wielded that like a pro. The smaller knife she normally uses, I gave to neighbor boy.

They cut chocolate. They melted it in a Le Creuset tiny saucepan. We added fresh ground cinnamon. We dipped our strawberries and then seeing we had A LOT of chocolate left, we dipped AGAIN.

They are in the fridge now.

Waffle sandwich

The other day my mother-in-law brought us creamed chicken and waffles, a culinary experience of all its own. Chicken celery soup on a waffle.

Today for lunch I made an almond butter, fresh strawberries and triple berry preserve sandwich using the leftover waffles as bread. Yum!

Today after school, I plan to make our own nut butter. That's another entry for later...

Dark chocolate chip pancakes

We've low on groceries, so my meal plans for this week need to be creative. I whipped up these incredible pancakes for lunch. They are dairy-free, and the eggs came from a local farm.

Mix until moistened and fry 'em up:
- 2 eggs, whisked
- 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
- 3/4 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1/4 cup Bolthouse farms berry smoothie
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground sea salt
- 3/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1 cup Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips, 60% bittersweet

STRAWBERRY SAUCE
Boil:
- 1 cup water
- 2 cups frozen strawberries
- 1/4 cup strawberry preserves
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon marmalade

Tapioca pudding

My dentist canceled my appt for today, which means no crown for my back molar until it's rescheduled and nothing crunchy any time in the foreseeable future.

So I tried my hand at tapioca pudding.

The Kraft minute tapioca recipe is as follows:
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons minute tapioca
- 2 3/4 cups milk
- 1 egg, well beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients but vanilla in medium saucepan. Let stand five minutes.

Bring mixture to a rapid bowl on medium heat, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.

Cover and let stand 20 minutes. Stir and serve.

But I never follow directions. So my ingredients look like this:
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons minute tapioca
- 2 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg well beaten
Combine as directed. Let stand.
Before heating, add one cup diced strawberries.
After boiling, add 1 teaspoon almond extract instead of vanilla and a pinch of nutmeg.

Yum! Oh, this is delightful.

Almond pancakes

Tonight I made dairy-free almond pancakes with hot strawberries. For dinner.

Honestly, the jury's still out on whether or not the sliced almonds in the pancakes worked or whether I should have placed them on top with the strawberries.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Very Vanilla Silk
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons walnut oil
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons baking powder
About 3/4 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat eggs and add other ingredients. Fry up on hot griddle or frying pan in butter.

About 15 pancakes.

Strawberry topping
16 ounces frozen strawberries
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons strawberry preserves

Heat strawberries in microwave or thaw in fridge. Combine water & sugar in saucepan and stir well. Add strawberries, their juice and preserves. Heat to boiling.

Let boil about five minutes.

Sweet Rice

About a year and a half ago, my daughter wasn't feeling well and a friend suggested arroz con leche for her. That led to this:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/arroz-con-leche.html?m=1

I recall she didn't care for it, but today, while about to make myself cream of wheat, I saw the five pound bag of rice and thought... Hmmmm...

So in a saucepan, heat until a nice melted, smooth sauce:
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup Very Vanilla soy milk
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- 5 fresh strawberries, diced
- 3-4 tablespoons raisins

Add to steamer with one cup rice. Steam 40 minutes to an hour.

Monday breakfast

Child's breakfast is an unusual one:
- fresh strawberries
- Very Vanilla soy milk
- peanut butter on Graham crackers
(and the naughty part)
- half a donut from Dunkin Donuts

Yogurt parfaits

At Target café, we make a pretty yummy yogurt parfait with mixed berries, Land O Lakes vanilla yogurt and granola. I had a craving, but can't see spending $2.50 a serving. So after work last night, I ran through the store and got the ingredients. (well, that and some chicken for a surprise party Sunday and a bag of Veggie Lovers Salad.)

I think all in all I got 5 pounds of Perdue chicken thighs, about three pounds of drumsticks, Bear Naked granola (on sale for $3.29), Market Pantry frozen berries ($3.19), the big bottle of apple cider vinegar ($1.19) and the salad ($1.99) for $18.25.

For the café, we take frozen berries, put them in the bottom of a cup, add a scoop of yogurt, then top with more berries. The granola goes in the lid and we put the whole thing in the cooler to let the berries thaw before we sell them.

INGREDIENTS
- Market Pantry frozen mixed berries (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries)
- Chobani vanilla yogurt (the 32 ounce container that I got in a previous trip to Target on clearance for $4.18)
- Bear Naked Fruit & Nut granola (which hurts my teeth. Sadness.)

Strawberry pancakes

Yesterday my daughter requested pancakes, so we whipped up possibly the fluffiest pancake batter ever, courtesy of the Betty Crocker recipe, adapted. I love "her" opening to this recipe: "Pancakes are easy to personalize..."

Ingredients
- a ridiculous amount of sliced fresh strawberries (probably 3 cups)
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons no sugar added applesauce
- 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
- 3/4 cups oats
- 1.5 cups sour milk
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- about 1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat egg until fluffy. Add applesauce and whisk thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients, folding in strawberries last.

Pesto chicken, summer salad & honey corn

Today's dinner contains one stick of butter. Only one!

My dad and his wife are coming for dinner to bring my daughter her birthday presents. I had my husband get sine chicken out of the freezer. I thought I had three packs of 2 breasts but when my husband thawed them all, I realized each pack had three whole breasts which = a heckuva lot of chicken.

My husband and daughter picked some lettuce and herbs from the garden.

First course:
SUMMER SALAD
- greens (from the garden)
- French sorrel (from the garden)
- 2 strawberries for each salad
(one sliced, one whole)
- one cucumber, sliced
- choice of dressings: Newman's own raspberry walnut dressing

Homemade biscuits
Honeyed corn
Leftover rhubarb cobbler
Chocolate Berry Earl grey iced tea

PESTO CHICKEN:
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup roasted sunflower seeds
- about 4 cups basil
(mix in food processor to form a sauce)

Slather chicken breasts with sauce and brown in butter.

Rhubarb crumble

The finished product

The rhubarb

We made a rhubarb brown sugar crumble based on this recipe from cooks.com:

the filling

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1813,150175-250200,00.html

We greased my Le Creuset skillet and I chopped about 3.5 cups of rhubarb.

Daughter made crumbs with the following:
- 1 stick melted butter
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3/4+ a little oats
- cinnamon to taste

Adding the sauce

We put half the crumbs in the skillet.

I mixed about 1/2 cup fresh strawberries and frozen blueberries into the rhubarb. Then I sprinkled some brown sugar on the fruit. (I don't have any granulated sugar in the house)

We put the fruit/rhubarb over the crumbs and I drizzled honey over it.

In a saucepan we made a thickened sauce of:
- one cup water

final crumbs

- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

(gradually heat to almost boiling stirring constantly until it gels)

We poured that over the rhubarb filling, covered with remaining crumbs and more cinnamon and baked in the oven at 350 for one hour.

Insta-lunch

I had no plan for lunch, so I whipped this up:

- 3 wegmans Belgian waffles that my father-in-law brought
- organic maple syrup
- Morningstar breakfast patties
- raspberries
- strawberries

Summer fruit and fresh herb chicken salad

This is to accompany that bread I have on the rise. A perfect cold meal for a hot day.

-12.5 ounces chicken
- one cup fruit (I used local strawberries, local raspberries, a handful of red grapes and a three by two inch chunk of watermelon)

Dressing:
- 1/8 cup vegan mayo
- 1/8 cup Chobani mango yogurt
- two teaspoons Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut Dressing
- one teaspoon country herb blend
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Stir then add from the garden:
- 3 large leaves French sorrel, chopped
- about four tablespoons parsley
- one tablespoon dill

Strawberry chocolate coffee smoothie

I'm not fond of this one. I put in too much liquid and it's runny. But I gave half of it to my husband and then reblended my half with yogurt. Now, it will be my dinner at work!

The original runny Smoothie:
- 5 small strawberry cream eggs
- 5 fresh strawberries
- 1 strawberry carnation instant breakfast
- 3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
- 2 cups coffee (too much)
-1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

Blend.

Remove half.

Add to remaining half: 6 ounces Greek style strawberry yogurt.

With addition of yogurt, it's perfect

Kid Smoothie

One of the neighbor children came to our house today and got excited by the prospect of a smoothie. The kids made all the choices-- it tastes like a chocolate covered cherry.

- one banana Yo-baby drinkable yogurt
- six strawberries
- two to three tablespoons chocolate syrup
- milk chocolate carnation instant breakfast