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