"Healthier" Chocolate Chunk, Almond & Cranberry Cookies

I have gotten numerous requests for this recipe, so here it is! Shhh. don't tell them it's vegan. That's right! No animal products in these delicious babies!

Veggie & Cheese Casserole

 

OK, so I have leaped off the deep end (or so my husband says), I have decided to try out the whole vegan thang. No, I'm not one of those vegans, you know the ones that hate you for eating animals. I mean I was already not eating any form of dairy and egg so I thought "hey, I might as well try out cutting out meat". So for the past week and a half I've been vegan! and so I have been trying out some recipes and I like this one! It's pretty quick and full of flavor! And I had everything on hand. My husband's garden is busting out of the seems with a hole bunch of veggies so this recipe was perfect to use up some of those that have been sitting on the counter for a while.

Here's the recipe (adapted from This recipe):

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon minced onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 cup baby carrots, chopped
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/5 cup shredded cheese (I used Daiya mozzarella style "cheese")
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• salt and pepper to taste
• cheese for sprinkling on top

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat.

Microwave baby carrots for about 2 minutes, to soften slightly. This way they will take less time to saute.

Add zucchini and carrots to the pan, add the onion and garlic, until softened.

Add nutmeg, salt, and pepper and mix in well. Remove pan from the heat and place contents into a medium oven safe bowl. Preheat oven to 375F

Stir in cheese (save some to sprinkle on top) and mix in the bread crumbs (save some to sprinkle on top too) until well combined.

Sprinkle with the cheese and bread crumbs on top that you set aside.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

Turn on the broiler and broil (watching carefully) an additional 3-4 minutes until slightly browned on top.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Garnish with the tomatoes!

Serves about 2.

It took about 45 minutes from start to finish.

Variations:

Next time I am going to add some broccoli and maybe even some bell peppers! The possibilities are nearly endless with this dish, just replace the veggies with whatever veggies you have on hand or are in season! And of course you can always switch out the vegan cheese for the real stuff. You could even add some chicken or turkey!

This is definitely a quick and easy dish that could be dressed up in a billion different ways.

Current Obsession...

My current obsession right now is definitely a sliced peach on some whole wheat toast! YUM!

What is your current obsession??

 

 

Chicken Pot Pie

I came across a recipe for turkey pot pie with phyllo crust that I had cut out of a November 2010 Country Living magazine the other day and I decided to make it! My way of course. So in the end it neither has turkey or a phyllo crust, instead it has chicken and a homemade pie crust. Here's what I did and it only took me about 30 minutes to prep everything and about another 30 to bake.

For the Filling:

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 small bag of frozen vegetables (I used frozen cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk (I used a dairy free milk)
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Half a rotisserie chicken (shredded)

Preheat the oven to 400F

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil. Add onion powder, frozen vegetables, and garlic powder. Cook until vegetables are tender. Stir in parsley.
2. Sprinkle vegetables with flour 1 tablespoon at a time and stir until it is all mixed in and no lumps. Cook until mixture starts to look a little golden brown. Add broth, milk, ground mustard, and salt & pepper to taste. Stir frequently until mixture thickens. Stir in chicken.
3. evenly divide into two oven safe bowls and set aside.

For the Pie Crust:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 3-4 tablespoons cold water

I put all my ingredients into a food processor but you can mix everything in a bowl.

1. Stir the flour and salt together. Cut in the shortening until the pieces are the size of small peas. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the water over the mixture and gently mix. repeat until all is moistened. Form dough into a ball.
2. On a lightly floured surface flatten dough with hands. Roll dough from center to edge, forming a circle. Cut out two circles large enough to cover your bowls.
3. Now cover your bowls with the pie crust and make sure to cut some vent holes.

Place into the oven and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.
Let cool and enjoy!

Makes about 2 servings.

Dairy-Free Fruit Popsicles

I am not sure what has gotten into me lately, but I have been on a roll branching out and using new recipes. Maybe it's the heat that is putting me in such an adventurous mood. So while I was cleaning out the cupboard (apart from being in an adventurous mood in the kitchen, I've been in an organizing frenzy in the kitchen too) I came across our Popsicle molds that we bought a long time ago and never really used them. So I went online and looked for a recipe for dairy free fruit Popsicles and came across this recipe. But since I didn't have carrots or almond butter, I decided to use what I had on hand. Can you believe it only took 3 ingredients!?

   And the end result was Delicious! Even the Hubby loved them! If you are worried about it tasting like coconut, don't worry it doesn't really taste like anything but creamy goodness. Even the Hubby couldn't tell it was coconut milk, and he HATES anything with coconut in it, he literally won't touch anything that has coconut in it, until now!

So this is what I did:

Ingredients:

·    1 can of unsweetened coconut milk (look for it at your local health food store OR at your local supermarket in the Asian food isle, usually on the bottom shelf)

·    honey or any other sweetener to taste

·    fresh or frozen fruit

This is the kind of coconut milk I used. I didn't have any fresh fruit on hand so I used some frozen fruit that I hand.

Open your can of coconut milk and using a spatula put it in a bowl. Don't worry it's supposed to be separated.

Using a whisk mix it together only until it is fully mixed, don't over mix otherwise you will end up with whipped cream. At this time add your sweetener. Keep adding according to your taste. Then add however much fruit you want.

I added some fruit into the empty container before I poured the mixture into the container. I used a ladle to spoon it in. Beware this can get messy, or at least for me it was.

I love the swirls it created! Now place in your freezer for 30 minutes before you stick your Popsicle stick in. Now just wait a few hours until they are all frozen. To get them out of the molds just run warm water over the molds for a few seconds and then you are set to eat!

And the end result is a deliciously creamy treat that has absolutely NO DAIRY and is super easy to make!

Spaghetti Squash with Peas & Chicken

OK, so I've kinda been on an adventurous roll in the kitchen this week. I had never eaten spaghetti squash before let alone cook it. So I went out and picked one out of the garden and decided to try it! And I'm glad I tried it! It was really quick and easy. It took me about 40 minutes to make this. I used things that I had on hand, including the spaghetti squash from our garden. I got the idea to make this from here, I recommend watching the video if you have never cooked spaghetti squash before, it really helped me a lot!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• 1 cup peas (I only had frozen peas on hand, but you can use any vegetable you have)
• 1 boneless chicken breast (thawed and cooked)

Cut the squash in half length wise and using a spoon, scoop out all the seeds. Then place them face down on a lightly greased baking sheet. Put it in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes or until a knife can be easily poked through. Meanwhile cook the peas or vegetable the way you like and cook your chicken the way you want, I grilled mine :). After the chicken is cooked cut it up into small pieces and set aside. When the squash is done take it out of the oven and (with an oven mitt in one hand hold the squash) using a fork, scrape the flesh out and put in a bowl. Then toss the chicken and peas in with the squash, and serve!

makes about 4 servings.

Peanut Butter "Larabar"

I have been playing around in the kitchen again, and this time I came up with a peanut butter "Larabar". I can foresee myself playing around with a whole bunch of other flavors!! It is really super easy to make, and only very very few ingredients. I made some oatmeal raisin "Larabars" here and I had used raisins instead of dates, and let me just say that I think I will be buying dates in bulk from now on. I am not too terribly fond of my food being too sweet, and the raisins had made it a little too sweet for me. The dates provided a very nice balance of sweetness that I really enjoyed.
So how did I make them?

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy but you can use chunky if you'd like)

now throw it all into your handy dandy food processor (I am so glad I received my heavy duty Kitchen Aid food processor for Christmas a few years ago! I seriously thought I would never use it and it has been sitting in my cupboard for years) and process it until it's all mixed up and it pulls into a ball.

Take it out and shape it into the shape you want. This recipe made 7 rectangle bars.

Keep in the fridge or freeze, although it keeps outside of the fridge too. And enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin "Larabars"

While looking through blogs for dairy free/egg free recipes I came upon Chocolate Ccovered Katie, she does a lot of vegan desert recipes, which I've been dying to find good recipes of!! And while looking through her site I found a recipe for her version of oatmeal raisin "Larabars" so of course I had to make them (not to mention I was out of my normal energy bars and I was too lazy to drive to the store to buy some). I didn't have everything that I needed but that was OK because I just switched it out for something similar and you know what It was yummy! Don't be afraid to experiment with flavors, I know I am definitely going to be experimenting with different flavors!

Oatmeal Raisin "Larabars"

• 1/2 cup raisins
• 6 tablespoons quick oats
• 1/2 cup walnuts (I used pecans)
• 1/8 teaspoon plus 1/16 teaspoon salt (I omitted the salt)
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon honey/agave syrup (optional, I added this to make it sweeter)

Pulverize the oats in a food processor, then I measured and mixed the honey, vanilla, raisins, and nuts into my bowl and spooned it into the processor. After it was all well mixed and sticky I spooned it into my measuring cup to make a cylindrical shape (you can just form them into balls or any shape you want!) and I smash it in tight in my measuring cup.

 

Then I push up on my measuring cup and with a knife I cut my cylinder into little pucks the thickness I wanted.

This recipe makes about 3 bars/rounds. The bars last at least two weeks in the fridge, and they can also be frozen.

Lactose Intolerance

I know that being lactose intolerant isn't the end of the world but I have to say that it sucks! I've always been sensitive to anything dairy, but I could still manage to eat it and not feel like I'm dying. I always thought that I would out grow it sooner or later, but it seems that the opposite has happened, I can now eat nothing with dairy in it without getting really sick or puking. So I've been trying to cut out all cheeses and anything with milk in it but sometimes you just get the craving for ice-cream (sherbet doesn't always cut it) or cereal or yogurt. So I've been on the search for good tasting dairy alternatives, now I've tried soy milk and I've got to say...I can't stand it, it just tastes icky to me. But I found something that I like and is quite yummy. I'm super happy to able to have cereal as an option again!

Pacific Natural Foods

This stuff to me is the closest texture and consistency to milk I've found so far, but I am going to try all the other milk alternatives I can to see what is better tasting. Now that I've got my cereal back I wanted to find ice-cream that I could eat and that would taste good. So I gave this a try...

So Delicious

and I love it! it tastes pretty close to real ice-cream without it having any dairy in it, I could seriously eat this all day! It beats eating only sherbet whenever you are craving ice-cream, and they have more flavors than just vanilla and chocolate to choose from so I'm super happy about this awesome find! I'm excited to try all the other flavors and other types of dairy free ice-cream too. Now I was walking down the refrigerated section at my local health food store and saw this...

amande

yes it's "yogurt", I've got to say I was pretty nervous to try this and excited at the same time because I used to love yogurt. Now when I first opened it up and looked at it I about just threw it away it looked nasty, but after I mixed it up really good, it looked edible, no it didn't really look totally like yogurt, but it smelled like yogurt and it tasted pretty good. It had small coconut chunks in it and as long as I didn't look down at it I was glad I was able to eat "yogurt" again. Now they had different brands of "yogurt" so I might give them a try, but for now I liked this one. I'm excited that I can have some of my favorite foods back!

Birthday Cupcakes

Well my brother's 21st birthday was this weekend and for his birthday I decided to make him some cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with raspberry filling and whipped cream frosting (chocolate is my brother's favorite), and then I made some honey and spice cupcakes with whipped cream frosting topped with some toasted almonds. YUM! I topped them all with a little cupcake topper that said "happy birthday".

Mary Kay Party!!

Today I hosted a Mary Kay party! I had a ton of fun decorating and making things for it!!

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting Topped with a Fresh Raspberry

Vanilla Cupcake with Strawberry Filling with Whipped Cream Frosting Topped with a Fresh Strawberry

Ham & Cheese on White ( in the back) and Turkey, Swiss, Tomato, & Lettuce on Whole Wheat (in front) 

Strawberry Lemonaid Punch

"Thank You" To-Go Boxes I made for Guests to take food home with them

Remember the Pink Frames??!! I used them to hold the menus for the cupcakes and the sandwhiches

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Present

Well I decided to make oatmeal raisin cookies today and so I made a cute 4x4" box and a lid to go with it so I could give some cookies to a friend of mine!

Just For You, Part 3!

Ok well this is the last part of my Just For You gift that i'm going to be giving my friend today. And it is.....tiny mini apple pies!! They fit snugly in the little pizza box I made!!.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope you are all safe and with friends and family eating yummy food! Well today we went and ate Thanksgiving dinner with family but yesterday we celebrated our first ever Karmegiving! For those of you who don't know what Karmegiving is, it's a made up holiday that my friend and I came up with to celebrate the day before Thanksgiving which was when we decided to have our dinner. Since Thanksgiving Day is usually always so busy with going to family for lunch and dinner. So I have decided to share with you some pictures of the yummy food I made and of our table all set up pretty!!





Pretty Table!



Yummy Dinner Rolls!!





Cranberry Sauce!



Sausage, Cranberry, Apple Stuffing!



Mini Pumpkin Pies!



Mashed Potatoes



Turkey!



Green Beans with Bacon!



Potato Soup with Sour Cream, Cheese, and Bacon!!



Devils Food Cupcakes with Whipped Cream Frosting!



Baked Chicken with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

My husband LOVES it when I make it! And it's super easy!

You just crush up about a cup of either frosted flakes or corn flakes(I like corn flakes, he likes frosted flakes) in a quart size baggie and crush them up as finely as you'd like and then you put in about 1tsp of melted  butter in each bag and then put in one skinless chicken breast in each and just shake until it's all coated. Bake in a baking dish for about 55 minutes and then I just pair it up with mashed potatoes and gravy, and voila! An easy and super yummy dinner in about 55 minutes! 



Vanilla Cake with Fresh Strawberries in the Middle and Whipped Cream Frosting

So I made a cake on Friday, it's YUMMY!!

Mac & Cheese!

We've been trying to cut down on the fast food the last couple of weeks, and today I made some yummy and super easy mac & cheese.

 How I made it was I just boil the water for the macaroni and when the water came to a boil I put in two cups of elbow macaroni. Meanwhile I layed a thin layer of cheese (I used shredded mozzerela) in a cassarole dish and then put the cooked macaroni on top and put some more cheese on top. I then poured a little bit of milk on top (about an 1/8 of a cup). Then I crushed up about a 1/4 cup of crutons and sprinkled them on top and sprinkled a little bit of bacon bits on it. Put it in a 350 degree oven, wait about 20 minutes. And voila! You get some super easy and yummy mac & cheese!

Applesauce!!

I recently went apple picking and came home with two giant boxes of apples....so I guess i'm gonna be busy making apple everything. Today was applesauce day.

I (heart) warm applesauce!

Huckleberry Muffins with Spiced Butter

Well today I figured I better get my butt in gear and use my huckleberries, so I decided to make some huckleberry muffins but instead of just using plain butter to put on them after they are done, I made some spiced butter to complement the flavor of the muffins.

Recipe from The BIG Book of Baking

1 1/2 cup all-purpos flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp allspice

3 tbsp butter

1/2 cup superfine sugar

3 egg whites

2/3 cup low fat plain yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

                                                  3/4 cup blueberries (but I just swaped blueberries out for huckleberries)

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, allspice, and the superfine sugar, mix together. Whisk the egg whites together in seperate bowl. Add the margarine, yogurt, and vanilla extract and mix together, then stir in the blueberries until mixed. Add to the flour mixture, then gently stir together until just combined. Do not overstir the batter-it's fine for it to be a little lumpy. Bake for about 30min. Makes about 12 muffins.

 Now for the spice muffin butter

 From Reader's Digest, Cakes

1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened (I used just one stick)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger (I didn't use it)

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons honey (I didn't use it)

1 cup confectioners' sugar

Mix all except the sugar until smooth, then gradually mix in the sugar.

Chocolate Cupcake with Raspberry Filling and Whipped Cream Frosting

Apart from loving to take pictures I love to bake! Well as you probably know, my friend Megan is leaving for school, tomorrow!!! So I made her some cupcakes!