Sorry I’ve been a little less present the last few days. I’ve been sick with the norovirus-death-plague and have only gotten out of bed long enough to go to the doctor. I’ll spare you the details, but I didn’t get to eat anything all day Monday and only tackled half a banana and some saltines on Tuesday. Needless to say, I wasn’t up for typing up a delicious recipe with delicious pictures — it’s been too hard just to look at blog comments and quickly scroll by pictures of food without lingering over photos and picking out good ones. But still, I didn’t want to let a Wednesday go by without a post. Among less pleasant things, I’ve spent most of Monday and Tuesday cuddling my precious furry babies Chester...
Oddly enough, my favorite part about ordering a pizza is getting a big Greek salad to go with it. I put my salad either right next to or right on top of my pizza and let the dressing get all over. There’s something crazy delicious about the combination of a vinegary dressing, crust, and pizza. If you think about it, a Greek salad usually comes with a wedge or two of pita bread, so this is a pretty logical flavor progression. While I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly it is about homemade pizza that just isn’t as satisfying, I’ve never thought about my Greek salad. Homemade dough is always better and I have control over the quality of the ingredients, so it should just be better – but...
I love a nice, coarse, dense cornbread. Josh is more of a cakey, floury cornbread fan. We’ve seen and tried a lot of recipes for a sweet breakfasty cornbread and both of us were yet to be impressed. I set out to make a sweet cornbread loaf to have for breakfast last week and found myself making two version to satisfy both of our picky cornbread requirements. Luckily, this bread comes together so fast and easy that I wasn’t bothered to make two. This cornbread has FOUR different kinds of fruit and is gluten free, naturally sweetened, and vegan – talk about a nutritious breakfast! In my coarser version, I used almond meal with the cornmeal. Almond meal is slightly course like cornmeal is and resulted in an amazing texture. ...
Happy Pi Day!! Definitely in the top 5 of every nerd’s favorite holidays. Because I’m a super nerd, I decided to throw in an extra post this week to celebrate. I’m not normally a pie person (something about gelatinous fruit goo just doesn’t sit right with me!), but I have been known to go crazy for a good coconut cream pie. That’s why when I heard about Crazy for Crust’s Pi Day Pie Party, I couldn’t resist to make a vegan (though, still not all the healthy) version. Every coconut cream pie recipe I saw had either eggs (not vegan) or tofu. Coconut is already pretty fatty on its own, I saw no reason to be throwing in eggs and racking up more fat and calories. While I don’t mind...
I am a pancake lover. They’re in my top 3 favorite foods and I usually make them at least once a week. I have all kinds of pancake recipes I like to use, most of which are vegan. I’ve only posted one recipe so far, so I figured it was high time to celebrate a food I love so much again. The first time I made pancakes with chia seeds, I was mid-vegan week and super craving pancakes. I didn’t yet know how easy it was to pull together a vegan pancake and Biquick is accidentally vegan, so I threw together a chia egg and ran with it. The result? A thick, fluffy pancake with the perfect texture. Josh FREAKED OUT over them and talked about them pretty much every...
Brussels sprouts are one of those things that I’ve heard so many awful things about, I never bothered to try them. Recently, they’ve been popping up on pretty much every blog I read, so I figured I’d finally give them a try. I saw a recipe for Buffalo Veggie Pasta bake over on Coffee and Quinoa that was full of Brussels sprouts. Given my not-so-secret new love of Buffalo sauce, I just had to try it out. Erica goes on about her love of cheese, so I felt a little bad veganizing this recipe. But, sorry I’m not sorry– the vegan version is AMAZING! Because this was my first time with Brussels sprouts, I didn’t want to put too many in. Once I tasted them, I was so upset I...
It’s Lent right now and that’s pretty much my favorite time of the year. As a mostly vegetarian, sometimes fish eater, every Catholic on the planet eats like me on Fridays. It’s the only time of year where my obnoxious restaurant questions can be excused and menu items are specifically tailored to my diet. One of my favorite things is clam chowder (when they don’t ruin it with bacon!). I wanted to make a vegetarian/vegan version of this hearty soup. Oyster mushrooms naturally have an oceany favor, thus the name, plus kelp granules and Old Bay seasoning reinforces the flavor. I left the soup a little less clammy and more potato-y simply because that’s how I like it. If you get too many oyster mushrooms, the flavor gets really overwhelming. ...
Eggplant parmigiana is one of my favorite foods to get at an Italian restaurant. It’s so comforting, but it’s also so fattening. When I randomly found a 4 oz jar of my homemade spaghetti sauce I thought was long gone, I knew I had to do something special with it and lightened up eggplant parmigiana was the word. I know what you’re thinking – 4 oz? What a weird amount. Because I live in a 2 person house, it seemed silly to me to can in large quantities and inevitably waste half a jar later. So instead, I put almost everything into 4 oz “single serving” jars. Downside? These jars are pretty small, so I guess they’re also easy to lose! The small jar definitely wasn’t enough for multiple plates...
If you’ve been following along, you have probably noticed that I make a lot of yeast doughs that I only use half of. I’m one of those weirdos that likes to make most of her own bread because there’s so many weird ingredients in store bought bread and bread doughs. I like to make extra every time I go through the process of proofing yeast and mixing everything together so that I always have some on hand in the fridge or in the freezer. If you have a half batch of dough left and aren’t sure what to do with it, my Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls are a good place to start, or you can use it to make a small loaf of bread or a simple pizza dough. There’s...
Every time I post a recipe that is not inclusive to all diets, I feel irrationally bad. Because I have dietary restrictions, I try to cater to everyone. True, it’s easy enough to look at a recipe and figure out what you can change to make it suit you, but isn’t it nice when you look at something and it’s already perfect? Or at least offers tried and true suggestions for what would make it work. I’m just not talented enough to make everything gluten free and/or vegan while still tasting amazing, but I do enjoy trying! This recipe from conception was always going to be vegan, if only because I’m too lazy to make a real cheese sauce. If you’re into real dairy, I still urge you to try...
