Chia Pudding

My son, big world traveller that he is, requested chia pudding the other day.  This recipe from Minimalist Baker looks like it will hopefully work for him, but I think it could be tweaked to maybe work for folks like myself too, so.

I'm trying something new right now, which is to put in the original recipe, and then show how it can be altered.  This is honestly some really basic stuff that most cooks are going to know like the back of their hand. However, this is for those of us who are NOT cooks, or at least, cooks who are used to having recipes to use rather than having to come up with our own from scratch and trying to figure it all out.  So this may be too basic for some, but just remember, it's probably aimed at someone who is not as good at cooking as you are (yet, anyway). ^_^

Chia Pudding

Faux, dairy-free, beef stroganoff-ish sauce

It has been quite some time since I've posted anything. I have a loooong list of pinterest recipes I've explored, but it's been a tough year all around and I've not had the energy to put a lot up.

However, I've so enjoyed this little sauce that I wanted to share. It's pretty tasty, a pale white to gray-white color, and I have used it like I'd use stroganoff sauce.

Stroganoff-ish sauce

yellow onion
white button mushrooms
salt, rosemary, or other seasonings
water


Directions-
1. Blend up onion and mushrooms, with enough water to help it blend, in a blender until smooth-ish. I usually do 1 onion and maybe 1/2-1 small package of mushrooms, but this is honestly to taste.
2. Add seasonings - I do fresh herbs like rosemary, mostly.
3. Add this sauce to any beef dish you are cooking in a frying pan, to cook on a low simmer for at least 10-15 minutes. I have used this with both ground beef and beef cubes.  It will stay relatively thick, and is relatively nice if the beef-sauce mixture is poured over rice, mashed root veggies, cauliflower rice, etc...


This is, obviously, not as nice as a real stroganoff sauce. But if you're in need and have very few ingredients, this works well in a pinch for something nice. ^_^

Throwing Things Together 2

I am literally SO happy right now with how this dish is turning out! 

Spicy Potato-Chicken stew (photo coming...when my camera stops acting like a jerk)

Yeah, a lot of my thrown together stuff is soups or stews, because it's easy. I don't even care. 

First in, cubed, unpeeled, potatoes in a skillet. Because I was going to make fried potatoes and realized the one oil I can use, I'm out of. So I put in a little water with the cubed potatoes. Which looked lonely and sad, so I added two tiny chopped radishes from my garden.

Then one small chicken thigh, chopped.

And then two slices of chopped leftover onion, because it was there. And then I remembered I had about 1/4 cup of left over 'green soup'* and added that, too. 

Then the color was kind of 'meh' - an odd grayish green sort of thing - so I grabbed a couple tomatoes and grated them into the pan, too. They looked really pale until they started cooking and then reddened right up.  

I added some fresh grated ginger and turmeric as well, at that point, and a small handful of chopped cilantro stems, and a couple slices of chopped jalapeño, too. 

Then put in some dried oregano and tiny bit of dried thyme from the garden, as well.

This stuff is finishing cooking as we speak, just the potatoes need to finish, and I can hardly wait. So far, the sampling I've done tastes amazing.  Much more flavor than I thought I'd get, honestly.  I will have to try this again with the green soup added to it and see if that is what makes the difference, because I don't often get this level of flavor to similar recipes. 

The color is not quite that lovely red-orange you see so often in various Indian dishes, but still a nice color. The smell is great, the texture looks like it's going to be awesome.

In the future, I'd likely start things off with the onions and some herbs first, maybe the tomatoes, so the flavor is a little heightened, even, but so far...this one is a winner!

I could totally see this being served over rice (if you can have that) or even cooked down to lower the liquid content and maybe used in a sandwich or on a bun, Sloppy Joe style.

Not how I'm gonna eat it, but it could work that way!

*Green soup is a recipe from one of the Low Histamine Chef's cookbooks. My own version this time around had included water, salt, one white onion, the chopped stems and a few leaves from a bunch of parsley, 1 1/2 zucchini, 1 fennel bulb, one head broccoli, 1-2 jalapeños, a good amount of fresh thyme and savory, and salt - all blended up after cooking until soft.

Day 13 and 14 - Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce with GF General Tso's Tofu

Pinterest Day 13 and 14 

The Pinterest recipes I looked at these two days were Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce at the Gluten Free Lifesaver, and then a Gluten free version of General Tso's Tofu from Grumpy's Honey Bunch, which required a GF hoisin sauce to make it work.

It turned out pretty-pretty!

Mid-meal, as my son ate so fast I couldn't get another picture!

Throwing Things Together I

I just wanted to jot down what I come up with periodically, when I'm trying to use up ingredients in the fridge. Sometimes, there's something good that comes out of it. Sometimes, there's things I want to remember to avoid!

Wish I was a better cook by this point in my life, but I'm trying to cut myself a break.  I have had to start my recipe making over from scratch, due to added allergies, at least six times now in the last 14 years, with the last one losing nearly all the main ingredients I used to cook with, and all the pre-made condiments and sauces.  I figure I need to just view this as though I am back in my teens, learning to cook again!!

And, well, I just focus on stuff other than cooking, often. If I really want to get better, I should really see if I can get some time to focus on this more, too!


Beef, chile, potato soup

Today, had about 1/4 cup leftover cubed and fried potatoes, about 1/5 of a tiny can of chopped green chile, about 5 slices of zucchini, two big slices of white onion with all the rings, and a few leaves of lettuce that were still good after the head had frozen in the fridge (grrr).

So, I chopped them up, threw them all together in a pot, added some dried tepin chiles from my bushes and some ground beef about half the size of my fist, then added salt, water to cover, and wild tarragon, and cooked it on a low simmer for maybe 30 minutes - until meat was cooked and onions soft.

How it turned out
It turned out surprisingly well in taste - quite nice.  Color is brown and almost coffee and cream brown. Just looks pretty boring and bleh, so wouldn't serve it without something to jazz up the color - maybe red bell peppers, at least. It went well with corn chips - which I shouldn't eating as they aren't so great with me, but after caring for two sick kids, and getting little sleep and no chance to go to the store, it's been hard to make sure I eat as frequently as I need to (I start having difficulties if my blood sugar goes too low).

So, I would totally make this again, but presentation changes would be nice. Might cook onions ahead of time to bring out the flavor more, too. This is a good base, though!

Day 10 - Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Pinterest Day 10

The Pinterest recipe I looked at today was Tofu Vietnamese Spring Rolls by Minimalist Baker. I have no pictures - the food was all eaten so fast, there was nothing left.  I made this three times, and the immediate disappearance of the food did not change, LOL.

Whole30 Chicken and Zucchini with Green Chile Sauce

For foods that are, likely, whole30 compliant, I'm pretty much just throwing things together, for the most part. Every once in a while I might have a 365 days of pinterest recipe, though.

For right now, though, so I can remember what works, here is the first one.

Watermelon- Mint Salad

This turned out amazing - a nice, cool treat for summertime, and super easy. Pictures will come, as usual, when the camera is behaving.

Watermelon-Mint Salad

Dairy Free mashed potatoes

This is the simplest recipe for mashed potatoes and is shockingly good. Three ingredients, make it all yourself, if you like.

Recipe Review - Awesome Avocado chocolate pudding

Sounds like it'd be gross, but it's really not.

I tried out this recipe today, from the website Hold the Sulfites.
http://holdthesulfites.com/awesome-avocado-chocolate-pudding/

It has avocados, chocolate powder, honey, and vanilla extract. I thought I could use enough ingredients to make this plausible.

Looks pretty good, yeah?

Sweet potato chip nachos

I came across this recipe on pinterest, for 'Loaded sweet potato nachos.' I had never thought of nachos using sweet potato chips before, so I figured I'd give it a try!

Sweet Potato Nachos.

There's those tiny chips, waaaay underneath the toppings

Dairy Substitutions

When my family can't eat a certain ingredient, my tendency now is to simply drop it, pick different recipes than I had before, and move on. But sometimes, you have a nostalgic moment and you want a substitution for an ingredient you had before. Or you have a recipe idea and you need to figure out what ingredients can serve the same purpose as the ingredient you can no long eat.

When that happens, it's nice to know substitutions.

Dairy Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

Socca part II

I have found a much easier way to make Socca (original recipe here), or at least something that resembles it. Good enough for Gov't work and all that.

This is a VERY cheap and easy way to make this, for those who are gluten free but don't want to break the bank by buying lots of chickpea flour, and don't have a grinder to make it themselves.

Socca with hummus, cucumbers, and dill

Dairy Free Cream of Mushroom Soup

I found some safe cashews to eat!  So excited, because now I get to mess around with a lot of the vegan and raw recipes using cashew cream!

Using this recipe from vegansparkles.com, I made our version of their cream of mushroom soup that uses cashew cream for the creaminess.  

Dairy-free Cream of Mushroom Soup

This? This is amazing. It was so good. It made me react some, of course, because it has mushrooms which are higher in histamines, but I was having a low reactive day and it was SO GOOD. So...I suffered for my food. Can't do it again for the whole week without a more serious reaction, but I only regret it a little.

Spicy Roasted bell pepper and tomato soup

Quick and easy.

Combine 1 part roasted red bell pepper sauce with 2-3 parts tomato sauce (without herbs is how I had it), add 1-2 parts broth (veggie, beef, chicken, whatever), and heat.

That's all it takes. Very nice, good soup by itself or a nice base for more. :-)

Cantaloupe smoothie - dairy free

OMG - I loved this so much!

Dairy free Cantaloupe smoothie

Can't even express the love for this

Green Chile Sweet Potatoes

There are some new sweet potatoes at the Whole Foods this last week. I'm really not sure what they are, as the store just called them 'japanese sweet potato.' However, they have dark pink skins and white insides, which is unlike any japanese sweet potato I've seen - I usually see ones listed that way with red insides. I did a bit of digging (okay, I went to this one site) and it turns out these were Murasaki sweet potatoes.

These are awesome. Mild sweetness, lacks some of that dark, earthy kind of sweet flavor that you find in redder sweet potatoes, and which I rather dislike. So these were good.

But the kids hate 'em. So I started looking around my fridge and thought: I've got green chile and sweet potato - would that go together, maybe?

Homemade Date Candy

Homemade Candy, yum!

I just saw this recipe from LisaLise on the forum at Crunchy Betty and it looks like it would be pretty darn good!

Chocolate Date Candy
1. Pit a handful of medjool dates and roughly chop them.
2. Work cocoa powder into them until you have a mass that resembles dough. Wrapping it with wax paper before working the dough can prevent sticky fingers.
3. Break off bits of the "dough" and roll into balls.
4. Roll the balls in shredded coconut.

It sounds like it would taste pretty awesome, for those that can try it. I'm looking for dates I can eat, and chocolate and coconut are out for me, but it's just so awesome sounding I had to put this up, anyway!

Baked Apple Sorbet

I utterly love this stuff.

Baked Apple Sorbet

We cooked chopped gala apples (seeds removed but with peels still on) in a solar oven all day a few days ago. You could use a crock pot with a little added water, as well. They were nearly mush by the time they were done. We let them cool and then blended them all together until smooth, and then a little more. I blended until they looked almost a little frothy.