Tag Archives: soy-free

Blondies – easy, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and very yummy!

Posted on by October 4, 2018
1
Blondies!

My kids and I love the blondies from Simple Pleasures bakery which is inside a gluten-free Indian buffet restaurant that we love, Earthen Jar, here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Out of love of their blondies, I started experimenting with making my own blondies at home.

These are very easy to make, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and delicious! And they mix up really, really quickly!

They are very gooey and dough-like when they first come out of the oven. Later on in the refrigerator they firm up a bit.

I haven’t tried making a nut-free version, but you should be able to replace the nuts with soybutter or Wowbutter. If you do that, please post here about how it worked! Sometimes nut-free nut-butters turn baked goods green (!!) , so you would want to try baking this first for people who don’t mind unexpectedly green food. Or bake it for Halloween or Saint Patrick’s Day.  :)

You can use other beans in this recipe instead of the white beans. Darker beans taste fine, but they visually look chocolatey, and if your eaters think that these look like chocolate but actually they aren’t, that sets them up to be disappointed. Chickpeas in this recipe taste a bit like hummus, and, while I love hummus, it is decidedly strange in blondies, so I don’t recommend using them here. So my suggestion is to use white beans, but it’s definitely okay to experiment.

This recipe is loosely based on Flourless Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies with Sea Salt from Ambitious Kitchen. I’ve changed which type of beans to use, removed salt, added ground flaxseed to make the blondies more cohesive, and removed baking soda and baking powder. Whew!

Yum!!!

On another topic: If you do a web search for “Valerie’s Recipes,” Google can’t find it. I think the problem is that too many websites have similar names. So I am thinking about renaming this blog to have a more unique name that Google might find. Maybe “The Painted Lentil” — or “The Lentil Rainbow” — or “The Rainbow Lentil”? What do you think?

Blondies - easy, healthy, vegan, and gluten-free!
 
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Oooey gooey Blondies! Healthy, flourless, gluten-free, vegan, quick to make -- and totally delicious!
Author:
Recipe type: dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 16 blondies
Ingredients
  • 1 15-ounce can white beans, such as cannellini, great northern, or navy beans (or 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled white beans -- cooled because you don't want the batter to melt the chocolate chips) (don't use chickpeas unless you want your blondies to taste like hummus)
  • 1/2 cup of pecans, or other nuts, or nut butter such as almond butter or peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup real maple syrup or agave nectar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1-2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds (optional - helps keep the blondies from falling apart)
  • a few drops of oil, or some gluten-free cooking spray
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips such as Equal Exchange (which are fair trade and organic)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Spread a few drops of oil around in an 8x8 inch pan (I like to use a silicone pastry brush for this) or spray on some gluten-free oil.
  3. In a food processor or blender, mix all ingredients except for the chocolate chips.
  4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  5. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
  7. Variation: Make mini-muffins by putting pieces of dough the size of ping-pong balls into an oiled mini-muffin tin, and bake for 14 minutes.
  8. Serve warm (which is super yummy, but they will fall apart) or after refrigeration (also good, and much more cohesive).
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Cobblestone Farm Market Dinner – gluten-free, vegan, and makes my body oh so happy!

Posted on by July 15, 2018
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Cobblestone Farm Market Dinner

A few years ago, local folks started a small farmers’ market that is walkable from my house. It is at a place called Cobblestone Farm. They have a newsletter each week, with a recipe.

I call this recipe “Cobblestone Farm Market Dinner” because it is loosely based on a recipe that was in their newsletter.

Its alternate name is “Happy Three,” because it contains lentils, kale, and potatoes — three foods that each make my body very happy, so combining all three into one meal makes a food that I really enjoy.

The newsletter’s original name for this recipe was “Sauteed Greens & Things.”  :)

Whatever name it goes by — yum! This recipe is delightful, and it leaves my body feeling great!

All of the quantities in this recipe are very flexible. Feel free to add more of the things you like! You can make this at any time of year, and it is a glorious celebration of foods that are in season right now.

Cobblestone Farm Market Dinner
 
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This recipe contains three foods that make my body very happy: lentils, kale, and potatoes. Yum!
Author:
Recipe type: dinner
Cuisine: American
Serves: serves 4, depending on which optional ingredients you used
Ingredients
  • 1 cup green or brown lentils
  • 2 cups water
  • olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped (optional)
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed (optional)
  • 1 pint of potatoes, chopped into small dice
  • 1 handful chard, chopped
  • 1 handful kale, chopped
  • 1 handful fennel fronds, chopped (optional)
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (I use San-J gluten-free reduced sodium tamari) (for soy-free, replace with 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1-2 chopped fresh tomatoes (optional, but good!)
Instructions
  1. Check through your dry lentils and remove anything that shouldn't be there (small stones, other grains, etc.). Place them in a pot with the water. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the lentils are tender, 15 to 30 minutes depending on your lentils.
  2. Either boil the chopped potatoes in just enough water to cover them, until the potatoes are cooked but not yet mushy, which takes about 10-12 minutes, then drain them. OR put the diced potatoes on a cookie sheet, toss with some salt and oil, and bake in a 400 degree oven, turning them occasionally until the potatoes are turning golden brown. (I prefer the oven version, but if the weather is very hot I'll choose the boiled version to avoid heating up the kitchen.)
  3. Meanwhile, if you are using onions, in a big pot such as a Dutch oven, saute the onions in some olive oil. Then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the greens, and cook until they decrease in volume and are heated through.
  4. Add everything to the big pot or put it in a big mixing bowl. Stir thoroughly.
  5. Taste, and add more salt and/or tamari if needed.
  6. Serve!
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Valerie’s Amazing Pourable Pizza — easy, gluten-free, yeast-free, can be dairy-free — and delicious!

Posted on by June 19, 2018
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Amazing Pourable Pizza

 

Before mixing

Pizza ingredients before mixing. (To make vegan pizza, use flax eggs instead.)

This is the pizza that I have been looking for!

Pouring pizza dough is much faster than rolling it out!

Originally when my family went gluten-free, we made pizza from Chebe mix. It makes delicious pizza! But it isn’t organic, and I try to eat all organic. Then I found Bette Hagman’s easy pourable pizza crust recipe made from bean flours. That recipe is very quick, and it can be made with organic ingredients — but it doesn’t have the flavor of the Chebe dough that my family likes.

Mixed batter

This shows the consistency of the pourable dough after mixing.

Finally I combined everything I wanted in a pizza into this recipe. You can use organic tapioca flour to make it organic. And the crust mixes up like a batter, so you pour it onto a cookie sheet and spread it into the shape you want. And, voila — delicious, quick, can-be-organic pizza!

I included a lot of pictures to show the steps for making this. Scroll down to get the recipe!

My kids say they especially like this recipe because each person can choose their own toppings. Customizeable food!

Dough

Here is the pourable dough, spread onto two baking sheets to make four individual-sized pizzas.

 

 

 

Easy pizza sauce in the blender!

Easy pizza sauce in the blender!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake for nine minutes, then add tomato sauce.

Bake for nine minutes, then add tomato sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toppings!

Toppings! Black olives, pesto, veggie dogs, broccoli, bell peppers, and artichoke hearts. Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding toppings to pizzas

Adding toppings to pizzas. In this batch, two have cheese; the other two are dairy-free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza one! For my child who loves olives.

Pizza one! For my child who loves olives.

Pizza two! My pizza, loaded with everything.

Pizza two! My pizza, loaded with everything.

Pizza three! Made by a cheese-loving teen.

Pizza three! Made by a cheese-loving teen.

Pizza four! Made by my teen who likes olives, veggie dogs, and cheese.

Pizza four! Made by my teen who likes olives, veggie dogs, and cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza -- easy, gluten-free, yeast-free, can be dairy-free -- and delicious!
 
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This is the pizza I have been wishing for! Quick, delicious, pourable dough makes a fantastic pizza! Gluten-free. Soy-free. Yeast-free. Can be dairy-free or vegan.
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2-4 pizzas
Ingredients
Crust:
  • 3 cups tapioca flour (also called tapioca starch) (I like Anthony's Organic)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (or replace it with 1 teaspoon baking soda + 1 teaspoon cream of tartar)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons oil (olive oil or canola work well here)
  • 1/2 cup water (plus maybe 1-2 tablespoons more)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 3 eggs (or replace with flax eggs to make it vegan)
Pizza sauce
  • You can use your choice of sauce. I like to make pizza sauce by putting about 1/2 cup of organic spaghetti sauce in the blender
Toppings: sliced up, any or all of:
  • bell peppers
  • artichoke hearts (I am convinced that this is the secret to good vegan pizza; my kids do not agree)
  • veggie hotdogs cut up into little circles like pepperoni
  • olives
  • broccoli (I defrost frozen broccoli as described here, but heat it only until it is cool, not hot, so it is easy to handle)
  • carrots - cut into circles is fun, or any other shape (I've been buying julienned carrots at the store)
  • cheese (if desired -- this pizza comes out cheesy-tasting even without it)
  • pesto (I've been finding jars of an organic ready-made dairy-free pesto at Whole Foods)
  • and whatever else sounds good to you on a pizza!
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Put all of the crust ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir until mixed. It will be clumpy and annoying at first, but if you keep stirring it will turn into a pourable batter. If it really is too thick to mix, add 1-2 tablespoons of additional water. Mix until everything is nicely mixed, with just barely enough liquid to make it pourable.
  3. Pour the dough onto two non-stick cookie sheets. I like to make four individual pizzas (about 9 inches across) for the four people in my family, but you could also make this into two bigger pizzas. Use a spatula or spoon to spread the batter into your choice of pizza shapes. It should not need much spreading -- its natural thickness after pouring is about right.
  4. Bake the pizzas in the preheated oven for 9 minutes. While it bakes, prepare the toppings -- chop the veggies, defrost the broccoli, etc..
  5. Remove the pizzas from the oven. Add sauce and then toppings.
  6. Return the pizzas to the oven and bake for 8 to 15 minutes, depending on how high you piled the toppings and how hot you like your pizza. (Two of my kids like their pizza at 8 minutes; another kid and I like ours cooked for the whole 15 minutes. I pile on a lot of toppings, so the longer heating time works well.)
  7. Serve!
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Pi Pie – gluten-free, vegan, delicious, and covered in Pi

Posted on by March 15, 2018
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Pi Pie

 

To use a plastic bag to decorate the pie, first tape the edges

To use a plastic bag to decorate the pie, first tape the edges

 

Happy Pi Day! March 14th can be written as 3.14, which is the first three digits of pi. We are geeks at my house, so we always celebrate Pi Day with Pi Pie — that is, a pie with lots of digits of pi written on it.

This pie recipe is creamy and chocolatey and delicious. Yum!

For writing with frosting, I like to use a ziplock bag. I add pieces of scotch tape to reinforce the seams and edges, then cut off a corner and (optionally!) add a frosting tip. Put the frosting in the bag, try writing

Then put tape diagonally, near the corner.

Then put tape diagonally, near the corner.

a letter on a plate to make sure that everything is working okay, and then start writing on your pie!

This pie tastes amazingly yummy at any time of the year, whether or not you draw any digits on it. Don’t wait for Pi Day!

 

 

 

Fold down the ends of the tape. Put another piece of tape in the same place but on the bottom, and fold down its ends too. Cut off the corner of the bag.

Fold down the ends of the tape. Put another piece of tape in the same place but on the bottom, and fold down its ends too. Cut off the corner of the bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Put in a frosting tip. If you don't have a frosting tip, tape and cut closer to the end of the bag, so the opening is smaller.

Put in a frosting tip. If you don’t have a frosting tip, tape and cut closer to the end of the bag, so the opening is smaller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add frosting to the bag, and you are ready to decorate! Draw a test letter on a plate first, before writing on the pie.

Add frosting to the bag, and you are ready to decorate! Draw a test letter on a plate first, before writing on the pie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son James, wearing a Pumpkin Pi shirt and eating Pi Pie. :)

My son James, wearing a Pumpkin Pi shirt and eating Pi Pie. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a Pi Pie from last year, decorated with cashew cream digits instead of frosting digits.

Here is a Pi Pie from last year, decorated with cashew cream digits instead of frosting digits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pi Pie

 

Pi Pie - gluten-free, vegan, delicious, and covered in Pi
 
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This healthy vegan Pi Pie recipe is as delicious as it is cute!
Author:
Recipe type: dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 1 pie
Ingredients
  • 1 chocolate brownie crust from the recipe for Fresh Fruit Pie with Chocolate Brownie Crust
  • 1 batch of chocolate mousse
  • something to write digits with, such as a batch of cashew cream (6 tablespoons cashews and 3 tablespoons of water) blended extra-smooth and maybe even sifted through a strainer so that it won't clog the decorating tip. (For the pie in the picture, I used homemade frosting, but in the refrigerator the mousse dissolved it, so I recommend decorating with cashew cream, not frosting)
Instructions
  1. Make the chocolate brownie crust according to its directions.
  2. Make the chocolate mousse according to its directions.
  3. Place the mousse in the pie crust and carefully smooth it out flat with a spatula.
  4. Use your favorite approach to writing with frosting to write digits of pi on the pie.
  5. Refrigerate for a few hours to let the filling firm up. (It is hard to wait!)
  6. Possibly helpful: Here is a website that has a million digits of pi .
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Rainbows — edible, adorable, easy, can be gluten-free and vegan

Posted on by March 15, 2018
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Edible Rainbows!

Cut-up peppers
In the spring, someone posted a picture on Facebook showing edible little rainbows of different-colored bell peppers on top of maybe bread, with cute little white clouds at each end of the rainbow — and it captured my imagination. The picture was simply a photo, without a recipe or any information about who had cooked it. Intrigued, I kept thinking about them until I tried out a way to make them. After some experimentation, I came up with a version that tastes great, is healthy, and looks adorable.

Pizza-dough basesWarning: Edible rainbows are very susceptible to puns. They are also fun to talk about. We laughed the first time we said, “Kendra ate two rainbows for breakfast.”

For the base, you can make this with any type of pizza dough that works for you, or you can use the recipe that I’ve posted here, which is gluten-free.

Pepper arcs arranged on base

Pepper arcs arranged on base. You can see that I intentionally broke the red stripe to make it more arc-shaped.

I’ve been happily using all-purpose Chebe Mix to make really good pizza dough for years, but it isn’t organic and we try to eat all-organic. So I am happy to report that I finally figured out a from-scratch recipe that comes out similar to Chebe dough, so you can make it with organic ingredients if you choose to do that. (I do.) Bonus: I also made the dough pourable, so you mix up a batter and pour it into pizza shape, rather than needing to take the time to knead it and individually roll out circles, so it is much quicker and easier — a big improvement all around.

Edible rainbow

Super cute!

A friend said this is Unicorn Food. I like that. :)

Anyway! Here is the recipe:

Rainbows -- edible, adorable, easy, can be gluten-free and vegan
 
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Extreme cute edible vegetarian rainbows! Fairly easy to make, wildly adorable, healthy, and yummy! This is one excellent recipe!
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Serves: Serves 4-8
Ingredients
Base
  • EITHER: your favorite pizza dough, enough for two pizzas
  • OR: The following ingredients
  • 2 cups tapioca flour (note that if you buy "Letz Do Organic" brand, a box holds 1 1/2 cups, so you will need to start a second box)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder (or 2/3 teaspoon baking soda + 2/3 teaspoon cream of tartar)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup canola or olive oil
  • 6-7 tablespoons of water (start with six, add the other one if needed)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 eggs (or, if you prefer vegan, you should be able to replace them with flax eggs, but I have not tried this recipe that way)
Peppers
  • 4 bell peppers -- one each of red, orange, yellow, and green (if you have a choice, red should be a wide pepper, then orange, then yellow, and green should the skinniest -- but if your peppers aren't in those sizes, it's fine)
Clouds
  • For an alternate nut-free version: Use a batch of my creamy white dressing
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Base
  1. Preheat the oven to the temperature recommended for your pizza dough recipe.
  2. If you are using my dough recipe, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Then, except for the water, put all of the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Add six tablespoons of water and stir. This should make a batter that is thick but pourable. If it is not pourable, add the other tablespoon of water and stir again.
  3. If you are using my dough recipe, use two awesomely nonstick cookie sheets, or regular cookie sheets with silicone mats on top. Make 16 tiny pizzas, using one dinnertable tablespoon of batter for each pizza, and spreading out each one into an oval about 2-3 inches by 3-4 inches. Bake for 10 minutes.
  4. If you are using other dough, roll out blobs of dough to be about 2-3 inches by 3-4 inches and the thickness of a pizza crust. You may have extra dough left over. Bake according to the directions for your dough.
Peppers
  1. While the bases bake, cut up the peppers. Cut a circle around the stem and remove the stem. Now, with the hole where the stem was at the top, look at the ribs of the pepper. Cut from top to bottom along three of the ribs that are spaced on different sides of the pepper, ideally dividing the pepper into thirds -- but it is okay if the ribs aren't spaced evenly and your three pieces aren't very exactly equal. Trim off any seeds and ribs on the inside of each section, and rinse it out.
  2. Next, cut off the uneven part on the top of each section, then cut crosswise across each section about 1/4 inch apart, so that you get six arcs. There will be a bit of extra left over at the bottom. (If your pepper is especially large or small, make your cuts a little bigger or smaller than 1/4 inch apart.) The idea is to end up with 18 arcs of pepper in each of the four colors.
Clouds
  1. Use a good blender to blend all Clouds ingredients until they form a very smooth cream. My food processor doesn't make this smooth enough, but my blender does.
Assembly
  1. When the bases are baked, put four arcs of bell pepper on top in the shape of a rainbow, with red, orange, yellow, and green going from top to bottom. It's helpful to press the arcs together to get them closer together. For arcs that aren't arc-shaped, feel free to break the piece as needed to make it more arc-shaped. You should have a couple of pieces of each color of pepper left over at the end; you can break those into pieces and use them to extend short arcs to be longer.
  2. Next, use a dinnertable teaspoon to plop about a teaspoon of the cashew mixture at each end of the rainbow arcs (that is, use two teaspoons of cashew cream, one teaspoon on each end of the rainbow).
  3. Makes 16 rainbows. Serve 2-4 rainbows per person.
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Cookie Dough Dip – healthy, gluten-free, vegan, safe to eat, and awesomely yummy!

Posted on by October 1, 2017
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chocolate chip cookie dough dip

cookie dough dipThe original person to think up the idea of making edible healthy cookie dough is Chocolate Covered Katie — a blogger who specializes in healthy vegan desserts and who makes amazing recipes!

I have simplified her recipe and made it even healthier. This recipe takes five minutes to mix up. You need a good food processor or blender. And then you can eat (safe) raw cookie dough! Yum!!!!!

The dough that this makes does not taste exactly the same as cookie dough. But the color is right, it’s sweet, and it has chocolate chips, so as far as I’m concerned it’s good! My kids and I really love this recipe.

chocolate chip cookie dough dipThis afternoon, after I took the photos for this recipe, I asked my kids, “Who wants to eat the photo models?” They knew I was making cookie dough dip, so they came running.  :)

Cookie Dough Dip - healthy, gluten-free, vegan, safe to eat, and awesomely yummy!
 
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Healthy, vegan, gluten-free cookie dough that you can eat raw -- in five minutes! Awesomely delicious!!
Author:
Recipe type: dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup dates (about six), no pits, and check for (and remove) any dried bits of stem on them
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 15-ounce can white beans, such as cannellini beans, great northern beans, or navy beans
  • 1/3 cup of chocolate chips (I like Equal Exchange organic semi-sweet chocolate chips)
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients except for the chocolate chips into a food processor or blender. Blend until a smooth dough forms, which will take several minutes. Depending on your blender, you may need to add extra water to get everything to blend evenly.
  2. Stir in the chocolate chips, and serve!
  3. For serving, you can eat it with a spoon like a pudding, or dip in graham crackers to eat it with.
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Knishes – cute packets of potatoes in dough – gluten-free and vegetarian – warm and delicious!

Posted on by September 24, 2017
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Knishes
a rolled-out knish

A rolled-out knish, with filling on it,
ready for crimping.
I adore this little rolling pin —
it is very easy to use.

Here’s a family favorite recipe that I’ve been meaning to post for years: Knishes! A knish is a dough-wrapped packet of filling. The filling is often potatoes, though my kids prefer them filled with vegan cheese, instead, or even gluten-free pasta.

Knishes are a Jewish food, but even though I am Jewish and grew up in New York City, I never encountered them until I was an adult.

A potful of the potato filling

The potato filling

This recipe was originally developed by the author of Gluten-Free By The Bay. I have simplified the recipe, changed it around a bit, and multiplied it to make more food.

My family and I really love this recipe, even including my picky kids! I hope you will like it too! Also, it’s a great recipe to make for guests.

 

Another knish underway

Another knish underway.
There is a crimped knish on the right, ready for baking. You can see that I rolled the dough a little too thin and so it has holes.  You can click on the photo to zoom in and see the details of how the crimping looks.  Also, that one is a bit long — they should be shaped more like a semicircle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knishes - cute packets of potatoes in dough - gluten-free and vegetarian - warm and delicious!
 
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Knishes are beautiful packets of dough filled with your choice of mashed potatoes, cheesy filling, or anything else. People are always impressed when they see these. And, they are gluten-free!
Author:
Recipe type: dinner
Cuisine: Jewish
Serves: 12 knishes
Ingredients
Dough:
  • 4 1/2 cups (3 packets) All-Purpose Chebe Mix
  • 6 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons oil (I use canola and/or olive oil)
  • 1/2 cup water, milk, or vegan milk
Potato Filling: (I like to make lots of extra to eat as a side dish for days afterward)
  • 3 cups fresh red chard or spinach, washed, stems removed, and chopped, OR 1 cup defrosted frozen kale
  • 3 large baking potatoes
  • 1/4 cup oil (canola and/or olive)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper (optional -- I leave it out)
Cheesy Vegan Filling:
  • 3/4 pound firm tofu OR a combination of 3/4 cup cashews, 3/4 cup sunflower seeds, and 6 tablespoons of water
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons dried herbs, such as basil and oregano
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 box frozen spinach, defrosted
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. If you are making the potato filling, cut the potatoes into one-inch cubes and put them in a pot. Add enough cold water to cover them. Heat to a boil, then lower the heat to medium and boil for 10-12 minutes, until the potatoes are easy to pierce with a fork. Drain and return them to the pot. Add all the other ingredients for the potato filling except for the greens. Mash the potatoes. Then stir in the greens.
  3. If you are making the cheesy vegan filling, mix all ingredients in a food processor or a big blender.
  4. To make the dough, mix all of the dough ingredients and knead them together into a soft dough. If the dough is dry and not cohesive, you may need to add water -- just a teaspoon at a time, because it can go from too dry to too sticky very quickly. I use the dough kneading attachment on my food processor to do the kneading -- it works well for this.
  5. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces. (I like to roll it into a log, then cut the log into quarters, then cut each quarter into thirds. But you can divide it any way that works for you.) Pick up each piece to check its size, and pinch small blobs off the biggest pieces and add them to the smallest pieces, to even out the sizes.
  6. Use a rolling pin on a nonstick surface to roll out the dough into a 6 or 7 inch circle. Avoid making the circle bigger than that, because the dough will get holes in the middle. Check that the circle can be lifted off the surface, then add 2-4 tablespoons of filling in the middle. When in doubt about how much filling to put in, use less filling, so that it doesn't squirt out the sides. Fold the circle in half, with the filling inside. Use a fork to crimp around the edges and make evenly spaced fork-lines that go about from the edge about 1/4 inch inward. Gently press on the top of the knish to distribute the filling inside the sealed-in area. Repeat for the remaining pieces of dough.
  7. Place each knish on a baking sheet, leaving some space between them for expansion during baking.
  8. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
  9. Eat them carefully -- the filling gets incredibly hot.
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Egg Pinwheels – no gluten or dairy, and super cute!

Posted on by September 10, 2017
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Egg Pinwheels
The egg mixture

The egg mixture, after whipping and stirring in all ingredients.

This adorable recipe is fairly easy to make. You do need a food processor or mixer that can whip eggs, and a very non-stick cookie sheet. Then you are good to go!

I originally found this recipe on a site that does not exist anymore. I’ve adapted it to be gluten-free and healthier, and made it much simpler.

Ready to roll

The egg mixture, with Filling Option 1 spread on it, ready for rolling up.

My kids really like this recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

Slicing with dental floss

After baking, slicing with dental floss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After slicing

After slicing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready to serve!

Ready to serve!

 

 

 

 

 

Egg Pinwheels - no gluten or dairy, and super cute!
 
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This super-cute recipe is fairly easy to make if you have a way to whip egg whites and a very nonstick cookie sheet. Yum!
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Serves: serves 3-4
Ingredients
  • 12 eggs
  • 1/4 cup of gluten-free flour mix (I use 2 tablespoons potato starch + 2 tablespoons of garbanzo flour or quinoa flour or brown rice flour) -- or if you are not gluten-free, then use regular flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups of filling - see three options below
Filling Option One:
  • 1 cup "lasagna cheese" (or real cheese)
  • 1 package defrosted frozen spinach
  • 1 red bell pepper, cut into small cubes
Filling Option Two:
Filling Option Three:
  • I haven't tried it, but I think a mixture of greens, pesto, and tiny cubes of potatoes would be amazing in these.
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread a thin coating of oil all over the inside of a very non-stick cookie sheet that is about 11 by 15 inches.
  2. Separate the eggs. Put all twelve egg whites into a food processor or the bowl of a mixer, and use the whipping attachment to whip them until they are stiff.
  3. Discard eight egg yolks (I know, that's hard to do, but a dozen of the really nice eggs costs about $4, so it won't break the bank). Add the remaining four egg yolks to the egg whites, along with the flour mixture and salt. Gently mix everything together with a spatula.
  4. Pour the egg mixture onto a cookie sheet, and use a spatula to spread it all the way to each edge and smooth it out so that it is about the same depth everywhere.
  5. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, until the eggs start to brown.
  6. While it bakes, mix up your choice of filling ingredients.
  7. Remove from the oven, but leave the oven on.
  8. Gently use a spatula to loosen the egg rectangle from the cookie sheet. Be careful -- it is hot!
  9. Once the egg rectangle is detached, carefully flip it upside down.
  10. Spread the filling mixture evenly over the egg rectangle, leaving about an inch bare along one of the long edges.
  11. Carefully roll up the rectangle, rolling toward the bare edge. Keep rolling until the edge is underneath the roll. I find it convenient to put the roll on a diagonal on the cookie sheet, so that if filling comes out the ends it lands on the cookie sheet.
  12. Bake for another 10 minutes.
  13. Cut through the roll to make it into eight spiral pinwheels, and serve. You can do the cutting with a knife or a sharp spatula -- or by looping dental floss around it and pulling the loop shut, to cut through the log. Fun!
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Dessert Nachos – healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and awesomely yummy!

Posted on by August 1, 2017
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Dessert Nachos

Dessert NachosHappy Birthday to this blog! Today it is three years old!

Recently I was flipping through cookbooks and I spotted a recipe for “dessert nachos” — where you thinly slice up an apple as the chips, then add caramel as the sauce and sprinkle on toppings.

That got me to thinking about trying it with the healthy vegan caramel sauce from the recipe for Banana Claw ice cream.

I tried making some, and my daughter and I liked it so much that I have been making it again every morning lately. It is a little addictive.

The best part is that it is so healthy that you can eat it for breakfast.

YUM!

I thought about saving this recipe to post in the autumn, since apples are not in season right now. But it is too good to wait.

For recipes that are in season now, I long all year for Chocolate Chip Fresh Cherry Bread. There’s also Zucchini Brownies. Also, Fresh Fruit Pie With Chocolate Brownie Crust is in season now and totally awesome!!! Yum!!!!!

Dessert Nachos - healthy, vegan, gluten-free, and awesomely yummy!
 
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Great as a dessert -- and healthy enough to be breakfast! Thinly slice up an apple as the chips, then add healthy vegan caramel as the sauce and sprinkle on toppings. YUM!!!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert or Breakfast
Cuisine: American
Serves: 4 small servings or 2 medium ones
Ingredients
  • 1 apple
  • 5-6 dates (with no pits or hard bits of stem)
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons almond butter (for a nut-free version, try sunflower seed butter or soybutter instead)
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 3/8 teaspoon salt (optional but really good!)
  • Toppings such as 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, coconut bits, pomegranate seeds, etc.
Instructions
  1. In the smallest jar of a reliable blender, using a nut-butter blade if you have one, put the dates, almond butter, oil, water, and salt. Blend until very smooth. If the mixture isn't getting smooth easily, add a couple of teaspoons of water and blend again.
  2. Slice the apple into many thin slices.
  3. Divide the apple among four plates (for small servings) or two plates (for bigger servings). Add the caramel sauce on top, then sprinkle on the toppings.
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Tiramisu in 14 minutes – healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, and can be vegan

Posted on by May 21, 2017
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Tiramisu
cake slices

Chocolate chip pumpkin bread, cut into twelve “ladyfinger” sticks for this recipe.

Last August my kids and I visited Toronto.

Usually when we travel, I am fanatical about planning ahead so that we will always have gluten-free food available. But this one time my teens talked me into winging it. We had the impression that every street corner in Toronto had one of those restaurants where you order a bowl of plain rice and then pick three toppings from one column and four toppings from the next column, and many of this type of restaurant can make safe gluten-free food. So in the morning we went to the Royal Ontario

cake after dipping

Cake after dipping

Museum. In the afternoon we planned to go see Castle Loma. Our map made it look like these places were about three blocks apart, so we decided to walk from the museum to the castle, eating lunch at a bowl-type restaurant along the way. Alas, our map was not to scale. It was far more than three blocks from one place to the other. We walked for a really long time through an endless residential neighborhood that had no stores or restaurants of any kind. Finally we found a tiny grocery store. Hungry and tired, we bought mainstream GMO-filled potato chips and ate those for lunch sitting on the sidewalk outside the store, occasionally interrupted by people

Cake with cashew cream added

Cake with cashew cream added

who needed us to move out of the way so that they could get in or out of the building. Definitely not our best meal ever!

When we started walking again, we almost immediately found an organic gluten-free mostly-raw restaurant called Live Organic Food Bar. It looked intriguing, so my kids and I went in. Having just gorged on potato chips, we weren’t very hungry, but I really wanted to try the food there, so we ordered desserts. I ordered an expensive little tiramisu that was AMAZING!!!! It had been maybe fifteen years since I last ate tiramisu, and

Finished tiramisu

Finished tiramisu

getting to have it again was a real treat.

Weeks later, at home again, I kept thinking about that amazing tiramisu. It wouldn’t be easy to go back to Toronto for more, so I decided to create my own. I had a tiramisu recipe that I had loved many years ago, so I used that as a starting point.

To my surprise, the tiramisu that I invented is very fast to make, over-the-top healthy, and over-the-top delicious!!!

Tiramisu in refrigerator

Tiramisu in refrigerator – these glass containers are great for making tiramisu. You can pop on the lid and store it easily in the refrigerator.

Traditional tiramisu is made with ladyfingers — long, thin cakelike cookies that are shaped like very large fingers. In this recipe you can use a wide variety of baked desserts cut into finger shapes, as the ladyfingers. I think cookies would work well too. I suggest using something that is not all-chocolate — though actually that too might be interesting. I have done this with Corbin’s muffin bread, and with chocolate chip pumpkin bread, but you could also use storebought cookies or cake or banana bread. Also I have seen gluten-free ladyfingers available at the store, though they don’t look at all healthy. The finished tiramisu will taste like whatever baked good you choose, so you should choose a baked item that you think would taste good inside tiramisu.

TiramisuIn the pictures, I used the super-healthy version of chocolate chip pumpkin bread — the second recipe on that page. That version has no refined sugar, and I add a lot of veggies, so in the pictures you may notice that the cake part looks a little green. That’s kale. It made an awesomely healthy tiramisu that tasted fantastic to me, but if you or your eaters are at all skeptical about kale in tiramisu, you can totally make this with some other baked item. Not everybody is as crazy about kale as me, and I completely respect that. You can make a very excellent tiramisu with this recipe without any kale, if that’s what you prefer.

Anyway, I hope you will try this recipe.  It makes an amazing tiramisu!

Tiramisu in 14 minutes - healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free, and can be vegan
 
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This tiramisu takes only 14 minutes to make. It is delicious, and can be healthy, vegan, and gluten-free. Yum!!! Warning: Addictive!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: gluten-free
Serves: 3 servings
Ingredients
  • 4 slices of baked goods, such as cookies, banana bread, Corbin's muffin bread, or chocolate chip pumpkin bread, or about 3 cups of cookies
  • 3/4 cup cashews
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 5 dates, pits and any bits of stem removed
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 mug of coffee or espresso (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon brandy or cognac (optional - I leave it out)
  • 1 tablespoon baking cocoa powder
Instructions
  1. Brew a mug of coffee. (I have an ancient one-cup-at-a-time coffeemaker that makes it easy to brew just the right amount.)
  2. In a good blender, mix the cashews, water, dates, vanilla extract, and optional brandy or cognac. Blend until creamy-smooth. When the coffee is ready, add 1/2 tablespoon of coffee and blend until mixed.
  3. If you are using baked goods from a loaf, cut each of the four slices crosswise into three sticks, so that you end up with twelve finger-shaped sticks of baked goods. If you are using cookies you can skip this step.
  4. Pour the coffee into a small bowl, such as a cereal bowl. Have a fork and a loaf pan handy.
  5. A few at a time, put half of the baked goods into the coffee (that would be six "ladyfingers" or half of the cookies), then immediately use the fork to scoop them out again and put them crosswise into the loaf pan.
  6. Evenly pour half of the cashew mixture on top.
  7. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of baking cocoa evenly everywhere on top.
  8. Make a second layer: Dip the other half of the baked goods in the coffee, put them into the loaf pan, spread on the rest of the cashew cream and sprinkle on the rest of the baking cocoa powder.
  9. In theory you should refrigerate this for a few hours at this point, but it is really hard not to just dive in and start eating. It firms up a bit in the refrigerator, but even when it is liquidy from being freshly made it is still good.
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