Chili

Mixed up some chili recently.  Next time I'll make a version I can eat and even write out a recipe as I go along...

Mexican Cheesy Penne

Thrown together dinner tonight of pasta, various cheeses, butter, milk, peppers, red onion, roasted tomatoes with garlic, taco sauce, bacon, and tortillas chips.

Dressing

My favorite dressing recipe is this. 

A great recipe to begin with, I altered it to fit my needs of being vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy free.  Toasted Udi's multigrain bagels replaced the sourdough bread, Earth Balance replaced the butter, and vegetable broth was used.  I was cooking for a mushroom hater so artichoke hearts made it into the mix instead.  Leeks are great in this recipe as well.

sweat vegetables

 

add in herbs

  

pour in broth

 

stir in bread

 

put in greased pan, top with parsley

 

bake until set

Salad

I placed a slice of feta in each corner so that I could easily avoid it.

Slow-Roasted Cherry Tomato Spaghetti

To balance the last quick pasta, now I'll share one that takes several hours but is still quite easy.

Grab some of the loveliest cherry tomatoes you can find--I love the mini heirlooms from Trader Joe's.  Preheat your oven to 250.  Chop the tomatoes in half and place on a foil-lined flat pan with the cut-side up.  Add in some garlic cloves and fresh basil and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.  Place in the oven for however long it takes for the tomatoes to shrivel up into deliciousness--think of sun dried tomatoes.

Once they hit this state I like to throw them in a skillet with some more olive oil.  I add a few gf breadcrumbs for texture.

Cook some spaghetti--I prefer corn spaghetti.  Mix with your sauce, add some fresh basil, parsley, or both, and eat up.  I served with garlic bread for those that can have it and a Udi's hamburger bun covered in Earth Balance and parsley for me.

Quick Fire Roasted Tomato Pasta

This is a pretty easy and quick dish to throw together.

Get some water boiling for your pasta. 

In the meantime, saute some diced onion in extra virgin olive oil.  After a few minutes throw in a couple of chopped cloves of garlic and red pepper flakes.  As this becomes translucent, add in a can of fire roasted tomatoes.  Season with some salt, pepper, and fresh garlic.  I added a few roasted red peppers to my sauce on this particular occasion--feel free to add whatever strikes your fancy.

Your flavors will come together as you throw your pasta in the boiling water.  Add your salt and cook according to package instructions,  I used brown rice rotini.

Add pasta to your sauce, mix together, and serve with more fresh basil.  Some fresh mozzarella would be fabulous mixed in at the last minute.

Blackberry Peach Cobbler

Today's farmer's market on the square had wonderful looking peaches and blackberries.  This is my favorite combination for cobbler so I knew I must attempt a gluten and dairy free version.  This is very much a swap-out recipe: almond milk replaced milk, gluten-free flour mix replaced the flour, Earth Balance replaced the butter, etc. 

You'll need:
4 tbsp of earth balance
1/2 cup gluten free flour mix (with some baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum added)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
dash of pure vanilla extract
2 large peaches
blackberries (however many looks good)

Turn the oven to 350.  Place earth balance in your pan and place in oven--you want it to melt as the oven preheats.

 

I decided I wanted my flour mixture a little finer so I placed it in the food processor for a bit.  Add sugar.  Mix vanilla into the almond milk and incorporate into the dry ingredients.  It will have a pancake batter consistency.

Once the earth balance is melted, get the pan out of the oven.  Put the fruit into to the pan and then cover with the batter.

Place in oven and bake for around 45 minutes or until the crust is browned and springy.  The fruit will bubble.

Enjoy.

Is there much better

than some fried corn?

Happy to report it tastes great with earth balance in place of the butter.

Quick Enchiladas

Tonight for supper I ate the last eggplant burger so I decided Andy gets a creation out of stuff we have around.  This ended up being enchiladas--great for customization.

This version included taco beef (leftover from recent tostadas) and strips of cheese wrapped in corn enchiladas, covered in onions, LocalFolks enchilada sauce, and shredded cheddar.  I baked in the oven at 350 and served with sour cream, sliced radishes, and fresh cilantro.

Grilled New Potatoes with Lemon-Garlic Aioli and Parsley

I've made these potatoes several times--they're a Bobby Flay recipe.  They're fairly easy and I can attest that the aioli is great with roasted potatoes as well.

Boil some new potatoes--red, white, whatever is available. 

In the meantime, get your ingredients together for your aioli.

Mix up in a food processor or whisk with all your might.

Once cool, cut the boiled potatoes in half and coat with a bit of oil.  Since I don't have an outdoor grill available I use a George Foreman.  Place the potatoes on the grill cut side down.

 

 Get some nice grill marks and crisp the potatoes up enough.  Drizzle with aioli and sprinkle parsley on top.

Baked Eggplant Burgers

Since so many veggie burgers on the market contain gluten, finding a great homemade burger recipe became a quick goal.  I came across The Tolerant Vegan's baked eggplant burgers recipe a few weeks back and knew it was one to try.  I'm happy in saying it was a great success!  One of the best veggie burgers I've ever eaten--and easy to make.

I followed the recipe fairly closely--discrepancies included adding in other colors of peppers, making gluten free bread crumbs (from an oven dried Udi's whole grain hamburger bun), using great northern beans, and tossing in a bit of stoneground mustard.  I made a half batch as the eggplant I had on hand was a baby one.  Photos of the process are below.  I can't recommend them enough.  My first gluten-free bun experience as well--very happy with Udi's.

 

Still

I've ingested no dairy or gluten on purpose since my last update.  A few things caught me accidentally and, if anything, make me realize that this is what I need right now.  I'm not dealing with it well though.  I want a real pizza!

They caught up with me

I've dealt with food allergies for a while now and have seen them get worse and worse.  While for years I kept them in check, I'm currently at a point in which this is not possible.  Medical appointments and tests are imminent.  In the meantime, I'm doing the only thing that can help and that's avoid the allergens.  This means no gluten or dairy.  As a vegetarian this is quite annoying as--beyond not having cheese and bread, most of my favorite meat substitutes contain gluten.  Goodbye to my beloved Gardein.

In  the cut-back/keep-in-check years I adapted some of my recipes so they're gluten/dairy free.  Now I must delve farther.  Hopefully I come up with something good.  I plan on posting here more frequently as a way of self encouragement.

neopolitan cake

A few months back I found this cake online and knew I had to have it.  It was just too pretty and sounded too tasty.  For my birthday I always have a Hummingbird Cake made by my mom or mammaw (I haven’t attempted one on my own yet but I need to—same with banana cake) but this year I decided to switch it up and decided I wanted this. 

A few things ended up a bit different in our version—the strawberry layer especially was just too delicate for splitting so all our layers were WHOLE layers!  I also didn’t have enough sense to have Andy get strawberry oil from work so our icing was not strawberry flavored. 

Pictures from the process are below—one odd thing was that, despite being baked in the same pans, the different types of cake had different diameters.  You should make this!

Lasagna

Topography

 Tonight I made lasagna--one of my favorite meals.

I started off by making the sauce, mixing together some cottage cheese and mozzarella, and getting out the fresh noodles.  Once the sauce gurgled enough I got everything together and started layering.  A bit of fresh parsley was added to each layer as well.  I love a bit of fresh basil added right before chowing down.

Zahi Hawass

Dr Hawass gave a lecture in Cincinnati last night.  I was very impressed with his charm and wit.  It pleased me greatly that he spent time discussing the political situation in Egypt.  My friend Amanda does a better job than I at describing the event. 

While we waited for things to start there was an ad for the Cleopatra exhibit.  So glad that Cincinnati has this come through town.  Great job on the design too.  The hour and a half lecture was never boring and it was great seeing a number of kids there.

Note: the museum center is the same building as the train station so it's a great reason to take the train here :)