Watermelon and Cherry Tomato Salad

Hi! It's been a while. I have been doing a lot of cooking but just have not found any time to put the recipes back on the blog. I'm back on my cleanse/diet which I was on a few years ago so mainly lean proteins and fruits and veggies. No grains really and no dairy. So the next few recipes I post may lean towards that a little. However, I'll be off it in a week and will just go back to dairy-free, gluten-free although I will still try to stick to lower sugar. Speaking of which I read the other day women should only have 24g of added sugar maximum a day (not including natural sugars in fruits etc). That's crazy considering just my "healthy" granola ceral has 9g in each serving! So although it will be hard, I think a lower sugar diet is probably worth it in the long run.

Sorry getting sidetracked- this watermelon and cherry tomato salad was great when all of that was in season this summer and depending on where you are some of it still might be (my cherry tomato porch plant is still going nuts) but if not just keep this one bookmarked for next summer! it's super easy, it sounds super strange but the flavors go together great!

Ingredients

• handful of fresh basil
• handful of cherry or grape tomatoes
• about 3 cups of cubed watermelon
• 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar

Steps

1. If you're watermelon isn't cubed already, try to chop it into 1" chunks. The smaller the easier to eat but it all depends on how much effort you feel like putting in.
2. Wash your basil then slice it into thin ribbons. If you've never chopped up fresh greens before the easiest way is to squish it into a little ball then slice it with your knife (careful of fingers!)
3.  Cut your cherry or grape tomatoes in half. I learned an awesome trick for this!! I saw it on a youtube video and maybe you have to but you turn a plate upside down, pile your cherry tomatoes on top, then put another plate on top, so the cherry tomatoes are held between the bottoms of both plates. Push down on the top plate to hold tomatoes in place (but not so hard you squish the tomatoes!) then take a serrated knife and cut through the middle of the tomatoes. Remove the top plate and voila, perfectly halved tomatoes (this also works on grapes for chicken salad etc). 
   
4.  Add all your ingredients to a bowl then toss well before serving (I like this salad best the second day as the vinegar has had some time to really soak in)

Slow Cooker Mexican Quinoa

I made this recipe yesterday and loved that it was so easy and not time consuming. I threw the ingredients in the crockpot before I left for work, set the timer, came home added the quinoa and an hour later I had dinner. It's also a super versatile recipe and I've seen similar things out there just with little additions or changes to ingredients so feel free to have fun with it. If you don't want this to be vegetarian/vegan you could definitely add some chicken or ground beef to it. I plan on trying that next time as well. I just put my entire crock pot in the fridge and will have leftovers for days.

Ingredients

• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (undrained)
• 14.5 oz can black beans (drain and rinse)
• 1 cup broth (chicken or veggie depending on your diet)
• 2 cups of water
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• *1 chopped jalapeno (omit if you don't want it spicy)
• 1 cup of quinoa (rinsed)

1. Add all ingredients except for quinoa to the crockpot. Cook on low for  anywhere between 5-10 hours.
2.  Turn crockpot to high and add in quinoa and stir. Cook for an additional hour on high. 
3. When you see white rings around the quinoa you know it's ready. Add any extra spices or salt and pepper and stir in before serving (I added in a couple tablespoons of smoky chipotle sauce). 
4. Enjoy!

Crock pot Potato Soup (gf/df)

I love crock pot stuff. It's so easy. Pile it all in, turn it on and leave it, come home from work to dinner. And it's cheaper than going out. Here's a fall recipe- potato soup. This makes a lot of potato soup because I like to freeze the leftovers for crazy nights that way even though we only have enough time to microwave something its still something homemade :)

Ingredients:

• 8-10 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 7-8 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 2 cups chopped and peeled carrots 
• 8 cups chicken stock (Or broth I'm not picky)
• 1 tablespoon salt (I make my own chicken stock so I use a little more salt, if your broth has salt in it you may want to reduce this)
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder.
• 1/4 cups flour (I used gluten-free )
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk 

Steps:

1.  In a crockpot, combine potatoes, celery, onion, and carrots. Cover with chicken broth and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.   
2.  Set on low 8-10 hours, or high 5 hours.  
3. Once finished cooking, combine milk and flour in a small bowl until fully combined and pour into soup. Mix gently and allow to cook for 15-20 minutes longer on low.
4. I like my potato soup less chunky (and I don't do a very good job chopping my veggies) so I take half of the soup out and put it in a blender and blend it for a couple seconds. then I use a potato masher or fork to slightly mash what's left in the crock pot then add back in what I put in the blender. Quick way to make "creamier" soup.  

Roasted Potato Slices with Smoky Dip

This recipe is easier than it seems (or maybe it just seemed complicated to me because there was a dip involved and I was thinking "ain't nobody got time for that!" but then I did...) and it turned out so good! Like always, I modified the recipe a little bit which is the one listed below! We ate these with dinner but they'd be a really good snack or party appetizer too! This recipe serves 3 people as a side dish. 

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1/3 cup of sour cream (I used vegan sour cream)
• 1/3 cup of mayo (I used light mayo)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 sprinkles of salt (yes this is my new measuring system for spices haha)
• 2 sprinkles of pepper
•  teeny-tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper (if you want them a little spicy)
• sprinkle of cumin*
• sprinkle of chili powder*
• sprinkle of garlic powder*
• sprinkle of onion powder*
• Sprinkle of paprika*

potato slices pre-roasting

*if you don't have one of these its not the end of the world you should still make your dip, it'll still be really good, I promise

Steps for Potato Slices

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Wash and scrub potatoes
3. Slice potatoes into 1/4" slices (don't get anal about this, noone really cares that much)
4. Put slices in a bowl, drizzle olive oil on top then add salt and pepper and cayenne pepper
5. Mix it all together with your (well-washed) hands making sure each slice is coated in oil
6. Lay slices on a roasting pan (I had to use two pans and covered them in foil for easy cleanup) making sure slices don't overlap (this is really important if you don't want them soggy)
7. Roast for 15 minutes then turn pan around in oven and roast for 10 more minutes (no need to flip slices)
8. Some slices might get burned and some slices will be perfect, that's life but I like the burned ones, if you don't have a person in your house who likes the burned things, you should get one ASAP it makes you feel better about burning thing. 

Steps for Smoky Dip

1. Combine sour cream, mayo, cumin, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder, mix well and store in fridge until potato slices are done.

Easy Applesauce (crockpot)

The boy and I went apple picking a couple weekends ago and since then I have been making apple everything (lots of the recipes will be on this site). Apple cake, apple muffins, apple sauce, apple butter. Here is the easiest, tastiest homemade applesauce I've made and I've tried out three different ones.

apples in crockpot

Ingredients

•  3-5 apples, cut up (about 1 inch chunks or larger if you plan on blending the applesauce). Peel the apples if you don't plan on blending because the peels can be a weird texture. If you blend the applesauce after cooking the peels won't be an issues.
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1-2 tablespoons of agave or honey (if you want it sweetened)

 Steps: 

1. Place all ingredients in crockpot
2. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours (if you cook it on high add 1/2 cup water)
3. Put in blender and blend or just leave it if you like chunkier apple sauce

Lemon-Pepper Oven Baked PorkChops

So I have been trying to figure out how to make pork chops for a very long time. Yes you can shake n bake them or pan fry them or even bake them but mine always turn out rubbery and tough. Bleck. However the other day the boy came home from dinner at a friend's house and started bragging about the pork chops his friend made. The secret? Wrap them in tinfoil when you bake them in the oven! Weird but I tried it last night and success, they were so tender and the lemon-pepper wasn't overly strong at all like it sometimes is with chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 pork chops (preferably with the bone)
• roll of tinfoil
• lemon pepper
• Worcestershire sauce
• butter (or olive oil, or vegan butter)

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Tear off 2 large chunks of tinfoil (enough to wrap up each chop completely)
3. Place 1 tbsp butter (or in my case vegan butter) in center of tinfoil
4. On a seperate plate generously sprinkle both sides of your pork chops in lemon pepper
5. Place chops on top of butter in tinfoil
6. Put 1 tbsp butter on top of chop
7. Put 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce on top of chop as well
8. Wrap up tightly in foil
9. Cook in oven for 35 minutes!
10. Enjoy!

Apple Crisp Muffins (GF/DF)

After two batches of applesauce, 1 batch of dried apple rings, and 1 apple cake I still had leftover apples from our visit to the orchard!! So I decided to make apple muffins :) The crisp topping on these is what made them stand out. I didn't come up with this recipe at all, but I did substitute gluten-free flour mix and earthbalance vegan butter for the butter in it and the muffins still turned out delicious! However I did end up baking them for like 15 minutes longer than the recipe calls for not sure if it was my oven or what but it might be something that's good to know!

Recipe

yum

Hummus Crusted Chicken

This recipe is at the top for this blog. It fills all of my criteria so perfectly.

It's...
1. healthy
2. cheap
3. easy
4. fast
5. delicious

Without further ado I present hummus crusted chicken. you're welcome. this recipe serves 2 but you can obviously make it for way more people. As an extra bonus I sliced squash and onions and cooked them under my chicken breast in the dish. I love when the sides and the meat can be made together cause I'm lazy like that.

Ingredients

• about 6 tablespoons of hummus ( I love red pepper hummus from sabra)
• 2 chicken breasts
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 lemon or 4 tsps of lemon juice

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. coat a baking dish with cooking spray or olive oil
3. place chicken breasts in baking dish, and sprinkle with salt and pepper
4. smooth hummus on to the top of each chicken breast (!!don't contaminate your hummus with raw chicken by using it straight from the container!!) I've done it thick and thin and both is good but at least do it thick enough so that you can't see the chicken breast through the hummus.
5. squeeze half a lemon over each breast
6. Bake for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
7. Enjoy!

after cooking! i could've spread my hummus prettier but no one at my house cares

Peach Crisp (GF/DF)

   I love peaches so living in Georgia is awesome during peach season...which is now, so I'm about to post a couple of my favorite peach recipes; although my favorite way to eat them is plain. Peach cider is amazing too (I like drinking it with champagne (bellini much?) or with Bacardi Razz rum. However, this peach crisp is delicious. It's gluten and dairy-free too!

Ingredients

Peach filling:

• 6 peaches
• 1 tbsp gluten free flour mix
• 2 tbsp agave
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinammon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Crisp topping:

• 6 crumbled gluten/dairy free sugar cookies- not chewy (Enjoy Life or Lucy's are great)
• 1/2 C of rolled oats
• 3 tbsp gluten free flour
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp of dairy free spread (Earth Balance) or butter

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Peel and thinly slice peaches. The easiest way to peel peaches is by putting them in a pot of boiling water then plunging them in ice water after a minute. The skins should just rub off.
3.  Mix all crisp topping ingredients in a bowl then use a pastry knife to cut butter into the mix. If you don't have a pastry knife (I don't) use two knives to cut butter in bowl alternating directions until it's in tiny clumps. For an example see this youtube video. You're welcome. 
4. Mix all peach filling ingredients together in a separate bowl. Pour into a small baking dish (I used a square 9x9)
5. Cook peaches in over for 10 minutes, remove, and pour crisp topping on top covering completely. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until brown. 
6. ENJOY! I served mine with coconut vanilla ice cream. Store leftovers in fridge :) Enjoy again!

Easy Banana Muffins! (GF/DF)

So today I was going to finally use those overripe bananas that I've been storing in the freezer to make banana bread. Then I realized, I don't have a bread loaf pan...so I decided to make banana muffins! Some people know this (but my blog is for the beginner!) but overripe bananas are the best to use for baked goods. When your bananas get too ripe to eat (the outsides black) but they're not rotten, throw them in the freezer and defrost them for your next banana bread or in this case banana muffins! They turned out pretty good. I did mine the gluten-free and vegan way but that's because we ran out of eggs (but not flax powder go figure haha this is my life now) and I can't eat dairy or gluten. If you don't do it gluten free or vegan, use an egg instead of the "flax egg", and use normal flour in place of the gluten-free all purpose flour. So easy either way! Which is just the way I like my muffins. The nice thing about this recipe is it's so flexible you can just keep adding ingredients (cinnamon, raisins, chocolate chips, yogurt chips, etc!)

I forgot to take a picture so this one will have to do

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour or gluten free flour blend
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped nuts OPTIONAL (I used walnuts)
• 3 ripe bananas (if you're bananas were frozen or not extremely over ripe, pop them in the microwave for a bit so you can easily mash them)
• 1 "flax egg" or 1 egg ***
• 1/3 c vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

***you can make an easy and healthy substitute for eggs in baking. For substituting one egg- take 1 tbsp of ground flax powder (if you have flax seeds you can put them in a food processor to grind them up yourself) then ADD 3 tbsp of water (the water HAS to come 2nd). Mix then set in fridge for 15 minutes until consistency is thick and somewhat...well...egg-like.



 Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mash bananas then add remaining wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and mix well.
3. Spoon into muffin cups filling about 1/2-3/4 of the way full.
4. Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
5. Enjoy!

Vegan Chili and Vegan Breakfast Scramble (CAMPFIRE FRIENDLY)

 I am once again thrilled and honored to be a guest chef on this kick ass cooking blog. So Colleen, Shannon, and I, and our corresponding partners, decided to go camping last weekend at Tallulah Gorge (yes it rained all weekend if you must know, but we still had a great time)  Since fully half of us are Vegan-or mostly Vegan- I found some hearty recipes online.  These taste incredible, vegan or not, and got a major thumbs up from the non-vegetarians in the group. 

 Cheers!  Cathy

Vegan Chili (good over sweet potatoes or served solo) 

Photo from http://truthandthelife.com/

Vegan Scramble

Photo from http://truthandthelife.com/

Easy Refrigerator Pickled Beets

   Short anecdote to start this recipe (of course, right? you should be used to this by now). The boyfriend really wanted us to grow two rows of beets in the garden. I didn't really want to because I don't like beets but I finally gave in. Fast forward a month or so later and he is eating a chopped up beet and complaining that his throat itches and he might be allergic to beets. Which really frustrates me because what the hell are we going to do with all of these beets if he's the only one who likes them but he somehow has developed an allergy to them? A week later I tell my mother this story and she bursts out laughing once she realizes that the boyfriend was eating the beet from our garden raw. Apparently this is something you don't do with beets. We had no idea.
      So today I picked some beets from the garden and looked up the best easiest and fastest way too cook them and preserve them. I didn't want to get super involved with canning etc so I looked up an easy pickling recipe that can keep in your fridge for 6 months (or so the recipe says). Even better than that I actually really liked it. Which is amazing because like I said I've never liked beets! Being the queen of google I also looked up the best way to cook and peel the beets. You're welcome.

Supplies:

• Large Mason Jar
• two handfuls of fresh beets (large or small)
•  2 cups sugar
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 tablespoons of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of nutmeg

Steps:

1. Cut the stems off of beets leaving about 1/4". You can keep the leafy parts for greens or throw them out. 
2. Wash beets just enough to get the dirt off
3. Fill a saucepan with enough water to cover the beets by 3 inches
4. Bring saucepan to boil then add beets. Reduce heat to a slow boil and boil beats for 25-40 minutes depending on the size of beets. Beets will be done when they can easily be poked with a fork. 
5. When beets are done drain the hot water from saucepan, then fill with cool water while the beets are still in the saucepan. Keeping your hands under the water to avoid a mess, slowly peel the skins off of beets (this will be very easy). Put freshly peeled beets in a separate bowl to avoid mess and discard skins once all beets are peeled. 

   

   my beet peeling setup. skins on the right, peeled on the left

6. Slice beets the put in large mason jar. 
7. Place the sugar, vinegar, water, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Pour liquid over beets in mason jar.
   
8. Store in fridge and let sit for at least a week for best flavor.
9. Additional cooked and sliced beets can be added to the mixture as you harvest more from your garden.

Kale salad with pickled watermelon rind

     There's a restaurant in Atlanta called MetroFresh. It's an amazing delicious and fairly inexpensive place to eat. The menu changes daily and it's always healthy. They also list all the allergens so that if you're on a restrictive diet you can easily pick and choose. If I lived closer I would probably eat here everyday. They have a kale salad there which is SO delicious. It's the perfect combination of earthy kale, tangy vinegar, and sweet fruit. However, for the longest time I could not figure out what the fruit was. There was the very obvious dried cranberries but there was also this pale white fruit with an almost candy-like taste and texture. Finally one day at lunch my curiosity got the best of me and it turns out though delicious little fruits were pickled watermelon rind!
    The other day we had a cookout and bought a giant watermelon. As I was cutting up the leftovers to put in the fridge I kept looking at the rind thinking what a waste. Then I remembered the pickled watermelon rind in the kale salad!! After a quick internet search I realized most pickled watermelon rind requires canning supplies and lots of time, neither of which I had (or really ever will haha). So a few more minutes of searching and I found the following recipe for pickled watermelon rind. It takes about 20 minutes of prep but it has to cool and sit awhile before you get the best flavor. I stored mine in a tupperware in the fridge and it keeps for about 10 days. We ate it with the kale salad and by itself! We went out of town before we could finish it all so I divided it into freezer baggies and froze it, I'll let you know how its texture holds up.

 
Kale Salad with Pickled Watermelon Rind

Ingredients:

• 1 quart watermelon rind (including ½-inch of red flesh left on the rind), cut into pieces about 1-inch square (about half the rind of a small watermelon and 1/3 the rind of a large)
• 1 cup vinegar (white vinegar or cider vinegar)
• ½ cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 2½ teaspoons table sal
• 1 star anise (I did not have this, no one cried)
• 1 two-inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped (did not have this either I added a couple dashes or powdered ginger)
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon 
• Kale (as much as you want for your salad)
• olive oil
• dash of balsamic vinegar  

Steps:

1. First pickle your watermelon rind following the steps here. I tried using a vegetable peeler to peel my watermelon but it wasn't working very well so I just used a knife.  I also used apple cider vinegar because I did not have white vinegar.  It still tasted great.

1. After you have your pickled watermelon rind, wash kale and remove the tough stems (I do this  by folding it in half and cutting down the one side with the leaf).
2. "Massage" the kale with enough olive oil to lightly coat all leaves
3.  Add a dash of balsamic vinegar, less is more, you can always taste and add more if you want. 
4. Dice pickled watermelon rind into smaller pieces ( I like it about 1/4" to 1/2" thick) and add to salad. Toss to combine. 
5. Add any dried fruits or slivered almonds if you would like. I just ate mine with the watermelon rind. 
6. ENJOY :)

I have a garden!

This post is not going to include a recipe. It may have some useful info on doing your own vegetable garden though. Keep in mind, this was my first time planting anything edible. Last year I had some tomatoes in pots but that was it. So if I can do it, so can you. It wasn't nearly as complicated as the numerous gardening blogs and magazines etc make it seem.

     This summer Joseph and I have our first vegetable garden! We're located in Atlanta so we planted kale, broccoli, carrots, spinach, beets, lettuce, and onions toward the end of march. We had a couple more frosts after that and we were worried but our garden is doing fantastic!! Two weeks ago (mid May) mom came to visit and she helped me plant two tomato plants and one yellow bell pepper plant as well as some acorn squash and two rows of bush beans.
     Prepping the garden was the hardest part and even that was pretty easy. Our yard already had a fenced in area that had been used as a playground for the previous tenants children. It looked like the whole area was mulched but when we started to dig around we realized that under the layer of mulch was black plastic sheeting. We kept it in place and scraped the mulch off of it where we wanted to plant our rows then we used a utility knife to cut long lines in the black sheeting. Underneath the soil was great! We mixed in a little bit of mushroom compost (Just poured it in a line down the row) then planted our seeds according to the package instructions. We also planted about 12 marigold plants around the perimeter because we heard they keep out pests but a lot of them died in the frost. Oh well.
     For the past couple weeks we've been harvesting the kale, spinach and  lettuce. We could have been doing it earlier and eating baby spinach etc but I wasn't really sure if we could or not (I know that sounds silly- I can be a very by the book person haha so I was scared of doing anything wrong)
Having a garden has been really fun and because of the mulch that was already there weeding is not that hard. We decided to keep everything chemical free so we haven't used any weed killer or store bought pesticide on the plants. Every few days I go out and rake in between the plants with a small hand rake to get rid of the majority of weeds. It takes like a half hour max.
     As far as pesticide, I looked up a homemade non toxic one and bought a large spray bottle from Home Depot and put the mixture in there. I keep it in the shed and I try to spray the plants after it rains. Sometimes I forget, but its not the end of the world. Our spinach has some little chewed holes in it but we just wash it off and eat it anyways (I looked it up- its safe haha yes I google everything). I will include the homemade pesticide recipe at the bottom of this post.
   Having all these leafy greens in our garden has been great. It saves so much money especially because Joseph and I have become pretty healthy eaters and we were buying like 2 big containers of those pre-washed salads a week.  I learned the hard way that a salad spinner is one of the best investments ever. After picking the greens I put them in a mixing bowl with cold water (and a few ice cubes) I let them soak for like 4 minutes and swirl them around a couple times to wash them off. If they're really dirty, I'll empty and refill the mixing bowl a couple times to get rid of the water. Drying the greens I've found is the most important part and it can be hard without a salad spinner. After a couple tries of blotting my lettuce with paper towels and still finding gross wilted lettuce in the fridge the next day, I gave up and went to Target to buy a salad spinner. It's really fun to use haha. They only had the small salad herb spinners left but that's fine I just do a couple batches. To keep our greens fresh I fold up a couple paper towels and put them at the bottom of plastic salad containers we've kept from our store bought salad mixes. Then I put the greens on top and another paper towel folded up at the top. This helps keep moisture away from it and if the paper towel gets really wet I just replace with a dry one.

    I'm hoping my tomato plants do well. The acorn squash we got is actually some seeds that Joseph saved from one we bought and cooked (the recipe is on this blog!). He saved the seeds and put them in Tupperware with damp paper towels in the fridge. I rolled my eyes like usual. A little later he put them in a cup and put some dirt on top. Again, I sighed, but I've learned to tolerate his eccentricities haha. However a couple weeks later I was eating my words. Every seed had turned into a tiny seedling. When my mom was here, we separated the tightly packed seedling and planted about 6 each in the top of some mounds we had made in the garden. Two weeks later and they're doing great! The acorn squash is the one part of the garden I didn't even google a little bit haha so we'll see how it turns out.

Homemade SAFE NATURAL garden pesticide:

The Caffeine keeps aphids away, the herbs keep most insects, mosquitoes and squirrels etc away, and the soap works really well on soft-bodied insects.

1. Gather any or all of the herbs, spices, and roots listed below 

(in any form although fresh is best):

lavender

catnip

thyme

horseradish

garlic

onions

ginger

mint

rhubarb

cayenne

2. Place in a crock pot with 2 tbsp coffee grounds (used or fresh)

3. Add enough water to cover your mixture plus about 4 cups. 

4. Cook on low for up to 24 hours and atleast six hours. 

5. Let mixture cool and sit overnight, then strain it and discard solids

6. Add 2 tbsp of liquid soap to mixture (use a biodegradable one- it will say on bottle, my dishsoap was and it was just from walgreens)

7. Use a funnel or a friend! to pour into a spray bottle. You can keep extra in the fridge (just make sure to clearly label it as non-edible!)

You're favorite casseroles but Gluten and Dairy Free

I love comfort food; I guess that's why they call it comfort food haha. Meatloaf, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, tuna noodle casserole all make my mouth water. When I found out I was allergic to dairy I realized that most of my favorite casseroles are made with cream of mushroom soup which obviously has dairy. I brushed it off for a couple months but lately I have been craving casseroles and I've been so busy that I can't help but think how perfect they would be. So! This past week I've made two of my favorite casseroles the dairy/gluten free way. Even if you're not allergic to dairy or gluten, both things are not necessarily "healthy" so eat these and feel guilt free and...comfy :)

I didn't make either of these up myself so I will just give you the links to both of them:

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Chicken and Rice Casserole 

Keep in mind both of these take a little more time than the versions with dairy and you'll probably need to go to the store to get mushrooms (I used baby bella mushrooms for both) but they actually tasted better to me because you're not using canned soup.

Vegan Pesto

Being allergic to milk I mostly miss italian food, goat cheese, and kraft mac n cheese (oh and cheetos!) oh dear this is getting depressing haha. but another food I found myself missing was pesto. which is suprising because I never remember liking pesto that much but I've been craving it so the other night I was on my own for dinner and decided to experiment with making a vegan pesto that still had that cheesy flavor. After a couple attempts I got something that I was pretty happy with. I cooked some rice penne pasta and poured the pesto on top and it turned out really good. Quick tip for rice pasta which can often turn out slimy, cook it al dente then rinse it in cold water. It helps SO MUCH. Surprisingly, it was even better the next day as the garlic had mellowed a bit.  The recipe below makes enough for two servings of pasta. I took a picture but my boyfriend accidentally deleted the pictures on my camera :( This recipe also uses nutritional yeast which sounds disgusting but is actually really good and helps provide that "cheesy" flavor. If you're vegan or dairy-free I highly suggest you keep this as a pantry staple.

Ingredients

• 1/3 c olive oil
• 1/4 c of pine nuts
• 2 cloves garlic
• handful of basil
• 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Mix all ingredients together in a food processor. The end!

Coconut Curry Shrimp

So last night at 5:30 I was informed that our previous dinner plans were falling through and we had nothing to feed our guest that was coming over in an hour, so after work I stopped by the grocery store and thought "hmm shrimp sounds good" then "hmmm coconut milk sounds good" and what resulted was actually good and almost 100% original! There aren't that many ingredients and some of the additional flavorings are optional. Before you start any of this you make want to start making your rice unless your rice is instant. I served mine over brown rice with a side spinach salad and it was delicious! However, I did not get a picture of it :(

Ingredients (makes 2-3 servings)

• 1/2 lb of peeled shrimp
• 1/2 of a 13 oz can of coconut milk (I used light coconut milk)
• 1 clove of garlic (or a little garlic powder)
• 1 tsp curry powder 
• salt and pepper to taste
• a pinch of fresh grated ginger (if you have it but not necessary)
• 1 red pepper diced
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil (or olive oil)
• 1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro (OPTIONAL)

Steps:

1. Put 1 tablespoon of coconut oil in a pan and let it melt. dump shrimp into pan and cook both sides until they're slightly pink. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Add additional tablespoon of coconut oil. Saute onions and red pepper for 5 minutes.  
3. Add curry, salt, pepper, ginger, and garlic. Let cook for another minute.
4. Pour in half the can of coconut milk and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes to let flavors mix.
5. Add shrimp and cilantro. Cover pan and cook on low for 5 minutes.
6. Serve over rice

Stuffed Acorn Squash (Vegan and gluten-free)

     So I'd been planning on trying this recipe for a while but hadn't found time so I had an acorn squash just sitting in our cupboard and I was worried it would be spoiled...but it wasn't! they last forever. Anyways, getting to the point, these are delicious and cheap (especially if you have the ingredients in bulk which at our house quinoa, kale, and dried beans are staples). So after a quick search through our pantry I found some dry white beans, a package of red quinoa and realized it was a perfect night to try out this recipe. Also if you decide to go on the cleanse that I blogged about in January this is something that you can eat!! I almost didn't believe that because it tasted so good! And even though it's a vegan recipe, my carnivorous boyfriend was very full at the end of the meal. The only downside to this recipe is that it takes a little planning (but not much) and plan on it taking about an hour to make including prep.

Here is the link to the original recipe: Stuffed Acorn Squash

And here is a guide on buying acorn squash. I got mine at the market here but I know Kroger has them sometimes How to buy acorn squash

My tips

• Earlier in the afternoon, soak dried beans in cold water. Let soak for at least 3 hours then dispose of water and rinse beans again.
• While oven is preheating for squash, cook quinoa on the stove according to package instructions and use another burner on your stove to start simmering your beans (I cover mine with an inch of water, then once it gets to a boil I let it boil for 2 minutes, then turn it down to low heat and let it simmer for about 45 minutes or until they're soft)
• Hopefully by the time you're done cooking the squash the first time and chopping up all your vegetables, and cleaning any prep dishes you can, the beans and quinoa will be ready and you can continue to follow your recipe
• I had extra "stuffing" so I put it in a Tupperware and took it to work the next day for lunch :)
• I didn't have any toasted hazelnuts so I just sprinkled some crushed up almonds on the top. It was still delicious
• I served mine with steamed asparagus but any kind of green veggie or side salad would be great with it. 

"Stuffing" cooking on the stove:

 

 Delicious Squash after Roasting:

Finished Squash! 

Coconut Chicken Curry

This was one of those- Ok! this is what I have in my pantry, what can I do with it?- recipes. The past two weeks have been hectic with work! (but that's a good thing!) so this week I'm on set for 12+ hours a day every day. Going out gets pricey and when I get off set at 8pm and have to be up at 5:30 a.m. the last thing I want to do is cook! So... I googled a little bit the other night, picked up the few ingredients that I didn't already have on my way home from set, and then prepared it all the night before then stuck it in the fridge (in the crock pot dish) and the next morning at 5:30 am I pulled it out and started my crock pot timer for 6 hours (mine keeps it warm after the timer goes off). After work it was an awesome surprise and the thought of delicious curry waiting at home for me made the tough parts of work better :)

Check out the recipe here!

Tips:

1. I blended all the ingredients because I don't have a food processor, I just had to chop up the onion a little smaller. (I also chopped the pepper up instead of processing it into the sauce)
2. I didn't thicken mine with cornstarch and it was still delicious
3. I used refrigerated coconut milk instead of the cans and again still good :)
4. It was good but if I did it again I would eat it right after the 6 hours (I feel like the additional 6+ warming hours in the crockpot didn't do great things for it, it was still good but I have a feeling it could've been better)
5. I served it over brown rice (I cooked the rice the night before while chopping up all the veggies then stored it in the fridge)
6. My chicken was only partially thawed (I think chicken breast is easier to cut when it's still partially frozen)
7. I used 2tbsp of curry instead of the 1tbsp in the recipe.
8. I did not have garam masala (who has that just sitting in their pantry?). Instead I used this mixture:1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp bay, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a dash of ground cloves if you have them.

butternut squash soup (vegan and gluten-free)

So...
a couple weeks ago I decided I was in the mood for some butternut squash soup. I ended up buying way too much squash haha so I ended up making two batches of soup, one in the crock pot and one on the stove. Both were good, but the one on the stove was my favorite.

Source

Here is the recipe for the soup on the stove: click (main ingredients: pears, onions, broth and squash)
Here is the crock pot recipe: click (main ingredients: apple, onion, squash, broth)

Tips:

1. Buy your butternut squash from a local farmer's market, or I've heard you can find pre-chopped and frozen butternut squash at trader joe's or Walmart.
2. You need a good amount of vegetable broth (especially if you're making two batches). Look at my previous post on how to make your own in a crock pot for cheap!
3. The most time in these recipes comes from chopping up the various vegetables but especially the squash-it is HARD to cut
1. If you have a food processor you can use this to chop up the onions etc
2. If you have a boyfriend/husband you can use this to chop up the butternut squash
3. Here is a quick how to for peeling and chopping the butternut squash: click. I thought their idea of putting it in the microwave beforehand to soften sounded great. 
4. Butternut squash soup freezes great so if you have extra squash I suggest doing what I did and making two batches. It may seem ridiculous but you'll thank yourself later when your fridge is empty and you remember you have delicious soup in the freezer!