Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

• Recipes for Your Labor Day Cookout from Dean’s

  Date: 2010.09.03 | Category: Contests, Giveaways & Free Stuff, Recipes | Response: 1

  I recently posted about a Dean’s Dip giveaway that I’ll be hosting on my blog.  To hold you over until then, here are a couple of great recipes using Dean’s Dips for your Labor Day Cookout.

  Super Easy Queso Dip

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Servings: 2 cups

  Ingredients:

  • 1 (12-ounce) tub Dean’s Cheddar Cheese Pretzel Dip
  • 1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained well
  • Choice of pretzels, tortilla chips, vegetables, crackers, pita chips or bagel chips for dipping

  Directions:

  Transfer dip to microwave-safe bowl.  Stir in drained tomatoes until thoroughly combined.  Cover.  Microwave 30 seconds on high.  Stir.  Repeat at 15 second intervals, stirring at each interval, until desired temperature.  Serve warm with choice of dippers.

  Best Ever Mexican Dip

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes; 30 minutes chilling
  • Servings: 12

  Ingredients:

  • 1 (9-ounce) can jalapeno bean dip
  • 1 (12-ounce) container Dean’s Guacamole Flavored Dip
  • 3/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese
  • 1 (2.25-ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
  • 1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
  • 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion, including some of the green part
  • Choice of tortilla chips, snack crackers or fresh vegetables for dipping

  Directions:

  Spread bean dip in 9-inch pie plate or similar dish with sides.  Spread Dean’s Guacamole Flavored Dip on top of bean dip.  Mix sour cream and taco seasoning; spread over Guacamole Flavored Dip.  Top sour cream layer with ring of shredded cheese around the outer edge.  Add ring of olive slices inside the cheese.  Add ring of tomatoes inside the olive slices.  Fill center with green onion slices.  Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.  Serve with choice of dippers.

  

  I received items from Dean’s to try. No monetary compensation was received.

• My Low GL Cornmeal Pancakes

  Date: 2010.06.04 | Category: Baking & Cooking, Cooking, Food, Health, Homemaking, Recipes, Spunky, Vegan/Lenten, mama | Response: 2

  

  Michelle’s Low GL Cornmeal Pancakes

  • 2 cups ground cornmeal
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 1 tsp unrefined real salt (or 2 tsp regular salt)
  • 2 eggs (or egg substitute)
  • 1 Tbsp agave nectar (or about 2 Tbsp regular sugar)
  • 4 Tbsp margarine, melted
  • 1 cup soy/almond/rice/hemp milk (or regular milk)
  • 1 cup stoneground whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Fresh or frozen berries or fruit
  • agave nectar (or sugar)
  1. In a bowl, mix together cornmeal and salt.
  2. Add boiling water, stir together, and let stand for 10 minutes.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat together beat, sugar, margarine, and milk.
  4. Add to cornmeal mixture.
  5. Sift together flour and baking powder and add to batter, mixing lightly.
  6. Cook pancakes on a 300 degree heated griddle, spreading out the batter each time you put in on the griddle. Brown lightly on both sides.
  7. Fruit Topping: Combine frozen or fresh fruit with a little bit of agave nectar (or sugar) and heat until warm through.  Spread over pancakes.

  

  I divided the batter into separate bowls, and added some food coloring to a little bit for the kiddos.  Spunky loved these so much that she ate EIGHT pancakes!

  

• Recipe: Vegan Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies

  Date: 2010.04.09 | Category: Cooking, Cooking With Kids, Food, Health, Punky, Recipes, Spunky, Vegan/Lenten, mama | Response: 1

  

  Delicious Vegan Gingerbread Cookies!

  Ingredients

  • ½ cup oil
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup molasses
  • ¼ cup plain soymilk
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger

  Directions
  1. In a large bowl beat together oil and sugar for about 3 minutes.  Add molasses and soymilk.

  2. In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.

  3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches. Mix together with a firm spoon or spatula until well combined.
  

  4. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or up to 3 days in advance.

  5. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease your cookie sheets.

  6. On a floured surface roll you dough out to a little less than 1/4 inch thick (it is a bit crumbly).
  
  7. Cut out your shapes with your cookie cutters and gently place on cookie sheets.

  8. Bake for 8 minutes.

  9. Remove from oven and let them cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then move to a cooling rack.

  10. Wait until they are completely cool before icing.  (Icing: powdered sugar and water)

  

  These cookies are very soft and delicious.

  I was skeptical at first when I saw how crumbly the dough was, but they turned out great!

• Very Easy Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

  Date: 2010.03.06 | Category: Cooking, Recipes, Vegan/Lenten | Response: 1

  

  

  Ingredients
  • 1 box cake mix (I used devils food)
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1/3 cup applesauce
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (I used baking chocolate chopped up)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  Directions

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, blending well.
  If mixture is too stiff, add a little water, if too wet add more oatmeal.
  Drop by Tbspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
  Bake for 13-15 minutes.  They spread out a lot when they bake.

• Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

  Date: 2010.02.26 | Category: Cooking, Recipes, Vegan/Lenten | Response: 5

  Now that I’ve been doing some vegan baking, I am learning that one of the most important parts of baking this way is what you use to bind the cookies.  I’ve previously posted my Super-Substituted Banana Bread and A List of Cooking & Baking Substitutes, and here is a fantastic recipe for oatmeal cookies made with several substitutes.  (I am going to try to make peanut butter ones soon, too…)

  Ingredients

  

  • 1 cup of regular organic sugar
  • 1/2 of a cup of turbinado sugar
  • slightly less than 1/3 of a cup of oil
  • 3 Tbsp of water
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons of good vanilla extract
  • 1  mashed banana
  • 1/4 cup organic applesauce
  • 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 cups of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/2 of a teaspoon of salt
  • 2 cups of oats
  • 2.5 ounces of baking chocolate, crushed/chopped (I use Green and Black’s Organic Baking Chocolate)

  Directions:

  • Mix the sugars, oil, and water.  Add the vanilla, banana, and applesauce.
  • Then mix together the cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, baking soda, and salt.
  • Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
  • Stir in the oats.  If it is too thin, let stand a bit so the oats can absorb the excess liquid.  Or if it is too dry, at a little bit more water.
  • Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on to greased cookie shhets
  • Bake at 350 degrees F for 13 minutes.  Let them sit a bit before you take them off the cookie sheet.

• Triple Decker PB, J & F

  Date: 2010.02.16 | Category: Cooking With Kids, Punky | Response: 6

  

  A Family Favorite: Peanut Butter, Jelly and Fluff

  

• Using Christmas Presents to Make Muffins

  Date: 2010.01.21 | Category: Cooking, Cooking With Kids, Punky | Response: 1

  
  We bought Punky, our “Cooker”, a little baking set for Christmas.
  We used it a couple of weeks ago to make mini blueberry muffins.

  

  He was very proud!

• Baking Pink Piggy Cookies with Punky

  Date: 2010.01.11 | Category: Cooking, Cooking With Kids, Punky, mama | Response: 7

  On Sunday, Punky and I made Pink Piggy Cookies.  I bought a cookbook around Thanksgiving that I plan on cooking/baking from and then blogging about over the course of this year.  It is a cookbook full of recipes for foods that kids would like.  It cost $10, which is more than I usually spend on any type of book, so I promised myself that I would try to make the majority of the recipes over the course of a year.  We’ll see how that goes…

  But here is the first!

  

  

  

• Baking with Subsitutes & A Recipe

  Date: 2010.01.07 | Category: Cooking, Cooking With Kids, Homemaking, Recipes, Vegan/Lenten | Response: 4

  We had some VERY ripe bananas just before we left for our trip to Gatlinburg, so I put the in the freezer (my mom’s idea) to save to make banana bread with.  The bananas smelled so sweet, so I changed up my usual recipe a bit and even tried out some new substitutes as well.

  Michelle’s Super Substituted Banana Bread

  

  Mix together in large bowl:

  • 2 cups of organic whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking power
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • pinch of salt

  Combine in small bowl:

  • 2 Tbsp organic milled flax seed
  • 6 Tbsp water

  Then add to the small bowl:

  • 5 very ripe brown bananas
  • nearly 1 cup of natural organic sugar
  • 1/2 cup organic unsweetened applesauce
  • if you like nuts, add 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

  Pour the contents of the small bowl into the larger one and mix thoroughly.

  Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and sprinkle about 2 Tbsp of the flax seed over the top of the loaf.

  Bake at 350 F for 60-65 minutes.

  While cooling, sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon/sugar over the top of the loaf.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Other Substitutes To Try in This Recipe
  

  Egg Substitute (each equals 1 egg)

  • Ener-G Egg Replacer (you can buy this in most grocery stores)- works well for most things, but NOT packaged brownies mixes.
  • 1 Tbsp Milled Flax Seed plus 3 Tbsp water- works great especially with whole wheat flour
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • half of a banana, mashed
  • 2 Tbsp water plus 2 tsp baking powder (1 tsp oil, optional)
  • 1/4 cup blended tofu
  • 1/4 cup applesauce plus 1 tsp baking powder
    

  Oil Substitutes

  • Applesauce
  • Butter or margarine
    
  • Shortening (use 1/4 more)
  • Stiffly beaten egg whites
  • Just about any fruit puree will work (cook the fruit and then puree in a food processor or blender)
  • Soy Lecithin (can be found in health food stores)- I’ve never tried this one

• Yogurt-Apple-Pumpkin-Banana Lunch

  Date: 2009.11.16 | Category: Cooking With Kids, Punky, Recipes | Response: 3

  Punky’s Lunch Recipe
  

  

  Yogurt

  Applesauce

  Pumpkin Purée

  Banana

  Apple

  
  

  He loved it!