Macadamia Butter

A few years ago my friend Lisa introduced me to macadamia butter. She put it on slices of pears and topped it off with some tiny chocolate chips. This just might be my favorite snack food. Fast forward about 8 or so years, move a few hundred miles away and try to buy the stuff. It's not going to happen unless you want to pay an arm and a leg AND buy it online. I did ask Tracey, who owns the health food store in Mullica Hill about it, she gave me the same internet answer that I'd already came to, but recommended making my own. After doing some research, maybe 10 minutes worth, I realized how easy this really was to do.

Making Your Own Nut Butters
equipment:
food processor
rubber spatula
glass jar

ingredients:
nuts, at least 2 cups
complementary seasonings

directions:

Put your nuts in the food processor. Start to puree. There will be multiple stages before you have "butter".

It will start to have a texture like rough sand and crawl up the sides of the processor. Use the spatula and scrape it back into the bowl.

After a minute or so it'll start to have a wheat germ look. You're almost done! If you want to add any extra spices or flavors this would be the time. (Think about maybe some honey or cinnamon to peanuts....or salt)  I did not add anything to mine.

Puree for another minute or so, it should have a mostly smooth look to it. You're done! Store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

This Zucchini is Lasting Forever!

I'm horrible at growing stuff; flowers, crops, grass and weeds.  Yes even my dandelions look pretty sad.  That being said, one of the great things about being a vegetarian around here is all the free vegetables people give you from their gardens!  We have a lot of roadside stands, farm markets and grocery stores that only carry locally grown stuff when it's in season.  (All of which are awesome ideas!)  There are rules to what can be sold in the grocery store and there are people with gardens who can't eat everything that's grown (summer and winter squash are big on that list!)  All of that has lead to some zucchini and tomatoes being brought into work, and me making lots of yummy zucchini goods.  Today's creation was Zucchini Tahini Bread.

Ingredients
3 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini, drained
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apple sauce (as egg re placer)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup tahini
1 cup coconut milk (you can use soy, almond or rice milk)
1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, nutmeg and 1 tsp baking powder. Set aside.
3. In another bowl combine zucchini, apple sauce, 1 tsp baking powder. Mix well.
4. Add milk, mix well.
5. Add in dry ingredients, mix well.
6. Pour into a grease bread pan. Bake for about an hour. (do the toothpick thing, when it comes out clean, it's done)
7. let cool before removing from pan.

This bread is amazing! It's got a slightly nutty texture, YUM!

Birthdays and Summer Treats

Pop-Pop turned 92. I made the mistake of asking him what he wanted for this celebration. "An Ice Cream Cake!" was his very energetic answer. It's a great idea to buy your dying, diabetic grandpa an ice cream cake, right? (Please do not answer that!) Anyway, I lost that battle, and he got his cake.

There are other things he really likes. Football, lobster bisque, crab cakes, the little black kitty, anything with sugar, the isstory Channel...the list does go on for a bit. Instead of trying to buy him something, I made him some Blueberries and Creme Popsicle. It took two attempts to get the recipe to where I wanted it; a low sugar, vegan creation. The original one was a little heavy and syrupy, but it was good.

Blueberries and Creme Popsicle
ingredients:
1 pound blueberries
1/4 cup splenda
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup coconut milk

1. In a pot, over medium heat cook blueberries, Splenda, sugar, and water until the "sugars" dissolve and the blueberries are soft. (about 10 minutes.)

2. set aside to cool (about 30 to 60 minutes)

3. Put a mesh colander in a bowl; strain the liquid out of the berries. Press the excess liquid out of the berries. Discard the berries. (okay, keep them if you will use them in something else like I did.)

4. Add 1/4 cup coconut milk to the blueberry syrup.

5. Fill Popsicle molds with the blueberry mixture and freeze.

If you don't need to make them vegan, the coconut milk can be replaced with heavy cream or milk. Just remember that anything with water will make it more icy.

My grandparents like to eat breakfast at a specific restaurant every morning. I don't. Breakfast food is my favorite food, but please don't confuse that with it being my favorite meal. I would rather sleep a few extra minutes than sit in the car for 30 minutes, eat something worth 15+ weight watcher points, feel gross from the amount of sludge consumed, and sit in the car for another 30 minutes. Instead, I'll just have some oatmeal with berries in my own kitchen

Oatmeal with Coconut Milk and Black Berries 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal 1/2 cup blackberries (blue berries, raspberries...ect are also great in this) 1/4 cup coconut milk 1/2 cup boiling water 1. boil water 2. put oatmeal, berries and water in a bowl together 3. add a bit of coconut milk 4. stir together 5. enjoy! I'm sure you can do this with Almond, soy or even regular milk...but I have extra almond milk, so I'm using it.

What's for dinner tonight?

Something about being home without the old people for a few hours makes me want to cook!

In reality, my grandparents had a dinner thing to go attend. By "Thing" I mean "some event for some person at a restaurant I don't like, with people I don't really want to eat with, where I can't eat anything on the menu". So, Ashley came over, and we cooked.

Pot Stickers or Fried Won Tons

Ingredients:
1 to 2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 tbsp ginger, grated
1 carrot, shredded
6 to 8 mushrooms, minced
1 cup napa cabbage, finely chopped
1/2 cup bean sprouts
2 tbsp tamari sauce
1 to 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 package rice paper wrappers (or if you can find or make won ton wrappers that are gluten free)
water

1. saute onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil for about 5 minutes
2. add veggies, sesame oil and tamari to saute mixture. cook for about 5 minutes. remember to stir.
3. Put together your pot stickers! Put about 1 teaspoon of the veggie mixture in the middle of a wrapper. fold into a dumpling/ravoli shape. Seal the edges with some water.
*the less excess water in the veggie mix when you put it on your rice paper, the better.
4. steam or deep fry, depending on if you want Pot Stickers or fried won tons.
*if steaming, You might want to put a leaf of the cabbage down on the steaming surface so they don't stick.*

-You can add other things to your veggie mix, spices, veggies, meat, tofu...ect. I usually just open the fridge and see what I have to choice from.
-If you do add other stuff, chop/mince it up! (for meat, like pork, put it through the salad shooter or food processor)
-Most won ton and dumpling wrappers have gluten in them, which is why I used rice ones. I've done this before using the regular wrappers, and they turn out great as well. I've also made my own (it's just like making pasta) and they also turned out great. However having a friend who can't have gluten and having short notice about her being here tonight was limiting the options down. It's all good though, I like to experiment in the kitchen.

Sometimes I cook too much!

Another cooking post! For dinner tonight there were "salad sandwiches" (chicken salad for my grandma, leafy green salad style for me) and vegan stuffed mushrooms. YUM!



The original recipe is from my Vegan Planet cookbook, but as always it was tweaked to use things I could find in South Jersey.

Ingredients:
8oz white mushrooms
1 garlic clove, chopped
2 Red popper peppers, chopped
2 jalapenos (this was my own addition because they were in the fridge), chopped
1/2 cup raisins (I used 1/4 brown raisins, 1/4 yellow raisins and threw some dried cranberries in to the mix too)
olive oil
3/4 cup bread crumbs (I used some gluten free corn flakes, because I had them and they were stale)
1/8 cup green onions, chopped
1 tbsp sugar, or something similar to sugar

How to cook it:
1. preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. remove stems from the mushrooms. Set mushroom caps aside.
3. chop mushroom stems, green onions, peppers. put together in a bowl. add crumbs, sugar and raisins.
4. heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet, put mushroom caps in to soften them up. remove caps and set aside.
5. put skillet back in heat, put in chopped garlic. Cook until fragrant.
6. Add pepper & bread crumb mixture. heat and stir until it starts to clump together. Remove from heat.
7. Stuff mushroom caps with the crumb mixture. pPlace on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Tada!

The verdict: My grandma, Mike, Ashley and Amanda all liked them. Grandpa refused to try them. Coakley thought he wanted one, but really wasn't interested when he was given some.

Next step in my cooking adventure: update the kitchen to having some new fancy modern things! I really need a silicon basting brush. I also really need an old school can opener, The electric one is a pain in the neck.

butternut bliss

I love squash, especially butternut. I'm not usually patient enough to do more than cook it in the over/microwave, but sometimes I have to try something new.


I love the roadside stands here! Lucy was selling butternut squash for $1/each, and they were worth at least that! I dug out the cookbooks looking for a squash bisque recipe, but found nothing. Instead I went with a butternut squash chili. Of course, I had to alter the ingrediants a bit to make it work with what I had at home.

Instead of using canned tomatoes, I cut my own up (another one of those great things that Lucy had on sale) and again I used Spicy V8 Juice instead of water. (It's just some extra sodium....right?) And of course, with any soup I make, I used this as an opportunity to use up whatever vegetables were on the verge of going bad. Mine has carrots, celery and spinach added in as well. I was thinking of adding some macaroni too, but changed my mind.

My grandparents liked it, I liked it, over all, it's a win!

I have another squash, so I'm thinking some risotto will be in order next week.