My Big Fatgeek Recipes!

One of the foods my oldest daughter misses from our BV (before Vegan) days is macaroni and cheese. I’ve bought vegan mac and cheese foods, different “cheese sauces” etc and she’s been less than impressed. (My other daughter doesn’t like mac and cheese so she usually doesn’t vote, lol) So, the other day we thought we’d try it with Daiya Cheddar shreds. It actually turned out well. She loved it and ate it with shall we say “gusto”. ~_^

2-3 Tbsp Earth Balance

1/4-1/3 cup wheat pastry flour

1-2 cups (depending on how thick you want your sauce) UNSWEETENED, unflavored non dairy milk (I keep Westsoy Pantry Packs in the house for this)

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp seas salt

fresh black pepper to taste

1 cup Daiya Cheddar Shreds

1/2 lb macaroni pasta uncooked

So start out, making your pasta to package directions (don’t forget to salt the water), then start making a roux with the Earth Balance and flour. When it starts to smell nutty, slowly mix in the soy milk whisking the whole time. Now add the rest of the ingredients (except the pasta) and whisk until the Daiya is melted. Now I needed to thin mine a bit at this point so I put some of the hot pasta waster into it and it was fine. Mix in the pasta and enjoy! I’m thinking next time I’m going to make it with fresh broccoli. 

How much do you love soup? Its one of my all time favorite foods. Tonight I made Taco Soup! It’s “the only soup I like” claims my oldest… My youngest is so much easier to please. She just likes soup… Taco soup is a “pantry recipe”. Meaning, I walked over to my pantry, looked in, grabbed what sounded like it looked good together and dumped it in a pot. I kow, I know. Most of it came from a can. It can’t be healthy. Big whoop! I needed to make dinner fast, tasty and warm. So…
3 cans of beans (those 14-15 oz deals) any kind
we used white kidney beans, red kidney beans and black beans
can also use dried beans… 1/2-1 cup of each kind.
1 can of diced tomatoes with chilies (like rotel but store brand so cheaper)
1 can tomato sauce (another of those 14-15 oz deals)
a pk of taco season or 1/4 cup of the bulk stuff I buy from Costco
couple cups of corn
water (this is to your personal preference of consistency….)
dump into a pot and stir until flavors meld and soup is warm. About 30 minutes.
Serve with tortilla chips, warm (homemade if you have time) tortillas, rice, pasta, salad, veggie try etc.

So I had  a serious craving for my dad’s potato soup the other day. I’ve never made this soup myself, never served it to the family, and haven’t had it in years but I had a fairly good idea of how my dad made it. So I kind of had to guesstimate it, replace the bacon with TVP bacon and hope for the best.
1 large onion diced
3-4 large celery stalks chopped
1/2 cup TVP Bacon divided in half
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Mrs Dash Garlic and Herb
1 TBSP Mrs Dash original
5lbs potato peeled and diced
8 cups of non-chicken broth or vegetable broth (I made broth from the Better than Bouillon  No Chicken Base)
1 8oz can of coconut milk or about a cup of unsweetened unflavored non-dairy milk
salt and pepper to taste
So I took my big cast iron dutch oven, heated it to about medium, added a little olive oil (veg or canola would work too) then threw in the onion, celery garlic and half the TVP. Then I just let it do that sweating thing. Toss in the seasonings while you’re at it. This is when I stated the peeling and chopping of the potatoes and heating the water cooker to make up the broth. ~_^ Toss in the potatoes, remaining TVP and cover with the broth and let cook until the potatoes are tender. Then take a potato masher and mash a bit of the potatoes. Not to many. This is potato soup not mashed potato soup but this will thicken the soup without the need of thickeners. Mix in the milk, rewarm and serve.
I was out of vegan cheese so I didn’t get to try that yet, but I bet its fabulous! My girls liked it with a bit of earth balance and a little sprinkling of TVP for crunch. Hubs liked it with dairy sharp cheddar.

Super Yum!
I ♡ soup!
This was just something I threw together yesterday for the fridge. (quick meals)
1 large onion, chopped
4-6 cloves of garlic sliced
3 large carrots, chopped (I like them cut into thin half moon shapes)
3-4 celery stalks, chopped (I had the centers, so it was probably a little more) don’t forget the leaves are edible!
3 small potatoes, peeled and diced
1 package froze chopped spinach
8 c vegetable stock or Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base reconstituted.
1 15oz can of diced tomatoes

In a skilled with a little olive oil saute` onion, celery, and carrots. When veg begins to soften add garlic. Place potatoes, spinach (no need to defrost) and half of stalk in crock pot and set to high. Add sauteed veg and cover with remain stock. Cook for about 3 hrs or until potatoes are soft. Add tomatoes and serve. This made a huge amount! So I will have leftovers for a couple days.

I like to make a batches of things to keep in the fridge. A batch of soup, a couple pounds of beans I cooked up, rice, pasta etc. This makes throwing together lunch and dinner extremely easy. With the beans we’ll throw together burritos, beans and rice, quesadilla, tacos, chili, soup etc. Rice to add to soups, chilies, fried rice etc. Pasta for the same reasons as rice, soups, pasta tossed with steamed veg and vegan Parmesan, vegan mac and cheese, etc. And batches of soup for a heat and eat meal. ~_^ I suggest going to the dollar store and picking up a few large Tupperware and make your life easier too.

If you aren’t vegan, a couple great e-books I would recommend (because I used them until I stopped eating animal product) are Crystal Miller’s (of the Family Homestead) Freezer Cooking with Meal Starters or 30 Day Gourmet Big Book of Freezer Cooking.

The more I learn about processed foods and the things we have been trained to eat form childhood, the more worried I am that I’m putting my children, my husband and myself in an early grave…. It’s time to just say, “No More!”

2-3 tablespoons EVOO

1 large onion chopped

3 cloves garlic put though the press

3 stalks celery chopped

4 carrots chopped

3 zucchini sliced

1 can diced tomato

2 teaspoons italian herb

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 8-ounce can tomato paste

2 cups cooked kidney beans cooked

1/2 lb cooked vegetable rotini (or other vegan pasta)

4 qts vegetable stock

1. Heat EVOO over medium in dutch oven

2. Sauté onion, garlic, celery, carrots and garlic

3. Add zucchini, tomato, italian herb, kidney beans, tomato paste, salt, pepper and vegetable stock.

4. Cook until vegetables are tender.

5. Add cooked pasta and serve.

1 1/2 Cups Self Rising Flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup craisins (dried cranberries)

zest of one oragnge

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

1 egg

1/4 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350〫F.

Mix the zest, nuts, fruit and flour. In a separate bowl mix sugar, juice, egg and oil. Dump the wet ingredients on top of the dry. Mix just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Divide into 12 paper lined muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the center.

Last week I bought some pumpkin spice granola bars. They were good. BUT… didn’t taste like pumpkin. There were pumpkin seeds, there was pumpkin spice, but no actual pumpkin. Plus it was $3.40 for a box of 6! Holy wow. Crazy expensive! I don’t usually do expensive but the words “pumpkin” and “organic” took over my better judgement! So I thought I can make my own pumpkin granola bars and I started searching the google! I found about a million hits on the same 4-5 recipes. Non of which I had the ingredients for in my pantry/ food storage. And with ingredients I’ve never bought, used and/or heard of. Okay so it was time to learn to “make up” a granola recipe. I’ve made granola before. My family loves the granola bars from Hillbilly housewife, we enjoyed the freezer granola bars form 30 day gourmet (it’s in the book), we’ve even made the granola cereal recipe from Jamie Oliver’s food revolution cookbook.

Okay so here’s a few things I’ve learned about making granola. Nuts, seeds and or fruit is a must! Spices, not so much. You need a fat, a sweetener, preferably the sticky liquid type and old fashioned rolled oats work best.

So taking stock of the pantry this is what I came up with…

1 recipe for home made sweetened condensed milk

1 80z jar of pumpkin butter or 1 cup pumpkin puree with 1/4 tsp ginger mixed into it

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup canola oil (could use butter, I was out)

1/2 tsp orange extract (could also use orange zest)

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats

2 Tbsp flax meal

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

Pre-heat oven to 350〫F.

I put a small pan on medium heat on the stove to combine the oil, honey, pumpkin butter and home made sweetened condensed milk. (this recipe is so great! The link I provided above even has a video!) Now I know what you are thinking… what the heck is pumpkin butter? I actually bought it in the section where you buy the fancy jams and jellies. It looks like this.

You want to just warm these and whisk them together so that they blend well. In a big bowl combine, flour, salt, oats, flax, craisins and seeds.

After your wet ingredients are warmed through mix them into the dry until all the dry ingredients are now wet.

Cooking spray a pan or use wax/parchment paper. I foiled the pan (cookie sheet/jelly roll type)  and sprayed it. The I sprayed my rubber spatula , scrapped the granola recipe into my prepared pan and spread it evenly in the pan. (that’s why you want to spray the spatula. It sticks otherwise.)

I popped this in the oven for 30 minutes. I pulled it out to cool and it was so pretty!

I used to pizza cutter to slice up.

Aren’t they lovely?

The verdict? The kids liked them. Hubs said they were good but needed work. So I’ll be re-working the recipe a few more times until we’ve gotten it perfect. I’ve heard that people sometimes put eggs in granola and I’m thinking next time I might toast the oats before adding them into the mix….

How fabulously yummy does that look? I’m the world’s biggest fan of soup. I was reading about a tortilla soup on Southern Plate and it got me thinking of a soup recipe that we kind of made up at our house that most adults have a huge preference for. We called it enchilada soup because we used a homemade enchilada sauce as the base. Today I fiddled with it again and I think we liked it better this time.

First I put some chicken (about 4 thighs) on to boil with a few ancho chilies, garlic, onion, carrot, celery, cilantro, Mrs Dash Extra Spicy and cumin.

When it was done I drained the pan into a colander over a bowl. I removed the chilies, pulled out the stems and put the chilies into a blender. I added about 2 cups chicken broth, and whizzed it up.

I removed the chicken form the colander and set it aside to cool, dumping the veg back into the pan but keeping the broth in the bowl. I used the same colander to strain the seeds and pulp from the chili liquid into the broth. Then I whisked in about 2 tbsp “Better than Bouillon” and an 8 oz can tomato paste.

I poured the broth back into the pot and added 2 cups cooked black beans, the shredded chicken form the thighs, a can of cream corn and a can diced tomatoes.

Mix all together, let heat through and serve with rice and or corn chips.

How beautiful is this?! It was so lovely and wonderful. My best friend is the queen of interior decor! Fall and Halloween being her favorite season and holiday of the year. She also loves candles so she loved the idea of PartyLite candles. I personally like the idea of hosting the parties because A) I get free product and B) I get test subjects for my new recipes… (muah ha ha ha ha ha ha!)

Crockpot chicken and white bean chili, Shepherds Pie, Whole wheat french bread and America’s test kitchen corn muffins. And since it was a party full of kids orange juice and cranberry apple juice.

I thought this chili very pretty. It was a first time recipe for me. While beans, green peppers and red tomatoes, it looked like a christmas confetti! The muffins were a hit, especially among the kids along side the shepherd’s pie. I think every kid loves mashed potatoes and gravy.

Okay so White Bean Chicken Chili I thought since it was new to me, I would go online, and compare recipes. I pulled up about 10 different ones to see what was similar and what was different. So here’s about what I did.

1 lb dry white navy beans (about 2 cups uncooked)

4-6 cups water

1 large chopped onion

1 large chopped green pepper

3-4 chicken thighs (if boneless you want to add chicken base, if not just salt)

1 tbsp original Mrs Dash

1 tsp each Mrs Dash extra Spicy, southwestern chipotle and Salt (salt, if not using base)

1-2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

a few dashes jalepeno tabasco sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

15 oz can diced tomato with chili

throw everything but the tomatoes in the crockpot and cook on low 8-10 hours. Before serving add the tomatoes.

America’s Test Kitchen Corn Muffins

2 Cups flour
1 Cup cornmeal
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 Cups sugar
8 Tbsp butter, melted
3/4 Cups sour cream
1/2 Cup milk

Directions:
1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400°. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to combine; set aside. Whisk the eggs in a second medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar to the eggs; whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add the melted butter in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add half the sour cream and half the milk and whisk to combine; whisk in the remaining sour cream and milk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix gently with a rubber spatula until the batter is just combined and evenly moistened. Do not over-mix. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, divide the batter evenly among muffin cups, dropping it to form mounds. Do not level or flatten the surface of the mounds.
3. Bake until the muffins are light golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean, about 18 minutes, rotating the muffin tin from front to back halfway through the baking time. Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes; invert the muffins onto a wire rack, stand the muffins upright, cool 5 minutes longer, and serve warm.

Shepherd’s Pie

2-3 lbs potatoes, cooked and mashed

3-4 cups water

1 lb stew meat

3 chopped carots

2 chopped celery

1 large chopped onion

1-2 tbsp worcestershire

1 tbsp Mrs Dash original

1 tsp montreal steak seasoning

1 tsp minced garlic

Toss everything but the potatoes in the crockpot and let cook on low overnight. Next morning drain over a bowl. Put the meat and veg in grease casserole, breaking up the meat and spreading into an even layer. (this whole recipe is much easier and faster if you are working with left over beef stew.

Next you want to pull out a deep skillet. I used my fabulous cast iron. I heated it on medium and melted about 4 tbsp butter and 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour. You can also use white all purpose flour no problem. So you are melting the butter, mixing the flour and letting it cook into a roux. You want to cook the flour a bit, it usually gets a nice nutty scent. Then you want to whisk in the broth that was set aside from the stew meat and veg. You’re going to let it cook and thicken stirring frequently. When its done, remove from heat and pour over the veg in the casserole. Next you’ll layer the potatoes, and pop in the oven, about 375 degrees F. 20-30 minutes or until it starts to brown on top.

Whole Wheat French Bread

2 cups warm water

2 tbsp yeast

2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup gluten flour

2 crushed vitamin C tablets

4-5 cups whole wheat flour

Just follow the directions for french bread adding the vitamin C and gluten flour before the wheat flour.