Thursday, July 14, 2011

Furry Birthdays, GF-pasta and salads...lot's of pic's!

July we have a couple of our furry family birthdays we celebrate.  1st up is Merlin, he is 16 this month!  He
is still a pretty active cat for his age, like last night, he was very noisy running around and wanting in then out.  Errrrr!  He has thinned out quite a bit and is more verbal now.  If you come over for a visit and the dogs try to get all of your attention, well you will hear Merlin loud and clear, while he jumps onto the couch to say "I'm here too"!


Next up is Ace who just turned 2 on the 2nd.  He just wants all of the love, is quiet and loves to try to crawl onto your lap. 
We took a drive the other day and ended up in Cambria.  We had to pick up some of our favorite Italilian pretzels, Taralli, from Allocco's Italian bakery.  The owners are so friendly.  On the way home it started getting cold, especially sitting in the back of a Jeep, so Keaton shared a blanket with Ace.

Dave and I walk back to the Jeep from picking up some burritos and we see Ace with this sweatshirt on and Keaton giggling. Quite funny.




For lunch the other day I had leftover whole wheat pasta noodles and added broccoli, red bell pepper, garlic, drizzled with olive oil and lemon.
 For Keaton I made  Vegan Yum Yum's "Hurry Up Alfredo" sauce and added Gf pasta noodles and a side of broccoli.




Yesterday I went with a friend to our Farmers Market.  It is so busy now with wonderful colors of vegetables, flowers and the smell of all of the fruit!  I know all of you out there love the Farmers Market too.
I was so happy to see Santa Barbara Picstachio Company there.  These are my favorite pistachio's and the flavored ones have a nice and light flavor, slightly salted and they are organic. You won't find a crusty coated pistacio that's loaded with salt here.  These are just perfect and you can order online too!  If you purchase some let me know what you think!

I picked up some lovely golden beets at the Market too.  I roasted some with olive oil and sea salt.
Once they were done I sliced them up and added them to a salad with red lettuce, kale,spinach and pecans. A good way to sneak in dark leafy greens is to chop them up in small pieces and then add them.  I then drizzled a mixture of Blood Orange Balsmic vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, agave syrup(you can use maple syrup or honey) salt and pepper to tastse.  I saw a salad like this in The Flying Apron's Gluten Free and Vegan Baking Cookbook.  The dressing called for regular balsamic.
I'm looking forward to trying the bread recipe's from theis cookbook.  Alot of the recipes call for garbanzo flour which I don't like to use in sweets so I'll be subbing in different flours for those.
For lunch I had lightly sauteed swiss chard, with garlic, yellow bell peppers drizzled with a tahini sauce.
Last but not least you can never have too many gf chocolate chip cookie recipes.  I found this recipe from from Eat, drink & Be Vegan
These are soft and yummy!  I of course cut down on the sugar from the recipe and only added 2 T. of sugar and for the flours I used 1/2 C. Sorghum flour, 1/4 millet and 1 T. buckwheat flour. 

Do you have a favorite GF chocolate chip recipe?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Summer grub if you dare turn on your oven...

Howdy all!  Summer has hit California in full swing.  Basically it's been...HOT!   We don't have air conditioning in our home but at least we have ceiling fans in every room.  Luckily it cools down at night so we can sleep comfortably.
How are all of you dealing with the heat in your area?

Since it's been quite hot I haven't been using our oven but if you are, here are couple of recipes that are summer worthy.

Stacked Sweet Corn, Bean and Tempeh Casserole

The original recipe for this casserole was found in Better Homes and Garden magazine.  I was eyeing this recipe for quite a while before I made it.  Now that corn is in season it's perfect...you can always use frozen though.  Dave and Keaton loved this meal and it's so easy to make.  Click here for the original recipe.  Listed below are the items I used in replacement of animal products.

I used:
Soyrizo instead of chorizo
8 oz. tempeh (you could use veggie crumbles as well) vs. beef 
chili verde sauce vs chunky green salsa (I couldn't find chunky green salsa)
Daiya cheddar vs. dairy cheese

I then topped it off with fresh cilantro and tomatoes.  Isn't it pretty?
Next time I'm going to try using some Daiya pepperjack cheese.  If you haven't tried that flavor yet it is better than the cheddar...that's what we think anyways.

 Blackberry Galette
(Pre baked pic)
(Baked)

For the crust you can use your favorite pie crust.  Then in a mixing bowl add the berries,
sugar, a couple of Tbsp. organic cornstarch or flour to thicken while it bakes.  Bake in oven at 375 degrees until berries are cooked and crust just starts to turn a light brown.  This will take about 40 min.

Stay cool and enjoy!