Feeling warm and toasty...

I did it again!  Not posting for a couple of weeks, bad on me. 
I hope you are all staying well and warm.  It's quite cold this morning 28 out and our heater didn't want to kick on right away.  That's a problem being it was 61 inside.

A quick recap of Thanksgiving.  We drove down to my in-laws and spent the night.
I made an amazing pumpkin pie without any soy.  My crust even turned out awesome.

This is a pic of it the next day which got a little smashed on the drive.

This is the recipe from Gluten Free Goddess blog you can get it here.  I only made the filling for my pie and made just a regular flaky pie crust.   One adjustment that I made in the pie filling is that instead of using xanthan gum, because I was out, I used 1 T. spelt flour.  If you don't have arrowroot powder you can use tapioca starch /you can use flour instead.  The reason for the xanthan and tapioca starch is to thicken it without gluten.  Obviously mine isn't gf because of the crust and flour I used in the filling.

Gluten free cornbread without flour?  You heard me right.  This recipe uses only cornmeal.
I was skeptical at first because I thought it would turn into mush.  As you can see it's not mushy at all but fluffy. I've never been a fan of the cakey cornbread.  My grandma always made cornbread, corncakes, cornbread stuffing,etc which consisted of lots of cornmeal and less flour.  So this was perfect.  I found the recipe at
Notes From the Vegan Feast Kitchen by Bryanna.   Check out her site for the recipe.
Not only does this tastes great but I couldn't wait to use it in a gf corn stuffing recipe I had been eyeing for sometime. 

Gluten Free Corn-Stuffing at Silvie+Maryl.  Silvie and Maryl are two sisters that give fabulous info on health, food, etc.  This calls for pecans and raisins.  I eliminated the raisins but used the pecans that tasted great in this.  I'll be making this again next year.

Root Vegetable Soup

Using the vegetables I had on hand to make this delicious and easy soup

Recipe:

1 Large yellow onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 med. butternut squash, chopped

2 Lg. carrots, chopped

1 white sweet potato, chopped

2 small yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 fennel, chopped

1/2 tsp. red pepper

6 cups, vegetable broth

2 tsp. thyme, dried if you have fresh add 1T.

1 1/2 C. cannelini beans or great northern, rinsed

kale, chopped(optional)

Saute yellow onion in 1 T. olive oil or water/broth until soft.  Add in the chopped garlic, fennel and red pepper for about 5 or so minutes until soft.  Next add the rest of the vegetables and broth. Cook for about 45 min or so until soft.  Mix in chopped kale and stir just until wilted.  Ladle into bowl with a drizzle of olive oil if you wish.

Now it's on to making our Christmas dinner menu.  I'm thinking tamales again or maybe italian? What are your plans for Christmas?



Gluten free noodle kale soup and new products

This soup is made with Tinyada brown rice elbow pasta, kale, tomato, carrots, onion, celery, veggie broth, white wine and herbs. Nice & warm.

I decided to give these treats down here to the left
from Mary's Gone Crackers Sticks & Twigs Sea Salt a whirl since they were on sale.My first bite or two I wasn't so sure about the taste so I put the bag away. Then later when my son got home and I
took out the bag for a treat I tried it again and I changed my mind it's pretty good. They are real crunchy and have a ton of good stuff in them like flax seeds, amaranth, quinoa, chia seeds, etc. I would love to try some of there other flavors.

Then check this out! I found this new product from Wild Wood, it's tofu made with Sprouted Soybeans! How cool is that!!! It doesn't really taste any different from other tofu and since this one is superfirm it would be great grilled or used sliced up as tofu steaks. Now you can feel alot better about eating tofu!

Cozy lentil soup and homemade bread

Lentil soup is so easy to make and you don't need a ton of ingredients. This is just a basic recipe consisting of:

Olive oil 2-3 Tbsp.

4 garlic cloves( i love garlic)

2 onions, yellow chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp. thyme

1 C. carrots

1 C. celery

2 tomatoes, diced

1 1/3 C. green lentils, rinsed

6 C. vegetable broth

1 C. or more chard,kale, or any greens(optional)

balsamic vinegar

salt & pepper to taste.

Saute the garlic with the veggies until almost soft. Add the thyme and tomatoes for another minute or so. Add lentils and veggie broth. Bring to boil then simmer covered for 35-40 min. or until lentils are soft. Next if you choose to, it's optional, you can add in your green of choice and stir until wilted. Turn off heat add salt and pepper to taste.

When serving in each bowl you can drizzle a little olive oil and a swirl of balsamic. I like to use a thicker balsamic when I'm drizzling. If you don't have a thicker balsamic you can add regular balsamic to the whole pot, just a couple of dashes and stir in.

Also if you want a kick to it drizzle in some chile pepper olive oil. It rocks!

The whole wheat oatmeal bread recipe comes from Celine at have cake, will travel. Always perfect every time I make it.

Potato & Kale Soup

It's been rainy and cold so to warm us up I made Potato & Kale soup from Veganomican. The only change I made was that I added a can of Cannelinni beans. The Drop Biscuits are from the Joy of Vegan Baking.