Thai Peanut Sauce

I love Thai food...loooove it.  Most of it is lacking dairy and yet still tastes fabulous!  Peanut sauce I could eat by the spoonful.  This recipe is as good as it gets.  It gives me the peanut sauce flavor I crave from the restaurants and my DF kid loves it.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil ( I prefer coconut oil, but am currently out)
1 tsp. granulated garlic (or 2 cloves minced fresh garlic, fried in the oil)
2 Tbsp. Red Curry paste ( I used massaman curry paste from the Asian store)
1/2 Tbsp. Fish Sauce
1 1/4 c. Creamy Peanut butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
2 cans Coconut Milk

Directions:
1.  In sauce pan or wok heat oil and fry garlic if fresh.  Add curry and heat slightly.
2.  Whisk in 1 can coconut milk and add rest of the ingredients.
3.  Bring to a boil and boil for about a minute.

4.  I just steam veggies and boil chopped up chicken to add on top of my Jasmine rice and then ladle the peanut sauce over it all and enjoy.

I need to figure out how the Asian 1 makes their peanut sauce into a salad dressing...I would eat salad forever with that sauce on it...

Peeps-DF and naturally colored

My kids love peeps.  They are loaded with food coloring and with HFCS and corn syrup etc.  I really wanted to try making some from scratch and was surprised how amazingly easy they were to make.  I will definitely make these again.  The beet powder worked the best, the blueberry...well...by the time I got enough into it, it would have been goo...so it looks more grey.  The powdered sugar was cute as well.

Ingredients and directions

1 packet Knox unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. water

Put into stand mixer or bowl to sit while cooking.

1/3 c. water
1 c. sugar

Put in small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Boil until temp on candy thermometer reaches about 230° F.
Add very hot mix to mixer and mix on medium/high speed for about 8 min or until it begins to form soft peaks.  Spoon mix into Pam sprayed silicone forms or sheet pan lined with sprayed parchment paper to use cookie cutters on. 

When set they will pop right out of silicone forms and roll in prepared sugar.

I used about 1/4-1/8 tsp. beet powder mixed with enough drops of water to make a paste.  Mix in enough sugar to make a pretty pink.  The blueberry made that grey color and would take so much blueberry that it would make it gooey...I haven't tried letting it dry first yet, but that  will be another day for sure. I would also like to work with some flavors.  They were really good alone but maybe with some almond flavoring or this butter/nut flavoring that I have...hm...
Needless to say, the girls loved them.  I bet they would make a great smore...

DF "Cream of Chicken Soup"

I never realized how much I used and depended on Cream of soup...whether chicken, mushroom...whichever...until I had to go Dairy Free for my child.  All of a sudden all those recipes were not an option until I found this...Bean Flour "Cream of Chicken Soup"...all of a sudden my recipes were once again an option and the best part...nobody knows the difference hehe...

Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup Recipe:

• Grind: 4 T of any white bean (lima, navy, etc.) to make 5 T bean flour (I just use 5 Tbsp of garbanzo bean flour or fava bean flour cuz I don't have a Wondermill yet...)
• Combine: 5 T bean flour, 1 ¾ c. water , 4 t chicken bouillon into a saucepan
• Cook: On stovetop at medium temperature until thick and delicious (whisk frequently).The soup should cook in 3 minutes! (this may be longer if your grinder makes a very coarse flour).
Use this with cooked veggies and or meat for a complete meal.  You can also add this to recipes calling for cream of chicken soup cans (I have found this replaces a can plus the water or milk in recipes).

This recipe is from one of my favorite Food Storage websites called Food Storage Made Easy

loove the effort these gals put into healthy and food storage.

Slow cooker Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt and on the "17 Day Diet" which my mother, Aunt, Uncle and I did, you eat 2 servings of a pro-biotic food a day.  Well needless to say, that gets spendy.  I found this recipe somewhere on the internet  and unfortunately I don't remember where...but thank you whomever this came from.  There are several recipes but this one is the one I use.  I understand there is a way to individually jar this instead of one big batch and I may try that someday but for now this works best for me.



Ingredients and Directions:

I start my yogurt at 1pm if I can help it.  I tried 10:00 am and it was too early.  It made the incubation time too long cuz I have no interest in interrupting my sleep to play with yogurt...
2 Liters or Quarts of milk, I use 1% or Skim depending on what I have that day.  Pour half of the milk into the crock pot.
 
            

3/4 c. Powdered milk- If you use Instant, use 1 1/2 c. of powdered milk and whisk into the remaining quart of milk until there are no lumps...foam is fine.   Add to the crockpot.


 

 Make sure your crockpot is on Low setting and plugged in and set timer for 2 1/2 hours.  This is when I do the dishes and do many other things!

After the buzzer goes off, Unplug the crockpot and let sit for 3 hours.  Make sure you set your timer.  I will have totally forgotten about it in 3 hours so I HAVE to use my timer.
At the end of the 3 hours add 3/4 cup of yogurt...I use Mountain High...it has 5 pro-biotics vs the 4 in some other brands and some others have many fillers and HFCS in them.

I pull the inner pot out and put it into this insulated grocery bag that I purchased at Fred Meyer for this purpose but I understand you can incubate it wrapped in towels or blankets as well.  I leave this incubating until I wake up in the morning.  Usually about 8-12 hours.

When I wake up in the morning I have yogurt.  It is at this point I could put it into my storage container but I like more of a Greek Style yogurt.  I grab a Large coffee filter that I purchased from a restaurant and line my colander with it.  I put the colander in my glass bowl to catch any whey that will be dripping from this.  Then I scoop all the yogurt into this contraption, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator until evening.  You can use the whey in any recipe calling for buttermilk but due to the allergy restrictions in my home, I dump it.  If you continue to strain this, it will eventually become yogurt cheese which is very similar to cream cheese and can be used as such.  Just without the cost or the fat or preservatives.
At this point I add my fruits or whatever I am going to be adding and enjoy!

*note:  Yogurt is made thick by the strands that the culture creates in the incubation process.  You don't want to stir them too much, it will break those strands and you will end up with a runny yogurt.  Great for smoothies!

Dairy Free "Buttermilk"

This is my "go-to" for any recipe calling for buttermilk.  I generally use Rice milk but I think Almond milk may be better for some recipes due to the protein content.  I have only tried Rice milk though.

Ingredients:
1 C. Rice Milk (or any DF milk Substitute)
1 Tbsp Vinegar (I use cider Vinegar)

Directions:
1. Pour vinegar into a 1 c. measuring cup then add enough rice milk to fill to the 1 cup and mix.
2. Let sit for a few minutes, I usually do about 5 minutes.
3. Use in any recipe calling for buttermilk.

DF Irish Soda Bread

I love Irish Soda Bread and figured it would be just as good doing a Dairy Free version.  We loved it!  I did not use raisins this time.  I prefer raisins but I wasn't sure how the family would react to them.  I will try them next time.  I would love to start using some Whole Wheat Flour but I can be such a chicken.  Sometimes some things just HAVE to be made with White Flour.  This is a very easy recipe and I loved the texture of this bread!  It was a great addition to our St. Patricks day Irish dinner.

Ingredients:
4 c. Flour
1/4 c. White sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 c. Margarine, softened
1 c.  DF Buttermilk (1 c. Rice or Almond milk with 1 Tbsp. Vinegar (I used cider))
1 Egg, scrambled
2 Tbsp. Margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. DF Buttermilk

Directions:
1. In mixer mix together Flour, Sugar, Baking Soda and powder, and salt.
2. Add Margarine and mix until margarine is well incorporated...like you would pie dough or pastry...until it gets a cornmeal like texture or you no longer have chunks of margarine.
3. Add the 1 c. DF buttermilk and egg.  Mix until all together into a dough.
4. On lightly floured surface, knead dough 5 times.  Roll into a ball and put on a lightly greased cookie sheet or baking pan.  Cut an X into the top about 1/4 in (ish) down.
5. Melt the 2 Tbsp. margarine and mix with 2 Tbsp buttermilk.  Brush top of the bread with mix.  (I re-brushed the bread about every 10 min until bread was finished.)  Bake at 375° for 45-50 min. or until butter knife comes out clean.  Serve hot with jam and butter...mmmmmm....

MIni Corndog Muffins

I found a recipe on Pinterest and then made it my own by changing a few things here and a few things there.  They are not GF but I did use Rice Milk to make them DF for Vanessa.  My husband loved them...a lot...

Ingredients:
3/4 c. Masa Flour
1 c. flour (i prefer whole wheat)
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 c. Rice Milk (or milk of your choice)
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
6 hot dogs, cut into 5 pcs. each
1/3 c. shredded cheese (opt)

Directions:
1. Spray a mini muffin pan ( mine has 24 wells in it) with Pam spray.

2. Put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well.  Add milk, egg, and oil and mix well.  Add cheese and mix.
3. Pour rounded teaspoon full of batter into bottom of each well.  Press 1 piece of hot dog into each well.  Top with another rounded teaspoon full of batter to cover hot dog.
4. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.  Let sit for 10-15 minutes before removing them from tin and serving.


You can make different variations by adding cumin, taco seasoning, italian seasonings etc.  My family likes them plain.  You could probably use different meats like breakfast links and maybe some maple syrup to make more breakfast like.