What was baked!

Hey guys!

Can you believe it’s almost Christmas?  Time flies when you are having fun!!  This has been a whirlwind kind of week.  My husband finished his masters degree on Tuesday (YAY), I had a surprise party for him Friday, tonight is my Christmas party and the hubby’s parents are coming to stay with us for a week – so as you can imagine, life is busy (but wonderful)…

I’ve had a few emails regarding surviving over the holidays being dairy free.  I highly recommend taking a look at my Dairy Free Survival Guide for ideas and also my post, Challenges of Being Dairy Free is a great one with tips for what to do where!   These posts and a few more can always been found at the top of my blog under Dairy Free Resources.  

Moving on – I have been terrible at taking food photos – so bear with me.    I wanted to compile a list of all the things that I baked this Christmas!!

Ready?

• Mama Pea’s No Bake Snowball Cookies – easy, fast and gooey!  I love them, the hubby thought they were too oatmeal.
• Dandelions on the Wall’s – Allergy Free Fudge. (OMG). So good! Made two batches – one I melted some peanut butter and swirled in and the second I added super finely ground espresso beans!  SOOOOOOOOo good!!
• Made a double batch of the Chocolate Love Affair Cookies!
• Oh She Glow’s Egg Nog Biscotti’s – which have become a favourite around here!
• Haven’t’ made these yet, but I may!!  Of course sub the butter for either DF butter or coconut oil! Low Fat Gingerbread Cookies.
• I also made Caramel Chocolate Goodies.  Super easy caramel recipe – I have used it for a few things including – turtles (caramel and chocolate covered pecans) and caramel popcorn with peanuts and peanut clusters!!  Best Caramel Recipe I’ve found!
• Still on the list to make – probably for Christmas dinner - Sinless Sticky Toffee Pecan Pudding!!  Droooooooooooool.    Funny story – before becoming dairy free and when I lived in Calgary, I often went for “dinner” at Earls, and actually only would eat a sticky toffee pudding…  It was warm and drippy and had a caramel lattice on top that was crunchy and sticky – such a great combo!!
• Peanut Butter Cups – of course!!  I had one of my Special Olympics girls say they were the best peanut butter cups EVERRRRRRR!!  hehe  

I baked 2 other kinds of cookies – a gingersnap and a banana snicker doodle -  they were just ok though and I want to only give you the best of the best!!

What are you/did you bake this Christmas?

Dairy Free Christmas Treats

Hey everyone!!  Finally a post from me!    I apologize for not posting, but I have only been cooking 1x per week due to my work schedule (working nights) and our busy weekends! 

I’m starting my holiday baking though, which reminded me of a few treats I made last year when I was writing for Our Big Earth!

Here you go!!  I will try to post more baking – as I am obsessed with this caramel recipe and I’m trying to make lots of Christmas caramel treats!

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It’s amazing that the store shelves have been stocked with Christmas decorations for a month now, and that Christmas is just around the bend, which means it’s a perfect time to start Christmas baking!  

As many of you know, if you don’t bake or make treats that means you probably won’t get any treats at Christmas. Every treat laid out beautifully at family and friend’s homes that you can’t touch. For me baked goods don’t call my name as much as chocolate does! One of my favourite Christmas treats were my Grandma’s chocolate covered dried fruit and nuts, oh the horror when I couldn’t even have a single bite!

If you are dairy-free or vegan I know you feel my pain. But I have a bunch of great alternatives for you this holiday season! Each one of these is very fast to make, cheap, gluten-free and make fantastic gifts. I don’t often go anywhere over the holidays without a plate of these goodies and they are typically the first ones to disappear (I promise I’m not the only one eating them!) All the goodies can be frozen, to pull out before guests arrive.

After a few years of buying very expensive dairy free chocolate, I was ecstatic to find out that President’s Choice, “The Decedent” chocolate chips are dairy-free. They have a great rich chocolate flavour, and are the chocolate that I use in all the recipes.  I also buy a 10lb box of chocolate chips at Costco – and they are dairy free and tasty!

Peanut Butter Cups

These little beauties are a favourite around our house. Also last year they won a Christmas baking contest! They are so simple, yet so tasty!

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 TBSP coconut oil (optional, but adds to the flavours)
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• Mini cupcake liners (Dollar store often has fun holiday themed ones!)

-Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil in a double boiler until smooth.

-Mix peanut butter and icing sugar together to form a dough. If dough is sticky to touch, add extra icing sugar.

-Add a bit of melted chocolate to cupcake liner. Tap on counter until chocolate fills bottom of liner.

-Once all liners are full, put into fridge or freezer until solid.

-Once chocolate is solid, take a dime size amount of peanut butter dough and roll into a ball, then flatten.

-Add to liner; keep the peanut butter dough away from the corners of the liner.

-Cover with a bit of melted chocolate – tap until peanut butter is covered.

-Return to fridge/freezer until harden.

Fruit and Nut Bark

• 1/2 cup toasted, unsalted nuts (can be assorted), pistachios look beautiful!
• 1/2 cup dried fruit (chopping into small pieces )
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1 TBSP coconut oil

-Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil in a double boiler.

-Once melted, mix nuts and dried fruit into chocolate mixture.

-Pour onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet

-Smooth until 1 inch thick

-Place in fridge or freeze until solid

-Break into assorted sized pieces and serve slightly chilled

Marshmallow Snowflakes

Great recipe for left over chocolate!! Looks beautiful on a plate with other goodies.

-Dip marshmallows into melted chocolate and roll in coconut.

-Place on parchment lined baking sheet and place in fridge until chocolate is solid.

Chai Tea Candied Nuts

I have made this recipe with a few different flavours of spice including chilli pepper, cinnamon, curry and they are all delicious but this is my favourite and most festive! Plus your house smells amazing while cooking!

• 3 tea chai tea bags (or more if you like more spice)
• 3 cups unsalted, raw nuts (I used almonds and pecans)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp. earth balance butter (or butter of choice)

-Break open chai tea bags, pour chai into coffee grinder or spice mill to grind into a powder.

-Add nuts, water, sugar, butter and chai tea into a pan.

-Turn stove to medium heat and stir nut mixture until the liquid has dissolved and nuts are caramelized.

-Stir constantly to prevent burning.

-Transfer onto a parchment lined pan and put into fridge until cooled.

-Break apart once cooled.

Hope you enjoyed these!!  I will have more for you soon – I promise!

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Mom’s Oat Bran Muffins Revised

First off – DFB is close to hitting a pretty incredible milestone – 750 page views away from 100,000!!!! That is SO crazy – blows my mind and totally humbles me. 

Thank you, thank you!

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Moving on………

Awhile back I posted a recipe for my FAVORITE muffins in the whole wide world!  My mom always made them and they are so tasty, but they weren’t dairy free (and they had shortening in them).  She had made them dairy free a couple of times but now they are off travelling for 6 months, so I had to revise them for myself…

Long story short… this is what I came up with and they are fantastic!

Mom’s OAT BRAN MUFFINS
(with Dairy Free Betty alterations)

300 DEGREES FOR 20 MINUTES
MAKES 45 MEDIUM MUFFINS

2 CUPS BOILING WATER
2 CUPS BRAN
PUT IN A BOWL 1 AND LET SOAK

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5 CUPS FLOUR

5 TSP BAKING SODA
1 TSP SALT
PUT IN BOWL 2 TOGETHER

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3/4 CUP SMASHED BANANA

1/4 CUP OIL (I used grape seed)

2-3 CUPS SUGAR – BROWN & WHITE MIXED
4 EGGS (Vegan Option – 4 TBSP chia with 8 TBSP water)
4 CUPS ALMOND MILK + 4 TBSP VINGEAR
4 CUPS OATS

1 TBSP PUMPKIN PIE SPICE  (I like them spicy)

4 PEELED AND LARGE GRATED CARROTS + 1/4 CUP MULBERRIES (I ran out of dried fruit)

other options - 2 CUPS RAISINS OR ASSORTED OTHER THINGS
IE: SHREDDED CARROT, BANANA, DRIED APRICOT ETC.
Into bowl # 3

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MIXED ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER AND BAKE

Hope you enjoy!!

They are perfect to toss in the freezer and then pull out for lunches! 

Better Late Than Never…

Well hello!

So glad you enjoyed the Salmon Chowder recipe. It turned out better than I expected and  I really enjoyed the creaminess of it (I miss creamy being dairy free)! 

Well as many of you know, it was Thanksgiving here awhile back – and I have yet to do a post about it!!  I didn’t take tooo many pictures since I was busy cooking, but I thought I’d show you the ones that I did – (and attach some recipes!)

While cooking – I decided to play with my camera a bit, and thought these pears were a great subject!!  I wish their was a better background – but this picture totally makes me say “awwwh”!

Anyways…

The table was set for 8 of us (and a sweet little baby girl)!!

Dinner was prepped as much as possible before.

I made homemade cranberry sauce.

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of fresh cranberries

1 cup of water (or orange juice for more flavour)

1/2 cup sugar

cinnamon and orange zest to taste

Boil all ingredients for 1/2 hour or until desired consistency!!  It will gel up more once cooled!

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Our friends were in charge of appies, bread, and dessert!

The appie was incredible!!  Artichoke and Green Olive Dip!   I wish I could have eaten more it was awesome, but I was too busy cooking!!  It was gone FAST though!!  

Then there was the rest of the menu.

Turkey (of course)

2 types of bread pudding – cranberry spice and onion

Stuffing (may have been from a box? I haven’t ever tried to make it from scratch!)

Mashed Potatoes (I used chicken broth instead of milk!)

Sweet Potato Casserole.

I sort of used Angela’s recipe – but I tweaked it a bunch – it was fantastic!!

There were soda biscuits and fresh bread brought by friends too!

I also made a salad, roasted veggies and pan fried Brussels sprouts!

I’m sure I am missing something – but it was quite the feast!

For dessert (no picture ) a friend made a vegan blackberry and a vegan pumpkin pie!! (I don’t like pie – but the blackberry was to die for!).

It was a fantastic night with fantastic friends!

 

Thanksgiving is such a great time – it’s always fun to  have a big group of people enjoying a big huge meal!!

 

Also as promised – I finally got some picture of the Northern Lights – they are very rare around here (I’d never seen them before)!! Thank you to Y. for these pics!   We were at an end of summer beach fire and all of a sudden the sky lit up!

Beautiful hey? I’d never seen anything like it!!

Hope your day is going fantastic!! 

More recipes coming from me next week!

PS.  Dairy Free Caramel Apple Recipe?  Yes please!

Fruit and Brownie Kebabs

Helloooooooo – long time no talk!!  I’ve been a busy bee!

I have an awesome easy take to a BBQ dessert for you today! 

Fruit + Brownies = perfect BBQ/shower treat!!

Fruit and Brownie Kebabs

10 kebab sticks

4 bananas

20 strawberries

1/2 fresh pineapple

10 mint leaves

Lemon juice

Brownies

For chocolate drizzle

1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips

1 tsp coconut oil/

First off you need to make some brownies (because I’ve been so busy, I used a bought brownie mix (many of them are dairy free if you look at the ingredients), if you want to make your own here are two different recipes!   Make sure brownies are completely cooled (I popped mine into the freezer).

Slice up strawberries, pineapple and bananas.  Toss in lemon juice

Cut brownies into 1 inch x 1 inch cubes (you need 20 in total)

Start assembling kebabs – each one should fit 2 pieces of each fruit, 2 brownies and one mint leaf! Arrange however you want!

For the drizzle – melt chocolate chips in a double boiler – add in coconut oil to make it easier to drizzle.

My brownies didn’t work out so well, so they weren’t perfect little squares.

Everyone really enjoyed them – especially the kids!  It’s a nice light dessert for a hot night!

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So I’ve noticed that the walking challenge has kind of died down… Today is the half way point!

If you have been walking – make sure to update your totals!  I know it’s hard in the summer time, but keep it coming!!  

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Hope you are having a great week!!   Hard to believe it’s already Wednesday!!

Empty the Pantry Granola!

So if you knew me in my pre-dairy free days, you would know that one of my FAVORITE things was yogurt with granola and fresh fruit!  

I NEVER buy soy yogurt because it’s so expensive,  but the other day a 12 pack was on sale for under $5!!  I get this brand – and it’s very tasty!

So I had this 12 pack of “yogurt” so I KNEW I needed some granola to go with it!

Voilà -  I made some and it was perfect!

Empty the Pantry, Dairy Free Granola!

I call this empty the pantry, because I pretty much just used anything I had little bits of!!

2 cups oats

1/2 cup chia seeds

1/2 cup dry millet

1/2 cup dry buck wheat oats

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Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix all above ingredients into a large bowl

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Add to the mix;

1 TBSP Mesquite (optional)

1 TBSP Lucuma (optional)

1 TBSP cinnamon

1 TBSP vanilla

1/8 cup oil

1/4 cup liquid sweetener – I used maple syrup.

Mix together – taste and adjust flavours – you may want to add some salt to the mix too!

Put mixture on a baking sheet – and bake for 10 minutes

After 10 minutes flip granola and pop back into oven.

At this point – watch the granola so it doesn’t burn.   After about 5 minutes – I turned off the oven and just let the granola sit in the hot oven for a couple hours!

It came out perfect and crunchy!

The buckwheat grouts and millet added an awesome crunch and the mesquite and Lucuma added a really satisfying flavour (as well as boosted the nutritional stats!)

This granola would be great to wrap up as a gift for someone too!!   It should last awhile in an airtight container!!

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Do you have a favourite granola recipe?

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I’ve noticed a bit of a fade in the 30 miles in 30 days challenge!  Don’t loose hope!

I know though, I’m having a hard time with it too – because I am doing so many fitness classes at work – I’m tired when I get home and want to just hang out!  But we can still keep going!   We are only on week 2~~~  So feel free to join still!!

Honey Almond Thumb Print Cookies

Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadian Folks! Eh!

Guess what I’m doing today?

Wooooo!!!!  I’m doing Zumba in the parade!!   1.25 hours – 11 songs x 2 – I’m going to be one tired – but super pumped cookie!  SO excited!! Hopefully someone will take pictures so I can do a re-cap!!

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Moving along…

There is this amazing gal in my life.

I call her (and her sister) – my little sisters!

My parents and her parents have always been good friends and when I was 18, I moved to their town – they were the only people I knew – so needless to say I spent a lot of time with them and they became my family!

This amazing gal was a bridesmaid in my wedding (obviously), even though she was always supposed to be a flower girl (what can I say, I waited a long time to get married!).  She also graduated from high school a few weeks ago, and I’m one proud big sis!!

ANYWAYS – this whole segue is because when I go visit, she always makes some dairy free treats (she’s an amazing cook!)  Anyways, last time I went to visit she made me these amazing cookies!   And I stole the recipe from her!

I hope you enjoy these yummy cookies!

Honey Almond Thumb Print Cookies

2 cups flour

1 cup almonds (or cashews)

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup honey

1/2 cup oil

Jam for filling (I use only the best – Newfoundland Nan’s Homemade Raspberry!)

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Pre-heat oven to 325.

Put almonds (or cashews) in a blender or food processor and chop until it becomes a chunky flour consistency.

In a bowl – add flour, almonds, salt, honey and oil and mix until it looks like this…

Next – roll dough into balls and place on cookie sheet.  (the dough will seem crumbly, but go with it!)

Put a thumb print in each cookie (think – the deeper the hole, the more jam!)

Add in jam or other goodies into the hole (peanut butter and jam is awesome)

Bake cookies for 15 – 20 minutes or until they begin to brown!

Let cool – and drool!!

These cookies have an awesome flavour – the roasted almonds provide a crunch, and the honey adds an awesome sweetness!  Plus the jam becomes oozy and caramelizes a wee bit!

Hope you give these a try – they are fantastic!

Enjoy your Canada Day or July 1st!!

Are you up to anything fun this weekend?

PS.  Update of the cute puppies coming up next week!

Pizza Party!

Happy Monday! I say that with a smile because I am DONE!!

Moving on.

I’m sorry about not being able to comment on my blog.  Something wacky is going on and I have no idea what?  I’m trying to install a new comment section so I can reply to your comments too, so if you want to comment, please come to facebook!

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By now everyone should know about my love for PIZZA!

The hubby has been gone for the whole week but I was lucky enough to have one of my BFF’s in town visiting and we had an AMAZING TIME!  She kept me busy!

One night we decided to do a PIZZA party and fun happened!

The one thing that I love about this friend – whenever we are together we laugh bunches – just like we did when we were 15.  On top of that, she is a photographer,  foodie and works with kids – so we have lots in common.

Anyways, pizza making was no different – we had a great time!

 

Our pizza’s were very different – but they both looked amazing non the less;

T’s included Italian salad dressing as the base – mushrooms and cheese!

Mine was hummus base – zucchini, onion, mushrooms, artichoke, sundried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes – Herb de Providence.

So good!

Who says pizza with no cheese isn’t good?  When the hummus cooks – it gives the feeling of cheese to the pizza – at least the creaminess!  

This pizza is awesome cold too!!

I’d share the crust recipe (the BEST crust recipe I’ve found) but it’s found on the back of the pizza yeast jar!

Hope you enjoyed!

ps. Wednesday I’ll have up all my Trader Joe’s goodies!  Rumour has it that the hubby brought me back TONS of goodies! SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!