Gingerbread Persons

I loveeeeee gingerbread!! 

I’m not going to lie… while making my gingerbread house, I ate the characters that were supposed to go with it!!

Then I decided I needed to make my own… BUT the catch was, I wanted them dairy free (obviously) and no lard or margarine.

I found it!  Tweaked it and made it my own!!

DAIRY FREE SPICY Gingerbread Cookies

inspired by this recipe

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 TBSP ground ginger (I said spicy)
• 2 tsp cinnamon (maybe even more)
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (or milk of choice)
• 2 cups flour – with lots extra for dusting

Preheat oven @ 300,  spray/grease baking pan – these are really sticky!!

Mix together sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Add in molasses, milk and flour.

Continue to mix in extra flour until dough is firm and not sticky.

Place dough in fridge for awhile (I only did about 1/2 hour)

Roll out very thin,  cook out your little people

Bake about 10 min, or until bottoms are lightly browned

LET SIT for 10 minutes before trying to get them off the baking pan.

Let cool and then decorate like all your friends!!  (or a few, as it’s hard business!)

I also made a few different icings. Icing is something I have never made overly good.

Sugar and Spice Icing

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• splash of vanilla
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Mix all together until smooth, may have to add extra milk or sugar to get desired consistency.

Dye-able icing

When I decided to make gingerbread people friends, I needed fun colors!

• 1 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tsp coconut milk (or milk of choice)
• Plastic baggies for each color
• Food coloring

Mix together everything until the baggies!(duh)

Make sure mixture is pretty stiff, because once you add the food coloring, it gets pretty watery.

Add icing to baggies,  right in a bottom corner… then add food coloring and SQUISH like crazy until it is all mixed in. 

Snip of a TINY corner or the baggie, and you have your very own piping bag!

If the icing gets too running, put in fridge for a bit!!

___________________________________

 

Veg News just posted an AWESOME substitution guide for cooking vegan/dairy free!  Check it out here, it has suggestions for most of the common baking allergies!

_______________________________

Have a great day!!!   Enjoy the cookies!

xo Jess

Hello Lovelies!! (Last Day for Giveaway)

I missed out in my blog post last night - I wasn't feeling it... but ladies (and gents?)

I am back and betta than eva!

Now... don't be jealous of our beautiful gingerbread house -  we worked very very hard! ha

 

 

 

We had a little creeper that wanted in on the gingerbread

 

On to eats!!!!!!!

Roasted asparagus,  potatoes and brown sugar & maple pork.

It was yummmy!!

Dave also bought me some of this...

Lauren from here suggested I try taking peanut butter out of my diet (gasp)

to feel a bit better,  so far it seems to be working. 

I ate a lot of peanut butter.

This Just Almonds is ok... I'm still wanting to try Barney Butter, but they don't ship to Canada boo.

I made a almond butter/carrot open sammy.. with a green monster!

This combination is awesome...almondy and crunchy!

I highly recommend trying it!

Then I went and bought this book, which may be the most expensive book I will buy!

 

$153.00 OUCH!! 

Hopefully it's worth it!!

Last but not least, after many days of drooling over all the Trader's Joe pumpkin butter

I made some myself.

 

It's delicious and very spiced.

So far I have tried in with almond butter (yum) and with pita...

and this morning I slopped some into my green monster!!

Here is the recipe! I took it from someones blog awhile ago... if it was you, let me know and I'll give you kudos.

Pumpkin butter

                                                                         Ingredients:

1 x 15 ounce can pure pumpkin

1 cup unsweetened applesauce (i used peach sweetened)

1/3 cup demerara sugar* (I used regular sugar, but not much as above was sweetened)

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

How to:

   1. In a small sauce pan, combine pumpkin, applesauce, sugar, cinnamon and ginger.
   2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer,
uncovered, for 45 minutes.
   3. Stir often to prevent burning.
   4. After 45 minutes, mixture should be quite thick.
Add lemon juice and stir to mix.
   5. Let cool. Store butter in an airtight container
in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
A great link to add for you guys!
Bare Babes - a FABULOUS cancer fundraiser.  
Not only did these ladies pose naked for a calender (plus it was published with no touch ups)
but they are also shaving their heads... 
Please check it out, and buy a calendar for someone you love!!

 

Also today is the last day to get in on my "STARBUCKS GIVEAWAY"
Click here for more details! 
Hope your day is filled with lots of great stuff!! 
love love love, 
Jessica

Dairy Free Treats and a weekend review!!!

Hope you guys had a great weekend!!    I layed pretty low all weekend,  we tried to go out shopping but my energy lasted about an hour... just long enough to get some treats -  YUM...

I had NO idea that Junior Mints had no dairy!!  YAHOO - that being said, if your allergy is super bad, they may have come in contact with some dairy, so beware.

Candy Canes of course  and one of my favorite treats.   German Gingerbread cookies!! I love them!! I held my breath when I was reading the ingredients! 

Even though I was super tired, I still made some delicious food this weekend!!   

Minestrone  Soup and Cornbread!

 

It was sooo good!!  So soul filling!!  The cornbread was sweet and cornbready!! :)

Then I took most of Sunday off,  we laid on the couch the whole day watching stupid tv shows...

We decided to order pizza for dinner!!  (Yes I can still have pizza)

I ordered a small Classic Italian - ham, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, mushrooms and green olives.

HOLD THE CHEESE... here is what is left over... It was great!

The pizza shop told me one day that they actually use a separate tray for the cheese free pizza's. 

That made me happy!!

 

Anyways, I am finally feeling better, which is good because all 3 of my work contracts start this week and I have my meeting tomorrow about getting my school paid for!   Keep your fingers crossed for me!!