Fall Baked French Toast

Dry, crusty bread works best.  Cut into 1 inch cubes

Grab your ingredients!

Pour batter over bread

Cover and place in refrigerator overnight

Pull out in the morning and dust with brown sugar and cinnamon

Pumpkin French Toast Bake

Ingredients
I loaf of GF bread cut into 1-inch bread cubes
7 large eggs
2 cups coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see above recipe)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
3-4 tablespoons brown sugar for topping
optional: pecan or walnuts for topping

Cube bread (1 inch squares).  A dry, crusty bread works best.  Cut until there is enough bread to fill a 9x13 pan (about 4 cups).  Grease a 9x13 Pyrex dish or stonewear baking dish.  Fill dish with bread.

Whisk eggs until fluffy, add milk, vanilla, spice, and pumpkin puree.  Combine until well mixed.  Pour over bread in dish.

Cover and let sit in refrigerator over night. 

In the morning preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Uncover and top with brown sugar and optional nuts.  Dust with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 35-35 minutes until it is no longer wet.

Serve with maple syrup or Coconut Nectar.

"Why This is Actually Good!"

Please ignore that the picture MAY NOT be yummy looking, instead trust me when I say this it great meatloaf.  My boys took one look and turned up their snobby sweet noses.  After taking the mandatory one bite, they announced, "well, that wasn't so bad after all."  I hope you feel the same way.

Recipe

1 lb. ground sirloin

1 egg beaten or 3 TBSP apple sauce

1/3 c. bread crumbs

½ cup unsweetened milk alternative of choice

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. Real Salt

1 tsp. dry mustard

Dash of pepper

1/3 cup BBQ sauce (divided)**

1 TBSP dark brown sugar (or to taste)

Pinch of allspice

Mix beef, bread crumbs, egg, milk, spices, and ½ of BBQ sauce together.  Arrange in a greased 9” x 5” stone loaf pan.  Use the rest of the BBQ sauce to cover top of meatloaf.  Dust with breadcrumbs for a crunchy top.  Optional: dust top with parmesan cheese.  Cover with parchment and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

*** you can cook this in a loaf pan inside your crockpot using a waterbath.

Lentils: The Little Legume That Could!

One of the fun things about homeschooling is cooking new recipes that go along with what you are learning.  One of our favorites of all time (and it was a surprise that we ALL liked it) is Lentil Soup.  

Lentils come in a variety of sizes and colors.  Green petite lentils, black lentils, and red lentils are common varieties.

They are considered extremely healthy and are a great "meatless" option to add into your meal rotation.  Not to mention a frugal buy.

Health benefits:
*Great source of plant based protein (lean too, very little fat!)
*Heart Healthy 
*High fiber that helps lower cholesterol
*Contains Magnesium, Folate, iron and tons of other great vitamins.
*Creates energy and stabilizes blood sugar 
*some studies have shown they help prevent breast cancer
 

One downside to lentils is that they do best when soaked and cooked for 25-50 minutes.  To soak, combine rinsed lentils with water at 90-100 degree water and 2 tsp. salt.  Let sit for 2-3 hours before cooking.  Rinse and cook according to directions.  I often forget to get them started and that can be frustrating if you have lunch planned for lentil soup.  

I recently found a new product that saves me soaking time and cooking time:

Since they are sprouted and dried they will digest easier and cook faster.  Which is a huge game changer!  Plus NO more soaking!  Woo hoo!

Here is our favorite recipe for lentil soup (it is more a guideline then a true recipe):

In a large soup pot saute 1 chopped/minced onion in 2 TBSP coconut oil or olive oil

Add 1 clove of garlic or powdered garlic, brown.

Add 4 cups of water or chicken broth, bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium low and add 1 cup of lentils, 1tsp. powdered cumin, and 2 tsp. Real Salt.

Let cook until tender and soft.  Anywhere from 5-20 minutes.  If you like more broth add more liquid.  We like our lentils super salty (yum) so we add more salt when eating them.

Beating the Blah's of Chicken

Ever had those days where the chicken is still somewhat frozen, its 5:00, and the wild ones are hungry?  And I mean HUNGRY?  And you can't think of what to DO with said STILL frozen chicken?  No time for rice, or anything complicated.

Rustling through my cupboards I stumbled upon a few ingredients.  One of which was balsamic vinegar.  I have been wanting and wanting to do something with it so I figured tonight was the night.

Somewhat thawed chicken slices much easier then fully defrosted chicken, so I decided to do a kinda stir-fry-ish type dish.  I sliced the chicken thin, heated up my pan and QUICKLY browned it in some Earth Balance Soy Free Butter.  I combined my seasonings, poured them over my chicken and let it cook through.  

Meanwhile, I just roasted some summer squash and zucchini drizzled with olive oil and dusted with garlic powder in the oven.

Supper was served in about 20 minutes.  Not to shabby.  And the wild ones were quickly tamed.  (for now!)

Balsamic Vinegar Chicken

2-3 lbs. chicken sliced thinly
2 TBSP Earth Balance Soy Free Butter 
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme (not powdered)
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown chicken in butter.  If there is a LOT of liquid in pan, pour off.  Combine balsamic vinegar and spices, pour over chicken.  Cover and let simmer until done.

The verdict was mixed.  But I found it nummy, worth a repeat.  However next time, I would love to serve it over rice with stir-fry veggies.  YUM!

FOR REALS... Sugar free Marshmallows

The first time I made marshmallows, it was a "duh, that was easy, why didn't I make them before instead of paying $6.00 for corn free marshmallows," kinda moment. 

 I am now excited to say, I rock at making sugar free ones too!  Easy, peasy...  And they taste WAY better then store bought ones.  Plus if you use xylitol, they are good for your teeth.  FOR REALS!  They both toast fairly well for s'mores, which we ALL KNOW is the main reason for marshmallows?  Am I right?

Shall we begin?

Let's.

Marshmallows (of the sugar free variety)

Sugar Free Ingredients

2 tablespoons gelatin (Use Great Lakes - it’s made from pastured cows w/ no antibiotic in their feed)
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups of xylitol (or other sweetener such as Swerve or Just Like Sugar ~ you may need to adjust amounts needed.)
1/2 cup hot water

Optional ingredients:
5 drops vanilla stevia
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions for making marshmallow:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water.  Let the gelatin sit to soften, while the water and sugar are cooking.

Combine 1/2 cup water and sugar in a small sauce pan, and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved.

Stop stirring, and place a candy thermometer into sugar water; scrape sides of pan if sugar crystals have splattered up. 

Boil sugar water until temperature reaches the soft-ball stage (238-240 degrees).

Remove syrup from heat, let cool a few minutes. Add to softened gelatin. In the mixer bowl, hand-stir the mixture a few minutes to cool and combine.

 

6.  Place bowl on the mixer stand. Using the whisk attachment of a mixer or using a hand mixer on medium high whisk mixture until white peaks form and the marshmallow mixture holds shape, 8 to 15 minutes.

(Add vanilla if desired and stevia drops at this step if desired)

Moving quickly, add to a greased mold or into a bag.  Pipe desired shapes.  Dust with powdered sugar or colored sugar.

Mix gelatin with water and let sit.

Combine sugar alternative and water, bring to a boil

Beat softened gelatin and simple syrup

Beat until soft peaks form.  This is still too liquidy.

Pour into greased pan.  Let sit 4-6 hours before cutting.  Dust with sugar after cutting and let air dry for 1-2 hours.

Happy Accidents! (in the kitchen that is!)

Being that my dearest is a meat cutter, a perk is sometimes he brings home a beautiful cut of meat.  (such as the picture above.)  Downside, is sometimes I have NO idea what dinner will be until he brings something home. 

Well, on a gorgeous summer night, he brought us home some steaks as a special treat.  A once a year kind of a treat.  And I had NADA, ZIP, ZERO, NOTHING to got with it... or so I thought.

I had some leftover cubed summer squash and zucchini left from a cooking class (totally unrelated recipe, that perhaps I SHOULD share at some point.) 

I tossed the cut left overs in rimmed baking stone.  Drizzled garlic olive oil on it from the Stillwater Olive Oil Company.  I just love, love, love their oils.  Did you know they have butter oil that is dairy free and can be used as a butter substitute for those of us that are dairy-free?

I washed and cut a few more zucchini, summer squash, and halved some cherry tomatoes.  Drizzled a bit more oil... Added some Real Salt, dash o' pepper.  Baked at 400 until tender.  Baking time will vary according to the size of said chopped veggies, so you may have to experiment and occasionally check out the tenderness level.

To serve, we add a bit of regular Parmesan for the dairy-can-eat people and a bit of non-dairy parm substitute for the dairy-free people.

Simple, delicious, fast, cheap, nutritious... all those great words a summer cook wants to hear.

Maybe this should be dinner tonight.  YUM!