The Best Ever Eggless Pancakes

My five year old niece was over for a sleepover at my place on Thursday. She's a bit of a fussy eater - as most children are. She's slept over twice before and both times despite my greatest efforts only ate bananas - for supper and for breakfast.

Opening my fridge, I knew I could cross of red peppers, kale, lettuce. She looks at me: "what about pancakes?".  Only I don't have any eggs.

My other older niece is a vegan. She once made egg less pancakes using flaxseeds. So I knew it was possible. I googled.

Out popped this recipe:

1 cup flour (I used organic stone ground whole wheat)
2 tsp baking powder (I heaped them)
1 TB sugar (I used brown sugar)
1 cup milk (I used organic coconut milk)
1 TB vegetable oil (I used grape seed oil)
1TB water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 TB butter (I added olive oil)

Seriously I had my doubts. There was nothing to stick it together. But it seemed good when I mixed it up. It was a bit frothy so maybe I didn't need to heap the baking powder. I heated a non stick pan and added a tiny bit of oil.

The one side browned up really nicely. I flipped them. It didn't take long. We dished them up with bananas, strawberries and real Canadian Maple Syrup.

They really were delicious. My little niece even asked for seconds. :)

I would definitely make these for company.

Creamy Coconut Carrot Coriander Soup with Curried Apple and Fresh Mint

Oh. I think I outdid myself today. 

Seriously. This soup is so yummy. 

2 cups coconut milk. I used the fresh organic kind that you ddrink, like a soy milk. Mmm.

2 cups water

7 or 8 or 9 carrots sliced

2 apples cored and sliced. Leave the skin on though. 

1 tomato

1 Tbl Red Curry paste

1 tsp cumin seeds freshly ground

1 tsp coriander seeds freshly ground

1 tsp pepper seeds freshly ground

1 tsp sea salt

Bring the coconut, water, carrots and apples to a boil then simmer for about 40 minutes. Add the Red Curry paste and the freshly ground spices. I use a separate coffee grinder to grind the spices. I only use it for Spices, I have another one I only use for coffee. Sprinkle salt on top. Let it simmer for another 10 or so minutes. 

The carrots should be soft. When they are ready get a hand blender and blend up everything into a thick puree. If its too thick add a little more water. 

Spoon into a bowl and top with a fresh mint sprig. Voilà

Yum. Yum. Yummy! 

Rainbow Pizza...anyone?

Fridays are usually pizza night at my house. I love thick cheezy pizzas loaded with toppings that weigh so much you have to carry them with two hands. My favourite is ham and pineapple with green peppers, mushrooms and fresh tomatoes. It is usually take out.

The real dilemma is that I just finished watching Vegucated, a documentary about three meat-lovers who go vegan for six weeks. I don't have anything against vegans. My neice is a vegan. But I love the taste of meat. And ham and pineapple is a perfect pizza combination. But part way through the film they show some clippings of meat rendering plants.

How could 2 short minutes have such a profound impact on me? Well, with tears streaming down my face right there and then I decided I would never eat meat or poultry again.

Now what the heck was I going to do about pizza Friday?

I'm lazy. Have I mentioned that yet? So the thought of me actually leaving the house to get pizza dough was out of the question. But I have a bread maker. Yay!

How to make whole wheat pizza dough in the bread maker. I got this recipe from Sparks Recipes. It's called:

Jenny's Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I use stone ground organic)
1 cup water
1 Tbl olive oil
1 Tbl honey
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt

I also added:
1 tsp italian herbs seasoning

Set bread maker on Dough and go lay on the couch for 45 minutes.

Okay. Get up. Turn on the oven to 375F.

Get the topping ready:
For pizza sauce I used a Sweet Basil pasta sauce.
1 cup canned pineapples sliced thin
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
2 tomatoes sliced

When the dough is ready, sprinkle some cornmeal on a pizza pan. Spread the dough evenly over the pan. Spread the pasta sauce thinly (or thickly) over the crust. Bunch the spinach on top then place the pineapples and tomatoes on top to hold the spinach leaves down. Mine was about two inches tall. :)

Place in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes. Cooking time depends on your toppings and amount of sauce so you'll have to judge how long it needs. If you aren't sure you can cut the pizza into slices to check if the dough is cooked. If its not ready just put it back in the oven .

Okay, and now for the real surprise!! Serve with sliced pickled beets. It' s awesome!!! And so colorful. And so tasty you wont even miss the meat. How cool and yummy is that!

Peppery Rotini Cheesed Together with Sauted Spinach and Tomatoes

Some days just scream out for comfort food. Today was one of them. That little groundhog must have been delerious when he said winter was over on February 2nd. It snowed here heavily on Sunday and I got sore arms shoveling the foot of snow off my driveway, my sidewalk, my neighbours sidewalk, and the sidewalk of the people that don't talk to me. Hey every little bit of good karma helps, right? 

Anyway after a week of stress and sad news, I needed some love in the form of melted cheese and pasta. Yup. Carbohydrates to sooth the soul and get those feel good endorphins running. 

This recipe came from Spark Recipes. I don't remember exactly which one though. I usually look at about ten different recipes and then sort of combine them. Leave some things out. Add other things. 

2 cups of rotini pasta

4 cups of fresh spinach

1 red pepper

Coconut oil

Asiago cheese

Chedder cheese

Set oven to 350F

Boil the pasta for about 15 or 20 minutes in enough water to cover them. The pasta should be slightly al dente but more on the cooked side than the al dente side. Meanwhile cut up the red pepper into bite size slices and saute them in the coconut oil. Add in the spinach on top of the red peppers and add a tablespoon of water, then cover. This will lightly steam the spinach. Drain the pasta well. 

Pour out the pasta into a flat oval casserole dish. Grate some chedder cheese on top. Pour the red pepper spinach mixture on top. Grate some more cheese on this. Stir up the layers a bit so its mixed. Grate more cheese on top. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. 

Top with grated asiago cheese And fresh ground pepper. And enjoy!

Rich Coconut, Lemony Lime, Fragrant Shitake Mushrooms and Morsels of Chicken

This is the best Tom Ka Gai soup I've ever made. Its rich and creamy taste is so well complimented with the spicy lime, and using Shiitake mushrooms instead of button gives it an even more exotic taste and visual appeal than most other recipes.

Recipe:

My secret ingredient is the Shiitake mushrooms.  Seriously.  And this was all just plain luck because I didn't have any chicken stock.  Or vegetable stock, or any stock for that matter.  I only had mushrooms, and water.  Looking in the cupboard, thinking "what can I substitute for stock?"....  Thinking...hmmm...I have to soak the mushrooms anyway in water.  And I really really don't want to throw out all that brown mineral-rich water afterwards.  I always do when I make stir-fries, but ...thinking...thinking...  Why don't I use that for the stock?  See, what a brilliant idea!

So, this recipe actually starts the day before today.  The day before, you need to soak about 10 dried Shiitake mushrooms in about three cups of water. They really only take about 5 hours or less to soak, but I like them really soft so you can just bite right through them, without giving your teeth a workout.

Once they are nicely soaked, cut off the stems.  They never soften right and always taste very chewy.  SAVE the water.

Gai, means chicken.  Cut up about 2 nice size chicken breasts into bite size pieces, or half bite size, and fry them up in a frypan slightly until they are just barely cooked.  I fry them in coconut oil because it enhances the coconut flavour of the soup, plus it smells really nice when cooking.

Okay, now for the Tom Ka part.

2 Tbsp of Lemongrass.  I buy frozen, shredded lemongrass and then just cut pieces of it off when I cook.
1 inch of galangal.  I have galangal, but for some reason I used ginger for this one, and shredded it.
3 kaffir lime leaves.  What the heck, throw in a few more for good measure.
Some salt (to taste).
1 or 2 limes, squeezed
1 Tbsp of brown sugar
3 Tbsp of fish sauce
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp Tom Yum soup mixture

Put the water from the mushrooms in a pot.  Add in all of the ingredients from above.  Throw in the chicken. Let it simmer for awhile, longer is better as the flavours will really meld together.

Top the soup with freshly chopped cilentro.

Dig in. Spoonful by spoonful it will disappear fast.