I think everyone has a favorite go-to tomato sauce for their pasta. This sauce is my variation on spaghetti and meatballs. If you’ve never made your own sauce, don’t be intimidated! It doesn’t take more than a couple of hours to make (and it takes less than an hour if you use ground beef instead of cubed meat), and it’s so much better than jarred sauces! This sauce gets real depth of flavor and a touch of sweetness (to balance out the tomatoes’ acidity) from the almost-caramelized onions. Spaghetti with Homemade Meat Sauce (Yield: ~14 servings) 1 ¾ lb beef, trimmed […]...
Fruit & Nut Granola
This recipe is really versatile, since you can add any kind of dried fruit, nuts, and cereal you like. This granola is great by itself, with milk, with yogurt, on ice cream, or even on top of your morning oats (it doesn’t get much better than oats on top of oats!). :) Mixed Berry and Almond Granola (Yield: About 10 c) 4 c rolled oats ¾ c honey 6 TB salted butter or canola oil (if using canola oil, add ½ tsp salt) 2 TB virgin coconut oil ~1 tsp cinnamon (more or less depending on your taste; you could also use pumpkin pie […]...
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie
I’ve been looking for a really good gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I haven’t had much luck. Most (if not all) of the recipes I’ve found either use spelt four (which I learned from the knowledgeable Shauna, is not really gluten-free), or use upwards of 5 different types of flour all in the same recipe (like tapioca, rice, sorghum, potato, amaranth, etc.). I thought, there has to be an easier gluten-free recipe that’s still delicious. Oats immediately came to mind. (Of course, while oats are gluten-free, you should be sure to purchase oats that free from possible contamination while processing.) These bars are […]...
Baked Eggrolls with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
Everyone loves takeout, right? Chinese food is high on my list of favorites, but I wanted to come up with a healthier version of a classic…the eggroll! I used teriyaki sauce in this recipe because I love the flavor, just think of these as fusion rolls – Chinese-style eggrolls meet Japanese teriyaki sauce – a marriage made in heaven! Instead of making your own teriyaki sauce you could use store bought, or you could substitute with sweet and sour sauce, duck sauce, or plum sauce. These eggrolls are so good I’d say they rival takeout from any restaurant. ;) Baked Eggrolls with Homemade […]...
Spinach, Sweet Onion, and Feta Pie
This recipe is similar to both Greek spanakopita and Arabic fatayer bi sabanekh. In this recipe I used frozen cut spinach because it saved me the time of having to wash and wilt fresh spinach. My husband eats this dish with a side of plain yogurt, and while it might sound strange, I have to admit the tang of the yogurt accentuates the spinach very well…who knew! This recipe will be sent over to Zoe for this week’s feta Blogger Secret Ingredient! Spinach, Sweet Onion, and Feta Pie (Yield: 1 (9-inch) pie, cut into 8 wedges, 2 per serving if served as a main course) […]...
Help a Good Cause
Krista is participating in a fundraising walk called Jessica’s Footprint: A Walk In the Park. All proceeds go toward the pediatric brain tumor research at Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto. See here for more info and please help if you can…thanks!...
Vegetarian Big Macs
The lentil burgers in these Big Macs are so, so good! And I don’t mean so good for a meatless burger, I mean so good! Trust me, vegetarian or not, this is a serious burger – just look at the size of that thing! If you don’t like the Big Mac toppings, you can top them with anything you like. I’ve tried the following combinations: salsa & green leaf lettuce, guacamole & Bibb lettuce, mini Babybel and sliced tomato, and of course “the works” (or at least what I call the works) – the traditional ketchup/mustard/relish/minced onion with American cheese. All of these flavor combos […]...
Vegan Chocolate Cake with Vegan Buttercream Frosting (A.k.a. The Giant Birthday HoHo)
This is my mom’s recipe for chocolate cake…actually my mom said she got it from her mom who got it from her mom (I think every family has their own variation of this cake). It’s called “crazy chocolate cake” and for me and my siblings growing up, this was the cake at every birthday party, graduation, and other occasion that required the presence of a cake. This cake was vegan back in the day before veganism was common (or at least before it was as common as it is today). The original frosting wasn’t completely vegan since it had regular milk, but soy/rice/almond milk is […]...
Almond Joy Oats
Who needs dessert after dinner when you can eat it for breakfast? I’ve always loved oats, even as a kid, but when I think of them I usually think of, well, something oaty…something for horses…something nutritious and chewy/mushy and not too full of flavor but great with a little honey and milk or cinnamon and brown sugar. The days of boring oats are gone. Through much inspiration and experimentation I have learned that oats can be anything you want them to be. These oats (as the name implies) were inspired by the candy bar, Almond Joy. They’re subtly sweet from banana, creamy from being […]...
Camping!
This past weekend I went camping at Allegany State Park, which the largest state park in New York. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun (even though it rained on and off all day Sunday!). Here are some of the highlights… On the way we passed through the cutest little town called Ellicottville, right in the middle of ski country. The landscape was really breathtaking… Some wildlife… Some of the local flora… The beach… Some of our eats (we also made s’mores — of course, what is camping without them? — and mountain pies filled with fruit pie filling and sprinkled with powdered sugar)… Right […]...