Tag: easy

Easy Breakfast Hash

Prep the ingredients the night before and you can have this breakfast ready quickly for any morning where you’d like to break the routine a little bit. A very yummy change of pace and proof positive that today is a new day!

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Easy Breakfast Hash

1 frozen safe sausage patty per person, about 1/4 cup of sausage. (We like Jones All Natural to avoid gluten, dairy, soy, and other fillers. Jimmy Dean Natural and Wegman’s Natural have been digested well, too)

1 cup diced potatoes, diced small (do the night before and cover with water in refrigerator to keep from browning)

1/4 cup each of diced bell peppers and onions (chop in advance to save time)

1 egg per person, whisked (optional – omit if egg allergy and add some mushrooms or zucchini)

1 sun-dried tomato, diced

a handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

2 scallions, chopped

pickled jalapenos (optional)

1/4 cup canola-based Mayo (such as Hellman’s Canola Mayo) mixed with 1 Tablespoon taco sauce and a dash or two of ground chipotle.

Directions

Heat about 3 Tablespoons of canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add potatoes.

In another, smaller skillet or pot, add the frozen sausage with water and cook until finished. If the sausage is already cooked, such as the Jones brand, this won’t take very long. If you are cooking raw sausage, begin cooking it about 5 minutes before starting the potatoes.

Back to the large skillet, cook the potatoes for only a minute or two (longer if you cut them into larger pieces). Add the peppers and onions and cook until onions are beginning to turn translucent and potatoes are turning golden brown. Add the sausage.

Scramble the eggs in the pan that had the sausage. When finished, add the scrambled eggs to the hash.

Serve on plates and top with sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, and taco mayo sauce. Of course, the kids like it with ketchup. 🙂

Green Apple Tacos with Cinnamon-Sugar

We often walk by Annie’s Pretzels and we miss those delightful cinnamon-sugary bites. This works well to fix that craving.

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Recipe:

Cut up some green apples, set aside.

Warm corn tortillas (or gluten-free tortillas) in a skillet with coconut oil or canola oil.

Sprinkle generously with cinnamon and sugar and stuff with the apples.

Eat! 🙂

We loved these. My son especially loved these as he prefers crispy fresh apples. If you want to get creative, you could cook your apples down, or add pecans, shredded coconut, dates, rum-soaked raisins, shredded carrots, maple breakfast sausage – or whatever you think would be good!

Have fun!

Extremely Satisfying Vegan Taco Salad

Most of you probably already make this in your own way. If you haven’t made it in a while, let me just remind you that this is great quick meal idea. This hearty vegan taco salad, made with a seasoned mixture of beans and rice instead of meat, had us all walking away from the table feeling very full and satisfied.

We worked with the pot of black beans we made the night before (see Working with Dried Beans). Just season the beans and rice and assemble your favorite taco salad ingredients together.

How to Season the Beans & Rice

In a large skillet, warm up 2 cups of beans and 1 cup of rice with enough liquid to almost cover.

Add 1 Tablespoon of chili powder and 1-2 teaspoons of ground cumin. Add salt to taste. (Always taste it to make sure you like it). If you want a more tomato tone to it, add an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce or tomato paste. If it needs a little acidity, add a bit of lime or taco sauce.

Once the beans and rice are seasoned and warmed up, assemble your plates something like this:

Taco Salad

I use spinach instead of lettuce for almost everything calling for some greens, and this is just one of the applications. It’s easier to work with, has more nutritional value and provides the same crispy texture that lettuce does. (And it’s a prettier green, don’t you think?) It also stores easily if I want to use the spinach for several dinners.

We topped this with 3-Minute Fiesta Dip and ALDI’s prepared guacamole.

Add veggies of choice, some Daiya brand cheddar-flavor shreds if you have them, some taco sauce and it’s an easy dinner. Enjoy!

Highly Addictive 3-Minute Fiesta Dip (Dairy-free version)

Dear beloved readers, this recipe-share is an extension of my gratitude for your loving support over this past year. My Mom makes this for me every time we visit. It’s my favorite.

My only request is that you pass the love forward and serve this at parties and enjoy the almost undeserved kudos you’ll get as this recipe is so quick and easy that it’s almost a sin to take any credit for it.

As long as I can remember, any of us who were in or near the kitchen while this was being made, would sneak a taste while Mom’s back was turned. We usually got caught, and she’d give us the half joking “Mom-smirk.” It’s possible that what was left for actual dinner (as condiment for her wonderful enchiladas), was approximately half of what she actually prepared.

Now, don’t expect anything spectacular. It’s just a dip. But it’s quick, tasty, and most people take quite a chippy shine to it.

Note that the measurements are estimated. Adjust the ingredients to your liking.

Addictive Fiesta Dip

3-Minute Fiesta Dip

1 cups of Tofutti cream cheese or Tofutti Sour Cream (use the sour cream for thinner texture)

For soy-free version, use soy-free Veganaise

1/3 cup Ortega medium taco sauce*

1/4 to 1/3 cup regular salsa

Stir all of the ingredients in a bowl. If you are using the Tofutti cream cheese, you may want to use your small food processor or put your muscles into it and blend it with a fork.

Sprinkle a bit of ground cumin and freshly cracked pepper on the top (optional).

There, you’re done. Make sure you do not forget the chips!

Here are a few things this dip/sauce is good for:

Dressing for taco salad

Sauce for enchiladas

Sauce for empanadas

Potato chips

Tortilla chips

Veggies – (if you must be healthy) 🙂

* The taco sauce is the most important ingredient. Do not skimp on this. If you don’t have enough, your dip will be bland and boring. Add more until you’ve reached addictive stage and begin eating this by the spoonful. (shhhh… no one needs to know!)

Here is a picture of the ingredients I used:

Ingredients

Easy Allergen-Free Weeknight Dinner Series: Chicken and Gluten-Free Pasta with Parsley Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Chicken and Gluten-Free Pasta with Parsley Pesto and Sundried Tomatoes

Homemade pesto is as versatile as it is easy to make. This allergen-free recipe uses sunflower seeds in place of the pignola nuts (a.k.a. pine nuts) that is commonly used in pesto. The sunflower seeds add the depth that a bold pesto requires, while garlic, salt and oil bring out the brightness and aromatic flavors of the fresh herbs.

Parsley is often more readily available and is also a great economical choice at about one dollar per bunch. I will say, however, that it is quite peppery when prepared this way, so you’ll need a bit of sweet basil (or dried basil) to offset that peppery bite of the parsley. Or… you could mix in 1-2 of your reconstituted dried tomatoes.

The sundried tomatoes were well worth the extra 10 minutes in the store to find and acquire. They add the acidic tang to round out the flavors of this classic Italian-American dish. My son does not like fresh tomatoes but loves these dried tomatoes.

And while mushrooms are depicted in the image (they *are* pretty aren’t they?), my fiance and I both agreed that a more spring flavored roasted veggie, such as asparagus would go a little better with the parsley pesto. The mushrooms weren’t bad – it’s just that they weren’t the optimal choice. So, instead, roast some asparagus, green beans or broccoli in lieu of the mushrooms. (Once I make this again with asparagus, I’ll update the picture).

Ultimately, this was very flavorful and satisfying. All family members devoured it and leftovers barely made it to the next day.

Chicken and Gluten-Free Pasta with Parsley Pesto and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1-2 pounds of chicken tenders or breast, cut into cubes or sliced in strips

1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped medium dice

1 Tablespoon fresh cracked pepper, salt and dried Italian Seasoning or Dried Basil

1 16-ounce package of gluten-free pasta

1 8-ounce package of sun-dried tomatoes (either in dry package or in oil, either will work)

4 cups (32 ounces) of parsley, packed (set aside some for garnish)

2 cups (16 ounces) of fresh basil, packed

3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

1/4 cup of olive oil

1/3 cup of sunflower seeds (check for allergens), or 2 Tablespoons of sunflower seed butter

1 peck of mushrooms, roasted at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (optional)

1 bunch of asparagus, roasted at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes (optional)

2 Tablespoons of Earth Balance or your favorite dairy-free margarine (make sure that it is totally free of whey, casein, and all milk proteins)

2 Tablespoons of Nutritional Yeast

Directions:

1. Wash and chop all of your veggies and herbs.

2. In a large skillet, cook the chicken and onion in some water with and seasoning such as salt, pepper, dried Italian seasoning or dried basil. While the chicken is cooking (put a lid on it to keep warm once finished cooking), reconstitute the dried tomatoes and prepare the pasta according to package directions. Also, roast your mushrooms and/or asparagus if you like.

While all of that is cooking, prepare the parsley pesto:

Add the parsley and basil to the food processor with the oil, garlic and sunflower seeds or sunflower seed butter. Add more oil or water if needed. Process until smooth.

Drain the soaked dried tomatoes and chop. (Note: they are large chop in the picture but we liked them better when we diced them smaller and had more bites with dried tomato flavor.)

Drain pasta, chop chicken and add to the pasta. Stir in the parsley pesto, dried tomatoes, earth balance and nutritional yeast. Taste and add salt as needed.

Serves 6-8

 

Vegan Peanut-Free Oat-Free No Bake Cookies (Super Quick and Easy!)

No Bakes 2By virtue of the powers that be: Earth Balance, Sunbutter, and Gluten Free Rice Krispies,  I bring you this classic no-bake cookie recipe. Now you can have your childhood back and enjoy this fun and easy-to-make classic treat. It’s so easy and so quick. Just melt, stir and drop onto waxed paper. It truly tastes like those old fashioned peanut butter, oat and butter laced no bakes you used to have.

The reason I substituted the oats with the  gluten-free rice krispie cereal is due to the fact that many people who cannot tolerate gluten, also cannot tolerate oats. As for flavor, I recommend that you go to the trouble of getting the plain gluten-free rice krispie cereal instead of using a sweetened Mom’s Best cocoa krispie cereal (I tried that and it came out too sweet).

If you have a Soy allergy, you will need to use the Soy-Free Earth Balance and find a different seed butter product (like pumpkin seed butter) as Sunbutter is processed in a facility that also processes soy.  Remember that avoiding peanuts and nuts saves lives, so if you can make a switch to a seed butter, you’ll be making the world a better place.

~As with any recipe, always double check your ingredients to make sure everything is safe and nothing has changed. ~

Vegan Peanut-Free Oat-Free No Bakes

2 cups of sugar

1/2 cup of cocoa such as Hershey’s Cocoa Powder

1/2 cup of Earth Balance non-dairy margarine

1/2 cup of rice milk

1/2 cup of sunflower seed butter (or soy-free pumpkin seed butter)

1 teaspoon of gluten-free vanilla extract

3 cups of GLUTEN-FREE rice krispie treat cereal

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cocoa powder, earth balance margarine and rice milk . On medium high heat, bring to a boil and boil for one full minute.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the sunflower seed butter and vanilla extract. Make sure the seed butter is fully melted and incorporated into the mixture.

Stir in the rice krispies and coat all of the cereal. As you stir, the mixture will cool down. You may want to wait about 5 minute for additional cooling and thickening.

Then, drop mixture by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Cookies will set in about 10-15 minutes. Let the cookies fully cool down before transferring to an airtight container. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Makes about 20 small cookies.

Chicken Nuggets

Again, all allergens avoided. And this is very simple and easy to make on a busy weeknight. I just made these for my son and his friend that I’m watching. She doesn’t have food allergies and absolutely loved these and wanted more. How cool is that? They kept eating these nuggets until I distracted them with the banana bread that I had just pulled out of the oven (see previous post). Lol. Enjoy!

Chicken Nuggets

In a bowl, stir together:

1/2 cup gluten free flour mix (see banana bread post for the gf mix I use but it doesn’t have to be exact like it has to be for baking because the gritty of whatever you choose will add to the overall crispy effect of these nuggets).

Then add 1 teaspoon each of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika and stir well.

Add 1/4 tsp of back pepper if you like.

Then cut up 2 – 2.5 pounds of chicken tenders into 1 inch pieces. Toss into the flour mixture. No egg coating is needed.

Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a skillet over medium heat. When oil gets up to about 325 degrees Fahrenheit,  carefully add the chicken pieces. Cook in two batches if needed and do not crowd the pan. Cook the nuggets about 5 minutes on each side or until golden brown and cooked through. Before cooking the second batch, lower the heat a bit before adding the second batch as the second batch will not cool down the oil as much and may burn.