easy kids pasta

3 ingredients: dairy free

twisty pasta noodles
tomato sauce
cashew cream

optional: grated Parmesan

Like many children, mine are major pasta eaters.  I have learned to make my own red sauce but honestly, the kids prefer a jar of Muir Glen or Paul Newman's sauce.  I try not to be offended.  I like Muir Glen because they use organic tomatoes.  A jar of Muir Glen is around $3.50 and our store often has them on sale.

Pasta is great for dinner but I always felt like, for a meal,  it didn't have quite enough protein.  My oldest likes Parmesan on hers but my younger ones do not.
I recently had a batch of cashew cream in the fridge and I added about 3 heaping tablespoons of it to about half a jar of the pasta sauce when I was warming it on the stove.  I poured it over the pasta and my kids had no idea.  In fact, all 3 of them asked for seconds.  I've served it that way a few times now and they eat it up.  I'm so happy their easy pasta stand-by now has some good protein and healthy fats in it.

creamy veggies over rice

* This is one of those times when I threw caution to the wind and used more than 7 ingredients.  You could easily streamline it but I got excited trying something new and just kept adding things.  It was a good day in the kitchen.

12 ingredients: gluten and dairy free

zucchini
yellow peppers
red onions
tomatoes
garlic
veggie broth
cashew cream
almond milk
Braggs liquid aminos
crushed red pepper
cooked brown rice
peanuts

A good friend of mine recently told me about a coconut curry dish she loves to make.  I'm not a huge curry fan but my ears perked up when she said she started making it one night and realized she was out of coconut milk so she improvised with some almond milk and cashew cream.  (If you've read any of my recent posts, you'll know I am crazy in love with cashew cream.)

Here is what I did...

-Everything went into my iron skillet over low/med heat:
-About 1/2 cup of veggie broth.
-One large clove of garlic, grated.
-2 cups of the veggies I happened to have in the house, zucchini, yellow peppers and red onions.  (Eggplant would be great too, I'm going to try that next time.)
-About 1/4 cup of almond milk.
-3 big tblsp. of cashew cream.
-1-2 spoonfuls of Braggs liquid aminos.
-A few sprinkles of crushed red pepper.

Once everything was in the skillet I stirred it up and as soon as it began to bubble I turned the heat to low and covered it.  Stirring it occasionally, leave it covered over low heat for 25 minutes.
It gets so creamy!  Then I just poured it all over some cooked brown rice and added a few peanuts on top.  It was so delicious.

kale ceasar salad

"ceasar" dressing...

6 ingredients:  gluten and dairy free

olive oil
balsamic vinegar
cashew cream
lemon juice
kalamata olives
nutritional yeast

for the salad...

4 ingredients: gluten and dairy free

romaine lettuce
kale
sunflower seeds
cracked pepper

This is such a great salad!  I like to mix romaine lettuce and kale but you can use either one on their own too.
This Caesar dressing delicious.  Lots of vegan recipes for Cesar dressings contain nutritional yeast.  It gives it a bit of a "cheesy" flavor.  Kalamata olives are a great substitute for anchovies too.  They're salty and kind of have that same consistency.  It gives the dressing a bit of a purple hue so don't be surprised by that.

-First, I rinsed some romaine lettuce and kale. (I tear the leaves off the stems of the kale.)
-Then set it all aside in a large mixing bowl.

-In my blender I added:

3 tblsp. of cashew cream
1 tblsp. of nutritional yeast
1/4 cup of pitted kalamata olives
1 tbslp. of olive oil
1 tbslp. of balsamic vinegar
the juice of half a lemon

Then just pour it over the lettuce and kale, stir to coat and throw in some sesame seeds.  I don't think it needs any salt because the kalamata olives are salty enough.  I do like lots of cracked pepper though.  Since I am gluten free, I don't use croutons, but the sesame seeds give it some crunch.  (I keep meaning to get a loaf of good, gf bread from our bakery and make some croutons but I haven't gotten around to that yet.  The salad is great without them.)

chocolate drops (no-bake treats that your kids will love)

5 ingredients:  gluten and dairy free

semi-sweet chocolate chips (there are many conventional brands without dairy)
bananas
granola (gluten free)
peanut butter
almond milk

These are so chocolaty and yummy  They are a great dessert but I feel like they still have some redeeming qualities!  I don't keep many sweets in the house but we do almost always have chocolate chips around.  Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips and Costco's Kirkland brand are both dairy free chocolate chips that are delicious and not very expensive.

-I added 3/4 cup of chocolate chips and a couple of tblsp. of my homemade almond milk to a saucepan over low heat.
-Then I added a heaping tblsp. of creamy peanut butter.  (Maranatha is my favorite)
-I also mashed a very ripe banana into it all, stirring constantly.
-When it was all melted and the banana was fairly mashed up I added about a cup and a half of gluten free granola to the pan and stirred it all up.  (Udi's gf granola is my favorite.)
-Then spoon the mixture in little drops onto a piece of waxed paper and freeze for about30 minutes.

*They don't stick together completely when they're hot but they are perfect little chocolate drops once they're frozen.  You can freeze them anywhere from 30 min. to a few hours.
My kids LOVED them!  (So did I actually.)  I also like the fact that they are gluten and dairy free.  You do need to eat them right after they come out of the freezer though.  If they sit out too long they start to turn into a gooey mess.  But it's a perfect quick chocolate treat, especially in the warmer weather.

                                         That's the chocolate face of a happy 4 year old.

attempts at my first garden...take 1

I have to start this post by saying that none of these photos are staged.  At all.  I swear. 

I've never had my own garden before but I've always wanted to.  For awhile I blamed our townhouse.  The yard was tiny and my half hearted attempts to grow tomatoes in giant buckets didn't really pan out.  But now we live in a house with an actual yard.  Not only that, it's south facing and full sun.  At first I thought it was weird there weren't really any trees in the backyard but then I realized this would be perfect for the garden I've been dreaming about.  Many of my neighbors have beautiful gardens with crazy looking structures in them.  I have no idea what they could possibly be for but they look very official.

I was going to start one last summer but we got a puppy instead and I'm not crazy.  

So we've been talking about it all year.  My kids are so excited to have their own garden.  They each picked out seeds at the store and my 2 year old even insisted on his own shovel.  We've just been waiting for it to stop snowing.  (Yes, it's May but this is Montana.)

Yesterday it was sunny and beautiful.  It was in the 70's and I decided it was a great day to start digging up the spot for our garden.  My kids were psyched!  I've never seen them get their shoes on and get out the door so fast.  

But just like with the puppy I knew this would all fall on me.  It's ok, I wanted the puppy and I want the garden, but I knew their excitement would be short lived...

We all got our new shovels and headed outside.  Apparently digging up the ground is harder than I thought it would be.  But it's early May and I'm not in a hurry.  We can dig it up over the course of a few days.  Chin up, I thought.  About 2 minutes in however, my oldest wandered off.  When I looked up she was writing in her notebook. She said something about homework but I'm a little suspicious...

Then about 5 minutes later my 2 year old wandered off.  When I looked up he was smiling and his head was wet.  What?  Upon closer inspection I realized he had dumped the dogs water dish onto the patio and was bending his head down and rubbing it on the wet cement.  (If he wanted to get wet why didn't he just stick his head directly into the bowl of water?  Probably because I am a freak about them going anywhere near standing water and he knew better...) But more likely this is where his boy-ness has come into play and I can't fathom why he would do that.  But he's so cute, I don't care.

                                     

Now my 4 year old was a trooper.  No surprise, she's a little toughy.  She got after it in the garden with me for about half an hour before she got bored.  I was so proud!  

   

     

After about an hour and a half we went in for the evening.  When I went out to inspect our work this morning, this is all we got done.  This may take longer than I thought...

peanut and veggie quinoa

7 ingredients:  gluten and dairy free

cooked quinoa
peanuts
tomatoes
shiitake mushrooms (or kale if you prefer; I've made it with both)
red or green peppers
red onions
Braggs liquid aminos

optional: Sriracha hot sauce

This is a surprisingly wonderful dish.  In fact one of my most carnivorous friends flipped for it and asked if I could make it again the next time he came over for dinner.

It's so easy too.  You can put it together in about 10 minutes once the quinoa is cooked.

-I cooked a cup of quinoa in my rice cooker.  (1 cup quinoa and 2 cups of water or veggie broth.)
-While that was cooking I just chopped up about 2 cups of the veggies listed above;  tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, green or red peppers and red onions.
-I sauteed the veggies in my iron skillet over low/med. heat with a couple of spoonfuls of Braggs for about 5 minutes.  (Between the Braggs and the chopped tomatoes there is enough liquid in the skillet for the veggies not to stick if you stir frequently.  You don't even need to add any oil.)
-Then I turned off the heat and added the cooked quinoa to the skillet with the veggies and stirred it all together.
-I added about 1/2 a cup of roasted peanuts  to it all and served.

It's really filling but light and fresh, plus the peanuts add a nice crunch to the quinoa. It's a great combination.

veggie toastada

7 ingredients:  gluten and dairy free

tortilla wraps (I used Sonoma gluten-free wraps )
vegetarian refried beans
yellow and/or red bell peppers
cucumbers
jalapenos
fresh cilantro
guacamole

optional: tomatoes or red onions (or whatever veggies you like)

This is so easy to make, it only takes about 10 minutes.  (And doesn't it look pretty?!)

-I spread some vegetarian refried beans on a gluten free tortilla.  Be sure the can says vegetarian refried beans because a lot of them contain lard.  I used gluten free tortillas but you can use any kind you like.  (Sonoma and Rudi's are my favorite gf brands for tortillas.)
-I put the tortilla with the beans in the oven on broil for just a minute or two to quickly warm it up.
-Then just chop up whatever veggies you like or have on hand.  Spread them on the tortilla and that's it!
-You can use any kind of guacamole you like.  (I just mashed an avocado and added a squeeze of lime and a little salt and crushed red pepper.)

So, I was really hungry when I was making this and it was so loaded with heavy veggies that there was no way to eat it other than with a fork and knife.  Just a heads up...