Dairy-Free Blueberry Pancakes
Today is National Blueberry Pancake Day in the U.S., and I can hardly think of a better way to celebrate than with these Dairy-Free Blueberry Pancakes, a vegan take on a classic. Incredibly simple and inexpensive to make, these dairy-free and egg-free flapjacks are perfect for weekend brunches and weekday mornings alike. While you can add whatever kind of syrup you wish, I prefer putting a handful of blueberries, a little bit of orange juice and a little bit of agave nectar in a small saucepan, cooking them down for a few minutes until they're warm and syrupy, and then serving my hotcakes with the warm berry sauce. Happy Saturday, everyone!
Photo © 2009 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Project: Food Budget, Week 17: Baked Quinoa
This week's Project: Food Budget Challenge report is a positive one, even though we over-spent by $56.18 (buh); we caught up on a lot of staples, had some friends over on a few nights, and although I've been eating less quantity-wise per sitting during the end of my pregnancy, I've been adding in a few more sittings here and there, which can add up if we're not careful. And, of course, quality food is important to me right now; so although it is often true that good food costs more than junk, part of the reason I love this weekly column is because it dispels the notion that it must.
This week, I had the following in the house:
You might be surprised, but that's all it takes to make this Dairy-Free Baked Quinoa, aside from a little salt and pepper, and it's so good (and good for you!). It's like a quiche, but with quinoa. Add a bit of vegan cheese if you have it for a little extra flavor and texture.
There are some really great foodies participating in the challenge, so for more budget-friendly tips, check out their efforts:
Photo © 2010 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Vegan Peanut Butter Pie
Two very important food holidays just happen to happen this week; yesterday was National Pie Day here in the U.S., and today is National Peanut Butter Day. So, in honor of both, I thought I'd share something that celebrates peanut butter and pie in my favorite dairy-free way: Vegan Peanut Butter Pie.
Every vegan I know has his or her own recipe for a vegan chocolate peanut butter pie made with tofu. It's like hummus: everyone has a way that they swear by. For me, I swear by this Vegan Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate; it's essentially a graham cracker crust topped with dark dairy-free chocolate, topped with a peanut butter custard swirled with more dark dairy-free chocolate. It's incredible, trust me. With peanut butter, dark chocolate and a sweet graham crust, how could you go wrong?
Photo © 2009 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Vegan Cheesecake Recipes: Two Cheesecakes, Two Dairy-Free Cream Cheeses
As anyone who has followed my blog for a while can tell you, I love a good dairy-free cheesecake and most of my dairy-free cheesecake recipes are egg-free and vegan as well. This week, I thought I'd do some experimenting; I normally use Tofutti's Better than Cream Cheese for all of my vegan cheesecake-making needs, but I've wanted to try Galaxy Nutritional Food's Plain Vegan Cream Cheese for a while now, so I decided to make one cheesecake with Tofutti's vegan cream cheese and one with Galaxy's to compare. Looking at the nutritional information, the biggest differences between the two brands are that Tofutti's product contains partially hydrogenated soybean oil (although they do have a variety available without hydrogenated fats if this is of concern to you), whereas Galaxy's product contains no hydrogenated fats, and while Tofutti's product has 5 grams of fat per 2 tablespoons, Galaxy's boasts 9 grams of fat per 2 tablespoons. SO: obviously, I expected that this Vegan Blueberry Cheesecake, which I prepared with Galaxy's vegan cream cheese, would be richer than this Vegan Cherry Cheesecake which I prepared with Tofutti's, and I was right; the blueberry cheesecake tasted like a full-fat cheesecake. Not one adult of the eight that partook of the blueberry cheesecake guessed that it was vegan. That said, no one guessed that the cherry cheesecake was vegan either; but it tasted like a lighter cheesecake than the blueberry, which isn't altogether a bad thing. (And if hydrogenated fats bother you, you can always try Tofutti's Non-Hydrogenated Better than Cream Cheese, which is somewhere between the two brands with 7 grams of fat per 2 tablespoon serving.)
When all is said and done, I love both brands, and I loved both cheesecakes. I am so glad to have tried Galaxy's product, and it has definitely been added to my list of dairy-free favs. What is your favorite way to make a vegan cheesecake?
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Project: Food Budget, Week 16: Dairy-Free Scrambled Eggs
This week's Project: Food Budget Challenge report is one that may be enlightening but, I'm sad to say, probably won't be. We were successful in keeping our food spending under budget at $121.68, but it had little to do with any sort of active budgeting. We didn't make any lentil soups, we made a batch of brown rice and barely ate any of it, and the most cooking I did all week was scrambling some eggs and baking some sweet potatoes.
Now that I'm nearing the end of this pregnancy, I feel that I can barely eat (there's just no room!) but at the same time feel like I need to eat more than ever. So I've been preparing foods that are hearty, small, satisfying and denser in terms of calories so that I can keep feeding this growing boy without feeling like I can't breathe. My go-to Dairy-Free Scrambled Eggs saved me, and well, I think they saved us budget-wise, too. We usually prepared half-servings, so each meal for two (or three, really) was comprised of 4 eggs, a few tablespoons of soy milk, a touch of dairy-free soy margarine, and whatever veggies or herbs we happened to have around, so each meal was fairly inexpensive, yet nourishing and easy to *fit* in!
Here are a few other simple-yet-satisfying meals we ate this week:
There are some really great foodies participating in the challenge, so for more budget-friendly tips, check out their efforts:
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Oatmeal Recipes
January is National Oatmeal Month, which makes sense; it's cold outside (it's been below zero for the past few days up here in the North!), and nothing sticks with you throughout the day or comforts quite like a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. The best part, of course, is that it's healthy, too, and naturally dairy-free. I prepare my morning oatmeal with just a dash of vanilla soy milk and chopped fruits, but I make a lot of other dishes with oatmeal, too, from morning meals to muffins to pancakes to cookies and breads, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite dairy-free oaty ways to celebrate January:
Photo © 2010 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Dairy-Free Deep-Dish Quiche
Being forced to improvise can yield some pretty amazing and creative recipes, as anyone with a food allergy can tell you. This was the case in my kitchen this weekend, though not because of an allergy, but because I was simply out of pans.
The situation: I realized that all of my pie plates (all of them, which is quite a few) are at the homes of friends and family from all of the holidays.
The problem: I wanted to make a dairy-free quiche, one of my favorite weekend meals, but without a pie plate, I had to look to my other pans. I could have made a square quiche in a cake pan like I did with this Crustless Tomato and Basil Quiche last summer, but this weekend, I thought, what about a deep-dish quiche baked in a spring-form pan? I know it's not the most radical or revolutionary thought, but it's kind of like taking a quiche to the next level, in my opinion. I mean, there's more quiche!
The solution: This Deep-Dish Quiche Recipe is what I came up with, prepared with a simple crust and a satisfying filling of eggs, dairy-free cheese, broccoli, onions, garlic, and crimini mushrooms.
When has having an allergy or limited diet inspired you?
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Project: Food Budget, Week 15: Vegan Pita Pizzas
Between traveling quite a bit for work last month and then again for the holidays and being a third-trimester preggo, my husband and I have both been fighting some nasty colds for the past week. Which usually means that we eat like children. Don't ask me why, but whenever I'm sick, I always crave the simple tastes of my youth: PB & J, mac n' cheese (dairy-free of course; I always keep a few boxes of Road's Organics' mac n' chreese for such emergencies), oatmeal, and pea soup. So, although colds aren't great for anything else, they are great for the Project: Food Budget Challenge; we only spent $68 on food this week, after barely being able to keep our bills around $125-$200/week for the past few months.
So I can't really give any *advice* on budgeting this week, other than to share one of my favorite childish recipes that we made more than once during the course of week 15: Vegan Pita Pizzas. My husband and I both have a thing for black olives and broccoli on pizzas (it was true love from day one, I tell you!), so that's pretty much how we made them: a few tablespoons of canned pizza sauce, a couple of whole wheat pitas, some Daiya Mozza Shreds, broccoli florets, and black olives, and ten minutes later, we had a meal that was semi-healthy, delicious, and super easy. I listed a few other more complicated variations that we've made over the years in the recipe, but really, this week, all we wanted was something simple and at least mildly nourishing.
What's your go-to sick food?
There are some really great foodies participating in the challenge, so for more budget-friendly tips, check out their efforts:
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Dairy-Free Banana Bundt Cake
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.
Project: Food Budget, Week 14: Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Now that the holidays (and holiday spending) have come to a close, it's been much easier to keep our food costs down during this week of the Project: Food Budget Challenge. We were under budget by almost seven dollars this week, which, for us (third trimester foodie couple that we are) is a lot!
I attribute this success largely to the use of leftovers and pantry staples. We cooked Israeli couscous with root vegetables, made banana bread with some seriously ripe bananas that I'd frozen before we went on vacation, baked some homemade croutons with left-over bread. And I even found something fun to do with some of the granola I'd gifted during the holidays: Peanut Butter Granola Bars. Vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free, I used up some of the left over granola and left-over granola-makings (oats, slivered almonds, maple syrup, etc) to make some tasty bars that my husband and I can take on work assignments and wintry walks over the next few days. A hodge-podge of good things, I love 'em. (And they didn't really cost us anything....at least not this week, right?!)
What are your favorite ways to use up left-overs?
There are some really great foodies participating in the challenge, so for more budget-friendly tips, check out their efforts:
Photo © 2012 Ashley Skabar, licensed to About.com, Inc.