Dairy Free Caramel Apples

If you'd like to read about my mishaps with this recipe, you can get a good laugh reading this post on my personal blog.

For the recipe (and a much better picture), you can find it here: Dog Hill Kitchen: Vegan Caramel Apples

These taste FANTASTIC!!! Enjoy!

What to do with Leftover Spaghetti

go here:
Jeff's Recipes- Leftover Feast: Fried Spaghetti

I totally agree with Jeff's writeup - you'll want a stainless steel pan and a metal spatula to do all the necessary scraping. Although it's not a spectacular dish, it is quite tasty and I will definitely make this again!

I made this dairy-free with my spaghetti sauce recipe. Yum!

Okra and Tomatoes

I borrowed this recipe from Recipezaar.com

Oh, this was so good. (But I'm sure you have to like okra and tomatoes to begin with... LOL!)

8 slices bacon
1 large onion, chopped
2 (16 ounce) bags frozen cut okra (or 2lb. fresh okra, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces)
2 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
salt and pepper

Original instructions:

1. Fry bacon in a large skillet that can be covered, until crisp. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels. Saute onion in bacon drippings until tender. Add okra and tomatoes, stir to blend. Cover, reduce to low heat. Cook for about an hour, or until okra is tender, stirring occasionally. Do not stir too much or too briskly, because the okra will fall apart. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
2. **Note: Nanny diced the bacon and fried it and the onion together. My family doesn't like the bacon cooked into it because the bacon becomes soft. If you do it my way, you can sprinkle the bacon on right before serving.

I diced the bacon and fried it with the onion together leaving large chunks of soft bacon mixed in with the okra and tomatoes. I thought it was great and the bowl was empty at the end of our get-together.

Dairy Free Pasta Salad

I received this recipe from a friend when I was out in the corporate world before kids. Thanks, Kay, we are still enjoying this recipe!
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I eventually had to venture out into the world of cheese replacements instead of avoiding cheese all together... especially for this recipe (although, it might be just as tasty without the "cheese")!

This is my favorite summer pasta salad! I hope you enjoy it, too!



16 oz tri-colored spiral pasta, boiled and cooled
1 large cucumber, pealed and chopped
1/2 lb ham, chopped into cubes
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 small tomato, chopped (I do mine fine)
1/2 block "Cheddar Cheese", shredded
1/2 block "Mozzarella Cheese", shredded
16 oz bottle Kraft Creamy Italian dressing and dip (Yes! It is DF!)

Combine all ingredients in a LARGE bowl and let sit overnight. The dressing will absorb into the noodles and other ingredients allowing all the flavors to "mesh".

Non-Refried Refried Beans

I just made some refried beans that were excellent! Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of how much of anything I put in it. As a reminder to myself, here's what I did:

INGREDIENTS
Pinto Beans
Water
Bacon
Cumin
Garlic, minced
salt


Soaked dried pinto beans 1 hour. Drained.

Put pinto beans, water, salt, and some cut up raw bacon in the crockpot. Cook on LOW about 8 hours. Add cumin and garlic to taste (and more salt if needed). Cook on HIGH 1 hour.

Drain beans, reserving liquid. Mash beans and bacon with potato masher. Add liquid back into the mashed beans until desired consistency is reached.

Dairy-Free Egg-Free Blueberry-Flaxseed Muffins

I updated this recipe to also exclude eggs. The original is from, "Cooking for Health & Flavor", and it's on page 67. Turned out just as good with the applesauce as it was with eggs (and cheaper, too)! Yippeee! Witt loves them!





1/2 cup milled flaxseed
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 c + 1/8 c applesauce
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk (I used my substitution)
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed, patted dry
1 Tbsp sugar for tops (or however much your kids put on top - mine used much more than a Tbsp!)

(The recipe also calls for 2 tsp grated orange peel, but I didn't feel like grating the orange so I left it out.)


Heat oven to 400. Coat 12 muffin cups (or the muffin pan) with nonstick cooking spray. If you don't have buttermilk on hand and will be using the substitution, start it first.

The original recipe says to mix all the dry stuff first (except the brown sugar) in one bowl and the wet stuff with the brown sugar in another. As usual, I just threw it all in my kitchenaid stand mixer (without the blueberries) and let it do the work of mixing it all. Then I folded the blueberries in by hand.

Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops with sugar.

Bake 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned and tops spring back when touched lightly. Loosen edges; turn muffins out onto wire rack to cool slightly.

Dairy-Free Egg-Free Okra Patties

I don't fry much at all, but these are really good and this time of year we have lots of okra!

Original recipe from allrecipes.com

• 3 cups vegetable oil for frying
• 1 pound okra, finely chopped
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 cup water
• Ener-G egg replacer prepared for 1 egg
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup cornmeal

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a large skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix together the okra, onion, salt, pepper, water and egg replacer. Combine the flour, baking powder and cornmeal; and stir that into the okra mixture.
3. Carefully drop spoonfuls of the okra batter into the hot oil, and fry on each side until golden, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels.