Category Archives: Secret Recipe Club

October 24, 2011 · 11:00 am

SRC – OAT ROASTED PEARS – GFree and Vegan

It is time again for Secret Recipe Club.  Once a month I participate in a fun and inspiring blog swap of sorts.  This month I was assigned Erin’s blog, A Tale of One Foodie’s Culinary Adventures.

Erin’s favorite part of cooking and baking is doing it for other people…a girl after my own heart!  She started the blog as a pseudo journal so she could keep track of all the cooking, baking and wine tasting she does.  While cruising through her blog I saw many mouthwatering dishes that I was interested in making …many of which were vegan and the others which me great recipe ideas that I could take back to the kitchen and veganize.  Ultimately I decided to make her Oat Roasted Pears which she adapted from a recipe by Anna Olson.  My family is slightly obsessed with pears right now since they are at the peak of amazing this time of year.

Since coming back from the Healthy Lifestyle Expo a few weekends ago I am primed to make as many healthy changes as I can in my cooking and baking, so I eliminated all of the butter and refined sugar from this dish and substituted date sugar and honey (I also used pecans vs. almonds since that is what I had on hand).  In addition, I halved the recipe since there are only four of us.

The end result was delicious and we all loved it!

For Erin’s original recipe, click here.

Honey Oat Roasted Pears
Recipe from Anna Olson’s cookbook Fresh, p 120
Ingredients:

Method:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Toss the oats, date sugar, honey, pecans and cinnamon to combine.

Cut the pears in half (don’t peel them) and scoop out their cores (I used a melon baller).

Lay the pear halves in a baking dish.

Press 1/4 of the oat filling into the center of each pear.

Bake, uncovered for 25 minutes, until pears are tender and the oat filling is lightly browned.  NOTE – Watch closely.  If the oat mixture begins to cook too rapidly, cover with foil.

Serve warm, drizzled with maple syrup or honey and vanilla yogurt.

For a printable version of this recipe click here. 

 

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Filed under Cooked Fruit, Dessert, Fruit, Gluten Free, Pie / Crumble / Cobbler, Recipes, Secret Recipe Club, Vegan, Vegetarian

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September 26, 2011 · 11:00 am

SECRET RECIPE CLUB – Stuffed Bell Peppers (Vegan and GFree)

I was excited when I was assigned Allie’s Clean Plate Club for September’s Secret Recipe Club.  Allison describes herself as an Illinois farm girl stuck in the craziness of the West Coast…I am a wannabe farm girl also in the craziness of the West Coast, so we are a good match.

Allie’s Clean Plate Club has a nice variety of recipes, but her Stuffed Green Peppers called to me.  I have been wanting to make a vegan version of stuffed peppers for a while now and this month’s assignment gave me the last push that I needed.  Allie mentioned in the post that this was the first recipe she made for her husband when she met him at the ripe old age of 23.  I love the nostalgia!  It brought me right back to the same time in my life when I was trying new recipes on my husband and all of the nervous energy that went into planning and preparing those first home cooked meals together.

Since I veganized the recipe I did change more than a few of the ingredients, but for the most part, the recipe is very true to it’s roots.  Click here for Allie’s original recipe.

I want to quickly highlight the changes I made… I replaced the beef with Portobellos and tempeh, upped the amount of onion, used vegan Worchestershire (and doubled the amount), used veggie broth in lieu of water (for added flavor), used vegan cheese, and I used pasta sauce instead of tomato soup since that is all I had in the house at the time.

Overall I was happy with the result.  The next time I make these (I plan on adding them to the dinner rotation), I think I will double the rice since my vegan meat wasn’t as dense as beef would have been.  I may also add in some oatmeal or almond flour to bind the filling together more.  As it was, the flavor of the filling was great…I really enjoyed spooning it onto my gluten-free bread.  I even had enough filling left over that I froze some to use as vegan “meat” sauce the next time I make pasta.

INGREDIENTS – serves 4
4-6 Bell Peppers (I used red, yellow, and orange)
FOR THE “MEAT,”  2 Portobello mushrooms & 8oz. tempeh
½ onion, diced
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp. Wizards Worchestershire sauce (vegan & GF) 
2/3 c. uncooked rice (I used 1/3 cup & plan to double it next time)
1/2 c. vegetable broth
2/3 c. shredded Daiya cheese
Pasta Sauce
salt and pepper to taste

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Cut the tops off of the peppers and remove the seeds. Cook the peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes.  Note: Once you add the peppers to the boiling water, the water will cool down and stop boiling.  You will need to wait for the water to boil again and then set the timer for 5 minutes.

Remove peppers and drain in a colander over the sink.  Drain the peppers upside down in the colander; otherwise the water will just sit in the bottom of the pepper and not drain out.

Place the drained peppers in your baking dish and sprinkle salt inside of each pepper and set aside.

Loosely chop the Portobello mushrooms and place them in the food processor.  Process until they resemble the texture of ground beef.  Do the same with the tempeh (I crumbled the tempeh as I put it into the processor and then processed it further).

In a large skillet, sauté the Portobellos, tempeh, and onions for 5 minutes until the liquid cooks off.

Stir in the tomatoes, rice, water and Worcestershire sauce.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.  Season with salt and pepper.

Fill the prepared bell peppers with the mixture and top each off with the pasta sauce.

Bake covered for 25 to 35 minutes.
Allie likes to serve these Stuffed Peppers over mashed potatoes…I served mine with a nice slice of Millet and Flax Italian bread from Sami’s Bakery.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.  

 

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Filed under Gluten Free, Main Dish, Recipes, Secret Recipe Club, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

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August 29, 2011 · 11:00 am

THE SECRET RECIPE CLUB – Deep “Un-Fried” Ice Cream

Last month I heard about a fun way to add some spice to my blogging.  Amanda from the blog, Amanda’s Cooking started something really neat called The Secret Recipe Club back in April with 19 participants.  Basically, you sign-up to participate and you are assigned a blog to make a recipe from once a month and you are encouraged to make the recipe work for you by i.e. making it gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan…basically whatever you need to do to make the recipe work for you.  You don’t reveal whose blog you were assigned until Reveal Day (much like the Secret Santa concept).  There are now over 150 participating blogs.  How’s that for growth?

I was assigned the most charming blog, Peas in a Blog, which was started by two friends who now live across the world from each other.  They started sharing veggie recipes and fitness tips with each other almost daily and decided that they should start a blog together to share their tips with everyone.  Carolina is a Columbian living in Florida and Katie is an American living in South Africa.  It is so much fun to follow their friendship and tips!

While surfing through their blog I came across a lot of recipes I wanted to try.  First I made their Grilled Peach Delight Salad and really enjoyed it.  To completely veganize the recipe you can easily sub out the honey for agave (I made it with the honey).  The dressing was really tasty and grilling the peaches adds such dimension to them.

The second recipe I made was their “Fried” Ice Cream which wasn’t fried at all!  It was a TOTAL WINNER and thus the subject of my first entry for the Secret Recipe Club!  I made the dessert for a dinner party I was hosting and no one believed it wasn’t fried.  My father-in-law isn’t usually a sweets person and he said he really liked it (he finished the whole bowl!).

I did make a few changes to the recipe since I needed to make it gluten-free and vegan for my family’s needs, but that was easily done by switching out the traditional Corn Flakes for Erewhon’s Organic Gluten Free Corn Flakes and by using  So Delicious’s Coconut Milk Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for the ice cream.

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INGREDIENTS

1 Small pint of your favorite Ice Cream (They used Dulce de Leche…I used Vanilla Bean)

1 Small box or container of Corn Flakes Cereal (…I used gluten free)

1 TBS Brown Sugar (…I used coconut sugar)

1 TSP Ground Cinnamon

Parchment or Wax Paper

Zip-Lock Bag

Your favorite topping sauce (Caramel, Hot Fudge, Honey, chocolate shell, whatever you like. I used vegan Hard Chocolate Shell)

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Cover a large plate or cookie sheet with some parchment or wax paper.  With an ice cream scoop, try to get good circular scoops and place them on top of the paper (I used my hands to reform the balls into nice circles once I had scooped them). Place the plate with scoops in the freezer for at least 10 minutes (I prepped them ahead of time and left them in the freezer for 2-3 hours).

In the meantime, pour the package of corn flakes into zip-lock bag along with the sugar & cinnamon, close the bag. Have fun by crushing the flakes until they’re almost powder form (its up to you the texture you’d like on the scoops…My kids had a blast doing this), mixing them with the sugar & cinnamon. Once you’ve reached your desired texture pour contents onto a plate. Note – this will make A LOT of topping, so you will have more for later…yay!

Take scoops out of the freezer. Place a scoops on the mixture plate and coat, one by one. Serve drizzled with your favorite topping sauce. Add cinnamon sticks or fruits for garnish. Note – I played around with making them different ways by putting the hard shell on some of them before coating them with the corn flakes (you will have to work quickly) and for others I rolled them in the corn flakes and then covered them with the hard shell afterwards.  Both were amazing!

How easy was that?! Trust me, these taste like fried ice cream. Delicious, impressive and ready in a flash. You and your dinner (or dessert) guests will love them, guaranteed. Buen provecho!

It was so much fun to participate in the Secret Recipe Club.  Get ready to see one of my SRC posts monthly…it’s fun to mix it up.

For a printable version of this recipe click here.

Click here to view Peas in a Blog’s “Fried” Ice Cream post

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Filed under Dessert, Frozen Treats, Gluten Free, Ice Cream, Kid Friendly, Quick, Recipes, Secret Recipe Club, Vegan, Vegetarian

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