dairy free – Page 2 – OwlCat Designs

November 30, 2011December 16, 2017

Chocolate Pear Overnight Pudding

I have been wanting something sweet, but not too sweet. Chocolate-y, but not actually chocolate, difficult right? Since I have drastically reduced my (refined) sugar intake, my taste buds realize just how much added sugar there is in everything. It’s just like salt, once you’re used to using less, you can taste its overabundance in everything. And as for sugar, many items I just plain don’t find enjoyable, no flavor just extremely SWEET. I remember how after every visit back home, I cannot eat commercially made salad dressing for a couple of months, they are sweet and it just tastes funny to me (I get vinegar & oil )

But back to the program: Make this the night before, enjoy as a healthy breakfast cold out of the fridge or heat in the microwave.

Since I started making these, I have been absolutely addicted to them, the pictures don’t do the taste justice. It’s a perfect healthy treat, desert or breakfast, YES all three ;). I’ll have some versions and variations coming up for you soon.

Yay, chocolate pudding any time!!

Inspired by Leanne’s Banana Cherry Pudding

Ingredients:

1 ripe pear, diced
1/2 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tbsp flax seed, roughly crushed with mortar and pestle
2 tbsp chia seed
2 tbsp ground almond (aka almond flour)
1 1/2 to 2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp honey or maple syrup (optional, if you like things a bit sweeter)

Directions

Combine chopped pear, cocoa, and almond milk in a glass dish or bowl, stir until cocoa is incorporated
Using your handheld blender, blend until smooth
Add flax seed, chia seed and ground almond, stir, cover and refrigerate overnight
In the morning, eat chilled out of the fridge, or heat in the microwave for about 30 to 45 seconds

October 22, 2011December 16, 2017

Roasted Red Pepper and Pumpkin ‘Cream’ Sauce

Glorious colors of fall! Here the leaves have finally turned color and as I am typing this I can see the red and yellow leaves glow in the sunlight, and the bronze and ‘still green’ leaves add depth to the shadows. The birds have returned to the bird feeder in droves, the nights finally have that crisp quality you only experience on an early morning in fall and I am enjoying the view to say the least.

To celebrate fall, with its vibrant orange of pumpkins, golden corn field and that last rest of summer’s warmth int he afternoon, I roasted up a brightly colored, mighty tasty and versatile sauce/dip/spread. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 red bell pepper
1 cup chopped cooked pumpkin (or canned)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pinch salt

Directions

Roast whole red pepper until blackened in spots all over by holding it over a gas flame or placing under the broiler, then place in paper bag to cool a bit (the steam will loosen the skin making it easier to peel, added bonus, you won’t burn your fingers as much).
Peel red pepper (don’t have a guy do this, for some reason their hands are not made the same as ours and they cannot handle heat, as per my experience 😉 ) , this works best using a paper towel and literally rubbing the skin off. Cut in half and discard the seeds, then chop flesh.
Place pepper in your food processor or blender. I use a really cute mini processor for sauces and dips. And blend until you have a chunky mess, add the olive oil, blend until fairly smooth.
Add the pumpkin and salt and process some more. The result should not have any chunks left in it but be smooooooth.
Gently reheat to use over pasta, like the Pumpkin Goat Cheese Ravioli for example or chill and use as a spread for sandwiches or serve cold as a dip for veggies. Yields about 1 1/2 cups.

October 18, 2011December 16, 2017

Reena’s Amba Ma Smoothie

Version 1: Pineapple-Cantaloupe-Raspberry

During the fall months, there is a particular Hindu Holiday ‘Navaratri’ during which believers perform several rituals and practice fasting. It lasts 9 nights and is devoted solely to the Mother Goddess — known regionally as Durga, Bhavani, Amba, Chandika, Gauri, Parvati, Mahishasuramardini…

File:Durgas.jpg

The story goes: After one of the Gods (Brahma) gave the demon Mahish the power not to be destroyed by man (including male Gods) because of doing a good deed for Brahma, Mahish started to cause all sorts of terror. So, the 3 forms of God, Brahma (birth or creation), Vishnu (life or preservation) and Shiva (death or destruction) combined their energies and powers and created a female form of God (Devi or Durga) to destroy the demon, (since no man could vanquish him). She represents the furious powers of all the male gods, and is the ferocious protector of the righteous, and destroyer of the evil. Durga is usually portrayed as riding a lion, and carrying weapons in her many arms.

I’ve also heard “Durga” means ‘invincible‘ and she is the personification of ‘shakti’ or divine feminine force!

Goddess of Victory of Good over Evil

For the fasting part of the ritual, nothing except Milk, nuts and fruit can be eaten during the day. And so I created this yummy smoothie in order to take advantage of all the goodness that’s to be had from milk, nuts and fruits

Ingredients

1 cup milk (that can be almond milk or dairy milk**, your choice)
1 tbsp almond butter (or other nut butter: remember peanuts aren’t really nuts)
1 really ripe banana
1 cup pineapple(fresh or frozen)*
1 cup cantaloupe or mango pieces (fresh or frozen)*
1-2 tbsp raspberries or strawberries (optional)

* Make sure that one of these is frozen. If it is still hot outside, both may be frozen or you could add some ice cubes before blending.

** If using dairy milk, the recipe is no longer dairy free or vegan

Directions

Put all ingredients in the blender, starting with the banana, add fruit, then the almond butter on top and pour the liquid over top.
Blend until smooth.
Enjoy or pack in a cooler or lunchbox and take to work to have throughout the day.

Version 2: with Blueberries…

Ingredients, Version 2

1 cup milk (that can be almond milk or dairy milk**, your choice)
1 tbsp almond butter (or other nut butter: remember peanuts aren’t really nuts)
2 really ripe banana
1/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)*
1 cup peaches or pineapple (fresh or frozen)*

* Make sure that one of these is frozen. If it is still hot outside, both may be frozen or you could add some ice cubes before blending.

** If using dairy milk, the recipe is no longer dairy free or vegan

Directions

Put all ingredients in the blender, starting with the banana, add fruit, then the almond butter on top and pour the liquid over top.
Blend until smooth.
Enjoy or pack in a cooler or lunchbox and take to work to have throughout the day.

And here’s a great thing to do with any leftover smoothie:

Pour into popsicle molds (or any small paper or plastic cups and add one of those wooden sticks they sell at craft stores) and freeze for a sugar free treat later.

October 9, 2011December 16, 2017

Hummus

A few years back, I decided to try and cook chickpeas instead of getting the canned variety. I got a pound bag, soaked them overnight, and cooked them the next day. I have never looked at legumes the same way again. The flavor is incomparable, the taste of freshly cooked chick peas is almost nutty, yummy!

Now what I do is I will soak a couple of different varieties of dried beans and go on a bean cooking spree: Cooking a pound at a time in my Zyliss Pressure cooker (depending on the size cooker you got, you might be able to do more than one pound) after they are done and cooled, I portion them out in individual ‘servings’, usually in snack size zip top bags (have you noticed, they seem to only be available as store brand?) and freeze. Then whenever I want to make a bean soup, hummus or a salad, I just defrost what I need and can skip the high sodium and whatever else might live in those cans of beans. For soups, I literally just drop the frozen parcel in, hummus you gotta let it defrost in the fridge overnight or use your microwave.

Ingredients

1 can chickpeas or equivalent frozen, defrosted
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini ( sesame seed paste)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt (use less if using canned)
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1 dash cayenne pepper
1 to 3 tbs water

Directions

Blend all ingredients in a food processor/blender, adding water until desired consistency is reached.

Serve as a dip with toasted pita chips or vegetables, or thin and use as a spread on grilled veggies

Unfinished Business: Grilled Mediterranean Eggplant with Hummus spread: taking advantage of the summer like weekend, we fired up the grill and had these puppies with a juicy, lean and clean bison steak 🙂

And Sunday night’s dinner, you ask? Oven roasted salmon with a coriander-paprika glaze… As I said, unfinished business, stay tuned, I will get to it 🙂

October 9, 2011December 16, 2017

Healthy Carrot Cake

The last couple of days I have been thinking about home (the old home, where I was born and where I used to live) maybe it was brought on by roasting and eating those amazing chestnuts the other day, who can say? Anyway, we have a lot of regional specialties in Switzerland and this recipe pays homage to a Carrot Cake from the region of Aargau, and juuust in case any of you are into linguistics, the name of the dish I am going after is ‘Aargauer Rüebli Torte’. In my recipe, there is no butter or oil in the cake batter, there is limited amount of sugar compared to most regular muffin or cake recipes, hardly any flour and it can be made gluten free. It’s moist crumb is achieved without the addition of fat, in fact the only fat in it, comes from the egg yolks and the ground almonds used. Still it’s cake, it’s a desert and should be enjoyed as such, in moderation 😉 Not saying this would be a good idea, but it’s quite a way to sneak some veggies past certain people called kids 🙂

For simplicity reasons, you can also make muffins (simplicity, because you don’t have to try to come up with believable stories on where the missing piece of cake went 😉

Ingredients

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
5 organic eggs, seperated
1 pinch salt
2 tbsp warm water
1/2 lemon peel
1 lb carrots
2 cups ground almonds, natural, not blanched (also known as almond flour)
1/8 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp flour (use oat flour to make it gluten free)
1/2 tsp baking powder

egg yolks , and sugar: looking dark yellow to start…

…and light in color after stirring

Directions

Mix first four ingredients in a bowl and stir until light in color and airy
add lemon peel
Shred the carrots on the fine side of a grater into the egg mixture
add the cinnamon and allspice, stir to combine
in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, add on top of the mix
sprinkle the ground almonds on top
sift flour and baking powder over top and gently incorporate the almonds, egg whites and flour.
Fill into prepares 8″ spring form pan ( or grease muffin cups, you can use paper liners, only bake 25 minutes) and bake at 350 F for 50 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
After cooled completely, coat top of cake with sifted confectioners sugar, and marzipan carrots. Or make a white glaze by mixing 1tbsp lemon juice, 1-2 tbsp water and 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar until mixture coats back of spoon evenly. Spread over entire top and sides of cake.

By the way: My boyfriend, who was very adamant about not liking carrot cake, never having liked carrot cake, finally agreed to try a tiny piece, after my: ‘this is not your typical extremely sweet american carrot cake, just saying. But, alright, more for me!’ Well, he revised his opinion, in his own words: ‘OMG, this is delicious!’

October 4, 2011December 16, 2017

Perfectly Roasted Chestnuts

Every day I drive past these trees which in the past week or so have started dropping their load of chestnuts onto the street. I was contemplating stopping and asking if I could pick some, when this morning there was a sign: “chestnuts for sale!” Awesome, I love chestnuts! I think part of their fascination is, they are one of the only true seasonal food left.

my freshly bought treasure, at home on the deck

I love fall, the colors of the leaves, seeing you breath in the crisp morning air…

Just as much as pumpkins are a symbol for fall throughout the new world, in Switzerland where I was born, it’s chestnuts that ring in the shorter days.
Warming your hands on a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts while walking through the Christmas market in November, and of course, our annual family vacation to the italian speaking part of Switzerland: Ticino

Ascona, TI

Valle Verzasca, TI: of course the pictures are from pretty weather 🙂

where we would don our rain coats (it usually rained A LOT whenever we were there in the fall) and boots and go pick bags of chestnuts, trying not to let them sting you under your fingernail (I remember that pain too). Then at night my Dad would make a fire in the fireplace and we would roast and eat the bounty of the day.

I will not go into details about the one time we decided to take a couple of bags back home after vacation and kept them in the kitchen, just trust me, whenever you have chestnuts, keep them OUTSIDE on the balcony, or you’ll be ~~chasing the inhabitants of the bad chestnuts~~ paying the price for weeks…

🙂 Ah memories! I also remember that although fresh and good, they were not always easy to peel. We scored them, even got the special ‘chestnut scorer’ tool, but often the inner skin would stick and you’d have to gnaw it out of the shell…

But today after researching, I have found the perfect, fool proof way to roast fresh chestnuts so they are easy to peel, ust like from the street vendor!

Ready?

First you need fresh chestnuts (they should look full and plump and shiny if they are dull pass on them, they are not fresh and might be moldy or dry)
score them either across or in a X pattern through the shell on one side. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest way I found is to hold the chestnut either on a cutting board or up in your hand and cut with a serrated knife or small paring knife.
Bring a pot of water to a boil, (this is the whole trick, yes, you boil them first) drop the chestnuts in and cook for about 10 minutes.

pre-boiled chestnuts in my grill basket, ready to go on the grill

Drain and roast.
Again two different ways this can be done, the easiest is your gas grill outside, using one of those grilling baskets. (Or in a baking dish in the oven: Preheat to 425, roast for 15-20 minutes, shaking the pan or stirring twice)
Grill about 5 minutes per side, and WIN! you will have perfect chestnuts!

Yummy!

(the whole ‘…roasting on an open fire’ might be more romantic than practical, but the grill works GREAT.

…and they are gone

October 3, 2011December 16, 2017

Sprouted Quinoa Broccoli and White Bean Salad with Pesto Dressing

In the colder months I do rarely eat salad. It just seems to go against my nature. And since the temperatures suddenly dropped below 50, (last week it was 80-some in the afternoon) I prefer something warm right now. You can enjoy this both warm or cold, we had it warm as a main dish first, and then as a side cold from the fridge the next day. Taking advantage of late summer’s bounty of fresh broccoli and if you’re lucky enough to get some fresh shelling beans, that would probably be double awesome! I didn’t and it is fantastic no matter what. I do generally like to cook my own beans, instead of using canned. For a lot of the varieties, the flavor is incomparable, so be warned, once you start there is no going back… If you use canned beans, be sure to rinse them real good to get some of that excess salt off of them before using.

Ingredients

1/4 cup red quinoa
1/4 cup white quinoa
2 cups chopped broccoli ( stems and florets)
1 cup white kidney beans (cannellini)
3 heaped tblsp homemade pesto (or a good store bought variety)
5 tblsp Greek Feta dressing with Buttermilk

…soaking the quinoa until it sprouts…

Directions

Rinse and then soak Quinoa in enough water to cover by 1/4″, cover, let stand overnight or up to 20 h(You could skip this step and just use the Quinoa plain out of the box)
Pour Quinoa and water into a sauce pan and add water to just cover the sprouted grains ( If you skipped the sprouting, you most likely need a bit more water), bring to a boil and cook until tender and all water is absorbed, about 10 minutes.
In the meantime, steam the broccoli pieces in a seperate sauce pan until crisp-tender and bright green, drain and set aside
When the Quinoa is just done (the white grains will look translucent) add the beans to heat them up.
Mix the pesto and the greek feta dressing in a large bowl, add the quinoa and beans, and the broccoli, gently mix until the dressing is mixed in

Enjoy hot or cold!

Serves 2 as a main, 4 if used as a side dish/salad

Yum!

September 27, 2011December 16, 2017

Sweet Potato Apricot No-Bake Macaroons

I was searching for Pumpkin Puree (the one that conveniently comes in cans) ALL OVER town, after seeing this lovely Pumpkin Spice Smoothie — Healthful Pursuit recipe from Leanne and the Pumpkin Spice Latte over on Averie’s blog…

After three (3!!!) grocery stores without pumpkin, a store manager telling me they were out since last December, still due to ~~a shortage last year~~ every one making those delicious looking lattes and smoothies, I suspect 😉

Craving the sweet, orange fall flavors, I started with the sweet potato I had on hand and went from there. At first I thought, maybe I will just adapt the smoothie or latte and use the sweet potato instead (I argued it might work, it’s sweet, orange and creamy when cooked, add the right spices, they make sweet potato pie filling…) At 9 pm after being up since 4 that morning, that seems like a great idea, trust me. And maybe it would have been…

I have to admit though, courage left me after cooking the sweet potato and here’s what I have come up with instead:
Sweet Potato Apricot No Bake Macaroons. I really wanted to call them: Sweet Potato Coconut Apricot Banana Almond Balls, but that would have been a bit ridiculoso!

No, sorry no drink recipe (yet)

They are kind of like those Energy Chunks at the Health Food store, but more tender, fresher, sugar free and softer in texture, enjoy!

No cooking/baking involved, except for the sweet potato:

Ingredients

1/2 cup sweet potato, cooked, mashed
1 really ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup almond flour/meal
1/2 cup coconut shredded fine
1-2 tblsp chopped dried apricot
(optional) 1 tblsp maple syrup or other sweetener
1 tblsp chia seed
more coconut and almond flour for coating

Directions

cook, let cool a bit and peel sweet potato, chop roughly
add very ripe banana, chia seed, sweet potato (and sweetener if using) to food processor (can be done by hand as well) pulse to combine
combine chopped apricots, almonds and coconut with the food processor contends, mix until incorporated
form 1 1/2″ dia balls, using a spoon to measure it out, roll between your palms, then roll in a mixture of more coconut and ground almonds
Refrigerate and enjoy!

September 25, 2011December 16, 2017

Rainy Day Banana Pancakes (Egg Free)

So last weekend it was gray and rainy outside and I was cleaning the house, (not my favorite chore, it’s so unsatisfying, don’t you think? As soon as you’re done, you gotta start all over) listening to music is a good option to make it more fun, right? Well, my Ipod played “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson.

Take a listen: Amazon.com: Banana Pancakes: Jack Johnson: MP3 Downloads.

It made me hungry, it made we want to have some, right then and there. I could smell them… So on the list for Saturday Breakfast they go 🙂 As I happily, pj’s and all, was ready to start the project: NO EGGS. What to do now? Option A: get changed and go to the store, option B: figure out how to make it without. It’s Saturday and I really don’t want to face the world, the rain is pouring down here in PA (probably some other leftover part of another tropical storm?) so I went about my quest for egg-less pancakes. There’s a German saying: Not macht erfinderisch (transl: Need makes one inventive 😉

I could have used Bananas as a topping, but there were these peaches on my counter, waiting to be eaten.

A dollop of greek yogurt…

… and a drizzle of maple syrup
Success!

Turns out it’s not the eggs at all that make the pancakes fluffy and light, but the baking powder/soda. Good to know

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1 cup (non dairy) milk ( I used almond milk, unsweetened)*
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tblsp (coconut) oil
1 tblsp suconat, or sugar, honey (optional)
1/2 ripe banana, mashed

Mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the milk, oil and banana. Moisten a paper towel with some oil, wipe the skillet, heat, and add the pancake batter by the 1/4 cup full. Flip over when bubbles appear on the surface.

Serve with:

-Sliced ripe peaches, greek yogurt, and maple syrup

-Banana and caramelized pecans

Serves 2, (Makes 6-7 pancakes)

* you can also use buttermilk, or coconut milk, make sure you stir/shake the can well and since it’s thicker, you may need to spread out the pancakes a bit while they start cooking. I use oat flour, I like the bit nutty flavor it gives the pancakes. Enjoy!

What kind of substitutes in needy time have you had success with?

You can also make waffles …

And the best part? Make the whole recipe, or double and keep the extras individually wrapped in the freezer, pop in the toaster oven until yummy! for those morning when you have no time…