Vegan Portobello Mushroom Stuffing

Vegan Portobello Mushroom Stuffing

Yield: about 8 servings

4 large celery stalks w/leaves, diced

1 large onion, diced

2 cups portobello mushrooms, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, pressed

1½ tsp rubbed sage

1 TB dried thyme

1 TB dried rosemary

½ cup fresh Italian parsley, minced

9 cups day-old Italian bread, diced

1⅓ cup vegetable or chicken-like broth

½ cup light olive oil

2 tsp fine sea salt

1.  In a large pan, sauté the celery, onion, and mushrooms over medium high heat, with a pinch of salt and some oil, until everything gets nice and soft.

2.  Add garlic, sage, thyme, rosemary, and parsley, and sauté for another few minutes.

3.  In a large bowl, add sautéed mixture, diced bread, vegetable broth, olive oil, and salt. 

4.  Spread out on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375º F for 45 minutes, or until golden and crispy on top.

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

Yield: a 9x13 casserole

4-15oz. cans of green beans (or 6 cups fresh green beans, stemmed and cut)

1 recipe Mushroom Gravy

2 cups French-fried onion rings

Mushroom Gravy

1 TB oil

1 medium onion, chopped

8oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp thyme

½ tsp sea salt

1 cup raw cashews (or blanched almonds)

3 cups water

1.  Preheat oven to 350º F. 

2.  If using fresh green beans, steam beans for 4-5 minutes.

3.  For Mushroom Gravy: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add onion, and cook until it is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and salt.  Cook until water starts to come out of the mushrooms, and they start to brown.  In a blender, blend cashews and water for 3-5 minutes until very smooth.  Pour cashew mixture into the pan with mushroom mixture, and stir together.  Cook until mixture becomes thick to make a creamy gravy.

4.  Combine green beans and gravy together in a casserole dish.

5.  Bake 20-30 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

6.  Remove from oven and cover with French-fried onions.  Return to oven and cook 3-5 minutes, until onions are golden brown.

Maple Pecan Ice-Cream

Maple Pecan Ice-Cream

Yield: about 1 quart

2½ cups soy milk

1 cup coconut milk

1/8 cup organic cane sugar

½ cup pure maple syrup (or 3/4 cup)

2-3 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp xanthan gum

¼ cup pecans, chopped

1. In a blender jar, blend everything (except xanthan gum) until very smooth.  Add xanthan gum and blend again until incorporated (about 10 seconds).
2. Chill mixture overnight (for 8 hours or more) in fridge.  Pour ice-cream mixture into an ice-cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.  Add chopped pecans after ice-cream is done churning.

* If you don’t have a machine: Freeze mixture, pulling out every couple hours to stir.

Multi-grain Pancake Mix

There's one thing that is especially nice to have while you are camping, and that is a good quality homemade pancake mix for breakfasts over the fire!

This mix is something we enjoy as a family, when we go up to the Boundary Waters and Quetico wilderness canoe areas in northern Minnesota and into Canada, or to the North Shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.

Because it is a dry/pre-made mix, it is very light to carry.  This is always a very good recipe to take on backpacking trips, hiking trips, or any kind of camping trip really.  And its much healthier than those store bought mixes that have a bunch of ingredients you cannot pronounce in them.  And when you use whole grain flours, that's the biggest bonus!  Talk about getting your FIBER in for the day!

We enjoy these for breakfast camping, with some fresh blueberries sprinkled in, and our special homemade maple syrup drizzled on top!

Give this a try this summer season, and let me know what you think!


Multi-grain Pancake Mix 
Yield: around a gallon zip-lock bag full

4 cups oat flour
4 cups barley flour
4 cups whole grain spelt (or wheat) flour
2 cups walnuts
⅔ cup arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
⅔ cup vanilla soy (or rice) milk powder, optional
½ cup baking powder
¾ - 1 cup organic sugar
2 TB fine sea salt

1.  Blend the walnuts and 2 cups of the flour in your food processor or high speed blender until the walnuts turn into a fine meal.  Pour into large bowl.
2.  Add everything else to the large bowl, whisk together very well.  Store in freezer bags in the freezer.  
3.  To Eat: Take 1 part dry mix to 1 part water, mix together.  The batter thickens as it sits, so you may have to add more water to the batter.  (The oats tend to soak up a lot of water.)  Cook on hot, oiled griddle until pancakes are done.  We like to sprinkle blueberries on the pancakes after we put them on the griddle.  Serve!  

*You may also use this in your waffle iron. 
*If you don't want to use dry soy or rice milk powder, you can leave it out.
*You can sub any flour for something else.  I really like the flavor of the oats, because it makes your mix very light and fluffly.  So, I usually keep the oats, and use whichever other flours I have on hand.  Barley is a light, fluffy flour too, so I like using it for this.  You could use 8 cups barley flour and 4 cups oat flour if you desire.  The mix of flours is completely up to you!  Just make sure you use 12 cups total.
*Gluten Free Alternative:  If you want to make this gluten-free, just use gluten-free flours.  I would suggest brown rice flour, sorghum flour, coconut flour, etc.

Homemade Chocolate Chips

Homemade Chocolate Chips

1 cup coconut oil
1 cup cocoa powder
6 TB maple syrup
1 TB pure vanilla
Pinch of salt

1.  Melt everything together in a double boiler over the stove, and whisk until everything comes together and is very smooth.  (Alternately, you may just melt the coconut oil, and whisk everything until it comes together and is smooth.  It tends to clump up this way easier, but you are always willing to try it this way.)
2.   Place batter on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, spread out thin with a spatula, and freeze for a couple hours or overnight until it hardens up.  Then, cut up with a knife into squares.  (Alternately: find a chocolate chip silicone mold, or a silicone pot holder, and pour batter into that.  Freeze for a couple hours or overnight until it becomes solid.)  Store in a freezer bag in the freezer at all times, until use.


Notes:
*If you are wanting to use carob powder, I would recommend tasting it before you add any maple syrup.  You may not have to add much sweetener at all, because carob is naturally sweet, unlike chocolate, which is naturally bitter.
*If you are wanting a neutral flavor, I recommend using the expelled pressed coconut oil instead of the extra virgin coconut oil.  The expelled pressed doesn't have any flavor.

Veggie Potato Pancakes

These potato pancakes were one of my favorite meals growing up.  For my special birthday meal, I always requested these!  To get me and my brother to eat our veggies when we were kids, my mom came up with this idea.  She would have us in the kitchen with her, grating all the veggies.  We had one large hand grater, so I always was the one to receive battle wounds from this meal.  But, it was so worth it.

There's no recipe involved here, its very simple.  All we would do, was shred about the same amount of potatoes, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, and an onion - and cook them up on the stove.  Its very easy and quick (especially if you have a food processor).  Anyone can make this!

It has been a while since I have made these Veggie Potato Pancakes for us.  I used to make them all the time when I had a garden in the summer, because they're a nice and fresh summer garden harvest meal.  Its a good way to use up those yellow and zucchini squash that seem to grow faster than weeds!  I made these for dinner tonight, and my 3 year old girl devoured them!  So, I thought you might like them, too.

Veggie Potato Pancakes

Yield: 6-8 servings

2-3 pounds russet potatoes
2 small zucchini squash
2 small yellow squash
2 large carrots, peeled
1 large onion
2 TB grape seed oil (or high-heat oil of choice)
Non-dairy butter, or oil

1.  In a food processor, shred everything.   
2.  Put the "batter" in a large bowl.  Drizzle about 2 TB of high heat oil in the bowl, and toss everything together with your hands.
3.  In a preheated skillet, add butter/oil to pan and let it shimmer.  Make 3 small hash browns in the pan.  sprinkle with sea salt, and flatten.  Cover, and cook over medium heat until GB&D (golden brown & delicious). 
4.  Uncover, flip them over, and cook for another 5-10 minutes uncovered until cooked through. 
5.  Serve hot with organic applesauce or sour cream.  These pair well with a hearty veggie meatloaf-style entree and a nice tossed salad, or just some soup and salad.


*Note: I buy my potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots all organic.  I highly recommend everyone to do the same, if it is accessible to you.  (The less chemicals and GMOs in our food, the better!)