Ground Beef Stroganoff

We had this last night and it was really really good. It has a creaminess you don't usually get with dairy free.

* 1 large onion, chopped
* 8 ounces sliced mushrooms
* 1 pound lean ground beef
* 1tsp corn starch
* 1 can beef broth
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons ketchup
* 1 cup (8 ounces) Tofutti better then sour cream
* Half a regular size box of medium sized pasta shells.

Preparation:
Brown ground beef; drain off excess fat. Add onion, mushrooms, salt, garlic powder, ketchup, and 1/2 can of broth. Cook and stir until onions are soft and liquid has reduced somewhat; Mix 2 tbsp broth with corn starch. While stirring, add remainder of broth to the pan, then add corn starch mixture. Stir in sour cream and heat through. Add cooked pasta and serve.

If your pizza doesn't have cheese can you really call it pizza?

Not really. Cheese-less pizza is just bread with sauce on it. I miss pizza. Others can say what they like, but there truly is no substitute for chewy, melty, delicious cheese. Mmmmm.

Okay, enough pining over what we cannot have, lets move onto what we can have to (semi) fill that craving. Below you will find how to order of make 4 different categories of pizza dairy and egg free!

Carryout- Pre-allergies, we used to order out pizza delivery about twice a month. It was nice to have a night or two off cooking. When we first went dairy free we went a few months without pizza and then one day I was absolutely craving it. I got online and found that, lo and behold, Papa John's crust and sauce is dairy free! Hooray! It is nice to have a delivery option for those days when you need it. I usually order online. There are a lot of coupon codes out there if you do a google search and you can usually get a free or really cheap second pizza with a code. I recommend ordering a marinara dipping sauce or two because the sauce they put on can dry out a bit with no cheese to keep it soft.

Frozen- Amy's Kitchen's Roasted Veggie Pizza. Frozen pizza was one of my fall back, oh crud it is 4:50 and I haven't started dinner yet, dinners. This isn't the best replacement (mostly because my husband wont eat it because of the artichokes) but it tastes pretty good to me and fills the gap. They tend to be kind of expensive for their size, but occasionally you can find them on sale for under 6 dollars. When you tack on I have to buy a regular frozen pizza for my husband it doesn't make sense for me to buy them very often. I usually add olives and sweet corn because I think the toppings are a bit skimpy. Over all, though, the sauce is very tasty and the crust is better then normal frozen pizzas.

Sort of homemade- If you are in the mood to make your own "pizza" you have a couple options. Pillsbury's thin crust pizza dough is dairy free and so are a few pre baked shells at various grocery stores. Add some sauce, some pepperoni, and some olives, bake according to the directions on the can and you are good to go.

Quick and dirty- Lately I have been making "pizza" bagels every so often. They are very simple and actually pretty good. Here is my recipe:

(Serves 2 adults the own bagel and 2 children a half bagel each)

Ingredients:
- 3 bagels cut in half
- half a jar of spaghetti sauce
- One small can of chopped black olives
- 3 slices of Canadian bacon chopped into bite sized pieces
-Additional pizza toppings of your choice
- garlic powder
- salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 4oo degrees
2. Spread each bagel with a liberal amount of sauce
3. Sprinkle toppings on bagel
4. Dollop more sauce on top of the toppings
5. Sprinkle with garlic powder and salt (salt is important since cheese is missing and cheese is salty)
6. Bake for 12-17 minutes (depending on high you mounded your toppings) and serve.

Braised Pork Chops with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

- 3-4 center cut pork chops
- 2 small or 1 large onion, chopped small
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 can or 13 oz of chix or veg broth
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
- 1/4 cup warm water

Directions

1. Pour chix broth into pan on med high heat.
2. Add onion and garlic.
3. Let cook with lid on until onions are soft, maybe 5-6 minutes.
4. Add pork chops and cover with lid.
5. Let cook 6-8 min on each side. (time will vary on the size of your chops)
6. Take chops out and cover with foil to keep warm.
7. Mix corn starch and water.
8. Add corn starch mixture to your broth and onions, stir as you add to avoid clumps
9. Add chops back to the pan.
10. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Simplest dairy free meal ever that isn't total junk

So, you are running late and everyone wants to eat dinner pretty much immediately.

Mac and cheese? Out.
Grilled cheese? Out.
Omelets? Out.
...???
Hot dogs? In. Sort of.

Hebrew National dogs are dairy free. Not all hot dogs can say this so as always, be sure to read labels. Kroger buns are dairy free also.

So here is my recipe for a easy cooking night.

Boil Hebrew National dogs
Open package of Alexia sweet potato fries and bake according to package.
Nuke a bowl of corn.
Open a jar of non sweetened applesauce.

Voila!

C is for Cookie

It's good enough for me.

These chocolate chip cookies are pretty darn good. No one need know they are egg and dairy free unless you tell them.

I adapted the recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance, but for some reason hers always came out like crumbly shortbread for me. Nothing wrong with crumbly short bread, but its not what you think of when you want a chocolate chip cookie.

Here is my recipe:
1 cup dairy free margarine
1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3-4 Tbsp almond/soy/rice milk
1 cup dairy free chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix the wet ingredients together. Add the dry.
3. Check the consistency. If it is too dry add a bit more "milk" til it is the consistency of your favorite pre-vegan cookie dough.
4. Add chips.
5. Drop rounded teaspoons full on cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 9-11 minutes.

Chocolate, not just for V-Day

Some times you just need chocolate. Unfortunately, if you are dairy free your chocolate selections are pretty limited.

Your cheapest route would be to chow a handful of FMV (Kroger) brand chocolate chips. Add a few sunflower seeds or almonds and you have a sweet, salty, chocolaty snack. You could even get fancy and melt them down, pour them on a waxed paper, sprinkle with almonds and refrigerate and pretend you are eating a Hershey's bar.

I use FMV in my chocolate chip cookie recipe and they work pretty well.

Tropical Source also makes a vegan chip, and while it is much tastier it is also 4 times the price.

If you think FMV chips taste oddly fibrous and want something smoother a big jump up in quality and still available at Krogers (vs. a health food store) would be Endangered Species Chocolate's Dark Chocolate and Blueberries bar. The blueberries add a bit of sweetness that dark chocolate lacks.

Overall, I still really miss a good milk chocolate. Dark just doesn't do it for me. If anyone has a good replacement email me!!! Or email my husband and tell him to buy me some for Valentines Day. :-P

Rachel Ray was Right Spaghetti

Back when I was working I would regularly watch Rachel Ray when I got home from work to help unwind. She can be a bit much to take sometimes. Her "yummos" and "EVOO" can grate, but in general I like her. I remember one dish she made a couple times (she really seems to make the same dish often with slight variations) was Pasta Puttanesca. She giggled both times about how Puttanesca means "whore" in Italian. While the name is amusing, the thing I found most interesting about the dish was anchovies.

Up until a few weeks ago I had never tried an anchovy. The idea of a whole fish kind of grossed me out. Plus I associated them with cigars because my great grandfather was fond of both.

Now Ms. Ray promised that adding anchovies to my pasta sauce would not make it taste fishy. She told me it would just add "another layer of salty flavor". Mmmm. Salty. I was sold on the idea, but still not willing to risk ruining dinner. Then last November I bought a pack at the store. There they sat up sitting in my cupboard til finally a couple weeks ago I got the nerve to use them.

Pasta for me is really just a cheese delivery system. I rarely would choose to make it now that we are dairy free if it weren't so gosh darn easy. So as I was lamenting my lack of cheese while making spaghetti I decided that I would throw in the anchovies. Who cares if I screw it up? I don't really want to eat it anyway!

As I open the can I almost changed my mind. The little suckers look gross. Whole little dead fishies. They also smell kind of like tuna which I wasn't expecting since Rach promised me they wouldn't taste fishy.

I finished up my sauce with a handful of green olives and served it to my unsuspecting family. I did not mention my fishy addition. My husband and daughter ate it all up! My son had his meat on the side and declined noodles. Once my husband was finished I asked my him if he like it and what he thought I had added. He could not guess and was pretty surprised that it was anchovies. He ate a second helping. So I guess Rachel Ray was right, you can't specifically taste anchovies in tomato sauce.

So without further ado here is my recipe for Rachel Ray was Right Spaghetti (because this is a family blog and calling it Whore Noodles seems wrong)...

Ingredients
- One jar of dairy free spaghetti sauce (I used Ragu onion and garlic)
- One tin of sardines in oil (drained)
- One pound lean ground beef (drained)
- Handful of olives, chopped
- Spaghetti noodles

Directions

1. Brown ground beef and drain.
2. Open sardines and dump them in the pan with the beef. Make sure there is enough oil from wither the fish or the beef for the anchovies to dissolve into.
3. Stir the fishies around til they dissolve.
4. Add the jar of sauce and stir.
5. Add the olives.
6. Let everything simmer together for a bit.
7 Either add your cooked noodles to your sauce or serve the sauce over your noodles. I will let you choose. I am not bossy like RR who tells ya to always add the noodles.