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Since the arrival of our newborn, I’ve been taking the dairy-free road.  Having walked this path once before with her older brother, I have a few recipes tucked away.  Particularly, recipes for chocolate goodness.

This chocolate cake is dairy free, but I think anyone would like it.  Besides,you can scare your family by getting the vinegar out and telling them you’re making chocolate cake!  Or, if you deliver meals often to friends, keep this as a recipe to pull out and surprise a dairy free friend.  She’ll be delighted to get something sweet she can actually eat!

I made this recipe into mini muffins for a bite-size chocolate treat.  Well, I also added in an extra tablespoon of cocoa for good measure!

Wacky Cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 5 Tbsp. oil
• 1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add vanilla, vinegar,
oil, and water. Blend well and pour into ungreased 9×11 pan. Bake 25-30
minutes. Or using a muffin tin with liners, bake into 12 cupcakes and bake
for 20 minutes. 

Note: I also used apple-cider vinegar instead of balsamic-either will work.   If the vinegar still worries you, trust a chocolate lover, it all turns out fine!

We love granola at our house. Buying the more natural brands at the store is costly and they still have added sugar and fat.  I think this is a pretty good compromise. Home-made with love and goodness.  We gave this out for christmas gifts and had people thanking us for the recipe, so it must be edible!

Mix Dry Ingredients.

Add wet ingredients.

Spread in Pan.

Bake and enjoy.  We ate it this morning with yogurt and bananas.  

You could also:

• Eat as cereal with milk
• Snack right out of the container
• Top ice cream or smoothies

The Recipe
(from the Family Fun Cookbook)

• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup wheat germ
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup water
• 6 oz. dried fruit

1. Heat oven to 300.  In large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients(oats through salt).
2. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add oil, honey, water.
3. Toss mixture until well combined, then spread evenly in large baking pan.
4. Bake for 40 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring every 10 minutes.  Let cool completely then add dried fruit.

Aimee’s Notes: The recipe is flexible to what you have in the house.  Today I used wheat bran instead of wheat germ, skipped the poppyseeds, and added an extra teaspoon of cinnamon.  I’ve tried other granola recipes and I like the slow cooked nature of this recipe.  With higher temp and shorter cook time, I was always burning part of the granola.  I use foil and a little cooking spray to making cleaning the pans an easy chore. We love craisins or tart cherries in our granola, but any dried fruit you have on hand will do.

Doubling the recipe: When I double the recipe, I use two baking pans and put them on two racks and alternate which rack the pans are on each time I pull them out to stir.  Easy to double.

No picture of the cookies, so this seemed like the next best visual.

Unless I’m in the mood for the the old time Nestle Tollhouse Cookie recipe, this one right here is my favorite.  It’s on the “not so bad for you” scale and of course, I use Ghirardelli semi-sweet or 60% cocoa chips.  The dough and the cookies-yum.  If the ingredients seem odd for you, just read below the recipe for suggested substitutions with more familiar ingredients.  Today’s batch went to a friend in need, and only a few for us to munch.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup Sucanat w/ Honey
• 1 cup Sucanat
• 2 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 cups fresh Hard White Wheat Flour
• 1 cup Oatmeal
• ½ cup milled Flax Seed
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups nuts, chopped(optional)
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups Chocolate Chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰.
2. Cream butter, Sucanat, and Sucanat w/Honey making a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Mix dry ingredients and stir into creamed mixture. Add nuts and Chocolate chips. Make into 1″ balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet 2″ apart.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
4. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.
5. from the Breadbecker’s Recipe Book

Aimee’s Notes: We use freshly milled hard red wheat flour.  You can also substitute with store bought whole wheat or white whole wheat flour.  I recommend the king arthur brand-which is more finely ground than the other whole-wheat choices out there.  Sucanat can be replaced with white sugar and Sucanat with honey can be replaced with brown sugar.  I cut both sugar measurements to 3/4 cup each instead of 1 cup each.

 I think pretty soon I’ll have to change this blog title to Abundant Soup in the Making!

Before we started this blog, I knew we liked soup, but not until I started looking through our posts, did I realize quite how much we cook soup at our house.

However, I’m not tired of it.  And I haven’t heard any rebels from the family shouting “Down with the soup”, so I think we’ll stick with more warm bowls of flavorful goodness.

We discovered the idea for this soup at our favorite stop in the Art District of Chattanooga at Rembrandt’s coffee shop.  In addition to amazing pastries, they have savory soups and pressed sandwiches.  After devouring a bowl of their Tomato-Artichoke soup, I came home and searched for something similiar to make here.  

Matt requested this one for the lunch part of his birthday menu.

Tomato-Artichoke Soup

• 4 tbs butter or olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 15 oz can artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• 28oz can chopped tomatoes, with juices
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 cup sour cream

Heat butter or olive oil and saute the onion for 5 minutes until soft.  Add the garlic and thyme and saute another minute.  Add artichoke hearts, tomatoes, broth, salt, and pepper.  Cover; simmer for 30 more minutes.  Add the sour cream, stir well and simmer for 5 more minutes. Taste for seasoning.  

Aimee’s notes: We use marinated artichokes(drained) for an extra kick to the soup. I’ve tried it both ways and prefer the marinated over the plain.  Matt recommends serving with some bread or a roll, but then again, he thinks bread is good served with a slice of bread!

So as an absolutely fabulous birthday present my wife and immediate family all chipped in to get me this Atlas pasta maker. We picked it up at the best place in Nashville for fine teas and cookware, Davis Cookware & Cutlery Shop. Then I had the privilege of going over to my new friends’ house to make pasta for the first time with a hands-on lesson. It turns out that while it’s a little bit of work, it’s not at all difficult to do.

So one night later, I tried it on my own for the very first time.

1. To start with I only needed about a cup of flour and one egg for each adult served.

Otherwise known as a mouthful of yummy chocolate-y goodness!

These are super easy, but they taste rich and sinful.

I made them for my mom friends tonight and all of them stared at them with fear and determination not to be tempted!  Some gave in and some did not.  But who went away a little happier in their taste buds?

The Recipe

• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 package chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter

1. Mix oatmeal, butter, and brown sugar.  Pat into square pan.  Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.  
2. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and peanut butter together.  As soon as the mixture in the pan is done, remove from oven, and spread chocolate mixture on top.
3. Let cool and then cut.

Aimee’s notes: I used Ghiradelli’s 60% cacao chocolate chips-if you try them you’ll never go back. I like to stick these in the fridge to get the chocolate to harden. Then I pull them out and cut them a few minutes before serving.  

This is the first year that our farm csa has hosted a winter as well as a spring/summer csa.  We we’re a little nervous about the winter components, wondering if we would have a plethora of squash and well, nothing else.

But it’s been fabulous!  Fresh lettuce, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, spinach, tomato cocktail, and yes, a lovely variety of winter squash.  In addition, an abundance of sweet potatoes.  Lucky for us, we LOVE these Sweet Potato Biscuits.

Great as a side to any of the soups you’ve seen on this blog-it’s a sweet accompaniment to a savory dish.

The Recipe

• 1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato
• 2 tbs honey
• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Dash of nutmeg

Mix wet ingredients well.  In seperate bowl combine dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms(may require a little more milk). Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

Aimee’s Notes: We’ve made these with freshly milled flour, or purchased whole wheat and white whole wheat flour(king arthur brand flour) and they work with all of the above.  We never have buttermilk around-you can sour regular milk with 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup regular milk.  Allow milk to stand for a few minutes. We cook our sweet potatoes by piercing them and baking in the oven until ready to peel and mash.  If you’re in a hurry, you can peel, cut, and boil, and then mash.

This is a really easy chicken recipe, and it made it to the favorite’s list for the whole family last night.  Two pounds might seem like a lot of chicken, and you can certainly cut the recipe in half, but we used the leftover chicken to make fried rice tonight.  

Sesame Soy Chicken

• 2 pounds chicken, cut into bite size pieces
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp dried ginger or 1 tbs grated fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

Mix soy, ginger, and sugar.  Marinate chicken in mixture for 1-2 hours.  Remove from marinade and toss with sesame seeds.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or broil for 5-10 minutes.  Serve over rice.

Aimee’s Notes: I used reduced sodium soy sauce. I marinated for just under an hour. I served it with brown rice and steamed carrots.

Simple Fried Rice

by Pam Anderson, How to Cook Without a Book
(This is a great recipe, it is really a formula for fried rice and you plug in the ingredients available at your house.  Don’t let the length of the steps fool you.  Once your prep is done, the dish comes together quickly)

• 1 medium onion, halved and cut into 6 wedges
• 4 to 6 ounces meat of choice, raw or cooked, cut into bite size pieces
• 4 to 6 ounces of vegetable(your choice), cooked or raw, bite size pieces
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 4 tbs soy sauce
• 4 tbs vegetable oil
• 4 cups cooked rice
• 4 scallions, white and green parts, minced

1. Allow skillet to sit over low while preparing veggies and meat.  Marinate the meat in 1 tbs soy sauce.  3 to 4 minutes from making fried rice turn up heat to high and turn on the exhaust fan.
2. Put 1 tbs oil and onion in heated pan. Stir fry about 1 minute, until starting to brown but still crisp.  Add raw meat or vegetable; stir fry until crisp tender or meat is slightly browned, about 1 minute.  Add cooked meat  or vegetable; stir-fry until lightly browned, about 1 minute. (if both meat and veggies are raw or cooked, stir fry meat first, giving it a head start).  Stir in garlic and transfer mixture to plate.
3. Put remaining 3 tbs oil in skillet, heat to shimmering.  Add rice; stir-fry, breaking up clumps, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Add eggs; stir until scrambled, about 1 minute. Return meat/veggie mixture to pan, along with 3 tbs soy sauce and scallions. Stir and serve immediately.

Aimee’s Notes: I diced the onion to make it more kid friendly.  I used my leftover soy sesame chicken(so I didn’t marinate, it was already seasoned from the previous night).  My veggies were the leftover steamed carrots and about a cup of frozen peas. I added a little more rice to fill out this meal for our family of five, so I increased the soy sauce and olive oil slightly and added an extra egg.

Everyone in our house loves black bean soup.  Well, except the boy.  He doesn’t like anything that resembles a bean, so it’s always a sad night for him.  Tonight’s bean soup was inspired by the tomato cocktail we received in our farm csa this week, it replaced the v8 juice in the recipe below.  

One version goes in the crockpot, one on the stove.  One gets thicker with some pureeing action, and one has a little kick with rotel tomatoes.  Both taste good with some cornbread to sprinkle on top!

Crockpot Black Bean Soup

• optional-1 1b ground beef
• I large can V8 Juice
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 2 cans shoepeg corn(I use frozen)
• 3 cans black beans, drained
• 1 envelope Italian Dressing Mix
• 1 small can Rotel Tomatoes(I use mild)

Mix all ingredients together in crock pot and turn on low. Let heat all day and enjoy.

Aimee’s Notes: I usually do add the meat(brown first before adding if you do), but for the first time I made it tonight without the meat, and it was still great(and less expensive with less fat).  

Black Bean Soup Part 2

• 1 cup salsa
• 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro(or 2 tsp dried)
• Sour Cream(optional)

1. Heat salsa in large saucepan over med heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and broth.  Bring mixture to boil, then lower the heat and simmer the soup, covered, for 15 minutes.
2. Let the soup cook slightly, then ladle half of it into a food processor or blender and puree it.  Return the pureed soup to the pot.  Stir in lime juice and chopped cilantro and heat through.  Top each bowl with dollop of sour cream, makes 4 servings. From The Family Fun Cooking with Kids Cookbook

Aimee’s Notes:  I usually double this recipe, it doesn’t make a big pot and it so delicious.  The lime and the salsa, well, enough said.

What to do with your leftover Black Bean Soup

• Freeze it.
• Give it to friend in need with some cornbread on the side.
• Eat it over baked potatoes the next day.
• Put it in burritos or quesadillas. 

That’s right-another soup/chili.  We are unashamedly a family who likes a big pot of warm, flavorful goodness.

In addition to loving soups, we also love finding ways to use our winter csa vegetables. When I first saw this recipe in a magazine, I felt skeptical of the cauliflower and other very harvest-y elements.  I thought we’d be making it as “useful” recipe, but not one that we would really like.  But we tried it and loved it.  And loved the 2nd and 3rd helpings as well.

So give it a try, you might like it.

Harvest Chili

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chipotle chile powder(I used regular chile powder)
• 2 cans(28 ounces each) whole tomatoes in puree
• 1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets(about 4 cups)
• 2 medium sweet potatoes(about 1 pound) peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 4 large  carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch coins
• 1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut into  1/2 inch dice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 can (15 oz) Mexican chili beans(I used regular mild chili beans for lack of finding the mexican)
• Sliced scallions, to garnish
• Cooked brown rice, optional

1. Saute onions in olive oil for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cumin and chile powder, cool 1 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, breaking up with spoon.
2. Stir in cauliflower, sweet potatoes, carrots, green pepper, and salt.  Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add chili beans and simmer for 5 minutes or until vegetables are fork-tender.
3. Garnish with scallions and serve with brown rice if desired.

Aimee’s notes: The puree with the tomatoes helps create the thicker “chili” base. On another night I used a can with puree and a can without, and it made it more like soup, but still delicious.  Very good with cornbread served on the side or sprinkled on top!