Salad-Stuffed Sweet Potato

Salad Stuffed Sweet Potato

One of my indulgences is a fancy salad from the salad bar at Whole Foods.  It's an indulgence because when I'm done adding all those fantastic toppings, my salad weighs about a ton and costs more than I care to admit.

One of my favorite toppings from the salad bar is roasted sweet potatoes.  I love all things sweet potato (like Creamy Carrot and Sweet Potato Smoothie, Chai Spiced Sweet Potato, Vegan Chocolate Ice Cream, etc.), so of course adding some sweetness to my salad through my old orange friend is a given.  I have no idea, then, why it took me so long to figure out that I could easily and affordably combine salad and sweet potatoes at home.

What a delicious lunch!  

I split open a baked sweet potato and filled it with a salad that included a handful of spring mix, a handful of chopped vegetables, 6 or 7 halved grape tomatoes, a good dollop of hummus for protein.  I mixed my salad up with some salsa -- my preferred salad dressing -- and ate it all up together.  

This was the perfect lunch to energize me as I head out to Vida Vegan Con, a blogging conference in Portland.  I am so excited to connect with friends and meet new people.  I am also looking forward to learning from bloggers who really have so much to offer. I can't wait to share all I learn with you.  Check out Welcoming Kitchen on Facebook to see who and what I'm finding out about.  

Happy Cooking!
Kim 

Find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

FREE Mother's Day Gluten-free Recipe E-Book!

 
Mother's Day is coming up soon!

 Attune Foods put together a FREE ebook filled with gluten-free recipes any mom would love. I was honored to be asked to contribute a recipe to this e-book. They gathered seven other incredible gluten-free, allergy-friendly mom food bloggers and asked them each to develop a recipe to make the occasion deliciously memorable. 

Within the pages A Gluten-Free Mother's Day: Recipes for Moms by Moms, you’ll find gluten-free dishes with simple ingredients for breakfast in bed, brunch, recipes designed specifically for cooking with kids, and those you can make ahead of time.
 

 The recipes include:

• my Blueberry Breakfast Pudding with Granola Topping (vegan, tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Turkey Strata Muffins with Orange Slices and Balsamic Glaze from Beth Hillson (tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Corn Flake Quiche Lorraine from Karen Morgan (tree nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free)
• Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Tart from Kelli Bronski (vegetarian, tree nut-free, peanut-free)
• Blueberry Scones with Vanilla Lemon Sweet Cashew Cream and Homemade Blueberry Chia Seed Jam from Maggie Savage (vegan, egg-free, dairy-free, peanut-free)
• Peanut Butter Crunch French Toast with Maple-Peanut Butter Syrup from Alta Mantsch (vegetarian, dairy-free, tree nut-free)
• Chocolate or Carob Tart with Dairy-Free Whipped Topping from Adrienne Urban (vegan, dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free)
• Strawberry Streusel Oatmeal Breakfast Cake from Kim Maes (vegetarian, dairy-free, peanut-free, tree nut-free)

Download your FREE copy of A Gluten-Free Mother's Day: Recipes for Moms by Moms.

I had a blast working on my breakfast pudding for this book.  The pictures are gorgeous, and this is a wonderful, FREE, e-book not just for Mother's Day, but filled with brunch recipes for any occasion.

Happy Mother's Day,
Kim

Find more tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

Organic or Conventional? How to Choose

Finally, spring is here!  In the Midwest it seemed a long time coming (and I know parts of the country are still waiting).  Now that it's here, I'm thinking about lots and lots of fresh produce.  

Should I buy organic?  When is conventional ok?  What should I make with it once I've bought it?  So many questions.

I have some answers today over at The Balanced Platter.  Please stop on by. 

Happy Cooking!

Kim

Find more tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

A Recipe for No-Bake Cookies and a New Product Review

If you have food allergies or intolerances, you know that what works for one person, might not work for you.  In our house, when peanuts are not on the menu, we turn to sunflower seed butter to stand in for peanut butter.   In another household, they might turn to a nut butter.

If these are not good options for your family, there is a new product available that might fit the bill for you.  The Sneaky Chef Creamy No-Nut Butter is made from golden peas instead of seeds or nuts.  The people at The Sneaky Chef sent me a jar of No-Nut Butter and a jar of their Smooth Red pasta sauce. (I was not paid for this review, and the opinions are my own.)

Missy Lapine, aka The Sneaky Chef, has made a career out of helping to "hide" healthy foods, like vegetables, in kids' recipes.  Though, I don't do that, I know that some parents think it's easier to improve their kids' diets with the "what you don't know, can't hurt you" philosophy.

Either way, the pasta sauce tasted good on both pasta and pizza, so it was nice to get a little extra oomph when we'd be using a jarred sauce anyway.  (Though I frequently add frozen spinach to my sauce to veg it up.)

The pea butter would make a fine stand-in for peanut butter, though we prefer the texture and flavor of sunflower seed butter, personally.  Also, the pea butter contains sugar and palm oil, and I'd prefer my spread without either of those.

Here is a recipe that you could use if you want to give the No-Nut Butter a try.  It's a tried and true favorite here at our house.

Crispy Treats (gluten-free, vegan no-bake cookies)

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup crispy brown rice cereal (GF)

1/2 cup No Nut Butter or sunflower seed butter

1/3 cup date paste (medjool dates pureed with water, or soaked in hot water, then pureed)

1 cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

1/2 cup ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup allergen-free chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.

Chill for at least 20 minutes.

Form into balls, an inch to an inch-and-a-half across.

Store in a container in the refrigerator.

Happy Cooking!

Kim

Find more tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

Please Help To End Hunger in America

Everyone should have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Today, April 8, 2013, food bloggers from around the United States are coming together to bring attention to the crisis of hunger in America.

In a land of plenty, way too many (millions) of Americans do not know where their next meal is coming from.  This must change.

I have been involved in efforts to address hunger from a charitable standpoint for years.  For many years, I worked as a community social worker where one of my responsibilities was to help coordinate, pick up, and distribute food donations to members of our community during the winter holiday season.  For the past year or so, I have been part of a network of volunteers who collect unused, but still edible, food from local restaurants and grocery stores to be distributed through our local food pantry.

I know firsthand how local generosity can help offset hunger to some degree.  Local charity, however, is not enough to address the great need and the causes of it that confront our hungry neighbors. Effective government action is necessary.

The case for why change is needed is made beautifully in the new film, A Place at the Table.  I watched it with tears in my eyes and outrage in my heart.  I strongly urge you to take the time to watch it either through iTunes or Amazon or at a local viewing.  It is powerful.

• 30% of Americans are food insecure.  (They do not know where their next meal is coming from.)
• The relative cost of fresh fruits and vegetables has risen 40% in the last 10 years, while the relative cost of processed foods has dropped 40% in the same time period.  Is it any wonder that hunger and obesity are such close cousins?  If empty processed calories are so much more affordable and accessible than nutritious, whole food calories, how could it not be so?
• 85% of households living with food insecurity have at least one working adult.
• Farm subsidies overwhelmingly go toward processed-food crops, instead of toward fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.  (Because, in part, most of the subsidy goes to giant agribusiness instead of to smaller farmers.) 

What can we do?
We can contact our legislators and demand that food policy actually go toward feeding hungry Americans.  Follow this link to take 30 seconds to have your voice heard. 

For some lower-cost entree ideas, many of which use food pantry staples (rice, beans, canned tomatoes), try these:

• Quick and Chunky Pasta Sauce
• Black Bean Burgers
• Rice and Bean Ideas
• Guatemalan Black Beans

Happy Cooking!
Kim

Find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes. 

Snack Cake Recipe Roundup

Coconut Cake with Mandarin Reduction

Whew!  We went from Spring Break directly into a stomach bug here at my house.  I actually wrote a recipe that I was so excited to put up on the blog, but life got in the way -- in a big way!  I'll get my recipe for cocoa-dusted pepitas up on the blog in the next day or so, but until then ....

There's not much better in my mind than a cake that comes together quickly, tastes great and doesn't have to be saved for special occasions.  Today, on The Balanced Platter I put together a round-up of some tried-and-true snack cake recipes.  Head on over to The Balanced Platter to check them out.

Happy Cooking!
Kim

Find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

Fruit-Sweetened Vegan Granola (Gluten-free)

I wanted a breakfast that would power my morning and would be naturally sweetened.  Although I do love my sweets, I'm taking a mini-break from them, so I was interested in a breakfast that could be sweetened with fruit rather than sugar or maple syrup or something like that.

This granola couples the nutrition power of whole grains, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds with sweetness from dates and apple juice.

Most important, though, it tastes great, it fills your belly and it has a nice crunch.

I like it with some non-dairy milk, but you could sprinkle it on yogurt or applesauce or eat it straight off the baking sheet.

How do you enjoy granola?

I shared this with Gluten-free Fridays, Wellness Weekend and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.


Fruit-Sweetened Granola (Vegan and Gluten-free)
Makes 4 cups

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (also called old-fashioned oats, be sure they're gluten-free if needed)
1/3 cup shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas), finely chopped
1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds (hemp hearts)
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup date paste (medjool dates, pitted, soaked in water for 15 minutes or more, then pureed)
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Combine oats, seeds, apple juice, date paste, coconut oil and cinnamon.
• Spread on a baking sheet in a thin layer. (If you put down parchment paper first, you will be able to enjoy every crumb.)
• Bake 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.
• When cool, combine with raisins.

Happy Cooking!
Kim

Find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.

Summery Rice Pudding (Pineapple, Orange and Coconut!)

Hawaiian Rice Pudding

This week on The Balanced Platter, I have a recipe for one of my favorite foods ... rice pudding.  

I love the blank canvas of rice pudding for allergy-friendly treats.  Try different non-dairy milks (rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, etc.), then add in different flavorings (cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) and add some fruits or seeds.  Yum!

Want a great recipe for an easy, sunny Hawaiian Rice Pudding?  Check out my post here.

Happy Cooking!
Kim

Find tasty recipes in Welcoming Kitchen: 200 Delicious Allergen and Gluten-free Vegan Recipes.