dairy-free

Ham and yellow pepper pizza

~ Hanta ~ Leave a comment

I have been meaning to make pizza with my son for weeks. He has been asking for it but being dairy-free, we have to make our own as store bought pizza is not an option. So today, we finally got down and did it. From scratch. And he helped with each step of the process. After all, like he says, he is the Big Helper.

All that, to say that this recipe was pretty easy to do. And this was the result:

IMG_6208It was gone in a heartbeat.

We made the crust ourselves  in the bread machine on the dough settings.  You can also use a store-bought pizza dough, it will make the process even easier, and cut the preparation time significantly. The key to get a thin crispy crust  is to saute the veggie toppings first, so they do not get soggy while cooking. That will also ensure that they are well cooked with the pizza crust. Another trick I used here is to place the pizza on a parchment paper, then slide it on the pre-heated pizza stone in the oven. It makes the transfer much easier and placing the pizza on the heated stone cooks the crust more evenly. If you do not have a pizza stone, you can directly slide the pizza on the oven rack with the parchment paper under it.

Ham is not usually found on  pizza here in the US, but when we were in Madagascar, I recall that it was a common pizza topping. My son loves “jambon” so he was very enthousiastic when I suggested we put it on the pizza…and let’s be honest, it was the only kind of meat that I had that I could put on the pizza.

Ham and yellow pepper pizza

Pizza Crust (using a bread machine)IMG_6219
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil (or vegetable oil)

Pizza sauce
1 cup of tomato sauce
1/4 teaspoon  dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil (or fresh)
1 clove of garlic crushed
salt as desired

Pizza toppings
– 1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
– 1 red onion, thinly sliced
– 5 baby bella mushrooms (or white button mushrooms), thinly sliced
– 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
– 1/2 cup of ham, sliced thinly
– 1 teaspoon of oil
– dried basil and oregano

Heat the oven at 400°F. Place a rack in the middle of the oven. If you have a pizza stone, place the stone in the oven middle rack while it is heating up.

Make the pizza dough. Add the ingredients as suggested by the bread maker instructions. Adjust the amount of flour or water as needed once the kneading starts. You should have a soft and flexible dough that is not sticky to the touch.

IMG_6180In a large frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat for the toppings. When the oil is hot, add in the crushed garlic and mix with the oil to flavor it. Add in the onion, the bell pepper and saute them until soft and slightly brown. Sprinkle with some of the dried herbs to flavor. Add the mushrooms in the last few minutes.  Set aside.
Mix the ingredients for the tomato sauce in a bowl.

Once the dough is ready. Sprinkle a large IMG_6187cutting board or the counter top with flour. Spread the dough on the floured surface by pressing with your hands or using a rolling pin to thin it out and make the shape as round as possible. Carefully transfer the dough on a pizza sheet lined with a large enough piece of parchment paper. Add the sauce and the toppings.
Slide the pizza with the parchment paper under it, onto the heated pizza stone in the oven (or onto the oven rack directly if you do not have a stone).

Bake for 15-20 min until the crust is slightly brown. Cut it. Eat it. Enjoy!

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Popcorn galore: dark chocolate and caramel popcorn

~ Hanta ~ Leave a comment

Quick to prepare, simple and delicious snack…introducing the popcorn!
For a few days now, my son has been asking for popcorn for snack. And he wants to freshly pop them every time. And who blames him? Popping corn is really fun. When they pop, he runs around the kitchen saying “Pop !Pop! Pop! ” And freshly popped corn just tastes so good.

I do like the natural flavor, but this time around I splurged and flavored them two different ways: dark chocolate and caramel.
If you don’t feel like popping corn as I did here, you can certainly use pre-popped corn in bags (non salty or only lightly salted) or microwave popcorn. It works just as well.IMG_5895

To make popcorn in a pan
– 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
– 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

Heat up a large saucepan on medium-high heat (you need a pan with a lid). When the pan is hot, put in the oil along with 3 popcorn kernels, cover with the lid. When the 3 kernels pop, dump the rest of the kernels in the pan, careful to make one layer of kernels at the bottom of the pan, so all the kernels get heat. Cover with the lid. Gently shake the pan from side to side to move the kernels around so they don’t IMG_5887burn on one side. When the kernels start to pop,  continue shaking the pan so that the unpopped kernels always fall to the bottom and get heated to pop. Turn the heat off when there is a couple of seconds between the pops. Be careful to wait until the popping stops before opening the lid to avoid getting possibly burned by a flying popcorn.

Dark chocolate popcorn
– 2 cups of popcorn
– 2 tablespoon of mini dark chocolate chips

Heat up a sauce pan on medium-low heat. When pan is hot, add the chocolate chips. Move them around to help them melt faster. As soon as they are melted, add in the popcorn and mix well with a wooden spoon until there is no chocolate left at the bottom of the pan, but it is all coating the popcorn. Cool on a sheet covered with parchment paper to IMG_5900avoid sticking.

Caramel popcorn
– 2 tbsp brown sugar
– 1 tbsp vegetable spread (here I use the Coconut Spread from Earth balance)
– 2 cups of popcorn

Heat the pan on medium-high. Sprinkle the sugar in the pan so there are no clumps that will melt unevenly. Lower the heat to medium. As soon as the sugar has melted, add the vegetable spread and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the popcorn and mix well until all the caramel is all covering the popcorn and none is left at the bottom of the pan. Cool on a sheet covered with parchment paper to avoid sticking.

IMG_5903

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

~ Hanta ~ 3 Comments

Some days, one just needs a picker-upper. Today is one of these days. Nothing really dramatic or crazy happened, just that it has been a long IMG_5840week already. And to top it off my babysitter did not show today when I had planned to go down to the office. So I thought, okay let’s enjoy the afternoon and head down to the beach then! So we went, only to be caught by a fast arriving storm, which turned the sky from a clear blue to black in 10min. We run home, well, I ran , pushing the little man in the stroller, but we still got wet. Anyway, today is one of those days when chocolate chips need to be put to good use.

The chocolate chips I use here are the mini kind and they are allergen-free. Since we are on a dairy-free, egg-free and nuts-free diet, this is my go-to ingredient for anything that calls for chocolate. We also just eat them as is and they are delicious.

IMG_5843

Oatmeal chocolate chips cookie

Wet ingredients
1/3 cup sunflower seed butter
2tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup dairy-free milk (I use a mix of coconut milk and flax milk)
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Dry ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat the oven at 425°C. Whisk the wet ingredients together in a large bowl until smooth. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with a wooden spoon.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spoon the cookie dough onto the parchment paper with a tablespoon. Unlike regular cookies, these cookies do not spread out and will stay the size as you have spooned them, so there is no need to space them too faIMG_5833r apart.
Bake in the oven at 425°C for 8min.

Cool the cookies on a rack. Enjoy!
The cookie dough can also be frozen on the cookie sheet (already in cookie form). When frozen, transfer to a Ziploc bag. They can be baked at a later time when in need of an emergency cookie.

Kiwi and greens smoothie

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Green smoothies have always looked kind of scary to me. I used to think that smoothies should be fruity and colorful. But hey! kiwi is a fruit and it’s color is green so I guess a fruity smoothie can be green too.

I decided to make this smoothie one day I was not feeling very well, a cold was lingering and I just needed something to give me an energy punch and clean out my system, all at once…and of course taste good. Kiwis taste delicious and they are packed with vitamin C and other phytonutrients that beneficial to reduce inflammation and boost the immune system. Green leaves are also packed with vitamins and are rich in calcium. So, these sounded like a great mix for a energy-packed smoothie to me.

This is also a great way to get my toddler to have his share of fruits and greens. He loves smoothies and he readily drinks it no matter what color it is.IMG_5482

For the greens here, I used a salad mix of baby greens which had baby spinach, dandelions, kale, lettuce and others. But you can use any baby leaves of your choice. Using mature leaves will also work but will have a stronger “green” flavor which might not be to everyone’s liking. Banana or pineapple are great add-ins when making green smoothies as they tend to mask green leaves flavors pretty well.

Kiwi and greens smoothie

  • 1 1/2 cup of green leaves mix
  • 2 kiwis
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 4 dates (can substitute for sugar or honey to sweeten)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.

Serve in a glass (or a jar) and enjoy!

 

 

 

Very berry ice cream

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One of my favorite food ever is ice cream. When I found out my son was allergic to dairy,  we had to ban ice cream from our house. And because I was still nursing him, I also had to forego having my favorite treat even outside the house, otherwise he would get an allergic reaction from drinking my milk. It was a hard thing for me to give that up. Yes, sure I could still have sorbet but I really wanted and missed the “cream” part of ice cream

So imagine my joy when I found out I could have vegan ice cream. I was so excited to put my ice cream maker to good use again after it sitting idle on its shelf because I had to give up making frozen yogourt.
One way of getting the “cream”factor is using coconut cream. I like it best with non-fruity flavor like chocolate or vanilla, as the coconut blends well with those flavors.
But for fruity flavors I prefer using avocado, because the flavor is less dominant and it goes well with fruits. And boy, is it creamy! I actually have to cut it out with some juice otherwise it gets pretty heavy.

For this berry ice cream. I actually mixed avocado with a bit of coconut cream and fruit juice and blend it well. I first tried to just add pureed berries in but then the fruity taste is not very strong  as the fruit is diluted in with the avocado cream. I found out that reducing the blueberry puree first with a sweetener intensifies the flavor when it mixed with the coconut cream. The result is a fruity creamy bliss.

Very berry avocado ice cream IMG_5479
– 1/2 lbs of frozen berry mix (fresh works as well). I use the Very berry Cherry blend from Trader Joe’s
– 1/3 cup honey + more to sweeten to taste if needed
– 2 medium avocados or 3 small
– 1/3 cup of coconut cream (from a can of full fat coconut milk)
– 1/4 cup orange juice
– Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1-1.5 tablespoon)

To get coconut cream, place the can of coconut milk in the fridge for 24 hours or more. this will cause the cream (the fatty part of coconut milk) to separate. Upon taking the can out, gently invert it upside down, open it and pour out the clearer liquid now on top. It can be discarded or it can be used for smoothies. The creamy part that is left is the coconut cream. Reserve it in the fridge until use.

In a sauce pan, mix the berries with the 1/3 cup of honey, heat on high until it simmers then reduce the heat and keep it only stirring but not boiling over. Stir regularly to avoid it to stick. Heat until it is reduced and the liquid a bit syrupy, about 15min or so. Cool it down to room temperature. When cool, blend the mix until very smooth. Pass the fruit puree through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Place the avocado, the orange juice and the lemon juice in the blender and blend until very smooth. Add in the coconut cream and mix again until very smooth. Finally, add the fruit puree and mix well. Taste for sweetness and if necessary, add some honey and tablespoon at a time as desired.

Churn the mix in an ice cream maker until ready (about 15-20 min). This results in a soft-serve consistency. For scoopable ice cream, place in the freezer for 2-3 hours.