Vegan Swedish Meatballs

Vegan Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 package Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style
1 package Gimme Lean Sausage Style
2 large onions (diced small)
4 medium portabello mushrooms (diced very small)
1.5 cups dried gluten-free bread crumbs
3/4 cup rice or soy milk
2 cups soy creamer (ie. Silk)
4 tblspn olive oil
3-4 tblspn corn starch or flour
1.75 cups homemade No-chicken broth*
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1.5 tsp sea salt

* No-chicken broth
4 tblspn nutritional yeast
1.75 cups filtered water
1 tblspn sea salt

Directions

1. In one bowl soak the bread crumbs with the rice milk and mix to soften.

2. Add half of the chopped onions, both types of Gimme Lean, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon.

3. Form into small 1 or 1.5 inch balls by rolling between your palms.

4. Brown the meatballs on all sides in a skillet with the olive oil.

5. Return meatballs to a large casserole dish or skillet (depends on whether you choose to bake or boil the sauce.)

6. In a separate sauce pan heat olive oil and fry the other half of the onions to soften them.

7. Add mushrooms and saute for two minutes.

8. Add soy cream and corn starch to thicken. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

9. Add No-Chicken Broth, a pinch of nutmeg, salt & pepper. Allow to thicken again.

10. Add to meatballs and simmer or bake for 15-20 minutes on low to medium-low heat.

11. Ladle over noodles and serve.

Allergy-Friendly Easter Candy

In addition to our natural Easter Eggs, we made allergy-friendly candy: Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate and Caramel Cups, and Chocolate Crunch Balls.

For the Peanut-free Peanut Butter Cups, we melted a bag of dairy-free chocolate chips in a double boiler with a tablespoon or so of coconut oil. We stirred until it was smooth and glossy. In a small bowl, we mixed Organic Sunbutter, nutritional yeast, rice flour, raw honey, vanilla extract, and sea salt. We didn't measure; we just put maybe a cup of Sunbutter, and started with about a teaspoon of nutritional yeast, a spoonful of rice flour, a squirt of honey, and a tiny bit of vanilla and salt. We just happily tasted it until it tasted right! We used mini muffin pans lined with paper liners. We poured a little bit of melted chocolate to coat the bottom of each liner. We put it in the freezer for a few minutes and then put a bit of Sunbutter mixture in the middle. We covered it with more melted chocolate, and back into the freezer it went. When it was frozen, I peeled off the paper liners, and then stored them in the refrigerator. All of the kids, even the ones who don't love Sunbutter, said that they were amazing!

I'd made these before but had just used plain Sunbutter for the filling. They were so much better this way! I got the idea from Samantha at Color Wheel Meals. She also had a recipe for Chocolate and Caramel Cups, with the caramel made from dates! We tried that, too, but we soaked them in coconut milk, instead of almond milk. Nick added a shot of maple syrup, and I added a little extra vanilla extract and sea salt to them after mixing them up in the Vitamix. I felt like the extra vanilla toned down the date taste a bit. So good!

GracieGirl helped me set up this picture
with the bunnies checking out the chocolate!

I didn't get a picture of the Chocolate Crunch Balls, but all I did was toast some puffed millet in a dry skillet. The truth is that I had to do it twice because I completely burned it the first time! After it was toasted to a nice light brown color, I poured in some of the melted chocolate chips/coconut oil mixture. I stirred it up and dropped it by balls onto a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. It went into the refrigerator until they were firm, and then I stored them in the fridge.

The kids were happy, and best of all, there weren't any allergic reactions from Easter candy!

Thanksgiving GFCF Pumpkin Cake

We had signed up to serve Thanksgiving dinner at a local church today, but, because we were sick, we weren't sure if it was going to happen or not. One thing I learned this week while Nick was out of commission is that, realistically, serving Thanksgiving dinner for three or four hours is not something that I'm physically capable of doing right now. In retrospect, I'm not even sure what made me think I could do it, except that it was just something that I really wanted to do.

Nick woke up feeling better today. My sister had signed up, too, so he went with her and took Nate and JJ, while I stayed home with GracieGirl and E.

While they were gone, I divided my time between playing with GracieGirl and E, and cooking. I wasn't going to do much this year, and I didn't do as much as past years. I cooked up some yams and made one of those yucky casseroles with the marshmallows. I also made a pumpkin cake from Karina's Kitchen. I followed the recipe except that I used a different GF flour blend and I added 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum just because I've never made any GF baked goods without it! It was nice and moist (always a bonus with GF) and everyone loved it. Of course, as soon as I mixed it up, I realized I'd made it with eggs, so I had to make a second recipe (which I cut in half) for E, using Egg Replacer.