Sweet Potato Chowder (easily made Vegan)

I have been working on this recipe since January.  It is good to make with leftover sweet  potatoes and leftover roast chicken or even turkey.  It is tasty, spicy and can easily be made vegan by leaving out the chicken.

It is a very fast and easy chowder to make.

Dice onions.  Heat olive oil in a dutch oven and add the onions.  Cook until softened.

Once the onions are softened.  Add the mashed sweet potatoes and vegetable broth  When you are making baked sweet potatoes add a couple of extra and use them for this recipe.

Bring this mixture to a boil.  Then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the corn, coconut milk, finely diced jalapeno peppers and chicken.  Simmer atleast 10 minutes or until ready to eat.  Taste for seasonings and adjust if necessary.  Depending on the heat of your jalapeno peppers you might need to add pepper and some salt.

When ready to eat, ladle it  into a bowl and garnish with more sliced jalapenos,  if you wish.

INGREDIENTS

2 Large sweet potatoes baked and mashed

2 Tbs olive oil or coconut oil

2 onions, diced

4 cups vegetable broth

2 cups chopped cooked turkey or chicken

2 cups corn kernels, frozen

1 can lite coconut milk

2 jalapeno peppers finely diced

DIRECTIONS

In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions.  Stir occasionally and cook until they begin to soften. Add the mashed sweet potatoes and vegetable broth.  Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the chicken, corn, jalapeno peppers and coconut milk. Stir and simmer atleast 10 minutes.  Taste for seasonings and adjust if needed.  Serve in a bowl with more sliced jalapenos if desired.

This chowder is delicious on a cold winter day and great at clearing out the sinuses due to the peppers.  ENJOY :)

Gluten Free Hawaiian Sweet Bread and Two Soups

Today the weather was all kinds started with plenty of rain and then dropping temperatures and snow.  So I decided to make two soups and my first attempt at making gluten free Hawaiian sweet bread.

The two soups I made were no set recipe more what I had on hand.  I made a chicken and veggie soup and then a sweet potato chowder with jalapenos.

Sweet Potato Chowder with jalapeno peppers

Chicken soup with vegetables.

While the soups were cooking I made my first attempt at homemade gluten free bread.  I got the recipe from Gluten Free and More.  Here is the link

http://www.glutenfreeandmore.com/recipes/hawaiian_sweet_bread-2561-1.html

Dough ready for its resting time

After the resting period

Egg Wash and ready for the oven

Out of the oven

First Slice

I was surprised at how easy it was to make and how well it turned out. It tasted really good better than other gluten free bread I have purchased.  I will definitely be making this again and trying other gluten free bread recipes. :)

Gluten Free Muffins

GLUTEN FREE MUFFINS

Today I made some gluten free muffins.  One recipe was based on a Nigella Lawson recipe which I made gluten free.  It was alright but I don't like dried cranberries so it wasn't very good.  Perhaps I will fiddle with the recipe some more and use whole fresh cranberries.

The second recipe was Chocolate Strawberry Muffins.  They are so good and moist.  Need some more tweaking but the recipe is coming along nicely.

I will be working on these recipes and when perfected will post the recipes for them also have a few other muffin ideas I am thinking of.


Here are the before and after pictures  of the muffins.

Christmas Morning Muffins GF version of Nigella Lawson's recipe

Gluten Free Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

Until next time have a good day :)

Happy New Year and easy dinner

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  

Welcome to 2016.  Just popping by to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2016.

Tonight for dinner I made Epicure 10 Minute Steamer Turkey Clubhouse Meatloaf ( I absolutely love this recipe so easy and so delicious), Veggie Fried Rice and Steamer baby bok choy. Both the meatloaf and baby bok choy was made using the Epicure Silicone Rectangular Steamer.

Here are the shots of the Turkey Meatloaf.  Top shot is it ready for the microwave and the second shot is once it is cooked. Here is the link to the recipe for the meatloaf.  I love Epicure  products and that's why I sell it :) 

https://epicure.com/en/recipe/4694

The veggie fried rice was easy to make.  I took leftover cooked basmati rice, chopped red onions, chopped green onions, chopped green beans, bean sprouts, and frozen corn kernels, as well as scrambled eggs and tamari sauce and cracked black pepper.

Saute the onions, green beans and corn in oil

Then add the cooked rice, bean sprouts and scrambled eggs.

Add tamari low sodium sauce to taste. Then added more green onions.

Give it a final stir and its ready to serve.

The baby bok choy I just added to the rectangular steamer and added a splash of tamari sauce.

It was a healthy and delicious meal to start the new year off on the right foot :)

I am ending this blog with a photo of my kitchen companion while I was cooking this meal.  She kept waiting for something to drop on the floor but it didn't happen.  Sorry Daisy :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I have done a lot of Christmas baking recently.  Cookies, Fudges, Bark and much much more.  Forgot to take pictues of all of them. Here are some photos.

Also wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

New recipes will be coming in the New Year.

Gluten Free Oatmeal chocolate chip mini muffins

Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

I adapted the recipe from  http://www.virtuallyhomemade.com/2015/03/gluten-free-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-muffins.html  to get this recipe for mini gluten free  oatmeal chocolate chip muffins.

They came out pretty good.  Next time I might add some shredded zucchini to the batter.

INGREDIENTS

1 large omega 3 egg

1/4 brown sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 cup gluten free rolled oats

1 Tbs Pure Vanilla Extract

1 cup plain 2% Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour

2 teaspoons  baking soda

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup enjoy life mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a mini muffin pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the egg, oil and brown sugar together.  Then add in the oats and vanilla extract.  Mix thoroughly and set aside.

In a small bowl add the yogurt, milk and baking soda,  Stir and set aside

In another bowl mix the oat flour, baking powder,  salt, xanthan gum, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add this to the egg sugar mixture alternately with the yogurt mix.  Stir in chocolate chips

Fill the muffin tins and bake for about 15 minutes.  Allow to cool and then remove from pan. 

Great with a cup of tea or coffee.

Dip and Salsa

I made a salsa over the weekend as well as a bean dip.  Forgot to take photos along the way so only a few photos are available.

The recipes are very simple and got two thumbs up by my niece who is a vegan. :)

The salsa was easy to make and contains, rinsed can of black beans, 1 small red onion diced, 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and finely diced, 1 red pepper seeded and diced, 2 smaller peppers diced not sure what variety they are they came from a friends garden,  about 1 cup of diced diced pineapple, ground cumin and the juice of 2 limes. Mix everything together and refrigerate until ready to serve.  The salsa is great with oven baked tostitos scoops.

The bean dip is based on a recipe by Nigella Lawson.  It is super easy to make and very delicious. The recipe is one canned drained and rinsed white kidney beans, half of a large lemon juiced, 2 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and ground cumin. Whiz it in a mini chopper and serve.

I am ending the post with a photo of Daisy.  It is too cute for words :)  My niece took this photo.

Please try these recipes.  They are easy to make, healthy and very delicious :)