Buffalo Chickpea Chili

Buffalo Chickpea Chili
Adapted from Naturally Ella

Olive Oil
1/2 small onion
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water (or vegetable broth)
1/4 cup red lentils
1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 Tbsp paprika

In a medium saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add tomatoes, water (or broth) and lentils. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add wing sauce, chickpeas, and paprika, and allow to simmer another 10-15 minutes, until lentils are tender. Makes about 4 servings

My Notes:
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this recipe. It's decent, but the only real flavor comes from the wing sauce, which just makes it really spicy. There's no strong depth of flavor like I have in my other chilis. But it is really quick and easy to throw together, and I happened to have all ingredients on hand. This is not something I'd make for a week's worth of food, but may decide to make it as a part of a chili potluck or something. Otherwise, I'll stick with some of my other recipes.

Squash Crusted Quiche

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Squash Crusted Quiche
Inspired by Tasty Kitchen and adapted from All Recipes

1 small spaghetti squash
olive oil
4 eggs
1/2 small onion
dash red pepper flakes
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then place cut side down on cooking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes, until flesh is tender. Allow to cool, then scoop flesh out and set aside.

Heat a small amount of oil in a pan, then add onion. Saute until onion becomes translucent, then add broccoli. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Cook until broccoli becomes slightly tender. Allow to cool slightly. In a small bowl, beat eggs, then stir in cheddar cheese and 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese. Stir in cooled broccoli mixture.

Press squash to sides of a pie tin. Press 1/4 cup cheese into 'crust'. Bake at 350 until cheese melts slightly; this will remove some of the excess moisture in the squash. Remove from oven and pour in egg mixture. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, until egg mixture is set and cheese browns slightly. Allow to cool and serve either slightly warm or at room temperature.

My Notes:
So, my squash was really wet when it went into the oven, and I didn't use a pie tin, I used a springform pan. So about halfway through cooking, it started leaking out the bottom of the pan. I was really worried it was going to be super soggy when it finally came out, but it wasn't too bad. It wasn't crispy, by any stretch of the imagination, but it held together well and was a nice functional crust.

And I got a ton of compliments on it. I brought it to a pie contest (I decided on a very liberal definition of 'pie'), and while it did not win, I did have multiple people come up to me and tell me how good it was, and a couple people asked for the recipe. And, bonus, it's gluten free, so some of my celiac friends can eat it too! Regretfully, since it disappeared so quickly, I didn't get a good picture of it. Sorry folks.

Chocolate "Crazy" Cake

A moment of celebration is needed. I've hit 3K page views :) It's only taken me 3.5 years to do so, but hey, such is life. I still haven't met the requirements to complete my original challenge, though: 100 recipes, with at least 25 each of dairy, meat, and pareve--I'm only at 23 meat recipes, even though I have 125+ recipes on the site right now. Clearly, that needs to be an area of focus for me. This is mostly because it's a whole lot easier to convert a recipe that contains both meat and dairy to a vegetarian recipe than it is to eliminate the dairy.

Enough of my rambling--on to your regularly scheduled post.



So the other night, I was asked to bring dessert to a friend's house in exchange for dinner and good company (or something like that). I was originally going to make cookies, because they're simple and why not, but then realized that I didn't have enough butter on hand. So I went through my pinterest board to see if there was something I could make without butter, or milk. I found this recipe I pinned forever ago, and figured why not. I already had all the ingredients on hand. I'm also fairly certain I've made this before, but I couldn't find record of it, so whatever. The blog below also has recipes for a vanilla, spice, and lemon crazy cake as well if you're interested in something besides chocolate. Apparently it works great with gluten-free flour as well.

Chocolate Crazy Cake
Originally found at Sweet Little Bluebird

1 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. You can mix the ingredients directly in an 8" square baking pan, or you can do it in a bowl first. Mix the dry ingredients together until well blended. Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients--two small, and one larger. Pour vinegar in one depression, vanilla in another, and vegetable oil in the largest. Pour water over all. Mix well until smooth. Pour into prepared pan if mixing in a bowel.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Top with a dusting of powdered sugar, or your favorite icing.

My Notes:
Very yummy. Super moist, but still light and airy. This may become my go-to cake recipe, especially since it's so incredibly easy to make. And it's pareve!

Southwest Sauce

Remember a few weeks ago when I made that Sweet Potato Gnocchi, but said that the sauce wasn't flavorful enough? Well, I came up with a solution to that. Even though the gnocchi itself is based on the sweet side of the sweet potato, I really wanted a nice and savory sauce to go with it. So I did some searching for other recipes with sweet potatoes, just to see how people used them.

Apparently one way that is very popular is to do a southwest stuffed sweet potato. Considering a big part of my blog is based in the southwest, I figured it would be a nice addition to the group. It took me a bit to figure out exactly how I wanted to adapt the recipe, but I think this one's a winner.

Southwest Sauce Adapted from Elly Says Opa!

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 can corn, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup vegetable broth
1 Tbsp chipotles en adobo (blended)
2 oz cream cheese
1 recipe Sweet Potato Gnocchi

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add spices, then add corn, tossing to coat the corn with the spices. Cook until corn is slightly browned, about 7 minutes. Set aside.

Deglaze the pan with the vegetable broth, add in the chipotles en adobo, then slowly stir in the cream cheese until completely incorporated. Stir in gnocchi, then corn and beans. Heat through and serve hot.

My Notes:
So, I actually had about half my gnocchi recipe left over in the freezer, and used that for the basis of the recipe. As a result, I only used about half of the corn and beans, because more would have overwhelmed the gnocchi. Also, because my gnocchi were frozen and I had to let them thaw in the sauce, I used significantly more liquid than I called for in the recipe, because it reduced quite nicely.

All in all, this is definitely a winning recipe. There is a lot of flavor going on, and it works well with the texture of the gnocchi.

Now I just have to use up those other two sweet potatoes sitting in my cupboard.

S'mores Krispies

I'm still not entirely sure what to call these things. They're like a Rice Krispie treat, only with graham cracker stuffs instead of rice krispies. And they're so much better and not bland. Seriously, you should make them now.

S'mores Krispies
Originally found at Country Cleaver

6 Tbsp butter
1 package marshmallows (10 oz)
5 cups Golden Grahams cereal
3/4 cup chocolate chips, divided

Liberally grease a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Stir in marshmallows and heat until consistency is even. Turn off heat, and add in the cereal, mixing until well covered with marshmallow mixture. Add in 1/2 cup chocolate chips, mix lightly, then pour into the baking dish. Press lightly into pan and top with remaining chocolate chips. Allow to cool and serve. Store in a covered container.

My Notes:
I've seen a lot of people complain that when they initially add the chocolate chips and stir them in that the chocolate chips melt and they just end up with chocolate marshmallow goop covering the Golden Grahams. The key to getting them to remain mostly solid is to only stir enough to spread them out throughout the mixture, then dump it into the pan. They'll still melt a little, because you are dumping them into essentially boiling marshmallow goo, but you should still get chunks.

I brought this to a potluck the other day, and everyone fell in love with it and told me the recipe was a keeper. Even the woman who makes the most amazing brownies in the world. High praise indeed.