Taco Dip for the Wife

I make Emily taco dip....pretty much once a week. It's really not too difficult since we usually have cream cheese and sour cream in the fridge, and we also have an industrial sized bottle of taco seasoning.

Ingredients-

-8oz Package of Cream Cheese
-8oz Sour Cream
-Taco Seasoning to Taste

Directions-

First i leave the cream cheese out on the counter for 15 minutes to soften up a little bit, then place the cream cheese and sour cream in a bowl to mix with an electric hand mixer. Once it has been mixed well, I usually add around 1/4 to 1/3 cup of taco seasoning and mix again with the hand mixer. It's that easy.

I've made Emily taco dip probably 15 times, and we still have seasoning left. I got the taco seasoning from Sam's Club, and it was around $5. I think packets at the store are between $1 and $1.50, So I've saved at least $10 so far by buying the large container!

Vegan Gluten-Free Fries/Potato Wedges

I've made these A LOT, they're simple enough to prepare within the amount of time that it takes for the oven to preheat, and they are delicious!

Ingredients-

-3 Russet Potatoes

-1 Tbsp Corn Starch

-1 1/2 Tsp Seasoned Salt

-1/2 Tsp any other seasoning you would like

1-2 Tbsp Canola Oil or Olive Oil

Start out with preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Then peel the potatoes and cut in half, cut the halves in half the long way, then cut at an angle, making them wedges. Place the wedges into a ziplock bag and add the dry ingredients. 

Shake vigorously ensuring that all wedges are covered. Add the oil to the bag, reseal, and shake again.

Take a cookie sheet and lay down a layer of parchment paper on it. The parchment paper keeps the wedges from sticking. Lay the wedges out individually with a little space in-between. I stick to 3 potatoes because I know that I can safely fit 3 potatoes worth of wedges on one cookie sheet.

Place the wedges in the oven for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, turn the wedges over and bake for another 15 minutes.

When you remove them from the oven after 30 minutes of baking, they should look something like this!

My favorite condiments for these are sriracha hot sauce mixed with ketchup, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

5 Ingredient Whole Wheat Vegan Bread

This is my favorite bread to make. It's easy, cheap, you don't have to touch the dough with your hands, and it makes your house smell awesome, and there are only 5 ingredients!!!!

Ingredients-

-3 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour
-1 1/2 Tsp Salt
-1 Tbsp Yeast
-2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
-2 Cups Water

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Microwave 2 cups of water for 2 minutes and leave aside. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and wisk together. Be sure not to skip the wisking, if you don't wisk, the bread won't rise fully.

Once you are done wisking, add the water and agave nectar and stir until combined, feel free to add more water to reach a loose consistency as seen below.

Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it alone for about an hour.

After the hour, your dough should look like this!

Spray the inside of your bread pan with cooking spray, quite generously. Mix the bread dough again to get the air out of it, it should only take 30 seconds of stirring to achieve this. When you are scraping the dough out of the bowl into the pan, I've found it is best to spray the spatula with cooking spray as well so the dough doesn't stick to the spatula.

Once you have the dough in the pan, it is best to spray the top of the dough, then cover the pan in plastic wrap so when the dough rises, it doesn't stick to the plastic wrap!

After your dough rises and pushes on the plastic a bit (takes about an hour) remove the plastic and bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and place on the counter for 10 minutes to allow it to cool down before taking it out of the pan.

There you have it! 5 ingredients, a little patience, and a couple of hours and you have fresh, delicious whole wheat vegan bread!

Vegan Chocolate Banana Post Work-Out Recovery Shake

My workouts consist mainly of jogging/running. I drink a lot of water throughout the day before I work out, then I drink one of these shakes after I'm done. By the time I'm finished with it, I feel like I'm ready to work out again! It's a great source of Omega-3's, fiber, and protein!

Ingredients-

1 Cut up Frozen Banana
1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Soymilk
1 Tbsp Chia Seeds
2 Tbsp Hemp Powder
1 Tbsp Cacao Nibs (Not Pictured)

Directions-

You will want to make sure that you cut up the banana at least a few hours before you intend to make the shake. Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.

I don't think I could function without it. Regular protein shakes with dairy in it are harsh on me, especially on an empty stomach after a work out. My body doesn't have any negative reactions to this. Let me know what you think!

Gluten-Free Vegan Tortilla Recipe FAIL... Well, sort of.

Ok, so I feel really making mexican food, and I am eating a delicious flour tortilla, and my wife has to suffer with corn tortillas. :( I want to make some gluten-free tortillas so she doesn't have to eat corn tortillas. Here are the ingredients that I used, I figured it shouldn't be too far off from making regular tortillas.

2 cups gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup soy milk
3 tbsp canola oil

oil for cooking tortillas in skillet

I mixed all the ingredients together well.

I let the dough sit for an hour, covered.

Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces. (kind of, I'm really bad with eyeing things up like that)

Heated up my skillet on medium heat with canola oil and placed one ball of dough at a time in the pan and flattened with a spatula since it was too sticky to roll out. They turned out ok, and they are usable, but there has to be a better way. I'm thinking of trying a different type of gluten-free all purpose flour. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Gluten-Free Vegan Pie Crust Recipe

This is the first time that I have ever made a gluten-free pie crust. I wanted to give it a try since Emily has a gluten intolerance, and Thanksgiving is coming up quickly!!!! It turned out really well, and you only need 4 ingredients, I took a picture of the ingredients before I realized I needed to add sugar.

Ingredients-

-1/2 cup vegetable shortening
-1 tsp salt
-1 1/2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
-2 tbsp white sugar
-1/2 cup water

Mix together the first four ingredients with a fork until the shortening and other ingredients get clumpy, then add the water and mix until it is completely combined.

I tried rolling the dough out, but it is very fragile, and kept breaking when I tried to get it to the pie pan.

I ended up balling up the dough, putting it in the pan, and forming it in there. I wrapped my hand in plastic wrap so it wouldn't stick to my hand while I formed it.

Now you have your pie crust, in the pan, ready for you to fill and bake! If you are looking for a Gluten-Free Vegan pie to make, try my pumpkin pie recipe!

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

When I get to work in the morning, I fill up my water bottle, and make myself a bowl of oatmeal to take to my desk. I've been doing this for about a month, and I have seen a lot of recipes that are more complicated than they need to be.

To maximize my savings, I bought a 10 lb package of oats from Sam's Club. If you are unsure if you will use all 10 lbs, you may want to just start out with a smaller container of oats.

You only need 3 ingredients. 

-Quaker Oats
-Brown Sugar
-Cinnamon

I don't really measure when I make a batch of oatmeal, but for you, I measured... Somewhat.

I use the Magic Bullet to blend the oats to a powder, and you can do this with as much of the oats as you want. I usually do 2 bullets to prepare for the week.

I put the powdered oats into a bowl and then distribute them into Ziplock sandwich bags, putting 1/3 of a cup in each bag, followed by 1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar, and finally 1/8th tsp of Cinnamon.

And there you have it, your own instant oatmeal! I'm not sure about you, but I feel better about eating things when I know what is in it. Also, it is ridiculously cheap to buy the ingredients, and is a cost saver compared to buying the packets of instant oatmeal.