Crustless zucchini quiche

 

This is one of my family’s favorite dinners. Mine too, because it’s super simple and uses zucchini that I always have a ton of this time of year. This version uses two types of nondairy cheese (Parmesan and Cheddar,) but it would be just as good with nutritional yeast and adding some garlic salt if you don’t like cheese substitutes. 

Crustless Zucchini quiche 

Ingredients 

1Tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup grated nondairy Parmesan cheese (I used Follow Your Heart)

4 large eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup biscuit/baking mix

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used Follow your Heart)

Directions

Cook onion in the tablespoon of vegetable oil and then let cool. 

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients. 

Stir in the zucchini, biscuit mix and cheese.

 Pour into a greased 9-in. pie plates. 

Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

At different times I’ve changed the cheese in this and used Daiya pepper jack, which is also very good. It works with yellow squash as well. I serve this with a side salad, so it’s great way to get a lot of veggies in. It’s also wonderful reheated for a quick breakfast. It’s really versatile and definitely worth a try the way it’s written, then add in/omit what you and your family would like! 

Dairy free cheesecake

It's been awhile since I've had time to sit down and write about what I've been making. We are just finding out where we'll be moving this summer and there is a ton of stuff to figure out and learn and that has been consuming most of my time, but more on that later. There is always time for dessert, right? Of course, so last night we made a cheesecake.

Cheesecake is an all time favorite in our family so I've been looking for a good substitute for awhile. I recently bought The Happy Herbivore, by Lindsay S. Nixon and she has a great recipe for cheesecake, and many other things too! You can find the recipe here on Lindsay Nixon's website. Ours turned out pretty good.

The texture is spot on. The taste is very good but not really "cheesecakey." More of an almond custard flavor. Next time around I think we might flavor it differently, and I think it would be delicious. It is a great substitute and a good starting point to make something really tasty. Even if it wasn't exactly as we expected, everyone cleaned their plates except Patrick who, when he heard cake, was expecting something with frosting and candles so he was pretty disappointed. Not so disappointed that he didn't eat most of it though.

Friday night Pizza

I'm not a chicken nuggets and mac and cheese for dinner type of mom so, on Friday nights, I like to make dinner a little more fun and kid friendly. We eat dinner in the living room and watch a movie. Most of the time Patrick picks pizza for Friday night dinner. There are a couple of non-dairy frozen pizzas on the market. Amy's is one that I always have in my freezer for emergencies. It's about the size of a personal pizza so it's perfect for my boys to split if Matt and I are going out or eating something they won't or can't eat. This pizza is also gluten free. Tofurkey makes a larger size non-dairy pizza. They also have more flavors, pepperoni and supreme, that I can think of. These are meat substitutes, but very good. These are not the flavors of pizza we want to eat each week so I've started making our pizza. If I am in a hurry I use Pillsbury pizza dough in a can. It does not have any dairy in it and is very convenient. Recently I've been trying to learn to make bread. Someone told me making pizza dough was a good way to get used to using yeast. So I tried it and it was very easy and so tasty. Here's the recipe I use:

1 1/3 cups warm water
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1 Tbsp honey
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (if you want to be healthier you can substitute whole wheat flour)

Put water, yeast, and honey in the bowl of mixer. Let sit until foamy. Add flour. Turn mixer on low, with bread hook attachment. As dough forms increase speed to medium. When ingredients are completely combined and dough starts to cover dough hook it is ready. Place dough on greased baking sheet. With greased hands spread dough out to desired shape and thickness.

From here you just cover it with what you want. I make sauce sometimes, use leftover spaghetti sauce or use jarred (making sure it is dairy free of course.) Then we use the Daiya mozzarella and out toppings. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and then broil for 3 minutes (this helps the Daiya have a more cheese like texture for my husband and me.) Let it rest for about 5 minutes before you cut it.

Non-dairy Ricotta cheese, Grilled Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Tonight for dinner I made a non-dairy version of a recipe I found in Williams-Sonoma's Vegetarian for All Seasons. They call it Grilled stuffed portobello mushrooms on porcini cous cous. I couldn't find porcini mushrooms at the grocery today so I just made cous cous in vegetable broth. The Portobellos are stuffed with veggies and ricotta cheese in their recipe so I had to make a non-dairy ricotta. This is so easy and yummy. My 1 year old Charlie was standing on a stool being my taste tester as I made it! Here is the recipe for the ricotta:

1 pkg firm tofu, pressed
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

In a large bowl mash the tofu with a potato masher. Add lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. Mash until mixture resembles the consistency of ricotta. (it will not be as creamy)Add 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast, taste and add more as needed.

Note-Pressing tofu is a pain. You can just put it between two pieces of paper towel and set a skillet on it, just squeeze it, or use a contraption. I have a contraption that gets all the liquid out, but some people like a bit of the liquid.
       -Nutritional Yeast is not the same as what you use for baking. Not really sure what it is to be honest but it makes things taste like cheese and has a lot of vitamins that you don't always get if you aren't eating meat or dairy. You can usually find it by the supplements, in the baking isle (I don't know why,) or just kind of stuck in with the organic foods.

Here is the recipe (the way I made it, not the way the cookbook says to) for the Stuffed Portobellos:

4 Portobello mushroom tops, stem and dark gills removed
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 med sweet potato, peeled and grated
2 cups baby spinach
salt and pepper
1/2 the ricotta from above recipe
1 cup cous cous
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock

Since it's winter I used a grill pan inside but this would probably be even better on a charcoal grill. Heat whatever grill you're using. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add the shallot and cook until softened. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the sweet potato. Cook until tender. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat. Add the ricotta to the veggie mixture and combine. Spoon into the mushrooms. Place mushrooms filled side up on the grill until heated through. Meanwhile bring vegetable stock to a boil and add cous cous. reduce heat and continue to cook until all stock is absorbed. Serve the mushrooms on top of the cous cous.

Pat had a dentist appointment today and he was such a trooper I decided to make him some dessert as a treat. I had left over phyllo dough (I did end up making that Turkish eggplant pie) that I wanted to use up so I figured I'd just wrap it around something sweet. This is what I came up with:

For each phyllo pocket

3-4 sheets phyllo
cooking spray
2 Tbsp chocolate hazelnut butter ( I used Justin's because Nuttella has milk in it, and a TON of sugar)
1/4 of a banana sliced

Lay out one sheet of phyllo and spray it all over with cooking spray (you could use melted margarine and it would be super good, this is just way easier.) Continue until all sheets are layered. Put the chocolate hazelnut butter and the banana slices in one corner of the dough. Fold dough in half length wise and then do a flag fold into a triangle pocket. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 for 15-18 minutes.