Deviled Eggs: Classic, Chipotle, Avocado

Easter marked the end of my Vegan diet and I can say that it was hard, but I did actually enjoy it. I have more recipes and things to share from the experience but for now eggs! 

Eggs honestly might have been the most difficult part of being vegan for me. Thankfully, Easter is already big on eggs so I had an extra excuse to make lots of eggs. I love deviled eggs but I haven't ever made them before so I decided to try a few different types.

Classic, chipotle, and avocado. Each recipe follows the same general instructions, with their respective ingredients.

To start, boil your eggs. My grandma taught me from a young age the fool proof way to boil eggs:
Fill a pot with cold water and add your eggs. Put it on the stove on high heat. Once the water is at a rolling boil, cover the pot and turn the burner off. Leave the pot on the hot burner covered for 10 minutes. And then, ta da! Works every time.

Once your eggs are boiled you want to cut them in half long ways and scrape out the yolks into a bowl. When peeling off the shells be careful because you want the egg whites to stay in tact. I used 4 eggs per type of deviled egg recipe I was trying.

Mix yolks with ingredients thoroughly.  (Ingredients for each type listed below with the full recipe.) Spoon the mixture back into the middle of the egg whites. I recommend putting them in the refrigerator to chill and harden before serving.

I really liked the classic and chipotle recipes, the avocado was a little bit strange. It was very avocado-y, which normally I really like but I think if I did this again I would use mayo and avocado, instead of avocado just in place of it. Either way, they were a great appetizer for Easter and they at least looked wonderful!

Fool Proof Way to Boil Eggs:
Fill pot with cold water and add eggs
Put on stove, turn heat to high
Once water comes to a rolling boil, cover the pot
Turn off the stove and leave the pot on the hot burner for 10 minutes
Drain water and add eggs to cold water to cool

Classic Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
4 eggs, boiled
2.5 tbsp mayonaise
1 tsp yellow mustard
1.5 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp finely chopped onions
Parsley and paprika for topping

Once your eggs are boiled and peeled slice them in half long ways and scrape out the yolk into the bowl. Mix the yolks with the remaining ingredients. Spoon filling back into egg whites. Top with paprika and parsley. Chill before serving.


Chipotle Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
4 eggs, boiled
3 tbsp mayonaise
1 chipotle pepper, chopped finely (I bought a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and added a bit of the sauce from the can)
1 tsp Sriracha (more, if desired)
Garlic salt to taste
1 tbsp finely chopped onions

Once your eggs are boiled and peeled slice them in half long ways and scrape out the yolk into the bowl. Mix the yolks with the remaining ingredients. Spoon filling back into egg whites. Chill before serving.


Avocado Deviled Eggs
Ingredients:
4 eggs, boiled
1 small ripe avocado
2 tsp mustard
Juice from half a lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt/Garlic salt to taste

Once your eggs are boiled and peeled slice them in half long ways and scrape out the yolk into the bowl. Mix the yolks with the remaining ingredients. Spoon filling back into egg whites. Top with parsley. Chill before serving.

Read More

Taco Tuesday Side Edition: Rice! (Vegan, or not)

It's been far too long since I have done a Taco Tuesday post, and for that I am deeply sorry! This Taco Tuesday, as the title states, is the side edition and includes two different types of rice. A few weeks ago I did a taco night with my church group, which is where this stemmed from. Taco night is a great way to have a communal meal if you're looking for an activity to plan a night around! Just about all of the items that come together for a taco night can be made stand alone. Some in charge of meat, someone shells/tortillas, someone else for veggies, someone else for salsa and guacamole, and someone in charge of margaritas (of course). 

For our taco night I was in charge of rice and I decided to do two different types, Classic Spanish Rice and Cilantro Lime Rice. I made these in the simplest way possible, and vegan! The recipes do call for butter, but I used vegan smart balance to cut out all animal products.

I decided to make two types of rice that included similar ingredients so that I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time making each one. The most important thing in both of these recipes, and really all Mexican food in my opinion, is cilantro. Both recipes also used roasted garlic and lime.

 

Rather than roasting cloves of garlic and trying to spread them evenly in the rice while they are soft I roasted pre-minced garlic by folding it into some foil and baking.

 

I made this really simple for myself by cooking 3 cups of rice ahead of time in a rice cooker and separating them into two bowls. By doing this, all I needed to do was mix the ingredients together. Cooking the rice in a pot using broth and mixing the ingredients in can make it more flavorful, but also takes more time.

Classic Spanish Rice 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of cooked rice

1 can fire roasted dice tomatoes

1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Juice from 1/4 lime 

1 tbsp roasted garlic

1 tbsp chipotle seasoning

Salt to taste

*For the seasoning, I have a premixed seasoning that my Uncle puts together himself and passed along to me. You can buy premixed chipotle seasonings, use taco seasoning, or make your own using cayenen pepper, paprika, garlic salt, and anything else you may like depending on your preference.

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Heat in oven if necessary, serve warm.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of cooked rice

3 tbsp "butter"

1-2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Juice from 1/2-1 lime

1 tbsp roasted garlic

Salt to taste

Thoroughly mix all ingredients together. Heat in oven if necessary, serve warm.

Happy Taco Tuesday! Xo

Read More

Feature Post: Pi Day!

Hey guys, this is Hannah! She's a math teacher, a great baker, and most importantly one of my really wonderful friends. A couple of weeks ago was Pi Day (03/14) so she came over and made some ADORABLE pies that you get to see on feature today!

 

Being a math teacher means that celebrating Pi Day is pretty much mandatory. It is a day however, that I have always enjoyed because I am fascinated my pi. It is absolutely amazing that no matter how large or small a circle is, its circumference divided by diameter is always a constant number, pi. Anyway, I won't bore you too much with the math because we all know that the real reason we celebrate Pi Day is to make pie! I decided on mini pies because they are perfect to share. My all-time favorite flavors of pie are berry and key lime so of course, that's what I made. These are so delicious that they could be made any day of the year, but I decorated them for the holiday. I made my own stencil to cut out pie crust in the shape of the pi symbol to place atop the berry pies. I had planned to write the digits of pi on the key lime pies using writing icing but the icing separated so I gave up and left them plain. They were so delicious that they really didn't need the extra decoration.

I hope that you enjoy these recipes!

Mini Key Lime Pies

 

Ingredients:

• 6 graham crackers
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup key lime juice
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners. Make graham cracker crumbs using a food processor (or crush them in a Ziploc if you don't have a food processor). Mix together with butter and sugar. Divide crumbs evenly between cupcake liners and press down into a firm layer. Bake for 8 minutes and then remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk, egg, lime juice, and Greek yogurt until smooth. Fill each cupcake liner and bake for 15 minutes or until the custard has set.

Let them cool at room temperature and then refrigerate for a couple hours until they are cold. Serve with whipped cream!

Mini Berry Pi(e)s

Ingredients:

• 2 boxes of refrigerated pie crusts (you can also make from scratch)
• 2 packages (12 oz) raspberries
• 2 packages (12 oz) blackberries
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 5 tbsp flour
• 3/4 c sugar (may need more to taste)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes.

Mix all of the filling ingredients together. Smash berries slightly so that you get an even amount in each of the mini pies.

Lightly cover work surface with flour and unroll dough onto it. Use a 4-inch round cutter to stamp out rounds (I used a plastic lid from a parmesan container)

Place rounds in muffin wells and crimp to fit. Fill wells 3/4 of the way up with filling.

To create the pi symbol: I created a stencil by printing off a pi symbol the size of the muffin wells and mounting it on cardboard. Then, I placed this stencil on top of the crust and used a knife to cut around it.

If it is not Pi Day, you could also create a lattice for the top crust.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool and then serve with vanilla ice cream!

Downloadable recipes here: Mini Key Lime Pie & Mini Berry Pi(e)

Read More

Roasted Garlic Avocado Pasta Salad (Vegan)

I try to be really productive in the mornings but a girl can only wake up so early. I get up at an awful hour to work out, so after that there isn't exactly time to get ready, make breakfast, and lunch. This is all leading me to say, I'm a big fan of lunches I can prepare ahead of time. Sometimes it can be tricky to plan ahead, especially while on this vegan diet. I can only eat so many salads, ya know?  So I mixed that up a bit but making a pasta salad! Super quick and simple, and tastes great the next day, or even the day after that :)

I made a Veganaise and avocado based dressing, but this most importantly included some roasted garlic.

 

Look at those beauts! There are tons of directions online on how to roast a whole head of garlic, but if you only want to do a few cloves I suggest peeling them and wrapping them up in foil. I left these at about 375 for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for pasta salad base:

Half an avocado

1 1/2 tbsp Veganaise

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

A few dashes of salt, pepper, cumin, and cayenne
~5 cloves of roasted garlic

1 1/2 cups of pasta

While your pasta is cooking mix all other ingredients together. You definitely want to get a very ripe avocado or it will be hard to mix it into a dressing like texture. If your avocado is a bit firmer you can dice it up to make mashing easier, and add extra olive oil to thin the mixture out.

I used vegetable bow tie pasta, and the amount of dressing I made was great for 1 1/2 cups of pasta. After adding extra ingredients to make it heartier I would say this is enough for two lunches.

Extra ingredients:

Diced onion

Chopped spinach

Chopped arugala

Pecans

Peas

You can always throw in other things, depending on your preferences. I think garbanzo beans also would have been great, but alas my kitchen was lacking them.

Happy lunching! Xo

Read More

Sweet Potato Raviolis (Vegan, or not)

Adapted from here.

As I mentioned in my last daily photo post, every year I give something up for lent and this year I decided to give up animal products and go vegan. I wanted to do something that was challenging on a few different levels. Not only is it hard for me to to eat things that I normally have often, like pizza or turkey sandwiches, but I also have to tweak my grocery shopping and normal cooking habits. It has been challenging so far, but not unbearable. With that, here's my first vegan recipe to share with you all! Sweet potato raviolis.

These are much easier to make than you would probably imagine making raviolis would be. I have also made them before pre-vegan which included parmesan cheese and regular butter so if you aren't looking for a vegan recipe, this one is still pretty great.

Ravioli ingredients:

2 medium sized sweet potatoes (or one really big one, if you want)

"Butter"- I have bought Smart Balances 'Buttery Spread with Flax-seed" as my vegan substitute

1/2 c Bread crumbs (check the ingredients, some have milk)

2 1/2 c flour + extra for rolling

1 c water

Sauce ingredients: 

Minced garlic

Lemon

Pecan pieces

Spices of your choice - I used sage, thyme, and rosemary

Garlic bread on the side, if you're into that sort of thing :)

The very first thing you want to do is start boiling your sweet potatoes. Depending on their size you may want to cut them into pieces. We made the mistake of not doing that and it took a very long time.

For the dough - Put flour into a bowl and create a divot in the middle. Add 1 c of hot water, and mix thoroughly with spoon or hands.

For the filling - Once your potatoes have been boiled to softness mash them up adding about 2 tbsp of butter and your 1/2 c of breadcrumbs. If you aren't making this vegan style you can add parmesan cheese to this mix.

Flour your surface and roll out your dough and place spoonfuls of your filling on the dough 1/2-1 inch apart. You can vary the amount of filling you place depending on how large you would like your raviolis to be.

Fold over the dough and press around the filling to seal the pockets. Cut out using a glass, or knife.

 

You should have a plate that looks something along the lines of this!

Once the ravilois are put together they only need to boil for about 4 minutes until they are ready to eat. For the "sauce" that we used, I put about a tablespoon of garlic in with about 4 tablespoons of butter. Cook on medium until the butter and garlic start to brown. Add spices of your choice, I used sage, rosemary, and thyme. Add pecan pieces and fry up until everything is golden brown and mixed well together.

Toss your raviolis in with the sauce, and you're done! Plate up, and add cheese if desired.

Happy cooking! Xo

Read More

Honey Sriracha Lime Meatballs

Honey, Sriracha, lime. I honestly don't think that you can go wrong with this. For Super Bowl I made some honey Sriracha lime meatballs and boy oh boy, they were a hit. The recipe that I adapted this from was for slow cooker meatballs, but believe it or not I don't have a slow cooker, so I improvised. (It's definitely on my list of things to purchase in the next year.)

 

Ingredients:

1 pound ground meat (I chose turkey, but beef or chicken could work as well)

1 egg

1 tbsp minced garlic

Salt and onion powder to taste

~1/2 cup panko bread crumbs (I use gluten-free)

1/2 c Sriracha

1/2 c honey

Juice from 1 lime

I'll spare you the in between photos of raw meat and eggs being mixed!

Mix together Sriracha, honey, and lime in large pot. Mix meat, egg, garlic, salt and onion powder, and bread crumbs in large bowl. Add two tablespoons of Sriracha mixture to meat and mix well. If your mixture seems fairly soft and wet you can add more bread crumbs, it can vary depending on the meat you use.

Put pot of Sriracha mix on stove and turn on medium low. Roll mixture into "bite size" meatballs and add to pot. Let simmer until meatballs have started to cook on bottom (about 20 minutes) and then mix pot so meatballs are completely covered with sauce. Put cover on and put on low. I left mine in the pot for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

 

Plate up and add toothpicks for ease of eating.

 

Enjoy!

Read More