Lemon Power Sickness Drink

Do you have a cold coming on? Are you sniffling and sneezing? Is your throat a little sore?

Here is a combination of foods that can help your body fight. It helped me just last week cut a cold down to nothing. Blend it all up, and then sip it often through the day. Keep making more and drinking it until the sickness is all gone. It's all good for you.

Lemon Power Sickness Drink

6 lemons (fresh juice)
knob of ginger (an inch or two)
1/2 of a large onion
6 garlic cloves
1/2 c raw honey (for organic carbon)
1/2 tsp cayanne

Pour into a blender jar and blend until smooth. Transfer into a quart jar, and add water to fill to the top. Sip it often through the day, whenever you feel your cold, until your cold is all gone.

Easy Corn Cakes or Savory Vegetable Corn Cakes

Here is the newest favorite at our house. We have made it several times last week, each time varying it some. We like the easy version with nut butter and fruit on top. We like the Savory Vegetable version with pinto beans and salad on the side. You can make both half and half with garbonzo and sorghum flour, or all garbonzo flour or some other variation. It varies the flavor a bit. The garbonzo flour makes a nice texture in the corn cakes. This recipe is a variation of one I found at the Fat Free Vegan Blog.

Easy Corn Cakes
Or Savory Vegetable Corn Cakes

1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup garbonzo flour (besan or chickpea)
1/4 sorghum flour (or more garbonzo flour or other flour)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt (possibly more if you are make the savory cakes)
1 1/2 tsp. Ener-G Egg Replacer
1 cup non-dairy milk of choice
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup corn (opt.)
handful of chopped fresh cilantro (opt.)
chili powder (opt.)
cumin (opt.)
garlic powder (opt.)

First, decide if you are going to have plain corn cakes, which are excellent and easy, or if you want savory vegetable corn cakes, which are delicious and satisfying. If you want the savory ones, you will add the optional ingredients in the list. If you want the easy corn cakes, you leave the last five ingredients out.

Mix the corn meal with the hot water until crumbly. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Mix the non-dairy with the lemon juice and pour it into the dry ingredients along with the corn, cilantro, and spices. Mix well, and set aside while you heat your skillet.

Spray a non-stick or cast iron skillet with a little oil of choice. I like grapeseed oil. When the pan is hot enough to cook pancakes, (I like to set the heat a little bit below medium heat) do one test pancake to make sure the heat is right, and then make more corn cakes using a 1/4 cup measuring cup. Cook until well-browned on each side. Makes about 8-10. You may want to double the recipe so you have left-overs to eat the next day.

Welcome to all Visitors

I'd like to take a moment to say hi to all the people who are visiting my blog, looking for recipes. There were around 30 of you in just the last 24 hours. I hope you find something helpful here.

I know that plant-based, low-fat, gluten-free eating is a challenge, just like walking the ridge between Sacajawea and the Matterhorn in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon. But with a little training, and the right equipment, you can take on the challenge and reach your goal. I'd like to encourage all of you to keep on taking steps, even baby steps toward healthier eating and living, because it will give good results.

I'd love it if you'd make a comment as you come and go, if you try a recipe, come back and tell us about it. If you are a regular reader, I'd love to know that too. If you are looking for a special recipe that fits the style of the other recipes on my blog, be sure to ask, because I might have the recipe, and not have posted it yet.

Once again, thanks for stopping in for a visit.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie - Review and Recommendation

Gluten-free, soy-free, egg-free, dairy-free

I didn't think I'd post another pumpkin pie recipe again this week, but when the kids had some friends over to play and requested pumpkin pie for dessert, I thought I'd look around on the web to see what I could come up with. You see, I don't like making pie crust. I wasn't very good even back in the days when using white flour and lots of shortening. And now when limiting fat intake and using gluten free flours the chances of rolling a crust and getting it to the pie plate without it breaking, cracking or crumbling is very slim. They usually taste ok, but have the look that only a child could overlook.

I found a pumpkin pie recipe at one of my favorite blogs that looked very promising, and makes it's own crust. We gave it a test run the day before the kids came and it looked promising, though I figured out a few ingredients that do not work. I change the flours and starch, the next day and all agreed the pie was a success.

Here are some things I have learned in the process. Arrowroot (replacing corn starch) and Sweet Rice Flour (replacing the rice flour) is not a good combination. It made a pudding like middle with a rubber like crust. Sorghum flour is an excellent replacement for the rice flour. And as for the starch, I went to the store and got some more corn starch, and it worked as suggested. Instead of soymilk, I used hazelnut milk from Pacific Foods for the milk and thought it made a good flavor addition to the pie. In the first pie I used all the sugar recommended, but thought it was a little on the sweet side, so in the second batch I used 1/2 cup, and it seemed sweet enough to me, and I thought I might even try using less next time. (But if you are serving it to sugar addicts, you may need the full amount) I didn't have any vanilla, and it was delicious without it.

You will find the original recipe at http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/and-answer-is.html.

Here is my adapted recipe.

>Impossible Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Adapted from http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/10/and-answer-is.html

1 1/2 cups soymilk or other non-dairy milk

1 tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer*

1 tbsp. cornstarch

2 cups pureed or mashed cooked pumpkin

1/2 cup rice flour (or flour of your choice--not whole wheat, which makes it gummy) I used sorghum flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp corriander

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch deep dish pie pan with cooking spray. (I used a Pyrex pan, and it came out with no sticking.) A deep dish is recommended because this pie will rise a lot during cooking but will fall back down as it cools.

Put the ingredients in the blender, and blend well for 2 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides a couple of times to make sure everything is thoroughly blended. Pour into a pie pan and bake for about 60 minutes. The top and edges should be brown, but the edges should not be over-done. (Since this is a custardy pie, using the standard toothpick or knife test does not work; it will remain somewhat moist in the center, but it shouldn't be uncooked.)

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the counter. For best results, refrigerate until chilled before eating.

Garbonzo Mayonnaise

It seems that we are adding cashews, almonds, and soy to our list of foods to avoid. It is sad, but with a little more food creativity we will make it. The encouraging news is that my friend just put cashews and almonds back into her diet, so I have hope this is not a forever thing.

We used to make a mayo type spread out of cashews, and I knew how to make it out of almonds and soy. But now what? I mentioned my need to another understanding friend and she told me about Garbonzo mayo. We made some this week, and spread it on gluten free bread with allergy free veggie patties. The results were so good, that there was sadness in the home when the dish was scraped clean. We will be making this recipe often. I have adjusted the original recipe to make it lower fat and less sweet.

Garbonzo Mayonnaise

1 cup water
1/4 c. garbonzo flour (heaping)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp. honey
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)

Cook water and flour in microwave for 6 minutes until thick. Or if you don't have a microwave, like me, cook it on the stove, or whiz it in the Vitamix until cooked. Add lemon juice, salt and honey. Whiz all ingredients in a blender or the Vitamix while very slowly dribbling in oil. If your impatient like me, spread some on some bread right away, or put it in the refrigerator and it will set up. It will look more solid then regular mayo, because I removed so much oil from the recipe, but it spreads nicely and makes a nice flavor on your bread. Tweek the honey and lemon juice levels if you want more sweetness or less sour in your mayo.

Simple Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Do you need a simple, classic pumpkin pie recipe without all the allergens? Well, this might be just what you need. It is easy to make and passed the taste test with everyone in the family, plus a few other people.

Simple Vegan Pumpkin Pie
(Can be soy free and/or nut free and gluten-free, egg and dairy-free)

Caution: Make this pie one day early so it can set up and cool in the refrigerator at least a few hours or overnight, or the texture will be too soft.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Have ready on 9 " unbaked pastry crust of your own choosing

Mix together the following ingredients (Blend if a smoother texture is desired, but it works fine without blending.)

2 c of solid pack canned pumpkin (1 - 15oz. can)
1 cup non-dairy milk of your choice (preferably a rich soy or nut milk, if you can eat them. I use hazelnut)
3/4 cup brown sugar or sucanat or turbinado sugar
3-4 T. corn starch (depending on how firm you like it)
1 T molasses
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each ground ginger, nutmeg, cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Pour the filling into the pastry and bake 60 minutes, covering the edges with foil if they brown too quickly. Cook on a rack, then refrigerate overnight before serving.