Give Them Something Better

Author: Stephanie Howard

  • Secret Suprise Bread

    Secret Suprise Bread

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    Have you tried the oatmeal bread yet? If you have, I am sure you loved it; it is really good whole-grain bread.  If not, here’s a little more motivation to get that mixer out or better yet get your kids in the kitchen to help you knead the bread.  The kids really do love doing all the hard work.

    To make it even more fun we like to hide a secret note in the bread.  The kids think it is great to hide a note in a cute little loaf and then give it to someone so they will get a surprise.  Most of the time we use a scripture verse for our notes. And then make a cute little tag that says, “The scriptures are like bread, meant for daily use; not like cake, just for special occasions.”  To give a little hint as to what the surprise might be.

    To keep the note safe while baking we wrap it up in aluminum foil and then as we shape the loaf we flatten out the dough and roll the note up right in the middle.  No one will have any idea what the surprise is until they slice the bread.  How fun is that?

  • Foolproof Homemade Whole-Grain Bread and Leftover Oatmeal

    Foolproof Homemade Whole-Grain Bread and Leftover Oatmeal

    bread

    I just finished cooking for an Emmanuel Institute 10-day class. We served two healthy vegan meals every day—breakfast at 8:00 am and lunch at 2:00 pm. It is so fun cooking for the students because not many are vegan at home and they are very worried when they arrive that I will be feeding them cardboard.  They are always shocked at how much they love the food and start to worry that they may gain weight while at Emmanuel. 

    We make oatmeal every morning to go with whatever we are having for breakfast.  Unfortunately we always have some leftover and it usually goes to waste. I hate to waste food.  So I was racking my brain to figure out what creative way I could use leftover oatmeal. Then it hit me! Oatmeal Bread from Kidlicious. I should have thought of it sooner.

    The bread comes out so good and soft and it is so easy even a kid can make it! So we started making five loaves of bread almost every morning.  Wow, did the students LOVE it!

    Oatmeal Bread

    • 2 cups Luke warm
    • 1 cup oatmeal, cooked
    •  ¼ cup oil
    •  ½ cup honey, cane juice crystals, or other sweetener
    •  ½ tablespoon salt
    •  ½ tablespoon lecithin granules
    •  ½ teaspoon vanilla
    •  5-6 cups whole wheat flour
    •  ½ cup gluten flour
    •  1½ tablespoons instant active dry yeast
    1.   Measure all ingredients, except 2 cups of the flour, into the bowl of a mixer that has a dough attachment.
    2.   Start mixer on the lowest speed and allow to mix for 1 – 2 minutes.
    3.   Gradually add in the additional flour as needed until the dough pulls away from the bottom and sides of the bowl. The dough should be soft and a bit sticky.
    4.  Allow to knead for 7 minutes.
    5.  Pre-heat oven to 350˚ and prepare pans by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.
    6.  Put a little flour on your counter top to keep the dough from sticking. Place dough on floured counter top and divide into 3 equal portions.
    7. Make each lump of dough into a ball and allow to rest on the counter for 15 minutes.
    8. Shape dough into two regular loaves or make Scripture Surprise Bread as a gift.
    9. Cover the loaves with a damp or slightly wet dishtowel and let sit on the counter until dough doubles in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour. 
    10. Bake 30-35 minutes, remove from oven and place on cooling rack until cooled.

     In the Kidlicious book we show you how to make it into secret surprise bread!   I can’t tell you what makes it a secret surprise right now but,  I’ll post a “how-to” in a couple of days.

     

  • Meatless Monday: Ukranian Borscht

    Meatless Monday: Ukranian Borscht

    borscht

    Last year my favorite son went on a mission trip to the Ukraine with his senior class. They all raved over the food but because of the language barrier they were not able to bring home any recipes.  I must say I was disappointed, after all, I may want to write an international cookbook someday.  And to hear them talk we should all be eating Ukrainian food. 

    Since I have been hearing so much about the Ukraine in the news lately I got to thinking about the wonderful people who fed my son and his class during their month-long stay in the Ukraine and decided to try making some Ukrainian food.

    Apparently they eat a lot of soup in the Ukraine around lunchtime.  The favorite is borscht made with beets, potatoes, cabbage and carrots.  It is very healthy and so beautiful.  It is not often you can eat a food that brightly colored without adding some food coloring! So that is where I decided to start.

    Ukrainian Borscht (vegetarian)

    • 8 cups water
    • 3 medium beets, peeled and shredded
    • 3 carrots, peeled and shredded
    • 4 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
    • 1/2 medium head cabbage, cored and shredded
    • 1 (8 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
    • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
    • 1 medium onion, chopped
    • 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
    • 3/4 cup water
    •  3 cloves garlic, minced
    •  salt to taste
    • 1 teaspoon white sugar, or to taste
    •  1/2 cup Tofutti sour cream, for topping
    •  1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley for garnish

    1.     Add water, beets, carrots and potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

    2.     Add the cabbage, and the can of diced tomatoes.

    3.     Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until tender. Stir in the tomato paste and water until well blended.

    4.     Add onion, tomato mixture, the raw garlic and sugar to the soup, cover and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Taste, and season with salt as needed

    5.     Ladle into serving bowls, and garnish with Tofutti sour cream and fresh parsley.

    Adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ukrainian-red-borscht-soup/

  • Sweet Healthy Creamy Vegan Peanutella

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    During our trip to Iceland, our host Adrian prepared our breakfasts for us.  It was truly the highlight of the day, and not just because I didn’t have to cook. We would have granola, Wheatabix, and oatmeal every morning with homemade bread and tons of great toppings each day. One of my favorite creations that he came up was this Peanutella Spread.

    Ridzogirl loved to spread it on rice cakes and top them with thinly sliced apples.  I liked spreading it on homemade bread like butter.

    I love it because it is sweet and creamy and super healthy without any refined sugar at all.  The base of the recipe is date butter and we add peanut butter and carob.  I suppose you could use hazelnuts in it if you wanted to be more authentic but we are peanut butter lovers here!

     

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    Adrian’s Peanutella Spread

    • 1 ½ cups dates
    • 1 ½ cups hot water
    • ¾ cup natural peanut butter
    • 2 ½ – 3 tablespoons roasted carob powder
    • 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
    • salt to taste (less if your peanut butter is salted)

    1.     Soak dates in hot water for several hours or even overnight in the refrigerator.

    2.     Add date mixture to the bowl of a food processor with the vanilla, peanut butter, carob and salt if using.

    3.     Process until smooth and creamy. 

    4.     Serve immediately or refrigerate for 5-7 days. If it lasts that long.

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    If you want to try hazelnut spread. Use 1 cup of nuts and toast and remove skins like they do here. Put the nuts in the processor alone and process until you have a creamy nut butter.  It could take a while.

  • Meatless Monday: Healthy Vegan Frito Pie!

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    I wasn’t going to do it…but I felt obligated after all this talk about chili.  I have made over the Frito pie recipe.  The funny thing is I have never ever made a Frito pie before.  I have seen the recipe and it always looked good, but never could get passed the fact that it was so unhealthy.  So I fixed it!

    Do you remember the Baked Chili Cheese Baked Frito’s I made a few weeks ago? Because they are baked with just a few sprays of cooking oil and the tortillas are whole grain corn, they are super healthy and low fat. These healthy Frito’s became the base for the “pie”. I used my low fat, high fiber Spicy 3 Bean Chili. Then I topped the whole thing off with a great new nacho cheese dip that I have been creating.  It was really, really good!

     I served it up with some shredded lettuce, tomato and homemade salsa to round out the meal. Even my anti-chili son thought it was pretty tasty!

  • Meatless Monday: Chili for a Crowd and Some Vegan Corndog Muffins

    Meatless Monday: Chili for a Crowd and Some Vegan Corndog Muffins

    Chilli_21This month’s Meatless Monday Supper Club was a load of fun. We talked about the slow cooker and shared some creative new recipes.  One of the recipes was for a quick and easy chili that we could dress up and use lots of ways.  I posted that recipe here. 

    So here are some more ideas to dress up that chili from last week.  First of all a chili buffet is a great way to feed a crowd.  You can serve it with all sorts of toppings and people can mix it up however they like.  For example you can serve it with baked potatoes and all the fixn’s like we did here.  Or you could serve it with corn chips and taco toppings and call it a taco salad or a haystack like we did here. You can also serve it with spaghetti noodles, green onions, Melty Cheese, non-dairy sour cream. Throw in a big batch of Corndog Muffins and a beautiful green salad and you will have a meal anyone will be happy to eat.

    Everyone makes corn bread with chili but not everyone makes Corndog Muffins.  They are super easy to make and very inexpensive compared to the frozen kind from the grocery store, not to mention a yummy way to get a vegan corn dog.  The kids will love to make them and eat them, guaranteed!

    Vegan Corndog Muffins (AKA Hush Doggies)

    Dry ingredients

    • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or ½ cup whole wheat flour and ½ cup white flour)
    • ¾ cup corn meal
    • ¼ cup cane juice crystals or sugar
    • 1 tablespoon baking powder
    • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
    • ¾ teaspoon salt
    • Wet ingredients
    • 1 cup soy milk
    • 2 tablespoons oil
    • 5 vegetarian hotdogs, cut into 7 pieces each

         1.         Preheat oven to 350˚ and prepare mini-muffin tins by spraying with non-stick cooking spray.

         2.         Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.

         3.         Add wet ingredients and stir together to make a thick batter.

         4.         Fill 36 mini-muffin tins about ¾ full with cornbread batter.

         5.         Add a slice of hot dog into each muffin. Don’t try to cover them up, the batter will rise over the hot dog and make a cute dimple.

         6.         Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.

    Makes 36 bites

    TIP: If you don’t have mini muffin tins you can make 8 large muffins and just add 4 slices of hotdog to each muffin. Bake 25 to 30 minutes.