Honeyberry Meringue Pie

Sense the beginning of our relationship my boyfriend has been asking me to bake him a lemon meringue pie. I have always been very hesitant and haven't attempted it yet; but this week after I made him a honey berry pie he asked me to try and make him a Honey berry Meringue Pie. How could I resist?

There is nothing like it on the internet, in fact I am not sure if I have even heard of another type of fruit being used for a meringue pie. Four attempts later here I am extremely happy with my results.

While flipping through blogs I came across the Not So Humble Pie blog. I took to adaptations of her lemon meringue pie found here to create this new wonder.

Honey berry Meringue Pie Ingredients

Crust

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup +1 tbsp Earth Balance Butter
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp cold water

Filling

1 cup sugar
8 tbsp arrowroot flour
1 1/2 cups honey berry juice
Juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups hot water

Meringue

4 room temperature egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp arrowroot flour

Directions

Crust

Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour and sugar, stir well. add butter and mix with hands until crumbly. add water and stir until you cannot anymore then kneed until combined well. divide into two balls and place in freezer for 5 minutes. Bring out one ball and roll out to place into pie plate. Remove other ball and roll out into another pie plate, or freeze for later. This second piece is often used for toppings. Place in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Filling

In a heavy bottom pot stir together sugar and arrowroot powder. Be sure to mix this well so the arrowroot doesn't clump when liquid is added. Add in honeyberry juice, lemon juice, and zest (I placed my honey berries, and a whole lemon into my juicer to make the juice. worked well.) whisk until sugar and arrowroot powder are combined with no chunks left. Add in hot water and continue to whisk. Turn on stove top to medium. With a wooden spoon, stirring frequently, allow the mixture to come to a boil. You will notice the bottom of the pot will start forming a gel making the mixture look clumpy. This is normal, continue to cook until the entire mixture is a thick gel. Pour into cooked pie crust, place in fridge for 2 hours.

Meringue

I highly recommend you head on over to Not So Humble Pie here to read her lengthy and useful blurb on meringue. It helped me get the perfect meringue the first try. (maybe Lee with get his lemon meringue soon after all)

Once the pie has been in the fridge for two hours, turn on oven to 400 Place water and arrowroot in pot, mix well. turn on burner to medium and stir often until thickened. Set aside.

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in glass bowl. mix with mixer until well combined. Add in sugar a little bit at a time making sure it is well combined before adding in more. Once all sugar is combined continue to mix until the meringue forms stiff peaks. Add in arrowroot mixture and mix well, this takes a little longer than when using cornstarch. Place blobs of meringue onto the pie and spread so the filling is completely covered by meringue. tease the top by dipping spatula into it and pulling it up to form peaks. Place in oven for 10 minutes until golden blown tips form.

Remove, let cool, enjoy. The omnivores definitely approved this pie, and there will be a vegan friendly honey berry pie recipe coming to the blog soon.

Terra

Spicy Cauliflower Bites

My facebook has become flooded with vegetarian, vegan, and raw pages over the past year; not to mention babies, weddings, and engagements. It is always refreshing when I come across a post that has comfort food from my meaty days meant for my "How am I supposed to cook for you now?!" lifestyle choices.  (Love you mom... just keep some broccoli and cauliflower stocked for my random trips to visit.)  While cruising my news feed I came across a post by Young and Raw for 'Cauliflower Buffalo Wings'. I had to rush on over to their website here and check it out for myself. 

They were amazing! It has been well over a year sense I have had real buffalo wings, but the omnivores gave these a huge thumbs up. I must have made them 10 times in the last two months; and have adapted the recipe more to my liking sense then.

Dinner party coming up? Serve these babies.... I should have made more! 

First lets add all the dry ingredients into a bowl

then add some water and stir

Coat the bite size pieces of cauliflower, and place on a cookie sheet.

Place in an oven that has been preheated to 400°F, bake for 20-25 minutes

While baking; place coconut oil in a small bowl and melt in dehydrator.
Don't have dehydrator? No worries! Place in a metal bowl, and put over a pot of water to melt it. This happens fast

Add sauce to coconut oil in larger bowl. (Franks Red Hot Sauce works well)

I have a confession to make; I have no idea what the ingredients are in this beautiful sauce that I use. I do not know if they are vegan friendly, or vegetarian, but I will one day find out. If you are lucky enough to be traveling to the beautiful islands of British Columbia Canada, be sure to stop in on Galiano and check out Max and Moritz Spicy Island Food House; I hear the food is amazing!

I could almost eat them at this point; even writing this post makes me want to have cauliflower in the house. 

The sauce and oil will separate, as you can see in this photo, remember to stir before adding cauliflower in. Add a few pieces of cauliflower at a time, and toss until completely coated.

And finally! They are ready to eat! Enjoy my friends. 

Spicy Cauliflower Bites Recipe

1 head of cauliflower; Cut into bite size pieces

1 cup almond flour (I use my dried almond meal from the Almond Milk Recipe)

1 tbsp garlic powder

2 tsp chipotle chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1 cup of water

1 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup Island Sauce (Or Franks Red Hot Sauce)

Step One: Preheat over to 400°F. Combine almond flour, garlic powder, chipotle chili powder, and paprika in a bowl. Stir well.

Step Two: Add water. Stir.
Step Three: Coat cauliflower pieces and place on cookie sheet. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes.

Step Four: Melt coconut oil. Place in bowl and add Island Sauce, stir well.

Step Five: Remove cauliflower bites from oven, place a few pieces in bowl with coconut oil and island sauce and coat. Remove and set in bowl to serve.

Enjoy everyone! 

Taco Night

One of my favorite nights growing up was taco night; I loved being able to skip the tomato, peppers, onions... well everything except meat, cheese, lettuce, and more cheese. It was wonderful being able to make my own without hearing "This is what I cooked for supper, so eat up!" 

When Emma-Leigh asked for tacos the other night, I was ready to jump all over that; but there was one problem... I had never made vegan tacos before... or vegetarian for that matter!! Off to google I went to search for something that caught my eye. After searching a couple ten or twenty blogs with nothing really catching my eye, I created this following recipe. The kids loved it; omnivore approved.  

Turn burner to medium heat; add 1 tbsp of oil and 1 onion to pan.

We use purple onion here quite a bit as it is my husband's favorite, but I am sure it will turn out beautifully with sweet or white onion as well.

Once onion is softened add 4 cloves of minced garlic. 

After about 2 minutes add in 1/2 a red pepper. 

Then add 1 seeded tomato. Cook for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Isn't is just looking wonderful!

Add some spices and stir.

Now add 1 cup of lentils. I did not soak them and the end result was slightly crunchy; I will probably soak them for half and hour in future batches. 

In this recipe I used 1/2 cup green and 1/2 cup red lentils; 1 cup of brown lentils will give it a 'meaty' look. 

add enough water to completely cover the lentils. 

Stirring often; continue to cook until water is completely absorbed; in this photo it is about half way there.

Throw on a taco, add your favorite toppings, and enjoy my friends!

Vegan Tacos Recipe

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion; minced

4 cloves of garlic; minced

1/2 red pepper; minced

1 tomato; seeded and minced

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp cumin

 1 cup of lentils; your choice of color

water

taco toppings of choice

Step One: On medium heat place olive oil and minced onion in frying pan, saute until soft

Step Two: Add minced garlic, saute for another minute of two

Step Three: Place minced pepper in pan; cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally

Step Four: Add minced and seeded tomato; cook for 7 minutes stirring often

Step Five: Add chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin; stir

Step Six: Add lentils and enough water to completely cover mixture; reduce heat to medium low, and allow water to absorb completely.

Step Seven: While mixture is cooking prepare your toppings of cheese, tomato, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, ect. 

Serve and Enjoy :-)

And look at these beauties I am currently working on! They will be coming on the blog some time in the future. For now I am going to listen to the rain, read a good book, and wait for my wonderful second half to get home. Have a lovely evening everyone!

Almond Milk

When I first was introduced to almond milk, I must admit I was not a fan, I mean really? who would give up cows milk for almond milk, and how the heck would you milk an almond! Oh how naive I was, now I 'milk' almonds weekly, and you can too. 

First put 1 cup of raw almonds into a bowl. 

Raw almonds will always work better than roasted almonds. They have a better taste, and they still have all of their lovely nutrients.

Next fill the bowl with filtered water. 

The almonds will soak up a lot of the water, so put at least an inch of water over top of the almonds. Let these soak at least 8 hours, I usually do over night. 

-Once they are finished soaking I walk around with my almond bowl and watering my Bonsai Tree, Peace Lily, Orchid, and multiple other plants around my house. This water is no good for consumption but extremely good for the plants. 

Once all the water is dumped out, rinse the almonds. 

In your blender put 3 cups of water, and skinned almonds.

How do you remove the skin off of the almonds? Don't worry! If you have raw almonds you just need to pinch the almonds at the fattest part, and they usually just pop out. I have shot some clear across my kitchen before. :-) and don't worry if you don't remove all the skin, I miss some too! (See photo above)

If you are not planning on keeping the almond pulp to make almond flour (listed below) you can skip the peeling of the almonds and just toss them in the blender.

Blend for 2-3 minutes!

Place your nut bag (or cheese cloth) over a bowl, or large measuring cup and pour in the almond milk. The one pictured is a 4 cup measuring cup and works perfectly. 

Once poured, remove nut bag and start squeezing, until you can get no more liquid out. 

 and there you go! you have almond milk! At this point you can add vanilla, cacao, cinnamon, or other favorite extras to customize your flavor. 

Pour into a milk jug, mason jar, or other seal-able container so you can store it in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What do I do with my almond pulp? 

I make some almond flour! 

First I throw it into my Excalibur dehydrator on 115*F for 8-12 hours.

Don't have a dehydrator? Neither did I at first. I would grab a cookie sheet and put some parchment paper down. (not wax paper, wax paper would melt) and dump the almond pulp onto the paper. Throw it in your oven on the lowest setting with your door slightly open for 2-5 hours.

Doesn't that look wonderful! 

Place it in your blender (I use my single serve for this)

and pulse it until finely ground.

You may need to shake your container a bit to get everything evenly ground.

 Place in a air tight container, and you have fresh almond flour for all your baking needs. 

I am looking forward to posting more of my favorite recipes! But for now, it is time for me to go cook up some supper for the littles before they decide to murder each other due to hunger eat all my apples.

Almond Milk

Ingredients

1 cup of almonds
soaking filtered water
3 cups of filtered water

Directions

1) Place almonds plus enough water to cover them with over an inch of extra water.
2)Set aside for 8 hours. or over night. If it is really warm place in fridge
3) drain water. this water is great for plants.
4) put 3 cups of water into blender
5) add peeled almonds into blender. blend for 3 minutes
6) poor through nut bag or cheese cloth, squeeze out as much water as possible.
Enjoy!