"Sour Cream"

As a should-be dairy free person, I really miss the creaminess that cheese and sour cream provides. The other day I found my vegan sour cream made with almonds that I used a lot while I was vegan. The recipe was ok but a little bitter for making dips. You could tell it was a sour cream substitute. In attempts to make it better, I thought to add pureed white beans for that consistency and to help balance out the taste. It turned out great! This will definitely be a staple in my refrigerator now.

You can use it for anything. I make it plain, like the recipe below, then add things as I need them. So one batch can provide produce a bunch of different dips or toppings. I mixed it with garlic and Italian seasoning to make an 'Alfredo' sauce, red sauce to make a vodka sauce, taco seasoning (homemade) for a taco dip spread, hot peppers to top a black bean Mexican dish or try it with any spices you want! You can even add this to any hummus-like dip to make it extra creamy and delicious.

I didn't take exact measurements since this was an experiment but this should be pretty close.

~3/4 c. blanched almonds (can be soaked but not necessary)
16 oz white beans
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 squirts lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. garlic

Place the almonds in a blender or food processor. I found the blender worked better since 3/4 cup doesn't fill the food processor enough to really puree them. Add water to cover the almonds and begin blending. I blended them for at least 3 minutes to make sure all bits were eliminated. If it starts sticking to the sides or getting clumpy and not really blending anymore, scrape the sides of the blender down and add more water. You will have added enough water when the almonds are pureed into a fine paste, about the consistency of sour cream.

Add the remaining ingredients until you reach a creamy consistency. The beans will completely puree so you won't even know they are there! You may need a bit more water once the beans are added but judge as you go along.

Sorry I don't have better measurements for the amount of water. Next time I'll be sure to keep track and repost!

Enjoy :)

My New Kitchen Gadget

Do you ever just get tired of the random crap around your house? It drives me nuts! So Sunday we de-cluttered my entire house. Taking a car load of worthless things to the dump and Goodwill is such a relieving feeling! After all was cleaned out and organized (something I'm slightly obsessed with), we set this up...

And I love it! There's a place for everything and allows for so much more counter space. Oh the little pleasures in life...

"Nutella"

At work on Monday we celebrated World Nutella Day (and yes, there is actually a day to celebrate this heavenly hazelnut spread). Not being able to eat all the sugar and yummy ingredients in Nutella, I set out to make my own version.

One disclaimer- chocolate is not SCD legal. However, I have found that I can handle small amounts of organic unsweetened cocoa powder without reactions. So I treat myself occasionally when I just can't resist my chocolate cravings anymore.

Here's the recipe.
2 c. hazelnut flour (you can grind up hazelnuts in your food processor if you don't have flour)
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp melted coconut oil
1 Tbsp honey
1/4 - 1/2 c. coconut milk/water*
*Any type of milk can be used here. I used just over a 1/4 cup coconut milk and about 1/8 cup water. You can vary this however you want, or use only water. The coconut milk just gives a richer taste (but adds more fat). 


Preparation couldn't be simpler. Combine all ingredients except the milk/water. I used my food processor but you can use a mixer, blender or good old mixing by hand.   

                       

Once everything is mixed, add the milk/water to reach your desired consistency. With almost 1/2 cup of liquids, mine was relatively smooth. And it actually tasted like Nutella! A little less sweet but a very good substitute. 

This recipe made about 8 oz, minus a spoon or two I had to taste along the way :) It's pretty tasty to eat off the spoon but even better on fruit. I've put it on apples, bananas and strawberries so far and it's delicious!

I can't wait to figure out a way to incorporate this into some sort of dessert recipe, maybe use it as a frosting on a white 'cake' recipe I'm working on? Come back later to see how that goes!

And My Sewing Machine is Back

After collecting dust for too many months, I finally pulled out my sewing machine. For Christmas (a very belated Christmas that is), I made my friend a blanket. I love giving people homemade presents. My friend is from Buffalo and a huge Bills and Sabres fan so I knew he would love anything involving them. I ordered patches for both teams online and went to work on colors and design. Here it is!

One side for Buffalo Bills...

And the other side for Buffalo Sabres...

It turned out great- very soft fleece and an oversized design make the perfect blanket in my opinion. He seemed to think so too. Success :)

Baked Pizza Dip

I LOVE pizza. But I can't eat it. There are a few SCD pizza crust recipes I've been wanting to play around with. Maybe I'll get to that one day. But for now, I used what's in my fridge/cabinets to help satisfy my pizza cravings!

Here's what I started with:

1 cup dry white beans (I had soaked and cooked them a couple days before for another recipe so these were left overs)

1-2 Tbsp garlic

1-2 Tbsp diced hot peppers

Italian/Pizza seasoning- enough for desired taste (not pictured)
1 16 oz can diced stewed tomatoes, drained**
1 green pepper
1/4 red onion
**You could replace with sun dried tomatoes to give it a drier, more 'pizza' taste

First, I chopped up the green pepper and onion into relatively small pieces.

Next, I pureed the beans, garlic, diced hot peppers and Italian seasoning in the food processor, adding a little olive oil to help smooth it out.
Once you have a smooth creamy consistency, add the diced green pepper, onion and tomatoes. (If you're using sun dried tomatoes I would recommend dicing them with the green pepper and onions.) I wanted to keep the veggies a little 'chunky' in the dip so I added them after I blended the beans to the consistency I wanted.

Once everything is mixed together, pour the dip into a baking dish. Since I only baked a part of the dip, so I used a small loaf pan and topped it with just a little bit of cheese. The remaining part I stored in the fridge until I was ready to bake it.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes until slightly hardened.

I dipped almond-flour 'pita' chips in this and it was really good. A nice hearty warm dip. You could even layer pepperoni on top the bean mixed before baking it, then top with cheese, to make it even more 'pizza-like' (if you're looking for SCD/carb&sugar-free, beware that a lot of pepperoni isn't legal on those diets- you could use cooked ground beef crumbles instead!)

What could be better than a healthy pizza dip?!
Happy eating! :)

Starting off the New Year and my Blog!

After starting this blog a few months ago, I figured I should start actually posting things. And what better time than the start of 2012! I'm clearly not any good at this blog thing yet but we'll get there! Add that to my ever-growing list of New Years Resolutions...

I have the best groups of friends and was lucky enough to end 2011 and start 2012 with them all. It was the perfect start to a new year!

As for me... I live and love Baltimore. When I'm not out and about in my neighborhood, I'm usually coming up with all sorts of 'interesting' recipes. I develop or modify recipes to be carb/sugar free to fit my dietary/health needs. Good thing I love to cook too! My sewing machine has been a bit lonely over the last couple of years but I plan to change that this year so hopefully there will be a lots of fun sewing and DIY projects too! Who knows what else is coming... But stay tuned- it's going to be a great year! :)