Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

Today is my last day of being 27 years old. 27 has been good to me, but I’m excited to see what 28 has in store. It’s weird to think that I only have two more years of being in my 20’s. I can remember the day I turned 20 and thinking, “Finally! I’m not a teenager anymore. I’m an adult and I’m important.”

While I’m important at any age, I was far from being an adult. 20 is barely not a teenager and I had so much I still needed to learn. In all honesty, I still have a lot to learn and I think that is true for any age. Except maybe 100. Once you hit 100, you can pretty much do whatever you want and your excuse is I made it this long I think I’m gonna be just fine.

I decided to make you a delicious dinner for my birthday, which now that I’m typing it out sounds backwards. You should be making me a delicious dinner for my birthday. Jeez, you’re lazy! Making me do all the work on my birthday!

You know how delicious spinach artichoke dip is? That was my inspiration for this lasagna. Instead of cheese, I used bechamel sauce and artichokes along with a layer of spinach to create a creamy and delicious filling. This meal can come together really fast if you use a jar of tomato sauce and a box of lasagna noodles. But if you want to make everything from scratch like I did, I promise you won’t regret the time you put in.

This is also one of those meals that is even better the next day and makes really great leftovers for lunches throughout the week.

See? I’m feeding you even beyond dinner. 28 is making me a giver!

Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

1 batch of my tomato sauce or a jar of your favorite store brand
1 box of gluten free lasagna noodles (I made these from Against All Grains)
3-4 cups spinach leaves
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1 can full-fat coconut milk
1/3 cup raw cashews
1 tsp Italian seasonings
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp celery salt
4 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

If you are making the tomato sauce and noodles get those ready and set aside. If you’re using boxed noodles make sure they are cooked and ready to go.
To make the bechamel sauce: In a blender or food processor, grind the cashews, Italian seasonings, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp celery salt into a fine powder. Set aside.
Heat a little olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add in 2 tablespoons of the cashew powder and stir to make a paste. Cook until the cashew powder turns golden brown.
Whisk in the can of coconut milk and keep whisking to combine the paste and milk. Whisk in the nutritional yeast and salt and pepper. Keep cooking and whisking the milk until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your preference.
Pour the sauce into a blender and add in the drained artichoke hearts. Pulse a few times to break up the artichokes, but don’t make it completely smooth.
Now it’s time to build the lasagna. Preheat the oven to 350 and get out a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom, then a layer of noodles, a layer of artichoke sauce, a layer of spinach, and a layer of tomato sauce. Keep going until you run out of noodles and make sure you end on tomato sauce.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling. Remove from oven and uncover. Let the lasagna cool for 10 minutes before you slice and serve.

You can make this lasagna ahead of time and then just pop it in the oven at dinner time. I hope you have a Happy Halloween and a great weekend!

Apple-Banana Muffins

October 23, 2015October 23, 2015 / ktbuchs87

I like to eat, eat, eat, eeples and baneenees.

If you have no clue what I am talking about, you need to spend more time in pre-school.

Last week I went to the apple orchard with my dad and came home with a whole peck of apples. I’ve already made a huge batch of my squash apple butter, eaten as many raw as I can, and a tart is in the works.

I also wanted to try making a bread with my apples and I had a few over-ripe bananas sitting on my counter so I thought an apple/banana combo was in order. Two baked goods in a row on the blog… Lucky you!

While my baking is getting better, I still run into a few problems now and then. When I made my first batch of my bread concoction, the flavor and texture were right but it did not hold together very well. My second time around I tweaked a few things and decided to make them into muffins instead of one loaf.

Success!

I ended up with a yummy fall inspired muffin that also happens to be gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and refined sugar-free. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself!

Apple-Banana Muffin

1 cup almond meal
1/2 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 tbsp date sugar or coconut sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
2 large ripe bananas (the riper they are the sweeter the muffin will be)
1 tbsp molasses or maple syrup
2 tbsp macadamia nut butter or almond butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large apple, shredded (more subtle apple flavor) or small diced
16-18 whole pecans, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with paper liners
Combine all of the wet ingredients and mix well until you have a smooth batter.
Combine all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine. The batter will be a little stiff, that is ok.
Add in the shredded or diced apple and stir to mix everything together
Spoon a little over a tablespoon of the batter into each muffin well and press down just a little. Press one pecan onto the top of each muffin.
Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is slightly brown and batter is set.
Let the muffins cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

These are kind of like fall in a muffin wrapper and that isn’t a bad thing. You could also try making this into two mini loaves if you really wanted bread.

Anyone have fun plans for this weekend? Adam and I are planning on just hanging around our neighborhood and relaxing. Oh and if you’re keeping count, only 8 more days until my birthday. Delicious food presents welcome…

Happy weekend friends!

DIY Wednesday: Herbed Macadamia Butter

October 21, 2015October 21, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Have you ever seen a log of herbed butter? All cut into pretty round slices and full of delicious herbs like parsley, chives, basil, and oregano?

This is not like that.

Well, it’s sort of like it but not quite. I had the idea to try and come up with an alternative to those fancy herbed butters that are so delicious. I haven’t had dairy in years, and I wanted to see if I could make a dairy-free version.

Sure, there are tons of vegan specialty butters that you can buy. But many times those butters are full of processed ingredients that aren’t any better for me than regular butter.

So I decided to go the route of making a savory nut butter. First I had to decide which type of nut to use. Almonds and peanut butter have their own distinct taste and I wanted to use something a bit milder so that you could really taste the herbs.

Cashews are pretty mild, but they can be a little grainy in texture unless you have a high-powered blender. I settled on macadamia nuts. They are mild and have a slightly buttery taste to them and come out nice and smooth when blended into butter.

I was surprised how quickly this came together and I was pleased with the taste and the spreadability. The only thing that I couldn’t really change was the color. Yeah, it’s kind of an icky brown, but sometimes the ugliest concoctions taste the best. Just trust me on this one.

A few notes about the recipe. You don’t have to roast the nuts, but it adds a nice depth of flavor to the savory butter. Raw nuts will give you a lighter, more appealing color. Don’t worry about the coconut oil giving this butter a coconut-y flavor, it’s just to help the butter set in the fridge and spread nicely on things like bread.

Herbed Macadamia Butter

2 cups raw macadamia nuts
2 tsp roasted garlic
2 tsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme

Preheat oven to 350 and spread the macadamia nuts on a large baking sheet in an even layer.
Roast the nuts for 10 minutes and then transfer to a blender or food processor immediately.
Blend the nuts, scraping down the sides as needed, until you have a smooth and drippy butter. It should be almost liquid like.
Add in the teaspoons of coconut oil and the 1 tsp of salt and blend until combined.
Add in the garlic and the rest of the seasonings and blend until completely combined. Taste and adjust any seasonings as needed.

This will obviously not act the same way as real butter, as in it won’t melt. But it does add a nice salty, herby, and fatty quality to whatever you use it on. And really, who doesn’t like things that are salty, herby, and fatty?

Keep this in an airtight container in your fridge and let it warm up a few minutes before you use it so it spreads easily. And there you have it! Your own savory spread that you didn’t have to pay top dollar for! Enjoy!

Hearty Vegetable Cassoulet

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015 / ktbuchs87

Cassoulet. It just sounds fancy doesn’t it? But then again, most French words sound fancy. In fact, this dish is probably as far from fancy as you can get. A cassoulet is a slow-cooked casserole that started out as a peasant meal. Basically, all the scraps of meat, bones, and vegetables were placed into a clay baking dish and cooked over low heat for a long time to make a delicious cross between a casserole and a hearty stew.

Over the years, chefs and restaurants got a hold of it and “elevated” it to make it good enough to be put on expensive menus. The truth was that not much needed to be changed to make a delicious dish because sometimes the simplest things are the tastiest.

I made this cassoulet a little different than the traditional dish because I didn’t include any meat. It is still a very rich dish that is great for the cooler nights we’ve been having. You can also add meat if you wanted or mushrooms if you wanted to keep it vegetarian but add a “meaty” component.

This dish can be made ahead of time and then just popped in the oven when it’s time for dinner. It tastes like you have spent all day cooking it, but we can just keep that our little secret! So impress your friends and family with a tasty and fancy cassoulet that is as simple as could be.

Hearty Vegetable Cassoulet

1 tsp olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a malbec, but you can use whatever you have on hand)
1 cup carrots, peeled and diced into rounds
3/4 cup celery, sliced
1 can diced tomatoes (I used fire-roasted)
1 tbsp molasses (you could use maple syrup too)
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 and heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add in the onions, garlic, thyme, marjoram, and rosemary. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes
Add the 1/2 cup wine and bring to a slow simmer. Cover the dish and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cover and stir in the vegetables and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add in the rest of the ingredients and return to a simmer.
Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your taste. Transfer the whole things to a 9 x 13 casserole dish and cover with aluminum foil. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes.

See? It really is a simple meal. After cooking in the oven for 45 minutes, you’re left with a meal that is stick to your ribs good and is loaded with good for you vegetables and legumes. If you want to do this meal with meat, I would use chunks of beef because they will handle the long cook time well. Just make sure to brown them before adding them into the dish.

Oh, and Adam wants me to make sure to tell you to serve this with bread. But then again he wants me to serve bread with every meal…

Have a great Friday everyone and I will see you on Monday!

DIY Wednesday: Cream Cheese Frosting

October 7, 2015 / ktbuchs87

My birthday is on Halloween. I think because I was born right in the middle of fall, the love of all things fall is sort of woven into my genes. Usually for my birthday, my mom would make spice cake or carrot cake and one year I think she made a hummingbird cake…. but I could be wrong about that one. Anyway, the cakes that she made would beg for cream cheese frosting and that was just fine with me.

I love cream cheese frosting. Most other frostings are WAY too sweet and I can only take a few bites before I start to get nauseated. But cream cheese frosting? Skip the cake and get me a spoon. It’s a little sweet, a little tangy, and all delicious.

I haven’t had cream cheese frosting in years because it’s basically cream cheese, butter, and sugar. Since I don’t do dairy or refined sugar anymore, cream cheese frosting isn’t really at the top of my list of things to eat. With fall baking underway, I thought it would be a good time to try recreating this frosting without any dairy or refined sugar. Lucky for me, it wasn’t that hard to do! Just a few ingredients, a little planning ahead, and you have a delicious cream cheese frosting that is ready to top carrot cake or any other fall favorite.

Oh, and if you think it’s easier to just grab a tub of cream cheese frosting at the store? Think again. Not only is it full of chemicals, sugar, and preservatives, but it doesn’t actually contain any cream cheese…. Explain that one to me! Do yourself a favor and make this simple, dairy-free frosting without the high price and chemicals.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight
2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 more if you like a tangier frosting
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp coconut butter NOT coconut oil

Drain and rinse the soaked cashews and place in a blender or food processor. Add the lemon juice, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Pulse a few times until the cashews are broken up into little pieces.
Add the water and blend the cashews until you have a smooth cream. Add the coconut butter and blend to combine everything. Taste and see if you need to add more sweet or more tang.
You can use the frosting right away or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. If you do store it in the fridge, take it out 20 minutes before you want to use it to let it warm up a bit.

To test out the frosting, I made some carrot cake cookies. Because if you have frosting you have to have cookies right? I just threw some things together and the cookies actually turned out pretty good. I’m going to tweak them a bit and then put them on the blog so you can enjoy your homemade frosting!

I’ll have a new recipe for you on Friday and then Monday I hope to do a recap of the awesome wedding weekend! It was a great time and I am so happy for the new Mr. and Mrs. Meyers!