Week(and every) day cobbler

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Manders

Hello again, my friends. From the looks of it, it’s been a year since I posted – A YEAR! I never intended to take such a substantial break, but I suppose such is life. I’ve still been making delicious food and have thought about Yum For Tum too many times to count, but just couldn’t seem to muster up the power to sit down and write. Honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit (well, more than a bit) stuck and trying to figure a whole lot of things out in the last 12 months, and I think I’m finally making some headway. I’ll spare you all the details, and just leave it at that. I’m writing a blog post, so that’s progress right? 🙂

Making and eating cobbler is also a form of progress, so let’s do it.

This cobbler is my go to dessert at all times of year, work night or no. It’s so very easy, so very tasty, and it takes about 5 minutes to throw together. You can use fresh or frozen fruit, and I’ve experimented with pretty much everything – the only thing that I’m not wild about as the sole fruit in this is citrus fruit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great addition to something with less water in it, but it makes for kind of a mushy final product. Adding in dried fruit with fresh or frozen stuff also makes for sweet, sweet goodness.

One more thing, this whole recipe is super flexible! You have dried apricots and frozen blueberries at home? Use them! You have a handful of raspberries, some left over blueberries, and couple apples – that’s a fine mofo of a cobbler!

Also, the amounts of every ingredient are more suggestions than anything else. Depending on pan size, you change the amounts of fruit and topping to suit what you’ve got.

What you need (makes 4 mini cocottes – see disclaimer below):

Topping:

2 cups gf oats

1 Tbsp coconut or sunflower oil (even a light olive oil is pretty good here), melted

1/4 cup maple syrup (the oats should be coated lightly with maple syrup – if you want more sweetness or find your oats aren’t coated, add more, but don’t let the oats get mushy)

1/2tsp cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

pinch of nutmeg

Filling:

2-3 cups fruit, chopped.

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Here’s where I make a quick disclaimer: I use these little cocottes to both make and serve the cobbler. If you’re thinking, “this is bullshit! I don’t have cocottes!” worry not, my dear. Really, even I’m shocked that I have cocottes. So, take whatever pan you’re going to be using (ideally it doesn’t have more than about a 3 inch side), fill it with fruit about 2/3-3/4 of the way, then pack on the topping!

So, first, preheat the oven to 375. Then wash your fruit (yes, yes, fresh and seasonal fruit is always sweetest, but I’ve been using up the rest of my frozen nectarines and daaaa-ummm, Gina, they’re good!)

Next, add lemon juice, stir, and fill your cocottes or not cocottes.

Mix all the topping ingredients together and spoon onto your fruits. I like to make each of these little guys heaping because I love me so oaty topping and they just end up so nice and crunchy. If your topping layer is too thin, the oats will be mush. I’d shoot for at least 1/2 inch, maybe an inch of topping. If you don’t have enough fruit or topping to cover your pan, just keep adding more until you’re satisfied!

Bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy on top and all bubbly and luscious in the middle.

Boom, tasty dessert! Enjoy!

Perfect Lentil Soup

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Manders

Ah, January. Normally I’d be talking about how gray and sad the weather’s been here in Seattle, but fortunately I’d be lying to you if I said that now. It’s been gorgeous here this winter. Maybe a tish warm, but sunny and not gray, so I think we’re all counting ourselves lucky. That said, it’s still prime soup season, and lentil soup is my go-to, MVP, championship soup. I make a big batch at least every 10 days or so and take it for lunch. It’s warm, filling, easy, keeps well, and is great for cleaning out the veggie drawer and just using whatever you have. It’s pictured above with my buckwheat-oat biscuits, a fine combo if you’re so inclined.

What you need:

1 small white onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 inches of fresh ginger, chopped

1 russet potatoe, sweet potato, or whatever other potato you’ve got, chopped

Olive oil – roughly 3 Tbsp

1 can (the large one) of diced tomatoes (use fire-roasted tomatoes if you want a little extra zing- I highly recommend you try this)

1 cup of de Puy lentils, rinsed

6 cups of water

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

two zucchini, chopped

1 handful of green beans, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp thyme

salt and pepper to taste

*Seriously, friends. Use whatever veggies you have on hand. Cauliflower, broccoli, sunchokes, whatever! It will be delicious. Trust me.Start by sauteeing onion, garlic, carrot, ginger, and potato in olive oil until onions are golden brown and carrots and potato are soft.

Next, add your can of tomatoes and bring to boil. Then add water, bring it to boil, then add lentils. Let boil for about 1 minute, and then bring it back to a low boil/simmer for 30 minutes, covered.

Once the lentil are cooked, add veggies and cooke for another 5-10 minutes. Add thyme, salt, and pepper, let simmer another 5 minutes or so and then serve. Unlike Flava-Flav, the flavors will only get better over time. Eat up and enjoy! 🙂

Magical Cranberry Nut Bars with Chocolate Chips and Coconut

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Manders

Merry new year to you, my friends! I’ve had a long hiatus from blogging, and I’ve missed you. It’s been a challenging year in some ways. I’ve not had much in the way of work-life balance, but I’m getting there slowly but surely. This time of year is always such a good time for reflection and re-evaluating what’s working and what’s not. Some people like to set resolutions and that’s not so much my thing. Resolutions in my mind are all about the “I’ll try to do (blank) this year.” Frankly, I don’t want to try. I simply want to do. So, 2015 is to be the year of the doing of the things. 🙂

This time of year is also an excellent time for baking and eating. So, while you reflect and resolve to do the things, let’s eat Magical Cranberry Nut Bars, shall we?

Yes, excellent.What you need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries

1 cup of gluten-free oats

1 cup of cashews, raw

1/2 cup of almonds, raw

1/2 cup of maple syrup

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

2 Tbsp shredded coconut (fine or course shreds, whatever speaks to you)Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Begin by using your food processor (or Vita-mix) to grind the nuts, oats, and maple syrup into a thick paste.

In a separate bowl, combine the coconut oil, cranberries, chocolate chips, and coconut shreds and mix.

Spoon your the base layer (the nut and oat paste) into either little bite-sized muffin tins or line a loaf pan with parchment and pour it in there, evening out the base layer as you pour. I made enough to make both a few little muffins and a loaf, and I highly recommend that, because you will be very sad when you finish off the little muffin tin bites or the loaf, and oh-so-happy when you discover you still have another loaf or muffin pan full of them to eat!Spoon on the cranberry, chocolate, coconut mixture on top of the base layer and start the baking! The muffin sized treats cook in about 20-30 minutes, so watch them closely. The loaf took about 45min to an hour to cook for me, but it all depends on how thick you layer the base.It’s finished when a fork comes out clean. Once that happens, let it cool, then begin the eating! These freeze very well, so if you’re deciding to not eat so many baked goods this year, put the majority of the bars or muffin bites in the freezer and take one for a treat at work each day. Then you will have done two things – 1) made delicious baked goods; and 2) avoided eating all the baked goods at once. It’s really a win-win. 🙂

Again, happy new year to you all! I hope this year is full of tastiness, laughter, love, and magic!

This is how winter looks in my neck of the woods. Lucky, lucky me.

A Lovely Fall Lentil Salad

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Manders

My friends, welcome to fall! This may be my favorite season – that crispness in the air, a slight bite to the wind, but the most dreamy color schemes a lady could ask for all around. It’s also time for a welcome return to roasted veggies and heartier meals. Huzzah!

This particular dish was photographed my Mr. Adam Reitano. He’s wonderful and incredibly talented, and you should definitely check out his website to see some of his other work.

Now, onto the food. There are two things that I love about lentils: 1) they’re tasty; and 2) they’re cheap. I’ll add a number 3: 3) they’re easy to make. If you haven’t spent time with my dear friends the de Puys or the browns, then please, please, go to your local market and meet them. You’ll like them.

This particular lentil salad is really a mish-mosh of whatever veggies you have on hand. The combination of some cooked veggies with some raw gives the dish some nice variety and texture. That said, you have sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes? Awesome! You have parsnips? Cool! You really don’t like radishes? Fine! Well, promise me you’ll at least try them sauteed before you axe them completely – they’re realllllly nice that way. You want to add green beans or broccoli? Do it! A handful of greens would also be sooooo good here. Same goes for spices, folks. Mix it up, be creative. This is a hard thing to totally mess up because there’s really no “right” way to do it.

What you need:

2 cups rinsed and drained lentils (I like de Puys, but any type could be good here)

1 small onion, chopped and sauteed

6 cloves garlic, chopped and sauteed

2 russet potatoes, diced and roasted

1-2 cups white mushroomes, sliced and sauteed

1 head of cauliflower, chopped and either roasted or left raw (if I roast cauliflower, I eat it all in about 5 minutes, so it’s left raw in this recipe)

I bunch radishes, cleaned, sliced, and sauteed

1 tomato, diced

1 avocado, diced

1 yellow pepper, chopped

Handful cilantro, chopped

2 heaping Tbsp whole grain mustard

Olive oil, enough for lots of sauteeing and roasting and about an 2-3 Tbs for dressing

Champagne vinegar, about 1/8 cup

Salt and pepper to taste

Whew, that’s a lot of ingredients. Stay with me, this is easier than it seems.

What to do:

First, preheateth thine oven. To 375.

Second, begin boiling 5 cups of water on the stove. Once the boiling has occurred, put your rinsed and drained lentils into the pot, keep at a rollingboil for about 30 seconds, then reduce to a low boil, cover, and let cook for 30 minutes-ish. Keep checking back on these guys. If there seems to be too much water, take the lid off and let some evaporate off. The real thing to avoid here is mushy lentils.

This is how many people like a mushy lentil salad: 0. Ew. So, watch your lentils like little lentil-loving hawks!

While your lentils cook, dice your potatoes, coat in about 1-2Tbsp olive oil and some salt and pepper, then spread out on a baking sheet. Place them in the oven when ready and roast for about 15-20 minutes, flip them, and roast another 5-10 minutes.

While these guys are roasting, begin the sautee.

Chop your onion, garlic, and sautee in olive oil (or veggie broth if you’d rather) until tender and golden brown, then add your mushrooms and radishes.

Once everything is tender and luscious looking in your sautee pan, remove from heat. Check your potatoes and your lentils. Once ready, remove both from heat as well. Chop the rest of your raw ingredients.

Mix it all in a bowl!

Add olive oil, vinegar, cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, and eat! Serves about 4 as a main meal, or 6 as side dishes. Enjoy and happy fall, bloggernet!

Simple, Light, and Luscious Potato Salad

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Manders

Oh, my friends, it’s been a heck of a summer. Good weather since March, and the sunshine continues. At the farmer’s market there are lots of little potatoes appearing along with all the summer regulars. Combined with some Styrian Pumpkin Oil (fancy, I know, but my man knows the way to this lady’s heart), champagne vinegar, and whole grain mustard, and these little potato buddies are your new best friends for simple late summer side dishes on hot days.

What you need:

8 baby potatoes, quartered and boiled until tender (not mushy. Don’t nobody like a mushy potato)

1 huge, heaping Tbsp of whole grain mustard

1-2 Tbsp champagne vinegar (depending on how much tanginess you like)

2 Tbsp Pumpkin Seed Oil (or high quality dark, dark, olive oil)

Salt and Pepper to taste

After you’ve boiled your potatoes, rinse them immediately with cold water. Combine oil, vinegar, and mustard in a bowl. Mix liquid and potatoes and salt and pepper to taste! That’s it. For reals. AND, keep this in the fridge overnight and it’s even better tasting once the potatoes have had a nice chance to marinate.

Eat and enjoy the rest of the summer, my friends! 🙂

Cherry, Cacao, and Basil (and greens!) Smoothie Goodness

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Manders

Cherry Basil? Yes, Cherries+Basil+Cacao=delicious and I too was surprised that combination worked, but it certainly did. This smoothie is light, refreshing, and kind of complex (in a good way). That said, it’s still dang tasty if you omit the basil and just go with tried and true cherries and chocolate.

What you need:

about 1 cup of cherries, pitted

2 cups vanilla almond milk (or other non-dairy milk, unsweetened)

2 cups of spinach

1 banana, preferably frozen and chopped

2-3 basil leaves (or no basil leaves if you don’t sway that way)

1 Tbsp chia seeds (totally optional)

1 scoop vanilla protein powder – I use Sunwarrior Vegan protein powder (again, totally optional, but nice)

1 Tbsp cacao nibs (I use Theo)

3-4 ice cubes

Sweet, sweet cherries – I prefer bings, but you could use any cherry. My guess would be that the darker varieties would probably be better, but why not give glorious Rainiers a try in this smoothie? A note on cherry pitting: DO NOT WEAR WHITE CLOTHING, or brand new clothing, or anything that you care deeply about in the event of cherry spatter. No matter how accomplished you are at pitting cherries, it can and will happen. I even watched a video on smooth ways to pit the cherries, and despite my efforts, my friends, it was not smooth.

What to do: Put everything in a blender and blend the heck out of it!

Now drink the lusciousness knowing that you got your fruits, your greens, your chocolate, and some protein. HOORAY!

Berry Pie, ‘Nuff Said. (gf, vegan, and processed sugar free)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Manders

Pie, my friends. Sweet, sweet pie. As the berry season cometh, so cometh delicious pie. I wanna be straight with you folks though, and this may sound like blasphemy to the pie purists of the world, but I don’t historically love traditional pie crust. So I made a different crust. Also, let’s be honest because we’re friends, regular crust from scratch is a huge pain in the ass and gluten-free and vegan crust is even more of one. Thankfully, the crust in this recipe is easy as, well, pie. 🙂Berry season (i.e. summer) in the northwest is the best. The berries are giant, sweet, and abundant. I literally spent 20 minutes just picking blackberries one block from my office yesterday and came home with 3 pints of juicy blackberries. One of my favorite memories is picking blackberries with my little brother and my folks at the beach. To this day, just taking a couple of minutes to slow down and pick a few blackberries brings the biggest smile to my face (pause for reverie about berries). Okay, resuming pie talk.So, crust. What you need:

2 cups of gluten-free oats

1.5 cups of almonds

2 heaping Tbsp coconut oil

1/4 -1/3 cup maple syrup

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Will the preheating is happening, grind your oats and almonds. I did it in my Vitamix. If you don’t have a power blender (or a magic bullet is awesome here!) just buy oat flour and almond meal.Here’s my oat and almond flour all ground up and mixed. Don’t grind your almonds too long or you’ll have almond butter, which is delicious, but not our goal here. 🙂

Add your coconut oil and maple syrup. Mix well and press into a pie tin.Bake for about 15 minutes.

While your crust is baking, prepare the filling (this part is shockingly unchallenging). What you need:

1 pint strawberries, rinsed and sliced

1 pint blueberries, rinsed

1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Mix them berries! After your 15 minutes of crust baking, fill that thar pie crust!Bake for another 45 minutes-ish until the crust is golden brown and berries are cooked, but not mushy. The outside of the strawberries ends up almost roasted and was so tasty that it led to a future recipe about roasted strawberry ice cream. Prepare yourselves.Now eat a slice of pie! Or the whole pie! (brief pause for pie reverie).Yum. 🙂

It Eats Like a Meal: Everyday Green Smoothie

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Manders

What do you get when you put all of these ingredients into a blender? Deliciousness, my friends. Pure deliciousness. The fact that it’s an actual hearty green smoothie makes it even better, because unlike the situation I find myself in with many green smoothies, I don’t find myself ready to chew off my own arm an hour after drinking this one.

I apologize for being MIA for so long! Unfortunately work has been testing my stamina lately and I haven’t had much energy for a whole lot outside of work. I’ve missed my edible creative projects and interacting with you fine folks on the interwebs, so there will be very regular posts for the next few months.Let’s talk about the magic that is avocado. You’re reading a gluten-free and vegan blog, so I’m preaching to choir here, but bestill my heart when I open a perfectly ripe avocado. Does the fact that nature just makes these flabbergast anybody else? I recently visited my first avocado orchard and was speechless. Because why? Because, dudes, nature provides (and so does irrigation technology – California has had a real mess of a growing season).

Anyway, here’s what you need:1 frozen banana

2 cups of spinach

1/3 of a cucumber, chopped

1/3 of a zucchini, chopped

1/4-1/2 avocado, depending on how thick you want your smoothie to be and how many you’re serving (I usually do 1/4 if it’s just for me)

1 scoop protein powder (totally option, but I use Sun Warrior Vegan Protein)

2 cups apple juice (more or less depending both on how thick and how sweet you like things)

A couple of ice cubes if you’re banana’s not frozen

Ready, set, BLEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, it looks a little like the slime from “You Can’t Do That on Television!” Ignore that.

Now drink up that sweet, sweet chlorophyll. 🙂 Enjoy, friends!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins. Springalicious, Gluten-free, and Vegan

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Manders

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything, though I’ve been whipping things up in the kitchen and just haven’t quite made it to the photo/blogging stage. I’m feeling re-energized now and despite the overwhelming grayness of the day, it feels like spring. So, tasty, lemony goodness in muffin form is what I present to you today.What you need:

2 cups of brown rice flour

2 Tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 Tbsp chia seeds

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp coconut oil

1 cup blueberries (or more if you’re feeling fruity)

3 Tbsp almond milk (add 1 Tbsp spoon at time if batter is too thick)

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix dry ingredients (chia seeds included here). Mix wet ingredients. Combine the two and add almond milk as needed to keep the dough from being too dry (it took me 2 Tbsp of almond milk). Add blueberries.Grease muffin tins or use muffin papers (muffin cups? I just realized I have no idea what those are officially called) and fill with muffin batter. Bake for about 30 minutes, until a knife or toothpick comes out cleanPlease note in the background my new favsie mug. Tea and a muffin = perfect second breakfast.Eat and enjoy!

(The Best) Buckwheat Oat Biscuits (Ever).

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Manders

Ah, February. I can’t believe you’re here already. Another birthday coming up, a last “arctic blast,” and we’re still in the middle of soup season.

Is this post at all about soup, you ask? No.

So what’s with the soup season comment? Well, with soup season (and yes, this is a season I celebrate and look forward to all year long) comes biscuits and another reason to marvel at the magic that is buckwheat.

So my friends, after many attempts at making the buckwheat biscuits of my dreams, here we are. I present to you a recipe I love and will be making pretty much every week for the rest of my life. Maybe that’s an overstatement, but you get what I’m saying.For those of you who haven’t yet heard me wax poetic about buckwheat, I’ll keep it short. If you’re gluten free, go out and buy some buckwheat right now! It will make being gluten free so much happier. Rice flour has always had an odd texture to me, and who can live without whole grains? Nobody. That’s who. These little buddies are easy to whip up in a jiffy, and they’re great with soup (or what I like to call “the big show”), jam, or anything else your heart desires. Nutella? YES. Smashed banana? Why not?! Honey (if you’re not hardcore about the vegan thing)? Do it.

What you need:

1 3/4 cup oat flour (I ground mine from certified gluten free oats in a magic bullet)

1 1/2 cups buckwheat flour (buy online at Bob’s Red Mill or grind it from groats)

3 Tbsp Potato Starch

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 – 1 tsp salt (depending on how savoury you like your biscuits)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup unsweetenend almond milk (if dough is too thick, add 1 tbsp at a time until desired consistency is achieved)

Preheat the oven to 450. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, and mix! Your dough will be fairly dry and crumbly, but if it won’t stick together add more almond milk. If it’s too wet, and a little bit of flour.Once you’ve mixed, knead the dough into a ball and roll out on parchment paper into a flat layer about 1/2 thick (thick if you’d like). Using a mason jar or cookie cutter, cut the dough into circles, repeating the rolling and cutting until all of the dough is used.Bake for about 15 minutes, until crusty on the outside, then take a tea and biscuit break. You deserve it.Seriously, the smashed banana thing is good. Enjoy, friends! 🙂

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