Kitchen Geography: Teaching landforms the fun way!

We are sharing a fun way we used to review all the different types of Landforms Miss K is learning about in Geography and Science this year. This project is a twist on the typical clay model. We made a Landform cake!

The base is a sweet Scone Dough. The kids used it like play dough. Following a picture from a favorite Science book, Miss K shaped an island complete with a peninsula, coastlines, bay, and a gulf.  Using the last of the dough they made hills, rivers, canyon, plateaus and a mountain.

After baking and cooling our island was ready to decorate. The 'paint' was powedered sugar and water and food coloring. Mixing up the correct colors were trial and error but it was a good art lesson in itself!

This is the finished product. At this point the  kids were begging to eat it. However I was a mean mama and asked them to label it first.

If you want a tasty way for your kids to learn Geography (and a sweet treat to go with your coffee) give this project a try too!

Yummy Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins- Sugar Free, Gluten free, Dairy and Egg free

A muffin with no added sugar, gluten or animal products doesn't have to be boring. Thanks to my GERD I am back to eating a fairly plain diet. I usually these Oat muffins from Happy Herbivore and adapt them to be a but more GERD friendly. These yummy muffins are sweetened with 'Date syrup'. I find that this kind of sweetness doesn't cause the burn that anything with sugar or honey does. 

Oatmeal breakfast muffins

No sugar added, dairy and gluten free

2 cups gluten free Oat Flour (learn how to make your own here)

1/4 cup gluten free old fashioned oats

1/4 cup chopped dates

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

3/4 cup non dairy milk (I used almond milk)

1 teaspoon ground flax seed

2 tablespoons cold water

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon dried mulberry berries (almond milk)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ripe banana

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger

Pinch of salt

• Heat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly spray 8 cups in a 12 cup non stick muffin tin.

• Prepare the 'date syrup': heat the dates and 1/4 of water in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute in high. Set aside to soak and cool for 30 minutes. 

• Prepare flax seed egg: in a glass or mug, whisk flax seed and 2 tablespoon of cold water until frothy. Set aside.

• In large bowl mix together the Oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger. 

• When the dates are cooled, place them in a blender or food processor. On top of this add the non diary milk, mulberry berries, olive oil, banana and vanilla essence. Pulse the mixture until it is smoothie consistency. 

• Pour the date mixture and the flax seed 'egg' into the dry ingredients and stir until nearly combined. Add the oatmeal and mix a 2-3 more times.

• Spoon mixture into 8 muffin tins and bake for 15-18 minutes.

If you are all good with eggs and/or diary than by all means substitute:

• the flax seed and water for 1 large egg 
• Non diary milk for skim fat milk

I would be really interested to hear your  tips and tricks for adding some variety to a GERD diet!

Holy week Activities Pt 2:Cooking Bible themed foods

The Piwi Kids enjoyed the Calvary Chapel Bible study lessons,  puzzles and coloring pages so much we completed 2 each day. I am seriously considering adding several each week to our regular curriculum.

We like cooking together and we tried to make some foods like Jesus and his Disciples would have eaten. We started with Dates. We made a plant based recipe from the Happy Herbivore Abroad -it tasted just like my Nana's recipe!

On Holy Thursday we made the Last supper craft from Catholic Icing.  The instructions and printables made it so easy to create a centerpiece that looks like it took forever!

The 'bread' in front of the 'table' is Un-leaved bread or Matzoh similar to that which Jesus and his Disciples ate at the Last supper. The recipe we used was from the Sunset magazine for Homemade Matzos. These huge crackers are Crisp, Light and extremely yummy!

I mixed up the Flour, salt and Olive oil (that's all it needs), divided it into 12 portions and then handed them over to the Piwis to roll out.

  

They cooked very fast 2-3 minutes on the pizza stone and they were ready! 

Matzos became Holy Thursday's Movie Afternoon snack

Thanks to our Kiwi roots It isn't the Triduum without Hot Cross Buns!  Last year I shared the recipe we use. This year were the most successful batch yet thanks to (I think) a new type of flour I switched to recently for bread making.

Every afternoon during Holy week we sat down together with a snack and watched a Movie. The majority were Veggie tales. A selection that I hadn't previously considered for this week was Rise of the Guardians. This review by Gail Finke at the Catholic exchange convinced me it was worth renting. We all loved it and it generated a lot of discussion between Miss K and I about the themes in the movie and how it related to faith.

We all learnt a lot this week and really enjoyed the time we spent together on our 'Stay-cation'.  The Piwi's, however, said their favorite part was an egg hunt and their Easter baskets (they picked the activity that involved Chocolate of course!).

Crispy Nacho bean scramble

This was my very tasty dinner tonight: Crispy Tortilla bean scramble

From now on, when ever I see a recipe for something called a scramble, I will be wondering if, they too, started out with something else in mind...

For the first Friday of Lent I made Crispy Tortilla Fish burgers for the omnivores of the family. Pleased with how these turned out I was confident I could make a vegan and Gluten free version. The outcome suggested otherwise. Still I will be making it again!

Crispy Tortilla bean scramble

1 can Kidney beans, drained, rinsed and dried.
1 cup crushed baked tortilla chips
1/4 cup salsa
1/4 nutritional yeast
2 T chopped cialantro
1 t onion powder
1 T Oil

In a large bowl mash the beans with a potato masher or fork. They do not all need to be mashed up.
Add all the other ingredient except the oil. Mix to combine.  Heat 1 teaspoon of Oil, over medium heat, in a non stick pan. Add bean mixture to the pan, keep mixture moving and brown evenly. Serve with salsa and guacamole.

Miss K makes Tablea (for Filipino Hot Chocolate)

 

During Miss K's Philippines Cacao history project we learnt about Tablea tsokalate. This is a traditional Filipino chocolate drink made by dissolving tablets made from roasted cacao beans in hot water or milk.

In the USA, chocolate manufacturers process the imported Cacao beans so we usually we only come across the byproducts of the cacao bean. Cocoa powder we use in baking and cocoa butter is in the bars of chocolate we love. Tablea is made by grounding down roasted whole beans in their entirety. Traditionally it is made by hand and produces what remains is a rich thick oily paste. The concept is similar to grinding down peanuts to make peanut butter. The product is shaped into tablets or balls and dried.

It occurred to me that if we could buy cacao beans we could try to make tablea. I wasn’t too sure our food processor would work like a grinder but it’s not the strangest thing I have tried to make in a food processor*. If it didn’t work,  it would still be a teachable moment. I could still demonstrate how hard it must be to make it by hand (if even a food processor can’t do it!).

In the US, fermented cacao beans can be purchased as nibs. The nibs are beans which have already been roasted, peeled and crushed in to smaller pieces.  I fully expected to need to have multiple attempts at this but it worked on our first try.

Here's what we did to make our own version of Tablea:

½ cup of nibs went into the food processor. We added 3 tablespoons of sugar. I hoped it would act as an abrasive and help the grinding process.

After 15 pulses the nibs had begun to break down but it was still very gritty. We let it run for another minute and noticed a layer of cocoa butter forming as the processor was warming.

Here is one of the pieces of cocoa butter we scraped out to try –it was very strong but yummy.

I scaped the edges and bottom of the bowl and let it run for a bit more until it was all sticking together and very few grainy pieces were left. 

Miss K molded the cocoa ‘dough’ into tablet and they dried hard in an hour.

They looked and tasted good but we still wanted to see if they could make tablea tskolate.

We tried it in two kinds of milk –almond for me and regular for everyone else.

The tablet dissolved (with a lot of whisking) into the milk. We added vanilla and sugar. It was really good! I can only imagine how good the really thing must be!

Apparently Cacoa nibs are full of antioxidants too! They are also totally plant based/vegan. Milk is added when they manufacture chocolate candy to make it creamier. So there we have it -a successful project and a new way for me to make my own vegan 'chocolate'!

*the strangest thing I made in a food processor was paper pulp for a High school science project. Sorry Mum for chopping up newspaper in your kitchen appliances! 

Chocolate Cherry Brownies

Piwi Daddy is trying to combat some inflammation with cherries so I wanted to get some into a dessert for him. The zucchinis were from some inspiration from this chocolate cake recipe we had as kids (which also had a cup of oil in it). This recipe turned out to be successful experiment in making a brownie recipe healthier. It was really moist and chocolaty. Next time I am going to add in some nuts and dried cherries (Valentines dessert maybe?)

Chocolate Cherry brownies (vegan)

  1¼ cups Spelt (or whole wheat) Flour

 ¼ cup Cocoa powder

 1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking soda

 ½ tsp salt

1  banana, mashed

¾  cup brown sugar

½ cup pureed cherries (I used frozen ones)

 ¼ cup almond milk

1 tsp Pure vanilla extract

 1 cup grated zucchini

 1/4 cup Non Diary choc chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease brownie pan and set aside. Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt. In another bowl, mix together banana, cherries and sugar. Add in Almond milk, vanilla, zucchini and Chocolate chip. Add flour mix and stir until just combined. Pour batter into greased muffin pan and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

More recipes posts:

 

Piwi Noodle house: making healthy take-out at home

 

Piwi Kid approved Meatless Marinara Meat sauce

 

 

Marinara (No) Meat sauce

I had forgot all about this recipe. It was emailed to me by my plant based friend. She tells me her family didn't even notice it was meatless.

I had a plan...If the kids saw the ingredients it was unlikely they would even try it. So I waited until they were busy playing. It looked really good and it tasted even better. We sat down to eat and guess what? No one asked what kind of sauce it was that was on their spaghetti. No one seemed to notice they had just consumed a meat free dinner. The only thing that seemed to confuse DH was that I was also eating it. He was truly shocked when he saw the recipe. This recipe makes a really satisfying Bolognese sauce.

Marinara Meatless sauce

1 c  raw walnuts or cashews*

8 oz mushrooms

150z can kidney beans, rinsed drained and dried

½ c flour (any type -I used GF mix)

1 t Italian seasoning

1 teasp onion powder

1 t garlic powder

½ black pepper –optional

½ teaspoon salt (or more to taste)

1-2 Jars  of your favorite Marinara sauce

Process nuts in a food processor to make a fine crumbly meal. Ass mushrooms and pulse about 10 times, so mushrooms are finely chopped, Add beans, flour and all seasonings and pulse 8-10 times. You don’t want to turn it into a paste –it should look crumbly and still have chunks in it.

Heat oil in a large non stick skillet/frying pan. Add bean-nut-mushroom mix to pan and brown evenly. This take 10-15minutes. Use a spatula to turn it frequently and scrap the bottom of the pan to stop any burning.

After browning, add Marinara sauce and stir until all mixed together and heated through.

This sauce can be used on top of spaghetti pasta, mixed in with Penne and I am going to use the leftovers it in my Slow cooker Meatless lasagna recipe. If you prefer a more ‘saucy’ Bolognese sauce, you can had up to another jar of marinara sauce, without affecting the overall taste too much.

*The original recipe uses Walnuts but all I had in the cupboard was cashews.

For a subtle cheesy flavor omit salt and add 1 teas yellow miso 2 T Nutritional yeast (opt).

O is for Oatmeal cookie balls

As part of Letter 'O' week we made Oat meal raisin chocolate chip cookies. We had read this cute book where all the characters tell Baby bear they love him 'more than they love honey oatmeal raisin cookies'  The book did include a recipe but instead of cooking that one I gave an old recipe a Vegan/plant-based makeover. This changed the texture from regular soft cookie to more like a shortbread cookie ball. Either way they tasted good! It was pretty fun to make with the Piwi's with lots of measuring and mixing.

 

Here's what the recipe looked like by the time I have finished with it.

Oatmeal Choc-raisin cookie balls (makes 18)

1 Cup whole wheat flour (I used stone ground)
1 Cup Old fashioned Oats (not quick cook)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 c vegan/non diary chocolate chips
1/4 c raisins
1/4 c Coconut butter
1/3 c Apple sauce


In one bowl, cream coconut butter and sugar. Add vanilla, applesauce and mix thoroughly.

In a second bowl, mix together Flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt & cinnamon. After it is all combined, add chocolate and raisins. Add the dry mix to the wet mix and mix until you can't see anymore flour. Form inch balls with your hands and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 mins at 350 degrees.

 

* this is the brand of Coconut butter I use. It is pricey but it keeps for months/years in the pantry.

 

 

Chocolate covered Katie has a great post about Coconut butter and even a recipe to make your own.

 

Shared with

In search of Crispy pizza

In our household we are all about thin and crispy pizza. Up until now we have bought ready made thin bases and cooked them on our pizza stone (one of our best kitchen investments). It worked great! Recently we saw a re-run of Cooks country and they were making St Louis style pizza. It had a super thin, crisp base. It also looked easy to make. Suspiciously easy!

I found a version of the recipe here on Food.com. Mini Piwi and I made it on Christmas night for dinner. Miss K was busy with her guitar writing songs about Perry the cat. This recipe was everything it promised to be! It turned out exactly like on TV and everyone loved it!

I thought about it afterwards and it really was a great sensory activity for Mini Piwi. Rolling, kneading, sprinkling and spreading. She was also so proud of showing off the final product to Daddy and Miss K.

 I even made myself a dairy free version with my standard pizza topping -1/2 c pizza sauce, 1/4 c silken tofu and 1/8 c nutritional yeast. I would usually put a bit of mustard and yellow Miso in there too, but I was out. For cheese lovers it doesn't sound super exciting. If you can't or don't eat cheese this is an alternative to get the pizza taste we love.

The Pizza stone we have had for nearly two years (it is well travelled too) is the one recommended by America's test kitchen.

We freaked out initially at the $40 price tag but then decided to buy it as a Christmas gift to ourselves -romantic! lol. Since then I have used a lot for pizza and breads. It is definitely something I would buy again.

While I am talking about America's test kitchen. We love watching the show, the recipes are made for everyone to be able to follow. They are also our reference for all things cooking. We have yet to be disappointed by any of the products and appliances on their list. We purchased the recipe collection years ago and it too has a section of recommendations in that. If I even mention perhaps needing something for the kitchen Piwi Daddy is off consulting the book. There is an update version put out each year....



Shared with