Sunday, February 12, 2012

This Isn't So Bad

First lesson of the day: cereal + rice milk + splash of full-fat canned coconut milk is not half bad.
I reeeeaally miss butter. I could have buttered toast with raw milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and love it. In the early days of Baby, I'd often make just a tall glass of milk for a meal.
But when dairy's out.., thank God for coconuts. Coconuts are a close second to raw milk on the scale of food awesomeness.
So, pictured above, we have homemade graham crackers surrounding a bowl of COOKIE DOUGH DIP.

Graham Crackers:
4 oz palm oil (Spectrum shortening)
4 oz tropical oil blend (Earth Balance organic coconut oil spread... but since this is just a blend of coconut and palm oils, I might just substitute one or the other for this next time)
5 oz brown sugar

7 oz. all=purpose flour
4 oz. stone-ground whole wheat
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Blend oils and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy.
Whisk together dry ingredients, and introduce to wet ingredients, mixing until fully incorporated. Pat into a disk, as for pie dough, and wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes, overnight, whatever.
Next day, preheat oven to 350. Roll out into 1/8" layer (thicker is okay... it still comes out crispy and ridiculously addictive), cut into squares with a pizza-cutter, prick THOROUGHLY with fork. Bake for about 20 minutes, start checking after 10. Kitchen will smell kind of like a movie theater concession stand, with the smell of cooking coconut oil (often used for popcorn). Break these apart and let them cool just as soon as they're out of the oven, and they'll crisp up like a dream!

Cookie Dough Dip: (warning - this recipe is VERY SNEAKY. Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie, a super-skinny dessert-loving vegan genius blogger. I am tantalized by ALL of her recipes.)
The secret is hummus.

In a food processor, blend:
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Brown sugar: I used 2/3 cup, but could get away with less next time
3/16 t salt
1/16 t baking soda
2 t vanilla
2 oz almond butter
2 oz rice milk
3 T oats

After blending, mix in 1/3 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Dunk away!

Both totally dairy-free and delicious. Seriously. If we weren't having company this afternoon, these would not have lasted long enough for a photo op.

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