Southern Style Chickpeas and Dumplins

Hi!

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted here! I’ve been slacking on coming up with anything worth sharing, but I was reminded of this today, and I thought it was completely “share-worthy”!

I know, it’s HOT! I suppose that applies to most places right now, but locally, for instance, it was 102 degrees today. With that being said, a bowl of tasty, warm, filling, comfort food shouldn’t be in the forefront of my mind, but, there it is!

I promise I won’t fill the page with a lot of text and photos before you get to the recipe. (Mostly because I don’t know how to add a “Jump to Recipe” link. 😉) So, here it is:

Sharly’s Chickpeas & Dumplins

1 Batch of Biscuit Dough* (or, you can use one can of biscuits) rolled out and cut in pieces or strips.
Chickenless Bouillon Mix** (I mix this up and keep it on-hand in the fridge; recipe linked below).
Non-dairy Butter
2-4 cans Chickpeas

Drain chickpeas, adding liquid to your boiler. Add 1 can of water for each can of peas used. I usually leave the strainer over the pot and pour the water over the peas, letting them drain well, rinsing out each can. Set the chickpeas aside.

Add roughly 1-2 tablespoons of Bouillon mix per each can of peas used. Adjust the amount to your taste. This is what is going to give you the yummy flavor.

I added some chopped celery, but have found it is totally optional. Most of the time I leave it out. You could also add some carrots, if you like, letting them cook in your “broth” until tender.

I added a big blob of vegan butter, maybe 3 Tablespoons (?) for two cans. You do you 😊

Bring this to a rolling boil, then add your dough, carefully dropping strips one at a time. Add salt & pepper to taste. When the dumplins have cooked, maybe 10 minutes, or so, make a roux of cornstarch and some of the hot broth, and stir that in for thickening. Stir in the chickpeas and cook long enough for them to heat up.

I used two cans of chickpeas, but will try 3-4 next time, as I had some dough left over. I also used great value baking mix for my biscuit dough*. It is accidentally vegan.

**Bouillon mix here:
https://thenakedkitchen.com/chicken-less-bouillon-and-seasoning/

I made it up as I went, so it’s certainly not a strict recipe. Use it as inspiration to do your own thing! ❤️

All ingredients should be easy to find at most Walmart stores!

Please let me know if you have questions, and if you make this! Also, share any improvements you come up with!

Thanks for being interested!

Sharly🩷

Peanut Butter Dream Cheesecake Cake

I recently came up with this combination of recipes from other sources and created what I think is the ultimate Peanut Butter Cake. Look upon this deliciousness! It is comprised of one layer of delicious, vegan Peanut Butter Cheesecake, sandwiched between two layers of moist, golden cake, frosted with light, fluffy Peanut Butter Mousse and trimmed out in delicious, fudgy, chocolate frosting. To complete the cake, I topped it with chopped peanuts and mini chocolate chips. I’m quite proud of this concoction!

In response to those that have asked for a recipe, I’m sorry to say that I am too lazy to actually type out what I did. So, instead, I will direct you to the pages from which I drew inspiration.

First of all, the cake: My absolute go-to cake for just about anything is the Crazy Cake. It’s delicious and moist and for me is a never-fail. There are several varieties including chocolate, coconut and spice, but for this cake, I went with the Vanilla Crazy Cake. There are a lot of sites with variations of the recipe, but I like this one from Sweet Little Bluebird!

As for the cheesecake, I found the perfect flavor combination on the first try by making the cheesecake only part of this recipe from A House in the Hills. I LOVE her photography!

For frostings, after a failed attempt at PB Frosting (which magically turned into delicious filling for Peanut Butter cups), I hit upon this delightful Peanut Butter Mousse from Minimalist Baker! I have to say, though, that I really did not stick with the proportions in the recipe, and honestly, I’m not too sure how much of anything I added. I did use the fat from one can of full-fat coconut milk, but from there, I went a little crazy with the PB until I found the taste I liked. I probably used between 1/4 to 1/2 cup… maybe? I also used powdered sugar for  sweetener, and again, just kept adding until it tasted just right. My end result was really not overpoweringly sweet or peanut-buttery, but I thought it was just right!

For the chocolate piping, I used my favorite chocolate frosting (what’s not to love about a two-ingredient recipe?) It’s genius, from Beaming Baker. I can easily find Enjoy Life vegan chocolate chips at Walmart or Publix, so those are my choice for anything chocolate-chip-wise.

Now that you have all the beautiful components, you just have to assemble. I started with a layer of cake, added the cheesecake layer (no crust or frosting), then the top layer of cake. Unfortunately, my spring form pan is just slightly larger than my cake pans, so there is a tiny little bulge in the midsection of the cake. (Not to mention the bulge in my midsection if I make too many more of these!) Spreading the PB Mousse frosting was fun, and if I had more experience, I probably could have made it really beautiful. The same goes with my piping. I’m still working on developing those skills, but shoot, it tasted good enough to make up for whatever it lacked in aesthetics!

I really need to thank all the ladies that posted these original recipes to start with! All together, they have made a novice cake maker like me look like I know what I’m doing!!

If you try any of these recipes, or my Frankenstein’s Monster of a cake, please leave a comment! I would also be glad to answer any questions that I can.

MINI Thanks!

My beloved, recently-acquired, neglected-in-a-previous-life, 2012 MINI Cooper has been in the shop quite often since we bought “him” used. Ringo has been a bit of a problem child, but so far most of the issues can be attributed to a failure to keep up routine maintenance by a previous owner. Besides, he’s so handsome, I’ll forgive him a lot.

At any rate, we have been very pleased with the mechanics at the shop who are doing the work for us, and feel like they have really gone the extra mile to work with us in getting the car brought up to speed.

As a gesture of appreciation, I wanted to make them a special cake to say “thanks”. If you’ve seen my previous post regarding cakes, you know this is something that I am just beginning to be interested in. I baked my first “grown up” cake a few weeks ago, and now I just want to do more and get better at it.

To make this cake more personalized, I wanted to add the MINI logo. Since my piping skills are kind of non-existent at this point, I thought it would be cool to create the logo in chocolate, as a topper. A little research turned up this Castin’ Craft, which is FDA approved and can be used to create your own molds for casting just about anything, chocolate included!

I found the product very easy to work with, and after making a practice mold of a sunburst, I was ready to make my MINI emblem. Fortunately, I had a keychain I could use to make the impression. The mold only has to set up for about 20 minutes, though I did let it sit a little longer. When done, the silicone is pliable and rubbery and the keychain popped right out. I rinsed the mold and dried it, added my melted chocolate and let it set. The chocolate also popped out easily. I added a little edible silver metallic paint to more closely resemble the actual emblem, and aside from my messy painting, I think it turned out really well.

I’m still experimenting with frostings, and though the frosting was perfect on my practice cake the day before, this time, it was extremely dry and didn’t do well, at all. So I whipped up a different recipe for the piping and I liked it much better! I will try frosting with it on the next chocolate cake I make.

It’s not as close to perfect as I would like, but that’s okay! I learned a lot, and I’m looking forward to my next experiment! I already have plans for a special St. Patrick’s Day cake!

Berry Easy

If you are looking for something quick and nutritious for breakfast, a snack, or (like me, this evening) for dinner, consider this: A toasted plain bagel, delicious dairy-free plain cream cheese from Kite Hill, and fresh fruit. I sprinkled a little chia seed for extra nutrients. And, because February is heart health month, it’s important to note: it’s all cholesterol free, thanks to the almond-milk-based cream cheese and accidentally vegan bagels from Costco!

Vegan Southern Cream Cheese Cake

I’m not a cake maker. For that matter, until a few years ago, I wasn’t a maker of anything. Last week, I decided I was going to make a nice cake. I turned to YouTube, watched a few videos, ordered a few “must haves” from Amazon,  and got started. I had a beautiful inspiration cake, but created my own recipe, using a mashup of recipes I found on-line. Technically, my cake isn’t an Italian Cream Cake, because, as Tad pointed out, I’m not Italian. But it is a tasty, moist cake with a lot of toasted pecans, toasted coconut, and cream cheese icing. I guess we can call it a Southern Cream Cheese Cake.

My cake doesn’t look a whole lot like the inspiration because I need to work more on making icing for piping. I learned a lot, and hope to make more cakes in the future. Nothing too elaborate, just good, classic cakes.

Southern Cream Cheese Cake

Vanilla Crazy Cake (One 8” round or square layer)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white vinegar
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions
1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a greased baking pan.

2.     Make 3 depressions in the dry ingredients – two small and one large. Pour the vinegar and vanilla in each of the two smaller depressions, and the vegetable oil in the large one.

3.     Pour water over the entire thing and mix until smooth.

4.     Bake on the middle rack of the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let it cool, then top with your favorite frosting and enjoy!

*This is supposed to be a one pan recipe, but since I doubled it for two layers, I used a large bowl for mixing. There are several flavors of Crazy Cakes, I love the chocolate one! Be sure to look them up.

For the Southern Cream Cheese Cake, I added approximately one cup of shredded coconut and about 1.5 cups of toasted pecans into the batter, stirring in after all the other ingredients were mixed.

Frosting

Ingredients:

•1 pound (4 cups) of Powdered Sugar

•1/2 cup Butter

•8 oz. Cream Cheese*

•3 teaspoons of Vanilla

Instructions

1.Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla in a mixer until blended.

2.Add powered sugar a cup at a time and continue to mix until sugar is incorporated.

*I used Kite Hill Almond Milk Cream Cheese. To finish the cake, I covered the sides in Toasted Coconut and the top in Toasted Pecans.

Please leave a comment if you try my recipe!

 

Thanks!

 

Zucchini Brownies

Another winning recipe from Esther’s Kitchen!

Brownie lovers, you are in for a delicious treat. We are serving up Zucchini Brownies today! Has anyone had Zucchini Brownies? These brownies are gooey and can be made oil free for those folks eliminating oil from their diets. If you make these oil free, the brownies will taste more like cake. The brownies in the photo are oil free and made with walnuts. The batter will be very thick. Keep stirring. The batter will come together. If you want to make these gluten-free, use GF …flour blend and add 2 chia or flax eggs to the batter. Enjoy! ~Chef Linda

Zucchini Brownies

Cuisine: Esther Approved, GF option

Prep including Bake Time: 35 minutes

Serves: 8″x8″ pan or 9 brownies
Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2-3/4 cup organic granulated sugar, adjust to your taste

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted coconut oil (optional)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup shredded organic zucchini

1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 8″x8″ baking pan or line the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Add all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir by hand with a spoon.

3. Add the zucchini, vanilla extract, oil and almond milk. Stir until the batter with a spoon until the batter is smooth. Keep stirring. The batter does come together. If your zucchini is not wet, stir in an additional 1-2 Tablespoons of almond milk.

4. Pour the brownie batter in the pan.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the center is done by using a toothpick test.

6. Cool and slice into 9 pieces.

Check out these other Esther Related Facebook Pages:

Esther the Wonder Pig

Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary

And, follow Esther’s Kitchen here!

 

Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Cookies – Esther Approved!!

On your journey towards an Esther Approved lifestyle you will come across some things that leave you awestruck about new culinary techniques. Growing up we were taught to make cookies by creaming the butter, sugar, extract and eggs with an electric mixer. How many times did we reach in the fridge and realize you were out of butter or eggs? Another trip to the store. Right? As you change over your pantry ingredients with Esther Approved substitutes you begin to realize this is easy. It’s learning a new way of baking and cooking just as you learned the old way. For our Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Cookies you only need mixing bowls, a wooden spoon and cookie sheets. These cookies are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle. Let’s celebrate National Oatmeal Cookie Day without the raisins because we don’t want Esther to have trust issues thinking they are chocolate chips. ;)~Chef Linda

Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

Cuisine: Esther Approved

Serves: 3 dozen

Prep including Bake Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients
2 flax eggs-2 Tablespoons flax meal mixed with 6 Tablespoons water, allow to gel for 10 minutes

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup organic granulated sugar

1/2 cup organic brown sugar

1 cup Earth Balance, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups spelt or all purpose flour

2-1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

1. Set the applesauce aside. Make your flax eggs in a small bowl and set aside.
2. Melt the Earth Balance on the stovetop or in the microwave. Add the vanilla extract and flax eggs. Stir to combine and set aside.

3. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Stir in the melted butter mixture for a few minutes until the cookie dough is combined. Stir in the applesauce until the dough is moistened completely.

4. Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

5. Using a soup spoon, spoon 12 dough rounds onto each cookie sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350F. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet before transferring onto cooling racks. The cookies will slowly crisp up on the cookie sheet which will allow you to transfer easily onto the cooling racks.

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