Blue cheese Carrot Slaw

This carrot slaw just came together with pantry items, and it's pretty darn tasty! 

Blue Cheese Carrot Slaw

Ingredients: 

7 medium sized carrots, stem end cut off, grated 

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup blue cheese dressing

1 green onion, chopped

Salt, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and add salt to taste. Allow to sit at least half an hot for flavors to really meld. Enjoy! 

Spaghetti Squash with Brown Butter Vinnaigrette

My husband loved this.  Truly loved it.  I have never seen the man do anything more than tolerate squash, so this is a keeper!

Ingredients:

One spaghetti squash

Vinaigrette:

One cube butter (mine was unsalted)

One bunch green onions

White vinegar

Lemon juice

White sugar

Salt 

Pepper

Parmesan cheese

Pierce the squash and roast on a cookie sheet, 350 degrees, for about an hour and a half.  

Brown the butter- melt in a 12" skillet over medium heat.  It will melt, foam, stop foaming, and finally small particles will sink to the bottom and begin to brown.  Slowly cook until particles are medium brown, stirring occasionally.

Chop bottom half of onions, discarding the roots.  Reserve leafy tops for another recipe.  Should be about 3/4 cup.  You could also use leeks.

Sauté onions in browned butter until soft,about five minutes.  Whisk in white vinegar, about 1/4 cup, and a few splashes of lemon juice.  Add about 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp sugar, and a few grinds of pepper.  Seasonings are to taste.  It should be balanced- the sugar is just enough to balance the vinegar, not enough to make it sweet.

Halve the squash and scoop into a bowl. Stir in hot vinaigrette and 1/2-3/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  (I used Ball cheese)

We served this with meatballs and a salad.

"Cheezy" Garlic Popcorn

This is one of our favorite popcorn topping mixes- small flake nutritional yeast tastes startlingly like Parmesan cheese but is dairy free and high in B vitamins.  My preschooler is currently on his fourth bowl of popcorn- a clear winner!

We get our nutritional yeast in the bulk "natural foods" section of the grocery store.

Big batch of topping:

1/2 cup small flake nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp granulated garlic

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

I like to pop a big batch of corn, maybe 1/4 cup, in my stirring popcorn popper with a spoonful of coconut oil, then drizzle with olive or avocado oil and sprinkle with about two tablespoons of topping mix.  Mix it up good and scoop into bowls.  It's delicious and savory!

Aunt LoLo's Grain Free Molasses Cookies

This morning, I wanted a cookie. BADLY. However, I know that eating a normal white flour/white sugar cookie will not lead to good things for me. (Not that I haven't tested the theory multiple times!
I had seen a recipe recently for The Perfect Molasses cookie, and even better, the recipe was grain free! Don't ask me why this makes it better....it just does.

Anyhow, the original recipe called for an entire stick of butter. Seeing as how I was trying to give these cookies at least a few redeeming qualities, I opted to replace half of the butter with applesauce. The resulting dough was so sweet, I was also able to forgo the honey entirely (the original recipe called for honey and molasses).

My second sheet cooked a bit longer than my first, and I preferred the dryer cookies. The first sheet has slowly turned back into dough over the course of the day. They didn't quite dry out enough.

Enjoy!

Aunt LoLo's Grain-Free Molasses Cookies
(Adapted from Deliciously Organic)
Makes 2 dozen+ cookies
(ie - my batch made 29 cookies)

Ingredients:
2 cups almond meal
1/4 cup corn starch
6 Tbsp. coconut flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp baking soda (I would decrease this to maybe 1 tsp)
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
4 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir to combine.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough out onto parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 10-15 minutes. The outside of the cookie should be dry and start to crack.