Sunday, October 28, 2012

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Happy halloweekend everyone! Hopefully, you whipped out your costumes that you're allowed to wear 1x a year and it be okay to be a cat, turtle, duck, shower curtain- whatever floats your boat! This year, I was just a kitty cat (would you expect anything else from me?!). But I like to celebrate differently- i was craving some sort of pumpkin and decided to make this pumpkin bread! At one of the culinary schools I visited, the chef prepared for us a pumpkin bread. I took similar measurements, and just did many substitutions. My first attempted bread seemed to be too dense, so I added a little more flour and got a better result! This bread is so delicious and the pumpkin definitely is the key note in this. Omnomnomnom
Spiced Pumpkin Bread
vegan~glutenfree
1-9x5" loaf pan

1 1/2 cups ap gluten free flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 flax eggs (or 2 servings ener-g egg replacer)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup almond milk
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

a handful of walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour your 9x5" pan
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the flax eggs and brown sugar and beat on medium until the sugar is quite dissolved. Slowly incorporate your coconut oil while beating.
3. Add the rest of the wet ingredients- vanilla, pumpkin, and almond milk, and mix until fully incorporated.
4. Next, sift your dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl (flour, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt). Once sifted, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, while your mixer is running on low (do this in 3-4 batches, because you don't want all the flour to fly up in your face!). Let it beat for a few minutes, until fully incorporated.
5. Turn off your mixer, and scrape out your batter and place it into the loaf pan. If you want, before you put it in the loaf pan, you can incorporate the walnuts in the batter. I liked mine on top, so I didn't do this.
6. Once your batter is in the loaf pan, "drop" it 3 times-so there are no air bubbles in the loaf.
7. Sprinkle walnuts on top, and bake for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. Allow it to cool for 30 minutes before you dig in!

Little iggy was sooo sleepy- he didn't want me doing my homework!


Friday, October 26, 2012

GF Friday!

Check it out! TWO of my recipes made it onto the top 8 for Vegetarian Mamma's Gluten Free Fridays!!!! Click here to see the rest!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

New York City

It all started when I went to the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) and they handed me a mimosa at 10:30AM- they won my heart. Now the next step is getting in to the school. The one thing I'm most excited about this possible opportunity, especially since New York City has soooo many vegan and gluten free cuisines. EEEP. However, Philadelphia is still my favorite city, and it stinks that a college like this isn't located there. Wah :[


My mom and I found the greatest place in the entire world- Beyond Sushi. We saw an advertisement for the place in VegNews, and we wanted to try it out. Oh my goodness it was heaven! The place was soooo tiny, but it doesn't matter because their food was big and tasty! We ended up getting just about every roll on the menu- the rolls on top are Spicy Mang and I think Green sominsomin (I forget!). On the bottom, I got a rice paper wrap with buckwheat noodles, carrots, cucumber, veggies, and a cashew sauce that was absolutely AMAZING. If you're in the city- Yelp it and I promise you will not be disappointed!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Pumpkin Creme Brulee




Since I was at work, this is not vegan, but it is gluten free! Once I figure out the substitutions, I'll try to repost a recipe for vegan and gluten free pumpkin creme brulee :]

Friday, October 19, 2012

Spaghetti Squash + Cauliflower

YUM! My friend Jess came over for an awesome dinner date, so I decided to finally try out making a spaghetti squash! I also made some of my roommate's favorite- Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower! So.Delicious. For the baked garlic-parmesan cauliflower, check it out here ! Instead of parmesan, use Galaxy Foods Parmesan. Now, for the spaghetti squash- it was so easy and easier to make as compared to watching pasta, making sure it doesn't boil over, then it might be too soggy.. #problemz. I topped mine with Daiya Pepperjack cheese #sogood. Jess had some Marinara, and if you know me, the one thing I cannot tolerate is marinara sauce. If I have to clean it, I get super nauseous. Yeah, not my cup of tea, but enough of marinara here comes the spaghetti squash!

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Tomatoes
serves 2 hungry people or 4 normal people 
vegan~glutenfree
1 spaghetti squash, cut in half longways and deseeded
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
2 garlic cloves, whole
1 cup plum tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons Herbes d' Provence
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: Cheeze of choice or Marinara sauce
  1. Preheat your oven to 375 F
  2. Cut your spaghetti squash in half, longways. If you must, cut the end of the spaghetti squash which will give you a platform and make it easier to cut through.
  3. Place your deseeded, cut spaghetti squash on a baking sheet lined with foil. Brush on grapeseed oil and sprinkle on salt and pepper. Put your two garlic cloves in the middle of your halves, one on each half. 
  4. Let it cook for 40-45 minutes. Halfway through (around the 20 minute mark) put your plum tomatoes on the baking sheet and let them cook with the spaghetti squash
  5. When you take the spaghetti squash out, let it cool for ten minutes. Take your garlic out and spread it around the spaghetti squash. Then you can trash them or use them for something else!
  6. Take a fork and start scraping the spaghetti squash- it will literally look like baby spaghetti pieces! Put it in a serving bowl, and top with your herbes de provence and cheeze/marinara topping (if you use cheese, obviously melt it in a microwave beforehand!)







Wednesday, October 17, 2012

"Cinnamon Toast Crunch" Pumpkin Seeds

HAPPY CELIAC AWARENESS MONTH!

Short, sweet and to the point, I have for you toasted pumpkin seeds - cinnamon sugar flavored! omnomnomnomnom. My roommate Brittney thought of the title- they seriously taste like cinnamon toast crunch! OMMMNOM. In order to do these right, you're gonna have to buy a pumpkin- otherwise they won't be as good!

Toasted Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds
glutenfree~vegan
Pumpkin seeds from any type pumpkin, cleaned and patted dried
2 Tablespoons cinnamon sugar (McCormick is gluten free and vegan)
1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil, then spray with oil (I have grapeseed oil cooking spray!)
3. Sprawl out pumpkin seeds on baking sheet, and sprinkle on cinnamon sugar and salt.
4. Cook for 10 minutes, take it out and shake your baking sheet. Put it back in for another 15-20 minutes.
5. Let cool and eat up!


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Roasted Vegetable Medley

I've decided that since I do so much creating recipes at work, that I'm going to put all my creations on my blog! Granted, majority of them are not gluten free because they are on sandwich breads, but this one would be a perfect way to add vegetables as a side! Once again, for the portions, they're going to be off, since we make them in bulk. 

Roasted Vegetable Medley
glutenfree~vegan
serves 8
2 red onions, sliced
4 red bell peppers, ends cut and sliced into rings
6 carrots, sliced
3 zucchini, sliced
3 squash, sliced

1/4 cup herbes d' provence
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
in all honesty, for this part I would eyeball it and do it to your taste preference- i love balsamic so I have more!


1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Put all your sliced vegetables in a large mixing bowl. Add in your olive oil, herbes d' provence, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix around with your hands
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the carrots are nice and tender. 
4. Use it as a side of vegetables, put it on a sandwich, or complement with a salad or starch!


Monday, October 15, 2012

Vegetarian Sushi Roll



 Random weekend, INDEED. Jubilee- didn't go there for the first time in a while. It was a strange incident. HOWEVER, my friend Steve and I did find ourselves at the casino...and we found...a club. Yes, Gypsies, we found a club. 

We also found ourselves playing penny slots for approximately 20-25 minutes-it didn't take us too long to lose all 10 dollars worth of free money that we got for going to the casino. One slot I played was "KITTY GLITTER"- like of course I'm going to post this one and take a picture of it! Scariest part? The cat on the kitty glitter slot machine looks exactly like my 17-year old cat JULIE! Can't you see the resemblence? #scary


At work today, my boss wanted something new. So what does he say? He wants sushi. So me and my friend from work decide that this will be easy. Love her to death, I probably wouldn't have said yes without her! Have I ever made sushi before? No, but I've watched my little sushi men make it in front of me. Did we say no to this challenge? Absolutely not. We took the challenge, and here it is, my version of a VEGAN AND GLUTEN FREE SUSHIII ROLLLL. She made some with crab- and she taught me the techniques of assembly...and thank goodness for her!

Only thing here is the portions are going to be a little iffy- I had to make this in bulk at work so I'm guesstimating everything. Therefore, you might have extra of a lot of stuff- so why not use it to make more sushi or something else, ya know?

Vegetarian Sushi Roll with Spicy Veganaise 
glutenfree~vegan
For the sushi
1 package of sushi nori paper
4 cups sticky rice
2 avocados, pitted and sliced
 2 large carrots, julienned
2 cucumbers, peeled and julienned
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For the Spicy Mayo
2 cups veganaise
1/4 cup sambal oelek (or sriracha works too)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
if you want to make less- it is 1 tablespoon of mayo for 1 teaspoon of chili sauce

1. Cook the sticky rice according to your method of cooking. Make sure you clean the rice before you cook it! I used a rice cooker, sprayed the sides with oil, filled it with the amount of water specified, and let it cook. 
2. While rice is cooking, julienne your carrots and cucumbers and slice your avocados- they should be very fine any very thin. Once cut up, put in a dry paper towel (you want everything to be very dry, otherwise your nori paper will rip!)
3. For the spicy mayo, add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir. Put in refrigerator until ready to use!
4. When rice is done, add in the sugar, sesame oil, and vinegar to your rice. Let the rice cool.
5. To assemble to sushi
          - lay out your nori roll
          - when the sticky rice is cool, take 1/2 cup and put it in the middle of your nori paper. Using dry hands, pat the rice on a little over THREE QUARTERS of the paper (so a little over 1/4 of the paper will not have rice on it)
          - take a handful of carrots, a handful of cucumber, and 3 slices of avocado and lay them on top of the rice. don't overlap them- each vegetable gets a portion of the rice!
          - take a tablespoon of spicy mayo and dollop it across the vegetables
          - now comes the wrapping part- take the end with the rice and start rolling it towards the end with no rice- be careful, this is where it gets tricky!
          -when you wrap it all the way, take your finger and carefully moisten it and dab the ends of the nori paper so it sticks.
           - cut it in half with a serrated knife, then cut the halves again. This will give you four big sushi rolls! Cut them again and you'll get 8..however you like them!




Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Dark Chocolate Salted Brownies & NEW BLOG NAME

EVERYBODY! I've been lazy in regards to cooking and stuff so I'm so terriblydeeplysorry. BUT. Change in name to my blog URL--> GLUTENFREEHERBY.blogspot.com :] Soo if you think my blog has been erased nonono it has not! 
I made some brownies this weekend for my mom. Goodness gracious are they rich in chocolate. This was one of my first times actually experimenting with different types of flours for this recipe, and I definitely found my two favorite combinations for some extraordinarily dense chocolate: Sorghum and Coconut flour! These brownies aren't very cakey and fluffy, they are nice and thin and dense- my favorite. It makes me feel like I'm eating more in less amounts :] I honestly thought while consuming these I was drinking a salted caramel mocha from Starbucks! #notreallife. Definitely, if you even have a SWEET or SALTY tooth, these will do the trick. 

Dark Chocolate Salted Brownies
vegan~glutenfree~makes 16- 2" brownies in 8"x8" pan
1/2 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
3/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon himalayan sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven 350 F and spray 8x8" baking pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, add in your coconut flour, sorghum flour, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Whisk
3. Add in the brown sugar, your flax eggs, and vanilla extract in the middle of the mixture. Mix it in a blender until relatively smooth 
4. Put mixture into your baking pan and spread out. Sprinkle sea salt on top. 
5. Bake for 30 minutes- it'll be bubbly and will seem like it isn't ready but it is I promise! Cut up and serve!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A Day in Philly

I was so ecstatic to visit one of the greatest places of all time- Philadelphia. My mom was born and raised here and it is her genes that I obtained. The reason for the trip to Philly was due to a potential move for me in to the city. But first things first, and that is finding a job as well as a culinary school that I can fall in love with!

Our first stop? The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. It was beautiful, very elegant, but I still have many places to look at!

The more important thing here is where we actually ate after the Open House/Interview and what not! The place is called Vegan Tree on south street in the city. It. was. Amazing. We started off with a butternut squash soup as well as a creamy chickpea soup. The chickpea soup was ah-may-zing. My mom and I ate it too quick for me to get a snapshot #woopz. 

The dinner was also heavenly. For myself, I got the chickpea avocado and black bean salad with an amazing asian ginger dressing. So rich and creamy, and it had wonderful texture. Just thinking about it right now is making me go nuts! 
My mom just got a plethora of grilled veggies. Believe it or not, the purple vegetable in the farthest corner is actually EGGPLANT- not onions! They were cooked to perfection. I always find it hard to eat eggplant because of the texture, but not this eggplant!


And the best part...A milkshake. Haven't had one of these in so long and it felt so good to drink! Wish I could have some more!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Almond Cheeze from GF Vegan Holidays


My mom found this awesome recipe by Flying Apron's Jennifer Katzinger. It's an almond cheeze recipe from her Gluten Free and Vegan Holidays Cookbook. This recipe is absolutely HEAVENLY. Serve it with her homemade crackers or any type of cracker, and you have yourself an amazing dip for any festivity. I told my mom that she should've probably made it into a prettier log, but we were so excited to try this, we just wanted it! I had Bill try it, and he said it tasted like cheese!! So here it is, Flying Apron's Almond Cheeze

Flying Apron's Almond Cheeze
1 Cup Almonds, soaked for 10 hours or overnight
1/4 Cup Filtered Water
1/4 Cup EVOO
2 Cloves Garlic
1/4 Cup Fresh Thyme, plus extra for garnish
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan Sea Salt
Pinch of Ground Black Pepper

1) Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and combine until the cheese has a smooth, creamy texture (you might need to add more EVOO or water if it is not). Place cheeze into a mold and put in the refrigerator until it is ready to serve. To plate: add garnished thyme to the top