Homemade Coconut Milk Ice Cream

Homemade Coconut Milk Ice cream
From Live Free Gluten Free


Fact #1: I love ice cream.  Fact #2: I haven't had ice cream since September! Well, that is until today.  I have seen these posts on pinterest for homemade ice cream in a baggy and I wondered if it were possible to make it using coconut milk.  Well thanks to my good friend Google I found out it is possible! This is sooooooo easy and it was really yummy! Even Tyler liked it! It's also really fun to make.  Tyler had a good time shaking the bag and Clara thought it was hilarious!
It makes enough for one serving, although I would say maybe even two.  It is pretty sweet and I wouldn't have felt jipped if Mark had decided to share with me. 

For ice cream:    
1/2 cup coconut milk (like Thai Kitchen, so the actual real creamy, canned coconut milk) (it has to be the real coconut milk, not the lite coconut milk)
1 1/2 T sugar
1/4 t vanilla
optional add-ins: 1 T cocoa or ~3 T pureed fruit (like strawberries...mmmm) If you want to add chunks of stuff (cookie bits, strawberry pieces, etc.), wait until after the ice cream is frozen, then stir in those pieces (after it was finished I squirted on the tiniest bit of hershey's chocolate syrup - yes, that is dairyfree - and mmmm it was good)

For ice cream making:
~1 2/3 cup ice
~1/3 cup salt (if you have rock salt great, if not use whatever salt you have, it doesn't really matter) (I just used good ol' table salt)
1 Ziploc Sandwich Bag
1 Ziploc Gallon size storage bag

Directions
Mix all ice cream ingredients together and pour into the sandwich bag (you could also mix the ingredients in the bag, too).  Remove all excess air from the bag and seal it (make sure it's sealed really well, or you'll have salty ice cream).

Place ice and salt in the one-gallon bag, and add the sealed ice cream bag.  Remove as much excess air from the gallon size bag and seal it.

Knead the bag for 7-10 minutes. (basically I just shook it like a polaroid picture for about 6 minutes and it was nice and ice creamy.  It is really cold though.  I decided to hold it with a towel after my hands fell off from frostbite!)


To mom: I bet Eli would have a blast making this!
To Heather, Katelyn, Melissa: This would be a fun date/FHE/girls night/whatever
To everyone: will someone please remind me to take a picture before I devour my food!

Vegan Pizza

I was a wee bit wary of making a vegan pizza, but I finally decided to try and boy was it a success!! I haven't had pizza in a long time and to be honest, back when I could have pizza I didn't really like it.  But this pizza was great - fresh and nongreasy!  YUMMY! I basically ate most of it by myself - mom had a couple pieces. I'll take a picture the next time I make it.

Ingredients:
Pizza crust.  (I bought Freschetta crust from Winco)
Pizza sauce.  (I bought the homemade Winco sauce)
Toppings: peppers, onions, meat (I used the soy faux ham), pineapple, mushrooms, etc
Unparmesan

Directions:
Preheat oven. (Just follow the directions on the package). Spread sauce on crust and top with toppings.  IMPORTANT: Put the toppings on first - BEFORE the unparmesan. If you don't, the juice in the sauce will make it goopy, pasty, and yucky. Same thing goes for veggies/fruit that have a high juice content.  This is what I did to try and avoid pasty fake cheese: Put on all toppings (minus unparmesan) and bake the pizza for approximately half the total baking time.  Then pull the pizza out, sprinkle on a generous amount of unparmesan and return to the oven for the remainder of the baking time.  This worked great! I was able to use pineapple and not worry about the juice content. And the cheese wasn't pasty at all! Please make this! It was sooooo good! I'm basically planning on having a pizza night once a week!   

Unparmesan

Unparmesan: (aka fake cheese made from nutritional yeast)

From my best friend Christy Jackson!

1/2 cup raw cashews

1/3 cup nutritional yeast

Pinch of sea salt

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp lemon juice (give or take)

Blend (or food process) the cashews, yeast, salt, onion and garlic powder until it is a fine texture.  Add lemon juice slowly, blending until it becomes coarse crumbs.  It should look identical to the texture of grated parmesan cheese.  

This was great on the pizza I made! I can't wait to try it on pasta, popcorn, veggie lasagna, etc!! 

Cumin-Lime Dressing Quinoa

Quinoa Salad with Black Beans, Avocado and Cumin-Lime Dressing

From Eating For England

This was really yummy! Mark liked it and he had sworn off quinoa. Next time I make it I'll take a picture.  I feel bad taking another person's picture - copyright and all.  

serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 cup dry quinoa, rinsed
• 1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 3/4 cup water
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 avocado, chopped into chunks
• handful cherry tomatoes, quartered (I just chopped up a roma tomato) 
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped into chunks
• small handful cilantro, diced
• 1 limes, juiced
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• salt, to taste

Directions

1. Warm the olive/coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once it’s hot add the rinsed quinoa and toast for about 2-3 minutes until it starts smelling nutty and lovely. Add water, stir once, cover, and simmer with a lid on for 20 minutes.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, prepare all other ingredients. Prepare the dressing by combining the lime juice, oil, cumin, and salt. Whisk it aggressively. Adjust seasoning as necessary.
3. When the quinoa has finished cooking, remove it from heat and fluff with a fork. Add black beans and toss to warm them through.
4. Let the quinoa cool for about five minutes and then add all the remaining ingredients, including the dressing, and mix. Adjust seasoning if necessary.