Wheat Thins

I made these with friend. I was surprised how easy they were to make.

Ingredients

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 T sugar

1/2 t salt (+ more for dusting the top if desired)

1/4 t paprika

4 T butter

1/4 c water

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in the butter until it is pea sized. Add the water and knead until smooth (like play dough)
Preheat oven to 400

Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Keep the other pieces covered while you work with one.

Dust work surface with flour and roll into a square (I am not talented enough to make a square) Roll to about 1/16 of an inch thick. Cut into strips using a pizza or rotary cutter (a knife will work too)

Place on a lined baking tray and bake 7 minutes or until starting to brown. Mine took 10 minutes, but watch closely. They are so thin they can burn quickly.

I sprinkled salt only over half of the crackers. The salt is only necessary if you are going to eat them plain. If you add a topping I don't think you need to add salt.

Butternut Squash Soup

This was so yummy! I ate all of the leftovers by myself. Just thinking about it makes me want to make it again.

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

1/2 c chopped onion (I used 2 T dried minced onion)

2 cans chicken stock (4 cups)

1/2 t marjoram

1/4 t ground black pepper

1/8 t cayenne pepper

8 oz cream cheese.

Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Brush with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet and roast in oven 30 minutes at 350. Once roasted, remove from skin. You can do this several days in advance it that is easier.

Blend squash and cream cheese in blender or food processor until smooth.

Place in large pot and use whisk to combine with remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer, not a full boil and serve.

If you want this soup to be truly smooth, I would also blend the onions with the squash. You could even blend the whole lot up in your blender if you wanted!

Delicious! We served it with fresh bread and it was an awesome meal. I totally loved it. I think you could leave the cream cheese out, it just wouldn't be as rich.

Calzones

Super yummy! I made both sauces (the white and red), because I wanted white and Rich wanted a red sauce. This was easy and good.

Bread Recipe:

2 c warm water
3 tb. dry yeast
1/2 tb. honey
1/2 tsp. salt
4-5 c whole wheat flour
(I actually halved this and made 5 Calzones instead of 8-10)
Combine water, yeast and honey and let sit for 5-10 min. (it will bubble up) Add salt and flour and knead for 5 minutes. Divide into 8 balls and roll out onto floured surface into individual pizza size crusts, fill, fold over and let rise 15 minutes. Bake 475 for 12 minutes.

Filling:

Chop veggies for filling:
1 onion
2 cups mushrooms
1 (6oz) can olives
1 green pepper, finely diced
1 tomato
optional: chunks of ham or chicken
optional: grated parmesan

Saute veggies all together in a little olive oil, I then added some chopped fresh roma tomatoes.

Sauces:

Red Pizza Sauce
(we actually used leftover canned spaghetti sauce)
1 (4oz) can tomato paste
1 (6oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt to taste

Creamy White Pizza Sauce
(I halved it and it was enough for 3 Calzones)
3 cups water
1/2 c wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tb Vegenaise
1 tsp. Italian seasoning

Whisk together on stove over medium heat.

Chocolate Cake

Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too!!!


I first made a pan of chocolate cake. Then after it cooled we cut it into squares and layered it with coconut whipped creme and raspberries then a layer of cake and then berries and creme. It was amazingly good!

Chocolate Cake (taken from Tam's blog)

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

3 T. sifted carob powder (I used cocoa powder)
1 t. baking soda
1 c. Sucanat
1/2 t. sea salt
5 T. coconut oil
1 T. white vinegar
1 T. vanilla
1 cup cold water

Put your flour into mixing bowl, add carob, baking soda, sugar and salt and mix well.Make three deep holes in the dry mixture. Into one, pour the oil, into the next, pour the vinegar, into the next, pour the vanilla.Pour the water into the bowl, over all of this.Mix the wet and dry ingredients together until there aren't any more lumps and pour into a 9x9 inch baking pan.Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, test with fork.Can also be made into cupcakes, bake for 15 minutes.

Whipped Creme

Take a can of coconut milk (not light kind) and get cold in fridge or freezer (don’t let freeze though) Then open the can and with a spoon, spoon out only the thick stuff. Put into a small food processor or blender add about 3-4 Tablespoons raw or organic sugar more if you like it sweeter and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Blend until smooth and creamy use like whipped creme.

Hamburger Buns

I am so sick of not being able to find good buns at the store, or having them cost more than the meat. So I started making my own in June. I tried a half dozen recipes with some success, but the ones I made this weekend were fabulous. Even my husband said they were great. He hasn't been a fan of my other tries, asking why we couldn't just buy hamburger buns...





5-6 cups of whole wheat flour
2 T yeast (I used regular old fashioned active dry yeast, but I'm sure any would do)
1/3 cup powdered milk
2 cups warm water (or substitute 2c. rice milk, soy milk or whatever for the water and pwd milk)
1/4 c oil
2 T honey
2 eggs
2 t salt
2 T dough enhancer

Mix the yeast, liquid and 3 cups of flour together. Dump everything else in and knead 10 minutes, or until gluten is well developed. The dough should just clean the sides of the bowl, but still be a little tacky to the touch. Let rise until double.

Form into buns. I made balls and flattened them. Preheat oven to 350. Let dough rise about 20 minutes then place in hot oven and bake 18-20 minutes.

This recipe made 13 good size buns. They held together beautifully and we nice and soft.