Vegan Nutella

This is for you Shiree.... I know you will love it.

Ingredients

1 2/3 cup whole hazelnuts (with or without their skins)
1 3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I think that Almond Milk would be delicious)

3/4 cup + 1-2 tbsp powdered non-dairy milk*
4 tablespoons agave nectar
pinch of sea salt
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces (140g) dark chocolate, chopped (look for chocolate with 50% or more cacao solids)

*Note:  I used powdered creamed coconut in my recipe.  Some brands of this stuff include sodium caseinate in their product, which is a milk derivative.  So watch out for this ingredient if you’d like to use powdered creamed coconut in your recipe.

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

2.  Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 10 -15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are nicely toasted and brown (but not burnt!).  Stir the nuts every 5 minutes to evenly toast them and remove them from the oven once they are done.

2. In a small pot, combine the milk, powdered milk, agave, and salt and bring to a boil.  As soon as it starts to boil, remove the pot from the heat.

3. Fill another small pot with about 1″ of water.  Bring the water to a boil, then turn it down to low so that it is just barely simmering.  Put the chopped chocolate in a heat-proof glass bowl and set the bowl over the top of the pot, using a rubber spatula to stir the chocolate until it has completely melted.

4. If your nuts have their skins on them (skip this step if they don’t): Using a clean tea towel, place the nuts on the tea towel and gather up the edges of the towel, creating a pouch for the nuts.  Rub the nuts together quickly and firmly to remove as much of the skins as you can.  Don’t worry about how much skin is left on the nuts.  Just try to get off as much as you can without stressing too much about it.

5. Use a food processor to grind the nuts as finely as you can (watch that you don’t turn them into a nut butter).

6. When the nuts are the right consistency (think tiny pin-head sized grains of nut), add the melted chocolate and continue to process the paste until the nuts are fully incorporated and the mixture is relatively smooth.

7.  Add the milk mixture to the paste and process until it is fully combined and you have a pretty smooth paste.

9. Transfer the mixture into two jars (I reused some canning and nut butter jars) and refrigerate.  The paste will seem a bit runny a first, but give it some fridge time and it will firm up into the perfect texture.

Homemade Spice Recipes, and a BONUS!

Speaking of making the seasoning for rice by ourselves, here are a couple of recipes that would be nice to try, either on rice or vegetables, in soups or salads or whatever.  I already like them!  And stay tuned at the bottom for a yummy, 2 ingredient dessert!

Dry Onion Soup Mix (by Budget101)
4 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
8 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp seasoned pepper

Combine all and store in a spice jar or bottle.

All Purpose Salt Substitue Mix (by Budget101)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp basil
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp powdered lemon rind

Combine and serve in a salt shaker.

Almost Emeril's Southwest Seasoning Mix (by Budget101)
2 Tbs chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbs paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1Tbs ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs dried oregano

Mix well and store in a spice jar or bottle.

All Purpose Spice Mix (by Budget101)
1/4 C sesame seeds
2 Tbs paprika
1 Tbs poppy seeds
1 Tbs + 1 Tsp chicken bouillon
2 Tbs dried parsley
1 Tbs onion flakes
1 Tbs garlic powder
1 Tbs celery seed
1/2 Tbs salt
1/2 Tbs pepper

Mix and store in salt shaker.  Gluten free, dairy free!

And now for a yummy, super easy dessert (or breakfast):

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins (again, Budget101)
1 Gluten Free yellow cake mix
1 15 oz can Pumpkin

Dump the cake mix and the pumpkin into a bowl, mix and bake in cupcake liners for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.  How easy is that?!  If you want to really get fancy, you can add a handful of chopped nuts or raisins (or both), or 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.  Add a little dollup of Almond Milk Yogurt (recipe to follow, Becki?) and voila!!!

First post!!!

Okay, ladies, so I am going to get this blog going.  You can feel free to add and post.  I am going to do my best to find fun and yummy recipes and try them. 

So... night one.

I chose this meal because it was what was in my fridge.  Oh, and grapes were on a killer sale at WalMart ($1/lb).  I had spinach leftover from BB and it was tasty.  I thought of having strawberries with the salad. 

Prepping the sweet potato (BTW - this is a big sweet potato...) microwaved for 7 minutes, added a little olive oil, garlic powder and salt and pepper.  It was divine.  I think you could do maple syrup instead and make it AWESOME! 

I am low on my carbs today, so I could have done wild rice.  I researched a bit and the Rice-a-Roni Long Grain and Wild Rice is considered gluten free if you do not add the seasoning mix. 

Maybe we could do our own seasoning mix for rice... they use dehydrated broccoli, garlic, onion, salt and lots of preservatives.  Just sayin...

The salad dressing is gluten free Ken's Dressings Ceasar.  There are a bunch that you can do, but I think oil and vinegar would have been really good or a raspberry vineagrette...

My favorite vineagrette recipe:
equal parts of raspberry jam and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.  MMMmmmm...  should have done that.