Beyond Binkies, Code and Make-Believe

Great ideas and solutions to every day problems and tasks

Why didnt I think of that?! We guarantee you’ll be uttering those words more than once at these ingenious little tips, tricks and ideas that solve everyday problems … some you never knew you had! (Above: hull strawberries easily using a straw).

Special Pecan Pie - My children BEG for this.

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup brown sugar - pure cane, don't substitute agave or any type of liquid or altered sugar!
• dash salt
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1/3 cup butter - substitute if you want
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup raw cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 1 9 inch pie shell or from scratch

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine eggs, sugar and salt, let stand 10 minutes

Stir in corn syrup and butter.   Add pecans and cranberries

Pour into pie crust, carefully cover edge of crust with a strip of foil, bake for 25 minutes.

Remove foil and bake 25 minutes longer. Pretty easy.

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

This is the only pudding my daughter will eat.  Has nothing to do with it being vegan, just the kind of rich chocolate she prefers over milky, sweet pudding.

1 ripe avodado - your heard me.

1/2 cup pure cocoa powder

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/2 - 1 tsp salt to taste

Run it all through the food processor. 

Thin it out a bit with soy or rice milk and freeze as pudding pops.

CREAMY NUT SAUCE WITH SPAGHETTI SQUASH OR RISOTTO

This recipe comes from "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian". It is one of two favorite cookbooks. The other one is "Vegan Italiano", both by Mark Bittman.

 

Dana Reames Favorite No Cook Pasta Sauce

2 cups fresh, homegrown tomatoes, diced (I usually use a mix of cherry tomatoes)
1 cup fresh mozzarella, cut or torn into small pieces
1/2 cup fresh basil, cut into ribbons or torn into small pieces
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic, pressed

A couple pf big glugs of olive oil
Plenty of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Cook pasta according to package direction, drain and add hot pasta to sauce mixture. This is great with a simple salad and fresh bread.Toss well and serve immediately.

Wraps - Shitakis, Tofu and Sesame Oil

Lisa Crozier's Potato Leek Soup

Saw some huge good lookin leeks at the farmers market today, so we are making Potato Leek Soup!
We were at a nice Italian restaurant a few years ago, and it was just the little old Italian owners running the place for the night, and it was unexpectedly busy. It was pretty late, and our kids were starving, so they kept on serving us this soup. We must have eaten five or six bowls between the four of us! So when we got home I looked up recipes, and this is the best one I found. It is just SO yummy, we can't get enough of it!

Mexican Style Slaw with Jicama and Cilantro

1 sm or 1/2 large cabbage or equiv from pre chopped bag
1 med jicama
4 scallions - white and green parts thinly sliced on diagonal
1/4 c chopped cilantro
1/4 c mayo or nf Greek
Plain yogurt
1/4 c lime juice
1 finely chopped jalapeño seeded, if you must

Strain cabbage for two hours after chopping
Mix mayo/yog w/ lime and jicama, jalapeño as dressing
Cabbage, scallions, cilantro tossed then add the jicama mixture, let it chill for and hour so jalapeño can do its magic

Almond Meal Cakes As a Base for Veggie dinner

Made this yesterday. I wanted a more interesting sidedish than rice, pasta and bread. Almond meal pancakes. I bought the raw almonds at Costco and processed them, with the pealing until they were coarse like meal.

Corn Chowder - Vegan style

For maximum efficiency, strip the corn and get the cobs simmering in water first; then chop the onion while the oil is heating, and peel and chop the potatoes as the onions are cooking. At that point, almost all of the work is done.