Real Hash Browns

GLUTEN FREE/VEGETARIAN/VEGAN/DAIRY FREE

Has browns are my favorite breakfast item. Whenever I have breakfast out it must be included in my dish or I’ll order it as a side. While some restaurants like to pass off chunks of fried potato as hash browns, there is nothing like grated potato hash.

Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

GLUTEN FREE/DAIRY FREE/VEGETARIAN

Another Pinterest find with a couple of modifications. I kept the egg yolks and added in some almond milk to make the batter a little thinner. I think I prefer this to the banana egg pancakes I posted previously.

Taste great with maple syrup.

Roasted Cabbage

PALEO/GLUTEN FREE/VEGAN/VEGETARIAN/DAIRY FREE/COCONUT OIL

I was deferring from blogging this particular recipe since it was a huge copy from Pinterest, but figured I would any way just to show a slightly different way of doing it.

The biggest difference is in the oil. I never use cooking spray unless I’m doing a mass baking project for a fundraiser. Also I got a great tip from a PamperedChef  rep that cooking spray should never be used on Teflon products. For home cooking I only use coconut oil and occasionally olive oil if I need the oil to be liquid and am too lazy to melt the coconut oil.

Vegan Scalloped Potatoes with Mushrooms

DAIRY FREE/GLUTEN FREE/ COCONUT OIL/VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

My husband loves scalloped potatoes and I haven’t made it in a while because my recipe is cheese based. For some reason I had a hankering for them yesterday and looked up some dairy free recipes. I didn’t much like my options, and remember a cauliflower ‘Alfredo’ sauce I had pinned, and decided to use it in my attempt at dairy free scalloped potatoes.

Oh, and I added sautéed mushrooms for fun. J

Vegan Chili

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN/GLUTEN FREE/DAIRY FREE

Switching to vegan chili wasn’t so hard. The real key is having enough chunky ingredients to make you not even notice the lack of meat. Also mushrooms…mushrooms help to add a little meaty flavor and texture. I’ve found a few different vegan chili recipes, most of which require tofu (yuck and not that good for you) so I’ve just gone with my original meat recipe took the meat out and added some more veggies in.

Banana Oat Muffins

DAIRY FREE/GLUTEN FREE/ COCONUT OIL/VEGAN/VEGETARIAN/EGG FREE OR NOT

This was a scary experiment at first. I found a great recipe at a time when we didn’t eat eggs or dairy (still don’t do dairy) and tried to replace those ingredients. Instead of a cup of Greek yoghurt I used cup coconut oil and instead of eggs I used baking soda and white vinegar. I also used coconut sugar in place of regular sugar, and added almond milk to reduce the thickness of the batter after replacing the yoghurt with coconut oil. 

Pinterest Connoisseur (May 2013)

It’s always frustrating when a new recipe adventure goes awry. You’re all excited to find a recipe that meets your needs in a particular moment, and convinced that the ingredients will be so awesome when they come together and then BOOM! Turns our you were wrong, your exciting was unwarranted and you’re out a few dollars in expensive ingredients. Welcome to my world. J

Here are some recipes I found on Pinterest that were not all they were “Pinned” up to be. I didn’t hate the results, but I’ll probably never make them again.

Oh, and just so this is the most disappointing blog I put up one Pin that I really did enjoy.

Coconut “Doughnut Holes”

VEGAN/PAELO/VEGETARIAN/DAIRY FREE/GLUTEN FREE/COCONUT OIL

I found the original recipe for this on Pinterest. The name for these was “coconut lemon melt-aways”, but thanks to my husband’s strange humor he convinced several of our paleo-eating friends to call them doughnut holes, because it annoyed me. Now it doesn’t annoy me and because I changed the recipe…by accident I’m ok with calling them doughnut holes now.

Normally when I “follow” a recipe I never follow it perfectly. I’ll add something extra and substitute something else. In this case I had not intentions of going off the recipe, but realized only on my third time making these I forgot a critical step. Turns out, the step wasn’t so critical because when I made them the correct way they didn’t taste as good.

PF Chang's Copy Cat Asparagus

My husband and I love hitting up PF Chang's for some good vegetarian/gluten free options every once in a while. Our favorite dish is the asparagus, so I had to see if I could make it on my own. i found the link below and except for switching out the oil for coconut oil and doubling the recipe everything remained the same, and turned out wonderfully.

The only problem was not having enough left overs for lunch the next day. Hee hee hee.

Original Recipe

Greek Potatoes

DAIRY FREE/GLUTEN FREE/COCOUT OIL/VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

This is one of my favorite ways to make potatoes. It had been a while since I had them, and last Easter I was looking for a new way to cook potatoes to go with a lamb roast I was making. Every time I looked up the best potatoes to go with a lamb Greek kept coming up in my searches.

The only changes I made to the recipe was to replace the olive oil with coconut oil, and the first time I made it with red potatoes and kept the skins on.

Clam Chowder Dairy & Gluten Free

DAIRY FREE/GLUTEN FREE/SEAFOOD/COCONUT OIL

Tried this out last night. My husband loves clam chowder, but since we don’t usually do dairy I’ve never ventured to try out any recipes for it. I got inspired to look for a good dairy free recipe last week when I accidentally discovered a tomato clam soup.

Unfortunately, I’m the only one who ended up liking this particular recipe when it was all done. So I’ll be eating it myself for the next couple of days. I should have trusted my instinct when I thought I should only make half. Oh well. I think it tastes great!

Curried Fried Rice (With or Without Eggs)

This was an experiment gone awesome! I cook rice about 3-5 times a week. Usually it’s brown and usually it’s organic. For the last few months I’ve been buying an organic brand from Costco that tastes very good. Normally, we eat it plain, but every once in a while I add a little flare, with a twist of the West Indies or twist of Asia. Today, I introduce you to a common flavor of the West Indies.

For this recipe and just about any fried rice recipe I prefer to use brown rice because it doesn’t hold has much water as white rice does. This helps keep the oil popping factor down and also makes mixing easier.

Mushrooms Sautéed in Red Wine & Coconut Oil

VEGETARIAN/GLUTEN FREE/COCONUT OIL/PALEO/DAIRY FREE/SUGAR FREE

Mushrooms are my favorite! Well, one of many. I’m usually too lazy to do much more than simply sauté my mushrooms in coconut oil or add it to a scrambled omelet, but this recipe looked so intriguing I had to try it out.

I’ve been getting in wines of late especially since a friend of mine started her own wine tasting business. The only problem I’ve found with wine is what to do with the ones I don’t like but have already opened. Thankfully wine makes an awesome ingredient in lots of recipe.

Penne Pasta & Eggs

VEGETARIAN/GLUTEN FREE/COCONUT OIL

We added eggs to our almost vegan diet recently. I think we’re officially vegetarians who eat fish. J Since we added eggs I’ve been going a wonderful scavenge for egg-based dishes.

Since we cut out gluten as well, it’s been hard to find the perfect pasta. I’ve found some good rice based pastas, but the texture is a little too different from regular wheat pasta and is hard to truly appreciate as a pasta substitute. The best ones I’ve found are quinoa/corn based, and I just found a perfect blend of it at Costco. An organic/gluten free brand (Ancient Grains) has perfect texture and taste to replace wheat pasta.

Gluten Free Lemon Bars

VEGETARIAN/PALEO/GLUTEN FREE/DAIRY FREE/COCONUT OIL

The hardest thing to give up/find a replacement for is pie crust. I have already tried variations of almond crusts, but this one was by far the most effective and tasty. It worked very well for the lemon bars, and I will be trying it out with other fruit fillings.

To avoid using the dreaded ingredient of regular sugar I have invested in a wonderful substitute, coconut sugar. I order it off of Amazon. This is the cheapest I’ve found so far. Since I don’t use a lot of sugar in my cooking I don’t go through it too fast and can justify the cost. It’s not as sweet as regular sugar, but can be used 1:1, and has far less calories. If I want the recipe to be sweeter I sometimes add a little extra than called for.

Banana Egg Pancakes

VEGETARIAN/PALEO/GLUTEN FREE/DAIRY FREE/COCONUT OIL/SUGAR FREE

Another wonderful discovery in my search for egg based vegetarian dishes. This recipe is just what it says, bananas and eggs. Super easy and quick to make. The texture takes getting used to, and if you’re my husband you’ll never like them.

Veggie Shepherd’s Pie

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN/GLUTEN FREE/DAIRY FREE/COCONUT OIL/SUGAR FREE

Shepherd’s pie is one of those wonderful, easy meat dishes that I used to make often prior to our change in diet. I figured out a way to make a vegan version that tastes just as wonderful. You can switch out the veggies however you like, the most important part is the potato, and if you want to have that meat texture mushrooms are the answer.