Category: Recipes

Posted in Recipes

Berry Hibiscus Refresher

Posted on by KG

I’m not quite ready to let summer go just yet, so I whipped this up for a little taste of sunshine on this rainy day. This drink makes both a delicious non-alcoholic cocktail and a nice sunny pick-me-up.

Berry Hibiscus Refresher: Makes 1

  1. Muddle your sugar cube in a dash of hot water, and stir until dissolved.
  2. Add in your strawberry shrub, lemonade, and tea.
  3. Stir, then top with sparkling water.
  4. Carefully add in your frozen berries, stir once, and enjoy!
Posted in Recipes

Granola Cups

Posted on by KG

A great meal prep breakfast for the kids, and a great non-traditional way to enjoy granola!

Granola Cups: Makes about 15

  • 3 cups of your favorite Mack’s granola (Fruit Cave is really good for this. If you can’t use our granola, just find a looser granola at the store, steer away from granola clusters.)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 cups milk of choice
  • 2 eggs (or egg replacement)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup applesauce of choice
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup apples, diced (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350F, and grease 2 muffins pans. Set aside.

  1. In a medium bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients.
  2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together your eggs, milk, syrup, vanilla, and applesauce until thoroughly combined.
  3. If using, add your chopped apples to the wet mixture.
  4. Add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix well.
  5. Using a 2 oz scoop (or 1/4 cup measure), add a scoop of the batter to each muffin cup. Your batter will probably look quite loose, don’t panic! Your granola will absorb everything.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating your pans at the 15 minute mark to promote even baking.
  7. Once fully baked, allow them to cool completely at room temperature.
  8. Meal prep them out into containers or add to an airtight container and store.
  9. Enjoy!
Posted in Recipes

No-Churn Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream

Posted on by KG

‘Tis the season! This is a super easy recipe, no ice cream maker needed! You can do this by hand, but an electric mixer will make this easier on you.

Pumpkin Ice Cream: Makes 1 Quart

  • 2 cups milk of choice (we used cashew milk)
  • 1 (13.5 oz) can of coconut whipping cream (we used the Nature’s Charm brand – but really you can just make a cans worth of your favorite coconut whipped cream recipe and use that)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp of your favorite pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup of canned 100% pumpkin – NOT canned pumpkin pie filling
  • 3/4 – 1 cup sugar
  1. Add your whipping cream to a large bowl and beat on high for 3 minutes. (Or if you’re using pre-made whip, just add it to the bowl.)
  2. Add in your sugar and beat until just combined.
  3. Add in your remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly.
  4. Pour your ice cream base into a freezer safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours. (Tip: Don’t throw your bowl or mixer in the sink! You’ll need it again in a few hours.)
  5. Remove your partially frozen ice cream and return to the bowl. Mix again for 2-3 minutes until completely mixed and creamy.
  6. Add your ice cream to a freezer safe container (feel free to use the same one if it works for you) and freeze for another 1-2 hours, or until frozen through.
  7. Scoop, top with your favorite ice cream toppings, and enjoy! You can also blend this with coffee for a delicious pumpkiny morning boost!
Posted in Recipes

BBQ Sausage

Posted on by KG

Juicy, delicious, sweet and savory! If you don’t want to make stuffed sausage, feel free to make the mix and use it as a ground sausage!

BBQ Sausage: Makes 5 Pounds

  • 5 pounds ground chicken or pork
  • 1 cup of your favorite BBQ rub
  • 1/4 cup BBQ sauce (try our recipe!)

If making stuffed sausage, you’ll also need hog casings (read your sausage stuffers recommended size) and a sausage stuffer.

  1. Mix together your BBQ sauce, BBQ rub, and ground meat thoroughly, and allow the flavors to marry overnight in the refrigerator.
  2. The next day, assemble your stuffer according to manufacturers instructions.
  3. Soak your casing in cold running water for 5-10 minutes.
  4. Place your meat into the chamber of the stuffer, trying to get as little air into the chamber as possible.
  5. Giving yourself plenty of space, wet the stuffing tube and feed the casing onto the tube.
  6. Carefully press out any air that may have built up in the tube,then knot the end of your casing.
  7. Gently crank or push your stuffer to fill the casing with your sausage, you want them to be roughly 2 fingers thick in diameter, but play it by eye and make sure you don’t overfill the casing. Leave a little room for the change in pressure while twisting links.
  8. Add casings or meat as necessary for your machine.
  9. Once you’ve cased all of your sausage, twist into your desired length of links by pinching either end of your link and gently twirling in one direction. I generally make mine the length from my extended thumb to the tip of my pinky. (Think of the ASL sign for ‘Y’)
  10. At this point, you can carefully snip your sausage links apart.
  11. You can freeze your sausages to cook another time, or bake, grill, or pan sear them! Just remember to cook them to a minimum temperature of 165F.

Enjoy! I hope to have a video tutorial of sausage up soon, in the meantime there are many wonderful resources to learn the process of sausage making on the interwebs.

Posted in Recipes

BBQ Sauce

Posted on by KG

Slather on anything and everything!

Ribs, chicken, vegetables, your neighbor, beans, a flip flop, etc!*

It’s generally advised to only put on things that are safe/Legal to eat. Try not to torment your neighbors.

BBQ Sauce: Makes 2 Cups

  • ¼ cup BBQ rub (see bonus recipe)
  • ¼ cup Stock ( I use vegetable)
  • ¼ cup Brown sugar
  • ½ cup apple cider vinegar
  • ½ cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/3 cup molasses
  • 2 cups ketchup
  1. Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan, simmer over medium low/low heat for about 30 minutes, or until it reaches your desired thickness.
Posted in Recipes

French Toast Jammer Bake

Posted on by KG

A good way to add sweetness and a pop of fruit to your french toast, and great for meal prepping! It’s also a good way to use up bread that’s going a little stale.

French Toast Jammer Bake: Makes 4-5 Jumbo Cups

  • 1/2 loaf bread of choice, cut into cubes (we used whole wheat)
  • 1/4 cup jam of choice (we used blackberry for this batch)
  • 2 eggs or egg substitute (we used 1/3 cup plant based egg)
  • 1/4 cup milk of choice (we used oat milk)
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together your jam, eggs, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.
  3. Toss the cubes in the mixture, stirring to coat evenly.
  4. Grease a jumbo muffin pan, and spoon about 1/4 cup – 1/3 cup of the bread into each cup.
  5. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating your pan after 15 minutes to promote even baking. (Tip: You can use a regular muffin pan, just reduce the amount in each cup and keep an eye on your cooking time, it’s likely you’ll need a little less time in the oven, about 15-20 minutes.)
  6. Allow to cool slightly, then serve warm. (Or if making ahead of time, let them cool completely and store in the fridge.) Try with maple syrup or whipped cream!

Just a quick note: I’ve found the best way to remove them from the pan is to carefully run a rubber spatula around the outside of the bake and then scoop from the bottom.

Enjoy!

Posted in Recipes

Three Bean Stew

Posted on by KG

I’ve recently started to try to cook less often. Seems counterintuitive for a chef, doesn’t it? However, kitchen burnout is a very real (and real annoying) thing, so I’ve tasked myself to cook less often to help me have energy to cook more creatively. With cooking less comes the “I still need to feed the boys” so I’ve started making more of each thing I make so we have leftovers. This one is great for a crowd, packed with protein and veggies, and freezes decently well.

Three Bean Stew: Serves 5-6

  • 3 cups cooked beans of choice (canned, or dried beans that you’ve already cooked, For this batch I used pinto beans, kidney beans, and great white northern beans – around 1 cup of each.)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 bell pepper, chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 2-3 cups of stock (I used chicken)
  • 1 1/2 cups protein of choice (I used some homemade ham but you could easily use shredded chicken, cooked sausage, or a vegan protein like tempeh!)
  • 1/2 tsp ground rosemary
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
  • 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
  • 1/2 tsp granulated onion
  • 1/2 tsp adobo seasoning (I get a salt-free version from The Spice House)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup baby spinach or chopped kale
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Feel free to add in any other veggies you may want as well, I often use this recipe to help me clean out the fridge. Carrots, broccoli, zucchini, peas, and corn are all things I commonly add!

  1. Set a large stockpot over a medium heat and add in your oil, onion, garlic, pepper, protein (make sure your protein is fully cooked, or to make sure to cook it through during the sautéing stage), and any other hardy vegetable (like carrots or celery) that you may want to add.
  2. Cook until your vegetables are a light golden brown around the edges, and then add in your dry seasonings and lemon juice (or vinegar).
  3. Deglaze the pan with your chicken stock and add in your beans.
  4. Simmer everything together until tender until you reach your desired consistency. I sometimes like to cook it until it’s mushy and soupy, and sometimes I keep the beans more whole. This batch, I stopped right in the middle.
  5. About 3 minutes before you reach that consistency, stir in your spinach or kale, and allow to finish cooking.
  6. Adjust your seasonings to taste, and enjoy while it’s piping hot! Try serving it with garlic bread or over rice. Delicious.
Posted in Recipes

K’s Cukes… Er… Pickles

Posted on by KG

I am a pickle fiend. I’ll fully admit to that. It got to the point that when we visited family in Ohio, they’d pick up an extra jar of pickles just so I wouldn’t eat all of theirs. Needless to say, it’s about time that I shared my favorite homemade pickle recipe.

K’s Cukes – Makes 1 Quart

  • 1/2 pound pickling cucumbers, sliced into your desired shape, (I generally do spears)
  • 1 clove of garlic, smahed
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp sambal (optional)
  • 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 tsp fresh herbs of choice (dill, rosemary, thyme, etc. My favorite for this recipe is rosemary.)
  1. Place your cucumbers, garlic, herbs, and bay leaf into a heat safe jar or plastic container (large enough so the cucumbers can be completely submerged in the pickling liquid.)
  2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, add your remaining ingredients and heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
  3. Carefully pour the pickling liquid into your jar or container and allow to sit on the counter until cooled.
  4. Top your container with a lid and store in the fridge. You can eat them right away, but I like them best after 3-5 days.
  5. Enjoy!

Posted in Recipes

Creamy Dreamy Dressing

Posted on by KG

A little more protein, a lot of flavor! A good way to get your kids to eat their greens. Quick, easy, and also good for dipping!

  • 1/2 cup of your favorite hummus (we love roasted garlic hummus or caramelized onion hummus)
  • 2 tbsp pesto (try using our pesto recipe!)
  • 2-4 tbsp apple cider vinegar (to taste)
  • 2-4 tbsp water (to thin to your desired consistency)

Simply add your ingredients to a jar or container, cover tightly with a lid, and shake, shake, shake until smooth! Get the kids in on it and have them put a little bit of the work in! If the hummus is being stubborn and doesn’t want to shake, stir until smooth. Store in the fridge for up to 2-3 weeks. (Though I can never keep it around that long!)

Posted in Recipes

Herb Garden Pesto (Nut & Dairy Free)

Posted on by KG

I love harvesting herbs from my garden, seeing them grow is so satisfying! However, sometimes they grow faster than I can use them. This is a great way to use a bunch up at once!

Herb Garden Pesto: Makes 8-12 ounces

  • 1/4 cup fresh basil
  • 1/4 cup chives
  • 1/4 cup fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley
  • 2 tbsp fresh oregano
  • 2 tbsp roasted garlic
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1-2 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)
  • salt & pepper (to taste)

Simply add all you ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth!

Use it on pasta, roasted veggies, as a salad dressing, marinate some mozzarella with it, mix it into foccacia dough, or for anything else your pesto loving heart desires!