Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

(GF) (V)

An easy, one pot dinner for your family.

From Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6):

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion sliced

2 small tomatoes diced

1 teaspoon fresh ginger minced

1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

sea salt

2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4″ cubes (you can add more if you like)

7 cups vegetable broth (or water)

1 cup brown lentils

Directions:

Heat oil in large, deep pot. Add onion and stir until it starts to soften-about 2 minutes.

Stir in tomatoes and ginger. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Stir in turmeric, cumin coriander, cinnamon, cayenne and a pinch or two of sea salt

Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Add more salt if necessary.

Next, add sweet potatoes, broth and lentils.

Bring to a boil over high heat.

Cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the lentils and sweet potatoes are soft.

Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

Cookie Dough Truffles

Cookie Dough Truffles

(V) (GF)

These are fricking amazing. I read about them on Chef Chloe's website. I saw her for the first time on Food Network's Cupcake Wars. She's a vegan chef, and her vegan cupcakes WON! That's when I became a fan.

I made her Avocado Pesto Pasta back in August, and RAVED about it on my other blog. I've got another rave. I made this about a month ago. Once again, Chloe delivers. Think chocolate chip cookie dough encased in chocolate. Yes, it is as good as it sounds.

The original link is here:

http://chefchloe.com/sweets/vegan-cookie-dough-truffles.html

I used gluten-free flour instead of white flour. And because I was out of parchment paper, I had to adapt. Below is the recipe.

Ingredients

• ½ cup vegan margarine
• ¾ cup packed light brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (I used Pamela's Gluten-Free Baking Mix, also 1 1/4 cups.)
• 1/3 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips (dairy-free)
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate (dairy-free)

Procedure

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
(Note: I was out of parchment paper, which is a natural non-stick paper. I lined the baking sheets with white, regular paper. Then I put olive oil on some plastic wrap. I used that to rub the oil into the paper. Without it, the truffles will stick to the paper. It'll be a hot mess. Keep this one simple: buy the parchment paper!)

Using a mixer, beat margarine, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, and water until combined. Add flour and beat until incorporated. Fold in mini chocolate chips. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Roll chilled dough into 1-inch balls with the palms of your hands. Place on prepared baking sheets.

Freeze for 15 minutes. (I froze for an hour.)

Melt the remaining 12 ounces chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Let cool to room temperature.

Remove one tray of cookie dough balls from the freezer. Dip each ball into the melted chocolate and remove using two forks. Place the coated balls back onto the baking sheet and transfer to the refrigerator.

Repeat with the second tray of cookie dough balls. Chill until the chocolate is set, about 20 minutes. (I kept them in the fridge for an hour.) Store in refrigerator until serving.

They won't keep long in your house!

Cookie Dough Truffles

Raymond's Cupcakes

Raymond made me cupcakes a few weeks ago. Mind you, this was a spontaneous and true surprise. I was upstairs getting dressed. Raymond runs upstairs, "I made you cupcakes!"

I come down to see this mound of flour, sugar, and coconut flakes in paper cupcake liners. At first, I was annoyed. I won't lie. My first instinct, was "What the hell?" Then I QUICKLY course-corrected myself. Raymond loves to help me in the kitchen. I chose to encourage him, rather than say, "Dude, you used up all my coconut flakes." (Just being real. We moms have to watch what we say to our kids.)

Instead, I said, "Okay, let's add a few things so that your cupcakes can rise in the oven." I had no idea if it would work, but I added a touch of baking soda, baking powder, and salt. We put them in the oven for 10 minutes.

I go back upstairs. Ten minutes have surely passed, but I never hear the oven beep! I come back downstairs, and my man has taken the cupcakes out of the oven, AND, get this, made a chocolate sauce from scratch!

Again, I'm annoyed because Raymond took cupcakes out of a 350 degree oven. But I'm impressed because he made the sauce. From chocolate powder and honey, by the way. I say, "I'm proud of you, but please do not take anything out of the oven or use the stove without adult supervision."

I said, "Do you want me to help you make cupcakes next time?"

Response: "No, but next time you can take the cupcakes out of the oven."

HA!

But check this out: They were not only edible, they were kind of good! Rom and I were like, "These are actually good!" They had flavor :-).

As an aside, Raymond has wanted to be a chef since he was five years old. I took this picture of him in 2007. My baby may grow up be a world famous chef!

Raymond's Cupcakes

Lots Going On!

There has been so much going on lately. I wanted to write separate posts for everything. But I decided to put it all in one post.

First, Jona just had a birthday! He's seven years old now! Yea! That's him eating b-day gf cupcakes from Flavor Cupcakery (a Food Network Cupcake Wars winning bakery! Whoo Hoo!). Mommy didn't feel like making cupcakes from scratch. It's wonderful having an awesome bakery in my county that caters to GF-people and vegans.

And in a rare moment, I actually stuck myself in one of my kids photos. I decided not to hide behind the camera anymore. (More on that on my blog.) We took this self-portrait at Highlands School, where Raymond is getting one-on-one tutoring.

 

Here's Raymond with his tutor, Miss Heather, who spontaneously grabbed Raymond's Captain Underpants bag for the photo. I am so digging this school. We want to send Raymond there again this summer. Not only for the Social Activities Program, but the Academic side too. He wants to do his school work more independently, and that is a WONDERFUL thing.

 

This is Raymond with his Cranial-Sacral Therapist, Eric Sumwalt. I know Eric from my Mystickal Voyage days. I took Raymond there because I had read Cranial-Sacral Therapy was good for children with Autism and ADHD. I have to say that Raymond seemed more relaxed right after the session. I saw him relax during the hour-long session. We're seeing Eric every other week, for now.

This is Raymond with Dr. Salim, and his assistant, Tequila (yes, that is her real name) at Children's Heart Institute. Raymond had two irregular EKGs, plus a third irregular one while we were there. Dr. Salim did an echo cardiogram which looked normal, but he suggested Raymond wear a Holter device for 24-hours. Basically, it's a 24-hour EKG.

This is what part of it looked like. My poor child didn't get any sleep that night, as you can imagine. The good news is that Raymond's heart is normal!

This is the kids with their other speech therapist (they have two), Miss Amy. Looking at Jona's face, he has this nervous habit of licking around his mouth, or licking his hand then rubbing his hand around his mouth. Shea Butter knocks that out in 48-hours. So don't worry, he's fine!

And Raymond is in karate and jazz dance! Jona wants to take karate too. Now that he watches his brother, he's practicing his punches and kicks too :-).

Coming up: Raymond's homemade cupcakes.

Lots Going On!

How Cool is This?

Just wanted to share that Dav Pilkey, author of the Captain Underpants series & other books, sent Raymond an autographed book of  Super Diaper Baby 2!

How exciting is that? Raymond had sent Dav six of his "Bionic Boy" comic books. (Created and drawn by Raymond. Transcribed by Mommy.) To actually hear back from an author is always terrific!

Whoo Hoo!

How Cool is This?

Baltimore Abilities Special Arts Center

Raymond, Jona, Teen director Ruth Ann, and BASAC Founder-Director Zoey Robinson-Budreski

http://www.basac.org/

We went to the Baltimore Abilities Special Arts Center Open house last weekend and had a ball (as you can tell from the photos.)

Raymond is going to take a dance class there starting this week...with his brother watching from the sides. Jona will inevitably say, "I want to dance like Raymond." That's when I'll register him for a class! Raymond's excited and ready to roll!

I just wanted to share these two photos from the Open House because they were cute and funny. Those drums were LOUD! You see Jona's reaction.

But then he had to get on the drums himself!

A lot has been happening with the kids...all good things. Raymond and I are doing yoga together consistently. Jona's receiving the energy healing. They are both 'kicking butt and taking names' in Speech Therapy. I'm really proud of them. Continue to send us your positive loving energy.

Baltimore Abilities Special Arts Center

Jona Update

Two really quick things about six-year-old Jona:

1) NO TRAINING WHEELS! Yea! Jona can ride his bike without training wheels any longer! We are so proud of him.

2) He's a puzzle master, suddenly. A few months ago, I bought Toy Story puzzles for the boys. They range from 48-piece to 100-piece. Jona had no interest in them. On Friday, out of blue (no prompting, no nothing), he says, "I'm gonna make a puzzle." He did two of them, with no help from anyone. They were 48-piece and 100-piece. The next two were 60-piece and 100-piece. He said, "Mommy, can you help me?" I did, but minimally. Watching how his mind worked to figure out the puzzles was fascinating. I'm so proud of my Jona :-).

(And I still don't have a new camera yet...It's coming.)

Love,
Althea

Jona Update