Additionally, I’ve styled this as a one pot recipe. Any method that dirties fewer dishes is a plus in my book!

Recommended Tools

I’ve mentioned it before, and I can’t stress it enough, if you chop a lot of vegetables, you’re going to want a mandoline. I linked to a couple of fancier versions in the Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup recipe, but the one I use at home is much more basic:

And then there is the immersion blender. This thing is so. useful. I use it all the time, and it is so much easier and less messy than a traditional blender. If you don’t have one, you need to get one:

Recipe

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Colcannon Soup (Vegan)

This vegan colcannon soup is a hearty, satisfying winter soup hiding a lot of cabbage and an unrivaled depth of flavor.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Irish

Keyword comfort food, Vegan

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Equipment

• Immersion Blender

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 a green cabbage
• 2 tbsp olive oil or cooking oil
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15 oz can cannellini beans, undrained
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1-4 cups water
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

• Scrub and slice or dice the potatoes. Shape doesn't matter since they'll be blended later. No need to peel.
• Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are fork soft all the way through.
• While the potatoes boil, dice the onion and finely chop the cabbage.
• Drain the potatoes and leave them in the strainer.
• Add the cooking oil to the pot followed by the onions, cabbage, and thyme.
• Sautée the cabbage and onions until the cabbage is fully softened, stirring frequently to evenly coat with the oil and evenly sautée. About 10 minutes.
• Return the potatoes to the pot with the cabbage and onions, and add the vegetable broth.
• Add enough water to bring the level of liquid almost level with the vegetables in the pot.
• Simmer 5-10 minutes.
• While the soup is simmering, blend together the cannellini beans (with the aquafaba – liquid from the can), nutritional yeast, and butter until smooth.
• OPTIONAL: For a chunkier soup, remove some of the cabbage and potatoes from the pot with a slotted spoon and set aside. Stir back into the soup after blending.
• Pour the blended bean cream into the simmering soup and use an immersion blender to blend it all together until reaching the desired consistency. I like to leave mine just a little bit chunky, but others prefer it completely smooth – especially if you have picky eaters in the house! If necessary, add more water during blending to thin out the soup.
• Season to taste with black pepper and salt.

The post Colcannon Soup (Vegan) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Amy’s No Chicken Noodle Soup is vegan and nails the chicken noodle soup flavor, but just isn’t hearty enough for me. Actually, I rarely eat a canned soup without at least adding a bunch of frozen veggies to it. The Amy’s soup can be a little hard to find at some grocery stores, but it’s easy to pick up on Amazon either by the can:

Or a case of 12:

Preparation Tip: Fast and Easy Slicing

If you cook with a lot of vegetables, a mandoline vegetable slicer is an amazing tool you will use ALL. THE. TIME. With mine, I was able to slice all the veggies for the soup in about 4 minutes.

Do you have a favorite “Cheater” recipe?

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Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan)

This vegan Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup is a quick and easy weeknight comfort food that is "Cheater" because it uses some ready-made grocery store ingredients.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword cheater, comfort food, soup, Vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cans Amy's No Chicken Noodle Soup
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• up to 7 cups water
• 1 can cannelloni beans, undrained
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• 1 package noodles of your choice eggless dumpling noodles, orzo, and ditalini work well
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic salt
• 1 tbsp oregano measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 ½ tbsp thyme measurement is for dried, but fresh is phenomenal in this soup; adjust to taste
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 lb frozen mixed vegetables or frozen peas* See note below
• Salt to taste

Optional Add-ins:

• Diced mushrooms shitakes are especially good
• diced potatoes
• green beans
• diced root vegetables parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, etc.

Instructions

• Heat oil in a soup pot on Med-High heat.
• Add the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery.
  
• Sauté until the onions are translucent.
• Add 2 cups of water and the pepper, garlic salt, oregano, thyme, and cayenne.
• Bring to a boil.
• Add the 2 cans of Amy's Soup, the cannelloni beans, and nutritional yeast.
• Add 2 to 5 cups of water based on your broth preferences. I typically use the soup cans to rinse out anything that gets left in them.
• Add the noodles and butter and bring to a boil.
• Boil until the noodles are soft, add the frozen vegetables.
• When the soup returns to a boil, it's ready to serve!

Notes

*Frozen Veggies Mom Hack:  I seriously felt like a genius when I thought of this.  If you are going to need to cool this soup off quickly (say, for instance to children who are starving to *death* and cannot possibly wait 3 minutes for it to cool down), hold back some of the frozen vegetables and add them when you serve the soup.  So much better than adding an ice cube because it doesn’t water down the soup!  Bonus:  If you let the kids add the veggies themselves, they’ll often take even more than you would have given them.  BAM.  #momgenuity

 

The post Cheater Chickenless Noodle Soup (Vegan) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Sourdough Inspiration

The day after our wedding in October, I was watching The Great British Baking Show and suddenly became moved to make sourdough starter. I had been thinking about it ever since I read Sourdough by Robin Sloan. If any book will make you want to bake sourdough bread, it’s that one. I love the subtlety of a novel that is just about the struggles and beauty of every day life with tiny bits of science fiction and fantasy sneaking in. Robin Sloan’s first novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is one of my favorite books of all time (granted, that’s a long list, ha), and I know many a sourdough baker who started after reading Sourdough.

I knew I would need bottled water to create a starter since our tap water is chlorinated, and I thought I needed grapes (turns out I didn’t) – and I had both bottled water and grapes left over for the wedding! What better way to begin a sourdough starter that would live with our family than from ingredients from our wedding?

Sourdough Starter

So I created Lancre, my sourdough starter named after the home of most of the witches in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I used the water from the wedding and the grapes (even though they weren’t necessary), along with some wild grapes from our backyard. If you’re interested in creating a starter of your own, I find the information over at The Clever Carrot to be the clearest and most helpful of all the sourdough websites I’ve explored.

I’ve been trying recipes here and there to use the starter that I need to discard when I feed Lancre each week. I made some great pancakes a couple weeks ago and failed miserably at making crumpets not long after that. I was really excited to find some recipes for soft pretzels using sourdough starter discard, but none of the recipes gave me exactly what I wanted: vegan, soft pretzels using sourdough starter discard and not using added yeast. I found a great recipe for vegan sourdough pretzels from Holy Cow! Vegan, but it called for added instant yeast.

Vegan Sourdough Soft Pretzels Recipe

What I present to you below is my variation on that recipe without the added yeast. To accommodate the change, I handle the dough much more similarly to sourdough bread dough and my recipe calls for a much longer rise time. For a quicker version, if you have instant yeast on hand, check out Holy Cow! Vegan’s recipe.

If you try these out, please let me know what you think and leave a rating!

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Soft Pretzels – Sourdough Starter Discard (Vegan, no added yeast)

Vegan soft pretzels made from sourdough starter discard with no added yeast.

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword Cooking with Kids, sourdough, starter discard, Vegan

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 27 minutes

Servings 12 Pretzels

Ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter discard
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup warm plant milk (soy, almond, oat, etc.)
• 3 cups bread flour or all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups all-purpose and 1 cup bread flour because that's what I had on hand)
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or other sweetener (sugar, agave, etc.)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt (plus some to sprinkle on top of pretzels if desired)

Glaze

• 1 tbsp sweetener
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

• Combine the sourdough starter, water, and plant milk. Stir until starter is dissolved.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until a shaggy dough forms.
• Autolyse: Cover the bowl and allow the shaggy dough to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. This will allow the gluten to start forming and make the dough more workable.
• Knead the dough until it comes together and forms a workable ball. If the dough is too dry or hard, add small amounts of water.
• Place the dough ball in a large, lightly greased (I use coconut oil to grease, but any plant oil will do) bowl. Cover in a relatively airtight manner. I will sometimes layer two plastic shopping bags over the top and secure with a rubber band, and have also found that a heavy pot lid without vents works well with one of my bowls. If you use plastic wrap, that works.
• Allow the dough to rest until it grows 50% to 100% – ie, until it gets half way to doubling or more. I rested it for 12 hours overnight. You can also put it in the oven with the oven light on to gently increase the warmth, which will cause it to rise more. This step will take anywhere from 3 to 12 hours depending on your starter, air temperature, and schedule.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
• Place the dough on a lightly greased surface and knead a few times into a ball.
• Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, covering the portions you are not working with a damp dish towel while they wait.

Shaping the Pretzels – Great fun for kids!

• Take one piece of dough and roll it out into a long snake – about 8 inches long.
• Lay the snake in a hill or "n" shape.
• Cross the legs of your n so you now have an upside down teardrop with legs.
• Cross the legs over again the same direction you did the first time. Now you have an upside down teardrop with a twist at the bottom and very short legs.
• Grasp the loop of the teardrop and fold it down to the bottom of the twist. This will result in the loop making a circle around the twist, the traditional pretzel shape. You may need to stretch the loop a little during this step to get the shape right, and that's totally fine! Also, you'll see from my pictures that they don't have to be perfectly shaped. It's more important that they're fun to make and taste great!
• Place the pretzel twists on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
• Mix the glaze.
• Brush the glaze evenly over the top of all the pretzels. We used our fingers for this since my kitchen brush has gone missing!
• Sprinkle lightly with salt if desired. Ours were very lightly salted with regular table salt.
• Bake for 27 minutes. For darker pretzels, you may want to place them on the top rack or bake them slightly longer.

The post Sourdough Soft Pretzels – Vegan, no added yeast appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• It is best to use “second snow” or “later snow”: snow from after the first couple hours of snowfall.
• Make sure to collect your snow from a clean surface (above and below) that has not been trodden on or touched.
• Fluffy, dry snow works best for this recipe.  That’s one of the bonuses.  My kids are always disappointed when the snow is not packing snow, but at least we can make snow cream!
• Packing snow occurs when the temperature is within a couple degrees above or below freezing.  Fluffy snow comes when the temperature is more than a few degrees below freezing.

Vegan Snow Ice Cream Recipe 

INGREDIENTS
All amounts are approximate and should be adjusted to taste 

• 4 – 8 cups clean snow
• 1 cup soy milk* (or other plant milk)*
• 1/3 cup or maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt

* You can use any flavor of milk that you choose – vanilla, chocolate, sweetened or unsweetened, almond, coconut, hemp, flax, macadamia, cashew, etc.  If you use a flavored and/or sweetened milk, you may desire to adjust the amounts of sugar and vanilla.

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk together all the ingredients except the snow in a large bowl.  (Leave the snow in a bowl outside or in the freezer until ready to stir it in.
2. Place the mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes.  (This step is optional, but snow cream melts very quickly and this step helps it last just a bit longer).
3. Mix in the snow about 1/2 cup at a time until the snow cream reaches a consistency just thicker than soft serve ice cream.
4. Serve and enjoy immediately!

As always, if you try this recipe, please let me know in the comments, like, and share this post!

Disclaimer:  All food comes with a risk.  I can’t guarantee that eating snow is safe, though I certainly feel comfortable with the snow ice cream we make and enjoy.  I find this article has good information on the comparative safety of consuming snow:  So You Want To Eat Snow. Is It Safe? We Asked Scientists

The post Snow Ice Cream appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

A friend of mine was kind enough to share her Taco Soup recipe quite some time ago, but I lost my phone (and therefore the pictures) shortly after I tried it out.  I think that actually turned out for the best, as it was even better this time!

For the fast, easy version of the recipe, simply go with the canned versions of all the listed ingredients, pre-mixed taco seasoning, and don’t bother with the toppings bar.  For a fun twist on Taco Night, lay out a whole spread of toppings – lettuce, diced tomatoes, olives, avocado, various salsas, tortilla chips, and so on.

Taco Soup Ingredients:

• 1 – 2 diced onion(s)
• 2 tbs oil suitable for sautéing (I used grapeseed)
• 46oz can tomato juice (low sodium preferred)
• 29oz can crushed tomatoes (low sodium preferred)
• 1 – 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 ½ cups prepared red kidney beans (or one can rinsed)
• 1 ½ cups prepared black beans (or one can rinsed)
• 4-5oz can of diced green chilies (mild to hot to your taste)
• ½ – ¾ cup Salsa (chunky)
• Taco Seasoning* to taste
  • Cumin
  • Garlic powder
  • Chili powder and/or cayenne
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic Salt
• 1 diced green bell pepper

Serve with:

• Diced avocado
• Shredded lettuce
• Tortilla chips (crunched up)
• Nutritional Yeast
• Olives
• All your favorite taco toppings!

*If you want to mix up taco seasoning to keep on hand, try this recipe.

Directions:
Note: This is a super flexible recipe.  The amounts of vegetables, beans, salsa, and seasonings are all completely flexible based on your tastes.  You could even add a lot more vegetables or tailor it to you preferred taco ingredients/toppings.

1. Dice the onion(s) and, in the pot the soup will cook in, briefly sauté them in the oil – only until they just start to soften.
2. Stir in everything else except the green bell pepper and the “serve with” ingredients.
   • You can thaw out the corn first, for slightly faster cooking
3. Bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add green pepper; simmer for 3-5 minutes, just long enough to heat the pepper through but not soften it.
5. Serve! Top bowls with crunched up tortilla chips, diced avocado, shredded lettuce, olives, nutritional yeast, and/or all your favorite taco toppings!

The post Vegan Taco Soup – Fast, Easy, Delicious appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

I grew up eating, and loving, Hamburger Helper Stroganoff.  Both my desire for nutritious food and for ethically produced food have long since separated me from this childhood favorite.  Last week, I finally created a vegan mushroom stroganoff that completely fills that comfort food sized hole Hamburger Helper had left behind.  Bonus: it is totally good for you.

This is such a convincing stroganoff that MacGyver actually asked if it had meat in it, even though he obviously knows better.

As a personal triumph, this is possibly the first recipe I have created entirely from scratch.  Most of my recipes are either amalgamations of a few other recipes or veganizations of my mom’s recipes.  It all started with one very important realization:  porcini mushrooms are the key to a good stroganoff.

The recipe feeds four – including one voracious breastfeeding mama (me) and one pre-teen in a constant state of growth-spurt (Punky).  There were no leftovers.

Ingredients
SAUTE
1 onion, diced
1 c (or more!) chopped mushrooms (I used a wild mushroom mix, but almost any mushrooms, including regular button, will do)
1-2 tbsp minced or chopped garlic
1/3 c dry white wine (optional)

SAUCE
1/2 oz (or more!) dried porcini mushrooms + 1 1/2 c water
1/2 c raw cashews, soaked
1/2 lb silken tofu (half a standard package)
1/3 c nutritional yeast
1 tsp thyme and/or oregano (dried)
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
vegetable broth, water, or unsweetened plant milk (like almond milk) as needed to obtain desired texture.
optional: truffle salt to taste

SERVE
1/2 lb wilted greens or vegetable of your choice (I used 1/2 a bag frozen kale) – Because, as Punky will be the first to tell you, I have to put green vegetables in everything.
Pasta of your choice, prepared – I’d love to have this over some high quality pappardelle noodles, but this kids chose penne this time around (whole wheat, of course).

Directions
1.  Soak cashews while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  If possible, soak for an hour.

2.  Dice onion and set aside to maximize nutritional value.

3.  Place a minimum of 1/2 oz of dried porcinis, broken up into small pieces, into 1 1/2 – 2 cups of water and bring to a boil (I just did this in the microwave).  Let sit at least 5 minutes.

4.  In a large pan, sauté the onion, garlic, and chopped mushrooms in white wine (or vegetable broth or water or a little oil) until the onions start to become translucent, the mushrooms brown, and the wine evaporates.

5. While that is going, combine all the sauce ingredients, including the water the porchinis simmered in, in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add vegetable broth, water, or almond milk (or similar) as needed to achieve the desired consistency.

6.  Add the sauce from the blender to the pan with the mushrooms and onions.  Mix and heat through.

Top your noodles with the greens followed by the sauce.  You can also mix it all together in one pot before serving.  Or keep the sautéed mushrooms and onions separate to top the sauce (noodles, greens, sauce, mushrooms and onions).  Sprinkle with just a dash of truffle salt if desired.

The post Perfect Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

It is also great for adults looking to save a little money on some delicious sprouts!

Growing sprouts in a jar is unbelievably easy.  Given how much these little beauties cost in the store, I can’t believe I didn’t start doing this sooner!  All you need is a mason jar (or similar) with a two piece lid, some type of screen material – I cut a square out of an old pair of clean nylons – gauze and screen also work, and sprout seeds (more about choosing seeds below – see Safety).  In about 5 days, you have a whole jar packed full of delicious, nutritious sprouts ready to eat.

This is the “Two-piece lid” I referenced above.  They are available here.
Image credit: Urbanbarn Etsy.

Getting Kids Involved

If you’re doing this activity with kids, you may also want to have some other fun plant life cycle related material handy.  There a lot of websites out there with preschool lessons and activities for plant life cycles.  Flintstone is particularly fond of gluing things to paper (we recently did the butterfly life cycle with different shapes of pasta).  The Magic School Bus episode The Magic School Bus Goes to Seed is also a great tie in, and the Scholastic website has more information and activities to go with that episode.

Tie in healthy eating with activities like this one (and the dozens of other free activities on this site) and a lively discussion of how we can watch our sprouts grow, then eat them and they help us grow!  More healthy eating related activities available here.

With just a little bit of guidance, kids can do this activity nearly entirely on their own.

Instructions:
This project is best started in the evening hours since the seeds will need to soak overnight.  It isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it works out well that way.

1.  Place 1 – 2 tablespoons of seeds in your jar.

2.  Spread your strainer material (nylons, gauze, screen, etc.) over the top and secure with the outer ring of the lid.

3.  Rinse the seeds by pouring water in through the mesh on top, swirling it around, then draining through the same mesh.
4.  Add a minimum of 3X as much water as seeds (ie, 1tbsp seeds needs at least 3tbsp water) – no need to be precise; I just fill the jar up 1/4 of the way.

5.  Allow the seeds to soak overnight (or a minimum of 8 hours).  I would also avoid oversoaking them, which is why I recommend starting in the evening.  Keep the jar out of direct sunlight, but not in the dark.  We left ours on the kitchen counter.  It will stay out of direct sunlight for the first 4-5 days.
6.  In the morning (or 8 hours later), drain the water out by pouring it through the mesh, then rinse again by the same method mentioned in step 3, draining fully.

The seeds start to sprout almost immediately after soaking.  Soaking is Day 1.  This is Day 2.

7.  Rinse and drain again in the evening.  Flintstone loved having this responsibility, and it was the first thing he wanted to do every morning.  Since the jar is glass I watched over him, but he was able to do it all completely by himself.

This is day 3 or 4.

8.  Continue to rinse and drain every morning and evening (or roughly every 12 hours) for 4 – 6 days.
9.  Once your jar of sprouts is full and has little green leaves on the ends, it can be placed in direct sunlight for a day to up the chlorophyll production.  After that, it can be moved to the refrigerator.

Day 4 or 5, window sill time!

10.  Enjoy the enthusiasm with which your little ones pack down the nutritious fruits of their labors!

Safety

       These days, warnings and worries about any and all raw foods, including vegetables, abound – and sprouts are no exception to that.  There have been outbreaks of food-borne illness linked to mass produced sprouts purchased in grocery stores in the past.  These are thought to have been linked to unsanitary growing conditions.  There have not been any recorded instances of food-borne illness linked to home grown sprouts that I was able to find in my research.

        Fresh sprouts are considered at the same level of risk as fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.).  It is possible for pathogens like e. coli can be spread from manure or other sources and hide out on fresh foods or even seeds.  The warm, damp growing conditions that these kinds of produce thrive in are conducive to growth of those pathogens.

       There have been a lot of changes in the sprout industry over the last four years, and up to date information on pathogen risk, prevalence, and the effectiveness of risk reduction techniques implemented around 2011 is limited.  Note: some sources warn against children, pregnant women, those with weakened immune systems, and the elderly consuming raw sprouts.  Note: Those same sources warn against consumption of raw berries, lettuces, and cut greens by those same groups.

       The risk is (arguably) small, but it is there, and it is up to the individual to make an informed choice.  I feel our home grown sprouts are safe – the same way I feel about berries.  I am not willing to give up the health benefits of most raw produce out of fear of the marginal risk of illness largely borne from major, corporate producers.   I AM, however, careful to obtain my seeds from a reliable source.  We used Handy Pantry 5 Seed Sprouting Mix.  Handy Pantry has been in business for over 20 years, sources most of their seeds from the US and Canada, and is GMO-free and organic (no pesticides on my sprouts, please!).  *I have not been asked to endorse this company, nor have I been compensated in any way for this article – that said, if Handy Pantry wanted to throw a little something my way, I would happily accept!

Other Resources

      Information on the Health Benefits of Eating Sprouts

      More Information on Sprouts and Food-borne Illness

       Giving Sprout Growing Kits as Gifts (with Free Printables) (coming soon)

The post Teaching Kids About Food and Plants: Grow Sprouts in a Jar appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

The vegetables I used are just that: the vegetables I used.  There are several other vegetables that would work just as well.  Basically any vegetable that will stand up to roasting and goes well with hummus will work on this pizza.  Go with what you like!

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Roasted Veggies:
– 1 medium onion, diced
– 1 small egg plant, sliced
– 1 small zucchini, sliced
– 8oz mushrooms, sliced
– 6 asparagus, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
– 2 tbsp minced garlic
– 2 tbsp of safflower oil or another oil with a high smoke point (450 or over)
– 3 tbsp za’atar* or Mediterranean/Middle Eastern spice mix
Other Ingredients:
– 1/4 c fresh parsley finely chopped – optional: sprinkle the parsley with lemon juice and olive oil or EVOO
– 8oz hummus (here is a recipe for home-made hummus, if you’re so inclined)
– 4 slices whole grain na’an bread
– extra za’atar or herbs as garnish

Directions:
1.  Toss all the Roasted Veggies ingredients listed above together, coating the vegetables with the oil and spices.
2.  Spread the vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet.
3.  Roast 20 minutes at 450F, stirring/turning over once.
4.  While the vegetables are roasting, spread a thick layer of hummus on one side of each slice of na’an, this is your “pizza sauce.”

5.  Sprinkle the parsley over the hummus.
6.  When the vegetables are brown around the edges, take them out of the oven and spread them on top of the na’an.
You can serve and enjoy them now, or, for crispy crusts:
7.  Place the pizzas on a baking sheet (you can re-use the vegetable sheet, a little oil and za’atar on the bottom of the pizzas will just add flavor and save you dishes!).  Reduce the oven temperature to 250F and bake for 20 minutes.

The kids and I ate ours after step 6.  Without the added baking time to crisp the crust, they are pretty floppy, but you also get the more authentic taste of the na’an.  I folded mine in half like a taco, and it was perfect.  Flintstone and Punky also developed their own methods:

Burrito Style

Flatbread Style

I just love both his face here and the fact that his “Mediterranean pizza burrito” is standing up on its own.

MacGyver was at a networking event, so I left his in the oven until he came home.  His crust was stiff and crunchy – definitely more “pizza” like.  Just the way he likes it!

Enjoy!

*Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix, so not technically Mediterranean.  Likewise, hummus is technically a Middle Eastern food, not Mediterranean.  Perhaps I should change the name of this recipe, but Middle Eastern Pizzas doesn’t flow very well.  I’m open to suggestions on this point.

The post Mediterranean Pizzas appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

Oddly enough, I am not a fan of pumpkin pie, but I love all things pumpkin spice – Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer, Pumpkin Spice Pancakes, and pretty much any iced pastry with “Pumpkin Spice” in the title.

This is my go-to breakfast in the cold weather months.  Oatmeal is already a healthy, hearty breakfast, and the pumpkin and molasses both add an extra kick of vitamins and minerals.

The recipe below is for one bowl (great for before school/work).  You can also multiply everything by 4 (or whatever number you want) and make it in a crock pot.  Also please note that the amounts for Oatmeal and Water will vary based on the kind of oatmeal you use; I use a mixture that is 1/2 steel cut oats and 1/2 muesli mix.

Ingredients
1/4 cup dried oats
1/3 cup water
—–
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses*
1 tsp real maple syrup*
1/2 tsp cinnamon*
1/4 tsp allspice*
1/4 tsp ginger*
1/8 tsp cloves*

* SUBSTITUTIONS:
– You can substitute the cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and cloves for 1 tsp “pumpkin pie spice,” but watch out for added preservatives.  I make my own (in roughly the proportions listed above).
– You can substitute brown sugar for the molasses and/or the maple syrup, but the flavor won’t be quite as perfect.  Also, if you subtract the molasses, you’re losing an excellent source of iron, calcium, manganese, and copper.

Directions
1.  Mix the oats and water in a microwave-safe bowl.2.  Microwave for 3 minutes.  Stir.  Add an additional tbsp water if necessary.  Microwave for one more minute.
–OR–
1.  Prepare one bowl of plain, unsweetened oatmeal according to package directions.
2.  Stir in the pumpkin, molasses, syrup, and spices.
3.  Serve and enjoy!

Stay warm, friends!

The post Easy Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

I love all things Halloween, especially Creepy Halloween Food.  Beet Rat Tails are one of my favorite wince inducing Halloween delicacies.  This fun, simple, and grotesque Halloween treat is sure to gross out all of your ghouls and goblins this year whether they are big or small.

1.   Start with a bunch of whole beets (with greens and roots still attached) like this:

2.  Cut off the greens.  Save the greens!  They are delicious, and very nutritious, stems and all.  I LOVE beet greens in salad, and they are also good sauteed like any other green.  DO NOT cut into the beet, meaning leave the root and some little spiky stems on your beets, like this:

3.  Put your beets in the pressure cooker and cover with just enough water to cover the beets, and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes*.

4.  Allow your beets to cool enough to handle (I, being impatient, often rinse them in cold water).

5.  Slice off the roots, and BAM, you have your rat tails.

These are great served over a thin bed of white rice to really contrast up the bloody look of the thing.  Be sure to have your tail-less rubber rat nearby!

(For the actual beets you have left over, slice off the tops and peel them.  They are incredibly easy to peel, the skin will just slide off with a little rubbing.  I squeeze them, and the beets pop right out of their skins.  Dice them up with a couple tablespoons of balsamic or apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon or two of dill.  Sooooo Yummmy.  If you’re not a fan of beets, try my amazingly nutritious pink pancakes.  You can also use the red beet water to make broth, or substitute it for water in any recipe for a little extra nutrition and some pink color.)

*This recipe calls for an electric pressure cooker.  Cooking times may vary; refer to your pressure cooker’s directions.  Instructions for a stove top pressure cooker can be found here.  You can probably make these without a pressure cooker, but I don’t know how.  I always cook beets in my pressure cooker.  It is amazing.

More Halloween Fun

     Halloween is my favorite.  I’m Jack, the Pumpkin King in my own mind.  In that vein, I was discussing my favorite Halloween movies with a co-worker today and realized that, not shockingly, my two favorite Halloween movies also happen to be two of my overall favorite movies of all time:

The Nightmare Before Christmas
and
Hocus Pocus

      Imagine my shock on discovering this morning that Hocus Pocus is 20 years old this season!  Whaaat??!!  It’s not that that fact makes me suddenly feel old (I already know I’m old, ha); it’s that the MOVIE doesn’t feel old to me.  I suppose it’s what they call timeless (though not really in the same style as, say, Gone With the Wind*).  I’ve already watched it with the kids twice this week, and have high hopes of watching it one more time before it gets packed away with the Halloween stuff (to keep it special) and Thankfulness (not Yuletides) abound.  The article about Hocus Pocus turning 20 is pretty entertaining.  It includes and interview with Jason Marsdon (the voice of Binx the cat) – fast becoming an icon among “nostalgic millenials” – a generation I seem to fit into all too perfectly.

* Humorously, the first movies I thought of to put instead of Gone With the Wind were: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and Marry Poppins.

Costumes are Sooooooo Fun!

       I’m struggling a little this year because we have had next to no time to work on our costumes, which saddens me.  I think they’ll still be good enough and fun, but not as great as they could be.  I already have an amazing idea for next year, though.  In recent years we’ve gone as:

The Addams Family – Flintsone, featured here as Pubert from Addams Family Values (another one of my favorite Halloween movies!) is about 6 weeks old.  Punky really got into her Wednesday role and took possibly too much pleasure in tearing the head off a barbie doll to prepare.  MacGyver was as charming and amorous as Gomez any day; and I was a particularly shapely Morticia 6 weeks post-baby.  I am zombied up because we spent this Halloween at a Surprise Zombie Wedding for a good friend, and instead of matching dresses, all the bridesmaids got zombiefied.  (The wedding was a surprise because all the guests, and even the parents of the bride and groom though this was just an engagement party – super fun!).

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Batman Villains –  (I had a lot of metal in my face at this point for my jaw surgery, hence that beautiful face).  Flintstone = the Riddler; Punky = Catwoman; me = Poison Ivy; and MacGyver in his incredible Joker outfit.

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Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, Monty Python – Flintsone being the killer rabbit himself with me as is unfortunate victim, Bors, and MacGyver the gallant King Arthur.  Punky opted to part from the family theme and went Vampire.  This year, she is back in the fold.  If you have never seen this part of Monty Python and the Holy Grail before, it is below.  You’re Welcome.

Samhain

Samhain is the pagan holiday associated with this time of year.  If you are at all interested, please read this excellent history from the lovely Stephanie over at The Coexist Cafe.  I would love to go into it hear, but I have costumes to finish!

Samhain is a time for spiritual reflection and mediation on, and appreciation of, loved one’s we have lost.  This is especially important to me since losing my brother, Boo – as well as several other wonderful people in the last few years.  While the magic and fun of Halloween stems from the history of Samhain, we celebrate them separately as a family to preserve the meaning behind Samhain.

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I could go on and on and ON about Halloween (and Samhain), but as I’ve alluded to already, I still have a lot of work to do, and I’m ready to get out and enjoy these holidays!!!

What is your favorite Halloween movie?  And What are you going as this year?

The post Creepy Halloween Food: Rat Tails (Plus a Bit of Hocus Pocus) appeared first on Urban Earthworm.