Knead to Cook

Food & fitness obsessed girl.

Mango Avocado Zucchini Noodle Salad.

by Filed Under: Brunch, Fruit, Gluten Free, Holiday, No bake/cooking required!, Party Foods, Pasta, Raw, Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Vinaigrette, Vitamix, Wheat Free Leave a Comment

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Hope you all had a great holiday weekend!  We were so blessed to travel to NYC to visit friends from NH.  We toured.  We ate.  We laughed.  We connected.  Then we headed home as our oldest started her lifeguarding job on Sunday.  It was a great weekend.

So if you’ve been a follower of my blog since the beginning you’ve noticed that my eating has changed dramatically over the past two years.  Last year I became a vegetarian.  It wasn’t this huge decision making process for me.  I sat down one Saturday night when my husband had grilled some pork and I put a piece in my mouth and couldn’t eat it.  From that point forward, the switch occurred and that was it.  I never missed it.  Not bacon.  Not pulled pork. Hamburgers.  Nada!  Then in January I started to notice that my stomach was really hurting in the evenings.  Now with being a vegetarian I will admit that you normally, or at least I do, have a veggie belly by the evening.  I look a bit pregnant but once digested… the bloat goes away.  But this was different.  I was experiencing pain and other nasty symptoms that I will spare you the details on.  My husband suggested I give up dairy to see if that was my issue and I did.  And it was.  From that point, I became vegan.  It’s been my evolution, my journey and some embrace and support and some just don’t understand.  It’s all good.  It’s my journey and not theirs.  Then my daughter gave up dairy and gluten for acne issues and I felt that I had a partner in crime, making it easier.  My husband became a vegetarian in January and I still have three that eat meat.  My blog has been focusing more on vegan recipes and will continue to do so.

This recipe is insanely good.  I found it from Fully Raw Kristina who is a wildly popular raw vegan.  I thought this would be the perfect recipe for the holiday as it got very hot and sunny here.  Perfect light meal for a hot day.  This would be a great salad for a bbq or party that you are throwing.  Light and refreshing and a different twist on a typical fruit salad type dish.

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— Knead to Cook

Sriracha Dipping Sauce.

by Filed Under: Appetizers, Brunch, Condiments, Dips, Easter, Fish, Gluten Free, Grilling/Rubs/Sauces, Mexican, Pork, Salads, Sauces, Seafood, Side dish, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wheat Free Leave a Comment

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I’ve developed a fond love of cashew cream as of late.  It’s incredibly easy to whip up and is one of the most versatile concoctions you can have in your kitchen.  From adding maple syrup for sweet recipes to Sriracha sauce for hot and spicy.  Use this as a substitution anywhere you use heavy cream.  It’s perfect for anyone who is lactose intolerant because it has no dairy.  The cream is actually made from cashews. 100% vegan.  Gluten free.  I love sharing fun, easy and super simple recipes with you.  This one is perfect!

I served this up as an appetizer with fresh veggies – English cucumbers, raw asparagus, jicama and carrot sticks.  My kids were also dipping pretzel crisps in it.  Perfect for the Sriracha lover!
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— Knead to Cook

Vegan Kale and Basil Pesto.

by Filed Under: Appetizers, Brunch, Condiments, Dips, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Grilling, Grilling/Rubs/Sauces, No bake/cooking required!, Party Foods, Pizza, Pork, Sauces, Seafood, Vegan, Vegetarian, Vitamix, Wheat Free 2 Comments

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On a vegan roll this week with the recipes.  Again, I think many people shy away or turn their nose up to trying vegan recipes – trust me, don’t!  All of these recipes I’m sharing I “test run” on my family and my kids and father are all staunch carnivores.  It is nice to mix up your menu choices.  Add more veggies and sub out the meat once in awhile, remember Meatless Mondays?  Okay so my kids LOVE LOVE love, pesto.  I haven’t made it all winter – well because it reminds me of spring and summer.  It’s light and fresh and normally has ingredients that come from our garden.  Well now that the snow has melted (Amen!) and spring has SPRUNG (finally) I wanted to whip up a different pesto that was nutritionally set up as a powerhouse, who doesn’t want their kids to eat more green veggies right?, and was totally vegan (because you can try a vegan recipe without dying I promise).

This pesto is so packed with vitamins and minerals – your body will be humming along nicely and when you eat lots of color (remember science and photosynthesis?) – that comes from the sun, that energy and glow will happen to you.  Insert the wahhh wahhh wahhhh from Charlie Brown but I’m serious.  Since becoming a vegetarian – consuming more and more vegetables has changed my skin texture and it now has a glow plus I have a ton of energy.  Meat doesn’t do that for you, sorry.

Back to the recipe at hand… this recipe can be made solely with basil or a combination of basil, kale and spinach – whatever you like.  Totally flexible and totally tasty.  Also refrigerates or freezes beautifully.  Plus how easy is this dinner… process it in your food processor or Vitamix and keep it in the fridge till you boil your pasta.  Ummmm hello easy weeknight dinner.  Also spreads great on crackers, acts as a dip for veggies or a spread on your sandwich, top your favorite protein, in soup… the ideas are endless.

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— Knead to Cook

Cashew Cream Dijon Sauce, Dressing, Dip.

by Filed Under: Brunch, Condiments, Dips, Easter, Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Grilling/Rubs/Sauces, No bake/cooking required!, Salads, Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wheat Free 2 Comments

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Today I made a batch of cashew cream and coincidentally roasted about 4 lbs of golden beets that I scored at the grocery store (rare gems that they are).  I am a huge beet fan.  I love red, candy cane and golden beets – with the latter being my favorite.  So while they cooled, I sat thinking that I need to make a sauce to top these (my standard is some aged balsamic) and immediately came up with this recipe.  I will now admit that I think I ate about 2 lbs of the beets for lunch with the sauce because it was SO GOOD!  Seriously, I’m counting the minutes until its socially acceptable for me to gorge myself of the remaining beets and sauce.  You have to try this!  No other words necessary.

Additional uses for this sauce:  Salad dressing, vegetable dip, toss with pasta, top chicken, pork or fish or as a sandwich spread.  Totally vegan.
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— Knead to Cook

Roasted cherry tomatoes.

by Filed Under: Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Grilling/Rubs/Sauces, Italian-inspired, Pasta, Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wheat Free Leave a Comment

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If you you’re a tomato aficionado or not, you know that winter tomatoes pretty much are the nastiest, mealy, flavorless things you can buy.  But the fact remains, if you love sauce for pizza, pasta, salsas or for pretty much anything else… you need to buy/consume these vial impostors.  I live on homegrown, our own for that matter, tomatoes all summer long.  They are without a doubt my favorite thing in our garden. I can eat them pretty much like an apple.  I always have, for as long as I can remember.

So winter comes, and apparently may be staying forever… but I digress.  How do we make these little, what look to be beautiful impostors taste good?  Well, roast them of course!  Even the most kitchen-paranoid can do this.  You can actually host a dinner party quite successfully with this recipe and impress your guests.  So easy and pretty much full-proof – I dare say! Even better, totally vegan!  So if you care about that or not… plant based diets are proven to improve your health and have positive impact on you body.  That my dear friend is a wonderful thing!

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— Knead to Cook

Very Veggie Marinara Sauce.

by Filed Under: Evolution Power Yoga 40 Days, Gluten Free, Italian-inspired, Pasta, Sauces, Vegan, Vegetarian, Vitamix Leave a Comment

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Happy President’s Day!  This week will be an absolute blur for me – too many meetings, a very special 15th birthday, her party, and our swim team is hosting a very large, all-day swim meet that I’m on the board for… lots of planning on tap this week.  I’m very happy to have a post ready to go today.  It’s actually our dinner for tonight and I’ll admit that I’ve eaten a bowl of this sauce already (you know, quality assurance).  It’s perfect for meatless Monday!  And if you puree it – it makes it kid-proof so they can’t pick out veggies or even detect them AND it thickens the sauce up nicely so your most voracious carnivores get the same thick, meaty sauce feeling in their mouth that will fill them up sans the meat.  

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— Knead to Cook

Italian Beef Meatballs.

by Filed Under: Beef, Italian-inspired, Sauces 1 Comment

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I hope my grandmother and aunt aren’t rolling in their graves with these meatballs.  My family’s meatball recipe which is here is a combination of three meats.  I wanted to mix it up and make an organic, grass-fed beef meatball.  My family loved them!  In fact, my father, while on his way out to the gym just commented again on how wonderful dinner was last night.  If I have his approval… I’m hoping my grandma would also approve.  My sauce recipe can be found here.  And the baguette recipe can be found here.  Now onto the recipe…

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— Knead to Cook

Unsweetened cinnamon applesauce.

by Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, Condiments, Dips, Gluten Free, Holiday, Sauces, Side dish, Snacks, Vegetarian, Vitamix 4 Comments

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Apple week continues!  I couldn’t have a week of apple recipes without a good applesauce recipe, let’s face it.  This recipe is so super easy and makes as much or as little as you want.  I like to make a lot because I use a lot of applesauce in my baking in lieu of adding fat.  You can easily control the consistency (if you like smooth or chunkier) and the amount of cinnamon you prefer.  This is another fix it and forget it recipe that doesn’t require babysitting.
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— Knead to Cook

Simple Chardonnay Red Sauce.

by Filed Under: Gluten Free, Italian-inspired, Pasta, Sauces, Vegetarian, Vitamix, Wheat Free Leave a Comment

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Yesterday I noticed the bag of tomatoes that my husband had purchased at the farmer’s market for me to roast -last week.  Insert a crazy week and I never got around to it. I was debating between salsa or sauce and opted for sauce.  I was going to pair it up with my spaghetti squash (in lieu of pasta) that I also needed to roast (thank God for two ovens) and I had dinner set.  The unique twist on my standard sauce was that I grabbed a bottle of chardonnay instead of the red that I had on the counter and before I knew it – about a cup of the white wine was in my beloved roasted tomatoes.  Why can I see my grandmother and aunt rolling in their graves observing my mistake.  But mistake it was not!  I pureed the tomatoes and wine and was blown away by the unique flavor the chardonnay added to the sauce.  Hello my newest creation… I think I’m quite smitten with you.

Now, onto the recipe…
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— Knead to Cook

Smoked Honey Dijon Mustard Glaze.

by Filed Under: Chicken, Fish, Fruit, Gluten Free, Grilling, Grilling/Rubs/Sauces, Pork, Sauces, Seafood, Vegetarian, Wheat Free 2 Comments

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My little farm stand, tucked away on this windy road, surrounded by Amish farms has this wonderful little gem I found probably two or so years ago and I keep going back for more… it’s smoked honey.  I’ve gotten a slew of questions about how one smokes honey every time I post a picture.  I’m unsure of the exact measures that one takes to yield such an incredible product but I’m sure glad they do!  It’s remarkably flexible… I can top grilled fruit with it or use it in glazes, such as this one.  Tonight I’m grilling up a pork tenderloin for my family and this glaze will finish it off nicely.  You can easily use it over fish or chicken as well.

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— Knead to Cook