Vegetarian Pizza at Grandma's

Monday morning, January 3. Time to get back to work. It's been a nice couple of weeks. Work has been really quiet and this long weekend has been very relaxing. I am looking forward to being busy again though. It's only 5 a.m. and I have our smoothie ready and my lunch packed. Fruit, black eyed peas and greens, and piece of a spice cake I made with some sweet meat squash for lunch, easy.  I think I have enough time to tell you about how our pizza turned out.

When the kids arrived Saturday afternoon I had most of the pizza makings ready. The last time they were here, Eryk wasn't too thrilled with my choice of meal.  I think we had au gratin potatoes and broccoli.  Lots of kids don't like the idea of putting broccoli in their mouths, I get it.  I thought I'd make something more kid familiar for dinner. It worked, he liked our veggie pizza. It was fun making it together too.

We used fresh spinach, caramelized onions, roasted red bell pepper, sun dried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and some Gimme Lean meatless sausage that I cooked in a little garlic chili oil and added some sage. I made the sauce with home canned tomatoes from our garden and a can of tomato paste blended with some dried basil, oregano, and fresh garlic. For the cheese topping I used a combination of dairy free Almond cheese and organic mozzarella cheese.

Grandpa likes to be the dough maker and he was very entertaining while working.

 It has been a very cold weekend, getting the dough to rise was a challenge.  The crust seemed scary, but it turned out just fine.

Kaylee made her own pizza in a smaller pan after getting some help with the dough.  She chose a few less toppings than I did.  She liked the mushrooms, sausage, and tomatoes.

Kaylee's Pizza

The Tapioca was a hit after dinner too.  After dinner Kaylee said there was a party going on in her stomach. Eryk signed a "thank you" and an "I love you" during dessert. I interpreted that as success.

This Grandma Makes Her Own Ice Cream

Babysitting the grandchildren this evening and I want some goodies around when they get here.  I picked up some chocolate mint soy milk the other day.  I don't usually purchase the flavored soy milk, but this was a good price and my husband and granddaughter like chocolate non dairy milks.  It didn't seem to be going very fast so I made ice cream with it. This time I did a very simple recipe with the chocolate soy milk in place of milk and coconut milk creamer in place of the cream. This can be made with any non dairy milk. 

I used a pretty simple mixture this time, it came out very chocolaty with a little hint of mint.

Vegan Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

1 cup sucanot
2/3 cup raw agave syrup
2/3 cup organic cocoa powder
1/4 cup WW pastry flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 cup choc mint soy milk
3 TB egg replacer with 1/2 cup water, whisked until foamy
1 TB vanilla extract
 3 cup choc mint soy milk
1 pint coconut milk creamer

In medium saucepan combine sucanot, agave, cocoa, flour and salt; stir in milk and egg replacer.  cook over medium heat stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Boil and stir 1 minute.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla, choc mint soy milk, and the coconut milk creamer.  Chill until cold and freeze in ice cream freezer for about 30 minutes.

Now, my granddaughter's brother, Eryk, and I are just getting to know each other.   He's physically challenged and doesn't speak or walk.  He does sign, so we are learning to communicate.  This is the second time I've gotten the chance to hang out with him.  He's from a different relationship, my former daughter in law's second son. He's four years old and this year is the first time we've really met.  That's another story for another time. I'm just grateful I get to play with him now. He doesn't like ice cream much I hear because he doesn't like very cold things.  He did cringe the last time he was here when I fed him some peach ice cream.  It took him awhile, but he did finally like it.  I decided to put together a pudding just in case the ice cream isn't a winner.

I made an old  fashioned tapioca pudding, with the tapioca pearls, not a pudding mix.  This is a vegetarian dessert as I did use non dairy milk, but I used the eggs this time.  I wanted a nice fluffy pudding and I didn't want to fool around with a failed experiment today.  I folded in some of the dark red cherries I canned this summer along with a handful of currants, some shredded coconut, and orange zest.  I also grated some cinnamon and nutmeg into the egg whites as they were being whipped into meringue.  I think he'll like it, we do.

Tapioca Pearls

Spiced Tapioca with Cherries and Coconut

I just roasted a red pepper and made some pizza crust.  Having a rough time with the rising in this weather.  Makes me wish for a gas stove so the pilot light would help keep things warm enough for a dough.  It rose some, it will just be a crispy crust.  Anyway, we're going to make homemade pizza together.  I thought the kids would like that.  I am caramelizing onions, sauteing some fresh mushrooms, grated some organic mozzarella cheese and some almond cheddar. I got some Gimme Lean meatless sausage I'm going to dress up with some of my own herbs.  We'll let you know later how that turns out.  Fun times, I love being a grandma!