Family Fun Night~ Homemade Stromboli

Every Friday night we like to have a Family Fun Night. We started this tradition back a couple of years ago, and we have stuck with it. We do eat dinner as a family every night, but some nights during the week we have somewhere to be- Theatre classes, Scouts, sports. So we set aside Friday nights to spend at home as a family. The girls get to choose dinner for that night, and we either watch a movie, play games, or work on some sort of project together.

Lately we've been on a pizza kick. We've done Bagel Pizzas, and Pepperoni Pizzas, and once we had a Pizza Night with friends. We have found that making our crust from scratch is so much better than buying a premade one. One night we decided to try something a little different and made Stromboli. It was an instant hit, and has become our Family Fun Night meal.

INGREDIENTS & DIRECTIONS:

We make the entire thing from scratch. It is a little time consuming but totally worth it!

Sauce:

1 can plain tomato sauce

1 small can tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon basil

pinch of sugar (to cut the acidity)

Let it simmer on the stove while you get the rest of you ingredients together.

Toppings:

While you are letting your sauce simmer for a few minutes, use this time to get your toppings together. For this we used:

Ham

Deli Pepperoni

Green Pepper

Onion

Mushrooms

Veggie Shreds cheese

You can put whatever you like. Since I am not allergic to Casein I can use Veggie Shreds, but if you have a milk protein allergy you could use Daiya cheese instead. I have heard it is a great vegan cheese alternative, but I have not yet been able to buy it where I live.

I like to get all my toppings chopped and ready to go before I start on the dough:
Dough:

1- 3/4 to 2- 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 envelope (or 2 & 1/4 teaspoons) pizza crust yeast (we use Fleischmann's- the recipe for the dough is on the package)

1 1/2 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup very warm water

3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425F.
In your stand mixer combine the 1 cup flour, package of yeast,sugar, and salt. Add water and oil. Mix together using your dough hook attachment




Mix all the ingredients together until they are well blended. Gradually add 1/2 cup of flour until a dough ball is formed. If needed, add additional flour to form the ball.

On a floured surface, knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic- about 4 minutes.

Roll out onto a lightly greased baking sheet. (I also cover the pan in aluminum foil to save on cleanup time.)


Spread a thin layer of sauce on the dough and add your cheese alternative. Put your toppings on one side of the crust.
Fold one side of the crust over to cover the side with the toppings. Fold the edges over and pinch together. I like to brush mine with a little olive oil and sprinkle basil and oregano on top.
Cut 3 slits in the crust.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.


*For Vegans or Vegetarians you can omit any meat and fill it with veggies instead. *

**I have found that dairy free cheese melts better when it is inside something or covered, which is why this stromboli works so well. **

What are some of your favorite pizza toppings?

For the Kids~Homemade Apple Chips

We belong to a Summer and a Fall CSA , and last week we got a huge bag of locally grown apples. Along with that we also got a bag of tangerines, sweet potatoes, broccoli, white potatoes, and a head of cabbage. If you aren't part of a CSA, I highly recommend finding one and joining.

Since we have so many apples right now, I decided to turn some of them into apple chips for the girls. My kids love dried fruit, and they love apples so this seems to be the perfect snack for them.
I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, then looked up several other recipes to see different variations. I put together a few different ideas and came up with my own:

Ingredients:
Apples
Ground Cinnamon
Nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to between 235F and 250F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Wash your apples. Core them but leave the skin on. Slice thinly if your corer doesn't do it for you.




Sprinkle with cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. I did not add any sugar at all- some recipes do, but apples are sweet enough in my opinion. Plus, these are for the kids and I want them to be a healthy snack, not loaded with sugar.


Let cook for 1 hour. At the end of the hour, take them out and flip them. Put back in the oven and cook for 1 more hour. Your total cooking time is 2 hours so not too bad at all. I put these in the oven before I started on dinner, and they were done in time for a pre-bedtime snack.



I have to make more today- the girls have already finished these off. Luckily we got another bag of apples with our delivery this week.

An added bonus- they made my house smell AMAZING!

Quick & Easy Pancakes

We eat a lot of pancakes in our house. A LOT. As in once a week at least. Sometimes for breakfast, sometimes for dinner. My girls- all three of them- love pancakes. And so do I- they are so easy to make, everyone gets to eat them the way they want to. My oldest daughter likes to make peanut butter and jelly pancakes. My middle puts either syrup or honey on hers The youngest eats them plain. I like mine with buttery spread and honey. Usually we pair them with fruit and scrambled eggs for breakfast, and for brinner we'll have bacon, eggs, and hash browns. I always make extra so I can keep them for breakfasts for a few days too.


I adapted this recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is listed as a Buttermilk Pancake recipe, but there is a variation posted beneath it where you can omit the buttermilk and use regular milk so I just sub my non-dairy milk. I add a few extra ingredients to mine as well.


Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 1/2 cups vanilla soy milk (or non dairy milk)
3 Tablespoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of nutmeg



Directions:
1.In a large bowl combine your dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.
In a small bowl lightly beat the egg, add your soy milk and oil. Combine the two. We like our pancakes on the thinner side, so I always add more soy milk to the batter and thin it out. Once you have gotten your desired consistency, add in your cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg (if desired).


I let my batter stand for about 10 minutes and come to room temp or so before I use it.


2. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto your preheated griddle, or a greased heavy skillet.


Cook on one side until the bubbles in the batter don't close up, or until the sides start to turn golden.



You can omit the cinnamon, vanilla, and/or nutmeg if you would like. I have also done vanilla and dairy free chocolate chips (more of a special treat or dessert pancake). We have topped these with peaches, fried apples, sauteed bananas... the possibilities are endless.

*Does your family do breakfast for dinner? If so, what is your favorite thing to make?*

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

I'm not going to lie, I am having a hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year. So much so that my husband even noticed and made mention of it. Apparently around this time of year I am like Mrs. Clause. I normally have our entire month planned- all our tree trimming activities, Christmas light viewing evenings planned complete with locations to go see, hot cocoa in travel mugs for everyone, and a play list of Christmas music. By this time I normally have Christmas PJ's ordered, the girls' annual Keepsake ornaments bought and wrapped, family gifts done, and my baking supplies on hand and ready to go. But not this year. There is just too much other "stuff" going on to focus on Christmas and I feel like it has snuck up on me this year. But I have 3 little girls who are so in love with Christmas thanks to my own love of the holiday that there is no more time for moping. So in an effort to find my misplaced Christmas Cheer, I thought I would do a post about getting ready for Christmas.

So far we have done a few things to get ready. We have done some of our shopping for the kids, planned out our gift list for family and friends, and our gifts for each other. We have made our visit to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, and the girls have visited with Santa and told him what they wish to get this year. I have also organized a cookie swap for other dairyfree or vegan bloggers with Jessica at DairyfreeBetty. So I am not all that behind, but definitely not as up to speed as I normally am.

Every year we do a few projects together as a family. Our traditions include a Gingerbread house a couple days before Christmas, making reindeer food, and making new ornaments. Yesterday we took a family field trip to Michael's for ideas and supplies. The girls have their own Christmas tree that they get to have in their living room (actually now it's the homeschool/craft room).


They get to make all the decorations and pick out the lights and garland. Every year they make a few new ornaments to go on it, and I let them pick out what they want to make. This year they picked out a Rudolph ornament kit complete with markers and glitter. (yay glitter- it gets EVERYWHERE!)


Last year they chose Grinch ornaments and snowflakes. The year before that we made paper ornaments with markers, glitter, and ribbon. Every year it's different, and they look forward to it. Next year the littlest one will be big enough to make a few things for the tree as well.

My husband wanted to work on a craft project this year too and he came across some wooden figures we could all paint. So next weekend we are going to work on these. Not sure what's we're going to end up with, but it'll be a fun family project.

My husband and I are going to do the words, our oldest is doing the sleigh and "Let it snow" tree, and the middle one chose the house. I am really excited to see how they turn out!

My favorite decorations of the season are the trees and lights. We started a new tradition last year thanks to my friend Rochelle- we now have a kitchen Christmas tree, along with our main tree in our living room and the kids' tree. My kitchen tree is small for now, but someday I want to have a larger tree in the kitchen, once we have the space for it.


All of the ornaments on it are either food or kitchen utensil related.


My husband picked out a letter cookie ornament for each of the girls' first names:

Our family tree is never going to be a designer tree, and I don't want it to be. It's a hodge podge of family ornaments: baby's first Christmas ornaments for each girl, ornaments from places we've been, the year we got married, gift ornaments, all the girls' Keepsake ornaments (they get a new one each year). It's gets rearranged everyday because the girls love to take down their ornaments and look at them. Our tree is the ever evolving story of our life as a family, and that is the way it will stay. It may not belong in a magazine, Martha Stewart would croak if she ever saw it, but it's OUR story and I love it.


My goal is to have a tree in each room. Overkill- probably. I would like to have the main tree, the kids' tree, my kitchen tree, a sports tree in the office, a small tree in each of the girls' rooms, and a white one for our room with blue and silver ornaments. They will be smaller than our main tree, of course, but I would love to have all these themed trees.

And because no food blog post is complete without some mention of food, here are a few new Dairy Free goodies I came across recently:
Before I became completely and utterly lactose intolerant I used to love to go to Starbucks for either a Mocha or a Caramel Macchiato. Oh how I miss those. But after a recent trip to my neighborhood grocery store, I cam across these two items:


Upon first glance, I would automatically assume they have dairy in them and keep on walking. In fact, I spend very little time in the dairy section. I don't know what made me stop and read the labels the other day, but I am so glad I did.



I am totally in love with the peppermint mocha. It tastes just like a Thin Mint. Or a peppermint patty. YUM!
And to make life even sweeter I found this at Trader Joes this weekend:


I know these creamers aren't that good for you. They contain a lot of sugar and other stuff that's not all that great. But since I drink mostly these:

a little indulgence is ok, especially this time of year.

I have a few baking mixes to try out, and cookies to make and share for our Dairy Free Blogger cookie recipe swap. I am sure that within the next few days my Christmas spirit will return... I'm already feeling more Jolly just thinking about a cup of peppermint mocha coffee;-) Stay tuned for some cookie recipes coming soon.