Improvise.

Sometimes you find yourself with a kitchen full of stuff that doesn't seem like it would go together. And in those moments, sometimes you throw together something and happen to have all the ingredients. This happened tonight when I made this. It was tasty and warm, and just as I finished making it, it started snowing!

Curried Apple Rice Pilaf

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/2 cup applesauce 

2 teaspoons curry powder 

1 cinnamon stick

2 cups vegetable stock 

1 cup basmati rice

Handful of cashews, halved

Salt, to taste (optional) 

Heat olive oil in a pot with a cover. Sauté onion and garlic on low heat until soft, then add applesauce, curry powder,and cinnamon stick until blended and warm. Add the vegetable broth, cashews and rice, and heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it steam for five minutes, then stir the ingredients together (the applesauce and spices will rise to the top of the rice).

Pumpkin Bread!

It has been a while. I have actually accidentally veered into vegan, gluten-free foods. It's really easy in fall time: baking vegan and gluten-free is so much easier when you can use pumpkin and applesauce to keep breads, cakes and other baked goods moist. 

I'm a single mom now. Thinking that two years ago I cooked like this almost every day, it's a wonder I have quite lost a bit of weight! I miss walking into my kitchen in the morning and smelling the yummy things I baked or cooked the night before. I'm starting to get back into the groove and it feels great! 

Last night I took a traditional pumpkin bread recipe, substituted some ingredients so it would be GF and vegan, and it turned out yummy! I want to make it again and add raisins or frost it with a sweetened vegan cream cheese. I wasn't fully aware that the recipe made three whole loaves, so after the kids and I were done baking we brought some up to the other three tenants in our 4-plex. 

Side-note: even though there was clearly no smoke or fire, my fire alarm did not like this pumpkin bread. It completely flipped out. I couldn't disable it because it was wired to the wall. I pulled it out. I think it was possessed because it kept beeping even afterward. As you know, there is never a "hey, you may want to check the oven" setting on a fire alarm. It's always a horribly loud "HOLY SHIT YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE GET OUT NOW BEFORE YOU DIE" setting. So I threw it in my car. Don't worry... I have another one.

Vegan gluten-free Pumpkin Bread

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin purée

1 cup applesauce 

1 stick Earth Balance buttery spread 

2/3 cup water 

3 cups white sugar 

3 1/2 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour 

6 teaspoons baking powder 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 

1/2 teaspoon ginger 

Grease 3 loaf pans. Heat oven to 350. Mix wet ingredients and sugar in a mixer. Blend together the dry ingredients separately and slowly add until well-blended.  Divide mix into the three pans and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean. 

You gotta have cute bag clips...