Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie
Good Monday morning to you. It’s especially good to me because I’m off work all week! Whoop! I’m excited to have a week to spend at home with Jack.
So Thanksgiving is on Thursday. My favorite part of Thanksgiving has always been pumpkin pie. I’ve loved it ever since I was a little kid. I am particular about how I eat my pumpkin pie too. I always put a huge spoonful of Cool Whip on top and then spread it around to “frost” the top and the sides of the pie slice. I’ve done that for as long as I can remember and my family still comments on my methodology to this day.
This year since I’m totally off dairy I knew I would have to make my own dairy-free pumpkin pie. I made a test pie last weekend and it turned out pretty good! I even made my own crust for the first time and put some little heart cut outs around the edges.
It was very simple to make a dairy-free pumpkin pie. For the crust you can make a shortening crust or make a butter crust using dairy-free margarine. I used this butter crust recipe and used Earth Balance instead of butter.
Making the crust was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Once I’ve made a few more pies I’ll have to write a post about making your own pie crust. Now that I’ve made one I want to make a bunch of pies. If you don’t want to make your own crust there are several pre-made crusts that are dairy-free.
For the pumpkin pie filling I used the recipe on the back of the Libby’s can (here is the same recipe posted online), only instead of a can of evaporated milk I used one cup of Silk original soy creamer (in the red carton).
That’s it! That’s all I had to do to make a delicious dairy-free pumpkin pie. Now Cool Whip does have milk in it, so I bought a can of Soyatoo Soy Whip to try on top of my pie. It was pretty good. I generally prefer creamy Cool Whip to the canned whipped cream so it’s not quite the same. But it will suffice for this holiday.
I’m so excited for Thanksgiving! With my chickpea pot pie and this pumpkin pie I should have a delicious vegetarian, dairy-free meal.
Chickpea Pot Pie
I’ve been wanting to make a pot pie for awhile now. I saw a rerun episode of Rachel Ray awhile back where she made a pot pie using puff pastry as the shell. Puff pastry is so fun to bake with, not to mention delicious. I thought I would use seitan in place of chicken in my pot pie.
Then lo and behold my November issue of Real Simple arrives and there is a mushroom pot pie recipe using puff pastry! It was like the pot pie was calling out to me. So a couple weekends ago when Benzo did the grocery shopping I asked him to get some veggies and puff pastry so I could finally make this pie a reality.
I decided to make it on Sunday. I gathered up the veggies and went down to the freezer to retrieve the puff pastry (Benzo had thrown it in the deep freeze right when he brought the groceries home that day). I discovered that the puff pastry he bought was not the sheets I had intended, but individual puff pastry shells.
Ok I can work with this, I thought. My pot pie wouldn’t be exactly as I envisioned but it could still be good. I also didn’t have any seitan and didn’t feel like making any. Benzo suggested using soy crumbles (vegetarian hamburger) but I just wasn’t feeling that. I opted for chickpeas.
In the end although different from my initial vision, the little pot pies were amazing! I was so impressed with them that I got out the good camera to take a picture rather than snapping one with my phone.
I think this recipe (or a variation) would make a perfect vegetarian main dish for Thanksgiving.
Chickpea Pot Pie
Serves 4-6
1 small – medium white onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, peeled & chopped
2-4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp cracked rosemary
Salt & pepper to taste
1 can chickpeas, rinsed & drained
1 cup frozen peas
2 cups broth or 2 cups warm water + 2 tsp bouillion
1/3 cup flour
1 package individual puff pastry shells
Preheat oven and bake pastry shells according to instructions. Meanwhile heat oil in a big skillet over medium-high heat. Cook onion, carrot and celery 10-12 minutes or until soft. A few minutes before vegetables are done whisk together broth or water + bouillion and flour in a small bowl or measuring cup until mostly smooth. I used water & Better Than Bouillion vegetarian chicken flavor.
When vegetables are soft, add spices and stir to combine. Cook for another minute or so. Add peas and chickpeas, then pour broth & flour mixture over the top, stirring to combine. The mixture should start to thicken. Stir to combine and simmer until heated through.
To assemble, cut tops and middles out of the pastry shells. Set aside. Place two shells on a plate and ladle vegetable mixture over the top, filling and spilling over the shells. Replace tops of shells. Enjoy!
For meal planning purposes I would plan on serving 1-2 shells per person. Benzo and I each ate two the night I made this and then we each had one the next day for lunch. One might be enough per person if you had some side dishes or a salad.
Possible Variations:
Serve filling over biscuits or crescent rolls.
Serve filling over mashed potatoes.
Place filling in a casserole dish and cover with a sheet of puff pastry. Bake about 15 minutes or until puff pastry is puffed and golden (I plan to do this version for Thanksgiving).
Place filling in a pie crust, cover with a second crust and bake for a more traditional pot pie.
Endless combinations of vegetables and spices.
Any other ideas?
Baby Food: Pears
Jack is diving into the world of solids so naturally, I made my first baby food!
I peeled, cored and chopped approximately two pounds of organic Bartlett pears that I found on sale for $1 per pound. Then I steamed them for 8 minutes until they were soft.
The steamed chunks of pear went into the blender and were blended into a puree. No additional liquid was necessary.
Then I poured the pear puree into an ice cube tray for freezing. Each cube is approximately one ounce.
I also filled two jelly jars with approximately 3 ounces each.
Let’s do some math.
This batch of pears cost me $2 ($1 per pound for 2 pounds). I ended up with about 22 ounces of puree (16 cubes plus 2 jars with 3 ounces each). That means the batch cost me $0.09 per ounce to make, not counting my time.
I can buy a 2.5 ounce jar of Earth’s Best organic pear puree for $0.69, which equates to $0.276 per ounce. Twenty-two ounces of Earth’s Best would cost $6.07, meaning I have saved myself $4.07 by making pear puree at home. It took me approximately 30 minutes to make the puree so this is equivalent to an hourly wage of $8. A little more than minimum wage but I’d say it’s worth my time, especially since cooking is something I enjoy.
But something to consider is that I rarely ever find organic pears on sale for $1 per pound. They usually cost $2 per pound, on sale. Regular prices are even higher. If I had paid $2 per pound, my total cost would’ve been $4 and I only would’ve saved $2.07 overall. That’s got me shaking my head a little bit as that low of savings is not necessarily worth it to me.
I have to admit I was surprised by this. I thought for sure making my own baby food would save me tons of money. As a working mom I have to prioritize my time and I’m not sure if saving $2 is worth 30 minutes of work. But what this exercise has shown me is where my price break is. If I can find organic produce on sale for $1 per pound, it’s worth it to me to buy it and puree it. Two dollars a pound is a gray area while $3 per pound is probably not saving me any money at all. Now I can keep this in mind while shopping.
Wholesome Baby Food has a nice page with a chart to compare the cost of homemade baby food to commercially prepared baby food. WBF also states that the cost savings is especially true as your baby moves into Stage 2-3 foods. Aha! So maybe we’ll need to perform this analysis again once we move on to combination and more advanced foods.
I’m focused mainly on cost savings here, but are there other reasons to make your own baby food? WBF also has a page listing some great reasons to make your own baby food. What are your reasons for making (or not making) your own baby food?
I think for us since the first foods I can puree at home and the first foods by Earth’s Best are pretty much the same thing, we’ll probably do a combination of homemade and jarred. Homemade at home and jarred food for day care. Once Jack starts moving into stage 2 foods I’ll start examining ingredients and costs and then reassess.
Slow Cooker Sunday: Chickpea Wild Rice Soup
No it’s not Sunday. But this is what I made in my slow cooker a couple Sundays ago:
Chickpea Wild Rice Soup @ The Domestic Vegan
I forgot to take a picture when we had it for dinner (Jack was having a rough evening), so here’s a picture of the leftovers for lunch on Monday.
Notes & Changes:
- I omitted the mushrooms as I’m not a big fan
- Did not have a full cup of wild rice so used brown to make up the difference
- Only added 1/2 cup of milk at the end because my crockpot was filled to the max!
- Forgot the parsley
- Skipped the almonds
- When I added the flour I was a little concerned about the lumps but they broke up just fine during cooking
- We got two dinner servings and two lunch servings plus a bowl with 2-4 more servings for the freezer. Love the leftovers!
Overall opinion? Two thumbs up! This soup is warm and comforting and perfect for fall and winter. I immediately added wild rice to my shopping list to have on hand so we can make it again soon.
Spinach & Red Pepper Egg Casserole
A couple weekends ago Benzo, Jack and I went over to Movie Mom’s house for brunch after church. I love to make brunch with family. There’s just something about being in the kitchen whipping up delicious food with the ones you love. It’s cozy and comforting.
Our menu included:
Vegetable Egg Casserole (see below)
Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
Chocolate Mini-Monuts
Fruit Salad
Brownies (mom made)
Lemon Cake (my grandma brought)
Yeah we like our sweets. 
The vegetable egg casserole is a spin off an egg & sausage casserole that I used to make all the time. But that one is loaded with cheese so I needed something different. I had an idea and then actually set Benzo to work on it while I nursed Jack and made the blueberry baked oatmeal.
Looks good? Here’s what to do:
Spinach & Red Pepper Egg Casserole
Serves 8-10
1 package crescent rolls*
1 red pepper, diced
2-3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 tbsp oil
8 eggs
*Pillsbury brand regular crescent rolls are dairy-free, but double check ingredients of store brands and different variations if you are avoiding dairy.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onions and peppers until soft. Add spinach and cover; saute until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile spray a 9×13 pan with non-stick spray. Unroll crescent dough and lay in the bottom of the prepared pan. Pinch seams together. Beat eggs together in a large bowl.
Dump cooked vegetables on top of crescent dough. Pour beaten eggs over the top of everything. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until egg has set and a toothpick or knife comes out clean. Ours got a few bubbles in the top.
Somehow the eggs got underneath the crescents when the casserole was put together, so the crescent layer is floating somewhere in the middle. No bother though if that happens to you. It tastes the same.
This recipe is extremely versatile. Use whatever veggies you want or have on hand. Add different spices to suit your tastes. Honestly none of us missed the cheese. At least that’s what they told me. Maybe they were just saying that? 
Anyway I thought it was great!
And just for fun here’s a picture of the mini-monuts. I made them just the same as before only I baked them in two mini-muffin pans. It makes them look kind of like donut holes.
Biscuits & Gravy
A couple weekends ago I was up early before anyone else was awake and decided to make biscuits and gravy. I had been saving two apple-sage Field Roast sausages specifically for this purpose. First the biscuits:
The recipe is a pretty standard biscuit recipe using Earth Balance and soy milk to make them dairy-free.
This was the first time I actually rolled out the dough and cut out the biscuits. I usually just make drop biscuits because I’m too lazy to cut them out. Surprisingly it didn’t take that long so I’ll probably start cutting them out more often. I did roll most of them a little too thin so I ended up with quite a few biscuits. Next time I’ll make them thicker. The two in the upper right corner of the picture that split in the middle were perfect.
Next up is the gravy. I used a recipe from I Eat Trees that I have made several times. But I like my gravy more soupy and less chunky so I only used two Field Roast sausages where Keri calls for four. I also didn’t have worcestershire sauce so I used a spash of soy sauce and a couple drops of liquid smoke.
The end result:
Lord it was brilliant. Might have been my best homemade biscuits and gravy yet. The apple-sage Field Roast really makes the gravy. You’d have thought I hadn’t eaten for a week the way I scarfed it down. Benzo and I ate every drop of gravy and almost all the biscuits. Serves four? Not in this house.
Babywearing
One of my favorite baby gifts that I received is my Mei Tai baby carrier. It was made especially for me by my good friend Em who taught me all about babywearing.
Not a great picture of me since my eyes are closed but it is a good picture of the Mei Tai.
Em is a wonderful seamstress (is that the right word? I don’t sew much so I don’t know the terminology). She does really nice work. I picked out the striped fabric for my Mei Tai when we were in Seattle back in March. Then Em picked matching fabric for the other side (it’s reversible) and appliqued the lion on the sleeping hood. For more pictures of my carrier and details on the fabric click here.
There are a lot of benefits to babywearing, but the reason I was initially attracted to it is because I am not a huge fan of strollers. Before I had Jack I would see parents trying to push a stroller through crowds at the farmers’ market or walking way out of their way to find an elevator at the mall. I always thought “what a pain!” especially when the stroller in the crowd bumped me in the legs.
The Mei Tai is the only carrier I’ve used so far and I really love it. It’s a tie on carrier that can be worn on the front or back. I wear Jack primarily on the front right now but we’ll start doing more back carries after we practice some more at home. Now that I’m back at work I mostly use the carrier when we are out and about. It’s great at the grocery store, at church, at the zoo, etc. When I was still on maternity leave I put Jack in the Mei Tai around the house a lot. It allowed me to keep him close and still have my arms free to get some things done around the house. It helped a lot when he was fussy too. I would put him in there and walk around and he would usually go to sleep.
My friend Em makes Mei Tai carriers for all her friends. Here are three of us when we got together in St. Louis this summer:
Addison was not too excited about posing for a picture.
I get stopped by random strangers all the time when I am out and about and have Jack in the Mei Tai. People always comment on what a neat carrier it is and want to know more about it. Of course it helps having a super cute baby inside.
I try to take the time to tell them all about the Mei Tai and how versatile it is and how it makes life so much easier as a way to spread the babywearing love. Since not everyone is lucky enough to have a friend who makes baby carriers I usually direct these strangers to Babyhawk, a company that makes Mei Tai carriers. One of my other friends ordered one from them and it is very nice. She’s very happy with it.
Em has written a couple of great posts on babywearing that you should check out if you’re interested in learning more. She is much more informed than I am so I will leave the explaining up to her.
A post about baby carriers – this post has great explanations on different types of carriers
Babywearing in Pictures – as titled this post has tons of pictures of babywearing for both babies and older children, and both moms and dads. I just love seeing her happy babywearing family!
For even more information check out Babywearing International, especially their pages on babywearing safety and babywearing benefits. There’s even a chapter in Kansas City.
Thoughts on babywearing? What’s your favorite type of carrier?
Vegan Cocoa Brownies
When Jack was three months old our doctor suggested I take dairy out of my diet while I’m nursing Jack. I did and have been completely dairy free (minus a few slip ups) ever since. In the past I’ve been on a low dairy diet where I avoided dairy for the most part but did not vet the ingredients of every single thing I ate. Then when I was pregnant I started eating cheese again. Now I completely off all dairy. And let me tell you it’s tough. There’s milk in everything!
One thing that helps me get through is to focus on what I can eat not what I can’t eat. Oreos are dairy free so at first I ate a TON of Oreos. 
Then I found some time to bake again so I checked out the book Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar
The first recipe I tried was for Delux Cocoa Brownies on page 132
They were delicious. And they had tofu in them – surprise! You can’t tell when you eat them though.
If you are interested in vegan or dairy-free desserts I would definitely recommend Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I am looking forward to trying out a few more recipes before I have to take it back.
Asian Style Rice & Beans
The other day Benzo made Asian style rice & beans for dinner from No Meat Athlete. Benzo makes dinner a lot these days as I am usually nursing Jack around that time. Here’s the link to the recipe:
Tasty Twists on the Classic Complete Protein Meal: Rice and Beans 5 Ways
I have made the Baltimorean rice & beans before from this same post. They turned out great and I’ve been meaning to try the other four versions.
Changes made:
- Added some red pepper strips (though green would’ve been more colorful)
- Did not have Chinese 5 spice so left rice plain
- Drizzled with hoisin sauce
- Did not stir oranges into mixture as they tend to disintegrate. Just laid them on top of each dish after serving everything else.
All in all it was a hit. Benzo and I both liked it a lot and agreed we would eat it again. Benzo did say he did not care for all the chopping though so maybe next time we’ll try to do some chopping ahead of time.
Priorities
Wow it’s been almost three months since I wrote about my first day as a working mom. Time sure flies. As you can imagine, I have been busy. But thankfully life has settled into somewhat of a routine since that first hectic day. Unfortunately that routine has not left much time for blogging. Which made me sad. I’ve missed my little blog!
At first I didn’t have much to blog about. Working and taking care of Jack did not leave much time for cooking or other projects around the house. Or let me rephrase that, I didn’t have the energy for cooking or projects! We subsisted on a lot of frozen prepared meals (thanks Trader Joes) and went to bed early.
As I’ve gotten settled into my new life (and Jack has started sleeping a little better) I’ve started cooking more often. But after cooking, eating and cleaning the kitchen I was always ready to hit the sack, not post a blog. So what to do about this little blog?
I enjoy blogging. It’s something I’d like to continue doing. After I started work I considered starting up a new blog all about being a working mom since that’s kind of how I define myself now. I thought I would have a lot more to say on that topic. But I’m not ready to give up this blog and I doubt I could maintain both blogs at the same time. Strangely my blog traffic has actually increased during my little sabbatical. It seems I have a website called Pinterest to thank. I haven’t been on it yet but I hear it’s a major time suck.
So here I am, trying to figure out how to make time for blogging without sacrificing time with my family. Because let’s face it, if I have to choose between blogging and hanging out with this guy:
I’ll choose him every time!
I think where I’ve settled is that I will continue to post about food and other homemade stuff on this blog. But posts will probably be a lot shorter and with less pictures. Sometimes a post might just be a picture with a link to a recipe and a few comments on changes I made and how it turned out.
I might throw in a few posts about being a working mom too. That’s who I am after all!
Hi I'm Amy and I like to make things at home as a way to be more healthy and eco-friendly.
