Apricot Peach Cobbler

A friend gave me a huge bag of fresh apricots and 3 peaches picked from her backyard today. Way more apricots than we could possibly eat, and quite a few of them were very ripe, so they needed to be made into something. So I consulted 3 different cobbler recipes (2 found on Foodlab, thanks Cyndi and Nittany) and one from a gluten-free cookbook. I then made up my own recipe, to account for my personal tastes and improvisation due to not having all the ingredients.

Two notes for you to factor in with your own personal tastes:
1. Some recipes call for adding sugar or starch to the fruit filling, but I really think fresh fruit needs no additional sweetening, and don't mind the juiciness. However, if you like a thicker, more pie-like filling, you might consider adding sugar and/or starch to the fruit first.
2. I wanted a topping that was sort of nut meal-y/oatmeal-y (without oats) and that was also sort of cake-y/crumble-y. I'm happy to say that my 5 year old actually asked if there was oatmeal in it, so I think I achieved that goal.

I am making up words left and right here, but let's just say it's part of the creative process of making up a recipe. And for the record, this is my first ever recording of a recipe of my own invention, so I am a little nervous about others trying it, but here goes! It's also my first food photography, so some are blurry.

Apricot Peach Cobbler
This recipe is vegan and is gluten, dairy, egg, soy and corn free!

Filling:
- 26 apricots, 3 peaches (freshly picked)
- 1 orange (or a lemon would work too)
- Ground cinnamon

1. Cut apricots in quarters, and slice peaches (cut so all are even-sized chunks).
2. Spray rectangle baking pan with canola or other non-stick spray.
3. Spread fruit evenly across bottom of pan.
4. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
5. Squeeze the juice of lemon or orange over the fruit (I did this to offset the sweetness of the apricots, I wanted it to be a little more tart. If you use more peaches and less apricots, you might not need the citrus juice).
6. Set aside. Preheat oven to 375.


Topping:
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening (I used palm shortening)
- 1/4 cup organic raw sugar (optional)
- 1/2 cup each of potato starch, flaxseed meal and finely ground walnuts (or preferred nut)
- 1/4 tsp gluten-free baking soda
- 1.5 tsp xantham gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 gluten-free vanilla
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup milk (I used almond milk)
- 1 to 2 tbs honey

1. Mix together all ingredients except milk and honey by hand.
2. Slowly add milk and honey until consistency is thick, sticky, but smooth (like thick biscuit batter).

3. Drop the batter all over the top of the fruit in the pan, either by the spoonful or by hand.

4. Bake 15-18 minutes or until topping is lightly browned. Allow to cool and serve slightly warm, with ice cream (soy dream, rice dream, etc) if desired.

Turned out really tasty! It gets less liquid-y the cooler you let it get. I highly recommend serving with tea in tiny princess teacups and serving at a tea party in your daughter's bedroom. Wearing evening gowns, high heels and tiaras, of course.

yuh-um

I made Cyndi's dairy free pesto tonight, over brown rice spaghetti with sauteed mushrooms and spinach. Amazing, delicious, and really, really easy! Sophia picked basil, arugula and mint from our garden, and she helped chop the mushrooms too, so that made it extra yummy!

don't blink...

In the blink of an eye, children change. Seriously, in a single instant, they grow, they move on to a new stage, and things never go back to the way they were again.

This post is written to all the people who sneered, chided, disapproved or in any other way discouraged me into thinking that I was spoiling my daughter by continuing to co-sleep into her fifth year, that I'd never get her out of my bed. Hooey, is what I say to all of you.

I practiced nursing on demand and then child led weaning. Sophia nursed until she had her needs completely met by it, and at age 2.75, she gave each breast a goodbye kiss and a little snuggle in the bath one night, and told me that there was no more milk for her. She only asked to nurse 2 additional times after that, for only a few minutes each, in the week following. Blink...done.

For the past month, at her own unique and developmental/age appropriate timing, my daughter has been asking to have her own bed back (I bought her one more than a year ago, it got moved to the playroom in the garage since she never sleeps in it). Finally over the 3 day weekend, I took her up on it. We live in a small one bedroom apartment, but I knew the day might come when she'd want her own room, and have been prepared to move myself to the living room. This weekend, it just felt right. I knew she wanted the bed for sleeping in this time. So I moved my bed to the living room (soon to be replaced by a futon or fold out couch for me to sleep on), and moved her loft bed into the bedroom. We transformed our former bedroom into "her" room (my dressers are still in there and we share the large closet).

And the result? My first two nights in a row ever of putting my child to bed at a decent hour and having "mommy time" to myself after she's asleep! Whoot!! I have been seriously mal-advised and mis-informed on what this was going to be like. Everyone talked about what a struggle it would be, how we'd have to ramp up for it, be prepared for several sleepless nights, be ready to sleep in her bed with her then gradually move to sitting in the room until she fell asleep, then finally tiptoeing out. Supernanny has several episodes of all these techniques poor young parents struggle with for weeks with their 18 month olds. Hmm...maybe Jr. just isn't ready yet or being allowed his own perfect timing in the situation? Because when it came to Sophia's time, she climbed in her bed, gave me 3 real kisses and blew me 2 more, and rolled over and went to sleep. We've got a nightlight on, which she has never needed in the past, but for 2 nights in a row, there has been no arguing, no crying, no fuss, just straight into bed and to sleep.

And this is my kid who woke every 20 minutes for the first 2 years of her life. This is the mom who has never been able to get her daughter to sleep without me also sleeping next to her in 5 years. Two days ago, that was my story and then, blink, the next day, it's completely different.

I've heard all your criticism and naysaying. And sure, I have been friggin' tired for the past 5 years. But that's all it's been, 5 short years. I've got 60-70 odd more years of being her mom, so that's a far cry from never getting her out of my bed. I've got plenty of time to recoup my rest and sleep by myself! Yes, reading my book on meditation all by myself last night without someone bouncing on the bed or asking me to look at her latest magic trick over and over again was definitely pleasurable. But would I have wanted to force this on her years ago, just to have that momentary pleasure? No! I was tired, I never got alone time, but did I really in my heart hold those needs above completely meeting my daughter's attachment needs until she no longer needed to be in my bed? Not for one minute! I never felt cheated or burned out from not getting my alone time at night for 5 years. All along, I knew that I had something much more precious going on that would be over in the blink of an eye, and who was I to rush that?

(this all happened on "Independence Day"..and above is Sophia wearing her patriotic PJs which has "lil miss independence" stitched on the shirt!)

Vegan, Gluten-Free Quiche, Omelette, Burgers

Top 3 recipes I found this week for scratching some of the food itches I've been having since going vegan:









Crustless, Vegan Mini-Quiches









Vegan Omelette










Black Bean Burgers

Going vegan

After nearly a year of Sophia requesting to become vegetarian, I finally decided to grant her wish. I was hanging out near the edge for some time, but 3 things kicked me over the edge:

1. Late one night, I couldn't sleep. Turned on TV and was flipping back and forth between the original Planet of the Apes (have you seen that as an adult?) and an episode of 30 Days. 30 Days is a smartly-made reality show that puts someone in an environment quite opposite their own lifestyle for 30 days. In the one I watched, an avid hunter, NRA type guy lives with a vegan, animal-rights activist family. It showed graphic video of cruelty on dairy and poultry farms. The mix of that with Planet of the Apes and it's depiction of man's treatment of animals was a big kick in the pants.
2. I told my vegetarian neighbors about this and they loaned me a copy of Skinny Bitch. Have you read this? If not, let me mail you a copy! On the surface it sounds like a book about eating well to look good, but at the heart and soul, it's about getting smart about what you put in your body, loving yourself enough to do that, and about eating vegan. It has a painfully honest chapter about the cruelty of the meat industry, about inhumane slaughtering. Thinking "oh I try to eat free-range organic meat"? Try this thought on for size: even free-range animals are taken to the slaughterhouse. Even in the most humane slaughterhouse, the animals hear & witness the pain and dying of other animals around them. Sometimes their young have just been ripped away from them. Those animals are filled with fear, rage, panic, grief, stress, adreneline, suffering. If "you are what you eat", think about eating fear, rage and grief with every meal. The book then drives home the crap in found animal products - hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc. It also takes a hard look at corruption in agriculture, even in "organic" product lines, the EPA, FDA and more. With 2 basic premises: "read the ingredients" and "trust no one", it was an eye-opener to say the least. Even if you don't give a flip about animal cruelty, the unhealthiness of eating rotting animal carcass and carrying it around in your colon for years was enough to drop me completely over the edge of vegetarian and into the land of vegan! Since we already don't eat dairy, it's not that far to go.
3. Lastly, I went to the chiropractor recently and was weighed. I'm like 6 pounds shy of what I weighed when I was 9 months pregnant! That was definitely a wake up call, so here we are, vegan.

So in keeping with this, I rejoined my former online haunt, Foodlab, a support slash idea/recipe sharing group of mostly parents looking for a way to feed their families with food sensitivities, allergies or dietary restrictions. Great people, check it out if you need help or inspiration.

And there I found my new favorite blog, FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I'm going to start storing recipes from there on here, as I need a place to track them, and might inspire others at the same time!