Sweet Potato/Pumpkin Jalapeno Cornbread

We baked some awesome spicy comforting cornbread this weekend, and made some small modifications to make our recipe extra melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
1 cup spelt flour or other whole grain flour (we love wheat, kamut, triticalle, oat...)
1 cup white whole wheat flour or other whole grain flour
1 cup corn flour
3/4 cup medium cornmeal
¾ tsp salt
1 1/2 Tb baking powder
3/4 - 1 tsp ground coriander
2 Tb flaxseed meal
3 Tb agave nectar
2 Tb canola oil
3/4 cup sweet potato puree or pumpkin puree
1 cup plain or unsweetened soy milk
1 – 1 ¼ cup water or more soy milk
1 large (3-4 Tb) jalapeno, minced, and seeded if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients (flour through flaxseed meal). In a small bowl, mix the remaining ingredients (agave nectar through jalapeno). Add wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined. Pour batter in a glass casserole dish (6 in x 8 in or larger pan 9 in x 13 in) or in a loaf pan (sprayed with cooking spray).

Bake until edges slightly browned for about 40-45 minutes, or until a tested inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cornbread to cool a few minutes before cutting. Makes 12-15 servings.

Easy Veggie Pot Pie

LK's Easy Veggie Pot Pie

1 vegetable bouillon
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 cup water
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tb nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp each sage and thyme
1/4 tsp each onion powder and ground mustard
1/4 tsp celery seed
2 Tb oil
1/4 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup broccoli, finely chopped
1 med yellow squash, diced
2-3 large chives or 1/4 cup onion
1 cup potatoes, diced and cooked
3 Tb flour
prepared pie crust or just biscuits or toast!

1. Add first 9 ingredients (bouillon through nutritional yeast) in a small stove pot and cook on medium high heat for 2-3 min.
2. Then add sage, thyme, onion powder, mustard, and celery seed, and simmer while you chop the veggies.
3. Place veggies in a microwave-safe dish, and cook until almost done.
4. Add flour to the stove pot and bring to a boil. Stir constantly until thickens.
5. Combine gravy from the stove pot with the vegetables in a large container.
6. Store in refrigerator until the day you want to have this for dinner.
7. When preparing your dinner, take your prepared pie crust and bake in the oven according to baking instructions (about 10 min).
8. Place the container of the vegetable filling in the microwave and heat until hot.
9. When the crust is just golden brown, take out of the oven. Pour the vegetable filling over the crust.
10. Cut and serve. This will be messy, so another delicious option is to break off pieces of the pie crust, place on your dinner plate, then pour the warm vegetable filling over it, and serve. Or just serve the vegetable filling over homemade biscuits or toast!

Easy Whole Grain Crackers

Makes 35-45 small crackers.

Basic cracker ingredients:

1 1/4 cup whole grain flour**
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp, optional baking soda
1/3 -1/2 cup water
1 Tb oil
1 tsp, optional Dijon mustard

Spices to add:

Cheesy-garlic-flavored
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp paprika powder
1/2 tsp turmeric (for color)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
3/4 tsp Garlic granules/powder

Onion-pepper-flavored
1/2 tsp Onion granules/powder
1/2 tsp Black pepper

Curry-pumpkin-flavored
3/4 tsp - 1 tsp Curry powder
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Corriander
2 Tb Pumpkin puree - in place of some water

Herb-flavored
1/2 - 3/4 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Dried Basil

1. Preheat oven to 375 - 400 degrees F.
2. Combine dry ingredients (including spices of choice) in a large bowl
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix bowl, and mix until combined. The dough will be a tad sticky.
4. Sprinkle parchment paper with some flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin.
5. Roll it out very thin, trying to make it as even as possible, and then cut it into cracker sizes.
6. Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 18-25 minutes, flipping half-way, and baking until they start to brown just a little bit. Let cool.


**In regard to the choice of flours, try Bob's Red Mill whole grain flours, such as Kamut, Triticale, White Wheat, Barley, Oat, Spelt, or gluten-free flours like Teff, Buckwheat, Sorghum, Amaranth, or Millet. Each grain gives a unique flavor, so we enjoy trying different flours to get different flavors, such as nuttier or butterier or wheatier flavor...

Lemon Maple Three Seed Mini Muffins

1 Tb poppy seeds
1 Tb hemp seeds
1 Tb pumpkin seeds
1 3/4 cup oats
1 Tb sugar
1 1/2 - 2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
2 1/2 cup flour, such as spelt or kamut
1 Tb baking powder
3 Tb lemon juice
1 1/2 Tb flaxmeal
3/4 cup non-dairy milk
3 Tb maple syrup
1/4 tsp maple extract (or vanilla)
2 Tb canola oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine first 10 ingredients (poppy seeds through flour) in a large bowl. In a small bowl, add lemon juice and milk. Mix slightly, then add flaxmeal, maple syrup, maple extract, and canola oil. Combine wet ingredients into the large bowl with the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Drop batter into a prepared mini-muffin pan, and bake for 13-16 minutes for mini-sized muffins, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Makes 12 mini-muffins, perfect size for parties.

Spicy Tortilla Soup

1/2 cup chopped onion
1 -2 cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp Bragg's
2 cups water
1/2 cup fresh salsa
1 can no-salt added diced tomatoes (~1 3/4 cup), with juice
1/8 tsp salt (omit if have salted tomatoes)
3/4 - 1 cup black beans (from a can, rinsed)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 fresh chopped cilantro (we like lots, and used about 1/4 cup?)
1/2 Tbsp lime juice
optional: fresh corn kernals, green chilies
When serving: avocado slices, tortilla chips, & nutritional yeast

To cook, we just prepped everything to have the soup later in the week, but you can cook this soup in a slow cooker (add all ingredients except avocado and tortilla chips) or just heat soup over the stove in a big pot, making sure to saute onion and garlic slightly first.

Top your soup with avocado, tortilla chips, and nutritional yeast!