Ice cream bars

We call these Sprinkle Bars.  The kids LOVE these.  And they love helping make them too.  Lucas picked out the colorful wood sticks and he's right, colors make sprinkle bars even more fun!

Ingredients:
1 quart of dairy free ice cream (we use both Soy Dream vanilla and Rice Dream vanilla)
1 12 oz package of dairy free semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup vegetable oil
wooden sticks
sprinkles

Dirctions:
1. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.  Working quickly, scoop out the ice cream and form into flat circles, and lay them on the parchment paper.  Return to the freezer to let the ice cream circles freeze up again, for 30 minutes.
2.  Meanwhile, in a double boiler (or the microwave), melt the chocolate chips and oil together.  Let mixture cool to room temperature.
3.  While chocolate begins to cool, remove ice cream circles from the freezer and insert a wooden stick into each one, and return the pan back to the freezer.
4.  Prepare another cookie sheet with clean parchment paper.  Take the bars from the freezer.  Working quickly, dip the bars in the cooled chocolate mixture and place on clean parchment paper.  Add sprinkles before the chocolate sets up completely.  Once all the bars are dipped, return to the freezer and let set at least 10 minutes before serving.

Salted caramel ice cream

Ummmmm, holy deliciousness.  I mean really.  This ice cream was GOOD!!  I mean REALLY GOOD!!!  I can't believe it's dairy free.  It tastes uh-mazing!!

Ingredients:

For the ice cream:
2 cans full fat coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of sea salt

For the caramel sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegan margarine (Nucoa)
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 TBS milk alternative (I used soy milk)

First, mix the caramel sauce.  In a small saucepan, over medium heat, heat brown sugar, margarine, salt, and nondairy milk, stirring frequently.  Once mixture comes together, increase heat to medium high for 1 to 2 minutes, until it begins to boil and the bubbles move into the center of the caramel.  Remove from heat and let sit and cool while you prepare ice cream.

To make the ice cream base:
Mix cooled coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl.  Whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into ice cream machine, and mix according to manufacturer's directions.

To assemble the ice cream, when the base is finished in the ice cream machine, pour into a freezer safe container.  Drizzle caramel over top, and fold in a little.  My caramel sunk to the bottom as it froze, so it doesn't need much mixing.
Store in freezer.

Now go make some!  It's DELICIOUS!!

Snickerdoodle ice cream

First, I needed to make snickerdoodle cookies.  I chose Tia's favorite cookie ever, Chantelle's recipe for snickerdoodles.  The recipe is here.

After your cookies are made, and cooled, make the ice cream:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
2 cans full fat coconut milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups snickerdoodle cookie chunks

Directions:
In a bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Add cooled coconut milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.
When the ice cream is almost done, add the cookie chunks and churn for the last 3 to 5 minutes.
Store in the freezer until hard.
Yum!!

Chocolate brownie ice cream

We had our annual Welcome to Summer party, where we served all you can eat ice cream for my daughter and all our friends.  It's a really fun party, and this year the ice creams were awesome!

For the brownie ice cream, first I needed to make my Mom's famous brownies.  I made them the day before I made the ice cream.  Trust me, these are good!
Brownies:
2 "eggs" beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 square margarine and 1/4 cup cocoa, melted together
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
1 cup and 2 TBS flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Melt margarine and cocoa together in the microwave in a bowl.  Blend in sugar.  Cool.  In a separate bowl, mix up 2 EnerG egg replacements and beat with mixers, for 2 minutes.  Add "eggs" to mixture.   Add sifted dry ingredients.  Add vanilla.  Spread in greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Do not over bake.

Now for the ice cream:
My basic coconut milk ice cream is:
2 cans full fat coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Keep the coconut milk in the fridge, so it's cold when you start.  Mix all the ingredients together until sugar is blended.  Next, add Hershey's chocolate syrup, until you like the chocolateyness.  I think I probably added 1/3 cup, but didn't measure.
Mix in an ice cream machine according to your instructions.
When the ice cream is almost mixed, add in 2 cups of brownie pieces and let it finish mixing.

Store in the freezer, and enjoy!

French Toast

We tried some French toast tonight, and we loved it!  I used the recipe from Vegweb.  It was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups soy milk
• 4 to 5 TBS flour
• 3 tsp sugar
• dash cinnamon
• bread slices
• nonstick spray

In a bowl mix together soy milk, flour, sugar, and cinnamon to form a batter.  Dip bread in batter and fry in lightly greased pan until golden brown.  

We ate ours with pure maple syrup.  Delicious!

Potato Bread for the bread machine

We usually cook a loaf of bread in the bread machine every week.  It's a simple way to make Tia some bread, since we don't have a milk and egg free store bought option locally.  Tia has a bread she loves that we buy in Idaho when we visit called Harper's Homemade.  So Aaron tried hard to copy the taste and texture of the bread for her.  This is pretty close.  We make it for her sandwiches for school.
Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups water (70 to 80 degrees)
• 3 TBS vegetable oil
• 6 tsp sugar or 5 1/2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 TBS mashed potato flakes
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients into bread machine pan in order listed.  Select basic bread setting.  Bake according to machine directions.

Chewy granola bars

Tia can't have any kind of store bought granola bars, so Aaron makes her a batch of homemade granola bars every Sunday night.  She takes one to school to eat at recess/snack time.  They are delicious!

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup nucoa softened
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups Enjoy Life chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Lightly grease one 9x13 pan.  

In a large mixing bowl combine the oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, margarine, honey, and brown sugar.  Stir in the 2 cups chocolate chips.

Lightly press mixture into the pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 10 minutes then cut into bars.  Let bars cool completely in pan before removing or serving.  

Aaron has been playing around with the recipe and adding soynut butter as a variation.  He uses the original recipe and adds to it an extra:

1 cup rolled oats, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 cup honey, and 3/4 cup soynut butter, and 1 cup marshmallows.