Ingredients:
Vitamix Instructions:
Stovetop Instructions:
Recipe and substitution notes:
4.) To make this dish vegan, replace chicken bouillon with vegetable bouillon and replace the egg with 1 tbsp of corn starch and 3 tbsp of water.
On of the other new things in my life is a later model Vitamix 5200. Seldom has an appliance been so long wished for, eagerly awaited and then put to use repeatedly over days and weeks as this machine!
It.is.fantastic! Especially for the making of nut anything. The texture it produces just can’t be beat.
When I first went dairy free, I was using an ordinary blender and a Personal Blender and even though it produced pretty passable results that certainly worked for me, they were nothing compared to the texture the Vitamix 5200 was able to give me. Incidentally, the personal blender did much better than any full size blender, in case you're wondering!
Just as an example:
I was able to make perfectly fine cashew milk in my personal blender. It took a lot longer and I had to do it over and over to incorporate most of the soaked cashews, but I got there. The cashew milk would separate in the refrigerator rather quickly, but it didn’t matter that much - shake it up before use and go!
When I got my new Vitamix 5200, the first thing I did was cashew milk. The difference was amazing! All of the cashews just sort of incorporated into the water and made this smooth, creamy milk. And I have yet to see any separation in the refrigerator from that milk. And all of it was done in about a couple of minutes or so!
Diary-Free Cream Cheese:
I made pretty good tasting cream cheese before, but there were texture issues. Not terrible, but enough to give away that it wasn’t dairy. With the Vitamix 5200, that is no longer the case. Depending on what nut combination I use, it comes out smooth and creamy - almost akin to whipped cream cheese! Especially when I put a few macadamias in it!
The other thing that I have discovered with the Vitamix 5200, is cooking in it! SO easy, especially for puddings, sauces and soups! Just dump everything in it and go! So, quite a few of my future recipes will be with Vitamix 5200 instructions, especially the non-dairy ones!
As you can see I am totally in love with my Vitamix, as are my kids. I haven’t even told you about all our morning smoothies, our healthy and nutritious after school “ice creams” and such! We’ve had green juices, smoothies and shakes for breakfast for years, but I always had to be careful what to use, since both my kids and my husband are quite sensitive to texture problems. Unless it’s completely smooth, they have issues! Now, with the Vitamix 5200, it doesn’t matter what I use anymore, since everything ends up completely smooth and incorporated! It even makes chia seeds disappear right into the shake without grit or anything! Amazing!
Ok, I stop gushing about my little machine! By the way, I am in no way affiliated with Vitamix 5200 , they don’t know I exist. I just love, love, love this machine!
Speaking of my kids. My kids are dairy lovers through and through. My girl in particular is also a dairy “snob”. She won’t just accept any ole thing as dairy and has refused nut milks of any kind. Good thing they don’t have to be dairy-free! However, having said that, it was my girl who declared the following chocolate mousse “the best chocolate pudding ever!”
So, here comes the recipe. Note that I will give you instructions both for the Vitamix 5200 and a stove top method, but that due to the lack of air incorporation in the stovetop method, it will be more of a pudding than an airy mousse.
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Nut milk of choice (I like it best with Cashew Milk, it makes it creamer. Cashew milk method is in “additional notes”)
1/4 cup of full fat coconut milk (I use Native Forest Organic Classic Coconut Milk)
2 tbsp. cornstarch (or tapioca starch, or potato starch, or dairy-free, unsweetened vanilla custard powder)
1/3 cup of sweetener of choice (I use liquid stevia equivalent)
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp Lorann’s buttery vanilla emulsion (or vanilla extract, but add after the mousse is cooked)
1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips, Gluten, Dairy, nut & Soy Free, Mini Chips
Add all ingredients, except for the chocolate chips to the Vitamix and process for 6 minutes on high. The mixture will be hot and have thickened. Turn the blender off, add the chocolate chips and process for another minute on high. Add the vanilla extract (if using) and incorporate.
Pour into ramekins, small mason jars or custard forms, let it cool down to room temperature and chill overnight.
Please note that this will be more like a thick custard if made on the stovetop, rather than a lighter mousse as the stovetop method doesn’t incorporate the air into the mixture as the Vitamix does. It is nevertheless delicious!
Add 1 cup of the nut milk, the coconut milk, the sweetener, vanilla emulsion and cocoa powder to a pan and whisk well.
In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of nut milk, the eggs, the egg yolk and the corn starch.
Warm the mixture in the pan, taking care not to let it boil over! Once the milk is hot, add the egg and cornstarch mix under constant whisking until it thickens.
Add the chocolate chips and let them melt into the custard under constant stirring.
Add the vanilla extract if using, stir it in well, then pour into ramekins, small mason jars or custard forms, let it cool down to room temperature and chill overnight.
Additional recipe and substitution notes:
1. Please do chill these overnight! They take a little longer to set up than their dairy counterparts and won’t get to the right texture for several hours. But when they do, they are so worth the wait!
2. I make my cashew milk the following way:
Soak 1 cup of cashew pieces in water overnight. Rinse in the morning, add the drained cashew pieces to a blender with 3 1/2 cups of water. Blend on high until smooth and incorporated, about 2 minutes in the Vitamix. If you are using a regular blender, it tends to work better to make it in several smaller batches. Process for as long as you can without overheating your blender! Then combine the batches. If you still have bits floating in your milk, you may want to drain your milk through a nut bag or very fine mesh sieve.
I also like to add a pinch of real salt and a couple of drops of liquid stevia to give it some depth of flavor. I store my cashew milk in a glass jug in the refrigerator. So, whenever I refer to Cashew Milk, this is what I use!
3. If you are using the Lorann’s Baking Emulsion, you can use it right at the beginning and cook with it, as the flavor won’t dissipate. If you are using regular vanilla extract, you will need to wait until the end to add it, as it has a tendency to evaporate and take most of the yummy vanilla flavor with it.
4. The dairy-free, unsweetened vanilla custard powder I speak of in the recipe refers to the Cook & Serve kind, NOT instant!
5. You can use unsweetened MimicCreme instead of the home made cashew milk.
6. It does work without the coconut milk, but you will get a slightly different texture and consistency.
7. You could use all coconut milk, for an even thicker and creamer option (it will however impart some of the coconut flavor!)
Pin ItPosted by Birgit Kerr at 9:46 AM 0 comments
Labels: Dairy Free, gluten free, Recipe, Soy-Free, Vitamix
Oh, my dear blog friends, it seems I have been absent for a while again!
Life happens and takes over and before I know it, I have so much to catch up on!
So much has happened this last month or so and I want to catch you up on most of it. It may have to be in the “in a nutshell” kind of summary fashion, just so this post won’t be endlessly long!
In Sickness and in health
First of all - we were sick again! Yes, just after getting the family and myself over the flu earlier this year and still dealing with the hanging on coughs and minor relapses, we caught another bug. Somehow the viruses this year have been particularly nasty!
Anyway, this time it was vomiting and diarrhea, with many a changed bed and midnight bath for the kiddos. Then it hit the adults.
And we just got over it all, when we all suffered a relapse the following weekend! *sigh*
Break a leg
All of this took place during tech and performance week of my daughter Anna’s first small singing and acting role in the local youth theatre (translates into many late nights and some high strung emotions, as well as being on stage even though she wasn’t feeling very well!) But like a pro she worked through it all! And the performances were wonderful! And Anna is definitely in her element on stage!
Even though, she is only seven years old, and prolonged late nights, hours of rehearsals and performances, not a weekend to ourselves since February - it all takes it’s toll!
Needless to say, I am also behind on Project Life - not only showing you my latest pages, but I’m also about a month behind now on even making them! I have kept up with notes and photos however, so I am confident that once things calm down a little bit again, I can catch up relatively quickly!
Dairy, Weight and Eating
The other major thing that happened in my life relates to food and eating. In the last 6 months or so I have really changed my approach to food, eating, weight loss, body image and all that.
All of the above is a huge issue for me that stems from ways back in my childhood and beyond (generational issues.) I have been letting got of a lot of beliefs and judgments, about myself, my body, food and eating and it has aided me greatly. It however didn’t really bring about the desired changes for me and I felt very much that it had to do with me being incapable of “hearing” my body.
I was still making decisions about my body in my head first, not actually hearing and honoring my body. This is a really hard one for me. I didn’t even know what it “felt” like to hear the body ... what that even was, and even less so when it came to food and eating. When it comes to nutrition, foods, specialty foods and anything surrounding it, there isn’t much I don’t know. All the years of obsessing over it have taught me a lot.
Let’s face it, I got that with the mother’s milk, and I never knew any different. The only thing my childhood or anything since hasn’t taught me is how to listen and trust - myself, my intuition, my knowing ... and my body.
I don’t think I was an overweight child to begin with. But I had a mother who was VERY afraid that I might become an overweight child. It was a great concern of hers and as she yo-yo-dieted and closet-food-addicted herself through her own life, she took me along for her ride from a VERY young age.
I was on my first no-food fasting diet before I was even 5 years old, complete with salt induced cleanses and other madnesses. But that and many other things in regards to my childhood, are a whole different story and a different post.
The main focus of my eating these days is 1.) what my body requires/wants, 2.) my health rather than the weight (which means clean, wholesome, organic-when-possible and unprocessed eating), and 3.) pleasure, utter yumminess and the sheer enjoyment of food.
Saying the above, as somebody who is very overweight, the first and the last statement may raise some eyebrows.
But that is just it! How many of us that have fought the weight battle or have been at outright war with our bodies over the weight (man, that already sounds so not happy and terribly heavy!!) can remember the last time we have enjoyed the food we wanted? I mean, really enjoyed? Not the guilty pleasure kind of enjoyment! Or the between diets kind of enjoyment. No, the pure, unadulterated, just because it is such a pleasure kind of enjoyment of food?
Yeah, I know. Up until fairly recently when I changed my attitude to food and to myself, I couldn’t remember either! In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never really had that!
In the same stroke, when was the last time you actually let your body decide what it wanted or needed?
Anyway, the last few weeks I have really been focusing on allowing and receiving - not controlling, especially when it comes to myself and my body. And systematically letting go of anything and everything that might be getting in my way, which were mostly judgments, beliefs and decisions that came from habit, other people or my mind.
As a result, I have been able to hear my body a little more and am able to go with the flow. And I’ve been allowing my body to make the decisions about the food it needs and wants.
Surprisingly, to me, my body led me in directions I might have never guessed. One of them is to let go of all dairy.
DIARY! People, dairy was the only thing I was SURE I had no issue with. Not even a potential issue! Dairy was my crack, my comfort, my one and only food group I could always rely on ...
Or was it? The above alone should have given me a clue, probably.
Anyway, so yes, one of the major changes I have made recently is cutting out ALL dairy.
This last Thursday was my 1 month “anniversary” of being dairy-free (other than a couple of accidental exposures, which had some terrible reactions!) and upon reflection, the list of things that have changed for me and my body in this last month is surprisingly long!
My detox was not pleasant and it is somewhat ongoing, but the benefits seem to outweigh everything else at the moment!
Since I’m only a month into it, it is early days on what will be a long-term benefit, but I am excited to see what happens!
So, somebody as obsessed with dairy as me, I must be missing it terribly, right? Oh the restrictions! It’s got to be really hard giving up most of your favorite foods.
Actually, surprisingly, NO. That is the benefit of being in tune with your body, I think. I haven’t been tempted at all. I haven’t bemoaned all I’m “giving up” - not even a little bit and haven’t been temped even once. To be honest, the rational, intellectual and “based-on-experience” part of me would have never thought this possible, even 5 weeks ago, but there it is!
I have found though, that when you go with what your body is really asking for, everything tastes amazingly delicious and beyond satisfying! How cool is that!? I’ll have more of that, please!
Of course, me being me, I also instantly went into experimentation mode and tried to play with many a thing to create some dairy substitutes. So be prepared to find some diary-free recipes spring up on here!
Faces
And now to the other thing that I’ve been focusing on the last little while: Faces. Yes, drawing, painting, shadowing faces. Faces have always been a dreaded thing in my art and it’s a lucky thing that the kind of mixed media art I do rarely needs a “proper” face (or hands for that matter, another area I struggle with!) However, for some reason I’ve been obsessed with getting faces right recently and I’ve been working my way through many a YouTube video, online course, book, online examples and downright copies, as well as other instructions.
I wish I could say I know how to do faces now, but I still don’t. But I’m getting better. And every once in a while I have a lucky hit and turn out a pretty good, real looking face while at other times it’s just not going right, but I take any improvement. The interesting thing about faces, for me, is that I never quite know how they turn out, especially the kind of faces I do in my art journal. It’s an interesting journey though!
I will collect some of my practice runs and share them with you in a separate post!
So, what major changes have you made in your life recently and how is it going?
Pin ItPosted by Birgit Kerr at 1:50 PM 2 comments
Labels: Dairy Free, healthy eating, mixed media, Wordy Posts
Hello and welcome! The Daily Bytes Blog initially started out as the extension of my digital scrapbooking design business. Over the years, it additionally morphed into the place where I shared a lot of my interests, loves, musings and hobbies. For the last several years, I took a break from regular blogging and was more focused on sharing my art journey through Facebook and Instagram.