Namaste to You, a Pancake, too & Chili's is My New Favorite Restaurant

So, last night the family decided to go to Chili's for dinner, after picking up a few things at a nearby store.  Chili's has never been one of my more favorite restaurants, but our experience there last night changed my tune.

Chili's
Our new modus operandi when going out to eat has been to get to know the manager, or at the very least, to spend a few minutes talking with the waiter/waitress to make sure that they understand our family's food needs, because it generally rules out so many options on the menu.  So, we followed our new tradition, and were prepared to spend a good bit of time going over the menu with the waitress, when she pipes up and says, "give me just a minute, I may have a menu for that."

Well, naturally, my ears perked up, because that would just be so incredibly different from anywhere we've eaten yet.  Sure enough, after three or four minutes, here comes the waitress, new paper menu in hand, and says, "we've got a menu for everything back there."

Now, that's AMAZING, because while most other restaurants that I have been to are more than happy to talk to you about their menu and any substitutions or changes that you will need to make to eat there, this restaurant actually had a printed menu.

So, after reading through, I had the dry rub ribs with corn on the cob and mandarin oranges.  The boys each had grilled chicken broccoli, corn and we all ate chips and salsa.  Was it the food the best I've ever eaten?  No, but it was more than decent.  And with their paper menu in hand, Chili's is my new favorite restaurant.  Thanks, Chili's, I really do want my baby back... ribs.

My Moo Rating:

Namaste Pancakes

This morning, the family got up for the day and decided that pancakes were in order.  This was our first time having pancakes since the great milk meltdown of 2012 (or is it The Great Milk-pression?).  We had been shopping a few weeks back at Whole Foods in Bellaire and had bought a pancake mix from Namaste Foods (that link will take you directly to the product on their website), so we decided to use that.

2 eggs, some soy milk, oil and 2 cups of their mix later, and we had a batter to try.  Well, you never cook ANYTHING without tasting first, so I dipped a finger in and... whoa, that's not something I want to eat... yet.  So, we added 1 tsp of salt, 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla extract, and voilà, we had a perfectly respectable pancake batter.  I added a little extra "milk" for good measure, to make sure that the batter was at the right consistency and we went to town.  Everyone seemed very happy with the mix overall, though it does have an odd (but not objectionable) "backend" taste to it due to some of the different flours that go into giving it the right texture.  But once you put on the syrup, all things are better.  We'll definitely eat it again, but will always use our modified recipe.

My Moo Rating:

on its own merits

with our changes

Brownies for My Brownie

So when I look at the consumption of milk in my household there’s only one area that beats out our use of milk in baked goods.  That place would be direct consumption of liquid milk by my children.  They were constantly drinking the stuff; begging for it, in fact.  The total usage of liquid milk from our household was only rivaled by professional milk production factories.  My children drank so much milk, you’d have thought we were auditioning daily for a “got milk” commercial.

So it was with great sadness that the thought first crossed my mind that we would have to give up desserts that had milk in them (being that it was the second greatest usage of milk in our house).  To say that my family likes dessert is an understatement of absolutely epic proportions.  Obviously, the lack of viable “milky” desserts was something that was going to have to be rectified.  That’s why you’re seeing so many desserts on this blog.  After all, what do they say... life’s short, so eat dessert first?

So, with that out of the way... let’s make some brownies.

Brownies, hold the milk
I checked a book out of the library recently called the Allergy-free Cookbook.  Lots of haughty recipes and some that are right up my alley.  This one hit my alley square in the face and said, “let’s dance.”  So, obviously, I made it.

Other than being just a tiny bit too dry (which I can alleviate next time with some applesauce, which I think I’ll try), these brownies were absolutely delicious.  Not too crunchy, just undone enough to retain that fudgy quality that makes brownies so ridiculously amazing in the first place, but not so moist that you can’t get it off your teeth and have to have a professional cleaning after dessert is over.

So, here’s our modified recipe:

3/4c flour
1/4c milk-free cocoa powder
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
a good pinch of salt
10 oz bag of milk-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (we used Enjoy Life dairy free chocolate chips, they were awesome)
3/4c soft light brown sugar
2 Tbps water
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs (beaten)

a large whisk
medium-sized mixing bowl
a pan of your choice (we used a 9”x9”)

So you take the brown sugar, a scant cup (3.5 oz) of the chocolate chips, the vanilla extract and water and heat them over low heat, stirring occasionally, to create a lovely chocolate sauce.  This is going to provide the liquid base for your brownies.

While that is beginning, go ahead and sift your flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder together into a separate bowl.  After your sauce is created pour it over your dry ingredients and add the two eggs.  Mix until smooth.  Add in the remainder of the 10oz bag of chocolate chips to the batter and pour into your prepared baking pan.  Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until your brownies leave just a slight chocolate mark on a toothpick in the center.


Let cool for 15 minutes and serve.  As a topping, you could make a quick and easy non-dairy whipped cream or go super simple and just add some powdered sugar.  


Long recipe short... these brownies are wonderful and if you like chocolate, this is a great way to go without the dairy.  


My Moo Rating:

Sorbet Calories and “Houston, We Have a Hot Dog"

So, we have thoroughly enjoyed the sorbet that we made out of our few ingredients from my last post.  The great thing about the sorbets that we made is that you can even have them for breakfast.  My oldest son, Gabriel, is taking the STAAR test at school today (Go Gabriel!), and they told the children to make sure they ate a good breakfast.  So I made him eggs with just a touch of non-dairy margarine and then gave him a small bowl of our “ice cream” so that he could have some fruit with his breakfast.  He was in hog heaven.  I made sure to ask him, “How many of your friends do you think get to have ice cream for breakfast?”  His reply was, of course, none.  But that’s one of the awesome things about making your own foods, is that you know what goes into them and can judge for yourself whether or not to let your kids have a “super treat” at an odd time of day.

I did a rough calorie estimation for the banana ice cream this morning.  Assuming that each banana was 75 calories and a 1/2 cup of honey was 515 and there are eight servings total in the mix, it comes out to right at 130 calories PER CUP of our homemade sorbet.  Dieters, start your engines, this is a food for you.  OMG, I think I just did math.  In fact, it’s even worse, it’s one of those stupid word math questions like, “if person A you don’t give a crap about left Baltimore on a train going X miles per hour...” AAAHHHH!

Okay, let’s be done with math.  (shudders)


Hot Doggit

Last night, we decided that we wanted to have hot dogs, you know, the food of champions?  Well, the great news is, we can still have them.  So we bought some kosher hot dog links, which means there can be no milk ingredients in them, some non-dairy wheat buns and turkey chili.  Then, we put our favorite new “cheese” product on top, Daiya.  They were FANTASTIC.  Putting that cheese on there is SO much like going to a James Coney Island and having one of their dogs with the American cheese on top.  MMM, missed it so much until yesterday.  Sorry, James, your day in the sun is over, now we’re on to Hebrew National.  Not the healthiest dinner ever, but at least we had vegetables and fruit with dinner.

We continue to have good luck with almond, soy and coconut milks for dinner with the children, which is a positive, so they continue to get their vitamins that way.

Last, But Not Least...
We’re slowly, but surely, making our way up to having most of the kinds of foods that we had before we were thrown into non-dairy-land, level 1-1.  We do seem to see a gaping hole in the non-dairy recipe market for normal, everyday recipes that kids will actually want to eat.  Maybe there’s a cookbook in our future?