It is fantastic to have a clean kitchen. Over the weekend, I didn’t spend all my time there, but what I did spend, I enjoyed. For a few weeks, I haven’t kept many baked goods around. I got tired of carving out counter space. So I got caught up on the snacks I usually have available and I think the family is happy about it.
I worked with my sweet potato muffin (gluten-free) recipe to make a version of it that is only sweetened with date sugar. We’re enjoying those.
I made some of the quick sandwich bread (gluten-free). We enjoyed that as toast and today will be eating it for lunch as grilled goat cheese sandwiches.
For dessert last night, we enjoyed chocolate almond joy ice cream.
For dessert on Saturday night, I tweaked Sylvia’s Old Fashioned Tapioca Pudding. Yumm! I sweetened it with agave, omitted the eggs, and used coconut and almond milk for the milks.
Our dinners were a variety of skillet dishes using grass-fed ground beef, millet, my homemade tomato sauce, and beans from the freezer — black beans and pinto beans.
A disappointment is that my microgreens growing outside are getting moldy. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to grow them successfully this winter. I may have to concentrate on indoor sprouting only. I need some more sprouting trays though because what I can produce from four trays doesn’t last us until the next batch is ready.
I’ve never grown micro-greens, but my interest has been peaked by your comments about them. I’m curious about the mold, what causes that? Most of the gardening I do is outside and I tend to take the ‘plant it, pray a lot, and harvest it approach.’
So, thus far mold hadn’t been an issue for me or my plants.
I think it is because of it being wet and not too cold yet. That’s the PNW! The place that sells them at the Farmer’s Market is having the same problem, too, and they’re professionals. I like your approach. I’m really not a gardener, I don’t enjoy it at all. So I think if you tried to grow these, you’d do great. Love, Wardeh
Hi Wardeh,
On the tapioca pudding- did you just do a straight 1/2 coconut, 1/2 almond milk for original amounts? I assume it was thick enough w/o the eggs? Any other hints? i was actually going to try and make tapioca pudding last week (regular)because we are reading Stuart Little and it is mentioned in there- but didn’t come up w/ any recipe that would work for us. I could still do it and tie it into the story.
thanks for all your recipes. I am so very thankful I was pointed to your blog!
amy
Amy, along with the 1/2 cup tapioca (mine requires soaking for 10 minutes), I used 1/4 cup agave, 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk (not light), 1 cup almond milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. The coconut flavor was somewhat strong but we like it. Change the ratio if you want less coconut flavor. Hope you like it! It thickened up just plenty without eggs. I had tried it last weekend using agar agar, but that made it gummy and not noticeably thicker. I don’t know what true tapioca pudding is like, so can’t advise you whether this is just like it or not. It was good, that’s what I know.
Love, Wardeh
Tapioca pudding is usually very creamy and thick but not gummy. I think the eggs must just make it richer in taste, as tapioca is used as a thickener in soups and stews! So… why would we need to thicken it with eggs? LOL!
Yes, when you put it that way, it makes sense! Thanks so much for your recipe Sylvia. I’ve wanted to do tapioca pudding for a long time. Love, Wardeh
Wow, you are such a great cook! Do you have any different chicken recipes for the crockpot? My hubby loves chicken, but I get sick of making the same old things. And with me working now, I definitely want to utilize my crockpot more! Love, Jen
That’s sweet of you, Jen. My favorite way to do chicken is in the crockpot. It always turns out tender and moist. I either do it plain, with a little salt & pepper & herbs, or I put it in with diced tomatoes (or sauce), coconut milk, basil, cumin. That’s Sylvia’s recipe (you can see it here). Sometimes I do a whole chicken, sometimes drumsticks, sometimes thighs. If I’ve done it plain, I use that meat for other dishes, like skillet dishes, or sandwiches, or chicken salad, or chicken stir fry.
I found the tapoica today. Nothin’ like spending 5 minutes in the baking aisle only to find it on the tippy top shelf with a ‘going going gone’ sign! It is the soak over night kind as well. I plan on making it this weekend. I really doubt Andrew will eat any since he doesn’t like pudding consistency foods but I thought it would be fun to try. Andrew had eggs in the ‘pumkin’ bars I made this weekend so I will probably omit those here. ‘Something’ is bugging him- and it might be the eggs. I wish I could put that recipe out on my blog but it is from a cookbook so I don’t think I can do that. (It is from Special Diets for Special Kids. It is a nice cookbook to have for baking- although much sugar is used.)
Amy
I tried your sweet potato muffin recipe. They’re really good! Thanks so much for sharing. Do you think the applesauce for oil substitution used sometimes would work? If I try it I’ll let you know.
I’m happy you like the recipe. It is definitely a favorite with us! I think that substitution will work. Let me know if you do it! Love, Wardeh
so you cooked the tapioca right? mine was an overnight soak and 45-60 min cooking time. I noticed Syliva’s said 6 minutes… i am using large pearl tapioca. I am only asking on the cooking because before I read the directions on the box I mixed all the stuff together and thought gee…why isn’t is mixing up…i’ll put it in the blender. Then I remembered gee- perhaps I have to cook it. It is on the stove at the moment but if you happen to see this I thought i’d ask how long you cooked yours.
amy
Amy, yes it is cooked. For about 8 minutes, or until thick as a pudding consistency. Are you sure on your package it wasn’t an either-or for the soaking-cooking? Love, Wardeh
Hi again-
you can ignore that last note- i just realized I’ll have to stand here and babysit the pudding for an extensive amount of time—so i’m going to toss it. It looked good! But alas I have snippets of time only because andrew needs so much 1:1 at the moment. Keeping this one in the back pocket for a weekend project.
amy
me again…just for fun and not to waste I stuck it in the microwave…and it’s working!!!! whoo hoo! and it tastes good, thickened up etc…
Oh, good, I’m glad it isn’t going to waste. That pudding is just too good!
ok- the tapoica never did ‘de-pearl’ so I think I will have to figure out another way. oh well…every inventor has failures.
If you mean what I think you mean, the tapioca is not supposed to de-pearl. In fact, the pearls, even after cooking, will continue swelling until they’re huge. So don’t look for the pearls to disappear, cook it until the whole thing is pudding consistency.
oooohhh!!! ok then I just plain didn’t like it LOL! The boxes of tapioca were on sale (67 cents) so I bought 3…… i’ll give them to a friend:) still good to try new things.
I’m sorry you didn’t like it. It seems like people either love or hate tapioca. I guess you hate it.
Love, Wardeh