Peanut Noodles

This recipe is so easy to whip up and if your kids are fans of peanut butter, then they'll surely like this quick and easy pasta dish.

Peanut Noodles

8 oz. thin spaghetti noodles

1 bunch green onions, sliced

1 head broccoli, chopped into florets

1 carrot, chopped

8 oz. firm tofu, drained and cubed

2 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp ginger powder

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup hot water

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp granulated sugar

red pepper flakes to garnish (if desired)

1. Bring water to a boil and prepare spaghetti noodles as directed on package. Steam vegetables in basket placed over the boiling water as the pasta cooks. Drain pasta and combine with steamed vegetables in pasta pot.
2. In a medium saute pan, saute tofu over medium-low heat for about 7 minutes in 2 Tbsp sesame oil. Add green onions and saute until tender.
3. Add ginger, cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Mix in peanut butter, soy sauce, water, vinegar, and sugar. Stir over heat until ingredients blend into a sauce.
5. Remove from heat and stir into noodles and steamed vegetables. Serve. May garnish with red pepper flakes if desired.

Notes: 

Recipe can be doubled if feeding a larger group.

This recipe tastes great served cold the next day.

Grandma Elizabeth's Coconut Custard Pie

This is another one of Grandma Elizabeth's "famous" recipes. We make it at least once a year. Because she was known for sometimes only writing the ingredients for her recipes and remembering the rest, it has taken a bit of trial and error to figure out other important things like oven temperature and how long to bake these. But it only took a few tries to get this recipe down and it was well worth it. It certainly lives up to Grandma's note in the cookbook - "Good" - and then some. :-)

Grandma Elizabeth's Coconut Custard Pie

2 cups granulated sugar

4 Tbsp all purpose flour

1, 14 oz bag sweetened coconut, flaked

4 eggs

2 cups milk

4 Tbsp butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla

2 prepared pie crusts (unbaked dough)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix coconut with dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
3. Pour into two prepared pie crusts. Bake for 45 minutes. Center of pies should seem set.

Notes: 

I have also prepared this recipe in one deep dish pie crust before. In that instance, I have baked at 350 degrees for at least 55 minutes, checking every 5 minutes after the 45 minute mark to ensure that the coconut doesn't brown too much. The center of the pie should still be set when you remove it from the oven.

This recipe can easily be halved, though, to only make one regular-sized pie. Look at the math, it won't be that difficult.

When it comes to pie crusts, I cannot recommend Trader Joe's enough. Their pie crusts do not include that one pesky ingredient that makes vegetarians cringe - "Praise the LARD!" (or more specifically, the lack thereof) ;-)

Cranberry Zucchini Bread

I have made this recipe for years, but I have always made it with blueberries. Since the holidays are upon us, I thought I would change the fruit to cranberries and add a sugared topping (and it turned out delicious). The recipe that follows is the holiday recipe.

Cranberry Zucchini Bread

1/2 c granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 c vegetable oil

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/4 c granulated sugar

2 c shredded zucchini*

3 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

12 oz cranberries (fresh or frozen)*

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease bottom and sides of two large loaf pans. Mix 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Dust the bottom and sides of each pan with half of the mixture.
3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in zucchini.
4. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the cranberries.
5. Transfer to prepared loaf pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture over the top.
6. Bake 1 hour 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Notes:

I think I've mentioned in other posts that we shred our summer garden-harvested zucchini and store it in 1 cup increments in the freezer. That makes for easy baking throughout the year.

The original recipe called for 1 pint of blueberries (fresh or frozen) instead of the cranberries and did not include the cinnamon sugar topping.

If you have a small family, you might want to eat one loaf and freeze one to eat later. However, as tasty as this recipe is, you might also just want to dive into that second loaf!