grain-free

No-mato sauce 2.0: AKA Awesome Sauce (tomato-free marinara, also vegan, corn-free, soy-free)

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David calls this Awesome Sauce. Awhile back, I thought I’d come up with an ideal (for us) nomato sauce. It’s good but requires more work and ingredients than I have energy for most nights, and I don’t have the energy to put much forethought into food prep lately. Sometimes you just get into a rut. Having to be constantly vigilant about ingredients and not being able to eat out if you want a change of pace gets really tedious. So here is No-mato 2.0, AKA Awesome Sauce. This recipe requires a blender or food processor (we used our Nutri Ninja with the 16oz cup), but an immersion blender makes quick work of this too. Fair warning: this sauce is nuclear-pumpkin-safety orange. It’s delicious, but I haven’t been able to make it any redder. Since I don’t care and I think it’s delicious, I’m posting my recipe. Ingredients 1-12 ounce jar …

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Faux Tuna Salad: gluten-free, soy-free, vegan

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We like this on thin rice cakes, cucumbers, chips of all kinds, and Siete tortilla wraps. Makes a good picnic snack or a quick lunch. Ingredients 1-16oz can quartered artichokes, unseasoned 1/3 cup mayo of choice (we like Follow Your Heart Soy-Free) 1/4 cup dill pickle relish or chopped pickles 1 tbsp mustard, any variety 1 sheet nori, crumbled (optional) Black pepper, to taste Instructions Drain and rinse the artichokes, then chop or shred into small pieces in a medium bowl or storage container. Mix other ingredients into artichokes until well-combined. Season with fresh cracked pepper to taste. Notes Nori is optional but makes it “fishier” and tastes salty. We like pickles a lot. You might prefer less relish. Chopped celery is a nice addition. If you eat onions, you might like to add some. Banana flower works well in place of artichokes, if you have access to them. Stays …

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Siete Foods Appreciation Post

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Note: This is not an affiliate post or a sponsored post. We just love Siete this much. It’s so hard to have food allergies and celiac disease in this world, so we love sharing our rare good food experiences. Confession: we have tacos pretty much every day for breakfast. Not breakfast tacos, but dinner tacos (vegan meat, vegan cheese, lettuce) for breakfast. It started out as a quick and easy safe filling breakfast awhile back, and it’s become the best breakfast idea ever. So we buy our Siete tortillas in bulk direct from their website, and have them shipped wherever we’re staying. We also buy their chorizo seasoning to add to Beyond Beef (vegan ground meat substitute) for taco filling. Siete does have actual taco seasoning and it’s definitely delicious but it also contains tomatoes, so we stick to the chorizo, which is tomato-free. And probably THE best pre-mixed seasoning …

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An ant infestation with a happy ending

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A couple weeks ago, we woke up to the worst infestation of ants we’ve ever had. We’ve only had a few (and only once before in the RV) but wow, this was a doozy. We’d moved to a new park the night before, and I guess they thought we were a new food truck rolling into town. We discovered them when we opened the pantry to make breakfast the next morning. The ants were everywhere. They marched right up the rear jack beneath the pantry, and found an entry point. They were also entering through the front door, but that must’ve been very new because they hadn’t reached any food yet. They were just wandering aimlessly. The pantry in the RV is quite large, and it was full. We lost about $100 worth of food. We’d become a little lax about the types of open packages that stayed in the …

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Gluten-free, Vegan, No-Mato Instant Pot Lasagna!

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I have a mild tomato allergy (I get itchy and rashy, but no anaphylaxis), so I just avoid them, even though it makes me sad. It’s better safe than sorry when dealing with so many allergies and sensitivities. This lasagna has been a long time coming. We’ve also used this sauce for pasta, manicotti, and pizza. It’s not a 1:1 marinara substitute, but for those of us who haven’t had marinara in years, it’s pretty tasty. The Sauce: Tomato-Free (No-Mato) Marinara Adapted from Unbound Wellness AIP Nomato Recipe. 2-3 tbsp olive oil 1 cup chopped carrots 1 cup chopped celery 1/3 cup beet powder (I buy Frontier Co-op brand) 1/2 cup chopped non-green bell peppers 1 cup water 1 tbsp salt 2 tsp basil 1 tsp ground thyme 1 tsp oregano 1 tbsp parsley 1/2 tsp garlic powder, or 1-2 fresh cloves 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon …

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Adventures in Air Frying!

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Update, June 2021: our air fryer stopped working! We used it very regularly (at least once a week, usually 2-3 times a week) for 8 months. Then one day we were making fries (or chips, if you’re one of our English friends). In the middle of the cycle, it started smelling of ozone and just cut off, never to turn on again. We loved having an air fryer so we’re going to try again with a different model. But we can no longer recommend this MooSoo model referenced in this post. Stay tuned for a future update. We never use our RV oven because it’s terrible, as RV ovens tend to be. Since we cook everything in our Instant Pot or on the stove, we haven’t missed the oven too much, but we do miss being able to cook extra crispy foods (without lots of oil or heating up the …

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Date Caramel: gluten-free, vegan, free of allergens (unless you’re allergic to dates, of course)

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We left Arizona last month. We’d planned to stay until the end of tax season, which was extended until mid-May, but by the end of March, we had to call it: it was too hot and we needed to leave early. We’ll be working our way back up to Crescent City, California, because we loved it so much last year. But we’re going slow this time: short hops and staying a week in each place. This gives us time to rest, work, and check out the local area. We had a nice week in Indio, California! We’ve passed through here many times with and without the RV, but never stayed a week. What a treat! Did you know they farm dates here? We stopped at a local market that advertised fresh produce. It was a cramped little convenience store with a bunch of produce— including beautiful juicy-looking dates! We got …

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Avocado Chocolate Pudding (vegan, gluten-free, grain-free)

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We recently bought a Ninja Nutri Blender to attempt to make our own nondairy milks. I have celiac reactions to oats, and the oat milk fad has contaminated all the nut milks we usually buy, so we’re going to try making our own. But first… chocolate pudding! I’ve been thinking about avocado chocolate pudding since we shared an amazing cup of it in Chico, California, at Live Love Juice. We’ve made this a few times. It’s best with nondairy whipped cream, but a few chocolate chips and Dandies marshmallows are also fantastic. Ingredients 1 avocado 1/4 cup coconut milk 4 tbsp maple syrup 3 tbsp cocoa powder 1/4 tsp vanilla (extract, paste, etc) Generous pinch sea salt Instructions Blend ingredients until smooth and serve immediately. To save for later, the avocados will oxidize and the pudding will look less delicious. Melt chocolate chips with coconut oil and poor a thin …

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Siete Foods cooking class: baking with Buñuelos!

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We are huge Siete fans around here. I’ve got a corn allergy and David needs to watch his blood sugar, so our taco nights (and there are a lot of them) always feature Siete Almond Flour Tortillas. We buy Dip Chips and Fuego chips in bulk off their website. Thankfully more stores are carrying them now, so we don’t have to order online as often! For the second winter in a row, they’ve been selling Cinnamon Buñuelos, which are my favorite thing ever. Buñuelos are a treat in many cultures, but generally they are some kind of fritter. These are small and crispy, grain-free with cinnamon and coconut sugar. For the second time, Siete hosted a cooking class to benefit an organization doing food work. This time it was No Kid Hungry. For a $10 donation, we got 2 bags of Cinnamon Buñuelos, a chocolate bar, and the recipes. I …

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Instant Pot Shepherd’s Pie: Gluten-Free, Vegan, Tomato-Free

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Have you seen how much we love our air fryer lid for our Instant Pot? We try to make meals that don’t call for a lot of pots and pans, but since we had both instant pots on the counter, we went ahead and used both for this. This can be done without the air fryer step, or assemble in a casserole dish and bake in the oven. Everything is cooked, it’s just nice to brown the top and let the flavors rest. But without an air fryer, I would’ve eaten it without browning, and it would’ve been delicious. Ingredients 2 large sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1” cubes 1 clove garlic, minced 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (or one 6-oz can) 1 tsp ground thyme 1 tsp oregano 1 tsp marjoram 1/4 tsp ground sage One 12-oz can lentils, or 2 cups cooked green, brown, or black lentils 1 …

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