Pantry, Pizza and Ice Cream

Chai Ice Cream

I'm going to a dinner party tomorrow with family; as the dessert is something loaded with dairy and wheat, I volunteered to make something both my brother and I could have.  With the warmer weather, I thought ice cream was in order.

I decided to google "ginger ice cream."  This gave me a lot of recipes that called for crumbling ginger snaps in pre-made vanilla ice cream.  I added "coconut" to the search field and kept looking.  After some sifting, I found an amazing recipe for Chai Ice
Cream here.  I haven't read this particular blog before, but I will be perusing the recipes after this one!   I took her recipe and modified it slightly; I used Chai tea instead of the black tea.  The spices just enhance the flavor.

I picked up some gluten/dairy free ginger snaps too to go with it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Update:  I tasted this before it went into the freezer and I was skeptical.  The flavor was incredible the next day; I highly recommend letting this set in the freezer overnight to allow the flavors to develop.  I was also worried about ice crystals, as I did not use arrow root; I was pleasantly surprised there was a lack of ice crystals.  The texture was perfect after a few minutes warming on the counter.  Everyone raved about it, and the ginger snaps (gluten free, corn free, soy free and dairy free) made a great accompaniment!! This recipe is definitely a keeper!!  ~Nia 4/29/13

Portobello Mini Pizzas

I had an impulse at Costco this morning while grabbing spinach and baby bellas for my lunches.  They had these beautiful portobello "steaks" that were the size of my hand.  My adventurous side won, and I grabbed a four pack.  I've never cooked the big ones before, but I decided I wanted to live on the edge and try them.  I searched "portobello" in an app on my phone called Cornucopia (formerly Yummlite).  I found a recipe for appetizers using spinach and tomatoes and cheese; they looked pretty good.  Being a huge pizza fan, despite the cheese issue, my brain moved to pizza with how they looked.

I'll post my improv recipe when it's ready; it needs a lot of tweaking.  Needless to say though, it was super tasty!!  If you want the "baby" recipe before I post it, drop me a line.

Pantry In Progress

Tuesday night I emptied, purged, organized and inventoried my scary pantry.  I neglected to take before pictures...but I have some post-purge-in-progress shots.  Take my word for it, the pantry looks a lot better!!   I wrote down everything by category, and entered it into a spread sheet.  It let me filter by what needed a storage container, and that's where the money is!  I need 11 containers, seven of which are quart jars; a 12 pack of quart jars are $10-12 dollars.  They're cheap, they look nice, and they seal wonderfully.

 

Once everything has a nice air tight home I can move to the next phase: clear organization.  I've got some ideas, but I'll have to play around with the spaces before I'm ready to commit.  I'll post any progress as it happens!

 

That's it for tonight.

Eat Happy!