Late night fruit crisp

As often happens, when the kids are in bed and it's getting later and later....I get hungry for dessert. I was really craving a fruit crisp last night and so I inventoried our fruit (fresh, frozen and canned) selection and offered the following selection to my husband: blueberry, rhubarb, peach, apple or cranberry (or any combination thereof). His answer was "anything but blueberry" so I began a search for an amazing apple cranberry quinoa crisp that I knew I had somewhere. It took me about as long to find the recipe as it did to make the dessert. But it was ALL worth it. Just as delicious as I remembered it!

***Apple Cranberry Quinoa Crisp***

Mix the following ingredients together and put in a glass baking dish:

2 large apples (I use whatever I have on hand, this time it was cameos) - cored and chopped into bite sized pieces (leave skin on)
1 cup frozen cranberries
1/4 cup sugar (or sweetener of choice)
1/2 teas cinnamon

In a separate bowl combine the following ingredients and then spoon over the fruit mixture:

1 cup quinoa flakes
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter or butter substitute, this time I used a little Earth Balance Spread, but mostly coconut oil - I definitely think that the coconut oil makes this crisp topping spectacular!)
1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar, depending on your preference of how sweet you want it

Bake 350 for 45-50 minutes until the top is lightly browned.

Coconut Milk-Brown Rice Pudding

This recipe is adapted from David Gabbe's cooking class recipe. David teaches a variety of vegan cooking classes in the Salem and Portland areas and I *highly* recommend him if anyone is interested!

Here's my take on his recipe:

Cook 3/4 brown rice (he recommends using more water than usual to result in a chewier, softer rice....he suggests 3 3/4 cups water - the resulting pudding from this is delicious!! Sometimes I just use leftover rice that I have on hand though)

Add:
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup finely chopped dates
2 teas vanilla extract

Stir and cook until heated. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes.

Then, mix 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (or could use any other thickening agent) with 2 tablespoons COLD water. Slowly stir this mixture into the rice pudding and stir constantly until it is thickened. (usually takes about a minute or so)

First Wednesday Farmer's Market of the Year!!

Here's a quick snapshot of the produce we got at the Farmer's Market today...fresh spinach, broccoli raab, carrots, garlic, zucchini, new potatoes and strawberries!

What's for dinner? Breakfast!!

This was really Friday night's dinner...tonight (Saturday) we went out for Mexican food. But last night I didn't have time to post. We had a "breakfast for dinner" night. Above is a photo of my FAVORITE pancake/waffle mix. It's sooooo good! I use the instructions on the back that call for whipping the egg whites and then folding them into the batter, so it creates an extra fluffy/light product. The other version is equally good (just denser), but quicker and easier, especially when camping and such. Last night I used some homemade hazelnut milk as the liquid for the pancakes which I think added a really nice touch. We served them with thawed strawberries and blueberries from the freezer and (I'm a bit embarrassed to say) I think I ate 5 waffles! Yep, they were THAT good! :)