Healthy Vegetarian Lacto Ovo Recipes!

Look what I found! I did a search for some recipe ideas and found some yummy looking recipes for Lacto-Ovo Vegetarians. Go check it out! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian Recipes

Adventures in (not) Cooking... :)

Adventures in (not) cooking is all about making yummy treats without having to cook! 

There are all sorts of things you can make without having to heat up the house with the oven on all day or even slaving over a hot stove. Here are a few things I've made without cooking or baking.

First off, let's be clear about one thing:  

Chocolate is a vegetable...That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 😉

That said...let's get started. 

Here are some things that are easy to make and use at home that are very expensive to buy, but easy to make and you can gift them, too. Vanilla beans can be used many times, just refill with vodka or sugar to make more extract or vanilla sugar. I put a bean, cut in half and sliced down the middle (not all the way through) in each bottle, so when it's empty, it can be refilled and started again by the recipients...I'll give them a shake every few days. (You can make orange extract, too.)

I did the same for vanilla sugar. Just give it a shake every few days. When your jar is empty or low, just refill and start again. :)
 

Orange kefir water, milk kefir and Kombucha tea...the tea has a new scoby, too! You can make the kefir water and tea fizzy, if you'd like with a second bottling and added flavors. I really liked ginger kefir water. I've added peach nectar to milk kefir and blended blueberries, too. YUMMY!

Technically, you don't cook when making yogurt. I carefully heat my milk in the microwave and my short cut is UHT milk in the box. Opinions differ, but I've never had any issues with my yogurt setting properly using it. I use pie filling to make fruit on the bottom. I also add vanilla and instant coffee and a dab of sweetener to make coffee flavored yogurt, too. There are so many ways to make it, I found a brand new unit for $10 on eBay, and one at Goodwill for $5 that was used, but works great! Even brand new at full price, it's worth the money. Some suggest you shouldn't make it with fruit on the bottom, but rather add it later. I've done it both ways with no problems.

You can make butter using your food processor. It's a little labor intensive, but worth the outcome. I used sea salt to preserve mine. I keep it in a butter bell so it stays spreadable. If you don't use a preservative (like salt), it will go bad, so I don't recommend it.

You can make fudge in the microwave. Easy stuff! Two bags of chocolate chips (your choice) 1 cup of nuts (optional) 1 can sweetened condensed milk...microwave 30 seconds at a time, stir, then repeat until smooth and creamy...pour into 8×8 pan (I always use a jellyroll pan, more fudge, thinner pieces)...let cool completely before cutting...store in airtight container...I top mine with chips or nuts too...I've used peanut butter chips and Andes candy mint chips too...I do one bag chocolate to one bag flavored...  
 

You can make sour cream and cream cheese, too.  Like yogurt, the hardest part is waiting. I used sea salt as my preservative in these, as well. The recipes I use from Cultures for Health, make about a quart of each. I noticed they stay fresher, longer than the story bought stuff.

If you don't count melting chocolate in a chocolate pot as "cooking", you can make candy too... :)

  

 

And of course, we talked previously about refrigerator teas and cold brew coffees. You can make half and half by adding half lemonade to your tea and cut back on the water. :)

 

 What kinds of adventures in NOT cooking have you had? Or what would you like to see me try? Let me know in the comments and be sure to follow my Blog.  :)

Hello! Sorry I've been away so long...

Hello again! Sorry I've been away for so long. I've been going through a lot of difficult things. Someone suggested perhaps I need to start a journal. Then I remembered that I have a blog I've been neglecting for some time now. So...I'll try to do better. I know there aren't many that follow my blog, but maybe that will get better, too.

I'm off to the gym for now (another thing I've been dealing with, Grave's disease)...so I'll be back soon... ♥

Made some sour cream, cream cheese, yogurt and peach pie filling!... :)

I make my own yogurt, butter, cream cheese, jams, jellies and apple sauce...today I made sour cream...all I had to do was add some cultures to whipping cream and wait...I let this culture for 16 hours, put it in smaller jars, labeled them and put in the fridge to stop the culturing process (I added 1/8th teaspoon of sea salt as a preservative and it brought the flavor alive! I do that with cream cheese and butter, also!)...these things are SO easy to make...I'm stunned I didn't learn how to do this years ago...I've got cream cheese in the works as I write... :)

 

Got the cream cheese working, too...I added the culture to a half a gallon of whole milk, allowed it to sit overnight and then pour it into flour cloth 12 hours later and then tied it to a wooden spoon over a pitcher and have been letting the whey drain off all day...once 12 hours has passed, I'll remove it from the cloth and add 1/8th teaspoon of sea salt to help preserve it and then I'll put it in a bowl, label it and then put it into the fridge...it's just unbelievably easy to do!... :)

 Cream cheese is done! Added an 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt, stirred well, put in air tight bowl, labeled and into the fridge! Will keep for two weeks (if it lasts that long! LOL) :)

The yogurt has been in the fridge since this morning...getting chilled and to stop the culturing process...there are lots of ways to make yogurt, we use a machine that keeps the temperature even...I use UHT whole milk (2% is fine, I use this type because it cuts the steps of heating and cooling the milk out and it works GREAT!!), a half cup of powdered milk (I get less whey this way) and two tablespoons of my favorite plain Greek yogurt, I try to find 2% (milk fat), I don't use 0%, I don't even eat 0% yogurt, LOL!...I freeze it into ice cube trays now, so it takes one cube of yogurt as the starter...I warm the milk, dissolve the cube in a cup with a little of the warm milk, add it back, stir and then put into the cups and leave for 12 hours...I usually make it overnight or first thing in the morning...when finished, it goes into the fridge to end the culturing process...it's very easy...UHT milk is the box kind, comes in 2 quart size...I'm going to try the crock pot method soon...Google it if you don't have a machine... :)

I wanted peach pie filling to use as the "fruit on the bottom" but couldn't find any (got some blueberry, cherry and apple for later)...so I decided to make my own...I started with canned, diced peaches (1), mashed them up a bit in the juice, then added a little of this and that (sugar, brown sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, allspice because I don't have nutmeg on hand, lemon juice and cornstarch for thickening) brought it to a boil and viola! fruit filling for the yogurt...I used cornstarch instead of flour so the liquid would thicken and still be clear...if you feel like you don't cook well, learn which herbs and spices to use with which foods...find a few easy recipes and get in there and cook!...follow the instructions carefully, because most are tried and tested and written that way for a reason...don't turn up the heat to speed things along...you will ruin your project if you do...have everything you'll need out and ready to use...always measure and be careful with salt!! You can add a little more if you need to, but you can't take it out!!...watch and favorite some videos and bookmark recipes you like...ask for recipes from people that made something you liked...most of all? HAVE FUN!!... :)