Donut holes!

I woke up this morning with a ridiculously strong craving for some donuts.  I LOVE donuts, but the dairy and soy in the ones at the store don't love me.  So I popped out my trusty iPad and tried, and failed to find a recipe that would work.  Finally, I found a couple that I cobbled together with some substitutions, and they came out delicious!

For the glaze:

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons original almond milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the doughnut holes:
1/2 quart vegetable oil, for frying (however much you need for your frier.  I have a little tiny one)
1 cup original almond milk
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

Equipment:  Electric deep frier, Melon baller

DIRECTIONS:

Make the glaze:

Sift the confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl. Slowly stir in 3 tablespoons of milk and the vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth. If the glaze isn't thin enough, stir in 1 additional tablespoon of milk. Cover the glaze with plastic wrap and set it aside while you make the doughnut holes.

Make the doughnut holes:

Add the vegetable oil to an electric deep frier about midway between the minimum and maximum line.  Heat oil to 350. Line a plate with paper towels.

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk and the egg.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir the milk-egg mixture into the dry ingredients, then stir in the applesauce, mixing until a soft dough forms.

Once the oil has reached 350ºF, use a smalll melon baller to drop scoops of dough into the oil, careful not to overcrowd the pan. Fry the doughnut holes for 1 minute.  Flip and fry for 45 seconds.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the doughnut holes to the paper towel-lined baking plate.

Allow the doughnut holes to cool slightly. Place a cooling rack atop one end of a length of wax paper twice as long as the rack.  One by one, dip the doughnut holes into the glaze and transfer them to the rack to allow the excess glaze to drip off. Serve immediately.  

Repeat as necessary.  Because I have a little baby frier it took about 5 batches.  Somewhere near the end, you will start running low on glaze.  Simply move the rack to the other end of the wax paper and use the glaze that has dripped off.

Mexican Rice Casserole-the Angela Can Eat It Version

I secretly love casseroles.  Maybe I should be booted out of Portland for saying it, but I do.  So it is a bummer having to cut dairy and soy, because most casseroles contain both.  Here is an easy recipe that I adapted from here to make it soy and lactose free.  This one makes a good make ahead meal.  Cook the meat and rice and mix everything up in the casserole dish and leave in the fridge until you want to eat it, then do the baking part.  I have also made it in a foil pan to take to someone with a new baby.  

Ingredients
1 lb ground meat (I usually use lean grass fed beef or lean ground turkey)
1 cup rice
2 cups water
1 16 oz jar salsa
1 11 oz can corn
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin

Optional ingredient:
1 cup "cheese" (I tolerate hard cheeses that have aged more than 2 years, so I sometimes use Tillamook Vintage White Cheddar.  You could also use a cheese substitute)

Place the water and rice in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer, put on lid and set timer for 20 min.

Preheat oven to 350

Brown meat and drain.  

Once the meat and rice are done, put all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a spoon until combined well.

Spray a 2 qt casserole dish with cooking spray (I use olive oil in my Misto).  Put mixture into dish.  Cover with lid and bake for 30 min.

If you want to melt the "cheese" take off the lid and add it and bake uncovered 5 more minutes.  Usually I skip this step because the kids won't eat my "cheese" so I just put the different types of "cheese" on the table and let everyone add their own or not.  When I'm making it for someone else, I ususally just include a bag of shredded Mexican cheese.  

Sausage Gravy

Had to have something to go with my biscuits...

1 lb sausage (sometimes I use turkey, sometimes pork, sometimes reduced fat, sometimes hot)
1/4 cup flour (I use unbleached)
2 cups Almond Milk or Lactose Free Milk (If you care about looks, the lactose free milk makes the gravy white instead of tan)

Cook and crumble the sausage over medium heat until browned.  Add flour and mix until dissolved.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook until thickened.  (The lactose free milk makes a little thicker gravy.)  Serve over biscuits.

This batch was made with lean hot turkey sausage and almond milk.

Amazing "Buttermilk" Biscuits

I LOVE biscuits.  Especially canned biscuits.  Unfortunately, between the dairy and the soy restrictions, it has been a long time since I've had any.  I scoured the internet to try and find a recipe that had neither dairy nor soy.  I never found one.  So I took a vegan one and added lard.  It came out amazing!  Here it is:

2 cups flour (I used unbleached)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup lard
3/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp vinegar

Preheat oven to 450
Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
Put dry ingredients into a bowl.  Using a pastry blender blend lard into the dry ingredients until you have a course mixture.  
Add milk mixture and stir
Put dough onto a silpat silicone cookie sheet (or a floured countertop) and knead until dough is smooth.  If the dough is sticky add flour.
Put another silpat on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to roll to about 1/2 inch thickness.  (If you don't have a silpat, then just roll it out carefully.  I'm lazy so I use the silpats.)  Remove top silpat.  

Use a drinking glass to cut out rounds. Place the rounds on a third silpat on top of a perforated baking sheet (or if you don't have the fancy equipment any ungreased cookie sheet) Then gather up the extra into a ball and roll again and cut out rounds again.  Then gather up the extra and make an amoeba biscuit by piling it into a generally biscuit shaped blob.  (Can you find the amoeba biscuit in the photos?)  

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Easy Citrus Dijon Chicken

What can I say?  I am a lazy cook.  I don't enjoy cooking things that take forever.  But I like dishes that are delicious.  This one fits both requirements.

1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces.
1.5 Tbsp lime juice (I use the stuff from the bottle.  See comment above about laziness)
3 Tbsp lemon juice (Again, from the bottle. Juicing fruit is not my thing) 
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
creole-style seasoning to taste (I usually just use a pinch because my kids don't like to have flaming breath.)

Place chicken in a skillet over medium heat.  Pour in lime and lemon juices and stir in Dijon, and creole seasoning.  Cook, turning chicken with tongs until the chicken is done (about 15 minutes).  I serve it over rice with a veggie.

Dairy Free, Soy Free French Bread Pizza

I LOVE pizza, but my guts hate it.  During the dairy free years, I learned that taking a loaf of french bread, adding margarine and garlic salt and baking it, then dipping it into Boboli pizza sauce would kill the craving.  I even experimented with making french bread pizza using soy "mozzarella" with good results.  Once I started on soy restriction, I began to brainstorm ways of getting my pizza fix when the french bread at the store had soy, margarine had soy, and the "mozzarella" had soy.  Here is what I came up with:

French Bread Pizza (serves 2-4 depending on how many are teenagers)

2 loaves French Bread (I know it takes 3 hours, but so far, I haven't found an alternative.  I use unbleached flour rather than bread flour.  One recipe makes 2 loaves or 4 pizza breads.) When you finish making the bread, leave the oven on (450 F) and the pizza stone in the oven.

1 envelope Boboli Pizza Sauce (I really wish that I liked a different brand of pizza sauce because I always fee bad at how much packaging is in this product.  The problem is I think it is the perfect pizza sauce.)

1/2 to 1 bag daiya mozzarella shreds  (They are dairy, lactose, casein, gluten, soy and cholesterol free.  I have no idea what they are actually made out of.  I personally think they must be made out of magic. Safeway carries them.)

Once the French Bread has cooled enough to slice, cut it in half lengthwise.  

Spread sauce on each of the 4 halves.  Put cheese on top.  

Put the pizza breads back in the oven for about 5-10 min or until the "cheese" melts and the bread is toasted on top.

Generally, add more sauce than usual, because the "cheese" overpowers it.  Also for being a vegan product, the "cheese" is really filling. 

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

The fact that my cupcake recipe makes a number of cupcakes (15) that is divisible by neither 12, 4, 3 nor 2 drives me insane.  (Is using neither/nor grammatically allowable when the list is more than two items?  English is weird.) So I decided to experiment to determine if I could easily come up with a recipe that divides up better.  I happened to have some left over dairy free soy free chocolate chips (I had a 10 oz pack of enjoy life mini chips and used 1 cup of them to make cookies.) I dumped those chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup) into tr cupcake batter after everything else was mixed.  Then I filled 24 cupcake liners 1/2 way.  I set the timer for 12 min and it was almost too long.  Next time I'll check them after 10 min. The bad news is the chips settled to the bottom, but the good news is the cupcakes are delicious!  

The Dairy Free, Soy Free, Gluten Free, No Beef, No Egg Dinner Challenge

So I cant have lactose or soy. And we were having a friend over who cant have dairy, gluten, beef or egg whites. So I decided that there must be a way to make a complete meal that wouldn't make either of us feel like a freak. So here is the menu:

Appetizer:
Tostitos Scoops
Vegan "Queso"
Salsa

Dinner:
Chicken Salsa Verde
Refried Beans
Store Bought Tortillas
Salad

Dessert:
Cookies (Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free using egg free directions and butter flavor Crisco and water in place of butter) for my friend (these meet all his requirements but have soy)
Cowboy Cookies for me

Easy Delicious Homemade Refried Beans

Homemade refried beans can be easier than you think.

2 cups pinto beans
8 cups water
1/2 cup Lard
1 Onion diced
1/2 cup water (or beef broth.  If using beef broth reduce salt by 1 tsp)
2 Tsp Kosher salt

Put the pintos and 8 cups water in your pressure cooker.  Cook for 38 minutes at high pressure.  Then manually release the pressure and drain the beans.  Reserve 1 cup of the cooked beans.  Put the rest of the beans in the food processor.  Melt the lard in a pan on the stove over medium heat and add onion and cook till translucent.  Add onion/lard mixture to food processor.  Add water and salt to food processor and process till smooth.  Mash reserved beans lightly with a fork and mix into processed beans.  (Somehow I forgot to take a Pic.  I'll try to post one next time I make it.)

Chicken Salsa Verde

This is one of our families favorites.  It is quick and easy.

1.5 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bitesize bits
1 jar of Salsa Verde (I like a smoother salsa rather than the "chunky" type)

If you remember, put the chicken into a zip lock bag and pour the salsa in and let it marinate overnight.  If you forget, it is totally fine to just dump the chicken in the pan with the salsa.  Cook on medium heat till the chicken is done (about 20 min), turning the chicken bits frequently.  This recipe can be doubled and still fit in my frying pan, but the cook time is longer.  Anything more than double won't fit.  I serve it with either rice or refried beans.

This is a double batch as it is cooking

Vegan Queso

I really like this recipe for vegan "cheese."  I usually eat it with Tostitos, because they are soy and dairy free.  When I made my Queso, I just added 1/2 cup of salsa before turning on the food processor.  I also forgot to add the garlic.  In retrospect, I probably could have eliminated the water as it was a little thin.  But it was still tasty and gave a bit of a cheesy flavor when served over refried beans. 

Lactose Free, Soy Free Mini Meatballs

My family adores this quick easy little meatball recipe.  The meatballs can be added to jar pasta sauce for pasta or to barbeque sauce for meatball sandwiches.

Cooking oil spray (I use my misto with olive oil)
1/3 cup Progress Plain Panko crispy bread crumbs (these are soy and dairy free)
3 tablespoons lactose free milk
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg lightly beaten
1 lb ground beef (I use grass fed.  If you use corn fed you might want to reduce the Italian seasoning)

Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line baking dish (I usually use Pyrex) with foil and spray with oil.

Mix remaining ingredients in order listed.  Using a tablespoon scoop up a rounded spoonful of meat mixture and form into a ball.    Bake until browned and cooked through to an internal temp of at least 170 F (about 15 to 20 min)

Taco salad

Yesterday I smashed my finger in the bathroom door.  So today I decided on something easy for dinner.  Taco salad/nachos.  I brown a pound of grass fed ground beef and add 1 recipe of this delicious taco seasoning (many of the packaged ones in the store have whey).  I place on the table the following ingredients which are lactose and soy free:  the beef, a bag of Tostitos (which are soy and dairy free), a bag of salad, and since hard cheeses that have aged more than 2 years have verry little lactose, some grated Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar.  Sometimes set out black olives and/or kidney beans. I also put on the table for my husband and kids: the regular medium cheddar (which has too much lactose for me), the Thousand Island dressing (which has soy) and sour cream (lactose), if I have any.  Then each person can have taco salad or nachos with the ingredients they want. 

Cheater Shepherd's Pie with Low Glycemic Carb Option

Tonight I'm experimenting with Shepherd's Pie, and ways of cutting dairy and soy out of it.  Also, for those who are trying to eat healthier I did 1/2 with a potato based to topping and  1/2 with a bean based one.

For the filling:

1 lb ground beef (We use grass fed.  If you use corn fed, you might reduce th the thyme)
1 onion diced
1 tsp thyme
1 can peas and carrots
1 cup beef broth

Brown beef and onion till done.  Add remaining ingredients.  Spray 2 bread pans with olive oil (I used a misto).  Split the filling between the two pans.

For traditional topping:
Make 4 servings of boxed mashed potatoes substituting lard for margarine and beef broth for milk.  Put on top of one pan of filling and spread evenly.

For low Glycemic carb topping:
2 cups cooked pinto beans
1/4 cup lard
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup beef broth

Melt lard on the stove.  Put all topping ingredients in food processor and process until the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Put on top of the other pan of filling and spread evenly.

Baking instructions:

Bake at 350 F for 20 min. 

Easy vanilla cupcakes that I can eat.

Back in the good ole days, before I had to cut soy out of my diet, I could still use some boxed cake mixes.  But so far, I haven't found a boxed cake mix that is both dairy and soy free.  So I scoured the internet for recipes and didnt find any.  By I did find this.  Now I don't need my cupcakes to be perfect.  I need them not to cause an intentional rebellion.   So below is my revised, not so perfect, but still delicious recipe for vanilla cupcakes.  Enjoy!

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup light olive oil

"Milk" ingredient:
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (or if you have lactose free milk on hand 1/2 cup lactose free milk + 1/2 tsp white vinegar and set aside for 5 min before using)

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Put 15 cupcake liners in your cup cake pans.  I have to admit that this recipe makes me a little crazy in the fact that it doesnt make a number divisible by 12.  

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  Mix wetn ingredients using whisk attachment in kitchen aid.  When it is well mixed (approx 1 min) turn mixer down to stir.  Add 1/2 of dry ingredients, then 1/2 of the "Milk" then the rest of the dry then the rest of the  "Milk."  The batter will be thinner than boxed cake mix.  Bake for 12-14 min.

Sometimes I don't even bother with frosting, but when I do, I use this recipe.  Sometimes I swap out the vanilla for almond extract.  Also one batch of the frosting is more than double what you need for the cupcakes.

Bacon Tent Camping Themed Cake

My 9 year old is in cub scouts and each year they have a cake auction fund raiser.  This year's theme was camping.  Given the audience, and the fact that we live in Portland Oregon (which is obsessed with bacon) and the fact that I'm not going to have to eat the cake, I decided it would be pretty cool to decorate our cake with a bacon tent.  I know some of you are saying "yuck" and the rest of you are on the edge of your chair saying "tell me more."  If you are in the "yuck" group, I am with you.  I don't like bacon.  I feel like I am betraying my Portland-ness by saying so in writing, but it is just too salty for me.  But, again, I'm not eating it, and all the men and boys in my life think it is pretty cool.  So here is how I did it.

I used shish kabob sticks and bakers twine for the underlying structure.

Basically, I just made a vaguely tent like x shape that was tall enough that one piece of bacon draped across it would look tent like.  You want the stabby ends of the sticks to be down.   Then I wound the string around each part of the wood one time before moving to the next piece.  I realized that the bottom "tent" part was getting too wide, so I did some on the diagonal until it looked vaguely right.  Then I repeated the process lining the two ends up so they were vaguely the same size and shape (It is bacon. My target audience, boys and their parents don't care so much if it is symmetrical.)

Once I was done with the two ends I realized I was going to have problems tieing them to the crossbar unless I could get them to stand up, so I tossed two pieces of bacon on the broiler pan and stabbed the stabby ends into it and viola upright tent.  Long about this time, I realized that the shish kabob sticks were so long the bacon tent wouldn't fit in my oven.  So I broke off the ends and then moved my rack down one.  

  

Then I added the cross bar and tied it with bakers twine.

Once I made sure the oven would close, I took the pan out of the oven and started adding bacon.  

I stabbed each end of the bacon with a shish kabob stick as I added it.  I added bacon until it covered the cross bar from one of the triangle pieces to the other, and then to account for shrinkage added a couple extra pieces.  Then I realized the bacon was a little floppy so I added another shish kabob stick behind the bacon (again tied on with bakers twine).  Finally I tied the bottom shish kabob sticks that were stabbed through the bacon to the ends.

I left the little dip on the ends so that when the bacon shrunk in cooking it didn't tear my structure apart.  At this point there were only 2 pieces left of the pound of thick cut bacon I started with, so I just threw them on the broiler pan. I baked it in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes (most of the bacon art I have made has baked for 20-30 minutes in a 400 degree oven).

When It was done it looked like this:

I decided to make things easy on myself and bake my cake in a disposable 13x9 pan.  That way, I didn't have to worry about getting a cake board.  I opted for yellow cake. And Chocolate Frosting.

Then I used those "extra" pieces of bacon to create a floor. 

Then I added my tent. And with my son's help, drew lines in the frosting where the fire pit and river should go. He placed chocolate rocks for the fire pit.

I then added cookies and cream "gravel" on the river bank.  And two Tootsie Rolls for fire wood.  Then I dumped some vanilla frosting died blue into the river.

Then I very carefully spread the vanilla frosting.  

Next I had my son put some Swedish Fish in the river.  And cover the river with blue sprinkles.

Then he dumped green sprinkle "grass" over the campsite.

Then we added some cookies and cream rocks to the camp site.

Then we decided we needed some bears fishing.

Finally we decided there were some bears taking a nap.

All in all it was a really fun project for both of us.

Dairy Free, Soy Free Cowboy Cookies

When I first had to go lactose free, I was pretty upset about having to discontinue my love affair with Giradelli Milk Chocolate Chip cookies.  However, between the half pound of butter and all the milk in the chips, I knew we had to break up.  I struggled, cookie free except for the occasional Oreo until my wonderful sister in law sent me the recipe for cowboy cookies.  Cowboy cookies have been a big part of my life, until I had to give up soy.  In fact, we are in the process of adopting, and I had always assumed one of the first things we would do when our child is placed would be to make cowboy cookies.  I had a little slightly panicked pity party in my kitchen and may have shed a few tears over the fact I couldn't find shortening without soy.  My wonderful, kind, supportive husband saw how upset I was, did some research and discovered Spectrum Organics makes a soy free shortening, and they sell it at Target.  While there, I discovered they also sell Enjoy Life mini chips which are dairy soy and nut free. 

Let there be cookies! 

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I use unbleached all purpose)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup Spectrum Organics Shortening (or use regular shortening if you don't have soy issues)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Additional Dry Ingredients:
2 cups quick oats (you can also use roller oats)
1 package Enjoy Life semi sweet chocolate chips (if you don't need to be soy free 1 cup of semi sweet mini chocolate chips is way cheaper)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut

Optional Ingredient:
1/2 cup chopped nuts (but only if you like your cookies defiled by nuts)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.  Put shortening in your Kitchen Aid stand mixer and start it mixing.  Add remainder of wet ingredients one at a time.  Make sure kitchen aid is on stir and slowly add dry ingredient mixture.  Once you are reasonably sure it is mixed well enough turning the mixer up won't result in a flour cloud, turn it up one or two clicks.  Add additional dry ingredients one at a time.  Spoon them onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-12 min. 

Note:  My husband loves these cookies.  Once I offered to make some for him to take to a work pot luck.  He politely and lovingly declined because, and I'm paraphrasing here, they were ameba shaped.  I'm pretty sure I  just stared at him squinty eyed and said "but they taste good."  After a few moments, I just chalked it up to being one of those things I just need to accept without understanding.   After a bit of experimentation, I discovered if I use my melon baller to scoop out the dough and then squish the dough a little with my hand, the cookies are uniformly shaped enough that my husband approves.

Updated Dairy Free, Soy Free, Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cups

I was successful in my quest to find a dairy and soy free chocolate chip, so here is my freshly revised dairy free, gluten free, soy free peanut butter cup recipe.  

1 cup Enjoy Life semi-sweet chocolate mini chips (I found them at Target.  They are expensive.  If soy isn't an issue for you, any semi-sweet chocolate melty or chip will work.)

light olive oil as needed to get the consistency right (You shouldn't need the oil if you are using melties.  You can use any kind of vegetable oil you have on hand.  I'm just lazy and only stock olive oil)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate.  I have a little electric fondue crock pot looking thingy that I use, but 30 seconds in the microwave, stir, 30 seconds in the microwave, stir repeat until melted works.  Put cupcake holders in your cupcake pan.  This recipe makes 6  if you use a regular size cupcake pan.  I suspect it would be 12 if you use a mini cupcake pan, but I don't have one, so I don't know. When the chocolate is melted, put a spoonful of chocolate in each paper then use the spoon to get the chocolate on the sides of the paper about 1/4 of the way up.  You should use a little more than 1/2 the chocolate.  Then put the cupcake pan in the freezer to set the chocolate.  While the chocolate sets, mix the peanut butter and powdered sugar.  I use my kitchen aid.  If you do it by hand, it will be easier if you heat the peanut butter in the microwave first.  Scoop the peanut butter mixture into the cupcake holders on top of the chocolate.  Then pick up the pan and slam it repeatedly into your counter to level the peanut butter mixture out.  The kids find this entertaining.  Then spoon the rest of the chocolate on top and put back in the freezer to set (about 5 min).  Enjoy!

PS No pic on this post because I haven't made it recently.  I'll try to remember to photograph it when I make it again.

Slow Cooker Beer and Onion Pork Chops

Back in the good ole' days, before I had to cut soy out of my diet, my family and I really enjoyed this recipe (with some variation as I am too lazy to butterfly cut pork chops). So this week as I was shuffling through the recipe drawer I saw it, thought "Yum! we haven't had that in a while." and put it on the menu plan, only to discover chicken bullion has soy.  Rainbows!  It would have been better to discover that before I did the unicorn shopping for the week.  Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, here is my revised version:

1 or 2 sliced onions
1 family pack boneless, pork chops (preferably thin cut but it doesn't really matter)
2 or 3 bottles of beer
2 or 3 cups organic chicken broth (make sure it is soy free)

Put a layer of onions on the bottom of the slow cooker.  Then a layer of chops.  Then another layer of onions and another layer of chops and so on until all the chops are in.  Then add one bottle of beer plus one cup of broth.  Add another bottle of beer and cup of broth until the liquid covers the top layer of chops.  Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.  I usually serve it with rice and a steamed veggie.

Gloriously delicious, easy, dairy free, soy free pumpkin pie!

I LOVE pumpkin pie.  When I had to give up dairy 7 ish years ago, I embarked on a quest to find a pumpkin pie recipe that was as good as our secret family recipe (the one on the back of the big Libbie's can that makes 2 pies), that was simple, and that didn't require me to go to a specialty store to purchase ingredients.  And I failed.  Until today.  I will spare you the details on coconut milk pies that didn't taste quite right and soy milk pies that were the wrong consistency.  I acquired the recipe to make one using lactose free egg nog, which the store I go to didn't carry (they carry soy nog, which I can't have).  Last year, I spent 5 unicorn hours stirring a a pot of lactose free milk to evaporate it enough to make 2 pies.  (It's a good thing I have a kindle and a pumpkin pie loving lactose intolerant cousin willing to corral the children for 5 hours.) Finally, I found a  recipe that used almond milk and seemed simple.  However, I prefer white sugar to Brown sugar in pumpkin pies, I prefer using cinnamon, cloves, salt and ginger to us in pumpkin pie spice and I buy vanilla almond milk not original.  So I fussed with the recipe and came up with the following (which is a mix of the back of the Libby's can and the linked recipe).   I have sampled it (by eating 1/4 of the first pie for lunch) and it is wonderful!  There is a running joke in our family that my secret family recipe makes 2 pies so I have to make 2 even though most of the family prefers fruit pies, so when I created this recipe it is for 2 pies.  It can be halved, but since I like pumpkin pie for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert,  and snack,  I can't imagine doing so.  Enjoy! 

Pastry for two pies (I used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, which are soy and dairy free but not vegetarian)

2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon (I like cinnamon I added a little extra)
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

29 oz can of pumpkin puree 

6 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Put the crusts into 9 in pie plates and flute the edges.  Or don't bother. I dont judge based on how your food looks.  Whisk together (I use my kitchen aid because I don't whisk by hand) remaining ingredients and pour into pie dishes and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Also, when baking pies, I use a pie ring to keep the crust from getting over done.  You can use foil around the edges if you dont have a pie ring.  Or if you dont mind the edges being a bit over done, just leave it. Let cool.  Or do what I did and eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven being careful to blow on each bite so you don't burn your tongue so bad you can't taste anything for a week.