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)