Recipe Links

Last night we had some friends over for dinner. I always ask our guests if there is anything they cannot eat or prefer not to eat. so many people have food sensitivities or preferences nowadays that I always like to play it safe and ask. There's nothing like going somewhere for dinner and not being able to eat what was served. With this particular couple (who are close friends), I asked if there was anything in particular they would like to have. They mentioned salmon or something veggie like chili or veggie lasagna. That proved a dilemma for me because that all sounded good. I had just made veggie lasagna  chili on Sunday so really didn't want to make that again. So I was going back and forth with the salmon and the lasagna. Here's what I decided. I decided on lasagna as the main dish with salmon as the side (have you ever had the meat as the side dish?). I also wanted to make a cake in honor of the wife's upcoming birthday. I asked her hubby what her favorite dessert would be and he said chocolate cake, but probably gluten free, vegan and with a sweetener other than sugar (but he added not to go out of my way for all that). I love a good challenge so I searched online. Sometimes I just can't imagine what we did without internet and google and Pinterest.

Quick Links to recipes if you don't want to hunt for the links in this post..but I hope you do!

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

Gluten Free, Vegan Chocolate Cake

Below I'll share links to the two recipes I found for a Chocolate cake and Veggie Lasagna. I have been trying to be very intentional when I use recipes that are not my own (which would be about 95% of them), to always give credit to the source and even ask permission to share the recipe. I've been reading a lot about the copyright issues with blogs and will admit that for the first 4 years of blogging I had no clue. If I don't hear back from the blogger I've decided to just post a link to their recipe (even though I love just seeing it right on my blog for ease of use), or some just prefer me to link to them directly for the recipe. That's okay with me.

SO! Let's get on with it! I first hunted for a Vegetable lasagna. I looked on Pinterest first and I think that's where I found it. I can't remember now. Roasted Vegetable Lasagna just sounded so yummy! It brought me to For the Love of Cooking blog. The owner Pam, has a beautiful blog filled with amazing recipes and great pictures. I'm sure I will be back to find more recipes. Click here to get the full recipe. 

The veggies roasted up so beautifully! 

A few things I did differently...I added asparagus that I sliced on a diagonal. I only used one pepper and I was going to use some spinach but forgot. I loved the touch of nutmeg that her recipe called for. Next time I might double the cheese filling (because I LOVE cheese) but in this case yesterday it was perfect as the couple we had over doesn't care for heavy dairy laden meals. This recipe was nice, light and not heavy. I will definitely make it again. I did forget bread..Yikes..how can you serve lasagna without bread! Nan was the only one who did not eat the lasagna. We're still working on that girl and her vegetable eating habits. With the lasagna I served small salmon steaks. I didn't mind having leftovers because we'd eat it the next day.

Then came the hunt for a dessert. I have never made anything gluten free and was a bit nervous about experimenting. After some searching to find a chocolate cake that was both gluten free and vegan. My search lead me to Carrie's blog, Ginger Lemon Girl (isn't that a cute name), and this recipe for Gluten Free, Vegan Chocolate Cake. Carrie also has lots of yummy sounding recipes. I decided on this cake, made my list, and set off to the store...I e-mailed her a few times before I left to ask questions about sweetener options...e-mailed her in a panic yesterday as I was making the cake. This girl is on top of it and always got right back to me. YAY!!! The cake turned out awesome and we served it with powdered sugar and strawberry sauce.

I didn't want to use regular sugar (I normally use Organic cane sugar) because the hubby of my friend said she would prefer an alternate sweetener. Carrie did not think agave would be a good choice because there were already some "wet" ingredients and it didn't need anymore. She suggested Coconut Palm Sugar. I found all I needed at our local Chucks Produce and Street Market. I know Gluten Free Ingredients can be spendy so I was very thankful that everything I needed was in their bulk section (except for sorghum flour, which I found in a bag in the baking aisle). Yesterday Nan helped me make the cake...as I was putting in the dry ingredients I panicked. The recipe called for 1/3 c. of arrowroot powder but I didn't get that much..for some reason I was thinking it was only a few tablespoons. I quickly emailed Carrie to see what she recommended. While I waited to see if she would reply I searched the internet but wasn't getting any real help. Thankfully she e-mailed me quickly and suggested just using more sorghum flour (basically whatever the missing amount of arrowroot powder). Thank you Carrie for being so quick to respond to my many pesty e-mails.

The cake was a success! I had to sample a little corner just to  make sure. I added dark chocolate chips to the batter! Even my youngest, pickiest, sweet-tooth laden daughter liked it. I think we will make this again!

Please head over to these two blogs and show some love! They are worth visiting!

With Joy UNquenchable,