Square Root Day

So Kyle calls me this morning to inform me that today is a very unique day requiring a unique meal - apparently it's Square Root Day. Believe me, I wasn't thrilled about cooking something up for a number of reasons. First, Ash is still nowhere close to sleeping through the night. I haven't seen a four-hour stretch of sleep in weeks, never mind a full night of sleep in more than a year. And last night was awful so I was completely groggy today. Second, I had made enough spaghetti and bland tomato sauce to unfortunately last us til next month. Third, my mind was so cloudy there was no way that I could even figure out why today was Square Root Day, never mind come up with something creative.

But alas, I surprised myself by coming up with the following recipe that was quite delectable:

Squared Root Gnocchi

1 package gnocchi
1 large sweet potato, cut into 1 cm squares (the shape is important!)
1 large parsnip, cut into 1 cm squares (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 tablespoons Earth Balance, divided
1/2 large onion, cut into thin slices
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 package Yves Chick'n Tenders, diced
1/2 teaspoon Spike seasoning, optional
1/2 package fresh baby spinach


Creamy Square Sauce:
2 1/2 cups soymilk
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon tamari
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons Earth Balance

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Add sweet potatoes, parsnips (if using), oil, thyme and rosemary and toss to coat. Roast for 40 minutes, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp Earth Balance, onion and garlic and saute until golden, about 5 minutes.
3. While the onion and garlic cooks, be a true multitasker and boil a pot of salted water for the gnocchi. In yet another saucepan, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients (except for the Earth Balance) and bring to a simmer, stirring often. Once simmering, add the Earth Balance and cook the sauce for another 10 minutes, again, stirring often.
4. While the sauce simmers, add the gnocchi to the boiling water and cook until gnocchi rise to the top of the pot, about 4 minutes.
5. When you've added the gnocchi to the boiling water, add the chick'n tenders and Spike (if using) to the onion and garlic mixture and cook for 3 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minutes.
6. By this time, your gnocchi should be ready! Spoon it out of the boiling water and add it to the onion mixture. Add remaining 1 tbsp of Earth Balance and stir to combine. Toss in roasted veggies and stir gently.
7. Spoon gnocchi into a serving bowl and top with several spoonfuls of Creamy Square Sauce.


Confusing? Somewhat! Just like math can be! But actually rather easy!

One for Two

The weather here is not very nice, and like every Remembrance Day, it was miserable. Since I didn’t have any plans during the day yesterday, I thought that I could either a) vacuum and clean bathrooms or b) cook/bake something yummy. Things were headed in the right direction for Option A when I started cleaning my closet to find clothes to donate to charity. Once I finished in my closet, I went into my office closet to find more clothes, only to end up on the computer. I then found recipes that looked fun for Option B. You know where this is headed.

I thought that I should bake up a tasty meal. But given that it was only 9am, I scratched that plan for during the day in order to bake a scrumptious treat. There is a recipe I plan on making for Christmas – vegan buttertarts – so I thought it might be good to test them in advance.

Upon reading the recipe, I noticed that I would make a few substitutions…maple syrup for the brown rice or corn syrup, and as a result, an extra tablespoon of powdered egg replacer with a little less water. Since I didn’t have any pre-made tarts, I decided to make up some pastry and just put it into my muffin tin. Bad idea – everything was going smoothly, until the tart filling puffed up so much and seeped out of the pastry shell. Since the muffin tin was not flexible, it was too hard to get the tarts out of the pan. I decided not to take a photo of this catastrophe.

Next time: I will buy little foil tart pans that are flexible. Good thing I tried this out before committing them to a family dinner!

After reading Thursday’s post by Tracy, I decided that I would give this 5-ingredient cookbook another shot.

I was going to buy store-bought gnocchi, but the ‘lactic acid’ ingredient made me nervous. I remember seeing a homemade gnocchi recipe in VwaV, so I decided to give that a try.

It turned out great! Here is the uncooked result:


I could have used some tips/graphic to show me how to get the fork imprints to stay on each piece, but wow – it was so easy and tasty! Kyle was a pro at making all of the gnocchi – he was way better than I was...so serious:


I made the same sauce Tracy made but with spinach instead of swiss chard. Yum! So for the day, I had one success out of two recipes.

I have now vowed to only make cupcakes once every month, otherwise, I will put on too much weight. Plus, I think I will appreciate them more! I think it’s a wise decision given that I will be making Xmas treats in a few weeks, and it’s hard enough to have willpower to avoid eating whole tins of cookies. I can’t wait to start posting some pics and recipes of our family treats.