Author: PatagoniaLlami

This easy tomato refrigerator jam recipe is a quick and easy effort for some flavor packed summertime goodness! another way to enjoy fresh garden tomatoes.

recipe originally published July 9, 2012

Refrigerator Jam Recipe

There really is no comparison to a fresh tomato picked from the vine. Standing in the middle of my garden, biting into that warm juicy flavor.

This year, I have two in my garden – Roma and Celebrity. Both are great to slice thick and put in a sandwich, on toast, just on a fork with salt.

I have used each variety in separate batches of this jam – both taste great.

Refrigerator Jam Versus Canned

Part of the appeal of this Easy Tomato Refrigerator Jam is the lack of canning. Please make no mistake – I love to spend a weekend canning, and have to acknowledge that a large part of the work is the sanitation and prep, right?

How To Make Refrigerator Jam

With this recipe, I wake up one Saturday and decide I want jam. I head out to the back yard (or to the farmers market down the street) and pick the juiciest tomatoes I can find. Still warm from the sun. I probably eat one straight from the vine.

Clean up the tomatoes, chop them up and add a couple pantry staple ingredients, and within an hour? You have jam. This one just needs to be refrigerated and enjoyed within a couple weeks.

This jam has never lasted more than a few days at our house.

This Easy Tomato Refrigerator Jam takes little time to produce a deliciously flavorful result. As nice as it is to have a small batch of summertime jam in an hour, this recipe is easily doubled, or tripled!

Make some for gifts, as long as you tell the recipient that this is a fridge jam! It will disappear quickly.

So good on Avocado Toast:

fresh summertime tomatoes are my jam.

about Kristina:

Kristina is spabettie! She found cooking at an early age, and created spabettie in 2010 to share vegan recipes. Kristina turned her culinary training into sharing vibrant vegan food!  Read more…

spabettie / Kristina Sloggett is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Vegan Comfort Food Please!

What I love most about this book is that it celebrates the basic ingredients. There are no exotic hard to pronounce ingredients in any of her recipes. I was able to make a few dishes without ever once going to the store because I already had the ingredients on hand. Also the recipes are things you recognize just vegan versions of them. I am talking mac and cheese, nachos, pizza, cookies, brownies, grill cheese sandwiches, pancakes, waffles and yes even bacon! This cookbook makes a great book for those transitioning and it’s budget friendly!

Other reasons why I love this cook book….

More Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes

Ahhhh….Beef Manhattans ….. or simply call it – Hoosier comfort food at its best!  

I know…. it’s an Indiana thing.  

But I can’t tell you how many of these I ate as a kid growing up in Indianapolis.

Never heard of it?

A Beef Manhattan is basically a roast beef sandwich, cut corner to corner with a big scoop of mashed potatoes in the middle, and then completely smothered in brown gravy.

Uh…..yum!?

Wikipedia even has an entry for it:

The dish was first served under the name “Beef Manhattan” in a now defunct Indianapolis deli in the late 1940s where it gained traction as a Hoosier staple. In Indiana, it is served on bread. The roast beef is sliced and put on bread like a sandwich, then cut corner to corner and plated in a V shape. Mashed potatoes are served between the two halves, and the whole is covered in gravy.

Yumminess on a plate, that’s what Beef Manhattans were, and a big part of my childhood.

Hmmm….I sense a recipe coming.

No Beef Manhattan

Yesterday as I was rummaging around in my fridge looking for something yummy to eat, I spied a container of my awesome Vegan Gravy, and some leftover mashed potatoes and I instantly thought of beef manhattans.

But now that I’m a brand new vegan – what would I use to replace the roast beef?

All I had to do was open up the freezer, and there it was.  A bag of frozen vegetables, specifically another Hoosier favorite, a bag of peas, corn, and carrots.

I whipped those bad boys into the microwave, made myself a ‘veggie sandwich’, scooped in the mashed taters, and smothered the whole thing in gravy.

Bam.

I just created a No Beef Manhattan.

And it was AWESOME!!!

(Note:  You can use any sandwich filling you like, not just veggies.   My Meatlovers Seitan Metaloaf, for example, would be really good on a sandwich.  Anything that tastes good covered in gravy will do. )

Warm, starchy, filling, and full of creamy gravy goodness.  That’s what I’m talking about.  And I never missed the roast beef – at all.

This is a great recipe for using up leftovers, so give it a try.

You can find that recipe for my amazing Vegan Gravy right here!

You don’t have to be from Indiana to enjoy it, but if you DO find yourself humming “Back Home Again in Indiana”….well……..Jim Nabors would be proud.  🙂

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Directions

Originally posted March 31, 2016

Packed with protein and fiber, these little muffins are perfect for lunch, dinner, snacks and parties.  Kid and adult approved!

Did any of you eat pizza pockets or pizza bites as a kid? Gooey, cheesy little pockets of pizza perfection. Oh, how I loved to open up my lunch box and see them in there!

Now when I see those pizza snacks on the shelves in a grocery store, they don’t look as appealing to me.  They are packed with preservatives, calories, sugar and sodium.  

Next time you are at the store, take my advice and keep walking past the pizza bites and make these lighter, healthier Quinoa Pizza Muffins.  They have all the flavors you love about pizza, but with less calories and fat.  

WHAT INGREDIENTS DO I NEED?

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup preferred type of pepperoni (turkey, vegan, etc)
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• ½ cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoon gluten free flour
• 2 eggs
• dash of salt/pepper

Living without gluten and dairy can be difficult at times.  Especially times when I am craving pizza.  Luckily, I happened to make a big batch of quinoa last night.  I love to make large quantities of things like quinoa, rice, and cucumber salad for the week.  I can just pull it out at dinner and have a side dish already made.   Keeping stress to a minimum is super important!

Since I already had some quinoa already made, I decided to create these pizza muffins to help feed my craving for pizza.  

HOW DO I MAKE QUINOA PIZZA MUFFINS?

Start by, combining 2 cups of cooked quinoa, with 1 cup mozzarella cheese in a large bowl.  

Next, chop ½ cup of pepperoni into smaller pieces and add to bowl.  Stir in 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, and a dash of salt & pepper.  Chop ½ cup of fresh basil and add to bowl.  

Lastly, mix in 2 eggs and 2 tablespoon of gluten free flour.  Make sure to combine all the ingredients well.  Scoop the pizza mixture into 12 prepared muffin tins, packing them down.  Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.  

When the muffins are done baking, remove from oven and let cool.  Serve with a side of your favorite marinara sauce for dipping.

The last thing you will be thinking when eating these Quinoa Pizza Muffins is how guilty you feel.  There is no reason! They are light, fluffy and a great alternative to the usual bites in the frozen food section.   I love being able to eat foods that I am craving and not feel bad about it!

STILL CRAVING MORE PIZZA RECIPES? CHECK OUT MORE BELOW:

• Mini Breakfast Pizza
• Gluten Free Bbq Garden Pizza
• Vegetable Curry Pizza with Basmati Rice Crust
• Pesto Pizza with Chickpea Crust

Quinoa Pizza Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup preferred type of pepperoni (turkey, vegan, etc)
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• ½ cup fresh basil
• 2 tablespoon gluten free flour
• 2 eggs
• dash of salt/pepper

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine 2 cups cooked quinoa, with 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
2. Chop ½ cup of pepperoni into smaller pieces and add to bowl.
3. Stir in 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, and a dash of salt & pepper.
4. Chop ½ cup of fresh basil and add to bowl.
5. Mix in 2 eggs and 2 tablespoon of gluten free flour.
6. Combine all the ingredients well.
7. Scoop mixture into 12 prepared muffin tins. Make sure to pack the mixture into each tin.
8. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

• INGREDIENTS FOR VEGGIE TACOS
• 4 Corn Tortillas
• 1 large sweet potato peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 2 carrots peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
• 1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 yellow onion peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped very finely
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil + small amount for coating tortillas
• 4 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro
• 1 tbsp vegan butter
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• small bowl filled with water

• INGREDIENTS FOR SPICY TOFU CREAM SAUCE
• 1 serrano Chile
• 1 cup silken tofu
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened rice milk (soy will work here too)
• salt and pepper to taste
• small amount of oil to coat Serrano chile

• INSTRUCTIONS
• Before chopping your veggies, rub serrano chile with grapeseed oil and place on a piece of tinfoil under the broiler. When the skin bubbles and gets black, turn the chile one quarter turn, until all sides are roasted.
• Remove from the oven, place in a paper lunch bag and allow to steam for about 10 minutes so it will be easier to peel.
• In the mean time, heat a large skillet on medium high flame. You’ll know the pan is hot enough when you can drop a droplet of water into the pan and it skitters like a little ball moving across the pan before evaporating. If the droplet pools before evaporating, the pan is not hot enough.
• Once your pan is hot, add the two tablespoons of grapeseed oil and tilt your pan from side to make sure the oil is evenly covering the whole pan.
• Add the carrots, sweet potato, onions, and garlic to the hot skillet- do not disturb for about 3-5 minutes. Now, gently, lift a couple of pieces of the veggies to see if they come up easily and have a nice golden brown color. If so, they are ready to turn. If not, let them cook on that side a minute longer before checking again- this time in a couple of different spots in the pan.
• Once golden, turn all of the veggies over gently, and repeat the process until cooked through- resisting the urge to turn them too often BUT… keeping a watchful eye so they don’t burn. You’ll do this on all sides (process takes about 15-20 minutes)
• Preheat oven to 350º
• In another small pot set to medium flame, melt vegan butter. Once melted, add black beans and smoked paprika and ground cumin. Mash about 2/3 of the beans with a potato masher, a fork, or a wooden spoon. Give them a try then add salt and pepper to taste. Once beans are heated through, turn the flame to very low and cover.
• Quickly dunk corn tortillas in the bowl of water then rub with a little grapeseed oil. Put each one directly onto the oven rack and cook for 30 seconds to one minute or until tortilla is soft and heated through. The timing will depend on the thickness of your tortilla.
• Build tacos with tortillas on bottom, top with some beans, then some veggies, then some tofu cream sauce, and sprinkle with cilantro

• INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE SPICY TOFU CREAM SAUCE
• Peel and seed the roasted serrano chile (if you like a lot of heat, you can leave some of the seeds in, if you like less heat, add only a little of the chile, You can always add more if you like.)
• Add silken tofu, serrano chile, smoked paprika, cumin seed, and unsweetened rice milk to the bowl of a food processor or to a blender and process until smooth and delightfully creamy.
• Season to your taste with salt and pepper.

This recipe is for a fast and filling vegan strawberry oatmeal breakfast smoothie with a deep pink color and a rich, creamy texture.