Strawberry Love Bread & Dairy Free Alfredo

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Check out the Valentine I received this morning from the DOUGHBOY himself!

How sweet, right? 🙂

Yesterday Jason had to work, so I was up way earlier than normal for a weekend day. I decided to use my time “wisely” and bake some treats. I had a ton of lovely strawberries in the fridge, so I decided to make a Strawberry Bread.

Looks delicious, right? And it turned out pretty well for a first attempt!

Strawberry-Cornmeal Bread

¾ cup flour

¾ cup cornmeal

3 TBSP sugar(see note* below!)

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 banana, mashed

1 cup soy milk (or any milk)

2 cups sliced strawberries

(I also intended to add some vanilla but I forgot!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, mix wet in another. Add wet to dry and stir until combined. Fold in sliced strawberries. Pour into greased bread pan (or you could try muffins instead) and bake for 40-45 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean!)

*This bread had great texture – however, I thought it lacked sweetness. I was hoping the banana and strawberries would be sweet enough, but if I make this again I will add more sugar. I also think using blueberries (in addition to the strawberries or alone) would taste wonderful, and would perhaps add the right amount of sweetness. Jason, on the other hand loved this bread — he didn’t think it lacked sweetness at all.

I’m bringing most of the loaf to work today, hopefully it is a hit with my coworkers!

After I was done baking, I went to visit Jason at work. His work is almost an hour drive away, so by the time I got there, it was time for lunch! We went to The Old Markey Deli which had a great lunch/sandwich menu.

I went with the bowl of chili:

Which was so filling and delicious. Jason had the turkey/swiss sandwich which had avocado, sprouts, roasted red peppers and a garlic mayo spread on top:

And the whole meal cost about $10! You can’t beat that.

After I got home I decided to plan out dinner and figure out what I’m going to make for Valentine’s Dinner (or if we should go out!). Since I wanted to use my new Nutritional Yeast, I went to Angela’s blog and found a recipe for Vegan Alfredo. I think I have mentioned before, I am not even close to being a Vegan, but I appreciate their recipes so much because not only are they usually very creative, they also don’t use dairy products!

Jason and I prefer to eat dairy free (digestive issues…enough said!) although we seem to be able to tolerate some dairy: butter and swiss, provolone, and mozzarella cheeses all seem to work well for us. Cheddar cheese? Problems. Ice cream? Cottage cheese? Yogurt? No way.

Back to the Alfredo!

Click here for Angela’s recipe. I omitted the tahini (didn’t have any!) but otherwise followed the recipe 100%!

This was rich, creamy and so delicious! The sauce contains raw cashews + other ingredients and I was worried that my Magic Bullet would not be able to grind the cashews – but it worked out well! The sauce tasted like Alfredo! Jason loved it as well and I will definitely make this again!

*What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

*Are you an Alfredo or Mac and Cheese fan? Do you make it as a side dish or is it the main star? As I made this, I thought of my dad making us Mac and Cheese when we were kids. He would add chopped hot dogs and a can of peas/carrots/lima beans. YUCK!!!

Enjoy your day!

~Holly