cinnamon rolls

Kate made today's lunch.

She has been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for a few weeks now. I told her she is welcome to make them as long as there is a vegetable dish to precede the meal. She agreed.

This left me with finding an easy and fast cinnamon roll recipe. I remember making one from Baking with Julia cookbook, but as we all know Julia was neither vegan-friendly nor quick. I think that particular recipe took me a day to make.

So I opted for having her make a quick sweet dough, using half whole wheat flour, and the rest using just cinnamon-roll-additions - sugar, cinnamon and Earth Balance. This is a quick dough because it does not use yeast to rise the bread; it has baking powder to do the work. Having Kate make it, it was ready in about an hour, an adult making it, it would be ready in less than 45 minutes, including baking.

Cost Breakdown:

flours: $1

sugar, cinnamon: $1

Earth Balance: $.50

maple syrup: $ 1

almond milk: $.50

Total to make 6 big or 12 smaller rolls:

$4.00

sesame soba noodles

Picnic

This is a dish that was once a Whole Foods food-bar item, as well. I have converted it to include more veggies. All of the kids love this dish and it is perfect picnic food. It is served as a cold salad so there is no problem with keeping it warm.

I added broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers and scallions to the Whole Foods 'recipe.' The dressing is a simple vinaigrette using seasoned brown rice vinegar (different from rice vinegar because of the addition of sugar), tamari (skip it and add salt for soy-free) and roasted sesame seed oil.

Sprinkling some sesame seeds on top rounds this dish out.

Very tasty and simple to make.

Cost Breakdown:

broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, green onion: $3

noodles: $3

oil, vinegar, tamari: $1

Total to make 5 servings:

$7.00