Vegan Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

If you are in the United States, you cannot travel by car without seeing signs for the Cracker Barrel Restaurant off most major highways. In our many travels, we have passed too many to count and yet each time we pass one we are amazed that they are always packed. For our family, all Cracker Barrel restaurants, like most other breakfast places, are places we don’t even dare to go in to. The prospect of bringing a severely allergic person, like our teen, into a restaurant that serves mostly egg and egg containing items is enough to give me nightmares.

That doesn't mean we cannot enjoy one of their dishes in our own home! One of the recipes they are famous for is their Hash Brown Casserole. There are a lot of recipes for this dish on the internet but I adapted mine from CDKitchen which has over 2300 copycat recipes on its website. This one does not contain sugar or condensed soup (a dairy allergy no-no) that most other recipes have. I first made this casserole two years ago to rave reviews and have made it for our Easter brunches ever since.

Vegan-style Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

26 Oz Bag of Frozen Country-style Hash Browns

2 C Shredded non-Dairy Cheddar Cheese (or Colby if no dairy allergy)

¼ C Minced Onions

1 C Non-Dairy Milk (soy, rice)

½ C Beef Stock or Canned Broth

2 T non-Dairy Butter, Melted

¼ tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the hash browns, vegan cheese and onion in a large bowl. Next, combine the milk, beef stock, half the melted butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl. Once your wet mixture is well blended, pour over the hash browns and mix well. Place the remaining 1T butter in a large, ovenproof skillet and melt over high heat.

Once the skillet is hot, spoon in the hash brown mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cheese has melted (around 7 minutes). Put the skillet in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until the surface is golden brown and slightly crispy.

You can make this the night before by cooking it most of the way, let it cool, cover and place in the refrigerator. The next day, take it out and let it come to room temperature before putting back in the oven. Reheat to warm it and then broil to finish it up.

This is a great casserole for Christmas or Easter brunch.

My EpiPen Junkyard

This is what I found when I went looking through all our medicine cabinets. Not 1 but 13 expired EpiPen cylinders. Since they come in packages of two, I’m not sure what happened to my No. 14 but maybe it’s now in medicine cabinet limbo. I have been searching of some Sudafed for my teen. She has been sick with the flu which has now turned into a very bad sinus infection. We are on currently on day 9 of being home and just feeling plain, yucky!

Just like old cars in a junkyard, my teen’s expired EpiPens have landed in my medicine cabinet waiting be turned into scrap, but where to dispose of them? Our local Walgreen Pharmacy used to collect all expired auto-injectors which I loved because all I had to do was ease into the drive up window and drop them off. It was just that easy and so convenient since there is always a Walgreen's just around the corner.

Apparently this change came around 2010, which would be the date on the oldest EpiPen in my junkyard stash. I have since made a call to our local Police Department which has a drop-off for expired medicine disposal, but they no longer accept any meds with needles in them. So, my only option is to drop them off at our County Health Department. Sigh! I’m not sure when I’ll get there!

Does anyone else have a medicine cabinet that looks like this?

Diary Free Easter Chocolate

I had good intentions of getting this out earlier but I just realized that Easter is next Sunday. I associate Easter with spring flowers and since I have yet to see any daffodils or tulips in my yard, I thought Easter was along way off. Thank goodness a good friend just asked me for dairy-free Easter candy recommendations or I would only have the usual jelly beans and Starburst candy. No fun chocolate Easter bunny for my teens' basket. How sad!

It is not too late to order but you will need to be quick. Last year, I bought four Vegan chocolate bunnies from Divvies bakery. Three of them made it in the baskets, one in my dog's stomach! Whoever said large amounts of chocolate can be harmful doesn't know my dog. Not only did she love the 4 oz. solid chocolate bunny but she has now become a chocoholic! Please do not take this as a recommendation to feed your dog chocolate because it is supposed to be VERY BAD for them; my dog hasn't figured this out yet.



While we loved the flavor of the Divvies product, the solid chocolate was just too much chocolate for us so I decided to check out other Vegan sources this year. Go Dairy Free is a great site for products and this is their 7th year of putting together a list of 12 different chocolatiers from the U.S. and several from the U.K. that produce dairy free products for Easter and Passover. The selection is quite extensive. You'll find eggs, chicks, ducks, and plenty of bunnies. the prices range considerably; however, there are a few items that are not too expensive. If you are concerned about nuts, I would contact the chocolatier directly before placing your order since some of them also produce items with nuts or peanut butter.

This year I decided to order from Premium Chocolatiers because their manufacturing facility is tree nut, peanut, and milk-free and they have the cutest Easter lollipops. Just the right amount of chocolate for us! Alisa Fleming from the Go Dairy Free website also raves about the wonderful milk and dark chocolate taste that has "won my taste buds over." I cannot wait to taste the white chocolate bunny lollipops!