Heart of Cooking

Pear, Avocado, Almond and Coconut Butter Breakfast

It can be extremely difficult to give up certain foods you’re used to eating and depending on.  I have personally eaten eggs almost every day for the past “I don’t know how many” years.  I love eating them in the morning because they are easy to fix, don’t require defrosting or planning ahead, can hold me over all morning and are relatively inexpensive for a meal.  Then there is the whole “what the heck would I eat if I didn’t eat eggs” dilemma.

All of these reasons have kept me eating eggs, until up to about three weeks ago.  My belly had had enough.  I distinctly heard it say to me one day, “No More EGGS!”  Yikes!  What was I going to do?

Sigh.  Many people email me asking me for breakfast ideas, especially egg-free ones.  I have promised them a menu planner…soon.  I do have the Egg-Free GAPS Menu Planner available that has one breakfast idea for each week.

However, I have yet to deliver a complete list of recipes and/or menu planner for breakfast ideas that are free of eggs.  So, I don’t have a release date yet, but I am planning on compiling an e-book of egg-free breakfast ideas for people who feel just as lost as I do when I comes to facing breakfast in the morning on an egg-free diet. Hooray!

This morning my husband looked at my breakfast inquisitively.  He was obviously interested or maybe confused about what I was eating.  I told him it was avocado, pear, almonds and coconut butter.  He seemed a little impressed, but I don’t think he’s going egg-free anytime soon.

Here’s the recipe to my surprisingly filling breakfast:

Pear, Avocado, Almond and Coconut Butter Breakfast

1/2 avocado, cubed

1/2 ripe pear, cubed

1/4 cup almonds, soaked, dehydrated and chopped coarsely

2 Tbsp coconut butter at room temp. from Artisana

How to make it: Gently mix all the ingredients together and enjoy.

In the end, I had almost two helpings of this, but so far it has held me over and it’s just about lunch time as I write this.

List of Egg-Free Recipe Ideas (also grain, gluten and starch free)

Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weeks ago our tomatoes were booming, so I made a batch of homemade tomato sauce.  It didn’t last long and it was delicious.  There is truly nothing like fresh home grown tomatoes and sauce!

I decided to leave it “chunky” but you could blend it up after it’s cooked if you want a smoother sauce.  Or you could blend up half and leave the other half chunky.

So here’s my recipe:

Read the rest of this entry »

One of our meals last week was a delicious Roasted Chicken with herbs and lemon as well as Cold Beet Salad, Sauerkraut and Garden Tomato and Basil Salad.  The three salads looked so beautiful together, I couldn’t help but take a picture.  And they tasted great together as well.  The beet and tomato salads are very easy while the sauerkraut takes some time and effort, but all were very delicious.  So I thought I’d share the Beet and Tomato salads with you today and keep the Sauerkraut for another day…

Garden Tomato and Basil Salad

Garden tomatoes – as many as you’d like, chopped up into medium sized chunks

Fresh basil, chopped – about 1/4 cup to 2-3 large tomatoes

Dressing: About 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 olive oil  (you can play with the proportions – I usually don’t measure but simply pour onto the tomatoes)

Apple Cider Vinegar or Balsamic Vinegar (not GAPS friendly)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper, freshly cracked, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.  You can chill ahead of time and the flavors will mingle together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cold Beet Salad

4-5 beets, peeled, cut into chunks and steamed until tender, chilled

Fresh mint, chopped – about 1/4 cup (I actually didn’t add mint this time but it is very good with the beets)

Same dressing as above for the tomato salad

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.

For the beets, you will need to chill them before serving.  Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope you enjoy these simply delicious summer recipes for these really hot days we’re having!

I was craving cereal over the weekend (doesn’t help that my husband buys cereal I can’t eat!) so I finally tried out a recipe I had found for Raw Nut Granola.  It is a bit of a process but it was so worth it.  It turned out as raw granola bars that you can break up into granola for cereal.  So you really get two recipes in one!

This recipe does require a dehydrator so if you don’t have one, you may be able to bake the mixture at about 300 degrees F until it is crisp.  You may want to put it on parchment paper or just grease the pan very well.  You’ll also want to make the mixture quite thin on the pan.  This does kill the beneficial enzymes in the nuts and seeds but it is an option if you don’t have a dehydrator.

I did make some adjustments to the recipe, simply due to not having dates, lemon, pumpkin seeds or vanilla.  But here is the original recipe as well as my adjustments.  For me, it made two  full sheets of granola on the Excalibur dehydrating sheets which later fit almost into two quart sized jars (one is already gone…)

Raw Nut Granola (egg-free, dairy-free, grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free)

Read the rest of this entry »

This pizza tastes like summer!  Enjoy!

Zucchini and Basil Pizza with Almond Flour Pizza Crust (gluten-free, grain-free and yeast-free)
Adapted from: Breaking the Vicious Cycle by
Elaine Gottschall

Ingredients:
Crust:
2      eggs (EGG-FREE:  2 Tbsp flax meal combined with 6 Tbsp. hot water)
2      cups blanched almond flour, or more as needed to make a stiff and not sticky dough
2      tsp olive oil
1/2  tsp garlic powder or 1-2 cloves of garlic
1      tsp honey
1      tsp salt
2    tsp dried herbs, such as basil, thyme and oregano
(optional)
Sauce:
8      oz. Bionaturae strained tomatoes
1-2   Tbsp. Bionaturae tomato paste
1 tsp. Italian seasoning or a mix of basil, oregano,
marjoram and parsley
1/4  tsp. garlic powder, to taste
1      tsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:
1/2   onion, diced

1-2   zucchinis, cut into half moon slices

1/3  cup chopped fresh basil

grated cheese (optional)

Read the rest of this entry »

This is a continuation of my posts about my healing journey.  If you haven’t read my previous posts, it may be helpful to read them before you read this one, but it’s not completely necessary.

Deep in my heart I always knew that life was about being happy.  And yet, it seemed like the most illusive thing to me for so many years of my life.  I may have appeared happy on the outside.  I became quite good at putting on a show by appearing happy.  But inside, I felt like I was always on an infinite search for peace and happiness within my heart.  At times I felt like I found it through certain things like creating artwork, dancing and other things I enjoyed.

However, it never lasted.  Life seemed like an endless mountain to be climbed.  I would finally reach one peak, find some joy within my heart, only to be crushed by another plummet into depression.

I talked about some of these ups and downs in this post, and now I am finally writing the follow up story of what happened postpartum.  You may also be interested in this post about all the changes that have occurred while on the GAPS diet.

I will share that the main reason why I am writing this is because I can’t help but share my experience, no matter how hard it is to share it.  It’s one of those things you don’t really want to do, but you feel like there is an invisible string, tugging at your heart, telling you to keep going or doing whatever you’re meant to do in this world.

And some of these things are hard to do.  But it’s for a reason.  I believe we are all meant to help each other in some way.  Even in just small ways.  It doesn’t have to be a huge and giant undertaking.

So, enough with the stalling.

The experiences that transpired in my life after I gave birth to my son are some of the hardest I have ever been through in my life.  What seemed hard before birth now seems like a walk in the park, not to say that all those years of feeling hopeless and depressed weren’t difficult.

Because it was so difficult, I didn’t share it with many people; not until I actually started finding answers (so typical of me, to be so self-reliant).  So many of my family members don’t know the extent to the difficulties we faced as a family the first year or so of Elijah’s life.  And the doctors who I visited never got the full run down because I felt so bad about the situation – namely, I blamed myself.

There is a quote that goes something like, “When things get difficult, keep going.  You are on the edge of breakthrough.”  I don’t know the source and I don’t even think the words are correct, but it was what kept me going on the days I felt like life was falling apart.  Turns out, it was true, for which I am very grateful.

Read the rest of this entry »

What did you eat this week?  I’d love to hear about your meals, and share mine with you!

This past week was one of those weeks where I decided pretty much a few hours before dinnertime to decide what to make, but everything turned out yummy (well, in my opinion at least!)

My GAPS Weekly Meal Un-Plan

(gluten-free, dairy, free, starch-free, sugar-free, soy-free, legume-free)

Dinners (leftovers for lunch):

• Turkey Tacos with Cabbage wraps
• Coconut Fried Chicken and Mashed Cauliflower
• Beef Marinara with Zucchini Noodles
• Salads:  hard boiled eggs or chicken, peas, shredded carrots,  pea shoots, garden tomatoes, cooked and cooled beets, etc.
• Egg wraps with Sautéed Cabbage, Shredded Carrots and Onions
• Chicken Legs with Barbecue sauce and Steamed Broccoli

Desserts:

• Blueberry Muffin Cake
• Coconut Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – I had a have a filling on a cavity this week so eating vanilla ice cream seemed only natural…

Breakfast:

• Blueberry Yogurt Smoothies – just yogurt, blueberries and bananas
• Banana Pancakes – just bananas and eggs
• Eggs…

Ferments, etc:

• Soaked and Dehydrated nuts
• Kombucha
• Yogurt

Well, that’s me!  I’m always looking for new ideas so please do share!

It’s blueberry season here in Maryland and Elijah, my mom and I ended up going picking this past weekend.  We had a blast picking 8 lbs in less than an hour and Elijah got to eat all he wanted.  The farm we went to was called Frog Eye Farm and they had over 200 blueberry bushes!

I love blueberry muffins – but I don’t always like cleaning muffin tins – so I made a Blueberry Muffin Cake with the berries we picked.  It was yummy and very easy.

Blueberry Muffin Cake with coconut flour (grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free)

1/3 cup coconut oil

1/4 – 1/3 cup honey

4 eggs

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda (not GAPS legal -delete for GAPS)

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

If the coconut oil isn’t melted, gently melt it in a pan on the stove on low.  Combine the eggs, honey and oil together until smooth (make sure the oil isn’t too hot though).  Add the flour, soda, and salt and beat until well blended and there are no lumps.  You can also put everything into a mixer or food processor.

2. Add the blueberries at the end and fold into the batter.  Grease an 8 x 8 pan with coconut oil or butter.  Pour batter into the pan and spread over the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until it is firm in the center.  Sorry – I don’t remember exactly how long it took.

Enjoy!

If you are grain-free, this lasagna is just for you!  Or if you’re gluten-free and can’t eat regular rice noodle pasta, this is a great alternative for you to be able to make lasagna again!

I came up with this recipe this past spring and I really love it.  I wanted to try to find something to replace the noodles other than zucchinis to make it taste a bit more like regular lasagna while still being grain-free.  So I ended up using very thin crepes made just from eggs for the noodles.  The result was very good and it was even better the next day after the flavors had melded a bit more.

I did use cheese on the top of the one in the picture.  We are now able to eat a particular brand of raw cow’s cheddar cheese and I am so happy about this!  It’s been so long since we’ve been able to enjoy cheese without reacting to it.  I would say this is mainly due to the healing we have been doing through being on the GAPS diet – hooray!

However, if you can’t eat cheese, I have cashew cheese sauce that works great if you can eat nuts.  It’s in the recipe below.

By the way, if you plan on making this, my tip is to make the egg noodles ahead of time because it gets to be quite a bit to make the noodles, sauce, and veggies all in once sitting…

So, here’s the recipe for you!

Read the rest of this entry »

So what is this post really about?

It’s about these lovely little egg crepes that I make that are great for multiple uses…wraps, pancakes and yes, noodles.

My post following this will be about lasagna and how I use these little egg crepes to make delicious tasting gluten-free and grain-free lasagna…stay tuned!

A few tips:

For noodles: The recipe below is specifically for making the noodles for the lasagna.  They are very thin and quite delicate.  But they work great as noodles for this reason in the lasagna.

For wraps: you will want to use more than 1/8 cup egg batter that is recommended in the recipe below.  I would use just less than 1/4 cup for making one wrap. This will make it more durable.  You can use these for grain- free tacos or any other kind of sandwich topping that needs bread or a wrap.

For pancakes: now these aren’t your regular pancakes.  But my son loves to eat these just with honey and butter.  They are extremely easy because there is only one ingredient.  If you want more of a pancake, you may want to use a little bit more than 1/8 cup egg batter per pancake.  If you’re after crepes, then 1/8 cup should work great.  And you will want to delete the garlic powder.

So, here is how to make them…

Egg Wraps or Pancakes or Noodles (grain-free, starch free, gluten-free and dairy-free)

Ingredients:

8       eggs
¾      tsp salt
¾      tsp garlic powder

(Again, this is the amount you will use for the lasagna.  If you’re making pancakes or wraps, start with 3 or 5 eggs).

Read the rest of this entry »