Heart of Cooking

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)

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Egg, nut, and grain free pizza crust

I admit that when things get really limited and you start to use strange concoctions like gooey flax seed meal paste, ground up pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, it is easy to have little hope that the recipe is going to be any good at all!

But even though this pizza crust is free of eggs, nuts, grains, gluten, sugar, dairy and yeast (all the things pizza is normally made with), it is mighty delicious!

I am continuing to be stretched by my own restrictions as well as others who are looking for recipes free of many of the common allergens including eggs and nuts.  I found the original version of this recipe at Grainfreefoodies and from there made it free of eggs and added a bit of honey to balance out the taste of the seed flours.  (It was already grain and nut free.)

I wasn’t sure how it was going to be replacing the eggs with the flax seed meal.  My husband even said he was “scared of this one.”  He actually thought it was going to taste like cardboard when I told him what the ingredients were.

We were all pleasantly surprised.  The crust was a bit crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It held together very well.  And the crust had a very nice flavor, kind of nutty even though I didn’t use any nuts.  And the last minute idea of adding the roasted butternut squash ended up being a great idea.  Elijah liked it too, and he’s been getting more picky lately.

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Congratulations!

Hooray and thank you for all who participated in the Free Give-away for the Holiday Menu Planner and Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe e-book.  The winners of the give-away are: Tina, Emily, Michele S, Rebecca and Robin.  Congratulations and I hope the book and planner bring a wealth of goodness to you holiday season!

GAPS update:

As for me, I feel like I’ve ran a dessert marathon these past few weeks.  I have never baked or created so many sweets in such a short amount of time. I have to say that my enthusiasm, energy and ability to get this done in time is largely due to following the GAPS diet.  I have never had so much energy, been so even-minded, centered, happy, and enthusiastic for such long periods of time.  Yes, and it is all because I am no longer eating grains, starches, and refined sugars (only honey).  I plan to write a lengthy post about all the changes I have been experiencing on GAPS soon!

Thanks Mom!

I also really have to give my mom some credit here because she helped me test/create several of the candy recipes and a cookie recipe.  I was a little over-zealous with how many recipes to put in the e-book so it was so great to have her help with this project.  She used to make lollipops for us when my sister and I were kids and I still have a vision of her making them over the stove with the star and heart molds.

My flops:

I have to share a few of my flops while testing recipes for the Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe book.  I unfortunately didn’t take pictures of them.  I cleaned out the refrigerator tonight and tossed them in the compost.

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If you’re looking for healthy, sugar-free and gluten free dessert recipes and a delicious allergen-friendly Holiday Menu Planner this season, you won’t want to miss the 20% OFF pre-order offer that will be expiring tonight at midnight PST.

All of the recipes on both the Just Desserts for the Limited Diet recipe e-book and the Holiday Menu Planner are free of the following ingredients:

no gluten

no wheat

no grains

no starches or nightshade veggies

no refined sugar – only honey is used

no dairy – butter is used but coconut oil can be substituted

no soy

no corn

no peanuts

egg-free options and dessert recipes are on both the menu planner and dessert e-book

Some of the recipes that you won’t want to miss out on include:

Dairy-free Egg Nog

Egg-free Egg Nog

Gingered Cranberry Raspberry Relish

Dairy and Gluten-free Coconut Cream Pie

Gluten free Pecan Pie

Gluten free Pumpkin Pie

Gluten free Cookie Cutter Cookies

Gluten free Cookie Press Cookies

Spice Cake with “Butter” Cream Frosting

Walnut Torte with Lemon Whipped Cream Frosting

Almond Brittle

Almond Rocha

and many more!

Also, the desserts e-book and the holiday menu planner make great gifts for the holidays for someone who is limited in their diet.

To read more about the allergen-friendly Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe e-book and to pre-order, click here.

I hope you’re having a relaxed and blessed holiday season!

Cranberry Raspberry Relish from Eatingwell.com

I had so much fun with the Thanksgiving Menu Planner that I am very excited about creating menu planners for the coming holidays as well!

So excited, that I am actually going to create both a Holiday Menu Planner as well as “Just Desserts” recipe booklet for people on limited diets.

I grew up celebrating Christmas, but if this is not the holiday you celebrate, these menu planners and recipes could most likely work for any festive celebration and holiday.

The Holiday Menu Planner:

I think for many families, having a nice breakfast on either Christmas morning or another special day during the holidays is very common.  So I decided to include a breakfast menu to the holiday menu planner as well as a dinner menu.

Once again, the menu planner is going to be free of the following foods, so that it can work for almost any limited diet:

no dairy -  (butter may be used in some recipes but there is always another option that is dairy-free)

no wheat or gluten – all grains and products containing gluten

no grains

no sugar - only natural sweeteners will be used, such as raw honey and maple syrup

no soy – no soybean oil, lecithin, and other soy products

limited starches

no corn

no beans and legumes

egg-free options

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Dreams do come true.  I’ve been dreaming about the ocean and the beach, literally, for the past couple of years.  I was pregnant two years ago and traveling wasn’t very easy so we didn’t go.  And last year, we went to the mountains in California but weren’t able to visit the beach on that trip.  But this year we took our 21 month old toddler to the beach in North Carolina and we had a ball.

We went with a beautiful family whom we have only recently befriended this past spring.  But with some friendships, doesn’t it seem like you’ve known each other forever?

My friends have three kids, ages 2, 5 and 8.  So counting all the heads, that made eight people to feed, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  To make things more complicated, Jana and I are both gluten-free and Elijah and I are dairy-free.  So before our trip, we did a little gluten-free and dairy-free menu planning and came up with the following ideas for our families:

For dinner:

Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries (one of my standbys)

Meatloaf (Made with Grass-fed Beef) and Steamed Broccoli (I used almond meal in place of breadcrumbs)

Chicken Burritos with Lime Guacamole (I use Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas for the gluten-free people)

Lasagna with Ground Turkey (I use Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagna noodles)

Pasta with “Cheese” Sauce and Green Beans and Peas (I use Tinkyada Brown Rice Noodles)

For breakfast:

Gluten-free pancakes (made one batch with coconut flour and one with buckwheat flour)

Grain and Gluten-free Apple Muffins (made with quinoa flour)

Omelets with Mushrooms, Onions and Tomatoes

Eggs and Toast

Smoothies

Fruit Salad

Lunch:

Chicken Salad with Celery and Raisins (I would have added chopped apples but they made faces at me when I mentioned this!)

Sandwiches and other snack items

Leftovers

Some kid-friendly tips that I learned on the trip:

I learned a lot this week about what a lot of parents struggle with daily – how to feed a children new and different foods they aren’t used to.  Luckily the toddlers are not very picky – my little one is used to my “weird” cooking and doesn’t question me about if cheese is real or not.  Jana’s toddler Zack is also a champ at eating unless he’s not hungry.

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Gluten-free pizza crust, tarte style

Notes:  I’m having some quirky problems with my website so I am using bullets to separate the paragraphs in this post.  I am also submitting this post as part of the Tuesday Twister Carnival at GNOWFGLINS.  Please visit Wardeh’s site to see all the other wonderful weekly posts.

• As promised, I am posting a recipe for gluten-free pizza crust.  However, this is a different recipe than the one that I mentioned in my review of premade pizza crusts.  The following recipe is for a tarte style gluten-free pizza crust that I adapted from a recipe in Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.  I have been slowly transitioning to more traditional methods of preparing and making baked goods, as suggested in her book.   The main step that is added in traditional methods of preparing baked goods is to soak the flour for 12-24 hours in yogurt, buttermilk, or water with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you can’t eat dairy products.

• This extra step (though it takes planning and time) makes baked goods much more digestible than if they are baked without soaking.  Through soaking flours, the process of lacto-fermentation begins, which is a natural process that creates healthy bacteria like the ones in yogurt and traditional sauerkraut.

• I have to say I’ve been somewhat resistant to transitioning to this new “lifestyle” of soaking flours ahead of time.  I usually end up wanting to make something right before I’d like to eat it, which doesn’t work so well for this process.

• But after making my muffins, and then this pizza dough, I am becoming sold on this way of preparing baked goods.  And it is mostly due to the way these baked goods make me feel verses ones that aren’t soaked first.

• When I ate this pizza crust, I didn’t get that “carbohydrate rush” that comes with most baked goods.  Instead, I felt nourished and fulfilled.   My blood sugar remained “stable” and it also felt more like a meal than regular pizza makes me feel.  I didn’t have any digestive upsets from it at all, which I normally have even a little bit of after I eat non-soaked flours, even if they are gluten-free.  On the contrary, I felt like it was nourishing food for my body.

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Our lovely cherry tomatoes

I have been enjoying the Tuesday Twister blog posts by Wardeh Harmon at Gnowfglins.com for the past few weeks or so ever since I found her website.   These blog posts have been a synopsis of her week in the kitchen and what has been twisting in her cooking.  I love reading them, mostly because she focuses on nourishing, whole foods!

Last week she announced her new Blog Carnival, the Tuesday Twister Carnival and her invitation to participate in the weekly postings.  I started thinking about doing this and then a couple days ago, inspiration struck I finally decided to give it a go.  I can’t promise I’ll do it every week, but we’ll see what happens.

My Meal Un-Plan

I started thinking about my week in the kitchen and what it is normally like during our busy days.  And what stood out to me the most was the fact that I hardly ever meal plan.

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Like any mom with a child with food restrictions combined with a dose of pickiness, I have been looking for new recipes to feed my son who can’t eat dairy products.  I am also allergic to wheat and gluten so I end up making baked goods wheat and gluten free so I can eat them too.

I recently checked out the book, The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook at my library to see what new recipes I might find for the GF and CF diet.  I haven’t completely finished perusing the book but for the most part I would highly recommend it.  One great thing about it is that it has many soy, nut, egg and corn-free recipes as well.

One recipe that caught my eye was the “Sensory Sensible Pot Pie Muffins.” This recipe is a muffin for kids who can’t eat gluten and dairy and who may not like to eat regular chicken or vegetables.   To solve this problem, they put the pureed chicken and veggies right into the muffin.

This, I gotta try, I said.  My son used to eat literally anything I put in front of him.  But with the toddler stage, he has become a bit more picky.  He still loves cooked veggies, especially green beans but isn’t too fond of chicken these days.

Also, since we’re on the go a lot, I was looking for a snack that was travel-friendly, healthy, gluten and dairy-free and high in protein.  These muffins seemed like the answer!

Pot Pie Muffins made with Namaste muffin mix

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Allergen-friendly chocolate cupcakes

Do you ever feel like you have to forgo almost everything that looks delicious because of your very limited diet?  If you’re like me, you may look longingly at a thick piece of chocolate cake at the grocery store and wish you could eat it.

Well, now you can.  Thanks to my friend Penelope at Two Frogs Healing Center who introduced me to this recipe, I feel like I have finally found that moist, chocolaty goodness.   And the great thing is, if you are on a very limited diet and are gluten-free, wheat-free, soy-free, egg-free, sugar-free, or corn-free, you can still eat these delicious babes. They are even potato-free which is a problem for many people.  You can even make them with carob and make them chocolate-free!

And the best part is they are extremely easy.  With only a handful of ingredients and only one flour (I used rice flour), they are quick and very easy to make.

The original recipe comes from the Ecological Kitchen Cookbook but my friend adapted it to be gluten and wheat free.  The original recipe is for carob cake, so if you’re allergic to chocolate, you can use carob and it is just as good! Stay tuned, I’m going to try these with quinoa or blanched almond flour and see if they work just as well.  That would make them grain-free as well!

Close-up of these delicious cupcakes

Click below to get the recipe:

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