Starting July 8, 2011 we removed from Sam's diet: Soy, wheat, corn, sesame, dairy, shrimp, added sugar, sweet fruits like melons and grapes, eggs, white rice, food dyes, and non-organic foods. In January 2012, on advice from our naturopath, we introduced sweet fruits as long as they are in season and organic. Sam is amazing at eating well! July 27, 2013: Mom and daughter are getting on the bandwagon! Oct. 11, 2016: Mom is making even more dramatic changes including no sugar or baked goods....
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Coconut Milk Sour Cream Base for Dips and Spreads. Gluten Free Dairy Free Sour Cream.
When I took my first taste of this, for a moment I totally forgot that it did not contain dairy. When you can trick your own tastebuds, well that's something. It is amazing to me how easy it is to disguise coconut flavor! Use herbs and spices you have on hand combined with food-grade essential oils to customize this sour cream to whatever flavor you want. Use a toothpick to add the oils, since a little goes a long way.
1/2 cup cream skimmed from the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk (I used Thai Kitchen)
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Himalayan salt or sea salt, to taste
Food-grade essential oils to taste and/or garlic powder, Mrs. Dash, etc.
Chill the can of coconut milk so that the cream separates from the liquid; reserve the liquid for smoothies. Combine cream with coconut oil, then stir in other ingredients. Chill until firm enough to use as a dip or spread.
Variation #1, Cream Cheese: Use more coconut oil, and a dash or two of smoked paprika to warm up the color.
Variaton #2, Smoked Salmon Spread: Make the cream cheese version, then mix in some canned salmon, more lemon juice, and liquid smoke. I didn't have salmon so I used tuna and added some smoked paprika to make it pale pink and add a nice flavor.
Lime Snowball Cookies. Gluten Free Dairy Free Vegan.
These cookies were phenomenal! I do not think anyone would guess that they were GFCF. You can make lots of variations to this recipe, adding chopped nuts, omitting the citrus ingredients, adding mini chocolate chips, etc.
I based my recipe on this one: http://www.food.com/recipe/a-big-dose-of-lime-snowball-cookies-145013
2 cups Pamela's gluten-free flour mix
1 cup coconut oil, in solid form
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
zest of one lime or lemon
8-16 drops of food-grade lime essential oil (start slow and taste as you go)
Preheat oven to 350. If the coconut oil is solid, combine all ingredients except essential oil with your hands (the heat from your hands will melt the coconut oil just right). Gradually add the essential oil and taste the dough until you like the flavor. Form walnut-sized balls of dough and baked them on parchment lined ungreased cookie sheets for 15-20 minutes or until brown around the edges. Remove from oven and dust tops of cookies with powdered sugar while still warm.
Note: If you add chopped nuts and omit the citrus, use another liquid such as dairy-free milk to replace the citrus juice.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Incredibly Fabulous Three-ingredient GFCF Vegan Chocolate Truffles
1 can full-fat coconut milk, chilled (I used Thai Kitchen organic)
12 oz. Trader Joe's chocolate chips
Food-grade essential oils for flavoring the chocolate, such as peppermint or orange (optional)
Shredded coconut, nuts, cocoa powder, crushed organic dye-free peppermints, etc. for rolling
Open the can of coconut milk and drain off any liquid (you can use it in a smoothie), then dump it in a saucepan with the bag of chocolate chips and melt them together until combined. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, then stir in essential oils (start with just a drop, especially of peppermint) until desired flavor is reached. Chill in the fridge for at least two hours.
Form chocolate mixture into balls and roll in desired crumbly stuff. Keep in fridge until time to serve.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The first time I made these they were fine but the truffle mixture was too soft, even after chilling. To redeem this situation, I melted 1/4 cup coconut oil and stirred it into the truffle mixture, then chilled it again before forming the truffles.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Fabulous Two-Ingredient GFCF Chocolate Pie Filling
There are many GFCF crusts out there. I just combined uncooked oatmeal, a couple tbsp. sugar, a couple handfuls of shredded coconut, dash of salt, a couple tbsp. Pamela's, and 1/2 cup coconut oil in the food processer. Then I pressed it into a pie dish and baked at 350 for 10-15 minutes . (Cool before adding filling.)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Some instructions say to drain off the liquid from the can of coconut milk after chilling. I didn't do this the first time and it was fine, but the second time it was too runny. To redeem this situation, I melted 1/4 cup coconut oil and stirred it into the pie filling, then chilled it again.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Lentil Soup
better the next day.
1 lb. package dried lentils
2 ½ quarts water (I just eyeball it. You might need to add more later.)
2 tbsp. oil
About 2 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
5 gluten-free organic hot dogs, sliced (optional)
2 chicken bouillon cubes (optional)
Fresh ground black pepper
Salt to taste (but I don't use if I'm using bouillon & hot dogs)
In a soup pot, saute carrots, celery, onion, garlic & hot dogs in oil until onions are limp (and until hot dogs are a little browned). Add water, bouillon, lentils, & black pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently about 2 hours. (The lentil package says it only takes 45 minutes, though.)
The New York Times book suggests you puree the soup through a food mill(if you're not using hot dogs) but I usually don't.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Jeni's Spice Mix to Make Anything Taste Like Sausage
From Fine Cooking's Oct/Nov '94 issue #5
Zest of 2 lemons
1/3 C thinly sliced garlic
1/3 C fresh rosemary leaves
1/4 C fresh sage leaves
1/3 C kosher salt
1/4 C freshly ground black pepper
The recipe says, "In a food processor, put in the lemon zest with the motor going, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Process briefly until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand."
Jeni says she has been making this for YEARS and didn't get a Cuisinart until last Christmas. She just always chopped everything up really fine and it worked just as well. It will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks. She keeps any leftovers in the freezer and it keeps indefinitely! She pulls it out any time she wants to flavor something like sausage—be it eggs, ground turkey, etc.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Lisa's Tri-Tip
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Beef Curry Puffs or Mini Tarts
(Click on the recipe to enlarge it.)
These are really delicious. Substitute the flour for Pamela's mix and the margarine for coconut oil and a little water. The extra filling is good with rice. Update: When I made these a few days ago, my crust was tough and I know I could make it flaky with some extra care and attention but I don't want to have to put extra care and attention into it, so I got thinking about alternatives. I decided to make a biscuit dough and press it into mini muffin tins. That means very little handling of dough, no rolling, thus a lot less mess and a lot less opportunity to make it tough. These little tarts were absolutely amazing! The crust was flaky and tender and delicious!! Biscuit-style Crust for Mini Tarts: 1 cup Pamela's flour mix 1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/4 cup coconut oil, in solid form 3/8 cup milk substitute with a splash of vinegar in it (I used rice milk and rice vinegar) Preheat oven to 375. Grease a mini muffin tin with coconut oil. Combine the dry ingredients and cut in the coconut oil with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Ad the milk and stir it just enough to make a dough. Press a walnut-sized glob of dough into each muffin opening, pushing it up the sides; you want it to be less than 1/4" thick. I wore thin disposable gloves to keep my hands from getting sticky. This dough was a little on the wet side (it would have stuck to a rolling pin had I tried to roll it out) and it turned out fine. Add a spoonful of filling and bake for about 12 minutes. Oh, man. I'm going to make pizza ones and pumpkin pie ones and breakfast ones and I'm going to freeze a bunch of them to pop out and heat up in the toaster oven! |
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Double Blueberry Muffins (Gluten-free Dairy-free)
Monday, September 9, 2013
Vegan Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (updated November 2014)
This is different from the recipe that I've shared before. The cookies are chewy and even better than any I've ever made.
1/2 cup organic coconut oil
1/2 cup Trader Joe's organic brown sugar
1/2 cup Trader Joe's organic white sugar
2 tablespoons ground flax seed mixed with 6 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon gluten-free real vanilla extract
1 cup Pamela's gluten-free flour blend, plus 1-2 tbsp. extra
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 scant teaspoon sea salt
1 cup gluten-free oatmeal (optional)
1 cup Trader Joe's chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds (optional)
Preheat oven to 350. Mix flax seed with water in a small bowl. Combine coconut oil and sugars in a large bowl. When flax mixture has gelled to the consistency of beaten egg (it only takes a few minutes), combine it with oil and sugars along with the vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. Then add oatmeal, chocolate chips, and almonds. Use a cookie dough scoop, scoop one scoop of dough onto cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes; don't overbake. If this looks good (not too greasy looking or runny around the edges), scoop and bake the rest. If it doesn't look good, add 1-2 tbsp. more flour and bake another test cookie. Let cookies rest on pan for one minute before transferring to cooling rack. Note: The longer you let the dough sit in the bowl before baking, the higher and less flat the cookies will be after you bake them.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Coconut Lime Cookies (gluten-free, vegan, with Lime essential oil)
Friday, August 16, 2013
Delicious GFCF Waffles! Or Flower-Shaped Pancakes:)
2 cups Pamela's gluten-free flour mix
1 tsp. sea salt
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. organic white sugar
2 eggs
1.5 cups warm rice milk or other milk substitute
1/3 cup melted ghee, or oil
1 tsp. gluten free vanilla
Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs with other wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cook on waffle iron until done.
Update: Today I didn't feel like dealing with cleaning the waffle iron so I made this in my quesadilla maker instead, which is was much easier to clean and made really cute flower-shaped waffles! The "petals" break off really easily.
I also used watered-down coconut milk from Trader Joe's as my milk substitute, and it worked great. You could probably try this with muffin batter, and make all kinds of variations.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Spinach Rice
Ground beef
Cooked brown rice
Onions or onion powder
1 bag washed fresh spinach, chopped with kitchen scissors
Black pepper
Coconut Aminos or Soy Sauce
Brown the ground beef with diced onions until onions are soft. (Or brown the meat first, then rinse to get the fat off, then add olive oil to brown the onions in.) Stir in spinach and let it wilt, then stir in cooked brown rice and season with aminos or soy sauce, etc.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Coconut Oil Pie Crust
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Coconut Aminos Marinated Grilled Chicken
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Delicious Rice Pasta Primavera
Oatmeal Quick Bread
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Flaky Coconut Oil Biscuits (Vegan Gluten-Free Dairy-Free)
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
I found this on simplyrecipes.com and made the following alterations [in brackets]. Delicious. (Especially the dough!)
3 cups flour [substitute Pamela's gluten-free flour mix]
1 cup organic granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soft butter [try ghee or coconut oil]
1 egg, slightly beaten [flax seed egg substitute]
3 tbsp cream [unflavored coconut yogurt]
1 tsp vanilla (I use gluten-free)
[zest of one lemon]
Chill. Roll 1/4 thick and cut out cookies. Bake on ungreased sheet at 400 for 5-8 minutes just until edges are slightly brown.
The lemon zest and sour cream [coconut yogurt] made these so good!
Shepherd's Pie
Easy Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Cream Puffs
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Spicy Sweet Potato Soup
Mineral rich Grade B Maple syrup is cheaper than Grade A because it is not as refined; thus there is more flavor. Canned coconut milk works well in this soup because it is richer, however any dairy or non-dairy milk can be substituted with equally great results. If you don't care for spice but want to retain the smoky flavor of the chipotle chili, remove the stem and all the seeds and add only the skin of the chili.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 5 Cups
2 Medium Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (large chunks), about 4 cups
1/2 Medium Spanish (yellow) Onion, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces (large chunks)
2 Cloves Garlic, peeled
1 ½ cups of water plus more to adjust consistency if necessary
1/4 Cup plus 1 Tbsp of Grade B Maple Syrup or ¼ Cup Agave Nectar (I used less and it was still sweet)
½ Chipotle Chili in Adobo (found in Hispanic section of Grocery Store) (I used dried chipotle chili powder)
2 Tbsp Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice or Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
1 tsp Sea Salt and 1 tsp Black Pepper to taste plus more if desired
Green Onions, thinly sliced, to garnish
Place Sweet Potatoes, onion and garlic in 4-quart plus-size tightly lidded pot and add the water. Bring to boil and reduce heat to medium. Cook until Potatoes are tender–about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly to make handling easier. Transfer to blender and add maple syrup, chipotle chili and coconut milk and puree until smooth. Return mixture to heat and bring up to almost a boiling point. Turn off heat and add lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with sliced green onions.
NOTE: Using 1/2 of a chili (as directed) is perfect if you don't like spicy food (gives it a 'kick' but not too much).
My note: This was too sweet for my tastes so next time I will use less syrup.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Puffy Oven German Pancake
Thai Hand Rolls
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tools for the Diet Newcomer
Celtic Gray Sea Salt. It was an exciting day when my naturopath told me that salt can be GOOD for you! I bought this on amazon and as the reviewers said, it comes kind of "wet" so I did spread it out on a dishtowel to dry, before I added it to a salt grinder which was just an empty pepper grinder from Trader Joe's.
Disposable Hot Drink Cups with Lids. I'm showing the Amazon link here but I get them from the local restaurant supply store. My teenage daughter says it is easier to drink green smoothies when she can't see them, and it's nice to be able to grab this at breakfast time and take it with me.
Thai Hand Roll Rice Paper Wrappers. These are made from rice and water and are naturally gluten-free. They come dried and you moisten them with just enough water to make them pliable, then you fill them with whatever you want and wrap them up.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Today's Trader Joe's Purchases
Friday, June 14, 2013
Grilled Marinated Chicken
A George Foreman grill can be your best friend here. I like to get the organic boneless chicken thighs or breasts from Costco, and marinate them in lemon or lime juice, sea salt (or Celtic Grey or Himalayan), black pepper, olive oil, garlic (or powder), and green onion (or powder). Make a lot and grill them all. Then cut the extra servings into bite-sized pieces and freeze in baggies for lunches. The whole family will love this! |
Thursday, June 13, 2013
You Can Order Applegate Organics Online!
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Porcupine Meatballs
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Easy, Delicious, Gluten-Free Beef Chunks and Potatoes
organic beef chunks or pot roast olive oil sea salt black pepper organic onion powder organic garlic powder raw potatoes cut in chunks Preheat oven to 300. Brown the beef in a pan on the stove in some olive oil. Put it in a roasting pan, add the potatoes, add about a cup of water, and season generously. Cover with foil and bake for 2 hours or until beef is tender and falls apart and potatoes are done. The potatoes thicken the liquid and make a gravy. |
Friday, April 5, 2013
Gluten-Free Molasses Spice Crinkle Cookies
This is from simplyrecipes.com. Sub Pamela's gluten-free flour. I also like to sub the butter for coconut oil, and the eggs for flax eggs (1 tbsp. ground flax + 3 tbsp. water, set for a few minutes til gel-like). When I do this I increase the amount of "eggs" by one because coconut oil has no water content and butter does. |