Saturday, October 13, 2012

Pumpkin, Bacon & Chive Coconut Flour Biscuits


Since I'm on a pumpkin and bacon kick, this recipe was perfect!  I stole it from one of my favorite bloggers The Urban Poser.  If you haven't checked out her page yet, you should.  Everything I've made from her is amazing!  These were incredible and fit every single one of my food restrictions.  I was very pleased!
Enjoy~

Pumpkin, Bacon & Chive Coconut Flour Biscuits
(Paleo, Nut/Gluten/Grain/Dairy Free)

Ingredients:

1/2 cups coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
A scant less then 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons roasted or canned pumpkin puree, room temp(or butternut squash)
3 large eggs* (best at  room temp or the coconut oil will solidify)
1/4 cup green onions chopped or thinly sliced
1/4 cup shallots or onion minced
3-4 strips of bacon

*I use ground flaxseeds in place of eggs (1 tbsp flax:1/4 c water).  If you can eat eggs, use eggs!

Optional Dairy: 1/8-1/4 cup shredded raw cheese (obviously NOT dairy free but tasty if you can do cheeses)

Baking with farms eggs? Remember pastured farm eggs are not regulated by size. For this recipe you need about 5 ounces of egg out of shell (by weight not fluid ounces) or about 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon beaten eggs (by measurement). For more on "no fail" baking with farm eggs click HERE

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a baking sheet with parchment.

Using kitchen shears cut the bacon  into to tiny pieces. Preheat a skillet over medium heat (I use cast iron), add the bacon and begin to cook. As the bacon begins to release the fat, add the minced shallots. Continue to cook the mixture till it begins to brown nicely and caramelize a bit. This will take 5-7 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.

Combine coconut flour (scoop & sweep method, not packed), baking soda and salt.

Add the coconut oil and beat till smooth. Note: This helps keep the coconut oil from hardening into little pieces later if your eggs/pumpkin happen to be cold. For best results though, let them come to room temp first. Try sticking the shelled eggs in a glass of hot water for about 3 minutes to speed up the process.

In a separate bowl combine the apple cider vinegar, pumpkin and eggs. Beat till smooth

Add the flour mixture, bacon & shallots mixture, chives and cheese (optional) to the liquid ingredients. Mix all the ingredients until the batter becomes thick and well combined. If your eggs and/or pumpkin were cold the dough will be quite thick. This is fine.

Drop mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheet. Use a heaping 1/8 of a cup per biscuit. Smooth and shape slightly if needed or if you're just obsessive like me. They be nice and tall not flat. Makes 8-10 biscuits.

Bake for about 15-18 min or until slightly golden. Times will vary from oven to oven and the thickness of the biscuit. Do not over bake or they can become dry.

Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before moving transferring from the pan. I fine these best eaten the same day that I make them..

Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash

Yes, I said BACON!  Real, greasy, crunchy, delicious bacon.  Contrary to popular belief cholesterol in your diet does not lead to high cholesterol or heart disease in the body.  Matter of fact it's the high fructose corn syrup, sugary coffee creamers, refined carbohydrates, and the like that cause excess fat storage and this can cause plaque build up in your arteries, which THEN can cause heart disease.  Do not read this and think you can eat bacon for every meal or every morning for breakfast as it is still high calorically and if eaten out of proportion with other healthy foods in your diet it will still cause weight gain and unnecessary fat storage. 

We live in a fat phobic country and unfortunately for us this means the food industry has cut the fat only to replace it with trans fats and high sugar substitutes.  When the original lipid-hypothesis first came out (1950's I believe) it was naturally believed that cholesterol from eggs, butter, and animal fats would cause high cholesterol and thus would cause heart disease.  So these fats were "banned" in the media marketing of health foods and replaced with "low-fat" foods.  Evidence from recent studies have shown that heart disease has increased since Americans have been on the "low-fat" diet.  Meaning sugar (refined carbohydrates) has been the culprit all along...not fat!

Let's get the facts straight here...first of all there are 4.5g of fat (saturated) fat in 1 slice of bacon.  But if you were to cook 1 slice of bacon, pull it out of the grease that has cooked off of it, and dab it with a paper towel, you have at least half of that fat swishing around in the pan.  So you are not really eating 4.5g per slice unless you drink the grease.  Second, animal fat or we could call it lard, is what our ancestors survived on.  They didn't pick out the fatty parts and throw it out, they ate the whole animal and vegetables...period.  Third, saturated fats are not the enemy.  We need saturated fats to produce cholesterol, which is the base building block for every hormone in the body.  In fact, saturated fats are responsible for healthy brain function, digestive function, and sex hormone regulation.  Saturated fats from butter and coconut oil have medicinal properties, as well as anti-bacterial properties that we use to help heal and treat digestive dysfunction.  Fourth, our diets are about balance, and fat needs to be included in that balance.  Healthy fats include animal fats, IN MODERATION!  Just like we can not survive solely on protein or carnohydrates without consequences, we can not live solely on fat either.  You should aim to put this fat in balance with your vegetable and protein intake :)

The recipe below includes 4 slices of bacon (~16g fat) and was split between 3 people.  That's about 5g of saturated animal fat per person, minus the grease leftover in the pan and you could bring that down to 3g per person.   That is totally acceptable! 

Enjoy~

Sweet Potato & Bacon Hash

4 slices of all natural, preservative-free bacon, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1/4 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch of rainbow chard, washed de-stemmed and chopped
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 tbsp coconut oil
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Salt & pepper to taste

Slice you bacon into small cuts, either on the cutting board or with scissors.  Sautee over medium heat in a sauce pan (you don't need to grease the pan when you're making bacon).  While that's cooking, chop your onion, wash your chard, and peel and chop your sweet potato.

Make sure your tending to your bacon so it cooks evenly.  Add the onion.  Let that cook together for 5 minutes then remove the contents from the pan, trying to leave the grease in the pan, and put into a mixing bowl and set aside.

Pour the bacon grease into a glass jar, as you don't want this going down your drain!  You can qipe out the remaining grease with a paper towel.

Now add coconut oil, sweet potatoes, thyme and cinnamon to cook over medium heat.  They will take 10-15 min or so, then add in the chard at the end mix for a minute until chard is a little wilted.  Combine sweet potato mixture with the bacon and onions...Mix all ingredients together.

We served for breakfast and it was incredible!  This made very generous servings for three people, but could have easily fed 4 people.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Pumpkin (non) Bread Pudding

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and lightly grease a 9-inch glass pie plate and line the bottom with parchment paper.



Pumpkin pie is probably Robs favorite dessert ever! So you can imagine my excitement when I saw baby pumpkins among the other winter squashes at vitamin cottage (our shopping haven of choice).  I've never made a pumpkin pie from scratch, and was totally pumped to give it a shot considering there would be no gluten, no eggs, no cream, and no butter in my recipe, but bring it on right?! My mistake in making a pumpkin pie was not adding enough pumpkin!  Instead of a gooey pie, I got more of a cakey, bread pudding-ish delightful sweet treat.  It was still amazing, so either way...


You will need a food processor or good blender will do.


First things first, get your flaxseed gellin'...once it's gelled you can add it to the food processor with everything else.  If you don't let the ground flax soak up the water it doesn't work and you might as well not use it.

1 tablespoon ground Flaxseed, 1/4 c water, let gel (this is your egg substitute, if you eat eggs use 2 eggs)

In a food processor add:

1/2 small baking pumpkin, which is about 1 cup (for pumpkin pie you need to use the whole pumpkin)
1 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk (or vanilla unsweetened almond milk)
2 teaspoons gf vanilla
2 tablespoons light olive oil

3/4 cup organic light brown sugar (when i don't have brown sugar I used 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tbsp molasses)
1/2a cup brown Rice flour
2 tablespoons arrowroot starch (you can do tapioca or potato srtarch as well)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cover and process until smooth and creamy. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the dry ingredients.

To make the crust, you'll need that processor again.  I have two sizes, but you may have to clean and re-use, work it out :)

1 cup flaked unsweetened organic coconut
1 cup walnuts pieces
1/4 c brown rice flour
1/4 c almond flour
1/4 c honey
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp molasses
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons coconut oil


So your oven is preheated to 350 right?
Dump the crumbs into the cake pan and spread them evenly. Using your fingers gently press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides- about 2/3 of the way up.

Bake in the center of the oven for about 7 minutes- to set.

Pour the prepared pie mixture in the pan and smooth evenly. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until done. The pie should be firm- but still give a little when lightly touched.

Cool the pie on a wire rack completely. It's delicious warm, served with a little scoop of coconut ice cream. 

Blueberry Kale

It is hard to blog with a baby in one hand!  It's hard to do a lot of things with a baby in one hand, everything takes twice as long!  So I apologize for being short with my posts, but I have very little windows of time...

I have stayed away from kale and broccoli since I've been breastfeeding, it gives babies gas.  But since these are my favorite veggies I had to try a little kale to see if Tessa could handle it.  This side dish is awesome, and if you don't like kale, get over it, you will like this recipe!

Blueberry Kale
1 bunch green kale, washed and destemmed
1 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c blueberries (i used frozen, fresh will work)

In a large sauce pan sautee onions and blueberries in coconut oil for a few minutes before starting to add your kale.  Kale will break down (i.e. shrink) a lot, so i add it in waves, cooking on low-med heat until all the kale is wilted.

Enjoy by itself, mixed in with a spinach salad, or side dish with dinner~

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Squash Puddin Pie

Happy Fall!
That means it's prime time for some delicious squash recipes.

We like to shop the "sale" produce as much as possible. Considering our strict enforcement of organic foods around my house, this is essential to not completely breaking the bank.  The great part about it is we get to buy different and sometimes unusual fruits & veggies that we wouldn't otherwise buy.  It also inspires my kitchen creations and keeps me trying new recipes.  So last week Rob came home with a Japanese Red Kuri Squash.  Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either, but basically looks like a more reddish colored pumpkin, and tastes like one too.  You can use any kind of sweet squash for this recipe: butternut, pumpkin, kuri, even acorn might work.  And because I don't like to waste any part of the food, the very large pumpkin-esk seeds on the inside work great for roasting as well.

This recipe called for eggs, and if you are not vegan or do not have an intolerance I highly suggest substituting the flaxseed in this recipe for 3 whole eggs.  Eggs make every baked item better!  Although I am pumping out plenty of egg-free baking that is just as good in my tummy :)  The longer you let this recipe cool (I'd refrigerate it overnight) the more it hardens the more it tastes like pumpkin pie without the crust.  And because there is really minimal added sugar, it's a great carbohydrate to have for breakfast, snack, or with lunch...not just a dessert.  Rob actually didn't think it was sweet enough to be a dessert, whatever!

Kuri Squash Puddin Pie

3 c baked kuri squash (one medium sized squash)
3/4 c coconut milk (use full fat here people, don't be scared)
1tbsp flax;1/4 c water (let gel)
1/3 c honey
1 TBSP arrowroot starch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 organic apple (half sliced thin for the top, and half sliced in chunks to go inside)
extra cinnamon to sprinkle
1 TBSP brown sugar to sprinkle on top

Mix all ingredients (except the apple) in blender, and hand mix in the apple chunks...then pour into pie pan. Place apples on top and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Bake 350 for 45 min, let cool to harden in the fridge about 30 min

Thursday, September 27, 2012

GF Multi-Seed & Nut Bread

Yup, I've found it! The best GF bread out there; great for sandwiches and toast, and you know how I love bread.   I feel much better about the ingredients in this bread than any store bought gf substitute.  It has whole grain brown rice flour as the first ingredient, and isn't full of potato and tapioca starches!  It takes a little time but it's worth it; maybe 20-30 minute prep, then baking time.  I've been making a loaf on Sundays to get us through our week.  Oh and I should mention Rob loves it too, says it's the best GF bread he's ever had! 

Read through all directions before you get started, so you can get an idea of what you're in for.  I've been told my directions tend to be "hard to follow".  Sorry :(

GF Multi-Seed & Nut Bread

Let's do it in this order...at least this is what I do!


Proof the yeast:
Add 1 packet rapid or instant dry yeast or 2 1/4 teaspoons
3/4 cups warm water(at 110 to 115ºF) with a pinch of sugar for the yeast
Let it get a little foamy (this doesn't take long- or shouldn't).  Then add 1/2 cup soda water (this helps with the fluffy consistency of the bread)

Prep the flaxseed:
Add 1 tbsp ground flaxseed to 1/4 c warmish water, stir and let sit while you prep the other ingredients.  This needs time to "gel" as this is your egg substitute.

Dry stuff:
I put all these ingredients in a 2 cup measuring cup, that way I can measure each of the flours that way and not have to use an extra bowl.
2/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup almond flour/meal
1/2 cup GF Oat flour (i process my gf oats in a food processor)
1 cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/ 1/4 teaspoons sea salt

Wet stuff:
Put this stuff in a bowl and stir together
1tbsp ground flaxseed:1/4 c water
The proofed yeast and liquid
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons honey or raw agave nectar
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Nuts and Seeds:
1 cup mixed nuts & seeds goes into the batter (the wet stuff before you put the flours in)
I used walnuts, sunflower seeds, and slivered almonds

Mix with electric mixer and let sit for 30 minutes

Lightly grease your bread pan (i use spray coconut oil), and pour the bread batter into the pan with an oiled spatula (then the bread won't stick).

I like to top mine with poppyseeds and sunflower seeds...get creative, whatever you like.

Bake at 400 for 50 -60min.
Let cool completely before cutting.  It will keep in the frig for a week, otherwise freeze in foil and freezer bag.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Turkey Meatloaf

Turkey Meatloaf

1 3/4 lbs. ground turkey
1 small sweet or red onion, peeled
1 medium to large carrot, peeled, trimmed
3 cloves fresh peeled garlic
1/2 cup organic ketchup
2 tablespoons molasses
3/4 cup brown rice cereal (the "rice crispy" kind)
A pinch of nutmeg
A pinch of cinnamon
1 teaspoon thyme
Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Put the ground turkey into a large bowl and using a fork or spoon, break it apart it a bit.

Roughly chop the onion and carrot into same sized chunks and place them into a food processor; add the garlic; pulse until the veggies are uniformly diced- fine- not too chunky; add them to the turkey. Toss lightly with a spoon or fork to quickly distribute the veggies. Add the ketchup, molasses, brown rice cereal, spices and thyme. Mix it all up using a light touch; try not to over-mix it into mush (over-mixing makes for a dense loaf).

If the mixture is too dry at this point, add a little more ketchup. If it feels too wet, add more cereal. You want a nice stick-together balance.

Spoon the meatloaf mixture into a standard size loaf pan and firmly press into place, smoothing and rounding the top of the loaf so that the sides are lower than the edge of the loaf pan. 

I spread barbecue sauce over the top, and it was really good!

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes.