We did a lot of blueberry picking this summer at a local organic blueberry farm that was amazing... we really enjoyed wandering the rows of various types and sampling the different flavors. One of the recipes I decided to make with them is a simple and easy blueberry cobbler. I borrowed the filling recipe from my GF Blueberry Pie recipe that I love and miss since going grain and egg free: GF Blueberry Pie. I think it's the perfect combination of tart and sweet and so delicious!
This is also one of my entries for this month's "Go ahead honey, it's gluten free" - "something fruity" that I'm hosting here! Check out my post here if you missed the announcement.
I've recently been playing around with various fermented/pickled veggies in an effort to help my digestion and add some extra naturally occurring probiotics into my life ;) So far I've made (some with greater success than others) Ginger Carrots, Fermented Sweet Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Fermented Ketchup. There's a lot of great info about such topics, and I'm no expert, so I won't even begin to talk about it, but two books that I've found really helpful are Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods and Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. These are amazing resources for assisting your gut to heal and protect it in the future as well with fantastic recipes and advice.
Anyways, it was fitting that for this month's "Go Ahead Honey it's Gluten Free" roundup, Naomi chose the theme of "Winter Pickles" for January. I decided to go ahead and give it a shot making up my own recipe, so hope it comes out well!! Check out the entire year's themes and hosts- it's going to be a great one! This year Naomi has decided to do just Primal recipes which fits my current dietary restrictions, so I'm quite excited! I will be hosting August, so look out for that as well...
Anyways, on to the recipe!
Pickled Spiced Garlic
2 heads organic Garlic 1 Tbsp Himalayan Pink Sea Salt 1 Tbsp Cumin Seeds 1 Tbsp Coriander Seeds 12 Green Cardamom pods (about 1/2 Tbsp) 1 dried Chili Pepper 1 tsp Fennel Seeds 1 cup White Vinegar
Bring seeds and vinegar to boil in small pot. Boil 1 minute. Add garlic (I chopped the really big cloves in half). Boil 1 minute with the garlic.
Pour into a pint size canning jar. Add approximately 1/2 cup filtered water or as much as is needed to bring it to just under the lid.
Let sit on your counter for about a week before transferring to refrigerator. The longer it sits in the refrigerator the stronger the flavor will be, but it should be ready to eat after a day or two in the fridge. I'm going to let mine sit longer though.
Enjoy with your favorite dishes as a side or mixed in with your meal.
I walked into my cold kitchen the other morning and all I could think was I wanted something warm and comforting for breakfast.... something like oatmeal. Of course breakfast cereals are totally out of the question for me, but I remembered seeing some Paleo recipes here and there for "n'oatmeal" or other similar types of non-oatmeal. I looked around but none seemed too appealing. I try to cycle nuts and seeds and not rely on one or the other a lot, so I decided to use a mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
Anyways, turned out pretty well! Definitely an oatmealy consistency and did the job. I used my Blendtec to blend it all for about 40 seconds. I didn't mind still having little bits in it since oatmeal itself has little chewy bits in it too.
*One other thing- I blended a cup each of sunflower and pumpkin seeds but only used half so that it would blend better and that I could easily/quickly make it another time.
Grain Free "Oatmeal" Breakfast Cereal
(seed mixture makes 2 batches) 1 cup sunflower seeds 1 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas) 1 Tbsp chia meal (ground seeds) 1 cup Coconut Milk 1 very ripe banana (mashed) 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla 2 tsp maple syrup
In a blender or food processor, pulse or blend your seeds until a fine meal. (Don't overblend or it will turn into seed butter.) Mix it well. In a medium size pot, add 1 cup of the blended seed flour (you will have 1 cup left over) with the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Turn on the heat and cook over medium heat for about 6-7 minutes until it has reached your desired consistency. If too thick, add more coconut milk.
Serve hot and top with your favorite toppings! I used a frozen organic berry mix from Trader Joe's and some slivered almonds on mine.
I've been making a lot of coconut milk recently which has left me with a LOT of coconut pulp... I've pretty much been composting it, but have been looking for something to do with it because I feel like I'm wasting it. I wasn't able to find any recipes online when I searched, so I decided to try out something myself....
After making my coconut milk, I just store the leftover pulp in the fridge until I'm ready to use it. So if you make coconut milk like me, hopefully this can help you out!
This recipe isn't very sweet, but you can add more coconut sugar or maple syrup depending on your tastes. I wanted something a bit like a shortbread so that's how it turned out. Hope you enjoy!
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a food processor, pulse the coconut pulp a few times to break up any clumps. Add in dry ingredients and pulse until mixed. Add in the oil, almond extract, and hot water. Mix until well incorporated. Spread into a parchment paper lined loaf pan.
Bake for 20 minutes. When done, lift out of pan with parchment paper and place on cooling rack.
Once cool, slice and serve with a hot cup of tea or coffee!
I love vegetables... always have. But there was one I never quite liked. (okay two- the second was turnips). It was BEETS. My mom always has pickled beets or boiled beets on the table at dinner and every now and then I would "check in" with them to see if I had developed a taste for them and still... no.
Then last summer my cousin Samira made this beet and avocado salad with dill on it so I was like- oooh let me give the good ol' beets a try again! And what do you know... victory! I ate so much of it and then I came home and asked her for the recipe to make for my daughter's first birthday party and her response was add some lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper, and dill together. So I did that and have a few more times. So now I just thought I would share with you the deliciousness of this combo because I actually did some measurements, but feel free to add more of this or that according to your tastes. I think they go well together because the avocado is soft and the beets slightly hard, a bit tangy, and herb-y all at once. If you don't like fresh dill, add chopped basil- either would be great! It's great for spring and summer picnics and a refreshing yet filling salad.
Chop your beets into cubes and put in a bowl. Cube your avocado into similar sized pieces and place on top of the beets. Add the rest of your ingredients on top and stir just enough to mix. Taste and adjust to taste.
If you over-mix, your avocado will turn as red as the beets and get mushy so be gentle!
Enjoy!
***Update: 6/27/12:
This is also amazing with one or two chopped champagne mangoes as well!!
I used Chioggia Beets in this picture, and they don't bleed as red beets do.
Since having my daughter I feel that a lot of my recipes have shifted quite a bit- I've moved towards simpler foods that are prepared quickly but can be adapted for whatever mood you're in.
When I found out that my daughter had an egg allergy it wasn't a huge issue for me since I was already familiar with egg replacers, but definitely flexed my cooking/baking muscles a bit more than normal! My daughter eats a lot. A LOT :) So I'm always looking for snacks that I can give her without compromising our desire to have her eat healthy. As I've mentioned in other posts like this one or this one, finding snack foods for little ones that aren't full of fillers, sugars, or fortified with unnecessary vitamins is quite difficult!
I had spotted Dr. Praeger's spinach littles and broccoli littles in the store, but they had egg whites in them so that was a no-go. I adapted the ingredients a bit to suit our tastes, but you can of course adjust the seasoning to you or your child's preferences- we tend to like food with a lot of spice (my daughter included). I make a bunch and just store them in the freezer (info below) to re-heat whenever she needs a quick and healthy snack.
A note about shapes: This recipe does take a bit of work if you wish to make shapes like I did in the pictures. If not, just plop little portions onto your baking sheet and bake! You can also use a mini cupcake tray or silicone cupcake holders. I used a Mini Noah's Ark cookie cutter set that I found at Joann Fabric (also available at Amazon as well as one of my favorites. If you have high cookie cutters just be aware that cooking time will vary.
Spinach Bites - for babies, toddlers, kids, or anyone!!
1 cup cooked & mashed organic potatoes (2-3 small potatoes or 2 cups raw cubed potatoes)
2 cups frozen organic chopped spinach
2 tsp flax seed meal + 2 Tbsp boiling water (mixed in small bowl)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp Herbamare Organic Herb Seasoning
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp Grapeseed or Canola oil
Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
1. Cook your potatoes in a small pot of boiling water with a bit of salt added. When done, drain and place in a mixing bowl.
2. Steam or lightly cook your spinach. Blend until creamy**. Add to potatoes.
3. Make your flax egg: mix the flax with boiling water and let sit to gel while you prepare the rest of the recipe.
4. Add the spices and oil, mash and stir well. Add the flax egg and stir until combined well.
5. Place on silpat/Silicone Liner or Unbleached Parchment Paper lined baking tray and bake for 40 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack and then serve!
**I usually blend the spinach, but you can also leave it unblended but it will look different and the spinach will be more obvious (see pictures below).
With blended spinach
With un-blended spinach
To store:
Keep in the refrigerator in a sealed container.
To freeze for later snacks- cool and freeze in storage bag/container.
To re-heat:
Place on foil-lined tray in a toaster/convention oven and warm. Alternately, if you run them under cool water for a minute and then place in the toaster oven they thaw MUCH faster and will be ready within a minute or two. I don't have a microwave so I can't tell you how they come out from there :)
Thank you to everyone for their kind comments and suggestions about my Grain Free Flatbread. I've received a lot of questions about options that I had not experimented yet, so if you have, please let me know! Either via my Facebook page, comments on the post, or email.
I did end up trying to use both chia and flax as people suggested, but neither worked to make a flexible bread. Instead they became (delicious!) crackers much like my Coconut flour and Chia crackers. The psyllium in this recipe really provides the flexibility and binding that is needed for an egg-free, grain free, gum free bread. If you don't need these restrictions you can probably try using one of them and it will most likely work. The other substitution that I've tried and worked is light olive oil for the coconut oil. 1/4 cup should work but I still preferred the coconut oil because the olive makes it dry out faster.
I wanted to share one more variation I made shortly after the first that did work. I thought I would try using less psyllium to see if the taste mellowed out a bit- and it did. The only thing that is sacrificed is its ability to roll. So this bread can fold over (see the pictures) and still serves as a great sandwich bread, but won't wrap like the first. In short, you just lessen the amount of psyllium, but I'll go ahead and give the whole recipe again to make it easier :)
Easy Grain Free Flatbread 2.0 (the non-rolling version)
optional: 1/8 tsp sea salt 1/8 tsp granulated garlic 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning herb blend your favorite herb/seasoning
Whisk the coconut flour and psyllium together in a bowl along with the salt and herbs if using. Add the coconut oil. Add the hot water a little at a time, stirring as you add it (will melt the coconut oil). Mix well quickly making sure all the dry bits are incorporated and looks uniform. Using the back of a spoon is helpful.
Roll (with rolling pin) or pat (with moistened spatula) the bread out on a Silpat/Silicone Liner or unbleached parchment paper-lined jelly roll pan until thin and even. The dough is forgiving, so feel free to move pieces around and repair patches as you go along. I tried baking as two separate pieces and as one large bread and both worked out well.
Bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven and how thin you've rolled the bread. (Mine was about 11"x12" for 15 minutes.) Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing/eating.
The taste will mellow out the longer it cools and sits out. Store in ziplock or other sealed container (if you don't eat it all at once!).
As I mentioned in my Easy Grain-Free Flatbread recipe post, I was attempting to make crackers when I "accidentally" made bread instead. Good accident. But- it didn't solve my cracker problem. So back to work again. Now I've become obsessed! I've made these crackers 3 times in the past week and my flatbread everyday as well with various modifications. Why? Because it's really easy. Especially when you leave your jelly roll pan, silpat, and rolling pin out :)
So for the crackers I decided to use Chia Seed meal along with the coconut flour and I made these herb crackers by throwing in some garlic powder and Italian Seasoning blend. You can leave them out or add other flavors you might like- nutritional yeast (for a "cheesy" flavor), rosemary, cinnamon, etc... If you're wondering about the wonderful nutritional benefits of chia, click HERE.
**For the Chia seed meal I grind whole Chia seeds in my blender or coffee grinder into a powder and just store it in the fridge in a jar.
Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF
Using a whisk or fork, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl until well incorporated.
Add the coconut oil into the bowl.
Add the hot water a little at a time, stirring as you add it in. (This will melt the coconut oil.)
Mix well with a spoon, stirring and mashing out any lumps that might still exist. Once you have a uniform dough in a ball, place it on your silpat or unbleached parchment-paper lined tray and roll out. Keep rolling your dough until it is as thin as you can get it without seeing through or tearing it. Feel free to move pieces of dough around and press it in- the dough is forgiving and easy to "cut and paste."
Mine rolled to be approximately 14.5” x 10” in measurement. Slice into squares with a pizza cutter.
Bake for approximately 20 minutes depending on your oven. 15 minutes got me a soft bread-like cracker, 20 firm but crisp, and 25 minutes extra crispy and darker.
Makes approximately 49 crackers (at 7 rows x 7 rows)
I posted the other day on my Facebook page about an "accidental" recipe I had made and have been really excited about... so here it finally is! I wanted to test out a few more things with it, so I've been working on that.
What I was aiming to make was some simple grain free crackers and ended up with a great flatbread instead! I was sent some Psyllium Fiber by Konsyl to test out for gluten free baking, so I was also eager to incorporate it into my baking to see how that went. Turns out the Psyllium powder is great- especially as an egg replacer and binder so it works well to keep the bread together.
I have really enjoyed this bread because (other than the few ingredients) it's so easy to roll and flexible- it doesn't crumble or break like a lot of gluten-free tortillas and breads do and is reminiscent of Persian Lavash bread.
I've given two variations- one is the basic recipe, and then you can add on whatever you like to adjust the taste or make something a little different.
Whisk the coconut flour and psyllium together in a bowl along with the salt and herbs if using. Add the coconut oil. Add the hot water a little at a time, stirring as you add it (will melt the coconut oil). Mix well making sure all the dry bits are incorporated.
Roll (with rolling pin) or pat (with moistened spatula) the bread out on a Silpat/Silicone Liner or unbleached parchment paper-lined jelly roll pan until thin and even. The dough is forgiving, so feel free to move pieces around and repair patches as you go along. I tried baking as two separate pieces (picture below) and as one large bread and both worked out well.
Bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven and how thin you've rolled the bread. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature before slicing/eating. The taste will mellow out the longer it cools and sits out.
Enjoy! (ps- if you haven't been eating a lot of fiber recently, don't eat the whole pan at once!!)
and 
. These are amazing resources for assisting your gut to heal and protect it in the future as well with fantastic recipes and advice.
as well as one of 
or 
lined baking tray and bake for 40 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack and then serve!
meal**
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