The Best Brownies - Ever! (GAPS, Paleo, Grain-free, Refined Sugar free, Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

A bold claim, I know! And I don’t just mean “the best brownies, considering they are GAPS/Paleo/Grain-free.” No, THE best brownies.

To quote my husband: “Whatever you had written down as the brownie recipe you were going to make for the rest of your life - scratch it and make these instead!”
Yep. And my husband does not follow a GAPS diet, or paleo or even grain-free, or gluten-free. He could eat any old brownie if he wanted to!

Somehow they manage to be fudgy and slightly cake-y at the same time! As far as I’m concerned - that’s pretty perfect!

This recipe started it’s life as one of Megan’s (a.k.a. Detoxinista) recipes for brownies made from almond pulp. Don’t know who that is? You are so missing out! She has a wonderful blog, full of awesome, healthy and oh so tasty recipes!

Anyway, after playing around with the recipe for a while, adjusting ingredients and amounts, I came up with a GAPSified version, that works really well, is packed with nutrition, doesn’t use a ton of almond flour, and, as mentioned above, is now our absolute favorite!

And they couldn’t be easier to make. Just dump everything in a bowl, whisk to combine, bake, done! And if you’ve done “specialty recipes” before, “quick and easy” is NOT a given!

 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup organic unsweetened applesauce (I use homemade)

1/4 cup ghee (or coconut oil)
1/3 cup raw honey*

1/3 cup date sugar (I use this one)

1/2 cup almond flour (I use Honeyville Almond Flour)

1/2 cup organic cocoa powder (I use this one)
2 tsp. organic vanilla extract
2 large eggs, pastured
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of sea salt

*I use our local raw hickory honey - it is fairly thick, pretty mild in flavor but strong in sweetening power, even when baked. You may have to adjust your honey accordingly, depending on how it comes through once baked and how liquid it is. The closest commercially available honey that compares to my local ones in both flavor and consistency, is this one, another favorite of mine!

 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Grease and line an 8”x8” dish or pan with parchment paper.
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl until an even and thick batter results.

Bake for 25 minutes, until the middle is no longer jiggley and the edges are pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Allow to cool before serving.

 

Note: For an extra decadent treat, frost with a little of this buttercream once completely cool. SO good!

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Homemade Ketchup (GAPS, Paleo, Refined Sugar Free)

 

Ingredients:

12 lbs. fresh tomatoes, quartered (for canned tomatoes, see note)
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium red pepper, diced
1/4 cup celery leaves or chopped celery stalks
1/4 cup of ghee (or butter - optional, but I would highly recommend it!)
1  1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup lemon juice (if you are canning this is essential)
1 Ceylon cinnamon stick, broken up a bit
2 tsp whole cloves
about 7 whole allspice berries
2 garlic chive stems, with flower heads (or 1 clove of garlic - I can't use garlic due to husband's allergy)
1 cup pure honey (You may need more or less - somewhat depends on what kind of honey you have and how strongly it comes through)

1/2 cup date sugar

2-2  1/2 tbsp. herbamare (or sea salt)
1 small can of organic tomato paste

 

Preparation:

Combine tomatoes, onion, bell pepper,and celery in a large stockpot (mine is 9 quarts and it was just enough) Crush the tomatoes slightly with a potato masher to make enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until tomatoes are soft and falling apart, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the vinegar to a small saucepan. Add the spices and garlic (chive flower heads) and bring to a boil over high heat.
Remove from heat and let stand for about 30 minutes or so. Pour vinegar through a strainer into the tomato mix. Discard spices. Simmer tomatoes, for another 30 minutes.

The lid is off from now on.

In batches, run the tomato mixture through a food mill (fine disk) to remove seeds & skins. Or press through a sieve, or puree in a food processor then sieve.

Return pulp to the stockpot, add tomato puree, lemon juice and ghee and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring occasionally, until the volume is reduced by about half, and the texture is about the thickness of a thick tomato sauce. Takes about 3 hours at a gentle simmer. You can turn the heat up higher to shorten the simmer time, but you will need to be close by to stir frequently.

Prepare canner, jars and lids.

Blend tomato pulp with an immersion blender or puree in a food processor/blender. Return to stockpot, add honey, date sugar & salt, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Simmer, stirring occasionally - I would really recommend using splatter guard if you have one, at this point!

Just keep simmering away until it is just a little thinner than you want the final product to be, (ketchup will further thicken when cold.)

If you're canning, fill hot jars to ½-inch headspace, wipe rims, affix lids and process in a boiling water bath for about 20 min.

Or you can freeze the ketchup.

 

Notes:

1.) If using canned tomatoes, use 6 x 28 oz. cans and omit the food mill step, as skins have already been removed.
2.) If you're not canning the ketchup (or you are pressure canning it,) you can omit the lemon juice and replace with 1/4 c of ACV. The lemon juice is just to keep the home canning safe.

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Chicken Broccoli Casserole (GAPS, SCD, Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Low-Carb)

One of our favorite GAPS casseroles! It’s pretty quick and easy and my kids LOVE this one!

 

 

 

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

 

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cooked (rotisserie chicken, or cooked chicken from making stock)

1 onion, chopped

24 oz. organic Broccoli (fresh or frozen)

3/4 cup Honeyville Almond Flour
1 1/2 tsp Herbamare or sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder
1/4 cup nutritional yeast ( I use Bragg’s Nutritional Yeast)
1/3 cup  Mayonnaise (I use homemade)
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 large eggs, preferably pastured
1 tbsp. pickle juice (or 2 tsp of lemon juice)
1/3 cup coconut milk ( I use  Natural Value Coconut Milk)

 

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Steam broccoli florets,  take the meat off the chicken and place in a large bowl.  Add the broccoli.

In a separate bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients.

Pour over the chicken and broccoli and mix until everything is well covered.

Pour into a greased baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and it’s set.

Enjoy!

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Easy Chicken Nuggets (With Many Variations) - GAPS friendly, Paleo, Grain Free, Gluten Free, Low Carb

We love these little un-breaded nuggets around here. They are tasty and dip-able, they freeze well and they warm up great in the toaster oven. They are also really tasty cold, straight out of the fridge or lunch box.
You can also make them into larger patties and enjoy them as a burger!

Feel free to half the recipe below - it makes a LOT of nuggets. I tend to cook for several meals at once and freeze, so I don’t have to make the effort as often!

They are easy to make and you don’t have to deal with breading them. You could also just bake these in the oven, but we love them pan fried with a little ghee around here, as they get a nice little crust around them, which just adds to the deliciousness!

Unfortunately my digital camera card is currently inaccessible, so this post is without food photos today, but I will either take new ones the next time I make these, or get them off the card one way or another!

 

Easy Chicken Nuggets

Makes about 55-60 chicken nuggets

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, preferably pastured

3 tbsp. coconut flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill Organic coconut flour)

3 tbsp. almond flour (I use Honeyville almond flour)

4 lbs. of ground chicken (or ground turkey) - they also work with pork or a mix of the three

2 tbsp. ghee - mayonnaise or coconut oil work too!

• Seasonings of choice. I usually use the following:

1 tbsp.  Herbamare or sea salt

1 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg or mace

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

 

Ghee or oil/fat of choice for cooking the nuggets.

 

Preparation:

In a large bowl, combine eggs, coconut flour, almond flour and seasonings (salt, herbs, onion powder, paprika, cumin, etc.) The resulting paste should be about the consistency of soaked bread crumbs. If it's too dry, add a little water. Then mix in the ghee (you can also use left-over mayo.)

Add the ground meat and with your hands, combine everything well.

Take about 1 tbsp. sized balls of the meat mix, flatten them a little to make a nugget shape and fry them in batches in a frying pan with 1 tbsp. of ghee or oil of choice until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Fry them up in batches and don’t crowd the pan!

Serve with gaps friendly ketchup ;)

 

Notes and Variations:

- You can omit the coconut flour, even thought that will change the texture a little.

- You can also omit the almond flour and use either all coconut flour or another nut or seeds flour - again the texture will be slightly different though.

- They can be baked or even deep fried in some healthy oil!  Bake in a pre-heated 375 F oven for 20 minutes, or until done.

- For buffalo chicken nuggets,  add 1 tbsp. of Frank’s Original  Hot Sauce to the meat mix. Bake or fry the nuggets. Mix 1/3 cup of Frank’s Original  Hot Sauce and 1/4 cup of melted butter or ghee and heat until just warm and combined. 
After you baked your chicken nuggets for 15 minutes (or fried them in a pan to almost done), dip the nuggets into the butter/hot sauce mix and either place back on your baking sheet or back in the pan. Bake for another 5 minutes, or if frying in a pan, give them another minute or so on each side.

- If you are really looking for a breaded chicken nugget, prepare the meat mix as above, then mix the following in a bowl for your nugget coating:

• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup ground white chia seeds
• 1/2 tsp Herbamare or sea salt
• 1/2 tsp onion or garlic  powder
  

Once you shaped your nuggets, gently roll them in the breading mix and ensure they are evenly coated. Place them on a silpad or parchment paper and bake as instructed above. The “breaded” variety is better baked than pan fried.
You can use the buffalo sauce instructions on the breaded nuggets too.

 

Can’t find ground chicken or can’t find the kind of chicken you would like to use, ground?

Grind your own!

I grind mine with the meat grinder attachment of my kitchen aid.  I use this one.
However,  you can also grind chicken in your food processor.

 

Here is how!

• If you are starting with fresh chicken, cut it into one inch cubes and place them on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper. Make sure the meat is not touching each other. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
• If you are starting with frozen chicken, let it thaw just a little bit, then slice into one inch cubes with a large knife. I find that chicken is often sliced much easier while still somewhat frozen!
• We need the meat to be semi-frozen, as it will enable the food processor to chop more evenly, otherwise you end up with chicken mush.
• Now fill the food processor about half full and  PULSE the meat cubes until you have about the consistency of ground meat. 
  Really, PULSE, don’t let it run!  And make sure you work in small batches.
• Pick out any larger remaining pieces and pulse those again.
• Either use straight away or, if you started with fresh chicken, freeze for future use.
  
  
  

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Honey Sweetened Lemon Curd - The Quick And Easy Way (Dairy-Free, Refined Sugar Free, GAPS legal)

Do you love lemon curd? I do! And it can be such a nourishing treat, if you use the right ingredients!

Ah, but wait - it’s a pain to make. All the separating and stirring  and then you have to strain it, so you don’t have all the little bits of egg that seem to inevitably occur. And even if you’re willing to do all that,  you’re still left with all the egg whites in your fridge.

Not any more! Even though, you could make the GAPS legal nut thins with the left-over egg whites, but then what would you do with the left-over egg whites from your homemade mayo? *grin*
But I digress.

Below is a recipe that uses the whole egg and a method that has your lemon curd done with no bits, no straining and no separating of anything in about 10 minutes beginning to end. Well, maybe 15 minutes if you take a while squeezing those lemons!

And it is honey sweetened to boot!

Here we go!

Quick and Easy Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized, preferably pastured, eggs
• 1/4 cup of grass-fed butter (room temperature) or  organic expeller pressed coconut oil (this has no coconut flavor - if you use regular coconut oil it will have a coconut flavor)
• 1/3 cup raw honey
• 2 tsp lemon peel from organic lemon (or 1 tsp of organic lemon peel powder)
• 1/3 cup  of freshly squeezed organic lemon juice (bottled works too, in a pinch)

Preparation:

Add to a blender the eggs, the room temperature coconut oil or butter, if using, add the honey and the lemon peel. Quickly mix together for a couple of seconds, just until combined.

Add the lemon juice and give it a good whirl for a few second on high,  until well combined. The color will become a little lighter. But it really just takes a few seconds.

NOTE: When the mixture first comes out of the blender it will look all curdled and separated. Don’t worry about it. It will come together into a silky smooth curd once it gets warmed up. I promise!

Don’t worry about any foam you might have on top as you are heating up your curd - once it all gets warmed through, the foam will go away too.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan (I love using these ceramic coated saucepans - nothing sticks and clean up is WAY easy) and on medium high heat, under constant stirring, cook the mixture until it thickens.

Don’t walk away! This can happen quickly, and really, do keep stirring!

Once it thickens up, that is it! Perfectly smooth lemon curd.

Take it off the heat, fill curd into jars, let it cool, then place in the fridge! It will get a little more solid in the fridge.

Enjoy your silky smooth lemon curd!

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The Big 20/20 Event: Day 6: Make Your Own Chicken Pad Thai

Welcome back to “The Big 20/20 Event” - I am so glad you’re joining us! We will be sharing 20 fantastic tutorials from a host of awesome contributors, for 20 days.
If you enjoy the tutorials, make sure you sign up for my newsletter, as all my newsletter subscribers will receive a beautiful PDF eBook at the end of the event, showcasing all 20 tutorial projects to keep and peruse at their leisure!
Here we go with our Day 6 tutorial.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Make Your Own Chicken Pad Thai

 

 

Hi! My name is Jacquie and I blog over at Confessions Of A College Angel. I am so happy to be a part of The Big 20/20 event!!

 

My how to is really yummy, How to make Chicken Pad Thai--- now this isn’t COMPLETELY the traditional version of Pad Thai, although I do LOVE that kind as well, this was made for a super picky eater, my fiancée Kensei and his even more picky of an eater Dad. I really hope you like this and give it a try!

 

What you will need:

• Pad Thai Noodles, (I found mine in the organic/gluten free isle of my local Kroger)
• 1 cup to 1 lb. of chopped chicken breast
• (I also added 4 gluten free all chicken organic chicken and pineapple sausages)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a white onion or 3-5 green onions
• 1 egg per person eating
• carrots, bean sprouts, corn, broccoli any veggie you know that you  and your family will eat. (we used shredded carrots, bean sprouts and fire roasted corn)
• Roughly chopped peanuts (I put mine in a Ziploc bag and smacked them with a mason jar.)

For the sauce you will need--

• The Juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce (from  Kroger’s Asian isle or your local Asian market)
• 4 tablespoons white sugar (I used 2 white and 2 brown)
• Crushed red pepper flakes to taste

So what do you do?

Start by cooking your rice noodles until they are almost done! I boiled some water, turned it off and let the noodles soak for 5 min)

 

 

Then Pour out the water and let the noodle's drain, you might want to run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.

 

 

While the noodles are draining, start chopping and cooking your meat--- when you cook the meat add 1 tablespoon of peanut or veg oil to the pan.

 

 

While the meat is cooking mix the sauce and set aside.

Once the meat is all cooked remove from the pan, add 1 more tablespoon oil, scramble eggs and cook until fluffy and broken up.

 

 

Remove egg from pan, add 1 more tablespoon oil and cook garlic, onions and veggies until slightly softened, then add the meat, scrambled eggs and noodles to pan, before pouring sauce over everything and stir frying for 2-3 min. If it looks dry you can add water, or I used a little Orange Juice for extra bright flavor.

 

 

Now you can eat!! I plated everyone up a small bowl topped with crushed peanuts and 3 wedges of limes for squeezing on top ( I love the flavor of lime in this dish!) What is your favorite Asian food? do you have a make at home recipe? I would love to know! Also if you try this please leave me a comment and let me know what you liked about it!!

A little more about Jacquie:

What inspires me

a. I am inspired by the little things in life, a good day, a hug or kiss from someone I love things like that. I have found there is just to many negative things to not pay attention and be inspired by all the small things!

Where do I get my ideas from?

a. I tend to find something I like and want to recreate it at home. I have a lot of trial and error but somethings urn out better than what I had in mind to start.

What is my biggest dream for my future?

a. Currently getting married and starting a family.

 

Jacquie's Bio:

I am Jacquie and I blog over at Confessions Of A College Angel. My blog is all about life through my eyes as a full time college student with a full time job, who just recently moved to a new city transferred universities and lives with her boyfriend. I am a little bit of a dork, a geek and a nerd, I love photography, in fact, that is my major. I also love to read and cook. My blog is a little bit about everything! I hope you come and check it out!!

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Happening Around Here Lately

1.) Storing paint.

The other day I had one of those forehead-smacking, why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kind of moments when I read somebody’s tip to storing acrylic paint!

Up until then, I would paint a little dot of the color in the bottle on top of the lid, so I could easily find my colors. The problem is, that it required me to open all the bottles, had to wait for the dot to dry before I could store them and quite often, depending on what light I had in the studio, the dots wouldn’t show the subtle color differences clearly enough!

Well, turns out there’s a much easier way!

Store them upside down!! No-brainer, right?

Not only does it make color recognition much easier, it also helps with easily dispensing the paint in the bottles that are less than all the way full. And, it also stops the paint from drying out if the cap happens to be on less than perfectly closed.

2.) A quote for today. This has been so true for me lately. Well, it’s true all the time, let’s say it has been more relevant lately!

“Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith!”

-Margaret Shepard

 

3.) Inexpensive Light Box.

I used to have a lovely light box for tracing, embossing and pretty much anything I needed to have illuminated from behind. The last time I pulled it out of the cupboard to use, I saw that the D batteries had dumped all their not so lovely content all inside the light box and essentially irreparably ruined it.

When I went to look for a replacement, I remembered just HOW expensive these thing were. And honestly, I don’t really need anything terribly sophisticated - I just need something that doesn’t take up too much space and shines a reasonably bright light through various thicknesses of paper!

I came across this Crayola Light Up Tracing Pad and I thought I’d give it a try. It was less than half of what others cost, and with two young kids in the house, even if it didn’t work for me, it would get used plenty!

Well, let me tell you! I LOVE this thing!

It’s thin, it’s light, it stores away easily, it gives me what I need light-wise and I’ve used it a LOT for quite a few weeks now and I still love it!

What do I use it for? I find I use it for many things, but one of my main uses for a while was sketch transfer.

Well, when I first started doing faces, I realized that I was really holding back because I didn’t want to “ruin” the expensive paper with too much erasing. Yet, I found that if I sketched on cheap paper, I was more willing to experiment and go with the flow. If it didn’t work out, nothing much was lost!

And as a beginner sketcher, you HAVE to practice and have to be willing to make mistakes and “loosen” your wrist and all that. And every once in a while, even while just playing around, you’d manage to create something you actually liked and then how do you get it to your good paper?

So, once I had it sketched onto the cheap paper and to my satisfaction, I would then use the light box to trace it onto my hot-press watercolor paper. Double the work? Yes. But it’s worth it to me!

And as I grew/grow more confident, the less I need to do the double sketching.

4.) The big 20/20 event is starting on March 1st! I you haven’t heard yet, I have gotten together with some really talented ladies and we put together 'The Big 20/20 Event'.

The event itself is all about creativity, ideas, instructions and all things inspirational. we have got a whole host of gorgeous contributors on our team, and they have some fantastic tutorials to share with you.

Here is a sneak peak of what I will be giving one of my tutorials on.  Yep, I’m doing two!

5.) Yum!

These are grain-free/paleo Spaetzle! So easy to make, so yummy!

I slightly modified this recipe for Paleo Pasta and prepared it in the traditional “Spaetzle way” with the most delicious result. And much less work than pasta!

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Easy, Creamy, Lump-Free Sauces and Soups

Do you have trouble making roux based sauces and soups without lumps?

Then this may be for you!

In German recipes, something called “Mehlbutter”, which literally translates into “flourbutter”, has shown up more and more recently.  And it works!

So what is it?

It’s a nifty way to get your soups and sauces smooth and creamy, without lumps (!) and without having to do a roux (melting the butter, adding the flour, letting the flour cook out,  whisking in the liquid, etc.) first.

And it’s really simple, too!

Mix and equal amount of flour and softened butter, divide it into balls (or form a sausage and wrap in plastic wrap, then once frozen/chilled, cut slices) and either keep in the refrigerator, or, in the freezer.

 

 

Then whenever you need to thicken a sauce, take one or more of your flourbutter balls/slices out of the fridge/freezer and add to your soup and sauce.  Start with a small amount and see how much it thickens - you can always add more!

It will slowly melt into your liquid, you give it a quick whisk and voila, thickened without lumps! Yes, really - NO lumps!  I know it sounds like it will just cook little balls of flour, but really it won’t - try it!

 

Dairy-free: This also works with room temperature ghee and earth balance buttery spread. If using Ghee, the resulting mass is a little softer than butter, but it still works just fine in the soups and sauces. I put mine into ice cube trays, freeze them, pop them out and place them in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

Gluten-free: Incidentally, this also works with a variety of gluten-free flour mixes, even though not all are created equal and you may have to play around with it a little. So start with a test batch of 1 tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. of gluten-free flour mix, mash them together, roll them in a ball and then test them in a soup or sauce.

 

 

If you are satisfied with the thickening power and texture, go ahead and make a larger batch and freeze for future use!

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Inexpensive Solutions To Home Fermentation

We love Kefir at our house! My kids have grown up with milk kefir and they would have it morning, noon and night if it was up to them!

But because I have been off Dairy since earlier this year, I branched out into Water Kefir a while back, as I still wanted to get all those good probiotics! And we have totally fallen in love with Water Kefir!

We all love it and we love experimenting with different flavors, different stages of fizziness, etc.

We generally have our Water Kefir in the evenings with dinner and the kids have become quite the connoisseurs, judging every new flavor as to it’s fizziness, ripeness, overall flavor profile and if we should have it again!

So, after a while of doing water kefir, I started looking into other home fermenting, especially with all the fruit and vegetable abundance summer brings with it!

{From left to right: Water Kefir Lemonade, Grape Water Kefir and in the back in the large bottle is some Blueberry Water Kefir. Then a half gallon jar of Water Kefir in the process of fermenting, two jars of fermenting peppers and other vegetables and a jar of lacto-fermented sauerkraut!}

The internet is full of fermenting recipes, ideas, descriptions of the benefits and last but by no means least, gadgets and contraptions that aid you in proper fermenting. All 0f it of course costs quite a bit of money, which I was not prepared to spend.

When you first start playing with it, you can do it with just regular mason jars, but once you do it on a regular basis, it really helps to have the proper equipment!

So, I went about rigging up my own!

It’s not all that hard. Since I use Mason Jars for just about anything anyway, I am of course using them for fermenting too.

The caps I am about to show you how to make rather quickly and inexpensively, run from $10 to almost double that on the internet and are basically exactly the same.

For my initial set-up I used what I already had on hand. Note that there should be no metal touching fermented food or drinks, so please always choose glass or BPA free plastic lids!

You will need Plastic Lids for Mason Jars or Tattler Lids (make sure they fit your jars - wide mouth or regular,) a 3-piece Airlock, 1/2 inch rubber grommet and a rubber gasket. Unless you’re using the Tattler lids, then you don’t need a gasket as that is already provided. You do however need one of the metal rings that come with a mason jar to tighten the finished lid down.

Since the  plastic lids for the mason jars are rather leaky and not air tight at all, we need to trim the rubber gasket so it fits inside the lid and seals it.

You only need to cut a few millimeters off around the outside, which is easily done with a pair of scissors.

Next you need to use a 1/2 inch spade bit and drill a hole in the middle of your lid.

Once you drilled your hole, place the rubber grommet in the hole and adjust so it sits properly. Next insert the airlock and fit the trimmed rubber gasket - and you’re done!

To use your airlock lid, pull off the little lid off the 3-piece airlock and fill it about 1/3 full of water. Place the lid back on and screw the entire lid on your fermenting jar.

For the Tattler Lids, you do the same thing as above and then tighten down the lid insert with the metal ring provided with your mason jar!

I usually use this lid for my first ferment with the water kefir grains.

Then I remove the floating raisins* (I keep them in a little container in the freezer and use them as probiotic, pre-soaked raisins in baking and smoothies,) strain out the kefir grains and the lemon (I squeeze the juice into the finished water kefir and use the rind like I would any other organic lemon rind.) 

*The raisins are there to feed the kefir grains as well as a good indicator as to when the kefir is done with the first ferment, as they all float to the top (and stay on top) when it’s ready! During fermenting time you often see some being pushed up to the top by the bubbles, but they sink back down to the bottom. Until it’s ready, then they stay on top!

I then bottle our water kefir with a little fruit juice (our favorites so far have been organic grape juice, blackberry, raspberry, pineapple and cranberry) in flip top bottles (check your local wine and beer brewing store for those, they tend to be less expensive locally,) leaving them out on the counter for another day, burping them once.

Then I place the in the refrigerator. We usually drink the water kefir within a day after it has been placed in the refrigerator, even though we have found that some flavors develop better if they are given an additional day in the refrigerator, like the water kefir lemonade and ginger ale!

If you want to be really adventurous, you can also make your own Pickl-It jars. You would be drilling the hole into the glass lid however, which can be a little bit more involved than a simple drilling into a plastic lid. But it’s doable. There are plenty of tutorials about drilling into glass on the internet and once you have done that, you just add the grommet and the 3-piece airlock as above!
I am getting ready to try this soon, as I just stocked up on some of those jars at IKEA! They currently have quite the variety of flip-top bottles and jars!

I will keep you updated on my progress!

Now let’s move on to fermenting vegetables.

In fermenting it is pretty much the most important thing to keep any fruit and vegetables submerged and well below the brine. The vegetables float to the top and anything that peeks out over the brine can grow moldy and spoil your entire jar.

So fermenters usually use weights that keep the food below the brine. For large crocks you can buy ceramic weights, but for the individual jars, you can purchase glass disks that keep your food submerged.

They are however quite expensive and it occurred to me that there must be something less expensive out there that would do the same job and that would be commonly available!

I did find it eventually, in the form of  the dollar store glass candle holders!

Yep, you’ve probably seen them before and they fit into most mason jar openings just right.

The best part? They are $1 for two. So yes, that’s 50 cents instead of $9 + per glass disk!

First, I thought the indentation in the middle might present a problem, but as it turns out, it’s actually a good thing as it makes getting the glass disk out of the jar much easier. You can just grip it from the middle and lift it out!

Just make sure you place the glass candleholder with the hole facing up in your jar and that you don’t have any food in the middle indentation, as that would invite spoilage! Having the brine in there is fine though!

And yes, it has occurred to me too that that cheap dollar store glass is probably made in China and that it may contain lead. So, I consulted my trusty Lead Check before I started using them and I can report that they do NOT contain lead! Yay!

I’ve been collecting a variety of fermenting recipes, which I will be trying. I have collected them here, if you want to follow along and try some of your own!

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New Follow-Your-Heart Dairy-Free Cheese Shreds (plus coupon and contest!)

If you live dairy-free, you may still be on the hunt for that cheese substitute that brings you closest to that melty, ooey-gooey bubbly goodness that we used to know!

There are lots of cheese substitutes out there and I have probably tried them all. Some are better than others, but between funky texture issues, odd flavors and a host of melt ability and ingredient issues, it just doesn’t seem worth the trouble, so I mostly do without.

A couple of weeks ago, Follow-your-Heart contacted me and asked if I would like to try their new Vegan Gourmet Cheese Shreds.

 

 

Follow-your-heart products are a staple in my house. I have used their Vegenaise for near 10 years now as our only “May0”. Not because of any kind of restrictions, but because we just love the flavor of it!

A few months ago their diary-free cream cheese and the dairy-free sour cream have joined our list of staples. Follow-Your-Heart just have this way of making non-dairy so tasty!

In addition to being dairy free and cholesterol free, their new shredded cheese alternatives are also lactose free,  soy free (!), gluten free, Non-GMO Project verified and contain no preservatives or trans fats!

So, of course I jumped at the chance to try their new cheese shreds!

I got to play with 3 flavors, the cheddar shreds, the mozzarella shreds and the fiesta blend shreds.

Of all three flavors, the cheddar shreds were probably my favorite. They seemed to be closest to the “real” thing! Does it taste exactly like cheddar cheese? No. But close enough for me, especially when incorporated in recipes!

Do they melt? Oh yes, they do! They take a tad longer than regular cheese, but they melt beautifully!

It is more of a soft melt and reminds me more of a melted American cheese kind of consistency, rather than other kinds of melted cheeses! It works beautifully in cheese sauces!

 

 

And in these Grain-free Cheddar Bacon Spinach Muffins:

 

 

{I replaced the parmesano regiano with 2 tbsp. of nutritional yeast.)

 

And it took this Dairy-Free Mexican Queso Dip/Sauce to a whole new level!

 

 

And it brought these Quesadillas back into my life.

 

 

Since the cheese shreds melt a tad differently to “normal” cheese, I adopted a different way of preparing the Quesadillas when using the vegan shreds. It’s a quick and easy way to a perfectly melty Quesadilla!

 

I sprinkle the cheese shreds in the warm pan first, and let them melt.

 

 

Then I cover it with a tortilla and press down a little. The melted cheese shreds will no adhere to the tortilla and are already mostly melted.

 

 

Now turn the tortilla around, add the shredded chicken/meat/veggies (or just nothing like my kids prefer it,) spread the quesadilla sauce on the remaining tortilla and cover the fillings with it.

 

 

Now let it cook for about one minute, then flip it around to cook the other side and you have the perfectly crispy Quesadilla, complete with lovely melted cheese inside!

 

 

One other, quite delightful little thing I discovered about these shreds, is that, unlike ANY other cheese substitute I have tried, these cheese shreds actually turn into that slightly golden brown and crunchy cheesy goodness when you melt it/cook it long enough. Just like real cheese!

 

Those little crispy cheesy bits taste the most like real cheese to me! I have so far refrained from just sprinkling the cheese shreds in the pan and letting them all become crispy, cheesy little nuggets, but I think the day when I will do just that is not far off!

 

If I would have to find one con, then it is that the shreds are just a bit on the salty side for our liking. I find I can adjust most of my recipes to accommodate that, but for some recipes it may be harder to do so!

 

You can try the shreds for yourself with this $1 off coupon from Follow-Your-Heart here.

 

 

Follow-Your-Heart  are also running a recipe contest until the middle of September to launch their new shreds  and you will receive a higher coupon value after you submit a recipe to the contest.

Check out all the great recipes that have already been submitted!

Not to mention the fantastic prizes for this contest! Go check it out! And let us know if you enter one of your recipes to the contest, so we can all go and vote for it!

 

If you feel like voting for my entry,  it’s the Dairy-Free, Grain-Free Cheddar Bacon Spinach Muffin.

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Quick Peach Upside-Down Cake (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

I don’t tend to use commercial bake mixes much. But there are some crazy busy days, when I really appreciate the quick and easy factor and that’s when the occasional bake mix gets used around here.

For this recipe I use a cake mix  that only contains the flours, sugar and the baking soda and everything else can be added, which was perfect, as it allows me to doctor it to my liking!

Since I had a lot of peaches and some not-perfectly-ripe ones made it into the pile, I thought they would lend themselves perfectly to this quick and delicious dessert!

You can, of course, use other fruit too to make this cake. I have used this recipe with other fruits successfully, especially pineapple upside down cake (minus the almond extract) and it never disappoints!

 

 

Ingredients:

4-5 fresh medium sized, organic peaches (Not quite at the peak of their ripeness is ideal for this!)

1/2 cup of grass-fed ghee, divided (I make my own)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (or raw cane sugar)

1/4 cup organic palm shortening or Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

1 cup almond creamer (recipe here)

2 large,  organic eggs

1 tsp  Butter Vanilla Bakery Emulsion

1 tsp Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion

1/2 tsp Almond Bakery Emulsion

1 pack of Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Melt 1/4 cup of ghee in a pie plate.  Use some of the melted ghee to grease the sides of the pie plate.

Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the melted ghee on the bottom of the pie plate.

Slice the peaches over the ghee/sugar layer. About 12 slices per peach or so. Since our peaches were organic, I didn’t even peel them. You can arrange the peaches in a pretty pattern. As you can see, I didn’t bother and just added them randomly by slicing out a segment from the whole peach, then just slicing around the stone, dropping the slices into the pie plate as I go.

Set aside.

In a bowl, mix the remaining ghee, the palm shortening, the eggs, emulsions/extracts and almond creamer with the cake mix. Incorporate well with a whisk.

Pour the cake batter over the peaches and place pie plate on a cookie sheet (to catch any bubbles and drips.)

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake rest in the pie plate for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges to loosen them. Next,  invert the cake onto a large plate or serving platter!

Enjoy!

 

It turned out delicious and moist. The peaches were definitely the star, with an intensely fruity fresh flavor, beautifully supported by the crunchy, slightly caramelized edges and the soft, moist cake center! Definitely a favorite around here!

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