Gluten-Free Granola Bars

Incredible! I started with the granola bar recipe that I have been using for several years now and changed it in several ways to make it gluten free.
I eliminated the oats and doubled the gluten-free Rice Krispie cereal. So, instead of 1 1/2 Cup Oats, and 1 1/2 Cup Rice Krispies ... I use 3 Cups Rice Krispies.
I also added flax seed, xanthan gum, and an extra egg. I use Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour instead of wheat flour.
They turned out GREAT! I actually think they are better than my other Gluten-FULL recipe.

Here is the recipe:
You will need 2 bowls.
In the first bowl combine:
1 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 stick of butter
1/2 Cup natural peanut butter (gluten free)

In the 2nd bowl combine:
3 Cups Gluten-Free Rice Krispies
1 1/3 Cup All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 scant teaspoon of xanthan gum
1/2 Cup ground almonds (not flour)
1/4 Cup plus 1/8 Cup of ground flax seed
1/2 teaspoon of soda

Mix wet ingredients well, then add dry ingredients and mix well.
Once mixed together add:
1 Cup of Unsweetened Coconut
1 Cup of chocolate chips

Press into a well greased 11X13 baking pan. (make sure you press the mixture down well!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes.

Cut into bars while still warm.

I store mine in the refrigerator. I find that they stay together better when they are cold. Rich also prefers them cold.

Enjoy!

Thursday Dinner Winner

I had a bright idea for Chicken and Spinach stuffed Shells with Tomato Cream Sauce - and this is what I came up with. When I made this last week, I thought that the filling was too dry. (I only used half a container of ricotta cheese) So, I modified my recipe(below) to include the entire 15 oz container. You can play around with it if you decide to make it... and tweak it to make it just right for you.
16 ounces chopped chicken - chopped more finely than for a stew or soup
1-1 1/2 Cups of chopped spinach
1 15 oz container of ricotta cheese
1/2 stick of butter melted
1/2 to 3/4 Cup of parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt to taste
1 box of cooked jumbo pasta shells
Mix together the ricotta,butter, parmesan, egg, and salt and add it to the chopped chicken and spinach.
Sauce:
1 small onion
freshly chopped garlic to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon salt
Olive Oil
1 28 ounce can of Tomato Puree(add water to thin if necessary)
Basil (add to taste - up to 1 Tablespoon)
1 Cup Cream (heavy or half and half)
Saute onion in olive oil until onions are clear, add garlic, then add tomato puree and spices. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the cream. Heat until warm.

Place stuffed shells in baking dish and cover with the tomato cream sauce. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Family Reaction:Rich, Martin, and I loved it! We all agreed that we would love it even more in the form of ravioli, but the stuffed shells were great too. (Rich needs to get busy making some fresh ravioli!)
Aaron was okay with it ... loved the chicken and spinach filling ... wasn't crazy about the sauce. (probably because of the onions in it)
Jonathan liked it, but it wasn't his favorite.
Rosalie was just okay with it.

Aaron's favorite cookie

I am not even exactly sure what to call them because I came up with this recipe through years of tweaking and experimenting to get a yummy whole grain cookie. 

If I had to give them a name, though, I suppose I could call them Spelt Chocolate Coconut Cookie with Almonds. It's kind of a mouthful, though. After reading this post, let me know what you think they should be called!

Last week, I measured out all of the ingredients and put them all in separate bowls, and let Aaron go at it! He had the best time mixing all the ingredients together, putting the dough on the cookie sheet, and putting them in and taking them out of the oven. He made it known to everyone that they were not "mommy-made cookies" they were "Aaron-made!"

The first recipe will contain the ingredients that I use to make them, the second recipe will be an alternative for those who may not have certain ingredients on hand.

Here is the recipe: (For my Spelt-Loving friends)

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

2 1/4 Cup Spelt flour

1/2 C Cocoa Powder

1/4 - 1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 Cup Butter (or 1/2 Cup Butter and 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil)

1 2/3 Cup Evaporated Cane Juice + 1-2 TBS of Molasses 

2 Large Eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Cup of sliced Almonds (I pulse them in the food processor slightly)

1 Cup of unsweetened Coconut (hard to find at a regular grocery store)

OR

1 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour (you will have to play around with this a little - I've never made it with APF before, you may need a little less than the 1 3/4 Cup or perhaps more ... just add slowly)

1/2 Cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks of butter

1 Cup brown sugar

2/3 Cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 Cup sliced almonds ... slightly chopped (or any nut of your choice)

1 Cup coconut

You can eliminate nuts if you wish ... we love the crunch that it gives to the cookies, though.

Directions:

Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. Combine butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until creamy. Slowly add dry ingredients until combined. Fold in almonds and coconut. You can toast the coconut in the oven on low heat for a few moments if you wish(before you add them to the cookie dough) ... just be careful and watch closely, they burn easily and quickly! 

Drop Tablespoons full of cookie dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-13 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove from cookie sheet and place on a baker's rack to cool.

If you happen to make these ... let me know how they turn out for you!

Also ... if you would like to try it with spelt flour, stop by The Grain Mill of Wake Forest, and pick up some freshly ground spelt flour. It's fantastic grain that is low in gluten and has about 30% more protein than other wheats. I use spelt for our sandwich bread, muffins, pancakes, waffles, brownies, and cookies!

And one more thing ... don't forget to help me name this cookie! I need creative help!

A Dinner Winner!

I am not exactly sure what I would call this ... it's sausage, onions, and peppers with a plum tomato sauce served over whole wheat penne pasta.

When we make something new at our house ... we talk about the process and then Rich most often ends up cooking it. I chop everything so that all he has to do is prepare it. (wouldn't you love it if you had someone to do that for you?)
Ingredients:
olive oil
1-1/2 Pounds of mild italian sausage
1 28 oz can of Whole Plum Tomatoes(I ran them through the food processor because I didn't want a complete melt down from the little Hollands about chunky tomatoes in their bowls.)
1/2 of a large onion chopped
1 large green pepper chopped into large chunks
5 cloves of garlic chopped
6 T or so of prepared pasta sauce(whatever you happen to have on hand)
Mozzerella

Rich started by putting a small amount of olive oil in the skillet and cooked the sausage until most of the pink was gone(add onions part way through that prices). Then add juices plus some water to the sausage and cover to finish cooking the sausage thoroughly. Add green peppers and garlic to the skillet and sauté for a couple minutes. Then add the tomatoes. Add about 6 heaping tablespoons of prepared pasta sauce to the mix. He also seasoned with coarse black pepper. You can sprinkle with mozzarella or you can throw it all in a casserole dish and top with mozzarella and put it under the the broiler for a few minutes. We just sprinkled mozzarella on ours after spooning it into the plates.

It was a winner! The children ate it. Martin and Jonathan liked it the best. Rosalie was only okay with it. Aaron would have preferred to skip it. Aaron would have like it better if the texture of the tomatoes were more smooth like spaghetti sauce. I loved the texture of the tomatoes!

The Maker's Diet

Fresh Salad with hamburger topped with guacamole

cheese omelette topped with guacamole

We are in week two of following The Maker's Diet.

.It is a 40 day program that has 3 phases to it. We are currently in Phase 1. This is not intended to be a weight loss program for us. The goal is to optimize our health and try to eliminate any health issues that we may have.
Phase one is specifically geared toward cleansing the body. There are many foods that we cannot eat in this phase. The main foods we have to stay away from our grains, most fruits except for berries, grapefruit, lemons, and limes, beans, most nuts except for raw almonds, and dairy, except for raw goat's milk, and goat cheese.
Phase one is definitely the hardest, but we have been eating delicious foods! It helps to have a great cook in the house to help me prepare our meals! Phase Two will start next Monday, at which point we will add many fruits, beans, raw cow's milk, raw cow's milk cheddar, whole milk yogurt, and more raw nuts. So, Phase Two should be a piece of cake!!
We already eat a mostly whole foods diet - so this hasn't been that much of a stretch for us. But we do miss our freshly baked whole grain breads, pancakes, and waffles.
Rich has done very well with the diet. He has noticed some good health benefits for him. He is not having sugar crashes anymore after each meal. (each time he ate, he would drag and feel as though he was going to fall asleep)
I have done well with the diet too - but I have been experiencing some bouts of low blood sugar. Eliminating the grains and fruit from my diet has caused some spells of dizziness, headaches, and general fatigue as well as being nauseated. Once I figured out what was going on, I contacted my friend who is a certified natural health practicioner, and she gave me a remedy that I could take for those spells.
The pictures above are some meals that we have enjoyed over the week. We may have been missing our grains, but we have been eating very delicious and nutrition packed food!

Some meals that I have made this week:

Meatballs (with no bread crumbs - just spices and egg) with homemade pasta sauce

Meatloaf (made with lentils, eggs, spices), with pureed cauliflower, and italian green beans

Baked Lemon Basil Chicken with fresh raw broccoli and salad

French Style London Broil with asparagus and italian green beans

***Update***
I made Rich a cheese omelett topped with guacamole and he did not like it.
I made myself an cheese omelett with guacamole for the second time, and it wasn't nearly as delicious as it was the first time. However, we both loved the guacamole on the burger. That one is a winner for sure!

Puffy Pancakes - using soaked flour

Many of you may already know that in order for us to eat as we do, it requires a great deal of planning on my part. I have to know exactly what I am making each day for breakfast and each day for dinner. I keep a daily breakfast schedule, so that I will remember to soak the flour the night before. (soaking the freshly milled flour in an acid medium such as buttermilk or whole milk yogurt with live cultures optimizes nutrition!!) Most of the time, I follow my daily breakfast menu without any trouble. However, one Friday a week or so ago, I was out of everything. I was out of milk, only had 2 eggs, I was even out of bread - I had to make bread that day) What was I to do? I had to come up with something quick to feed my children - that didn't require milk - that only used two eggs - and that didn't require any of my home baked bread.
So, I leafed through a recipe book for ideas. I found a recipe for Puffy Pancakes. I wasn't going to be able to soak the grain overnight. (I figured they would survive) So, I milled some soft white grain and mixed all the ingredients together and put it in the oven. . . hoping they would all like it. The recipe does call for milk - I just used a mixture of water and buttermilk in it's place. It worked fine.
The children LOVED it. The recipe only makes one Puffy Pancake the size of a 9 inch pie plate. I gave each boy 1 quarter of the pancake - then Aaron and Martin shared the last quarter.

I made it again this morning - only this time I was prepared! I soaked spelt and soft white pastry flour overnight and mixed in the rest of the indredients this morning. It was even better this morning. Soaking brings another layer of flavor to it.

The Recipe:
Puffy Pancakes

2 TBS Butter (melt in pie plate while oven is preheating - this makes the puffy pancake crispy on the bottom)

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour (I used whole grain and made my own flour using soft white and spelt-original recipe is for all purpose flour)

1/2 cup milk (I used buttermilk/distilled water)

1/4 tsp sea salt

Soak the 1/2 cup flour overnight in an acid medium such as buttermilk/whole milk yogurt. (1/2 cup) The next morning add in the rest of the ingredients.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes until it is nice and golden!

I put agave nectar and warm 100% maple syrup on their piece of pancake.

Cinnamon Rolls

Last week, I had to make buns for our evening meal, and as I was rolling the dough into a bun shape. . . an idea began to take shape in my mind. My children have never had any sort of cinnamon roll! Crazy, I know, but true. So, once I had enough buns formed, I took the rest of the dough and shaped it into a long snake like figure. I dipped the snake like figure into butter, and dredged the dough trough a mixture of evaporated cane juice and cinnamon. Then I rolled the dough into the shape of a spiral cinnamon roll. I made just enough for each of us to have one. . . I certainly didn't want to go overboard, since I didn't know if they'd be any good or not. While they were baking, I made a glaze to drizzle over them.

They were delicious! My children loved them. It was a huge treat for them.

I made the dough using kamut grain and hard white wheat. So, these, are about as healthy as a cinnamon roll can get! I am convinced. . . that even my mom would love them!! If you knew my mom, you'd think that was a pretty big deal. So, watch out, mom. . . I am going to make one for you when you come visit!

My yearly grain arrived. . .FINALLY!

I was out of every variety of grain except for Spelt. So, for about a month, we had spelt bread, spelt pancakes, and spelt waffles! Can't go wrong with spelt, though!!!

I ordered:
100 pounds of Prairie Gold
50 pounds of Kamut
50 pounds of Oat Groats
50 pounds of Soft White

I use Prairie Gold, kamut, spelt, and oat groats for my bread.
I use Spelt and Kamut for pancakes, waffles, and muffins.
I use soft white for hamburger buns and pizza crust.

I would eventually like to get a roller, so that I can roll out my own oats for granola and oatmeal.

So, we are back in business with all the different varieties of grain!!

Ice Cream Sandwiches - homemade

Many of my readers may already know that we eat a whole foods diet, limit the amount of sugar we consume to mostly natural sugars (fruits), and milling all of our grains before baking bread, etc. I have noticed that since we started eating this way, that those "treats" have become genuine treats. My children have become accustomed to our healthy lifestyle, but they are children, so of course they want to enjoy those sugary foods every now and then. It's always a joy to see their eyes widen and light up because they are going to get one of those treats.

But being the health crazed person that I am, I can't just go to the store and buy a box of ice cream sandwiches. I had to make them myself!

So, I started by making the cookie part of the ice cream sandwich. I used spelt grain for the flour - and ancient European grain that is 30% higher in protein than regular hard white or hard red wheat. I used evaporated cane juice for the sweetener, butter, eggs, baking powder, and cocoa.

I used Breyers all natural vanilla bean ice cream. (Okay, so I didn't make my own ice cream, I have to take breaks where I can get them! But I did use Breyers because it has significantly less ingredients)

I baked the cookies and waited for them to cool:

Then I softened the ice cream, and put it in between two cookies. I placed each ice cream sandwich in an individual bag.

So, yeah, it's loaded with sugar. . . but at least there isn't any soybean oil, high fructose corn syrup, or partially hydrogenated oils!

AND THEY LOVED THEM!!!