Tis the season... for cookies!

Happy holidays everyone! With tree decorating and Nat King Cole playing in the background, it is officially Christmas season (however unreflected that is in my shopping list!). In honor of the season I thought it my duty to bake some cookies. So I set out in search of Christmas cookies. I found some recipes I had tried before, but kept looking for something more novel. Finally, I settled on this recipe from Fed & Fit. They looked like a hearty and delicious cookie that would fit the snowy day we're having here in New England.  Because I don't currently eat chocolate, I replaced the chocolate chips with raisins, which turned out well. However, I did find that before I even baked them, the cookies were a bit chewy. After baking, they came out even more tough. Any suggestions? Was it because I replaced the chocolate with raisins? Please reply in the comments section if you have an idea. I would also recommend shortening the cooking time with the raisins down to 10-12 minutes. So, here's what I ended up with: 

Raisin Walnut Cookies
3 cups sifted almond flour
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp. Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, then in a separate bowl melt the coconut oil. Add the honey, egg, and vanilla and whisk together. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes. I baked them on a Silpat sheet liner, but parchment paper would work as well. 

Serve up with a cold glass of almond milk and enjoy!

* * *

Merry Christmas to all! 

All things pumpkin!

Hi all! Here in Maine it officially feels like winter. Though we had a blissful 60 degree day last weekend, the temperature in the morning has been hovering around 30 degrees. So, it's time to heat up those ovens for some tasty fall treats. This week, it has been all things pumpkin for me. I found a local farm that had pie pumpkins (after my local grocer laughed at me when I asked if he had any), so I went to work roasting and scooping. From the one pumpkin I have thus far made:

• Coconut Pumpkin smoothie: such a yummy way to start off the day (recipe below)

• Pumpkin muffins: a trusty mid-morning go-to, especially toasted with a touch of butter (recipe below)

• Pumpkin cookies: a treat from our friend over at All Against Grain

• "Pepitas" (pumpkin seeds): another All Against Grain creation, though I may try mine just salted with my next pumpkin (oh yes, more to come!)

• Pumpkin Bread: a new recipe for me, adapted from an scdrecipe.com banana bread recipe.

• Pumpkin doughnuts: Brilliant concoction from the All Against Grain new cookbook. If there is one recipe that convinces you to buy her cookbook, this one should be it. Check it out on her site! Her photos are much more appealing, but here is how mine came out. 
 

Coconut Pumpkin Smoothie
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 banana
1/4 c. pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each of: ginger, nutmeg, and cloves

1) Blend all ingredients together in blender. Add ice before blending if desired.

Note: To help with my J-Pouch, I melt about 1 Tbs. coconut oil and add that in as well. It does wonders for me!



Pumpkin muffins
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and ginger
1/4 c. honey
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup of fresh pumpkin (squeezed to remove excess water)

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line muffin tin with baking cups.

2) Mix the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix wet ingredients (except the pumpkin). 

3) Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, whisking together until smooth. 

4) Add the pumpkin to the mixture and mix until smooth. 

5) Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake 25-30 minutes. Muffins should be golden brown on top when done. 

These are especially enjoyed toasted!



Pumpkin Bread
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1 Tbsp coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 c. honey
3 eggs
1 cup of pumpkin (with excess water squeezed out)

1) Heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Line a bread loaf pan with parchment paper (or you can use coconut oil to grease it, but make sure it is well greased!)

2) Mix dry ingredients and sift together. 

3) Mix wet ingredients in separate bowl, beating eggs by hand before adding the other ingredients. 

4) Blend dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using a stand mixer or hand mixer (I have only used the hand mixer as our apartment is too small for a stand mixer!).

5) Pour mixture into bread pan and cover with tinfoil. 

6) Bake bread for 20 minutes covered, then remove the tinfoil and bake for another 40-45 minutes with it uncovered. A toothpick should come out clean when it is baked fully. 

Another great recipe to toast up!   

What pumpkin treats are you whipping up this fall? 
Please share in the comments below! 

Fall feast

It is that wonderful time of the year: harvest time. Summer fruits and vegetables give way to autumn's bounty: squash, pumpkin, apples, and pears. Oh my! New England boasts a beautiful fall and these  recipes make use of fall's produce (all local) to put together a fall feast. Here is the menu:

• Roasted squash soup
• Baked pork chops with apples
• Apple pie

Roasted Squash Soup

I have made this soup many times, but with a few tweaks this year it turned out fantastic. I upped the onion and garlic that I normally put in and also added some homemade chicken broth. For those of you following SCD, please check out this site about how to make homemade chicken broth over at Mrs. Ed's site.


Ingredients

1 butternut squash, cut lengthwise
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
4 garlic gloves
½ tsp salt
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp basil
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cinnamon
3 cups water
1 cup chicken broth
4 Tbsp honey


Steps
Preheat oven to 375.

Place the 3 squash halves cut-side down in a casserole dish.

Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the dish.

Bake 45-60 minutes or until squash pieces feel a bit soft when you press on them.

Remove the squash from oven. When cool enough to handle, remove and discard seeds.

Scoop out the squash and set aside.

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter with the oil. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic.

Add the squash, salt, oregano, basil, pepper, cinnamon, and water, and simmer for 20 minutes on medium heat with the lid of the pot ajar. Stir occasionally.

Remove the lid from the pot and cook for 8 to 10 more minutes.

Add the honey and mix well.

Cool for 10 minutes. Purée until smooth.

**You may want to add more water to taste. Also, try whipping a batch of these dinner rolls from All Against Grain. Delicious! Isn't she amazing?!

Baked Pork Chops with Apples

I don't follow an exact recipe for this dish, so I don't know where I originally found it. There are many out on the web, but here is our version that we're serving up tonight with some faux-rice and green beans. 

Ingredients

3-4 pork chops 

cinnamon

salt

pepper

1/2 medium onion

4 medium apples 

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350. 

Pour salt, pepper, and cinnamon on a flat plate to taste. Mix with a fork then press pork chops into mixture. Lay into baking dish. 

Dice 4 apples and onion into 1" each pieces.  Put into a bowl and pour about 1 tsp of olive oil over the apples. Then sprinkle salt, pepper, and cinnamon over the apples. Mix to coat the apples. Place them around and over the pork in the baking dish. 

Cook for 30 minutes.

Apple Pie

There is something so comforting about apple pie. The smell of it in the oven brings back memories from being in my grandmother's kitchen at Thanksgiving. Though Gram has passed on, my sister carries on the tradition of making a killer apple pie each year. Though this recipe cannot hold a candle to my sister's baking, it hit the spot for me! Try it warmed with some of All Against Grain's french vanilla coconut ice cream.

Ingredients

Crust 

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour 
• 1 Tbs. coconut flour
• 2 Tbs. coconut oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling from Ancestral Chef

• 5 medium-sized apples, peeled and diced (granny smith or honeycrisp)
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 350.

2) To mix the crust, mix dry ingredients and sift together. Then add the coconut oil (not melted worked for me) and egg and work it into the dry mix. Combine until it forms a ball.

3) Roll out the crust between two sheets of parchment paper. Place half of it in pie plate and cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until browned. Leave the other half cooling in the fridge for the top of the pie.

3)  For the filling, melt the coconut oil in a pot over medium.

4) Add the honey and stir together. Then add the apples and spices. Stir the mixture to cover the apples with the oil, honey and spices.

5) Add in the coconut flour and mix well.

6) Add the vanilla extract and turn off the heat. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes.

7) Once filling has cooled, add to crust and then cover with the leftover crust from the fridge. If you want to make it look cool, use a fork to crimp the edges together. Make sure that they are sealed first, or some of the filling may leak out.

8) Bake for 25 minutes.

Enjoy! And give thanks for all the delicious foods that autumn brings to our bellies!

Pizza Time

"What's better, a medium amount of good pizza or all you can eat of pretty good pizza?"- Michael Scott

Any Michael Scott fans out there? I would have to go with a medium amount of good pizza. Last night, I created what I believe to be good SCD pizza. There is something so satisfying about pizza. I can remember many a Friday night, mom would make homemade pizza dough, we'd top it with cheese, hamburger, or olives,  and serve it up along with carrot sticks and a "treat" of diet Coke. I loved not only the routine in that meal, but also the way we all sat around the table talking about our days. I have so much to learn from my mother!

So obviously even homemade pizza dough is full of illegal ingredients, so I wanted to find a pizza dough that was hearty enough to replace the crust of my childhood. For the first two years of being on the diet, I used the recipe in Elaine's book "Breaking the Viscious Cycle" (if you don't have this already and are following the SCD diet, please consider buying it, as it was a godsend to me when I first started!). Then, one day I ran across this recipe from the blog Heal-Balance-Live. Not only does it crisp up nicely, but it also holds together well.

One of the great things about pizza is the array of toppings to choose from. When I first started making this pizza, I would top it with Havarti cheese, grilled chicken, SCD-safe black olives, or hamburger. Now, since I am trying to limit my intake of cheese (yes, I do use the Parmesan in the crust), I have tried chicken and pesto pizza, which was delicious. I also most recently tried topping it with homemade pizza sauce, prosciutto, broccoli, and grated Parmesan. It was equally delicious. What toppings do you like to add to your pizza?

Cheers!

Summer eats: pulled pork and more!

I always look forward to summer time. Not just because of the nice weather or being on school vacation, but also because of all the cooking I can do with my free time. Though I use this time to explore new recipes, there are some summer classics I look forward to all year. For example, blueberry pie (made with hand-picked Maine blueberries of course). Then, there is what I consider foods that I borrow from our neighbors from the south, which will make up our menu for this meal:

•  pulled pork
• cornbread 
• coleslaw
• baked beans

Pulled pork: this recipe I adapted from a few different places. But since I forgot to write the final compilation down, I'm posting a recipe from Turtle Soup. The only change I made to the recipe was that I put the dry rub on first, before putting it in the crock pot. For a fun variation, I have used that dry rub and then put SCD legal BBQ sauce and diet root beer in the crock pot for 4-6 hours. It adds a sweeter touch.


For the cornbread, I have used the recipe from austinscdfriends.com for the past two years. Topped with a little butter and honey, it melts on your tongue. Before serving, I like to toast it to give it a bit more crunch. The recipe is called Mock Cornbread and it is worth every second it takes to make it.

Right about the time we turn the calendar to the month of July, I start craving some serious coleslaw. I am a friend to all things vinegar, and this Creamy Coleslaw recipe from the Comfy Belly site satisfies that craving just perfectly. The only modification I made was to buy a coleslaw mix that is local from the supermarket, rather than chop up the cabbage. My mother-in-law continued snacking on the slaw even as we were cleaning up from the meal!

Finally, what would a pulled pork recipe be without some baked beans. Being from New England, my family takes pride in their homemade baked beans recipe. And each August, my family would pack up and drive the three hours north to our rustic cabin on an island in the North Woods, about a half hour boat/car ride from my grandparents' house. Without fail, at least once during our week at camp,  I would hear the boat coming across the lake, and as it rounded the point, would see my grandparents and and the cooler that contained gram's hot baked beans and oatmeal rolls. Even after Gram died of cancer, Gramps took up the baking of the beans in the same pot. Since I no longer can partake in these due to the illegality of molasses among others, I set out to find a replacement for Gram's baked beans. I have tried three different recipes, and the one that I most resembles the baked beans of my childhood comes from the scdrecipe blog. I do add a few other spices that I borrowed from Gram's beans including: 1 tsp allspice, 1 bay leaf, and a clove of garlic.

I hope you enjoy these summer eats as much as I did. Cheers to the chefs who came up with such delicious eats all SCD friendly (or "BFF": Becca Friendly Foods).

A realization, a new direction

So it has been over a year since I last posted. I know, shame on me. Yet as I sat here planning out our family vacation menu, I had a realization. As much as I would like it to, this blog will never contain hundreds of recipes that I have created. You see, I LOVE to cook. But, I am not the type of cook who can brilliantly marry foods together to create delicious dishes. No, I would describe myself more as a borrower. If you're reading this blog hoping to discover newly minted recipes, you will be disappointed. Because during my sabbatical from blogging, I have realized that instead, this site will serve to pull a full meal together, by organizing the recipes that I use from various websites, blogs, and cookbooks in order to create a full meal. When I cook, sometimes I feel as though my two open cookbooks and my iPad with a recipe from a website take up more of my counter space than the actual meal prep. I hope to eliminate that problem with this blog.  All recipes, of course, fall under the umbrella of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. So if you too lack the creative genius (or time!) like myself, please allow me to assist you in creating delicious, SCD-safe meals. Hope to see you back soon!