gluten, sugar, dairy free rhubarb crisp.

Oh my goodness. You have to try this.

I'm not too familiar with rhubarb but Tyler really likes it. I had some strawberry rhubarb pie at a wedding a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it so when we received a little bunch of rhubarb in our CSA share this week I thought I'd make a crisp (I haven't delved into the world of gluten free pies quite yet). Though I've never made a crisp before, let alone a gluten and sugar free crisp.

Yesterday at the farmer's market I bought a second little bunch - I wasn't sure how much I would need but I thought I could at least make two batches if I had enough..

I started with a recipe I found via Pinterest. It's from Quaker Oats circa 1990 something. I naturally had to modify quite a few things to make it fit my needs and was very pleased with the results! I confirmed this with Tyler who agreed that he would be happy to eat it again. So that's a good sign.

You'll need:
3 cups of chopped rhubarb
2 cups of chopped apples with peels removed (or strawberries.. or whatever)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter)
1/3 cup almond flour
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Roughly chop the rhubarb:


And the apple (or whatever):


Combine in a bowl and coat with the cornstarch:


Add agave & maple and stir to coat until you see little to no dry cornstarch:


Place mixture in a baking dish (I used a rectangular one, square would probably be better but I don't have one!):


In the same bowl (I'm a fan of making as little mess as possible) combine the oats, coconut oil, almond flour, maple syrup, cinnamon, and stir to combine:


With your hands drop the topping over the rhubarb mixture:


Bake for 40 minutes... and yum! :)


This makes 4 big servings... or maybe 6-8 smallish. But I'm a big serving kind of girl. Feel free to top with ice cream, whipped cream, or ice milk!

The whole thing is about 2594 calories - so that's 432 calories if you divide it into 6 servings. So.. maybe do that. :)

Sound yummy? Why don't you pin it?! :)

easy summer on the go lunch.. in a mason jar!

A couple of weeks ago I tried to make a veg burger from a recipe I found on Pinterest. I did a ton of substations, because I usually do, and also to make it gluten and sugar free. The consistency did quite work right for frying into a patty. I put it on lettuce and we ate it sort of roll form. I rolled up the leftovers and lettuce and we ate it for lunch on our road trip to Washington.

While making my meal list last week I thought I would try something similar but modify it to be more friendly for our family. What I came up with is gluten and sugar free, mostly fresh and local, healthy, very easy to make, portable, perfect for summer when don't want to use your stove or oven, and is about 280 calories per serving.

I've called it Sweet Jar Lunch, that is sort for Sweet Potato and Cannellini Bean Layered Lunch Thing in a Mason Jar. This recipe makes four jars.

Sweet Potato & Cannellini Bean Thing:


Avocado "Spread":


Chopped Tomatoes:


Lettuce Mix:


Mustard:






Layers, from top to bottom:
1: Shredded Lettuce Mix, about 2 cups
2: Chopped Tomatoes, I happened to have 5 cherry tomatoes waiting to be used.
3: Avocado "Spread" - 1 avocado, some green onion, 2 small fresh onions, 1 tsp lemon juice, dash of sea salt - all smushed together.
4: 1 Tbsp Mustard (per jar)
5: Sweet Potato & Cannellini Bean Thing - 1 medium baked sweet potato (skin removed), 2 cans cannellini beans (rinsed & drained), 3 Tbsp almond flour, 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I would have preferred almond butter but didn't have enough), a dash of fresh ground black pepper - all mixed and mushed together using a potato masher.

I'm planning to make this every couple of weeks this summer as we do not have air conditioning so the thought of a good meal without the use of the stove or oven is very attractive. Throw a lid on the jar and it's a perfect meal for a road trip, picnic, or day at the beach!

I'm expecting this to be popular on Pinterest. Because its yummy, fast, easy.. and in a jar. ;) So.. pin it if you please!

overnight oats.

I've seen photos of overnight oats on Pinterest a few times. I've also seen photos of overnight chia puddings and things. And I've skimmed those recipes and then without much thought or plan made some the other night after realizing we didn't have much on hand for the following morning's breakfast.

As usual I didn't measure anything. I've done this three times so far and while each one was different each one was super super yummy.

Combine in a sealable bowl or jar:
(all of these measurements are complete guesses, just feel it out as you go as far as the texture you're looking for)

1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup heavy cream (I'm eager to use yogurt but I haven't made any recently)
Splash of maple syrup or other sweetener
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon unsweetened dried coconut
Fruit! (the first time I used handed grapes and diced apples, second time sliced grapes and diced peaches, third time diced peaches and apples)

Mix, cover, refrigerate overnight. Then enjoy in the morning!!! :)

gluten and sugar free pumpkin cookies.

I whipped up some "cookies" last night and thought I would share. :)

- half of a can of pumpkin purée
- 2 eggs
- 4 tablespoons almond butter
- 3 tablespoons almond flour
- splash of vanilla
- pinch of cinnamon
- dash of nutmeg
- sprinkle of cloves

Preheat oven to 350
Mix all ingredients until smooth
Plop onto parchment lined baking sheet
Bake for 14 minutes (or so.. Our oven isn't overly accurate)








We enjoyed some last night with whipped coconut, a drizzle of maple syrup, and a sprinkle of shredded coconut on top. :)

stuffed zucchini and riced cauliflower.

I don't usually blog when I cook. I cook something new 4-5 times a week. Blogging all of that would be way too time consuming! But this got a lot of attention, comments, and questions.

Riced cauliflower:

A head of cauliflower processed in a food processor, about the size of rice.

Cook the cauliflower. I put it in a pan and sautéed it in coconut oil and then put it in the oven with the zucchini for five minutes.

You can steam it, sauté it, microwave it.. Whatever.

It's a really great alternative to rice. A much better texture and flavor in my opinion.

Stuffed Zucchini:

3 medium zucchini
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
Small onion, chopped
Thyme
1/2 teaspoon Curry powder
Salt
Pepper
2 Tablespoons sour cream
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Brown the onion in a pan. Add curry powder and leave on heat for 30 more seconds.
Meanwhile cut the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the pulp.
Chop the pulp and put it in a bowl.
Add the chopped red pepper, thyme, salt, pepper, sour cream, and the onions when they are done.
Put the prepared zucchini boats into a oiled/buttered baking dish.
Fill the zucchini with the mixture and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.
Bake for 20 minutes.

Yum!

gluten & sugar free mug cake.

Everyone seems to be making mug cakes these days. I really never paid much attention since they seem to involve things like gluten and sugar and other bad things.

On a whim and after about two seconds of thought I threw some things into a mug and had myself a yummy mug cake!





A lump of butter. Possibly two tablespoons (I make my own butter and I typically don't measure things so...)
Three tablespoons of oat flour
Two teaspoons of baking cocoa
One teaspoon of maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon of honey

Melt the butter in the mug you're using. Add each ingredient above while stirring with a fork.
Microwave for 1 minute and 15 seconds.

It didn't rise too much but it's dense and rich so it was just enough. :)
It bubbled and was still bubbling when I took it out. That left it with a neat honeycomb pattern on top.

Enjoy! :)

elimination diet. { update }

It's already time for another elimination diet update!

Last night, in celebration of Brooke's birthday, I had a slice of cheesecake. I was intending to sacrifice myself and enjoy it, despite the sugar, since I'm aware that sugar most certainly causes some ankle stiffness and other joint aches. Knowing that going into a little sugar now and then isn't terrible. I was hoping to avoid the oreo crust since it contains gluten but this was a unique cheesecake the crust was on top and wasn't as solid of a crust as you're most likely used to. There wasn't a solid division between the cake and the crust so I just ate it. Later I read the recipe and found that there was also flour in the cheesecake part so avoiding the crust wouldn't have been worth the trouble anyway.

So... I had gluten. What happened?

Last night my fingers got pretty swollen and stiff a couple of hours after eating the cheesecake. When I woke this morning they were still puffy and stiff. I also felt about 20 years older walking down the stairs this morning.

It's hard to say what did what since I ate both sugar AND gluten, but it's clear that something bothered me and there were more symptoms that what I have previously attributed to sugar.

So I'll soon be eating something with gluten (something really worth it... like naan on my birthday possibly? :) ) and will report back with any symptoms I may have.

I did a little googling this morning and found quite a few people linking gluten consumption to swollen fingers/water retention. Interesting stuff!

Again, I encourage you to look into what you're eating if you have any ailments whatsoever. It's not very challenging to try an elimination diet and if you find that avoiding something makes you feel better it is so very worth it.

elimination diet. { update }

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping you in the loop about my elimination diet too well, save for a few recipes. It's been a little busy around here. As I type this I'm looking at things that have been sitting on my desk for months that still need tending to.

I'm back to eating nightshades. A couple of days short of the end of February I made a dish with both potatoes and tomatoes. I know that's a terrible strategy to use in an elimination diet because if I had had a symptom there would be no way of knowing what was at fault - the potatoes or tomatoes. But luckily nothing happened. I am very grateful for that because avoiding nightshades independent of other dietary restrictions probably wouldn't be too difficult, but avoiding nightshades AND gluten was surely a challenge. I was running out of things to cook that seemed appetizing.

I'm still going strong on being gluten free. I think that one is going to stick. In the little bit of research that I have done recently it seems there is a strong link between many autoimmune diseases and Celiac Disease or a gluten intolerance. I read an article that actually suggested 20% of people diagnoses with lupus actually have Celiac Disease, a gluten allergy, or a gluten intolerance and are being incorrectly medicated with harsh drugs. I'm not taking any medicine released to lupus but still.. if there's a chance that my body is not dealing with gluten correctly.. why not give it up. Of course there are other reasons for avoiding it as mentioned in my initial elimination diet post.

I'm still trying to eat paleo-ish. I've been having a lot of rice lately in kheer. But I'm not eating the rice to gain nutrition.. it's just for fun as a nice way to use up the plethora of milk we have. Speaking of milk, I've been having more dairy for that reason as well. But at least I've been making yogurt. :)

The biggest thing that I want to report is on the sugar front - that's the reason I thought to write this update post today. Save for natural sugars I've been almost sugar free since the start of February. A couple of nights a week Tyler and I have Theo Chocolate sipping chocolate (or as I like to call it.. drinking chocolate..). Tyler got it for me for Christmas and I absolutely love it. We both have a small cup and it contains only a little bit of sugar (it's dark chocolate). I have noticed a bit of correlation between this and ankle stiffness in the morning but nothing unbearable by any means. (If you're in search of good chocolate - check out Theo. They have a small chocolate factory in Seattle where they make organic and fair trade amazingness.)

Yesterday I ate some regular chocolate that I got in my Vox Box from Influenster. It's milk chocolate and contains 20 grams of sugar per serving (three squares). I enjoyed eating it but I don't enjoy the consequences. It's amazing how quickly and noticeably it affected me. Not only did it cause my ankles to be stiff this morning but my legs have been aching all day and this afternoon my wrists even joined in. Woah! So... I'm staying sugar free. For obvious reasons.

I will occasionally compromise since the consequences will not kill me, but overall I'm labeling myself sugar free. Compromisses will be for special occasions such as a small cup of sipping chocolate with Tyler, my friend Brooke's birthday cheesecake tomorrow, my birthday on Saturday, and a celebratory gluten free cupcake on Monday with Amber (celebrating both of our birthdays).

If you're an achey person I STRONGLY suggest you give going sugar free a try. In addition to reducing inflammation it has many benefits.. it's really not good for us in the first place. And why not have a sugar free home if you have little kids around?

wheat free teething biscuits.

I just whipped up Olive some teething biscuits tonight while making dinner, sugar free kheer, and vegetable stock. It was an eventful evening in the kitchen. Pretty steamy, too!

I recently started using Pinterest last week. I was largely against it for a while because I thought it would be another unnecessary time consuming social internet thing blah blah. I've had an invite for a while and decided to at least peek. To my delight I realized I could use it to "remember" things instead of having a billion bookmarks or tabs open. (Honestly, I don't even bookmark things.. I'm a billion tab person. So many tabs. It's so unhealthy.) Duh... you "pin" things to "boards" - why didn't I put that together when I first heard of it? So I transferred a lot of my taps to pins and did a little more searching for things I can eat on my elimination diet, things for Olive, and more! So helpful!

I stumbled upon a few recipes for teething biscuits and thought I'd post a quick little ditty of what I did since I've already had a few inquiries. There are a bunch of different recipes out there but they're all pretty similar. I basically threw everything in without measuring.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together 1 cup of oatmeal infant cereal (I'm going to try grinding my own oats next time) and 1 cup of oat flour.
In another bowl combine one very ripe banana (mine was an overripe frozen banana), about 1.5 Tbsp of canola oil (I never measure anything), and a splash of water. Mix until combined and then add to the dry ingredients.
Mix together until combined, add more water if necessary, avoid stickiness if possible.
Roll out (I smushed with my hands - I love shortcuts) onto a floured surface (I used almond flour) until is about 1/4 inch thick and then cut into shapes (I made rectangles (sort of) with a pizza cutter).
Place the uncooked biscuits onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.





Fresh, healthy, allergen free, preservative free, and full of yummy teething biscuits! Play around with the fruit or vegetable but plan to adjust your water according to how moist your fruit or vegetable is.

Enjoy! :)

first birthday cake { grain & sugar free raw carrot }

Keeping in line with my elimination diet and because no one really needs sugar, I decided to make Olive a sugar free birthday cake. Even before committing to my diet I was planning to make her something sugar free.



After skimming some recipes online I found a few grain free and raw cakes that seemed perfect. Raw food is great because it's still in its most natural form.. so none of the nutrients have been cooked out our altered. Grains aren't really all that necessary for us to eat.. they're pretty processed and don't offer that many good things compared to something like fresh vegetables. I wouldn't say they're harmful but I don't really think we need them.

So why not make a cake that is enjoyable and nutritious and not going to make a baby previously unexposed to sugar go crazy on already crazy day?!

I settled on a recipe from A Gluten-Free Vegan Mom Who Knows but I changed a few things and used a different frosting. Olive loved the cake and so did I. I loved it so much that I'm making it for my birthday in a couple of weeks! :) I can't wait. And then I'm going to make one for... St. Patrick's Day. And... Easter. And... Saturday. And... yep.

The original recipe calls for tahini. I didn't want to buy a $9 jar of tahini so I used almond butter instead. I also did not include honey and I reduced the amount of walnuts (both due to Olive's age).

Here's what I used:
1 cup raisins (soaked until plump and then chopped in a food processor)
2 large carrots (finely grated)
3/4 cups raw walnuts (finely chopped in a food processor)
heaping 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut (ground in a food processor if not finely shredded)
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

In a bowl combine all ingredients and mix well.

I was going to put the mixture into a tart pan to mold it but, as you can see from the photos, it makes a rather small cake. It wasn't nearly enough to fill the tart pan. It's pretty moldable though so I hand made a circle on a small plate. And I let it chill until it was cake time.



(I'm impressed by my handmade cake circle)

And because it's raw... viola! You're done! :)

The frosting I made was not vegan. I didn't follow the frosting recipe that accompanies the original cake recipe because I didn't want to add to Olive's nut intake that day and there were a few more things that I would need to buy. I went with a sugar free cream cheese frosting that I made up. Luckily it worked out because I didn't test it.

Frosting:
1 8oz package of cream cheese
4 Tablespoons of softened butter
1/4 maple syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Whip the butter and cream cheese together, preferably with a stand or hand mixer. Add vanilla and maple syrup until incorporated. Stick your finger in and enjoy. :) And then put whatever is left on the cake.

The frosting is a little difficult to spread without the cake getting stuck to it so I basically just globbed it on.



Olive spent about 30 minutes with her cake. She was pretty careful with it at first and eventually grabbed a handful. She also graciously fed some to me too. We enjoyed little bits of cake with our meals over the next few days.





What's great about this cake is that we were able to eat it with our meals over the next few days.. :) It's not like a sweet desert that we need to ration. We didn't need to be careful about giving Olive too much sugar or something. It's all yummy and healthy ingredients so I just put a little on her plate during lunch and dinner. :)

Tip - Make sure you're using pure maple syrup.. nothing with added sugar, obviously.

You can see the original recipe here.

Let me know what you think if you end up making it. It's sooooooooooo yummy. :)

my diet.

Well, it's about time I go on a diet. I'm feeling a little... plump.

Kidding. hahaha.

But I suppose diet is the appropriate word, but not in the sense of weight loss as it is often used. I'm trying out an elimination diet. An elimination diet is when you cease to consume certain things for at least a month and then slowly introduce things back, one at a time, to see what the effects may be on your body.

Before I explain exactly what I'm doing I want to stress how important what we consume is to our bodies. I have felt this for a while and the more I learn the more, shall I say passionate, I become. Food is important. We put food into our bodies multiple times a day every day of our lives. If there is anything that we focus energy and money on in our lives I feel it should be food. But unfortunately most people use food as a place to cut back in times of financial stress or when too busy but that should be our opposite reaction. Sure, our bodies take in a lot of things, we breathe air, we see things, we smell things... but we can't control all of those things completely. We can control, so easily, what we eat.

Tyler, Olive, and I eat pretty well. The quality of our food is important to me. My weekly shopping trips are spent primarily in the produce section and bulk section of our local co-op. I buy very few canned or packaged products. Nothing with dyes. I read labels. Much of our produce is organic. We don't eat out too often and when we do I make good choices for Olive and myself.

Despite eating well I still feel off sometimes. My mood can fluctuate. My ankles are very stiff every morning. I get aches in my knees. Before having Olive I was constantly stricken with headaches.. luckily that isn't as frequent now but I still do get them. Sometimes I'm gassy. I get dizzy. I have eczema. Nothing life threatening here but my quality of life would surely be better if these things didn't plague me.

Recently I learned that sugar is an inflammatory agent. It seems I should have known this... but I didn't. So... arthritis is inflammation. Sugar causes inflammation. Whoops, I like sugar. So that's one thing I'm cutting out. No sugar. I'm a huge fan of sweet things though so I bought some xylitol for things like coffee. I'm really not a fan of stevia. Ew.

Also, I was completely unaware that nightshades often cause people with arthritis discomfort. What are nightshades? Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers (sweet and hot), and eggplant. That's quite unfortunate as tomatoes and potatoes are in a lot of what we cook. But I'm cutting those out as well for at least a month.

I'm also avoiding gluten. I know that's somewhat trendy right now but it does seem like people with adverse reactions to gluten are popping up everywhere. Some things, my mood, headaches, tummy stuff.. may be related to gluten.. but maybe not.

I'm taking a somewhat paleo spin on things as well which means lots of vegetables, some meat, no processed dairy, no processed grains, no rice, and no legumes. Processed dairy such as butter is still going to happen. I love butter. We drink almond milk rather than cow's milk. Sometimes we have cheese and yogurt but not frequently. And we don't eat very much meat. No rice because it's not very nutritionally beneficial.. it's more of a filler. And no beans because, again, they sometimes bother people with inflammatory problems but also because they inhibit absorption of nutrients. What?! Totally true. So.. all of those people in Uganda and millions of other places eating rice and beans for nearly every meal... yeah. :( I was shocked to learn that.. here's a quick blurb I found on a blog with a little more info if you don't believe me. :)

So thats it. I started on January 31st, 2011.
No sugar
No nightshades
No gluten
No legumes

I'll still do a little meat, a little dairy, and a little rice.

What does that leave me to eat?

Lots of vegetables (which we eat a ton of already)! Nuts! Things I bake with the almond flour I make! Um... I'm totally open to suggestions. :) But so far, for the past two days, it's gone well. :)

Wish me luck!

Are you on a diet? Do you have any questions or comments about my diet plan?

I'll be posting some photos and simple recipes along the way.

homemade almond flour.

You may remember back in December when I posted a little tutorial for homemade almond milk.. and how I mentioned at the end that you can use the resulting pulp to make either almond meal or almond flour..

Well a few nights ago I finally got around to giving it a try! After each batch of almond milk I froze the pulp until I had what seemed to be a decent amount for making flour.

I suppose I technically made almond meal not almond flour.. But whatever. Meal contains the little almond "peels" and flour does not. They can be used interchangeably.

I spread out all of the pulp onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper as the oven was preheating (set to 200 degrees).





I let the pulp dry out for about 90 minutes. I moved it around a few times with a wooden spoon.

After it seemed dried out I took it out and it looked like this:





Obviously not quite flower.

In little bits, maybe a cup at time, I blended it using my immersion blender.





After blending it all I put it into a jar and then I had a jar of almond flour!





This can be used as a gluten free substitute for flour in any recipe! I'm planning to make my "famous" chocolate chip cookies with it! Yum! :)