Coconut Flour Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water or coconut milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• dash of salt
• 1/3 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper and set aside.
3. In a small bowl, mix the coconut oil, vanilla extract, eggs, honey, salt and milk together.
4. Sift coconut flour into a large bowl.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until combined.
6. Stir in the raisins.
7. Scoop by the tablespoon, roll into a ball with your hands and flatten out.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes until lightly brown.

Gingerbread Whoopie Pie with Peppermint Creme Filling

Inspired by my dear friend Emily to make something that we all can eat.  Here is my version of a special occasion treat.  Enjoy!

Gingerbread Whoopie Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups Almond Flour

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Ginger, fresh, grated

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon Cloves

1/2 cup Honey

2 Eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Blend all the dry ingredients together, and then add all the wet ingredients and blend well.
3. On baking sheets covered with parchment paper or a baking mat (such as a Silpat), place heaping tablespoons (about 2 measured tablespoons) about 2 inches apart in circles, across the sheet.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Cool completely – at least 15 minutes – before sliding them off the mat with a spatula.
6. Take one pie and spread frosting on it. Place another pie on top of the frosting. Serve.

Peppermint Creme Filling

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Honey

2 Egg Whites

1/4 teaspoon Peppermint flavoring

Directions:

1. Bring the honey to a steady boil in a small saucepan. You want to bring the temperature of the honey to at least 250 degrees F. Boil for about 5-10 minutes, or until it is starting to darken (almost bringing it to the edge of burning). You’ll know when it’s ready if it forms a ball when you drop some of it in a cold water.

2. Whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks forming when you lift the whisk out of the mixture. Try not to stop whipping the egg whites, and slowly add honey and vanilla to the egg whites while you continue whisking. Some of the honey may spray a bit, so try to drizzle it down the side of the bowl, away from the whisk.  I use my Kitchen-Aid mixer for this job.

3. Spread, serve, and store in the refrigerator. You can re-whisk the mixture if it begins to separate.

Best Carrot Muffins Ever

Beginning the big birthday WEEK at our house.  Someone is turning 7!  Her first request for her "boss us around birthday week" was to make muffins.  She helped mix and measure and they turned out wonderful!  We served them with fresh pressed veggie juice and bacon.  Well into her first bite my girls exclaimed, "These are the BEST muffins, EVER!"


1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
3 large carrots, grated
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts (optional, we omitted them)


1. In a large bowl or mixer, combine almond flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg; Mix.
2. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, honey and oil.
3. Stir in carrots, raisins, and walnuts into wet ingredients. 
4. Add wet ingredients to dry.
5.  Place batter into muffin tins.
6. Bake at 350* for 20-25 minutes.
7. Cool lightly, serve and enjoy.

Sunflower Seed Jam Dots

These are my attempt to find a gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free treat that would accommodate all the food allergies in my daughter's class.  We had a big meeting last night to discuss snacks in the classroom and decided that it would not include treats, but just veggies and fruit.  So, this will have to sit and wait to be enjoyed by them, but not by you.  Let me know what you think!  Update: 5Rhythms Dance Potluck modification at the bottom of the page.

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups sunflower seed meal (grind your own in the food processor)

¼ cup cocoa powder (can be omitted)

½ tsp. baking soda

3 Tablespoons Arrowroot powder (Not on the GAPS list, but worth a "cheat" for us on a rare occasion.)

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 Tbsp. vanilla

½ cup honey

¼ cup fruit sweetened raspberry jelly (Crofter’s Organic Fruit Spread is what I used)

Directions

1.   Make flour out of sunflower seeds with food processor. Measure to make listed amount. 

2.   Add cocoa powder, soda, arrowroot, salt, and vanilla. Process.

3.   Add honey.  Add water as needed (Tb. Spoon at a time) to make smooth paste. Process. 

4.   Measure 1-1 ½ tsp. of cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Line up with enough room for each.

5.   Using a wet ¼ tsp., press a dent into the tops of each cookie. Add ¼ tsp. jelly in each cookie.

6.   Bake at 350* for 8 minutes or until slightly browned around the edges. Let cool before eating.


UPDATE 3/20/11:  I made these for a potluck last night.  They went faster than one can say, "Dance your pants off"!  I used almond meal for those because it is what I had one hand.  
Substitute almond meal (Trader Joe's has a good cheap one) for the sunflower seed meal.  When made with almond meal they are lighter and fluffier and less crunchy.  Same measurements.
You could also make them VEGAN by substituting Coconut Palm Sugar for the Honey and adding about a 1/3 cup of Water in the after the coconut sugar.  

Chocolate Frosting

We are headed to a birthday party today at a Gymnastics place.  I want my girls to get the whole experience so I made cupcakes just like the host is making (Vanilla cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting).
I used the Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Elana's Pantry (love this site!), subbing honey for agave nectar.   I also searched for an alternative frosting that reduced the risk of cross-contamination.  Cocoa powder or Cacao powder is generally safe for us, although not on the GAPS approved list.  I thought I would share anyway in case any other families have a little chocolate now and then.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut butter
1/2 cup honey
1 cup cacao powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Directions:
-Heat oil, butter and honey until soft.
-Put in blender or Cuisinart and then add cacao powder and vanilla.  Blend until smooth.
-Place in freezer for an hour or so.  I put mine in a bowl that I lined with parchment.

This could also double as chocolate fudge!

-Cut it up into smaller parts and let it sit out a little.  Whip using Kitchen-Aid or other mixer until fluffy.  Add a little water or coconut milk to thin.

-Let someone lick the bowl while you are decorating the cupcakes.

***Party turned out to be rather difficult despite my best intentions.  It is so hard for my big girl and she felt judged and different and "wishes cow milk didn't exist" so she didn't have to worry about it.  Lots of tears, LOTS.  In the past I have offered to make the birthday cake for all the kids and that has lessened the anxiety, but this time I didn't RSVP in time.  My heart hurts for her today, but perhaps a cupcake will cheer us all up.***

Apple Cookies

Here is a mildly sweet "cookie", said lightly as these are not for those who have a sweet tooth.  They will do, in a pinch, as a healthy alternative that offers no guilt.  There are many alterations to the recipe, as I try them I will update you.  I am bringing these to my Holistic Moms Network meeting tonight, where most of the mamas are on restricted diets or have food allergies.  Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 cup Sunflower seeds, toasted
1 cup Dried Apples
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 cup Coconut Flakes
1 Tb. Coconut Oil
2 Eggs

 In Cuisinart, chop Apples add Cinnamon.  Add Sunflower seeds and Coconut, chop.

Add Oil and Eggs, puree until a nice dough is formed.  

 Place around 1 heaping Tablespoon of dough to form each cookie.  Shape into desired form.  Bake in oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Lemon, Cranberry & White Chocolate Tart

I was inspired by my friend Bree, but her recipe called for all kinds of things I am not supposed to cook with.  So, I adapted it to suit my own dietary needs.  It was really delicious, super tart and refreshing.  I made it over several days because I knew that Christmas day would be hectic.

Cranberry Topping:

1 bag of cranberries, 1/2 cup of honey (or more or less to your liking), 1 cup of cranberry juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer until thickened.  Let cool in fridge.  Can be made several days in advance.

Lemon Curd:
6 egg yolks, 1/4 cup honey, grated zest of one lemon, 1/2 c. lemon juice, 6 Tb. coconut oil.  Blend all ingredients until smooth.  Add to sauce pan.  Cook on low heat, stirring constantly until thick.  Remove from heat.  Let cool in fridge.  Can be made several days in advance.

White Chocolate:
1 cup cacao butter, 1/2 cup honey, 1 Tb. coconut butter, 1 Tb. vanilla.
Heat slowly, stirring constantly.  Blend to emulsify.  Place in candy molds, freeze.  Can be made several days in advance.  (As long as you don't eat it all up!)

Almond Flour Crust:
1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 Tb. honey
1 Tb. vanilla extract

Mix dry ingredients in Cuisinart.  Add honey, oil and vanilla and blend until thick.  Pat mixture with wet hands into spring form pan or silicone baking dish.  Bake at 325* for 15 minutes, until golden.

Now the fun begins.  Reheat the white chocolate and pour into the crust. Freeze until chocolate is hard.

Remove from the baking dish and place on a nice plate.  Add the lemon curd.

Add the cranberry. Shred chocolate on the top or serve as is.

Sunday's Meals

This beautiful drizzly day started out with some nourishing foods.  Before breakfast we started with juicing 3 carrots, 1 beet, handful of mint, 1 pear, 1/2 of a cucumber.  I ran the pear and the carrot through first and saved the pulp for a pie later in the week.  Tip: wash juicer immediately, even before you drink the juice; it is so easy to clean when you commit to this ONE rule.  I was considering adding the date/time stamp so you could follow along with how long things take, but it bugs me a little to have that writing in the corner.

For breakfast today I made muffins from an amazing gluten-free website.  They were called cinnamon muffins!  (My little helper on the left there).  This was the first muffin we tried that combined a nut flour and coconut flour.  They were yummy!  We also had bacon.  While I was waiting for the bacon and muffins to cook, I reheated our planned lunch and packed for our outing that day.  Here you can see the beautiful muffins and the bacon are finished.  I am heating up some bone broth and left-over grass-fed organic ground beef that I made into taco meat the night before.  I have also steamed some beets that will be served with several Tablespoons of bacon grease.  In the cup there is not tea, but I am straining the bacon fat so there are not bits of blackness in it.  I find this metal tea strainer works great!

We spent the day outside at the Farmer's Market, the park, and went to the Pumpkin patch today.  Lots of fun, but planning meals for everyone can be a little stressful for me.  We ate some organic fruit that we purchased while shopping.  After we stopped at home to drop off our beautiful bounty of mostly organic veggies from the market, I through together some cookies and we were off to a party!  These cookies are super easy and only have these 6 ingredients :
2 1/4 cups almond meal,
1/4 cup cacao powder,
2 Tb. arrowroot powder,
1/2 tsp. baking soda,
1/4 tsp. salt,
 & 1/2 cup honey.
Blend dry ingredients by hand or in the cuisinart.  Add honey, blend.  Scoop with wet hands little flattened balls on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-15 minutes at 350*.  They were all eaten at the party in approximately... 3 minutes, maybe less!!!

For dinner tonight, as following the meal plan from
last week, we had fish.  We bought some sushi grade Ahi Tuna and fixed it up deliciously.  The cooked was sauteed in bacon grease, and the raw was sprinkled with salt and toasted sesame seeds.  We had the tuna served with a big green salad (greens, grated carrot, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado); dressing was ground-up almonds with some home-made mayo, fresh dill and chives, and salt.  Served with more avocado and bone broth.