Coconut Fried Chicken

Ah, there was a moment this week when we felt like we were eating fried chicken!  It was nice to have some new flavors in our mouths and it was a little like cheating, although I know it is still in our healthy perimeters.  We ate ours with a lovely green salad with fresh tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, and peas.  I made our dressing with apple cider vinegar and olive oil.  I might try this with fish next time for a good trickery!

Ingredients:

• Chicken, breast or thigh, cut into large bite sized pieces.  
• 1/2-1 cup dried coconut (not the sugar variety)
• 2-4 eggs, beaten
• Salt
• Coconut oil for frying

Directions:

1. Heat coconut oil up in a skillet on medium low.
2. Dip chicken into egg and then coconut and then place in a warm skillet. Salt them while cooking.
3. Cook on both sides evenly.  Serve.

Squash Porridge

 My littlest girl has started pre-school!  She is so happy to join other children her age and to enjoy the wonderful Waldorf-inspired school.  Most Waldorf schools are heavy on the grains, and it can be tedious to send her with her replacement food, but so worth the effort to keep her healthy and nourished.  On one of the days her teacher serves oatmeal, or porridge.  So, I send her with her squash porridge.  She loves it and eats it all up every time.

Ingredients:

• Squash, any variety (my favorites are butternut, acorn, and banana)
• 2 pastured eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• water, for blending

Directions:

1. Cut up squash in large chunks, leave the peel on it will save you time.  Steam it over water until soft.
2. In blender mix peeled squash, egg, vanilla and cinnamon.  Add enough water to make the blender move.  The hot squash will cook the egg, don't worry here.  
3. Serve, and enjoy.

Intro: omit vanilla and cinnamon and use egg yolks

Herbed Cauliflower "Rice"

Ingredients:

• A head of cauliflower, grated
• 1/4 cup cilantro, minced
• 2 Tb. mint, minced
• 1 scallion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2-4 Tb. animal fat, or olive oil
• salt

Directions:

1. Steam grated cauliflower until soft.
2. Pulse cilantro, mint, garlic, scallion in Cuisinart (or chop finely).
3. In a bowl, add cooked cauliflower and mix in cilantro, mint, oil, and salt. 
4. Stir and serve.

GAPS Coconut Flour Pancakes

Ingredients

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup coconut milk or water
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon honey 
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (or not)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• coconut oil  for frying

Directions

1. Preheat griddle over medium-low heat. 
2. In a small bowl beat eggs, milk, vanilla, and honey.  
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, and sea salt and whisk together. Stir wet mixture into dry until coconut flour is incorporated. (Or use a Cuisinart to mix all ingredients quickly).
4. Grease pan with butter or coconut oil. Ladle 1-2 tablespoons of batter into pan for each pancake.   Cook for a few minutes on each side, until the tops dry out slightly and the bottoms start to brown. Flip and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.
5. Serve hot with coconut oil, honey, jam, or fruit.

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.

Banana Mint Smoothie

Ah, Summer freshness in a cup.  This creamy minty concoction is often requested on a hot day.  It can also easily be turned into a popsicle.

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup water
-Handfull of mint, washed
-2 Frozen Bananas
-1 pastured egg (optional, but adds creaminess and protein)

Directions:
In blender, add water and mint, blend until mint is liquified.  Add bananas and egg, blend again, serve.  For an added punch of mint, you could add peppermint flavoring.

GAPS BBQ

Memorial day inspired us to make a traditional BBQ menu.  It was a small party of 5, but well worth all the effort.  Here is what we served:

BBQ Chicken
Seasoned Bone-in, skin-on Chicken Thighs with tandoori spices, garlic, and salt.

Coleslaw
Mixed grated cabbage, carrots and pears with olive oil, vinegar and salt.

Watermelon
Cut off the rind and served in triangles.

Potato-Free Salad
Ingredients
2 Cauliflowers, cut into small florets, steamed
2 Pickles, but up into small pieces
4 Celery spears, cut into small parts
2 Green Onions, minced
1/3 cup cooked bacon, cut in small pieces
1/2 cup home-made mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions
1. Steam Cauliflower.
2. Cook bacon.
2. Cut up pickles, celery, onion and add to a large bowl.
3.  Mix Cauliflower, veggies, bacon, mustard and mayonnaise.

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.

"Creamy" Tomato Soup

This dish brings up this fond memory of my college roommate and how we would make Campbell's tomato soup and put it in a toasted bread bowl.  I love the memories I have of sitting on the floor in our apartment and laughing. Where in I cannot have the bread bowl now, or the dairy, this creamy soup was still super delicious.  I hope you like it too and can appreciate the potential for it to evoke your own memories.

Today I sat and ate it for lunch with Italian sausage patties, an almond flour pancake and a little three-year-old roommate that was sure to make me laugh.

Ingredients:
2 small cauliflower heads, broke into large pieces
6 cups beef bone broth with marrow
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 onion
4 stalks of celery (leaves and hearts okay)
24 oz. Strained tomatoes
7 oz. Tomato paste
1 Tbl. honey (optional)
salt to taste

Directions:
1. Add broth, cauliflower, garlic, onion, and celery to a stock pot.  Bring to a low boil.  Check until cauliflower is soft.

2.  Add contents of pot to the blender, blend until smooth.
3.  Return half of blender contents back into stock pot on medium heat.
4.  Blend remainder of cauliflower mixture with both strained tomatoes and tomato paste. Add honey if desired.
5.  Let cook and thicken for 5-10 minutes.  Salt to taste.

Fluffy Egg Cake

Perfect for a Saturday morning, this beautiful egg souffle will win over your children or yourself for that matter.  It takes a little longer than the normal breakfast and is best made when you don't have to rush out of the house.  We have called it "Egg Cake" from the beginning, as in the first few months of GAPS this was the only thing that resembled cake to all of us.  It smells like doughnuts, although my sniffer may be altered due to the lack of doughnuts for the last 8 years.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
3 Tablespoons Honey
1 Tablespoon Vanilla (optional)
Shake of salt
2 Tablespoons Coconut oil

Toppings of your choice: blended fruit, apple sauce, etc.

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2.  Separate the whites and the yolks.

3.  Whip the the egg whites and a sprinkle of salt in a stand mixer until they are stiff.

4.  Meanwhile, stir in the honey and vanilla to the egg yolks.
5.  Also, begin heating your cast iron pan on the stove.  Add coconut oil when the pan is hot.

6.  Fold the egg yolks into the white mixture gently.

7.  Spread the mixture gently in the hot pan, spreading it out evenly.

8.  Place a lid on the pan, let cook for 5 minutes.
9.  Remove lid, cook in the oven for another 10 minutes, until top is not too spongy and looks slightly browned.

10.  Run a knife around the edge and serve in cake like slices.

11.  Top with your favorite fruit, or not.

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.

Asian Pork Soup

Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced
4 Tb. animal fat, I used pork lard
2 large portabella mushrooms, cut into squares
5 cups bone broth
1 lb. ground pork
3 cloves garlic
2 green onions
2 Tb. apple cider vinegar
5 clusters of baby bok choy, chopped
1 carrot, grated
2 eggs (can easily omit)

Directions:
Heat oil, onion, and mushrooms in soup pot.  When onions are translucent, add bone broth.  In food processor add garlic and green onions, puree.  Add to garlic and onions pork, apple cider vinegar and salt to taste, Puree.  Drop pork mixture into hot broth mixture by the Tablespoon.  After pork is almost cooked ( a few minutes), add chopped bok choy and grated carrot.  Before serving, scramble eggs and slowly add them to the soup, stirring while you add them.  Salt to taste and serve.

Peas Porridge Hot

Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold

Peas porridge in the pot, nine days old

Some like it hot, some like it cold

Some like it in the pot, nine days old

We discovered a GAPS breakfast cereal!  One morning my daughter refused her breakfast and asked for broth instead.  I whipped this up.  When I served it to her she said, "I am eating cereal"!  She was so excited and it added a level of newness to this bone broth that we have been drinking and eating for almost a year and a half.  No need to measure, but here is what I do:

Ingredients:
Bone Broth
Fresh or frozen peas
Thyme
Salt
Egg yolk

Directions:
Warm or cook peas in broth on low.  Add thyme and salt to taste.  Separate egg white from yolk, but whites aside for something else.  Pour broth and peas into a bowl.  Add your yolk.  I find it works best if you break the yolk open in your hand above the bowl and then add the yolk, discarding the sack that it comes in.

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.  

Slow Roasted Tri-Tip

Tender and succulent, this meat will melt in your mouth.  Enjoy with a variety of side dishes or just plain and dipped in home-made horseradish mayonnaise.  We made two, and had lots of left overs for lunches and snacks in the week.

Ingredients:
Tri-tip
Herbs (a variety is great: rosemary, thyme, chili powder, cumin, etc.)
Garlic, minced
Salt

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 400*.
2.  Slather tri-tip with herbs, garlic and salt to your liking.
3.  Place on a raised roasting pan.  Let cook for 20 minutes.
4.  Lower the temperature to 250* and let the tri-tip cook for about 3 hours, to your liking.  Check with meat thermometer for about 135*.
5.  Let rest for 15 minutes before cutting.

GAPS BBQ Pulled Pork

Ingredients:
4 lbs. Pork Butt Roast, bone in
1/2 cup water
1Tb. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 cup Tomato Puree, Organic in jar
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Tb. Honey
1 Tb. Mustard
1 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Directions:
1. Add pork, water and 1 Tb. ACV to crock pot**.  Let sit on high for 4 hours or low for 8.
2.  Shred pork with forks, remove bone.
3.  Mix 1 cup ACV, tomato puree, honey, mustard, salt and red pepper flakes.  Add to crock pot with pork.  Let meat continue to cook and absorb the flavors of the sauce.  Serve after 1 or more hours.

Let me tell you how delicious this is.  It will dance in your mouth with all it's flavors.  Thank you to Kelly for sharing your recipe!

**There has been lots of talk about lead leaching in crock pots and someone suggested using a bowl inside the crock pot to cook the meal.  I did this for the pork and it worked great. I just placed my glass pyrex bowl straight in and turned it on.**

Cucumber Mango Salad

Ingredients:
3 small cucumbers, thinly sliced
4 small radishes, thinly sliced
1 small mango, cut up into small chunks
1/2 lemon, juiced
3 Tb. Olive oil
Salt, couple shakes
Honey, just a sprinkle

Directions:
1.  Add sliced cucumber, radishes and mango to a bowl.
2.  Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt and honey.  Mix and serve.

Again, thank you Martha Stewart for the inspiration.  Served with Garlic & Jalapeno Prawns

Garlic & Jalapeno Prawns

It has been far to long since my last post.  The meals around here have been so boring and not worthy of inspiring anyone to make something delicious.  I vowed to make a meal plan this week, and have some yummies lined up.  We have been getting tired of the usual roast or chicken around here and decided to let loose a little and try something "crazy".  Everyone loved it!  Girls ate way more than I did.  My hubby grilled up a grass-fed organic T-bone and made it a surf and turf.  So, here's one I altered from my dear friend, Martha Stewart:

Ingredients:
1 lb. prawns, deveined, mostly skinned
15 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tb. animal fat (I like duck)
1/2 jalapeno, de-seeded and finely chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 Tb. organic white wine (optional)
Salt

Direction:
1.  Heat oil in skillet, add garlic, saute until lightly browned.  Quickly add jalapeno and toss in prawns.
2. As prawns began to get pink, add wine and lemon juice.  Salt as needed. They cook quickly, 1-2 minutes per side.

I served it with the Cucumber Mango Salad.

Chicken with Summer & Winter Squash

Ingredients:
4 Chicken Breasts
2 Onions, sliced thinly
6 Zucchini, but in rounds
1/2 cup olives, sliced in half
Butternut squash, cut up for steaming

Method:
-Cut Butternut squash and steam until fork pokes easily through.
-Saute chicken breasts in duck fat.  Salt and pepper to taste.
-After you have flipped the chicken, add the onions.  Let them get a little translucent.
-Add zucchini and olives until soft.  Salt to taste.
-Serve Chicken with both squashes.

Almond Flour Pancakes

This recipe is SO easy, I can now make it without measuring.

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour (I used Benefit Your Life Organic Blanched Almond Flour)
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 tsp. baking soda (not GAPS, but okay for us)
2 eggs
1-4 Tb. water depending on consistency

Method:
-Mix all ingredients together.  Add needed water until pancake consistency.
-Dollop mix onto well heated and greased pan (I used coconut oil or duck fat).  Make them on the small side (1-2 Tb of mix) so you can turn them.  Let them cook longer than you think, and then pry the edges and give a good flip.
-Toppings to consider:  Apple Sauce, Honey, Pineapple, Yogurt, Blueberries, Home-made Jam, Pumpkin butter, etc.  You get the idea.  No need to feel deprived here.