Ramble On

My favorite way to make burgers in my previous life (before SCD) was to throw in a packet of french onion soup mix. Well that's not allowed anymore so I came up with a recipe that tastes pretty dang close to what I remember them tasting like. Instead of fries I served some roasted carrots and cauliflower on the side. It was so good. I'm actually drooling a little bit right now thinking about it.  If you want to make this full meal you need to prepare the veg first so I'm going to go into that recipe first.



Roasted Cauliflower and Carrots (serves 8, depending on the size of your veg)
1 whole head of cauliflower
4 large carrots
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
Break apart the cauliflower into florets. These will shrink a bit so don't worry about making them bite size. Peel your carrots and cut them down to baby carrot size. Toss in olive oil, sea salt, and pepper.
Spread the veg out on a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with a rim) and bake for 40 minutes.

French Onion Burgers
(makes 8 burgers)

2lbs ground beef
1 tbs dried onions
1 tsp parsley
2 cloves grarlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper

Mix everything together and form into patties. Grill until you're happy with them. Top with legal cheese, lettuce, tomato, anything you can tolerate!

This will make approx 6 pieces of French Toast. I usually make two pieces for myself and store the rest of the batter in the fridge for another time. It'll keep for about three days in the fridge. You're going to need bread for this preparation and since I can not eat nuts I've used souffle bread, and coconut flour bread. You can use anything you'd like though, it'll work with any sort of bread. For my family if we're all eating French Toast, I make my portion first and then use the remaining batter for the rest of the crew. Everyone likes it.


In the photos I'm sharing I've used souffle bread.

French Toast Batter
1 egg
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla



Place in a hot pan and allow to cook until the side that is down has browned. Flip (like a pancake) and cook until the other side is brown.


Syrup
Go ahead and put about 1/3 of a cup of honey into a microwave safe dish, make sure it's tall because honey likes to climb, and microwave it for approx 30 sections to break the honey and create a syrup. Yum!

Orange Cream Cake 

6 eggs
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (juice from one med orange)
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbs orange zest
1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a  cake pan with parchment or use something that's naturally non-stick (like stoneware). I used an 11x7 baker. 

Combine eggs, orange juice, honey, vanilla, and yogurt in a large bowl mix until combined (I used my kitchen aid stand mixer). Whisk the coconut flour, baking soda, zest, and sea salt together an another bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet slowly with your mixer on low. Keep mixing until all the lumps are gone.

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.

just out of the oven

Cool cake completely before frosting if you're deciding to do so.

slice of yum

Marshmallow Icing - adapted from from Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall.
This frosting takes no time to make at all so don't walk away from it, and don't worry about having to done too early you cake has to cool before you frost it anyway :-) It also makes a good bit so save the rest in the fridge it will keep for a while.

1/2 cup honey
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla

In a large sauce pan heat the honey over medium heat until it reaches 248 degrees (firm ball stage, if you don't have a candy thermometer this stage is when the honey will form a "firm ball" when dropped into cool water. This process takes about five minutes so watch it!). Whip your egg white until it it's frothy. Pour the hot honey into the egg white mixing on low. Increase the speed once all the honey is combined and whip until the icing is very thick and forms soft peaks. Fold in you vanilla. Frost your cake.

Raisin Filling
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup honey

when it looks like this, you're done! Turn off the stove!

Combine in a sauce pan and cook over low heat stirring occasionally until the raisins plump and most of the liquid is gone.

While your raisin filling is going prepare the cookie dough:

1/2 cup honey
4 eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup coconut flour + 2 tbs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use a silicone baking sheet. Combine the honey, eggs, olive oil, and vanilla in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer (I use my kitchen aid stand mixer for this) until well combined. Whisk the coconut flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and mix until a dough forms.

Scoop the cookie dough onto your prepared baking sheet (I use a 1 1/2 tsp cookie scoop). Get yourself a little bit of olive oil in a little dish, now press your thumb into the oil and then into the cookie making a small indentation. Don't push all the way to the bottom of the cookie! Fill your indentation with some of the raisin filling. I did not use all the filling (I just allowed it to harden all the way and ate it, it was delicious).

Bake for 15 minutes.

You remember those stands at the mall? The ones with the orange drink? Well they had banana too, which was my absolute favorite. This is a knock off that is actually good for you!

Sweet Vanilla Banana Smoothie
makes 2  servings 

2 med frozen bananas
4 tbs honey
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla

Combine everything into a blender and puree until smooth.

I had a conversation the other day with another mom who told me that she loves to eat baked goodies for breakfast. As I thought about I realized that I use to do the same, there's something really comforting about having something you can eat with a fork along with your cup of morning tea. So I decided to make something that wasn't overly sweet but would satisfy that craving. This isn't as heavy as a coffee cake, will fill you up, and won't make you feel guilty about eating cake for breakfast.




Apple Raisin Breakfast Cake

4 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs cinnamon
1 cup chopped, peeled, apples
1/4 cup raisins


Grease an 8in square pan or line with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl combine coconut flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large bowl combine eggs, olive oil, vanilla, and honey.With an electric mixer blend the dry ingredients into the wet beating until there are no lumps. Fold in the chopped apples and raisins. Spread the batter into your prepared pan.  Bake for 20 minutes, allow to cool completely before eating!

The only thing I can liken these to is cheesecake. The texture is very light yet filling. The coconut flavor does come through on them, then lemon, and just a hint of ginger in the after taste. My husband ate half the batch (I ate the other half) they were gone within two days, just because we tried to pace ourselves.







 
Coconut Lemon-Ginger Cakes (gluten free, nut free, SCD legal) 
makes 12 regular-sized muffins


1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
4 eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup coconut oil melted and slightly cooled
1/2 cup honey

Line a regular sized muffin tin with papers. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the coconut flour, ginger, baking soda, and sea salt together in a small bowl, whisk together well. In a large bowl combine the eggs, lemon juice, honey, and coconut oil, blend together. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix well with an electric hand mixer until all the lumps all gone. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins dividing evenly into each cup. Bake for 23 minutes. Allow to cool completely and then refrigerate for at least four hours before eating to allow the flavors to fully develop.

..and in the morning, I'm making waffles!

I'm so excited to share this recipe! For quite a while I've been experimenting with a waffle recipes. There were a lot of duds but this one, this one is pretty dang near perfect. Even my husband likes them and he's honest to a fault.These have no coconut flavor what-so-ever and use very little coconut flour, which is a great way to really stretch out the ingredients.







Cinnamon Ginger Waffles (scd legal, nut-free, gluten free)
makes 3 waffles


2 tbs coconut flour
1/2 tsp gigner
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbs honey
2 tbs olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat your waffle iron. Combine all the dry ingredients in a small bowl, whisk  together well. Combine the wet ingredients and with an electric mixer beat until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until all the lumps are gone. Pour into your prepared waffle iron being careful not to overflow. Sometimes these take a little longer than normal waffles, just keep an eye on them and remove them when they are well browned. While these are cooking go ahead and make your Vanilla Peach Topping.

Vanilla Peach Honey Topping (SCD legal, nut free, gluten free)

1/4 cup of honey
3 slices frozen peaches
1/4 tsp vanilla

Combine the honey and peach slices into a microwave safe dish with tall sides honey likes to climb out of the container so make sure the sides are tall enough to contain it (I usually use a 2 C glass measuring cup). Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes. Allow to cool for about two minutes and stir in vanilla. At this point I usually cut up the peaches with the edge of the spoon I'm stirring it with. Pour over your waffles and enjoy! It's very important to you allow it to cool slightly because honey retains heat and it will burn you if you try to eat it too quickly after it's taken out of the microwave.

Lunch here has to be quick, especially on the weekdays when I'm trying to navigate house work, a 2 year old, and trying to steal a few moments each day to write. Maybe that doesn't sound like much but I don't want to get into the whole "what to stay-at-home moms actually do all day" just trust me when I say, I'm very busy. So back to lunch, I have to eat, and I have to make something quick that is hearty enough to get me through until dinner.





Tuna Burgers (makes 2 patties)

1 can tuna in water  (be sure there are no additives like vegetable brother, which contains soy)
approx 2oz rosemary garlic bread, crumbled
1 egg
pepper to taste

Open and drain the tuna. Combine tuna, bread, egg, and pepper in a bowl. With a fork mash it all together and shape into a patty with your hands.

Heat a pan over medium heat and cook the patties for about 2 mins per side until well browned. Serve them topped with cheese, lettuce, onion, anything you can tolerate.

covered in cheese!

My two year old's favorite food is chicken, she'll eat it for every single meal if we let her. We have it at least once a week and we use to just roast it with a bit of olive oil sprinkled with salt and pepper, which is delicious but gets bit boring week after week. So I've started marinating it and now my 9-year-old can not get enough. He loves the lemony flavor and the crispy skin. I usually double this and make 4lbs of chicken thighs since we like to have left overs. If you're going to double it go ahead and double everything except for the olive oil!


Lemon Marinated Oven Roasted Chicken

2lbs of bone-in chicken thighs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp honey
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Combine marinade in a large freezer bag, add the chicken and seal the bag. Mush it around a bit and place the sealed bag into a bowl just in case it leaks. Place the chicken it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, turning the bag over half way through.

When you're ready to cook the chicken preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Retrieve your chicken from the fridge, remove the chicken from the marinade and put it into a large baking dish skin side up. Discard the marinade. 

Bake the chicken uncovered at 425 degrees for 20 minutes then lower the oven to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes until the internal temp reaches 180 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh. I usually go ahead a serve it with pureed cauliflower, my rosemary & garlic bread, and another steamed veg.

Here's what I had for dinner last night: Zucchini pasta with fresh parm and a piece of roasted garlic and rosemary bread. Zucchini pasta is really quick and easy it's become one of my favorite meals as of late. I bought a jullieann peeler so it makes the process a whole lot quicker, I recommend getting one! Now the Garlic & Rosemary bread takes a little advanced planning but it really doesn't take long to put together.  I wanted to try to make a savory bread, and I happen to have a rosemary bush in my kitchen at the moment. I love garlic and can tolerate it so I added that as well. It's perfect with the zucchini pasta and I imagine it would be great with SCD legal spaghetti sauce, I wouldn't know that for a fact yet because I have not tried tomatoes (I'm nervous!).  Why did I bake it in a cake pan? Well I thought a nice round loaf would be a fun. It doesn't rise very much but it's still yummy and light!



Zucchini Pasta (SCD legal, nut free)

Ingredients:
1 fresh zucchini per person
1/2 tsp sea salt
water
fresh parm cheese

Directions:
On the stove top boil a small pot of water. In the mean time peel the skin off the zucchini and then jullieann it into thin ribbons. I only scrape down to the seeds since I'm avoiding seeds right now.
When the water comes to a boil sprinkle with sea salt and add the zucchini. Boil for approx 2 minutes. Strain the noodles, throw into a bowl, and sprinkle with fresh parm.

Grain Free Garlic & Rosemary Bread (SCD legal and nut free)




4 large eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a metal pie plate with parchment paper, greasing the sides with olive oil. Combine coconut flour, baking soda, garlic, and rosemary together into a bowl and combine well, set aside. In a blender, a food processor, or another bowl combine the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and combine until the batter is thick and lump free. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before serving, it's good right out of the oven but if you allow it to come to room temp the flavors are just awesome.



Just pulled from the oven



I think one of my favorite things in the world is mini muffins, cause I can eat four of them at once and that's okay in my mind because they are mini muffins. I also like small things, like tiny pumpkin printed cupcake liners that I had left over from baking my daughter's class corn muffins for Thanksgiving. Use what you have!

Grain Free, SCD Legal, Nut Free Winter Squash Muffins (yes that's a mouth full!)

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/4 SCD legal yogurt
1/2 cup winter squash puree (i used butternut but pumpkin will work too)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a mini muffin pan with your little mini muffin liners.  Combine the coconut flour, sea salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a small bowl mixing well to combine. Combine the remaining ingredients in another bowl, mixing well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until they are no more lumps with an electric mixer. You can also use a blender or a food processor to do this, add the liquid first and then the dry or it just won't mix. Pour into your prepared muffin tin filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes.



How do you get you minis out of their tins? I usually use a spoon to sort of scoop them out, you know after I burn my fingers a couple of times trying to lift them out.

Since I started SCD I always had some issues with nut flours which, I've recently discovered, was an allergic reaction. The doctor took my complaints very seriously and I am now a proud epi-pen carrying member of the nut-free club. However, now I had to go figure out how to bake again with a new flour. I chose coconut flour because, well, really, what is there other than nut flours that are allowed on this diet? Good thing coconut flour is yummy and I've found it to be cheaper than the almond flour that I was using. Don't worry, this doesn't actually taste like coconuts. It's moist, filling, and everything you'd ever want from a banana bread. 

Ingredients:
2 mashed bananas
6 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
3 tbs coconut oil melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. What I usually do is throw all this into a blender going in order of the ingredients (if you put the flour on the bottom it just won’t blend) as let it blend until all the lumps are gone. If you don't want to do that, combine all the wet ingredients together, mixing well. Set aside. Mix the coconut flour and baking soda together. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and really mix it well. Coconut flour tends to clump so really keep on it or use an electric hand mixer. After everything is mixed pour it into a parchment lined bread pan and bake for 50 minutes.

right out of the oven

yum