Ramble On

Sometimes, I just want some ice cream, specifically, a milk shake. I have an ice cream maker somewhere (it's still packed up from the last time we moved...three years ago) but I can fake a shake with my blender and yummy SCD legal ingredients. This shake is full of things that are good for you and won't make you feel all bloated and gross after you drink it (or maybe that's just how I felt after drinking a traditional milk shake).

SCD Legal Banana Peach Shake

1/2 cup SCD legal yogurt, or regular plain yogurt if you're not doing SCD
1/2 cup coconut milk (or another milk you tolerate)
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup frozen peaches
3 teaspoons of honey (add more if you like it sweeter)

In a blender combine yogurt, banana, peaches, coconut milk and honey in that order. If your blender has an "ice crush" button I recommend using that. Some blenders just can't handle frozen fruit, if that is the case try to use a food processor. Blend until free of lumps and enjoy. This makes approx 16oz of cool yummy goodness (yield will depend on the size of the fruit, if you think it's too thick, add some more liquid, too thin, add some more fruit).

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.

Striping two colors of self-striping yarn. It's fun on a dark, cold, winter day. This is also how I'm avoiding writing the grocery list even though hubby has volunteered to go for me.

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

Today I did housework and hung out with my little one. When hubs got home we watched a movie, GrownUps, perhaps not the best moive to watch as a family but it was funny and we all enjoyed just being together.

Tummy-wise I felt good today although I think I am a little dehydrated so more water tomorrow and some knitting because I did exactly none of that today.

Time for bed!