Ramble On

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.

I've been thinking a lot about direction lately, like with this blog. Should I start a new blog with just recipes and leave this one for knitting and rambling or what? I thought about that for a while and decided that no, I'm not going to try to do that. I know myself and I know that my having two personal blogs will just not work out at this point, I wouldn't keep up with both of them.

I go through phases in my life, I get obsessed with things, do those things for a while then I sorta quit. The stuff I really love seems to come back in cycles (like baking, and knitting). Right now I'm into baking (though I'm still knitting) because I feel that there is purpose and urgency in it right now. I want to provide an alternative to nut flour baking for other people that are on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I feel like it's important, and, I've always wanted to open a bakery. I know that is not realistic due to the fact that in a few months our family is going to turn nomadic for the next 16 years (husband is rejoining the military) but maybe, at some point, it will happen. I'm not ruling it out, I've decided I'm not limiting myself anymore. You never know.

My goal right now would be to try to reach as many people as I can about Crohn's and spreading a positive message of dealing and living with the disease. That is what I'm focusing my energy on at this time and I guess this blog is reflective of that. I'm not sure how this is going to play out but I have to follow my happy and right now, this is it. 

So I will continue to post my recipes here and probably some other random stuff. I know it's kind of a mess right now, but I'm working on that, in every aspect of my life.

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.