Last week I spoke with a lovely woman who was having a hard time sticking to her allergen-free limited diet.  She said she would do great for a while, start to feel healthy and then she would start to eat the things that make her feel bad again.  She  said she missed the carbs and craved breads so this is where she would cheat.

Does this sound familiar?  I personally went through this up and down roller coaster for years before I was able to stay on the diet I’m on now.  It is simply very hard living in a world that offers you food left and right that may taste good to you but will ultimately make you feel sick.

For me, I convinced myself that I could eat wheat and other foods in moderation and that I was okay with this model.  But in truth, I was pretty much in denial because I had a terrible mystery rash on my legs that wouldn’t go away as well as many other physical and emotional issues.

But to tell you the truth, I didn’t want to give up the things I loved to eat.  It seemed too hard, too restrictive and I just didn’t want to go there for a long period of time.  This continued until I came to the point where I either had to change or else go down a road that lead to a lot of misery.

I know this is a big struggle for many of us living with food allergies so I thought I’d make a list of things that help me to stay on the diet I’m on.  If you have more ideas to offer, I’d love to hear from you.

1.  Have a reality check: This is going to be different for you depending on if you’re just starting a limited diet or if you’ve been on one for a while.

Either way though, having a reality check is looking at your life, your body, and your overall well-being and happiness and seeing where you are, and where you’d like to be.  If you’re thinking about starting a limited diet at least for a short period of time, you can make a list of physical or emotional problems that you might hope would be helped by changing your diet.

If you’ve been on a limited diet for a while and it’s helping you feel better – but you find yourself cheating now and then which in turn makes you feel bad again, doing a “reality check” can help you focus on what you really want instead of what looks good in the moment – like, the bagel.

Before I have gone on any kind of limited diet, I have done a “reality check” so that I’m focused on what can improve from my diet change instead of how hard it is to give up certain foods.  I usually think about the problems I’m having – and then give myself a little pep talk about how my life might just get better if I am able to stick to the limited diet.

This works for me because it makes me want better health and happiness MORE than the muffin or bread.  So while I may come face to face with muffins and cereals everyday, when I see them, I tell myself, “That is only going to make me feel _____________ (fill in the blank) if I eat it.”  When I think about the consequence, it’s SO much easier to resist something that looks so tempting.

Of course, if you’re just starting out and don’t know what life is like on the “other side,” it’s a little harder to imagine how you might feel.  But if your doctor is recommending this diet, then they probably know that the diet change will make you feel better.

2.  Make a commitment to yourself and your health: This has to come from inside your heart and mind.  And if you don’t want a limited diet, but want better health and happiness, this is what you can focus on.  It’s a commitment that only you can give yourself.  No matter what your doctor is telling you to do, you still have to decide to do this crazy diet if you want to see if it will help you or not.

This may take time.  I spent over 13 years trying to convince myself that my problems were not that bad and that it wasn’t really the food and that I could eat wheat and gluten in moderation, la de dah de dah!

But you’ll know when you’re ready.  It might be at a very low point in your life where you realize that something has to change.  It was for me.  But unfortunately, sometimes it is because of the hard stuff in life that we are forced to change and take better care of ourselves.

But even if your issues are just mildly annoying to you right now, you can still make a commitment to change your diet.  Either way, you can simply do this internally or you can physically write down your commitment.  This may be helpful if you keep pushing off starting the diet.

So, mark the calendar of when you want to start.  Next to it write out your commitment to yourself to follow the diet and what you’d hope to change by doing it.

3.  Prepare!  Prepare!  Prepare! This is just as important as the reality check and the commitment process.  If you’re not prepared, you probably won’t last but a day on the diet.

If you live alone, going on a limited diet is MUCH easier than when you’re a mom or dad and cooking food for the whole family.  If you’re the only one on the limited diet, this is very difficult because you are around people all the time who are eating foods that you’re supposed to avoid.

However, here are some tips.

Organize your cupboards and fridge so that you create a space that has food that you can eat.  This is very important because once you start your diet, you will most likely be hungry and looking for something to eat.  But if you have an area in your fridge and pantry that has food you can eat, this will make things much easier for you.

Here are some “snacks” that may be helpful to have on hand:

• Lara Bars
• other raw “protein” bars with whole ingredients
• soaked and dehydrated nuts and seeds
• Coconut butter
• Almond, sunflower, cashew butters
• Sardines and canned salmon
• Yogurt
• Fruit
• Hard boiled eggs
• Breads, muffins and crackers made out of coconut flour and nut flours such as almond and hazelnut
• Homemade beef jerky
• Raw granola bars
• Hemp protein powder to make smoothies with

Cook one meal for the whole family as much as possible. Even if your kids and spouse aren’t following your diet, you can still (most likely) cook meals that everyone can eat.  Of course this totally depends upon the degree of limitation of your diet.  But if you can, find recipes that everyone can eat to make cooking easier.

Bake goodies for yourself and your family. Yes, you’ll be craving bread and sweets and everything in between.  So get prepared.  Find recipes that work for your new diet and start baking.  This is the only way you’ll get through the first part of eliminating certain foods from your diet.  And most likely the only way you’re going to stay on the diet for the long run.

And even if you can’t eat dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, nuts, grains, yeast, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, you can still most likely have baked goods.  Really?!  Yes!  But just be prepared to make them yourself!  If you’re looking for recipes, you can check out the different weekly menu planners I have available.  I am also more than happy to email recipes to people so if you’re looking for something specific, don’t hesitate to ask or contact me.

Make a list of foods you CAN eat: This is also a vital step.  This will help you immensely when it comes to meal planning.  If you’re focused on the foods you can’t eat, you won’t get very far.  But if you focus on the vast array of food that is available, your options begin to show themselves to you.

I personally have an Excel sheet with almost every kind of (“common”) food available.  Then I check off all the things that I can’t eat so that I’m left with the foods I can eat.  From there, I can search for recipes that include those ingredients which I can eat.

If everyone in your family has different limitations, it will be important to make a chart that shows who can eat what.  Then make a master list of what EVERYONE can eat and try to create as many menu options with these as possible.  This way you’ll cut down on the cooking and you won’t have as many foods around the house that you can’t eat.

Look for recipes and experiment:  Before you fully commit to the diet, just start doing some research by finding some recipes that work for you.  You can use your list of “CAN” foods for you and your family and start brainstorming some ideas.  If you’re still stuck, you can check out one of menu planners.  You can also search for recipes through all of the great cooking websites available these days to find recipes that work for your diet.

Once you have a list of recipes that you think will work for you and/or the family, go shopping.  Then start cooking some foods and recipes that may be new to you.  You should do this before your “commitment date” so that you have already started experimenting with new foods before you start.

Menu plan: Once you have made a few new recipes, you will want to plan for an entire week of meals so that you don’t start your diet not knowing what you will eat during the week.  You probably already have some ideas from your experimenting stage.  So add to the list and create at least 5 meals for the week for dinners and possibly breakfast and lunch ideas if these are needed as well.  Make a shopping list too, so that it’s easy to do the shopping when you’re ready.

It’s also very helpful to print or copy all the recipes you plan to use for the week and put them in a folder in the kitchen.  Also print your menu plan so that you know what you’re making during the week.

4.  Take your time and ease into the diet: Once you have done all of the above steps, it would seem obvious to start the diet cold turkey.  But what if this new diet is free of so many foods that you’re used to eating everyday?

The best way I find to go on a very limited diet is to take it in steps.  If you eliminate everything, you will shock your system, probably have a lot of die-off, feel miserable and then want to go back to eating what you ate before – because you actually felt “better” before this crazy diet!

What is die-off? This is the process of the overgrowth of yeasts in our bodies “dying off.”  It’s a good thing and happens when you go on an elimination diet, eat coconut oil, take probiotics or other lacto-fermented foods.  But what can happen is your body is trying to get rid of the toxins faster than it is able to.  So, for a brief time – or up to a few days – you can have symptoms come back stronger than before and you can feel pretty awful.  But this is a GOOD sign!  This is not a sign that you’re doing something wrong.  But it may be a sign to slow down on the probiotics or on your diet.

So in order to avoid incredible periods of feeling miserable from die-off, you can take things slow and at your own pace.  For me, I was on a gluten and dairy free diet.  Then I was introduced to GAPS and slowly eliminated grains.  Then I eliminated all starches and sugars.  Eventually I eliminated eggs, and I am finally gearing up to do the “Intro” diet for GAPS.  This is meant to be done at the beginning of the diet, but for me, it wasn’t the right time yet.  I also feel that I won’t have as much die-off this way since I’ve been eating Full GAPS for almost a year now.

5.  Focus on the positive and seek support: I may have touched on this before, but I’ll say it again because it’s important – focus on the postitive.  Even if you’re feeling awful when you first start, try to stay focused on the fact that you will start to feel better in time.  Everyone is different so I can’t say what will happen for you.  But for many, once they get through the initial detox period, they do start to feel better by being on a limited diet.

The other really important aspect is seeking support from other people.  These can be your family, friends, or people you don’t know who are on the same diet as you.  One resource for people doing the GAPS diet is the GAPS Yahoo support group.  It is very supportive and if you have questions, it is a great place to find answers.

There are also a lot of forums out there for specific diets, so you can try doing a search for you specific diet plus forum.

I think that is it for now.  I’d love to hear from you if you need help with your limited diet or if you have any other helpful suggestions for people on limited and allergen-free diets.

Have a great day!

This recipe does require a dehydrator so if you don’t have one, you may be able to bake the mixture at about 300 degrees F until it is crisp.  You may want to put it on parchment paper or just grease the pan very well.  You’ll also want to make the mixture quite thin on the pan.  This does kill the beneficial enzymes in the nuts and seeds but it is an option if you don’t have a dehydrator.

I did make some adjustments to the recipe, simply due to not having dates, lemon, pumpkin seeds or vanilla.  But here is the original recipe as well as my adjustments.  For me, it made two  full sheets of granola on the Excalibur dehydrating sheets which later fit almost into two quart sized jars (one is already gone…)

Raw Nut Granola (egg-free, dairy-free, grain-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free)

Makes approx 10 cups

1        apple chopped
1 ½  cup date paste (some dates soaked in a little boiling water and then whiz in the food processor until a paste is formed) I used figs for this because I didn’t have dates on hand
½      cup honey, preferably raw
2         Tbsp lemon juice – I used 4 Tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice
1         Tbsp vanilla extract (optional) – left out, still tasty
1         tsp cinnamon
½      tsp salt
½      cup sunflower seeds soaked 2 hours or more
2        cups almonds soaked 4 hours or more
3        cups pecans soaked 2 hours or more
1        cup pumpkin seed soaked 2 hours or more – used additional 1 cup sunflower seeds
1        cup dried cranberries or currants or sultanas – I left these out because I am avoiding raisins

1. In a food processor whiz apple, date paste or soaked figs, honey, lemon or orange juice, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and the sunflower seeds to make paste.  Transfer to a bowl
2. Add to the food processor, remaining sunflower seeds, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds (don’t bother rinsing bowl). Coarsely chop in a few quick pulses.  Add nuts and seeds to the bowl with fruit paste.  Mix well
3. Spread onto baking paper or dehydrator sheets and place in dehydrator at 115 F for 8 hours.
4. Flip the granola over and peel away the paper
5. Dehydrate another 12 hours until crunchy.
6. Break into pieces and once cooled store in the fridge in glass containers.  Enjoy as Raw Granola Bars or Raw Granola – just break up into smaller pieces for granola.

Yummy!

Nut-free? I don’t see why you couldn’t make this and simply use all pumpkin and sunflower seeds in place of the nuts.  You could also use 1/3 dessicated coconut and I am sure it would be yummy!

Egg, nut, and grain free pizza crust

I admit that when things get really limited and you start to use strange concoctions like gooey flax seed meal paste, ground up pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, it is easy to have little hope that the recipe is going to be any good at all!

But even though this pizza crust is free of eggs, nuts, grains, gluten, sugar, dairy and yeast (all the things pizza is normally made with), it is mighty delicious!

I am continuing to be stretched by my own restrictions as well as others who are looking for recipes free of many of the common allergens including eggs and nuts.  I found the original version of this recipe at Grainfreefoodies and from there made it free of eggs and added a bit of honey to balance out the taste of the seed flours.  (It was already grain and nut free.)

I wasn’t sure how it was going to be replacing the eggs with the flax seed meal.  My husband even said he was “scared of this one.”  He actually thought it was going to taste like cardboard when I told him what the ingredients were.

We were all pleasantly surprised.  The crust was a bit crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It held together very well.  And the crust had a very nice flavor, kind of nutty even though I didn’t use any nuts.  And the last minute idea of adding the roasted butternut squash ended up being a great idea.  Elijah liked it too, and he’s been getting more picky lately.

Not too long ago I never would have thought that you could bake with ground up seeds and nuts and then make things like pizza.  If you haven’t done this and are on a limited diet, give this recipe a try.  You might actually feel like you’re eating pizza again!

Soak and Dehydrate Seeds first:

An important aspect of all recipes that use ground up seeds and nuts is that they should be properly soaked and dehydrated, then ground up.  You can read about why and how to do this here.

After you have dried the seeds and nuts, you can use a food processor to grind them into a fine flour.  My old food processor couldn’t do this very well so I ended up using a coffee grinder which works well but can only hold so much at once.  I got  a new food processor though and hope that it will grind the nuts and seeds up fine enough for flour.

As far as I know, flax seeds do not need to be soaked and dehydrated the same way other seeds and nuts do.

I recommend soaking, drying and grinding seeds and nuts in large batches.  I have a dehydrator that holds many shelves of nuts and seeds so I can do several different kinds at once.  If you don’t have a dehydrator, just use as many pans of nuts or seeds in your oven as possible.  (@ no warmer than 150 F.)  Then I usually grind half of each kind to make flour out of them as well as have some whole seeds and nuts for other recipes.

Here is the recipe:

Gluten free Pizza Crust (grain, egg, nut, gluten, dairy, sugar and yeast free)
Adapted from Grainfreefoodies

Ingredients:
1 c ground pumpkin seeds, soaked and dehydrated
1 c ground sunflower seeds, or a little more depending upon consistency, soaked and dehydrated
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp ground flax meal
6 Tbsp boiling hot water
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
1/2  tsp garlic powder or 1-2 cloves of fresh pressed garlic
2 tsp total of any of the following:  dried parsley, marjoram, oregano and/basil

Steps:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grind the seeds before measuring out 1 cup each.    Combine the flax seed meal and hot water and let sit for 5 minutes.  Combine all of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.  I like to knead the dough with my hands until everything is mixed.  The dough will be very stiff.  Add more flour if dough seems too wet and a little more olive oil if dough seems too dry.

2.  Grease a cookie sheet and sprinkle it with coarsely ground pumpkin seeds.  Pat the dough into a ball shape and place it in the middle of the cookie sheet.  Beginning in the center and moving outwards, squish the dough flat with your hands.  I like to make the edges slightly raised for the pizza dough.

3.  Bake for 20 minutes (or longer if it looks very wet).  Remove from oven, top with sauce and toppings, then return to oven for as long as it takes for the toppings to get hot and cheese to melt if you are using cheese.

For my pizza, I used Bionaturae bottled strained tomatoes and bottled tomato paste, garlic, salt, honey and Italian herbs to make my sauce.  Bionaturae uses glass bottles for these two products, which I love because they are BPA free and GAPS friendly.  Compared to other store bought tomato sauces that are free of sugar, it is also much less expensive to make the sauce this way.

I also added some leftover cooked ground beef or turkey? that I had made for another dish earlier in the week as well as roasted butternut squash fries I had made that afternoon as a snack.

I hope you enjoy this allergen-free pizza crust!  Let me know how you topped yours!  I would love this crust with a yummy pesto sauce.

Enjoy!

Hooray and thank you for all who participated in the Free Give-away for the Holiday Menu Planner and Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe e-book.  The winners of the give-away are: Tina, Emily, Michele S, Rebecca and Robin.  Congratulations and I hope the book and planner bring a wealth of goodness to you holiday season!

GAPS update:

As for me, I feel like I’ve ran a dessert marathon these past few weeks.  I have never baked or created so many sweets in such a short amount of time. I have to say that my enthusiasm, energy and ability to get this done in time is largely due to following the GAPS diet.  I have never had so much energy, been so even-minded, centered, happy, and enthusiastic for such long periods of time.  Yes, and it is all because I am no longer eating grains, starches, and refined sugars (only honey).  I plan to write a lengthy post about all the changes I have been experiencing on GAPS soon!

Thanks Mom!

I also really have to give my mom some credit here because she helped me test/create several of the candy recipes and a cookie recipe.  I was a little over-zealous with how many recipes to put in the e-book so it was so great to have her help with this project.  She used to make lollipops for us when my sister and I were kids and I still have a vision of her making them over the stove with the star and heart molds.

My flops:

I have to share a few of my flops while testing recipes for the Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe book.  I unfortunately didn’t take pictures of them.  I cleaned out the refrigerator tonight and tossed them in the compost.

1st of attempt at Butter Cream Frosting:

I was following a recipe from Nourishing Traditions for Butter Cream Frosting – pretty traditional.  It consisted of butter, rapadura (sugar), egg whites and vanilla.  Many people can have butter even if they can’t eat other dairy products so I thought I would give the original recipe a try, substituting honey for the rapadura.

It didn’t work!  I don’t know if I just didn’t get the butter warm enough, or if this recipe just doesn’t work with honey.   Basically what happened is no matter how much I beat the mixture, the butter and the honey and egg white just wouldn’t gel together.  When I refrigerated it, it just got worse.  It was very runny, even after I tried mixing it again.  It tasted good – who doesn’t love sweetened butter?  But it was definitely a no go for a cake.

I am suspicious that I was careless with the temperature of the butter and maybe this would still work out.  I may have to try it again when I have some extra butter.

I ended up created a whole new recipe with coconut milk and coconut butter that was so yummy!  This goes with the Spice Cake recipe in the desserts book.

1st attempt at Almond Brittle with honey:

Unless you like extremely sticky candy that is almost impossible to get off your teeth, this was also a flop.  My mom tested this one and I told her just to use honey and almonds to see what would happen.  Even when it cooled all the way, it was way too sticky to eat.

I ended up adding coconut oil to the honey and it was much better.  Butter worked even better to make it more like almond brittle.

Fortunately, these were the worst of the crew.  I had other recipes I had to adjust but I was happy that they most turned out yummy.

More cakes?

I thought I was done making cakes, but my husband’s birthday is this coming Saturday.  Actually I knew I was going to have to make another one, but I have to be honest that I am a little “sweeted out”!  But I’m looking forward to creating the cake my husband has requested.  He wants cake make with coconut flour with a lemon flavor and a cream cheese frosting.

Fortunately, we are all doing great on the homemade goat yogurt I’ve been making every week.  And from yogurt, you can make lacto-fermented cream cheese that is not only much better for you than the processed stuff but also tastes much better in my opinion.

I made an extra batch of yogurt yesterday so I’m going to be “dripping” the yogurt through a sieve and cloth tomorrow.  It takes several hours but you end up with whey in the jar and the cream cheese in the cloth.  I’m going to follow the cream cheese frosting recipe in Nourishing Traditions once I have my cheese.

For dinner we’re going to have Chicken Parmesan and Eggplant Parmesan (some family members are vegetarian and I don’t do well with eggplant).  For the breading I am going to use almond flour and for the cheese, I’m going to use Manchego Sheep’s cheese.  We’ve been doing well on this cheese.  It is aged for several months and so there isn’t any lactose in it.

Anyway, that’s enough updates for now.  Stay tuned for a recipe for Almond Rocha!

If you’re looking for healthy, sugar-free and gluten free dessert recipes and a delicious allergen-friendly Holiday Menu Planner this season, you won’t want to miss the 20% OFF pre-order offer that will be expiring tonight at midnight PST.

All of the recipes on both the Just Desserts for the Limited Diet recipe e-book and the Holiday Menu Planner are free of the following ingredients:

no gluten

no wheat

no grains

no starches or nightshade veggies

no refined sugar – only honey is used

no dairy – butter is used but coconut oil can be substituted

no soy

no corn

no peanuts

egg-free options and dessert recipes are on both the menu planner and dessert e-book

Some of the recipes that you won’t want to miss out on include:

Dairy-free Egg Nog

Egg-free Egg Nog

Gingered Cranberry Raspberry Relish

Dairy and Gluten-free Coconut Cream Pie

Gluten free Pecan Pie

Gluten free Pumpkin Pie

Gluten free Cookie Cutter Cookies

Gluten free Cookie Press Cookies

Spice Cake with “Butter” Cream Frosting

Walnut Torte with Lemon Whipped Cream Frosting

Almond Brittle

Almond Rocha

and many more!

Also, the desserts e-book and the holiday menu planner make great gifts for the holidays for someone who is limited in their diet.

To read more about the allergen-friendly Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts for Limited Diets recipe e-book and to pre-order, click here.

I hope you’re having a relaxed and blessed holiday season!

Cranberry Raspberry Relish from Eatingwell.com

I had so much fun with the Thanksgiving Menu Planner that I am very excited about creating menu planners for the coming holidays as well!

So excited, that I am actually going to create both a Holiday Menu Planner as well as “Just Desserts” recipe booklet for people on limited diets.

I grew up celebrating Christmas, but if this is not the holiday you celebrate, these menu planners and recipes could most likely work for any festive celebration and holiday.

The Holiday Menu Planner:

I think for many families, having a nice breakfast on either Christmas morning or another special day during the holidays is very common.  So I decided to include a breakfast menu to the holiday menu planner as well as a dinner menu.

Once again, the menu planner is going to be free of the following foods, so that it can work for almost any limited diet:

no dairy -  (butter may be used in some recipes but there is always another option that is dairy-free)

no wheat or gluten – all grains and products containing gluten

no grains

no sugar - only natural sweeteners will be used, such as raw honey and maple syrup

no soy – no soybean oil, lecithin, and other soy products

limited starches

no corn

no beans and legumes

egg-free options

What kinds of foods will be used:

Chicken, eggs, vegetables (non-starchy), nuts, seeds, fruit, honey, coconut, and other whole food ingredients.

So far, this is the menu I have, but it is subject to change, based on feedback I get:

Breakfast:
Egg Frittata
Apple Clafoutis
Egg-Free Banana Muffins or Fig and Nut Spice Bars
Festive Fruit Salad with Almond Crème

Snacks:
Squash Fries
Holiday Pecans
Egg Nog or Almond Nog

Dinner:
Pomegranate Mandarin Salad with Creamy Poppy seed Dressing
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Rosemary Roasted Chicken
Cranberry Raspberry Relish
Steamed Green Beans with Sliced Almonds
Roasted Veggies with Honey Mustard Glaze
Coconut Rolls

Dessert:
Spice Cake with Butter Cream Icing
Egg-free option (TBA)

Just Desserts Recipe e-Book

I got a little carried away with the desserts on the Thanksgiving Menu Planner that I decided that for the holidays, I would create a booklet of holiday dessert recipes.

I think when anyone thinks of Christmas and food, sweets come to mind.  I grew up with my mom making peanut brittle, peppermint bark and lots of other delicious desserts.  These made great gifts for friends and family and we also really enjoyed them!

I already have a long list of candies and desserts that I want to include in the booklet.  And they’re all going to be free of refined sugar, wheat, gluten, grains, soy, corn, and dairy.  Most of the desserts will also be free of chocolate but I may include one or two for people who can eat chocolate.  Here are the ideas I have so far for the Just Desserts Recipe e-book:

Candies and Nuts:
Holiday Pecans
Rosemary Walnuts
Toffee Candies
Almond Brittle
Almond Joy Coconut Bark
Peppermint Patty Coconut Bark
Honey Caramels
Cinnamon Truffles
Almond Rocca
Fudge

Cookies:
Gingerbread Men and other Christmas Cut-out Cookies
Christmas Cookies
Cookie Press Cookies
Coconut Macaroons
Fig and Nut Spice Bars

Cakes:
Christmas Fruit and Nut Cake
Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Spice Cake with Butter Cream Frosting
Walnut Torte
Flourless Carrot Cake

Pies, crusts and toppings:
Berry Almond Pie Bars
Berry Pie
Coconut Mousse Pie
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Almond Pie Crust
Coconut Pie Crust
Coconut icing
Coconut whipped Cream
Cashew Cream
Butter Cream Icing

Free Give-Away of the Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts recipe e-book!

Last time for the Thanksgiving Menu Planner, I offered it free to people who offered ideas and recipes for the planner that I ended up using.  Thank you to all who participated and gave me your ideas!

For the Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts recipe e-book, I am offering a FREE give-away to 5 people who would love to receive them for their holiday planning.  That means, five people will receive both the Holiday Menu Planner as well as the Just Desserts recipe e-book for FREE!

How to Enter the Giveaway

There are 7 possible entries

1. Take a look at the menus for the Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts recipe e-book in this blog post and then leave a comment telling us what you think about them and why you’d like to win them.
2. Twitter about this giveaway. Link to (http://bit.ly/7lTKeh) and mention me @Heartofcooking so I can track it.
3. Follow me, Sarah Schatz, on Twitter: @heartofcooking.
4. Share a link to this give away post on Facebook. (http://www.heartofcooking.com/2009/11/coming-soon-limited-diet-holiday-and-just-desserts-menu-planners-plus-free-giveaway)
5. Send an email to a friend about this giveaway. Give them the URL to this post. (http://www.heartofcooking.com/2009/11/coming-soon-limited-diet-holiday-and-just-desserts-menu-planners-plus-free-giveaway)
6. Subscribe  to my blog via email or blog reader.
7. Blog about this giveaway. Refer your readers to this post: (http://www.heartofcooking.com/2009/11/coming-soon-limited-diet-holiday-and-just-desserts-menu-planners-plus-free-giveaway)

As you complete each item, come back here and leave a comment letting me know. You can also leave one comment saying everything you did.

Who Will Win?

Five readers will win FREE copies of the Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts Recipe e-book .

Menu Planner Release and Free Giveaway Dates

The Holiday Menu Planner and the Just Desserts recipe e-book will be available for pre-order starting the first week of December.  People who pre-order will receive them in their email the day they are uploaded to my website, the 16th of December.  They will be complete and available for purchase on Wednesday, the 16th of December.

The deadline for the Free Give-Away will be Monday, the 14th of December. The winners will be announced by the 16th of December.  So, you have over two weeks to share and spread the message of the Holiday Menu Planner and Just Desserts recipe e-book for a chance to win a copy of each for your holiday planning.

So, let’s get going!  Have fun and Happy Holidays!

Sarah

Dreams do come true.  I’ve been dreaming about the ocean and the beach, literally, for the past couple of years.  I was pregnant two years ago and traveling wasn’t very easy so we didn’t go.  And last year, we went to the mountains in California but weren’t able to visit the beach on that trip.  But this year we took our 21 month old toddler to the beach in North Carolina and we had a ball.

We went with a beautiful family whom we have only recently befriended this past spring.  But with some friendships, doesn’t it seem like you’ve known each other forever?

My friends have three kids, ages 2, 5 and 8.  So counting all the heads, that made eight people to feed, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  To make things more complicated, Jana and I are both gluten-free and Elijah and I are dairy-free.  So before our trip, we did a little gluten-free and dairy-free menu planning and came up with the following ideas for our families:

For dinner:

Turkey Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries (one of my standbys)

Meatloaf (Made with Grass-fed Beef) and Steamed Broccoli (I used almond meal in place of breadcrumbs)

Chicken Burritos with Lime Guacamole (I use Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas for the gluten-free people)

Lasagna with Ground Turkey (I use Tinkyada Brown Rice Lasagna noodles)

Pasta with “Cheese” Sauce and Green Beans and Peas (I use Tinkyada Brown Rice Noodles)

For breakfast:

Gluten-free pancakes (made one batch with coconut flour and one with buckwheat flour)

Grain and Gluten-free Apple Muffins (made with quinoa flour)

Omelets with Mushrooms, Onions and Tomatoes

Eggs and Toast

Smoothies

Fruit Salad

Lunch:

Chicken Salad with Celery and Raisins (I would have added chopped apples but they made faces at me when I mentioned this!)

Sandwiches and other snack items

Leftovers

Some kid-friendly tips that I learned on the trip:

I learned a lot this week about what a lot of parents struggle with daily – how to feed a children new and different foods they aren’t used to.  Luckily the toddlers are not very picky – my little one is used to my “weird” cooking and doesn’t question me about if cheese is real or not.  Jana’s toddler Zack is also a champ at eating unless he’s not hungry.

Jana’s middle child, Carly, also liked most everything that was prepared, while Kevin, her oldest, was the hardest customer to please.  And while Jana had said the menu looked good, some of the recipes, like the Chicken Burritos, were new to the whole family.  But this one turned out to be one of the hits of the week (maybe I was lucky).  Even for Kevin, after a little coaxing from his mom, he willingly tried AND finished a whole burrito.  Very impressive!

For the Meatloaf, Kevin didn’t want to try it at first.  But Jana asked me to tell him everything that was in it and they were all ingredients he liked but just hadn’t had together in one dish before.  He finally gave it a go and I think (possibly) he ended up liking it with ketchup.

I think probably the biggest hit was the Apple Muffins.  Everyone loved them and no one could tell they were gluten or even grain-free.  They were all gone (all 24 plus 1 loaf) within a day.

Some things didn’t go over as well with Kevin and sometimes Carly.  But even if they didn’t like something, they were always asked by their parents to at least try it.  This produced some grumbling at times but I agree that it is good to help our children broaden their horizons with food.

“Turn Picky Eaters into Kitchen Helpers”:

Driving home during the seven hour car trip, I was able to stop and think about and process the week of meals.  Something came to me that I wish I had thought of before the week (isn’t that always the case with hindsight?!)

I remembered reading an article recently about how to help your “picky eaters” eat and enjoy new kinds of foods or even homemade food.  The main premise of the article was to enlist your kids to help you with the cooking.  The article pointed out that when children are involved with making a meal, they become much more willing AND excited to try what they have just created.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?  But many parents are used to doing all the cooking and many kids are not used to helping.  But based on my own childhood experience, I know that the foundation that was laid while I was growing up created a place for me to feel free to create and have fun in the kitchen while I cook.  I was always helping my mom make baked goods and sometimes dinner, and eventually I started creating dishes of my own in my teens.

For whatever reason though, the kids weren’t a part of the dinner making this week.  Even Elijah, who is usually at my side saying, “cook, cook” while dragging a chair to the counter so that he can watch and “help” me, was busy playing outside in the sand most of the time.  So while it may have helped the children enjoy some of the meals had they participated in their creation, I am not sure if a week at the beach is the best time to do this.  I’d rather be outside playing if I were them!

I can’t find the original article that I read about this concept, but here are some links to some blogs and articles that talk about this idea of enlisting your kids help with meals:

Turn picky eaters into kitchen helpers

20+ Creative Lunch Ideas:  Ways to Get Kids Involved in Lunchtime

Raising Picky Eaters

Involve Your Family in the Kitchen

Regardless of whether everyone liked the food or not, we all had a good time at the beach.  It was great getting to know Jana’s family more intimately and enjoying our meals together.  The best part for me was watching Elijah play, run, dance and spin on the beach.  He was so at home, running and laughing on the sand and with the waves.  I pray these memories stay with me forever!

Here are some beach pictures.  Sorry no pictures of the food!  I wasn’t really planning on doing a post about our trip or the food!  Enjoy!

Elijah and the Castle

Jana and Kevin on the beach

Elijah

Exploring the sand

Exploring the water

Sarah and Elijah playing

Once again, I am submitting this post as part of the Tuesday Twister Carnival at GNOWFLINS.com.  Please visit Wardeh’s site to see the other “real food” blog posts.  enjoy!

Gluten-free pizza crust, tarte style

Notes:  I’m having some quirky problems with my website so I am using bullets to separate the paragraphs in this post.  I am also submitting this post as part of the Tuesday Twister Carnival at GNOWFGLINS.  Please visit Wardeh’s site to see all the other wonderful weekly posts.

• As promised, I am posting a recipe for gluten-free pizza crust.  However, this is a different recipe than the one that I mentioned in my review of premade pizza crusts.  The following recipe is for a tarte style gluten-free pizza crust that I adapted from a recipe in Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.  I have been slowly transitioning to more traditional methods of preparing and making baked goods, as suggested in her book.   The main step that is added in traditional methods of preparing baked goods is to soak the flour for 12-24 hours in yogurt, buttermilk, or water with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you can’t eat dairy products.

• This extra step (though it takes planning and time) makes baked goods much more digestible than if they are baked without soaking.  Through soaking flours, the process of lacto-fermentation begins, which is a natural process that creates healthy bacteria like the ones in yogurt and traditional sauerkraut.

• I have to say I’ve been somewhat resistant to transitioning to this new “lifestyle” of soaking flours ahead of time.  I usually end up wanting to make something right before I’d like to eat it, which doesn’t work so well for this process.

• But after making my muffins, and then this pizza dough, I am becoming sold on this way of preparing baked goods.  And it is mostly due to the way these baked goods make me feel verses ones that aren’t soaked first.

• When I ate this pizza crust, I didn’t get that “carbohydrate rush” that comes with most baked goods.  Instead, I felt nourished and fulfilled.   My blood sugar remained “stable” and it also felt more like a meal than regular pizza makes me feel.  I didn’t have any digestive upsets from it at all, which I normally have even a little bit of after I eat non-soaked flours, even if they are gluten-free.  On the contrary, I felt like it was nourishing food for my body.

• I will say here that this pizza dough has a lot of butter in it, 2 sticks to be exact.  Now, I believe that fat isn’t necessarily bad.  I do believe that the wrong kinds of fats are quickly degrading our health.  However, organic butter from grass-fed cows (preferably) is actually very healthy for you!  On the other hand, hydrogenated oils such as the ones found in margarine are the ones that are creating great health problems.  This of course is really another subject, so for now, let’s stick to the pizza.

• Of course, if you’re allergic to casein or can’t eat butter, this may not be a great recipe for you.  I did consider trying it with palm shortening, but haven’t got that far.  I would also like to try it without yogurt and use apple cider vinegar water instead for the dairy-free version.  I’ll keep you updated on this.

• On another note, don’t be surprised if this doesn’t taste like your normal pizza crust.  Since it’s torte style, and has 2 sticks of butter in it, is has a very buttery, dense taste and texture, similar to pie crust, only thicker.

• I actually didn’t like it at first because it was quite different from the normal yeasted pizza crust.  But don’t let this keep you from trying this.  After my first piece, it started to grow on me.  And within two days, the two pizzas were devoured by our family of three.

• The other thing I loved about making this recipe is that it is a roll-able and knead-able gluten-free pizza dough recipe.  With most gluten-free pizza dough recipes, you end up with a wet, cake-like batter that needs to be spread with a spatula.  I personally love kneading bread and getting my hands a bit dirty and feeling like I am creating something with my hands, rather than a machine doing the work for me.  It also has a most amazing scent as you knead the dough.

• Let’s not leave out the fact that this is also a yeast-free pizza dough.  For those who are gluten-free and yeast-free but who can have a bit of dairy in the form of yogurt and butter, this may be a really great recipe for you.

• As for the toppings, this is completely up to your imagination.  I stuck to the traditional pizza sauce with cheese for this one and I used almond cheese.  It didn’t melt like I would have liked but it was still a good addition.  Other ideas might include pesto sauces in place of pizza sauce, vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, or meat such as seasoned ground turkey, beef or lamb.

the crust, pre-baked

So without further ado,
Torte Style Gluten-free Pizza Crust
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup millet flour
1 ½ cups tapioca flour
1 cup yogurt (I use whole goat yogurt because goat’s milk is easier to digest than cow’s)
2 sticks of butter (1/2 pound), softened at room temperature
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
Arrowroot powder to roll dough
This recipe makes 2, 10” pizza crusts

Steps:

1.  Cream the yogurt and butter together with a hand mixer.  Add the flours, xanthan gum and salt and continue to mix until well combined.  (I actually used my hands for the second part and it was very fun.  There is something about using your hands directly, especially when you’re making bread.)  Cover with a towel and let sit at room temperature over night or 12-24 hours.

2.  Scrape dough out of the bowl and pat into a ball.  Cut into two pieces.  Flour a counter or large cutting board with arrowroot powder.  Form each half into a ball and then roll into two 10” rounds.  Transfer to an oiled pizza pan and then finish the edges to make the crust.  Prick crusts well with a fork.

3.  Prebake pizza crusts at 300 F for 30 minutes.  Add your toppings, then bake again at 350 for 30 minutes or until crust is baked through and the cheese melts.

with almond cheese, before baking

I hope you enjoy this new gluten-free pizza crust.  Please let me know how it goes for you and how you like it!

Our lovely cherry tomatoes

I have been enjoying the Tuesday Twister blog posts by Wardeh Harmon at Gnowfglins.com for the past few weeks or so ever since I found her website.   These blog posts have been a synopsis of her week in the kitchen and what has been twisting in her cooking.  I love reading them, mostly because she focuses on nourishing, whole foods!

Last week she announced her new Blog Carnival, the Tuesday Twister Carnival and her invitation to participate in the weekly postings.  I started thinking about doing this and then a couple days ago, inspiration struck I finally decided to give it a go.  I can’t promise I’ll do it every week, but we’ll see what happens.

My Meal Un-Plan

I started thinking about my week in the kitchen and what it is normally like during our busy days.  And what stood out to me the most was the fact that I hardly ever meal plan.

Okay, so I menu plan for my clients and I create different menu planners for different diets.  But I have to be honest with you.  Rarely do I plan my whole week in advance before I go to the store each week…which usually turns into 3 x a week visiting the store.

What usually happens is I look around in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry, think about what I’d like to make, then see what I can make with what I have.

Sometimes while I’m shopping I will get ingredients for something I have been wanting to make (like my tomatillo salsa) but oftentimes, dinner is a creative process of coming up with something new, yummy and healthy for the family.

Curried Chicken Salad with Coconut Milk

So this week’s menu which is gluten-free, dairy-free, legume free and I think soy-free…

Of course, the menu was created after the fact…

Tuesday: Garam Masala Lamb burgers and Sauteed Zucchini

Wednesday: Chicken Legs with Caramelized Onions, Basmati Rice and the Tomatillo Salsa I had made on monday.  My mom was having dinner with us and she loved it.

Thursday: We went to the Farmer’s Market and bought fresh produce.  But I didn’t much feel like cooking so I took some frozen dairy-free and gluten-free pizza out of the freezer that I had made.  We enjoyed it with fresh corn on the cob and watermelon.

Friday: I was craving Tortilla Lasagna, even though I knew the oven would heat up the house.  Made a special trip to the store for the ingredients, and made it with ground turkey, spinach, olives and tomato sauce.

Saturday: Made my first batch of Pot Pie muffins for Elijah.  We took them to Surreybrook Farms for an incredible outing.

For dinner:  Made Chicken Curried Salad and Baked Yukon Gold Potatoes.  I usually would add celery to this salad, as well as green onions, maybe even cherry tomatoes.  But I had none of these so I steamed some green beans, and cut them into 1-inch lengths and put them in the salad.  It was tasty.

Sunday: Made my second batch of Pot Pie Muffins.  I liked these much better.

Made the Chicken Salad again because my husband loved it so much and his parents came to visit.  Also finished off the last of the Tomatillo Salsa.

Monday: My husband made Wild Salmon and Sauteed Zucchini with Marjoram ( nice not to cook every now and then!)

Our first garden harvest (well besides the sugar snap peas):

Sunday was also a day of harvesting our first crop of potatoes.  My husband planted blue, yukon gold, and fingerling and he harvested some of the yukon and fingerling.

Yukon and Fingerling Potatoes from our garden

This week, our beautiful and big Kuri Squash plants became infected with a white mold.  We treated them with a garlic spray and some baking soda.  However, we don’t think they liked the baking soda because they started to wilt shortly after.  But at least we have received two beautiful Kuri Squash from the plants.  Here’s one with some wilty leaves:

‘

One of the two Kuri Squash

We ended up harvesting the squash on monday and getting rid of the dying plants.  We also discovered that our yellow (not red like we expected) cherry tomatoes were actually ripe and we enjoyed some of the first ones.  There was a few left for a picture with the squash.  (The zucchini is from my in-law’s garden.)

Kuri Squash with Yellow Tomatoes and Zucchini

I think that’s all I have to report for the week.  I’d love to hear about other people’s week in the kitchen!  And please do check out the Tuesday Twister Carnival.

I recently checked out the book, The Kid-Friendly ADHD and Autism Cookbook at my library to see what new recipes I might find for the GF and CF diet.  I haven’t completely finished perusing the book but for the most part I would highly recommend it.  One great thing about it is that it has many soy, nut, egg and corn-free recipes as well.

One recipe that caught my eye was the “Sensory Sensible Pot Pie Muffins.” This recipe is a muffin for kids who can’t eat gluten and dairy and who may not like to eat regular chicken or vegetables.   To solve this problem, they put the pureed chicken and veggies right into the muffin.

This, I gotta try, I said.  My son used to eat literally anything I put in front of him.  But with the toddler stage, he has become a bit more picky.  He still loves cooked veggies, especially green beans but isn’t too fond of chicken these days.

Also, since we’re on the go a lot, I was looking for a snack that was travel-friendly, healthy, gluten and dairy-free and high in protein.  These muffins seemed like the answer!

Pot Pie Muffins made with Namaste muffin mix

I really tried to follow the recipe for the first attempt.  But I have to say that although it looked easy, it turned out to be confusing.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 box (14.8 oz) store-bought GFCF muffin or quick bread mix

• 1 cup pureed vegetables (one or more of the following:  carrots, squash, peas or green beans)

• 1/2 cup applesauce

• 1/2 cup pureed chicken*

Steps:

1. In a large bowl, prepare cake mix batter according to package directions.  Add pureed vegetables, applesauce and chicken and mix to combine.
2. Lightly grease muffin tin or line with paper liners.  Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3rds full.  Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.*To puree chicken, combine cooked, chopped chicken with a bit of water or stock in a blender and blend until desired consistency is reached.

Easy right?

Okay, so first of all I have to tell you that it’s a production to make these muffins.  If you want to make them, make the chicken the night before and make extra veggies when you make dinner for the muffins.  That way you are already half way done.

The other thing that was a bit of a challenge was finding a muffin mix free of sugar.  I personally don’t like using cane sugar in baking and every mix I picked up had this in it.  Also, I couldn’t find one that was exactly 14.8 oz and I didn’t have time to figure out mathematical calculations in my head with my toddler yelling at me, “down, down!”

So, I ended up grabbing the Namaste mix because I wanted to make it simple and follow the recipe as best I could.  It is also made of brown rice verses white rice flour and is free of most allergens.

When it came to baking, I measured out just under 2 cups which is about 14.8 oz.  So I have a bit of mix left because it was a full pound.

So when I went to prepare the muffin mix, I felt I should modify the muffin mix directions because 1) I wasn’t using the whole bag and 2)  I felt like these muffins were going to be way to wet when I added the chicken, veggies and applesauce.  So I decided to use one less egg than was called for in the mix (called for 2).

They seemed like a good consistency so I went ahead and baked them.  They were actually good, but still a bit wet.  They taste more like heavy cake than a muffin.  They also deflated a bit due to the heaviness.  I personally like my muffins a bit more muffiny than these turned out to me.  It may have been that the extra egg would have helped, I am not sure.

No matter what I think of the muffins, Elijah loved them.  So there you go!

I decided to take a new approach and sack the prepared mixes.  I started again with one of Elana’s recipes with coconut flour because I was interested in making them grain-free as well.  They already called for carrots since they were her carrot muffins so this was a good start.

Pot Pie Muffins adapted from Elana's Carrot Muffin Recipe

Here is her recipe and what I did to change the recipe is next to her’s:

Gluten Free Carrot Mini Muffins
¼ cup coconut flour (I used 1/2 cup)
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
¼ teaspoon baking soda (I used 1/2 tsp)
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground (I used 1.5 tsp)
3 eggs (I used 5 eggs)
¼ grapeseed oil (I used 1/2 cup)
¼ yacon syrup (I used 1/3 cup agave nectar)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (to tell you the truth I forgot to add this, but would do 1.5 Tbsp)
1 cup carrots, grated (I used just over a cup and I grated them instead of cooking and blending)
¼ cup currants (I used 1/3 cup)
I added:
1/2 cup chicken puree
1/2 cup applesauce

1. In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon
2. In a large bowl, blend together eggs, oil, sweetener, (applesauce, chicken) and vanilla
3. Blend dry ingredients into wet, then fold in carrots and currants
4. Grease a mini muffin tin with grapeseed oil and then dust with coconut flour
5. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of batter into each greased mini muffin cup (I used regular sized muffins and it made about 15 and took 25 minutes in the oven)
6. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes
7. Cool and serve

I had a good feeling about these muffins as I was mixing them and as they were baking.  They smelled yummy with the added cinnamon and I felt like they were going to be better than my first attempt.

Besides them sticking to the pans a bit, they were much better than the first recipe – much more springy and muffin-texture-like than the first batch.

The only thing that my be a problem for people is they definately need eggs – I used 5.  With this amount of eggs in them, it would be hard to convert this particular recipe to be egg-free.  They also have coconut flour in them but if one is allergic to coconut, you could use a GF baking blend with rice, tapioca and arrowroot.

As far as making these little babies last, I wrapped each one in plastic wrap and then put them all (except a few to munch on) into a freezer bag and froze them.  That way I can just take out one or two when we need them and they will last a lot longer.

And what did Elijah think of the second batch?  He gobbled them up too!

Anyone else have some great travel-free healthy snacks for kids?  I’d love to hear about them!  Thanks so much!