Red Lentil Soup, Mashed Butternut Squash, Raw Onion Bread, Pumpkin Pie Bread, and more!

Somehow I missed out on the Tuesday Twister Carnival at GNOWFGLINS last week so I’m making up for it this week!  I haven’t really been keeping track of everything I’ve been making, so I had to sit down and think about what exactly I’ve been doing in the kitchen lately.  It seems as though I spend half my time cooking or cleaning so there had to be some things I could write about today!  (A day late!)

When I started making my list, I realized that yes, I spend A LOT of time cooking.  But I’m grateful for it and it feeds my heart to be creating nourishing food for my family.  Being on the GAPS diet, I am finding that I am in the kitchen even more than I used to because I have to make so many things from scratch.  I still haven’t made the mayo yet, but I don’t miss it because I don’t use it that much in my cooking.

So here’s the run down.  Many of these dishes were made the past week, except for a couple of baked goods.  I’ll start with the soups.

Soups:
Being on the GAPS diet, broth is becoming a huge part of our meals.  Not to mention the cold weather almost asks one to make a pot of yummy soup.  So, I’ve been making my share of soups lately, using either the bone beef broth or chicken broths I made and froze in 2 cup servings.

Chicken  Soup

Last night I made a chicken soup but I wanted to make it a little different this time.  So I made it with leeks instead of onions, using all the green parts.  I also cut some zucchinis with a tool I found in my cabinet that is used for making crinkle fries.  It made things a little more interesting at least!  I also added mushrooms, garlic and marjoram.  It was simple was yummy!

Red Lentil Soup

Lentils are on the Full GAPS list.  However, legumes have always been hard for me to digest.  I wanted to give it a go though, so I soaked a cup of red lentils overnight.  I cooked them (for over 2 hours) with broth, onions, celery, garlic, ginger, cumin, homemade stewed tomatoes and lastly coconut milk.  It was very yummy, nourishing and I am pretty sure it didn’t upset my system.  And Elijah gobbled it up!

Beef Stew

I made some beef stew last week, however I didn’t get a picture of it.  I am pretty sure I made it with carrots, onions, mushrooms and leeks, seasoned with rosemary and garlic.  It was simple but nourishing.

Mashed Butternut Squash

This was a simple but yummy dish.  I was aiming for making something to taste like the holiday mashed yams one might have during Thanksgiving.  So I mashed the butternut squash with baked apples and even my husband thought it tasted like mashed yams.  Yum!

Homemade stewed tomatoes

We still have tomatoes ripening indoors and they kinda got ahead of me this week.  So I decided to prepare them for tomato sauce by peeling them and stewing them for a bit.  I was able to get the skins off by boiling them for a few minutes in water.  After only a few minutes, the skins will slip right off (but you have to wait for them to cool down).  They are orange and red because our cherry tomatoes are mostly orange. 

Coconut Rolls

I made more of the wonderful coconut bread this week and decided to make them into “rolls.”  I used the same recipe, but for some of the batter, I dropped golf ball sized batter onto buttered cookie sheets.  I baked them for about 12 minutes (I think) and they were yum!

Coconut bread stuffing

I’ve been testing recipes for the Thanksgiving menu planner.  So creating stuffing that is gluten free and grain free was one of my tasks.  I used the coconut bread recipe to make a traditional bread stuffing and it turned out great.  I combined the recipe in Joy of Cooking with the one I found here, given to me by one of my subscribers.  Thank you!

Raw Onion Bread

I made this a couple of weeks ago from the Rawvolution cookbook by Matt Amsden.  It’s called Rawvolution’s Famous Onion Bread in the book.  I changed the recipe to omit the raw soy sauce and added in a tsp of salt and water to replace it.

I have to say I wasn’t thrilled with the end product.  It was way too onion-y for my taste.  If I make it again, I’m going to use less onions, more sunflower seeds and flax seeds and maybe add in some grated carrots or other veggie to balance out the onion flavor.  I think it would make a nice “pizza crust” if made a little thicker.

A little warning to people with sensitive noses:
I made it in the dehydrator but I have a word of warning for anyone making this recipe.  I highly recommend making it in the morning, rather than in the evening (I made it right before I went to bed).  I am already a light sleeper, and that night, I was dreaming about onions.  Mostly because the dehydrating onions were wafting throughout the entire house!  At one point I woke up the smell was so strong and had to close the door after the cat came into the bedroom.  By the next day, it wasn’t quite as strong (or at least I was used to it by that point!)

Pumpkin Pie Bread

I’ve had a request from a subscriber to add Pumpkin Bars with “Cream Cheese” Frosting to the menu planner for Thanksgiving.  So I started thinking about this and decided to use Elana’s recipe for Pumpkin Pie Muffins. Instead of muffins though, I made the batter into small loaves.  I used honey instead of agave ( only 1/4 cup verses 1/2 cup called for.)  I also used butter in place of the oil. I think coconut oil would work great too.

For half of it, I made it without baking soda, to make it GAPS friendly.  The other half I added baking soda to see what the difference was.  For the purpose of a pumpkin bar, the ones without baking soda actually won over the ones with it.  It tasted more cake-like and a cross between pie and bread.  It was yum. 

Pumpkin Pie

I attempted to make a grain-free pumpkin pie for the menu planner and the result was “okay” but needs some improvement.  One problem was I was out was blanched almond flour and tried making my own in my food processor.  It didn’t get it fine enough so the crust was too gritty.  I also baked the crust too long prior to adding the pumpkin pie filling so it burnt a bit in the baking process.  Overall, the pie filling was great – I used the recipe from Nourishing Traditions but used coconut milk instead of the cream that was called for.  I just need to work on the crust a bit more. 

Cobbler muffins

These were also made a couple weeks ago.  We loved these muffins.  I used the Nut Butter Bread/ Muffin recipe but I added frozen berries to the batter.  It makes them more moist and very yummy. 

Goat yogurt

This was a failed attempt at making goat yogurt.  I was following the recipe in Nourishing Traditions because at the time I couldn’t find the GAPS/SCD recipe.  I made it in the dehydrator and I think it just got too warm.  The recipe said to keep it at 150 degrees but I think it was way to warm.  I think all the cultures died and I just ended up with weird smelling milk. 

Coconut milk

I finally got around to making coconut milk from shredded coconut.  I used the recipe in the GAPS book but I added 1/2 cup more water because 1 cup didn’t seem like very much.  It was very easy and turned out yummy.  But it didn’t last long at all!

So that’s it for now!  I’m still testing recipes for the Thanksgiving menu planner and I finalized the menu today, which I will post very soon!