Grain-free Pizza

Here is the link for the crust I used. It is actually a flat bread. I looked at several recipes and most of them were poured out and spread kind of like a pancake. This one forms a ball and you roll it out like the crackers. I thought it sounded better. I didn't use the rest of her recipe although I think it sounds good, but I wanted to do a fresh veggie topping. I did try some of the soy cheese (not good). After it was baked I topped it with arugula.

When I tasted it I realized that the things I chose to use (olive oil, mushroom, red onion and tomato) just weren't strong enough in flavor to compete with the flat bread and I didn't have enough stuff on it. So I added some salami and the fake cream cheese that I use and it was better. The flat bread itself was good and nice and crunchy. I think next time I will make 1/2 the recipe and roll it out even thinner. The sides are nice and thin but it gets a little thick in the center for me.

Linda

Mixed Berry and Cherry Pie with Almond Flour Crust

Well I continue to experiment. I made an almond flour pie crust using this recipe by Comfy Belly. The dough rolls out very nicely but it just falls apart when you try to move it. However it is easy to push together, it just doesn't look very good.

 I expect I'll get better at it. I used plastic wrap to roll out the top and it was definitely easier to get off. I followed her recipe for the cherry filling except that I used coconut/palm sugar instead of honey and added a little water. Also I used frozen fruit and mine was a mix of berries and also cherries. I'm so happy I can make a pie now.

Barb asked if I'm on the Paleo Diet. No I'm not really I'm on a low carb, grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free diet and am able to use a lot of the Paleo Diet recipes because they are also grain-free and dairy-free sometimes, but they are not necessarily low carb so that is where I have to make adjustments, but I'm learning to substitute ingredients I can eat. I like the Paleo recipes because they do a lot of things with veggies to substitute for grains. I don't really go along with the we should eat like cave men idiology. If I could eat grain I would except for the fact that I believe it makes you gain weight and is very allergenic if you have that tendency. I'm doing dairy-free and gluten-free because of intestinal issues. I'm gotten better since I eliminated them, but still can't put them back.

Linda

Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes and Coconut Flour Tips

Well my poor pancakes look pretty bad, but there is a learning curve with making them. The batter is quite thick and I made mine too big and next time I would spread out the batter to make them thinner. I also think my heat was a little to high. I've made almond flour pancakes before and these taste similar. They both tend to be a little dry. I put fake butter and all fruit on mine. Her is the linkhttp://www.nourishingdays.com/2010/07/fluffy-coconut-flour-pancakes/ I had three different recipes but these were the easiest.

Here is also a link to an article about baking with coconut flour and a bread recipe. I plan to try this bread some time.


Linda

Almond Flour Flatbread with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

I've been wanting to try a flatbread, this was a good one. It was a little tricky getting it into the frying pan. You roll it our between parchment or plastic wrap. I chose the parchment and it was hard to peel it off without it falling apart, so I may try plastic wrap next time. It's funny because I was about to throw out my plastic wrap and force myself to learn to use other things. Maybe wax paper would work. These are similar to the crackers, but firmer and crunchier. I also have a recipe I want to try for pizza crust and tortillas.

My upper back is sore I guess from the furniture moving. It's raining today. Actually I don't mind the rain it's makes it feel cozy inside, but I have some planting I want to do.

Linda

Baking Day Goodies For Elevenses

These are Chocolate Coconut Cookies on about.com. There recipes seem to be pretty good. The only changes I made on this were I used coconut milk and coconut sugar. Also I guess I made mine bigger because I only got about half the amount. This was easy to make you whisk it all up in one of those big quart glass measuring cups if you have one.

C.S.Lewis liked his cup of tea at eleven. I had mine today.

Linda

Garlic Herb Crackers and Books I'm Reading

I tried another cracker recipe. It taste like ranch dressing. It has dried herbs and garlic granules in it. It's not my favorite. I still think the 2 precious recipes were the best, but here's the link if you like ranch dressing.

I'm reading like crazy. I just read a book yesterday about housekeeping and am motivated to do some more decluttering. My dd has given me a couple of books by Michael Pollan about our food and I've got C.S.Lewis's "Silent Planet".

I used the Vegamix yesterday, that thing is amazing. You have a smoothie in 2 seconds and it holds a lot of greens. I need to start saving my dollars.

Linda

Baking Day-Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week I made these Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies. Honestly they were a little dry, but they tasted nice and coconutty so I think I'll try them again and add a little more moisture to the batter. I did change the original recipe because I don't use honey. I used coconut sugar instead and it is dry so I probably should have added a little water. Also my pastures eggs are small. I was thinking I should have added one extra. Coconut flour does tent to be dry and I also could substitute part almond flour or flax meal. So I'll try these again.

Linda

Paleo Bread

Here is another bread recipe. It turned out pretty good and it's all done in the food processor so it's easy. This one has mostly almond flour with just a little coconut and flax. I think I'm going to end up baking several days this week. I have some cookies I want to make. My dd and I were talking today about how much time we spend in the kitchen cooking from scratch. I also feel like I'm always going to the grocery store restocking my supplies and finding containers for all the bulk stuff. Since I just redid my pantry I had some extra room, but it is fast filling up.

Linda

Sunflower Sesame Crackers

I tried a different kind of cracker this time. I like it better than the other one because it has a firmer texture, the other one was a bit crumbly, they both taste good. You grind raw sunflower seeds in the food processor along with sesame seeds and make a flour out of it. I didn't have enough sesame seeds so I added some flax meal. I really like the fresh rosemary in the other crackers and that or another herb could be added to these also. Here is the link for the crackers. I haven't tried the Shrimp Pate but it sounds good too.
I put liverwurst and faux cream cheese on the crackers, my fav. lunch right now. It's good with some slices of apple along side.

Linda

Baking Day-Zucchini and Cranberry Bread

Here is the link you have to scroll down the page. It doesn't look very good but it tastes just the way I remember zucchini bread tasting. This one has almond butter in it as well as the almond flour. The only change I made was to omit the honey because I can't eat it and used instead stevia and coconut crystals. The only mistake I made was using a pan that sticks. I didn't use my non stick pans because they are a little small so I guess I need to get a larger size non stick loaf pan. Even though I used coconut oil in the pan the bottom stuck when I tried to turn it out. It's nice to know that now I can make an old favorite. I used those frozen cranberries by the way. A tip with this recipe I had to throw my almond butter in the processor to mix it because it had separated and it was pretty gummy so I mixed it in by hand to make sure it broke up and didn't stay in a lump. Also I reduced the spices a tad because I was afraid it would be too spicy and it really needed them.

Linda

Baking Day-Gingerbread Apple Crisp

Here is the link. It was a tad on the spicy side, lots of ginger and cinnamon and my apples were on the dry side. I don't know if it was the kind of apples I used. She has another crisp recipe Granny Smith Apple Crisp that I want to try and it looks like it would be moister. These are both made with almond flour. The only changes I made in todays recipe were instead of palm oil which I didn't have I use grape seed oil which I am trying to use up and instead of honey I use the coconut crystals. I added a little water but it was quite sticky so I don't think I needed to.

Linda

Baking Day-Grain-free Apple Puff Pancake

I gave the link before for this but here it is again. It didn't puff up that much, but it tasted good. Some of my apples were a little undercooked so next time I need to make sure they are all sliced very thin. This recipe used a couple of ingredients that are new to me canned coconut milk and coconut sugar.

I made another recipe that didn't turn out. It was a muffin that was suppose to taste like a doughnut but it was bitter tasting. It had a lot of the flax seed meal in it and I'm wondering if my flax meal is old even though I just bought it. I did some research on flax and they said if it's bitter it's rancid. There is a learning curve in baking with these alternative flours and finding recipes that work for me. I liked the flavor the coconut milk gave my puff, it was subtle but I could slightly taste it and it seemed sweet enough so the crystals seem to work. I'm enjoying my baking day but I can't get it all done in one day. I get too tired. I still need to make something savory like bread or biscuits. I could almost use 2 baking days. I'll have to think about that.  

Linda

Baking Day-Low Carb Cranberry Nut Bread

It's my second Baking Day, I made the Rosemary Crackers again and I wanted to use my dried cranberries so I had to make Low Carb Cranberry Nut Bread. Sorry my photos aren't better, my lighting wasn't very good. They look better in person, not so pale.

These are the changes I made to the recipe-dried crans instead of fresh, no dried egg white, I used about a 1/2 cup of flax meal for part of the flour, I used stevia for the sweetener and Earth Balance for the butter.

Linda

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Baking Day

Applesauce Carrot Muffins scroll down the page to the recipe. Lots of bread recipes on this page. 

This month one of my priorities has been looking at my schedule and trying to get back on it. I feel like my weekly schedule is pretty well down now. So I wanted to add some things. Now that I'm making my own crackers and bread I'm doing a lot more baking, I decided to have a baking day.

So this yesterday I made these muffins and  make a Focaccia style Flax meal bread. I decided to use part almond flour and it didn't end up rising as much as it should have, so next time I follow the recipe and use all flax meal. It tasted good.

Here's a link to a recipe at one of my fav blogs Comfy Belly, using almond and coconut flour to make Banana Bread I'm one of those people that has not liked coconut flour, but she says in this recipe I will so I think next week I'll try it. Having a baking day gives me a chance to plan ahead and figure out what I want to make and get the ingredients.


Linda

The Primal Blueprint Cookbook

Primal is another name for Paleo. I just got this from the library. They eat a lot of meat in this diet and I have a hard time getting very much meat down, so I was interested in his recipes because they were different from what I usually cook. For instance I want to try his Italian Pot Roast and his Transylvania Stockpot which is a cabbage and sausage soup. So he's left out the flour, potatoes, rice and other things that are often in most recipes and used Paleo/Primal friendly ingredients like onions, cabbage, cauliflower. He also has some interesting desserts but unfortunately he uses dairy in some of them. He does have a baked custard using coconut milk so I'll have to try that.

I decided to add a link for you here. I started subscribing to this one.

I also wanted to share that I finally saw a G.I. doctor yesterday and there is nothing serious wrong with me. I told him about the changes in my diet and he encouraged me to continue them for now. He has given me a pro-biotic and wants me to start taking Benefiber, so eventually I may be able to go back to a normal diet, we will see. I think it may take a while to heal my system. Also he is having me take 800 units of vit E a day for fatty liver. I know a lot of people have this that is why I'm sharing. It's common if you have diabetes.

Linda

Flax Meal Muffins and Dairy Free Tips

Chelsie's Cinnamon Cranberry Flax Muffins

The last few baking recipes haven't turned out that well, but this one did. I made a few changes. I used dried cranberries instead of fresh. I was afraid to use 3 tablespoons of cinnamon so I only used 1. 1t was good I could taste the cinnamon. I used stevia instead of the sugar-free syrup along with water as she suggested. I didn't have an orange to grate so I left that out, but it sounds like it would be a nice addition. I'm finding I like things with flax meal, it has a nice flavor. The coconut flour so far has not been a hit with me.

Flax seed meal can also be used as an egg replacer. You just mix 1 tabs. of flax meal with 3 tabs. of water and mix until it become gelatinous to replace 1 egg.

Gluten-free and grain-free are not always the same thing. All things grain-free should be gluten-free, but gluten-free is not necessarily grain-free. Grain-free baking uses almond flour, coconut flour, flax meal or soy flour. There are also other nut flours and you can make your own.

Vegan has become my new best friend since I figured out that it is dairy free. So now when I see something labeled as vegan I know it will be dairy free.

Milk replacers are almond milk, soy milk, rice milk and coconut milk. I haven't tried the cheeses except for the one I mention below. Most of them are made from soy and aren't very good. At least that is what I've heard.

I haven't found a replacement for sour cream yet.

You're suppose to be able to replace buttermilk with soy milk and lemon juice or vinegar 2 tabs. to 1 cup.

Yogurt your can buy coconut or soy versions.

I replace butter with coconut oil or a faux butter called Earth Balance.

Cashew cream is a replacement for cream and canned coconut milk or cream can be whipped. I haven't tried these but my dd has. You make cashew cream by blending cashews and water. I'm lucky both my dd and a friend of hers have experimented with a lot of this already. Here's a link for the whipped coconut cream and the cashew cream.

My dd got me a faux cream cheese at Trader Joe's that is pretty good. It's made out of coconut oil, it does have soy in it which some people are allergic to.

The About.com site has lots of information on different kinds of diets. It's a good source of information, this recipe came from the low carb diets section. If you follow it you can get to other info. There is a blog and
you can also subscribe to newsletters with recipes and info. I also get a dairy-free one and I'm sure they have gluten-free.

Linda

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Chocolate Scones Gluten and Grain Free

Here is the original recipe Chocolate Ginger Scones.

I made a few changes. I didn't want to use the ginger so I added chocolate chunks and pine nuts instead. I think walnuts would have been better. I also made some other changes because of my sensitive tummy. I use stevia as a sweetener so I used all stevia and left out the erythritol which can give you tummy troubles. I also used grape seed oil instead of coconut oil for the same reason. I just have to be very careful right now and I know what things can bother me. The other change is I use almond milk instead of heavy cream. I left off the glaze because I didn't think it needed it. These were easy and pretty good, but they did dry out after a couple of days, so best eaten the first day or two. I wanted to show you how you can substitute different sweeteners, fats and milks. You could use regular sugar and butter instead of coconut oil. The only thing you can't change is the almond flour unless you change it for another nut flour.

Linda

Grain-Free Vegan Bread

Grain-Free Vegan Sandwich Bread

Her bread is a lot prettier than mine. I think I could have mixed it better, but it tastes very good. This bread has no grain instead they use almond flour and coconut flour. It also has ground up chia seeds in it which make it look dark on the inside. Mine tends to fall apart so putting it in the toasted isn't an option. I put mine under the broiler. It does taste good toasted. It was easy to make although there were several steps. I'd read the recipe before I started. I have several other bread recipes I want to try and I want to do this one again and try and get mine to look like hers.

Linda

Wholemade Grain-free, Gluten-free Crackers (edited)

Sorry I realized after I posted this yesterday that the link was wrong so it has been edited.
I wanted to share that I made these grain-free, gluten-free crackers today. Here is the link to the original recipe. These were really easy to make and delicious. I made a few changes. I used a dry thyme instead of the fresh rosemary and I plain olive oil instead of the hot pepper oil. Also I didn't use the sunflower butter, but used what I had which was a vegan product called Earth Balance Butter Sticks. I used a drop of stevia instead of the honey or agave. I used Trader Joe's Almond Meal for this recipe. The recipe is very forgiving to variations. You could use the products you have real butter, fresh or dried herbs, sweetener of choice. It's a savory cracker so it really only has a tiny bit of sweetener anyway, you might be able to just leave it out. I want to take his suggestion and try a sweet version of this. I will say one thing about using almond flour it is expensive. I'm lucky I have a wonderful grocery store with a big bulk section and that helps and also Trader Joe's is always a little more reasonable.

This is my fancy Rotating Project list I wrote about yesterday. So far it's working well. One of the things I want to do is start using some of the ideas I find on Pinterest and those will be future projects. Both the crackers and the Rotating Project list came from Pinterest. One category is definitely going to be cooking gluten-free and grain-free and dairy-free. Another category is deep cleaning projects. I have clean the kitchen cabinet doors up there right now. Finishing UFO is one of my hobby projects. I tend to take on too much at once and this will help me to keep focused on a few things at a time.

Linda