Some Recipes (not mine)

This blog was originally a placeholder for recipes I used and didn't want to lose or recipes I found online that I probably would never find again so I would place them here.  These recipes are in the comments of a Kelly The Kitchen Kop blog post so if I don't put them here, I will probably never find them again.  I want to go gluten free and eventually want my family to join me so I need all the recipes I can find!

I have not made these but I plan to!  The lady who posted these recipes  can be found blogging here: http://sustainablefirstfruits.blogspot.com/

Paula Runyan October 21, 2010 at 12:06 pm

Here is the chocolate recipe.
Please head the cooked bean part, and DO NOT grind and use dry beans.

Because this cake is made with honey, you must let it set a good 12-24 hours prior to eating, to let the sweetness set in.
If you eat it before that, you will be disappointed for sure.

Black Bean Chocolate cake.

24 hours prior to making this cake, soak 2 cups of black beans in water, with a little bit of raw whey added.
Cook and cool the beans in fresh water, prior to making the cake.
(Beans may be cooled quickly by rinsing with cold water)
This method assure that your beans will not cause gastric issue of any kind.
If you do not have dry beans available to you, you can use one can of rinsed black beans,
However, I cannot vouch for their not causing gastric distress.
On to the recipe!
In your blender, combine the following.
1 1/2 cups of cooked and cooled beans
3 farm fresh eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 tsp of sea salt
6 Tbls of cocoa powder
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda.

Blend until smooth.
Add the following ingredients.
3/4 cup of honey
7 tbsp of warmed butter
2 eggs.

Blend again till smooth.

Pour into a buttered 9x9 pan that has also been “floured” with a bit of cocoa.
Bake at 350 degrees until center just springs back when pressed.

Allow to fully cool, and ideally, let sit for a few hours prior to serving.
Serve with a dollop of fresh raw cream and a few sliced strawberries.

REPLY

15Paula Runyan October 21, 2010 at 12:10 pm

Banana Bread

This recipe is adapted from my grandmothers recipe, to make it gluten free.

Preheat oven to 350
Butter, and then flour with rice four, one bread pan.

1/2 cup butter
1/2
3 bananas (frozen and thawed are best)
2 eggs
2 cups of brown rice flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup of kefir
1/2 cup of soaked.dehydrated nuts (optional)

Soak flour with kefir overnight, or all day.
Mix rest of ingredients in, pour into pan, and bake till done.
Allow to cool. Loosen the sides prior to dumping out.

You will find that this recipe is very similiar to the wheat version of banana bread.
Very little difference in texture or flavor.

Gluten Free Pancakes:  http://sustainablefirstfruits.blogspot.com/2010/01/simple-gluten-free-pancakes.html

100th Post!

Wow, 100 posts in this blog. Yay me!

I do not have a Monday Market Report today because I haven't been keeping track. Bad me. I didn't go to the farmers market and I have been trying to only buy necessities (eggs, milk, salad/veggies). I will not be buying much this week either as we will be away for the weekend.

For my 100th post, I have a very yummy meal to share. There is a little story behind it. I was making banana bread for the kids lunches so I thought I would use the extra space in the oven to bake some buttercup squash that was starting to get some bad spots. I then decided to make some curried drummies for snacks (the drummies from turkey wings baked with curry powder) and a small pork roast. When the squash was done, I was thinking of all the yummy pumpkin pie recipes I have been reading lately and since the banana bread wasn't quite done, I made a pumpkin custard, but with buttercup squash instead. The roast got overcooked and I had to do something with it. I was thinking of when we were at Acadian Maple, how all the maple seasonings were just maple sugar, salt and something else, either pepper, chili powder, ect...

The result for supper was maple pepper pork with buttercup squash custard! It was sooo good. The pork got really crispy and tasty without being overly sweet. Mark really liked the custard because I didn't make it very spicy (I prefer spicy personally). It worked well as a side dish and would be wonderful as a dessert with a dollop of whipped cream!

Maple Pepper Pork

1 small tenderloin pork roast (already cooked) or 2 cups of leftover pork

2 tablespoons of butter

salt to taste

generous shake of pepper

1-2 teaspoons maple sugar

Cut the pork into bite sized pieces or shred. Melt the butter in the frying pan over medium-high heat (not too hot though) then add the pork. Cook for a few minutes until heated through, turning once or twice. Add the seasonings and maple sugar. Cook for a few minutes more until the pork is well coated and crispy.

Buttercup Squash Custard

1/2 medium sized buttercup squash, roasted (baked in moderate oven until tender. You may also substitute other kinds of squash or use pumpkin. I didn't measure but I weighed the squash and it was 300g after I scooped it out of the shell)

1 can coconut milk (the full fat kind)

4 eggs

1/3 cup honey (local raw)

1/3 cup maple syrup (b-grade)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. all spice

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash the squash then add the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into a casserole dish (I used a bundt pan) and bake for about 30 minutes, until it is set but still jiggles a little bit. May be served warm or cool.

Part of Pennywise Platter at The Nourishing Gourmet!

A Hearty Lunch

One thing I like about the kids being in school is I can experiment with meals for lunch. I had the idea in my head for today's lunch since last week but I wanted to wait for a day that Mark would be home for lunch. He suggested we go to KFC for lunch. I thought about it, but realized that once again, something made at home would be better. In case you're wondering why every Tuesday we think about KFC, well, it's because it's "Toonie Tuesday" which means a two piece meal is only $2.79 or so (It used to be $2, which is a Canadian "toonie" but the price keeps going up). I really want to stop eating junk food and find healthy fast home alternative meals instead :)

This took hardly any time to make, about half an hour start to finish. What is it?, you may be wondering. It is Potato Leek Soup served with onion cheese cornmeal muffins. This meal is 100% local-ish (within 100 miles) and 90% organic!

I started by making the muffins. I used a Speerville "Cornucopia" mix. These are $4.49 at Sobeys, all organic, no GMO's, stone ground and local. I used the basic recipe on the side, 2 1/2 cups of mix, 1.5 cups of milk, a glug of oil (my usual method), I used two eggs instead of one and mixed without over mixing. I added in a half cup of grated cheese (could of used more) and about a quarter cup of salted green onions. I poured into heart shaped silicone muffin liners and baked about 20 minutes while I prepared the rest of lunch. (I also have "Pharoh's Favorite" mix which I hope to use soon. This was more expensive at $5.49 a box).

For the soup, I thinly sliced 4 peeled and washed potatoes. This went into a large pot then covered with cold water and 2 sliced onions. While this came to a boil, I thoroughly washed then sliced a big bunch of leeks (about 6). When the potatoes were tender, I added the leeks, a hunk of butter, a couple pinches of salt then let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Before serving I added about a cup of milk. It would be better with cream but I didn't have any. I sprinked with dried herbs before serving (it is a salad mix with garlic, onion, shallots, red onions and parsley). Add a pat of butter on top and serve!

I asked Mark if it was better than KFC and he said it kind of was. The soup was very light but delightful and satisfying to eat. It would be very rich and yummy with cream. The muffins were moist and very tasty. They were very hearty and satisfying. I'm glad we stayed home for lunch :)

As an aside, we have one more store egg before we start eating only free range, farmers market eggs. I know the season for them isn't long so we will enjoy it while we can. The funny thing is that many of the store eggs have much darker yolks than the farmers eggs. Hmmmm.

This post is part of Twister Tuesday at http://gnowfglins.com!!

Salmon Salad

I made the soaked brown rice last Friday and it was pretty good. Everyone except for Ethan loved it, but he's picky and wouldn't even touch it. The big problem was there was a ton left over!

About 10 years ago or so, there was a big thing with rice salads around here. Generally you took rice, dumped salad dressing and some vegetables in it and voila, you have a rice salad. I think it was Kraft's way of getting people to buy their stuff.

I decided to make a healthier version of their rice salad.

Salmon Salad

4 cups leftover brown rice

1 can wild salmon

1/4 cup mayonaise of choice (more or less to taste, preferably homemade, but I used the last bit of my Hellmans with Olive oil; it's made with canola oil in Canada, which is still an unhealthy fat in real food circles)

2 or 3 whole green onions, chopped

Other vegetables to taste

Break up the brown rice and wild salmon in a large bowl. Add the mayo and onions and stir well until everything is well mixed. Chill until ready to serve

This would taste great with sliced peppers or on a bed of greens. I didn't have either so I had it as is and it was very good! I used a lemon pepper herb blend to season it, but it tasted good even without it.

Beef Stew

One of the dishes made with our market food was beef stew. I made this a little differently than usual since it was a small amount and I wanted to make it fast. We finally tried the King Limousin beef and it was good. It is grass fed and pastured. She said they take them right off the meadow when it comes time for slaughtering (not a nice visual, but it is what I'm looking for). No antibiotics or hormones and they are now a registered organic beef farm, although their first batch of organic beef won't be on the market until next year. Their cows are still all raised the same though.

So it was $3.25 for a pound of stewing meat, which is fairly comparable to what you buy in the grocery store. It was very lean and a little tough, but that is probably because I cooked it too fast. Stewing meat is best cooked long and slow. We were just too hungry!

So I browned one pound of stewing meat in a little bacon fat.

Meanwhile, I washed, peeled and sliced 5 carrots, 2 parsnips, an onion and a leek (you can add what you like, whatever is in season. I added most of the leek greens about 5 minutes before the stew was done).

After the meat was done browning, about the time I was done the veggies, I added the vegetables, a couple cups of water, a sprinkle of sea salt, covered and let simmer for about 25 minutes or so until all the vegetables were tender.

Oh, I also cut the beef in smaller pieces after adding the vegetables but you can do this before adding them or even before cooking. I just hate cutting raw meat. You can leave it in big chunks if you like but it will take longer to cook.

I then added a tablespoon of cornstarch to a cup of water, mixed well and added to the frying pan, stirred well to make sure it mixed well to make a thin gravy. You can add more cornstarch if you want a thicker gravy or even use a different thickener all together or just leave it soupy.

Serve with homemade bread!

I will soon be posting my bread recipe. I've made it several times now and it is the best one I've used!

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Orange Blossom Honey Cake with Fresh Blueberries — Zoe Bakes

Yummm...I made this cake yesterday and it is very yummy! Actually, I made the cake to bring to a potluck today and a cupcake so I could taste it. It was very good! I never used mace before and it had a nice taste to it so I imagine I'll be using more of it. I did make a couple of changes; I used all whole wheat. It didn't even occur to me until after I made it. I also tried using half olive oil instead of butter since I only had half a cup out. Won't make that mistake again! It overpowered the honey but it was still good. I also used a 9x13 baking dish since my recent bundt cakes haven't turned out so well and I couldn't afford for this not to turn out. I ended up baking it at a lower temperature the second half.

The kids and I picked 14lbs of blueberries the other day and on our vacation, we picked up a gallon of honey even though we have 3/4 of a 7lbs bucket left. Yumminess! Plus these two things go very well together :)

I haven't said anything in my main family blog yet, but my Facebook friends already know this. The kids are going to public school in the fall. The reasons are many. It will be hard to afford lunch and snack foods (their school doesn't have a cafeteria) so I plan to be making a lot more by scratch.

I will be posting more recipes here so I don't lose them, both successes and failures. I also want to try harder to eat more local food. I will be working on alternative food preservation (other than canning) since a lot of my past canning efforts were ruined plus from what I have read, there is a lot of nutrition loss with canning due to the heat processing. I am looking forward to having more free time to do this.

I am bound and determined to at least get a quarter of an organically raised local beef (they're still $2.50 a pound but will probably go up soon since they have finally been certified organic. I am debating between a local side of pork or a local pastured side of pork (as in advertised as pastured), the difference in price being $100. Maybe I should try to contact the farmer of the one not claiming to be pastured to see how his pigs are raised. I once read of how some cities fix their garbage problems by getting pigs to eat it. Gross! I was pretty turned off by pork for a while after reading that.

So we will need to eat down our freezer to have room for this. I want to stop buying convenience foods, which take up a lot of room. One of the blessings of having the kids in school is I will have a lot of free time to do the cooking I have always wanted to do.

Pickles, I love Pickles

Real Food, My Way: Pickle FAQ

Yes, I love pickles but I have never been able to make them. I just wanted to mark my spot for when cucumbers are in season and I can attempt to make some using traditional methods. I also found the following sweet pickle recipe from the link above and I want to make sure I know where it is. How great to make pickles with honey instead of sugar! (note, these would not be probiotic, just yummy :) ).

Canned Sweet Pickle Slices, Sweetened with Honey

As noted, I haven't made these yet. I have bought the Strubbs lacto-fermented pickles. I thought they were good but Mark thought they tasted like an outhouse, lol! I guess when you're used to vinegar pickles, it is a bit of a taste adjustment. I am just trying to come up with more probiotic ideas that I like to help my gut heal.

Day One

Today is day one of the big 28 day Real Food Challenge. It didn't start out well, lol! I was up early and hungry and for some odd reason, I was craving a hot dog. So I had an angus beef weiner (PC brand) and all was well. Except I remembered after I ate it what day it was. Ooops! I don't think processed weiners are acceptable in the real food realm. Oh well, learn from mistakes.

I boiled a bunch of eggs and am trying to think of what to have for the rest of the day. My stomach is feeling kind of dodgy now. I hope I'm not getting the stomach flu like everyone else seemed to had and is still making rounds. Still, I think I will make this bacon egg and avocado salad and if we don't eat it today, it will keep until tomorrow :).

I did clean out the fridge a bit. I got rid of some old stuff, artificially sweetened stuff and some things that I wasn't quite sure what of what they were. It made a lot more room. I have a big can of ketchup in there I need to put in smaller jars (I know, not nourishing food, but the kids don't want to give up their ketchup and I don't get the kind that has glucose/fructose).

I'll probably update more soon, frequently, lol! I haven't gotten the challenge of the day yet and I plan to write a lot. Part of the challenge is writing about it and I plan to do lots!

Split Pea Soup

This is a wonderful, inexpensive and very versatile dish. You can easily make it vegetarian or make it traditionally with ham. I usually don't measure my ingredients but here is a rough estimation. You can adjust accordinly. You can also make it on the stove or crockpot. I prefer crockpot as it's hands off. Just throw everything in and you have rich soup at the end of the day.

Split Pea Soup

1 lb dried split peas
1 cup each of chopped celery, carrots and onions
6-8 cups water or broth
1 cup minced ham
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse peas well. You may soak overnight but it is not necessary. Combine everything in a large pot or a large crockpot. Let simmer 2 hours on stove or 8+ hours in the crockpot on low (4-5 on high). Make sure it doesn't get dried out. If you want a creamy texture, blend with hand blender or beaters.

Super Simple 5 Minute Brownies

I admit, I love the microwave. I know there's a lot of debate over how healthy it is but I still enjoy using it. I enjoy making quick desserts in there as it's easier than it sounds. This is a super quick fix for admittted chocoholics such as myself. You can easily substitute ingredients for healthier ones, which is part of the beauty of homemade desserts.

I've used several recipes that were basically the same for brownies but this one I got from Recipezaar. Using this particular recipe, I found that 5 minutes was too long if you like gooey brownies like I do. I will definately go with 4 and a half minutes next time.

Microwave Brownies in 5 Minutes

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup coocoa
1/2 cup flour

Cream sugar and butter. Add the eggs then the vanilla. Stir in cocoa and flour. Pour into a greased glass pie plate and microwave on high for 4 1/2 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool a bit before serving.