New recipe!!

Ok, so it was kindof a dreary day around here and I was craving some good ol' comfort food. Since mashed potatoes are off limits and I have eaten myself into orange fingertips with mashed pumpkin, I decided I would do pie! I like pie...

However, finding a "comfort food" pie on a restricted diet can be a challenge.

I found this recipe on www.scdrecipe.com for a pecan pie!! YUMOLA!

Here goes:

Credit for the recipe is given to: david emerson

It JUST came out of the oven and it smells SOOO yummy I wish we had smell-o-vision on the computer!!

Next time I might try to pick up some rum flavoring since I know my family recipe has rum in it along with the vanilla. I actually think this crustless pie might work for Thanksgiving! Yippie!

The farm stand up the street has a sale on all their fall squashes/gourds/pumpkins! YAY!! I love, love LOVE fall squash!!

However... I have always feared the Hubbard Squash. This is the ginormous, pale green, very thick shelled variety that you typically see in the grocery store already cut open. The reason for that is because farming wisdom tells us to use an AXE to hack into the thing in order to be able to cook it!

Well, faithful blog reader, fear NOT the hubbard squash! I bought one thinking I would have my husband hack into it when he was home, but tonight I got resourceful! I carried my squash down the stairs out to the front walkway and very swiftly threw it onto the sidewalk! Well... no, that didn't work. The thing actually BOUNCED around until it came to rest against a large stone. Hmm. God made these things specifically to resist this type of torture I suppose. Makes me wonder if we are intended to eat something that requires a hacksaw to open up. Then I decided I would go all out and I picked it up, held it over my head with both hands and brought it down with all my force and WHACKED it onto the sidewalk! EUREKA! It broke into two nice pieces right down the middle! YIPPIE!!! I carried it back inside triumphantly to scoop out its insides and bake!  Finally, I was able to harvest over 6 cups of yummy pumpkin-esque mash after an hour in the oven! Hubbard gets an A in my book for yumminess, color, consistency and overall taste! Go buy one and whack it on your driveway tonight! :)

Well, with 3/4 of the kids anyway! My oldest never eats anything... so I was not surprised he didn't want to try the experiment.

Here is the recipe if you want to try it.

Rice Pudding (this way anyway) is basically a formula.

Its 1 part rice (when using leftovers anyway) to 1.5 parts milk. I used 3 cups of rice and 4 1/2 cups of milk. I took the milk and whisked in two eggs then heated them together stirring constantly, on the stove top till it was steaming. Then I whisked in some agave (or you can use honey, sugar, whatever for sweetener), about 1/2 cup. I added some vanilla, some cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a handful of raisins then dumped in the leftover rice just to warm everything up. Then I put it all into the crock pot on low for overnight. This was about 9 hours. In hindsight... I should have cooked it for less time, but it was still yummy. If I had put it in the crock pot right before *I* went to bed and turned it off first thing this morning... it would have been better I think - but my crock pot cooks really hot even on low. Its getting old.

Anyway... I also have a recipe for crockpot oatmeal that I might try for tomorrow. I have done the omelettes in zip lock baggies before, but I don't like the strange plasticy smell they get. The kids thought that was cool though.

Yes, our standby breakfast will probably always be cereal... and I will do pancakes some mornings... but I think if I can keep this up my mornings will be better.

I do not like mornings.

To say I am not a morning person is like saying the Grand Canyon is a cool hole in the ground.

Sometimes I do better than others... some days I seem to be able to get up, refreshed, glad to be awake FIRST, happy to have a cup of coffee and some time to myself before we start the day.

Other days... not so much.

Breakfast is one thing that makes me insane in the mornings. I do not wake up famished and dragging my starving body into the kitchen searching for some form of edible nourishment to keep me from shriveling up into a pile of emaciated bones on the ground. As do my children. So if I do not wake up earlier than anyone else... before I have had a chance to pour the cream in my coffee, someone is saying "can you make me oatmeal?" or "can I have cereal?" or worse... "can you make pancakes today?" It's almost like fingernails on a chalkboard before the first cup of coffee is gone.

So, aside from the obvious -  -setting the alarm and greeting the day before the rest of the family - I am going to try to "lay out" breakfast the night before like I try to figure out diner in the mornings of school days.

Tonight my crockpot is the ginuea pig. I am making some overnight rice pudding recipe I found online... I will let you know if it works out. It sure smells yummy. I love rice pudding... hot, cold, anywhere in between... so I hope its not a dissapointment!

If you hate breakfast too... go check out www.mrbreakfast.com he has some cool ideas... if you can get over him looking just like a cross between Vin Diesel and Mr. Clean.

Looking for something thats just FUN to feed the kids?

My guys like my banana creations and I thought I would share!

I make a "banana hot dog" by taking a whole wheat hot dog bun, putting a banana in the middle, add peanut butter, or whatever "toppings" your kids like. Its just fun!

There is also the "Banana Burrito"... Get out a flour tortilla, cut your banana in half long ways, sprinkle with brown sugar, dot with butter and sprinkle on some cinnamon. Roll it up and bake them in a casserole until you see the sugar starting to make a sauce inside. Yummy!

Maybe its the summer heat, but this coconut thing is sounding REALLY good right now!!

Here is another recipe - this time its from Dr. Fife, the author of several Coconut books!

I am out of eggs or this would be in the oven already!

COCONUT CREAM-CHEESE SQUARES

• 8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (I would use 1/4 cup honey, but do your own thing!)
• 4 large eggs
• 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 TB coconut oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees, brush a 11x17 pan with the coconut oil and set aside. Beat cream cheese with butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add sugar gradually. Add coconut flour and vanilla; beat until well blended. Pour into pan, bake for 30 minutes. Cool 10 min. on wire rack and cut into squares.

MY SIDE NOTES*

I wonder if you could use drained yogurt in place of the cream cheese? Maybe it would be too watery. This may just be one of those recipes you dont try to adjust much. However, I may try it with the yogurt/honey substitutions to make it SCD friendly and see how it works with half a recipe. I will let you know!

Oh... and if you try these recipes, drop me a note and let me know how it turned out for you!

I had this thought... that there may be people out there who are eating GF who might like to see a recipe now and then.

My new favorite thing is coconut flour. This stuff is awesome! It has a very low glycemic index, helps to rid the body of candida, and is classified as a good-fat instead of a carb/grain! YAY! AND... it bakes (with eggs) like real live flour! WOOHOO!

So here is a recipe I like right now:

1/3 cup coconut flour
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons melted butter (I used coconut oil)                                                                         2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut milk (or cow milk, rice milk, almond milk, etc)
3 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder (or baking soda if you dont have gf baking powder on hand)

1/2 cup frozen blueberries (or you can add whatever you want to make the flavor muffins you want)

Whisk eggs, butter, coconut milk, honey, salt and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Sift all coconut flour (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons). Stir sifted coconut flour and baking powder into the batter and stir until there are no lumps. Fold in frozen blueberries, stirring gently. Pour batter into greased muffin tin. Bake at 400 F for 15-18 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

Tip - These are GOOD, but not like baking with regular old white flour. If you are just starting out the GF diet, I would suggest going "no baked goods" for a month or two until you kindof have the texture/taste of glutinous breads out of your system. Also, coconut flour is very absorbant. If you let it sit for a few minutes, it will thicken up - thus, you can use it in soups or sauces as a thickener.

I linked through someone's blog to find this lady who posted a much-raved-about recipe for peanut butter popcorn! ( ladyjane )

The recipe is:

1 cup Karo corn syrup + 1 cup white sugar and cook over med-high heat till it forms strings when cooled (my test ... dip the whisk in, fling it around the top of the pan... if it starts to look like spider webs... DONE!) then dump in 1 cup creamy peanut butter. Stir really well till its a melted caramel color, then pour over about 4 quarts of cooked air-popped popcorn. Stir, stir, stir till its all coated.

Now... since I never can leave well-enough alone...

I used mostly Aunt Jemima (because its just glorified Karo) and added a large glop of PB because I didnt want to wash a measuring cup. (I know... laziness...) Probably used more than 1 cup since I have this gigantic jar of PB that I bought that no one likes. THEN I melted some leftover candy melt chocolate and dumped that on top of the popcorn and stirred that around. The kids are gobbling it all up like its going out of style!

I think they would make nice popcorn balls too... actually, I formed a few into golf-ball sized balls and they are holding nicely!

Enjoy!