CASHEW CREPES (grain free, gaps, dairy free)

Servings: Makes enough for 4 adults, amount varies depending on size of crepe

Prep time: 15 mins

cook time: less than 2 mins per crepe

total time: depends on the amount of crepes, usually 30 minutes

Pr-heat griddle to 350 degrees or burner to medium

Ingredients:

• 8 eggs
• 1 cup cashew flour/meal (you can find this at trader joes)
• pinch real unprocessed stevia (learn more here)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp honey (or more if you want them sweeter)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (not the cream on the top, the actual milk, and you might need a little more)
• 1 tbsp gelatin (great lakes brand)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar/kombucha vinegar/lemon juice

Instructions:

Place the blue ingredients in a blender in the order they are listed and turn it on.  Place the black ingredients in a small pot and heat just gently to dissolve the gelatin, but not so much that is is super hot.  If you over heat it, just wait a minute or two until it cools.  Add the cooled black ingredients to the blue ingredients in the blender and turn on again on liquefy setting.  When thoroughly combined, add the purple and mix well.  The batter should be runny.  If it is too thick, add more coconut milk.  I find there is a big difference between the coconut milks and some need more, other less.  

Pour batter 4 inches in diameter and smooth in a circular motion with the back of a ladle until 1 1/2 the size.  Wait just a minute until bubbles form all the way through, and flip very very carefully.  The gelatin helps it hold together.. :)  

Tips: 

• Don't over grease your cooking surface.  An electric griddle or well seasoned cast iron skillet works nicely.  We use the built in grill on our stove top for this.
• If batter doesn't "spread" nicely with the ladle, add a little more liquid.

We filled with blueberries that we pick this summer.  I simmered them with some coconut milk, vanilla, dash of cinnamon and cardamom, and a little gelatin to make it thicker.. Delicious!

Enjoy! :)

GAPS Chicken Tots

Some of the previous ingredients in this recipe weren't GAPS friendly, and the recipe was more complicated. Since these have become a staple of our diet...several nights a week, and Noah practically begs for these little guys, I have simplified our lives! :) They are also great for kids who don't love veggies, since you have tons of veggies hiding in the batter, they are perfect for even the most discriminating pallet! :)

Noah refers to these as his sandwiches and would pound them for breakfast/lunch/dinner everyday if I let him!

So without further delay I bring you the new recipe. (the older recipe is still really good!)

1lb green beans cooked, drained of excess water
4 cups chicken leftovers (or slightly less)
2 onions, peeled, and cut in half
1 clove elephant garlic (or 2 regular cloves)
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter (for frying them)


Place the onions and garlic in the food processor, and process until really really tiny. Add in the green beans and process until finely chopped. Than add the eggs and allow the processor to run until the batter is rising and slightly airy. Add in the chicken, and just pulse in until the chicken is cut into fine pieces, but isn't pureed completely.

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium heat and let is completely warm. Place 1/2 tbsp butter in the skillet and let is spread around the pan and melt. Take a small handful of the chicken mixutre and put it into a ball, and press it down into a "pancake" in your palm. The pancake shouldn't be any larger than your palm or you will have a really hard time flipping it. The skillet I use is about 10 inches and I can fit 4 "tots" in with some room to spare for flipping. They take a little while to brown up (about 3 minutes or so per side) Have the oven on warm, and take the finished tots and place them on a baking sheet to keep warm, or serve them right from the pan!

After removing each set of tots from the pan, place another 1/2 Tbsp of butter in the pan and let it melt, than add your 4 tots to it! :) I find the pan needs a little scrapping after 3 or so batches or they start to stick a little and you lose the browning.

These quantities make about 36-40 chicken tots enough for a feast and leftover meals and snacking! :)

We love these with Saurkraut over a salad, and Noah loves these with any variety of a pureed veggie. He tells us it is his dipping sauce! :) Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Easy Chicken/Bone Stock and or Broth

Well, I realize it has been a mighty long time since I have posted. We started the GAPS diet about 6 weeks ago and life has been a little chaotic. I am finally settling in to the routine, and this past week, it seems like I am back to my "old kitchen routine!" Hooray. As with many things in life, the adaptation is the hard part, and this Therapeutic diet is proving to be no different.

GAPS calls for lots and lots of meat and bone broths as they foster to heal a weak gut. The gelatin contained in a homemade stock also helps to seal off the gut to prevent "leaking" problems. All of this helps digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Plus, with flu season in full swing, homemade soup and stock is one of the best things to feed your family!

With that said, I have had lots of questions in my personal email lately about "how to make stock." Instead of typing it out in many emails, I am going to post my easy "crock pot" recipe, without meat (meaning you are cooking chicken meat by some other means) and with meat, since that seems to be the method of choosing for me right now!



Cooking Chicken by Roasting, grilling etc.
All of our chickens come whole! So, when we want something other than roasted chicken, I have to cut it off the bone. I take my chicken and quarter it. I remove the legs with the thighs and debone the breast meat. I am than left with the carcass, wings, and back meat. I remove the wings and cut up the carcass, or break it with my hands into 4 pieces.

I place the wings, and the broken carcass right into the crock-pot along with the neck (cut into small pieces, maybe 5 or so) liver, and heart. I fill my 6 quart crock-pot just about full, maybe 5 quarts of water.

Here is where you have creative freedom. You are welcome to place an onion coarsely chopped, celery, carrots, garlic clove, etc. etc.

I personally add:
1 Tbsp Apple cider vinegar (which helps leach the minerals from the bones of the chicken)
2 TBsp Salt
Coarsely ground black pepper
some chicken feet
see below "Proceeding with stock"


With the Meat:
I start in the morning, and cut my chicken and place it in the crock pot. For a 4-5lb bird, I place the quarters on the bottom of the pot with the organ meat etc, and fill with water, add salt, pepper, garlic (and anything else you want to eat with the chicken) and turn it on low for 4-6 hours depending on the bird. When time is up, I remove the meat from the chicken and about 1/2 of the stock. I put the bones back in the stock, add some chicken feet and more water and proceed with the directions below.


Proceeding with bone/meat stock:
I put the crock pot on high, and add the rest of the bones left-over from dinner when we are done. Before bed I turn my crock-pot to low and let it simmer for 24 to 36 hours. This will allow for all the minerals to be absorbed from the bones into the stock. When done, I simply pour through a mesh strainer into a large bowl and cool. We leave our fat in the stock b/c of GAPS, but you could easily chill it and skim the fat off, and store it in the fridge for a week or freezer for several months. (I like to ice cube tray it for ease of future use if in the freezer.)

All the extra parts that are left in the meat strainer I than place in my food processor (yes, bones, extra meat, organ meat etc) and puree until smooth. Yeah, for Pate! You could also place through a juicer. I find this is a messier option, and if you well cook your bones, they are soft enough to smash between your fingers... They will need to be juiced twice! :)

If you are daring you could add onions, garlic etc to it and use it as a dip. I tend to hide this paste back into my stocks and soups as the weeks goes on.

If you aren't feeling so daring, you can separate out what you will eat (meat, organs, etc) and toss the bones to your pet or the trash.

Bone pate was a new discovery for us with GAPS, but as least we are now able to use all the chicken, and have an awesome source of minerals!

That's it!
Please let me know any tips tricks you all might have to make the process go smoother. I have found for me personally this is the easiest method for me to make sure I am using my whole bird each time. I used to store up bones and than do a huge 10 quart plus batch of stock, but this became to daunting of a task for me. So, yes, I do always have a crock pot plugged in, but it works for us! :)

Pesto Pizza, Glorious Pizza (GF, GAPS friendly) and kitchen adventures

We have been quite busy these past couple of weeks. I finished up the Candida diet and we have all been getting ready to start the 2 year journey of the GAPS diet. We are on a full scale GAPS diet, and are planning on going back and starting the intro diet in September. It is all a little overwhelming! In general we are really excited to see the results...even the results we have seen with Noah removing all grains has been encouraging. He is eating like a champ with no eczema, or other skin issues, and after the intro of lacto-fermented foods and pro-biotics his stools are all back to normal, and frequent! Not that I am excited about changing more diapers, but it is so encouraging to see how fast his little body adapts to a huge dietary change, and with such positive results!

Much of the past couple weeks since returning home from vacation have been about Lacto-fermenting. I have very much enjoyed the book "wild fermentation!' I find the whole process quite exilerating, and the geeky science side of me has been loving the process of "playing" with recipes! I currently have a fridge full of bok choi and I can't wait to start the kim Chi making this week! Overall, Saurkraut, ginger carrots, and pickles have been taking up much counter space and now fridge space! We have been enjoying them at almost every meal, and have found that Saurkraut goes particuarly well with eggs. We have even had adventerous guests who have enjoyed these pleasantly sour and salty creations....alright enough about my science projects..onto the pizza!

Who doesn't like pizza? We are pretty fanatical about it in our house. N and J love it, and I have to say it is one of the things we miss most being grain free! While our pizza was starch free, you could easily used a soaked or a sproated grain dough recipe as well! The nut crust was a nice mild flavor that added to the pesto, pepper and tomato top! We even enjoyed this cold the second day! If you aren't able to have dairy, this recipe works well without the cheese too!

Recipe:

Crust:
2 1/2 cups of Walnuts or Almonds (I used walnuts, almonds are a little pricey for us)
3 pasture eggs
2 Tbsp Ghee, Butter, coconut oil, goose fat, etc.
1-3 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp minced onion or 1 Tbsp organic Onion powder
2 Tsp salt

Take the 2 1/2 cups of walnuts and place in a food processor until they are tiny crumbles and starting to stick together. Add the 3 eggs and the butter and process until pastey and well combined. Spread about 1 inch thick on a lined cookie sheet (I use a sil-pat, or you would need to use a well greased pan) and place in a 300 degree oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until firm and lightly browned. While the crust is cooking...

Topping:
Pesto 1 cup basil tightly packed 2-5 cloves garlic 1/2 cup romano cheese (or parm.) salt to taste 1/4-1 cup cold pressed organic olive oil

3-4 large tomatoes thinly sliced (varying colors add a nice touch)
1-2 purple peppers thinly sliced (you could also use green or red, but the purple was a nice color)

When the crust is done baking, remove from the oven and spread the basil all over the top of the crust. Than top the basil with thinly sliced peppers (or any other veggie of your choosing) and thinly sliced tomatoes. Ontop of the veggies place desired about of romano cheese or cheese of choosing, and place back in the oven for 5 minutes to slightly melt the cheese and soften the veggies ever so slightly. The veggies will be mostly raw...

Enjoy! Let me know what you think, and share your adaptations! :) Do you have any foods you just can't live without?

Spoon Fed Deception

Have you ever wondered why Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's etc always have the most wonderfully entertaining ads? I remember growing up and watching the super bowl strictly for the advertisements. That was when the large corporations always rolled out their new ad campaigns. Pepsi always had some wonderful up and coming star selling their product, as did coke. The images of cultural beauty, and “coolness” were strung all over the screen for a visual feast. I was left sitting there thinking...hum...maybe I'll go drink a “coke.”

Truth in Advertising; now that is an interesting thought. How can there truly be truth in advertising, especially when it comes to food? Advertising happens on manufactured products. Products that people, industry, professions, or government are making money. Products that are viewed as more essential to life, rarely contain advertising. Why? The profit margin on vegetables, fruits, real meats, and cheeses are minimal in comparison...when is the last time you saw an ad during the super bowl for “grass-fed beef?” No “real food” company could ever afford multi-billion dollar ad campaigns...they simply aren't making enough money on their products.

When we start to see products become crazily advertised, as a consumer, we should start to think why? Paul Hawken, Author of “The Magic of Findhorn,” simply puts it:
A product like Coca-Cola which contains known poisons and destroys teeth and stomach has one of the most stunning ad campaigns in the history of the Western World.
It is really fantastic: This unreal amount of money creating an illusion-the illusion that “coke is the real thing.” ...Yep, Coke is the real thing and this is drilled into the minds of 97 percent of all young people between the age of six and nineteen until their teeth are rotting (out of their heads) just like their parents' did.
There is nothing truthful about advertising. Imagine a young pimply faced kid in front of a camera telling folks how clear his complexion was before he started drinking Coke; and even though he knows it's bumming his social life, he just can't seem to get off the stuff. That would be truth in advertising. Or how about a young girl holding up a can of orange drink made in New Jersey saying the reason it's is orange is because of the food coloring. The reason it is bad is because we use coal-tar artificial flavoring, and the reason we would like you to try it is because we want to make money. Truth in advertising would be the end of three major networks, 500 magazines, several thousand newspapers, and tens of thousands of businesses. So, there will never be truth in advertising.

How do we cope with the massive bombardment of lies we are spoon fed everyday? We need to become educated consumers. The reason fancy ads campaign sell products is our lack of knowledge and our over abundance of trust of the corporation. If we knew that coke was rotting our bodies from the inside out, and causes mountains of long term damaging effects, chronic illness, disease, etc... we would reconsider our beverage selection at the family picnic...but even if we “know” Coke isn't great (as most of us do) but don't truly understand enough about the body to recognize it as a poison (which is truly what it is) we are liable to just “save” it for special occasions, as a treat of some sort. Let me ask you, when is the last time you considered arsenic for a beverage on special occasions? We don't and no one would ever knowingly “treat” your child to a glass of it...


Poison: Any substance applied to the body, ingested, or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease, injury, illness, or death.

Think about that definition next time you are shopping. Start to analyze your food. Are you ingesting poison on a daily basis? Learn about what sugar does to the body, learn where your “food colorings” come from, learn about the big food industry and their tactics. The only way to ensure you aren't taken advantage of is to be wise to their deceptive tactics in marketing. In short, if you see advertising for a product...you may want to think twice about buying it...

Book Suggestions: Sugar Blues by William Duffy