I love collecting recipes from family and friends and I try to cook a new one every week! I am slowly trying to replace all my unhealthy recipes with natural ingredients :) Here are some of my favorites:
Monday, August 31, 2009
Falafel and Tahini sauce
Note: If you want more nutritional value, use dried chick peas and soak them as instructed. But if you are in a hurry, the canned ones work just fine :)
Falafel Ingredients:
2 cups dried chickpeas or 2 16oz cans
filtered water and 4 tbsp whey or lemon juice (if doing the healthy soaking step)
4 cups parsley leaves, loosely packed
4 medium onions, coarsely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 t pepper
1 t sea salt
1 t cayenne pepper
1 t baking powder
about 1 c EVOO or lard or palm oil or coconut oil
If soaking the beans: Bring a pot of water to boil and pour over chickpeas. Stir in 2 T whey and leave in warm place for 12 hours. Pour off excess water and add 2 T whey again. Leave for another 12 hours.
Directions: Place 1 c parsley in food processor and pulse until chopped. Add 1/4 chickpeas, 1 onion, 1 garlic, and 1/4 of the spice mixture. Pulse until it is a coarse paste. Repeat 3 more times and add the batches together. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Form into patties and saute in oil. Serve with plain yogurt or home-made tahini sauce.
Tahini sauce:
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
Directions: process in the food processor until the consitency of heavy cream.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Coconut Flour Cupcakes (muffins)
I found this recipe at one of my favorite nutrition blogs, The Nourishing Gourmet. I'm still getting used to the more dense consistency of coconut flour in recipes, but I really enjoyed these cupcakes. I will say that they seemed more like muffins than cupcakes, but they are definitely the closest to cupcakes I have gotten without using white flour :)
Red, White and Blue Cupcakes-makes 10-12 muffins
You can also use all blueberries for a delicious blueberry muffin. I used all frozen berries.
(To make these GAPS friendly, just leave out the baking powder, to make it SCD substitute baking soda. )1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs, gently beaten with a fork
1/3 cup of honey
1/3 cup of coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup of fresh or frozen raspberriesPreheat oven to 375 degrees
1-In a medium size bowl, place the coconut flour, sea salt, and baking powder. Whisk to remove any lumps.
2-Melt honey and coconut oil in a small saucepan, just until melted (if you have over-heated it all, let it cool before combining it with the eggs so that it won’t curdle it. Combine wet ingredients (eggs, honey, coconut oil, vanilla), and whisk thoroughly into dry ingredients.
3-Fold in fresh or frozen berries. In papered or lightly greased muffin tins, put about 1/4 cup of batter in each muffin tin. Make sure to have some of the blueberries and some of the raspberries in each muffin
4-Bake for 375 degrees until the muffins are lightly browned on the top and a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the middle of the muffin (20-28 minutes)
Cool and enjoy!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Coconut Flour Pancakes
Ingredients:
3 eggs (preferably pastured)
3 tablespoons butter (preferably butter from grass-fed cows; I use Kerrygold butter) or coconut oil, melted (plus extra butter or coconut oil for cooking the pancakes)
3 tablespoons coconut milk or whole milk (preferably raw, from grass-fed cows)
1 1/2 teaspoons rapadura ( I think you could also use raw honey or maple syrup)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons coconut flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (Bob’s Red Mill)
Instructions:
1. Using a wire whisk, mix together eggs, melted butter, milk, rapadura, and sea salt.
2. Continuing to whisk, add the baking powder and coconut flour until thoroughly mixed.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter (or coconut oil) in a skillet on a medium flame.
4. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of batter onto skillet making pancakes about 3-4 inches in diameter.
5. Serve with lots of butter and real maple syrup.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Crustless quiche
Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/2 cup milk
5-8 eggs
shredded cheese (I love sharp cheddar but any kind will work :)
meat of your choosing (cooked bacon, luncheon meat, sausage, etc)
dollops of cream cheese or ricotta cheese
Directions: Whisk eggs and milk together; set aside. Butter a glass pie pan; throw in as much of the other toppings as you desire, ending with the shredded cheese on top. Pour eggs/milk mixture over top. Bake at 350 for about 35 min, until eggs are set.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Lezlie's Feta Salmon
Ingredients:
salmon
feta cheese
capers
Easiest directions ever: Put a slab o' salmon on a broiler pan, cover it heavily with feta cheese & capers (adds a salty touch that accents the feta perfectly,) and stick it in the oven at 375, cook it til the feta starts turning brownish, about 15 -20 mins. depending on the size of the slab. EASY & Kids will CHOW IT DOWN! Even the picky ones! (usually!) Really tasty & elegant if you need it to be!
I’m very excited to be part of the Whole Foods for the Holidays Progressive Dinner, hosted by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home today.
Meg's Top Five Tips
- Make a menu each week: If I haven’t made a complete meal plan for the week, dinner just won’t happen! Instead, we end up wasting money and eating unhealthy food by going out to eat or buying frozen dinners. But as long as I plan ahead, I know what I need to do ahead of time and it is always possible to give my family a healthy, yummy, home-cooked meal!
- Double and Freeze: Home-made freezer meals are just as easy as store bought ones, but so much more healthy and frugal! Any time a recipe freezes well, I double it and save it for a day when I just don’t have the time to cook. Most casserole, meatball, soup, and cookie dough recipes freeze really well!
- C.O.R.N: Clean Out the Refrigerator Night! This is my most important time-saver and money-saver yet! One night a week I don’t have to cook and my family gets to eat their favorites. No need to waste those yummy leftovers – just spread them out on the counter and everyone picks what they like they best!
- Meat Day: I usually buy all my meat for the month at the Farmer's Market. The next day, I have a meat day. If I bought fresh chicken, then I put most of it in the crock pot with some water and cook it so I can freeze shredded chicken ready for my casseroles. I will usually also make some freezer bags full of "dump" chicken -- uncooked but trimmed chicken ready to go in the crock pot, oven, or grill with marinade, barbq sauce, etc. If I bought ground beef, I go ahead and brown most of it and make the rest into meatballs. Some of the browned ground beef I'll leave unseasoned just to have on hand, but most of it I'll go ahead and make into home-made sloppy joes, taco meat, lasagna meat, etc. I freeze it in tupperware or freezer bags so it’s ready when I need it.