Cupcakes & The Bean Cycle

This week was Zoe and Ashley's birthdays! They are now 4 and 6 years old! I really wish they would slow down a bit :-) For their birthdays I made them my chocolate raspberry cupcakes, as requested by Zoe. Friends of ours who ate them, couldn't tell that they were gluten-free, and all agreed that they were yummy and moist.

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes:

Set oven to 325 degrees.

Add to bowl:

3/4 cup coconut oil, liquified

1/2 cup organic cocoa powder

Beat with electric mixer, then add:

3/4 cup honey or agave

6 room temperature eggs

1 tbs vanilla

1/2 tsp chocolate raspberry liquid stevia

1/4 tsp salt

Beat with electric mixer, then add:

1/4 brown rice flour

1/4 cup coconut flour, sifted

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Beat again. Fill unbleached muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake for about 15 minutes.

Top with raspberry jam.

Makes 18

Note: I love the If You Care brand of unbleached paper muffin cups. Nothing ever sticks, plus they're better for the environment, and for my family. Then, what I do is reuse them by keeping them in a bag in the freezer between use. Even better for the environment and my wallet!

Update: I added brown rice flour and xanthan gum when making a bundt cake with this recipe and it was even better, so I included them above. :-) It took about 34 minutes at 325, and I greased and floured the pan. It was so awesome!

We decided to take a short day trip to Fort Collins, about 45 minutes north of us. All I can say is I can't wait to visit there again! Granted, I've only been there for a day, but I really think it's a place where I could live. We loved it; very deserving of it's recent title as 2nd best town in America. The historic downtown was so charming. There was a water fountain with steps to sit on and soak your feet next to a live band, surrounded by outdoor cafes and shops. Across the tree lined street, loaded with flowers, was a water fountain park for children. We sat at a table with an umbrella and watched as Zoe and Ashley delighted in the spouting water.

When we finally tore ourselves away, children soaked, we walked back across the street to a place called The Bean Cycle. It is, like the town, loaded with character plus tons of fair-trade and organic coffees, much to my delight! The coffee was crazy good, and the girls had smoothies like the kind I make at home (meaning real frozen organic fruit and juice, nothing processed or artificial added).

Egg Salad

I think this salad is kind of funny because I use Vegenaise, which is designed specifically not to have eggs (because it's vegan), yet I used it to make egg salad :-)

This egg salad is kind of different from the ones you see in restaurants. It's lightly chopped, and not over-mixed, so you can really see both the whites and the yolks. I also don't like to overcook my hard boiled eggs, so the yolks are solid, but not dry. 

It's a new take on an old classic. I hope you try it! 

Egg Salad:

Hard boil 7 eggs in your preferred method. At high altitude I lightly simmer them (so there are barely a few bubbles) for 10 minutes, then transfer them to an ice water bath before peeling. 

Rough chop the eggs.

Add to bowl with:

1/3 cup Vegenaise Grapeseed Oil

1/4 tsp Herbamare seasoning

2 celery sticks, finely chopped

1 tbs finely chopped green onions 

BBQ Chicken & Corn

I finally figured out how to cook without using the oven (which makes it even hotter in here). Put the crock pot on the front porch! BBQ chicken was just wafting through the community all day long. Our neighbor was moving in behind us, and her friend commented on the great smell. It was one of those summertime dinners that left us all wanting more - not because we were still hungry, but because we just wanted to keep eating it! We all agreed that the garlic really adds so much to the dish. 

BBQ Chicken:

Add to crock pot:

1 head of peeled garlic cloves (about 8)

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned with salt

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup of BBQ sauce

Turn it on for 8 hours, low (outside if you like!) 

Remove the chicken and garlic from the pot.

Shred the chicken with two forks (it will just fall apart)

Add 3/4 cup more sauce (homemade or from the jar, not from the pot)

Save the juice from the pot in the fridge, or freeze to use later. (I'll probably be doing something with it in the next few days)

When I went to the grocery store I stood there looking at the BBQ sauces, thinking about whether or not to make my own. I opted to buy my favorite brand, partly because I'm literally tired from all this heat, and partly because I love this brand. It's called Bone Suckin' Sauce (http://www.bonesuckin.com/). They are gluten-free, and they don't use high fructose corn syrup. In fact, it's all the same ingredients I would use if I had made my own! It cost about $5 and I used about 2/3 of the jar. Not bad I think. 

Mango Lemon Sorbet

Did you know that the weather here drops about 35 degrees at night? It was 94 today, and it will get down to 59 tonight! Since we don't have air conditioning I have to put the girls to bed in only their underwear with the fan on high. Next, when I go to bed, several hours later, I put a t-shirt on them. Then when I get up during the night, or early in the morning I sometimes need to turn off  their fan. They have, on two occasions now, gone to bed sweating and woken up freezing -Crazy! I'm just hoping these upper 90's days are over soon. Thankfully we are going up to Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow, where it will be cooler, for a Roots & Shoots club meeting.

Tonight though, in the heat, we made Zoe, Ashley, and Andy's favorite frozen dessert, hands down, and it couldn't be simpler to make. I still prefer our Cherry Cordial Ice Cream myself, but this one is a close second :-)

Blend:

3 cups frozen organic mango

1 & 1/2 cups sparkling water 

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup honey or agave 

Pour into ice cream machine.

Enjoy!

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Cherry Banana Muffins

Now that the heat has subsided, temporarily, and the breezes are cool, I can get baking again. These muffins are based on my banana bread recipe, which I love for it's texture, sweetness, and similarity to wheat baked goods. By substituting raspberry stevia for vanilla creme stevia, adding fresh cherries, and leaving out the cinnamon, the banana bread has a whole new life as cherry banana muffins. What's cute about them is the peek-a-boo cherries on top. Since this is a more liquid-like batter, the cherries would just sink to the bottom of the bowl of batter. It's better to add the cherries to the top of each muffin before putting them in the oven, and so adorable! My little girls can't get enough of them, and neither can my husband for that matter!

Cherry Banana Muffins:

Gluten-free, Casein-free & Sugar-free

Set oven to 350 degrees.

Add to bowl:

2 mashed bananas

4 beaten eggs

1/2 cup honey

Beat with electric hand mixer. Then add:

3 tbs liquified coconut oil

1/2 tsp chocolate raspberry liquid stevia

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup coconut flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

Beat with electric hand mixer.

Fill unbleached paper cups 3/4 full.

Drop 3 cherry halves on top.

They sink into the middle in the oven, but are still visible on top.

Bake for 30 minutes

Makes 12

Blueberry Cream Smoothies

It is so hot here today. When we lived on the east coast I remember thinking how the summers in Colorado must be like they are in Maine. One of my good childhood friends moved to Maine when we were still young, and twice we went to visit her, since our moms were also close. It was so much cooler there in the summer than where we lived in Maryland. In Maryland it was so humid and hot that we hardly ever went outside in the summer. I thought Colorado was going to be like Maine, but it actually gets very hot in the Front Range, minus the humidity of Maryland. I really should have taken the kids to the pool or the reservoir today, but we have plans to go to a nearby town for an outdoor festival tonight, so I didn't want to overdo it. Thank goodness for fans! And...

Blueberry Cream Smoothies:

Casein-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free, Raw

Add to Vita-Mix:

2 cups frozen blueberries

4 cubes of frozen Vanilla Pudding

1 tbs honey or agave

1 tsp vanilla extract

Puree with enough almond milk or cashew milk to just get it going.

Optional: 2 tbs Vitol Egg Protein Powder - Energized with Bee Pollen. Enzyme activated with Papain and Bromelain. Plus that great creamy flavor!

Broccoli Quiche

I wasn't actually planning on having quiche tonight, but I accidentally made too little rice for my casserole recipe. Now that I think about it, the only difference between a quiche or a casserole is the proportion of liquids to solids. More liquids - you get quiche, more solids - you get casserole. Food for thought, no pun intended :-) Anyway, it came out great, and tasted so creamy that Andy asked me, quite confused, "Did you put dairy in this?" It was, however, less filling than a casserole would have been, so we had a nice salad to go with it (using my beloved new caesar dressing - heehee). 

Broccoli Quiche:

Gluten-free & Casein-free

Set oven to 350 degrees.

Saute:

1/2 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Add to bowl with:

1 cup cooked brown rice

2 cups lightly steamed broccoli 

Mix together:

3 eggs

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 tsp Herbamare seasoning

Combine all ingredients.

Pour into greased 8 X 8 dish.

Bake for 40 minutes. 

Polenta & Eggs

This is one of my go-to dishes, when I'm tired, or on a shopping day, before I've been to the store, which was the case today. You know, when you've already made your grocery list, but haven't left the house yet, and you open the fridge only to find nothing much is there, hence the "shopping day." It was one of those kind of days. Luckily I had eggs and polenta, which I fried in some ghee, and topped with tomato and avocado. Looking at this picture the tomato could easily be mistaken for red pepper, and I think it would be good - next time I'm going to try that!

Custard Pie

As promised, I made my custard pie yesterday, and here it is. It's hard to miss dairy when we eat like this. In fact, people usually feel sorry for us when we tell them we are gluten-free, casein-free and sugar-free, and I say, "It's okay! We love it!" and that's the truth.

I hope you had a nice 4th, and enjoy the rest of your weekend! Cheers!

Custard Pie:

Set oven to 325 degrees

Add to bowl:
3 eggs
6 yolks
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp salt

Bring just barely to boil:
2 and 3/4 cups Whole Coconut Milk
1/4 tsp vanilla liquid stevia

(or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

As soon as you see a bubble, remove from heat.
Begin beating the eggs with an electric mixer on low. While beating begin to slowly pour the milk into the eggs (so you don't scramble the eggs). Continue till all of the milk is incorporated.

Pour into pie dish coated with ghee.

Open the oven door. Slowly place the dish on the middle rack.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the custard is just set in the middle. Sprinkle with cinnamon and xylitol if you like while it's still hot. Let rest on the counter before slicing. Ooh-la-la! Nice cold too.

Chocolate Chip Sunbutter Sundae

Ahhh... the simple pleasure of a sundae. Only we don't eat peanut butter, cow milk or sugar, "so what on earth is this?" you might ask. What I do keep on hand, however, is my vanilla pudding, both in the refrigerator and frozen, sunflower seed butter, which tastes just like peanut butter in my opinion, and honey. I guess if you wanted to get technical there is evaporated cane juice in the dairy-free chocolate chips, but you could use cacao nibs if you prefer. I used the pudding from the fridge because I like my "ice cream" soft anyway. For a frozen version use the pudding frozen in ice cube trays, or take it straight from the food processor (when you make it) to the ice cream machine. 

Chocolate Chip Sunbutter Sundae:

Vanilla Pudding, frozen or from the refrigerator

Sunbutter, I like crunchy

Chocolate Chips or Cacao Nibs

Drizzle with honey