Biscuits (egg-free, gluten-free, casein-free)

This morning we had these biscuits for breakfast with some (no added sugar) blueberry jam. They were just what we were in the mood for and nice and filling because of the beans. I used to think it was unusual to be baking with whole cooked beans, but then I realized that lots of people use bean flour. I'm just using whole beans rather than flour. Maybe it's not so odd ;-) I love beans for the texture they give my recipes, and because they are high protein/low carb. Plus, beans are super inexpensive, and cooking my own dry beans is even less expensive than buying canned.

These biscuits may look familiar. That's because they aren't an entirely new recipe. I've made them a dozen times using this recipe with buckwheat flour, and Zoe (the pickiest), Ashley, and I love them so much. Andy (the second pickiest) however, detests even the tiniest bit of buckwheat in anything. So today I decided to try making them with brown rice flour in place of the buckwheat, and they came out delicious. Zoe and I said we still prefer the buckwheat version, but this one was really good too.

Biscuits (egg-free, gluten-free, casein-free)

Add to food processor:

1 & 3/4 cup white beans (I use navy)

1/2 cup applesauce

1 tsp guar gum

1.5 tbsp flax meal

1/4 cashew milk (or other milk substitute)

(How to Make Cashew Milk Video)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/4 tsp vanilla liquid stevia

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp honey or coconut sugar for vegan

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil for vegan

Puree. Add:

1/2 cup tapioca or potato starch

1/2 cup brown rice flour (you will need more flour if you live in the NW)

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp baking powder

Drop onto greased baking sheet in tall piles and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

I make about 10 biscuits and they take around 18 minutes in my oven.

♥, Kelly

PS People often ask me what kind of beans I use in my baked goods, and I have to tell you something really cool. I use all kinds! I've used at least five different kinds of dry white and red beans, which I soak for 12 hours, strain, and cook in fresh water myself. None of us have ever seen any difference in the taste of my recipes by using different beans. The color changes of course, if you use red beans, but that's it. Like you can always find nuts soaking on my counter, you can always find cooked whole beans in my fridge. :-)

Pioneer Village, Minden, Nebraska

Yesterday before leaving Kearney and driving home to Longmont, we went to Pioneer Village. It was so great. I'm going to stick to food related photos for this post, with the exception of the first two. I just had to show you a couple of the cars—my favorite part of the museum.

How badly do I wish they made new cars that look like these?!

Above: A sod house!

Above: The kitchen inside the sod house.

Above: Toasters and waffle makers. The new four slice toaster in my kitchen now looks just like these antiques.

Above: Reminds me of the Aga Stoves they make today. Just more ornate.

Love this one above.

These ads crack me up.

Zoe, posing like the old ads.

1950's pink and brown ovens

They had a million salt and pepper shakers.

My favorites were the peas in a pod :-)

There was so much more than I'm posting here, of course. They had planes, trolleys, trains, and dishes displayed by decade, to name a few.

If you decide to take a trip to Pioneer Village I highly recommend Microtel Inn & Suites. It didn't have a pool, but the suite we stayed in was new, clean, hip, and had a little kitchenette.

♥, Kelly

Banana Fruit Bread (gluten-free, dairy-free)

I wanted to use up as much of the food in the cabin as possible before we left, so yesterday I made this fruit bread for the drive back. I used my reduced natural sugar banana bread recipe for two loaves with a few changes.

I only had six eggs, so I omitted two from the recipe. I added an extra teaspoon of cinnamon, two chopped uncooked apples, and 3/4 cup dried unsweetened cranberries. I baked it in a large rectangular greased dish, and rather than mix the coconut sugar in with the batter, I sprinkled it on the top before putting it in the oven. I baked it at 350 for 45 minutes, and it came out great. In fact, we're here in the hotel in Erie and everyone is eating a piece as we speak :-)

Above: Ashley in Bolton Landing, NY.

One of the most exciting parts of our visit to upstate NY was getting to see Andy's grandpa Corty twice. He is going to be 96 years old in November. Here we are in the cabin with him yesterday :-)

Tomorrow we're off to the Chicago area, then Des Moines, then Kearney, then home :-)

♥, Kelly

PS Andy's book about Grampa Corty and the WWII Army stevedores was just published! Click for the link: Longshore Soldiers

Lake George to Burlington, gluten-free American Flatbread & Tuba Skinny

Zoe took this one of Andy and me on one of our evening walks by Lake George :-)

Above: From the same walk.

Above: Yesterday in the car.

We were feeling a little homesick, so we decided to take a day-trip yesterday to Burlington, VT, which I've heard is a lot like Boulder. It is :-)

Above: At Ft. Ticonderoga, less than half way to Burlington.

We got lunch at one of the places offering gluten-free in Burlington, called, American Flatbread. It was expensive, as substituting gluten-free crust/bread at restaurants can be, but three flatbreads were enough for Andy, the girls and me to have for lunch and leftovers for dinner. So really we got two meals for four out of it.

Above: Most of the ingredients were local and organic. Love that.

We got to see and hear Tuba Skinny on the mall after lunch. They were awesome. We bought one of their CDs, and I wish we had bought both. I'll have to buy it online. Such a treat to see them.

Above: Gramma Patti, Zoe, Andy & Ashley.

♥, Kelly

Seasonal Bake at Lake George, NY

I had all this great local organic produce, so I decided to bake everything together. It was really easy, and came out so great. I just layered potato, zucchini, and eggplant (sliced about 1/4 inch) until I reached the top of the (greased) pan. I sprinkled each layer with a pinch of sea salt, so it would be nicely seasoned. Then I topped it with diced onion, a little sliced sausage, and some fresh chopped basil. I baked it at 350 for about an hour, covered.

About half way through the cooking process I threw 4 slices of Udi's gluten-free bread into my BlendTec (a food processor would also work) and created some quick bread crumbs. I took the dish out of the oven, removed the lid (a cookie sheet turned upside down) and sprinkled the bread crumbs on top. Next I drizzled a little olive oil over the bread crumbs. It baked about ten minutes more, uncovered, until the top was nice and golden.

We ate it at the picnic table with salad, and had a little rice pudding (from my previous post) for dessert.

Above: Our dog, Cherry, by the lake.

♥, Kelly

PS If you would like email notifications of new posts from me, you can now sign up to receive them. It's located on the top right side of my blog for now. I might move it a little further down in a week or two after everybody's seen it :-)

Rice Pudding we made at the cabin, vegan, dairy-free

I decided to try making a vegan rice pudding for us and Andy's parents the other evening, and it came out great! There's no egg, and I didn't even pre-cook the rice. I made it again and doubled the ingredients because everyone loved it so much, so you can do that too. But I had to add half an hour to the bake time for the double batch. You know it's ready when the rice is well done. It thickens as it cools. We also topped it with cinnamon the second time. Yum-O.

Add to baking dish:

1/2 cup uncooked brown rice

1/4 cup coconut sugar

5 to 10 drops vanilla liquid stevia

1 can (almost 2 cups) coconut milk

refill the can with cashew or almond milk and add that too

Stir.

Bake at 350 degrees with the lid on for about 1.5 hours.

Thickens as it cools.

Makes 4 servings.

Above: Rice pudding on the beach as the sun goes down.

Above: Ashley and Andy at the Magic Forest.

If you want to feel transported back in time while you're visiting the Lake George area, check out the Magic Forest. We love it. My favorite are the mechanical moving dioramas. There's one of Snow White that was at the 1939 World's Fair.

Above: The fern forrest we walk past by the cabin.

♥, Kelly

PS If you would like email notifications of new posts from me, you can now sign up to receive them. It's located on the top right side of my blog for now. I might move it a little further down in a week or two after everybody's seen it :-)

Hello from Lake George, NY!

We arrived here Monday afternoon, after five days of traveling across the country. From our home in Longmont, CO we drove to Omaha, NE. Day two we drove to just outside Chicago. Next we drove to Erie. We stayed in Erie for a day and went to the Splash Lagoon (phenomenal) before driving to Lake George on day five.

Above: The newly constructed cabin on Lake George near Bolton Landing. It's a tiny bit bigger than the cabin Andy's great grandfather built in the 1940's, and almost the same floorplan. Andy spent his summers growing up in that old cabin, and we went there twice before Ashley was born. Last fall Andy's dad had the old rotting cabin torn down and a new one built in its place. It was completed in April.

Above: The view from the front yard our first evening here.

Yesterday we went to town (Bolton Landing) for coffee and to use some wi-fi. In the diner where I got my coffee I asked if the hash browns had any flour. She said, much to my surprise, "No. My best friend was here yesterday, and she's allergic to gluten. She gets sick within five minutes, and she was fine." Bingo.

So this morning, Andy, his sister, Marcie, the girls and I all went to The Bolton Bean for breakfast. I think they were called Super Potatoes... ? I can't remember exactly. Super something ;-) There were three to choose from and we got one of each. They were all really good. We will definitely go there again.

Above: Marcie, Zoe and Ashley

It was so humid up until today that the mid-80's here felt just like the mid-90's we've been having in Colorado. Today was much drier though, and the sky was clear and blue. My kind of sky :-) We swam in the lake and I made my yogurt (sheepish grin). I also put chicken in the crock pot with an onion and some garlic, celery and basil.

The postcards of Lake George always show the lake surface as flat, and maybe it is in the winter months, I don't know. But in the summer (maybe because of the boats) there are nice waves. The sound of the waves breaking against the rocks and crashing on the beach are some of my favorite sounds in the world. (The sound of my girls' laughter is another favorite sound.)

Above: On the Adirondack style swing with Andy's mom.

♥, Kelly

PS If you would like email notifications of new posts from me, you can now sign up to receive them. It's located on the top right side of my blog for now. I might move it a little further down in a week or two after everybody's seen it :-)

Chai Granola, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free

You may have heard me saying how we're getting ready for a road trip. We are so excited. Most of Andy's family lives near the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, and they have a family cabin on Lake George. Andy, Zoe, Ashley, our dog, Cherry, and I are driving to the cabin on the lake. Eeek! I can't wait to show you pictures.

For the drive I made my best yogurt recipe, which is chilling now. I know I'm obsessed with it ;-) I got this great cooler that is just the right size to fit on the floor behind the console. Also I wanted to make some Chai Granola for munching on in the car. It came out great. The applesauce and the chia meal created these lovely little clusters :-)

Chai Granola

Soak 4 cups of nuts for about 8 hours (I used walnuts in the photo above)

Rinse and strain.

Add to a bowl with:

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup almond meal flour

1 cup applesauce with no added sugar

20 drops of vanilla liquid stevia

1/4 cup coconut sugar

In a separate bowl mix:

2 tbsp Chia Seed meal (I grind my Chia Seeds in a coffee grinder)

2 tsp cardamom

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp sea salt

Combine the two bowls.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees overnight, or until it's dry and crunchy.

We'll be driving for days before we get there. Hopefully there will be some fun stuff to post as we drive East, and I'll definitely be posting from the lake when we get there! :-)

♥, Kelly

Click for the link to my dehydrator, the Nesco American Harvest

Click for more on why I dehydrate.