Thanks Lexie for this great stew seasoning!

Guest Post | Lexie from Lexie's Kitchen

The birth of baby Ginger Brozyna has got me reminiscing about the days following the delivery of my second. I remember being ravenous after an 18-hour labor and utterly (pun intended) exhausted. The kitchen was the last place I wanted to be—and thankfully, because of some very kind-hearted women, I didn't have to.

Prior to my son's birth, I had joined a moms group in Centennial, Colorado. One of their customs was to deliver a meal, once a day, for two full weeks to new parents. I will forever be touched and grateful for that outpouring of love—and food! It took a huge load off of my shoulders and allowed me to focus on what mattered—my baby and my family.

As I contemplated what recipe to share in this guest post, I thought about the kind of meal I'd bring to the Brozyna family. Comforting and hearty came to mind. Yep. A big pot of stew accompanied by a batch of Elana's Pantry's almond flour biscuits .

To make the stew, I would follow this recipe for Slow Cooker Beef Stew, using the beef stew seasoning mix below.

Lexie's Stew Seasoning

Making stew seasoning in bulk speeds up stew prep time by eliminating the need to measure out spices each time.
Makes: Approximately 1-3/4 cups seasoning (for 7-14 batches of stew)
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup BROWN RICE FLOUR
2 tablespoons SEA SALT
2 tablespoons granulated ONION
2 tablespoons PAPRIKA
2 tablespoons dried PARSLEY FLAKES
1 tablespoons granulated GARLIC
1 tablespoon CELERY SEED
2 teaspoons dried OREGANO
2 teaspoons BLACK PEPPER
1 teaspoon dried ROSEMARY, crushed
1 teaspoon dried DILL
1 teaspoon dried THYME
Directions:
Measure ingredients into a jar. Cover and shake until well combined.

Coconut Cream Strawberries (dairy-free, casein-free)

Are you crazy for all things coconut? If you are, you will love these coconut dipped strawberries. They're super easy too. Here's how I made them:

Warm 1/3 cup of this: Coconut Cream Concentrate and 1/4 cup of any coconut oil. (I use this one)

Add vanilla liquid stevia to your desired sweetness level (I used about 10 drops).

Let the mixture cool so that it's thick and not all runny.

Roll strawberries in coconut mixture.

Freeze on unbleached parchment paper till solid.

Dip again.

Freeze again, just until solid (about 15 minutes).

Eat immediately, or store in the fridge.

Baby sister lovin' — Zoe and Ginger on the swing outside :-)

♥, Kelly

Berry Patch Farms, Organic, Brighton, CO

Last weekend some of our very dear friends moved out-of-state. We are so sad that they don't live here anymore, but also excited for their new adventure. I wanted to see them as much as possible before they left, so last week we went berry picking together at Berry Patch Farms.

My friend, Amanda, is such an inspiring person. She's an amazing homeschooling mama, doula who is also in midwife school, fabulous knitter, handmade and organic advocate, and the best friend a girl could have.

Amanda always has the best book recommendations, and she knows all the most fun places to go, like this organic farm.

Above: Zoe picking berries

Above: Ashley picking berries

Above: Amanda's bounty :-)

Inside the store is more yummy organic food.

Like these make-your-own salsa bags. Yum.

Is there a similar place where you live? Tell us in the comments! ♥, Kelly

Thanks Alea for this great late summer picnic!

Hello there everyone :)
It seems that Kelly’s little one has impeccable timing for arrival- within a few days my own sister had a new baby too, and the first thing I thought of was, feeding them of course!

There’s really nothing like a late summer picnic, especially if it means bringing the older siblings outside for a picnic to give mama a bit of a break. The great thing about the recipes below is that they are simple, loaded with flavor, and keep for a long time in the fridge (so this means easy lunches in between baby feedings!).



Everything is made from real food, blissfully grain and legume free, no eggs dairy or soy, and sings summer. (Plus, I must admit, it was the perfect excuse for me to break out my ‘new’ vintage picnic basket and dishes!).

You’ll find some drinks recipes, salads, main dishes, and desserts. Enjoy.



*******
Watermelon Lemonade

I use this as my juice replacement. Its so incredibly satisfying and light to drink- when its hot out I find myself drinking glass after glass…. For a little variety, try other flavors like grated fresh ginger and lime juice.


8 cups watermelon
½ cup fresh lemon juice (or more to taste)
¼ cup honey (or more to taste)
Water, to taste

Blend the watermelon in a blender. (I do it in batches in my Magic Bullet, works great).
Pour through strainer.
Add lemon juice and honey. (I melt the honey so it blends well).
Adjust lemon and honey to taste- you may want more.
Add water to your preferred consistency.
Delicious!



Other neat picnic drinks:
Blackberry Raspberry Iced Tea
Rhubarb Lemonade
Dairy Free Iced Orange Ginger Tea Latte

Rich and Creamy Rice Shakes dairy-free, vegan

Rich and Creamy Rice Shakes

Add to blender:

1 cup coconut milk (I always use canned)

4 pitted Medjool dates (soak first if they aren't soft)

1/2 cup rice pudding* (if you substitute regular rice you would probably need only 1/4 cup)

6 ice cubes

Puree till creamy and smooth. 

Note: If you aren't using a Blendtec you may need more liquids.

*1 cup organic brown rice to 6 cups dairy-free milk, cooked in the crock pot until it's very mushy.

♥, Kelly

The link to: BPA-Free Freezer Trays With Lids

The link to: Stainless steel straws

The link to: Glass Straws

Have questions? See my FAQ page here.

Apple Crisp by Iris from The Daily Dietribe

Thanks so much to Iris for today's guest post! I do love how simple and quick it is :-) Check out more awesome recipes by Iris on her site: The Daily Dietribe. ♥, Kelly


When Kelly asked me to write a guest post for her, I knew immediately that I wanted a recipe that said Summer. Then I was gifted with a delicious box of apples and had to come up with a way to use them all. So my plan for peach crisp turned into apple crisp. Of course, when I think of apple crisp, I think Fall. But really, you can make this crisp with any type of fruit. Blueberries, peaches, strawberry-rhubarb. The topping is the star of the show here; the fruit merely a tasty supporting actor.

In addition to being delicious, this dessert is also easy to make. My goal here was to make something simple, as I'm sure Kelly isn't looking to spend a lot of time in the kitchen right now with her new baby girl. The topping itself takes about a minute to put together, and while the apples need to be cut, they can easily be replaced with blueberries for a faster prep time. Pop it in the oven and you've got dessert 30 minutes later. Serve it over a scoop of coconut ice cream and you've got a very happy household.

Apple Crisp (Gluten-Free, Vegan)
An original recipe by Iris Higgins
Ingredients:
4 cups peeled, sliced apples (about 4 large apples)
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/4 cups blanched almond flour
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup pecans
1/4 cup coconut oil (at room temperature)
10 dates
2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Toss apples in a large bowl with the cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of coconut palm sugar. Place apples in an 8 x 8 inch glass baking dish.
Blend the rest of the ingredients in a food processor for 30 seconds. Spoon mixture evenly over apples.
Bake for 30 minutes or until apples are cooked through. Check after 10 minutes and place tinfoil over the topping if it starts to brown too much on top.

Thanks, Kelly, for having me! And thanks to all The Spunky Coconut readers for stopping by and checking out my apple crisp!

The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen by Laura Russell

When I went gluten-free in 2004 the food I missed the most wasn't bread, cake, or cookies. It was Asian food. I would eat Chinese, Korean, and Thai nearly every week, either at lunch during my work-day or dinner with the family. Finding a gluten-free option at any restaurant is a challenge, and the language barrier present at many Asian restaurants complicates things even further. You might be fortunate to have a P.F. Changs or a PeiWei nearby, but their limited GF menu can get boring.

So, I was very excited to receive The Gluten-Free Asian Kitchen by Laura Russell. Flipping through it, the first thing I noticed was that it's a lovely book design. There are full-page color photos throughout, the color palette is nice rusty-red and gold, and the typography is pleasing. Ordinarily I prefer to read a page set in a serif type (think Times or Garamond), but the more modern slab serif and sans serif typefaces chosen by this designer is a comfortable read and looks cool too. The cover features french-flaps (looks like a dustjacket, but it's on a paperback book) with metallic gold ink on the inside. This high production value easily makes it a good gift book.

This metallic gold ink is nice, as is the book design as a whole.
Ginger's recent birth gave me the opportunity to be the cook in the house. The first recipe I choose was Russell's Thai Coconut Chicken Soup. We're no strangers to unusual ingredients here at the Spunky Coconut, but I needed to buy four things I had never seen before. Far from discouraged, I saw this as a fun grocery-mission. I had no problem finding Asian fish sauce. Thai Kitchen sells it near their coconut milk, and it even says "gluten free" on the label.

Fresh lemongrass wasn't at my local health food store, so I bought a bag of dried. For my first attempt I just threw a bunch in the simmering soup. Don't do this. The soup wasn't cooking long enough to soften the dry grass, so it felt like I was eating the occasional pokey pine needle. For the second time I put the dry lemongrass in a ball tea infuser, which worked well. The flavor went into the soup, and I easily pulled the leaves out before serving. I eventually did find fresh lemongrass. Oddly enough, it wasn't at Whole Foods or any other specialty store. It was at Safeway. It's not organic, but it's used in such a small amount that I'm not concerned.

I had never heard of galanal before, and never found it. The book suggested using fresh ginger rood instead, which worked great. I haven't found kaffir lime leaves, but lime zest is an easy substitute. It will be fun hunting for these atypical ingredients, but in the mean time it is no problem using more conventional substitutes.

There are full page color photos throughout
The soup was delicious and I'm excited to try more recipes. Russell's book has a nice variety of sauce, noodle, vegetable, poultry, and meat dishes. There is a useful guide to ingredients, which explains what things are, where to find them, and which are at risk for gluten. The book design itself is sharp and would look good on any shelf.

—Andrew