Strawberry Shake…sugarless

Here is a recipe for a strawberry shake with no processed sugar and no artificial sweetners.  It was so good!  Even Randy requests these as an after dinner sweet snack.

Strawberry Shake…sugarless

This was actually really, really good and such a fun treat after three weeks without sugar.  No condiments, no crackers (except homemade which I will post the recipe for later), or anything else with sugar in it.

All I did was put:

1 cup of raw milk (preferably grass-fed)

4-5 frozen strawberries with their green tops

1-2 t raw honey

In a blender and let ‘r rip.

It was the consistency of a strawberry shake without all the added junk.  It was delicious.

Pumpkin pie with no sugar, grain, or eggs…and it is still edible

I am doing an elimination diet trying to reverse some food sensitivities I have been struggling with.  I have been scouring the web for recipes and tried this one from Spoonful Of Sugar Free the other day.  She has some really good sugarless recipes on her site.

Pumpkin Pie

~The pie is dairy-free, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, peanut-free, and, of course, sugar-free!

Pecan Crust:

• 2 cups pecan meal (make your own by finely grinding pecans in a food processor)
• 4 large dates
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons water
• pinch salt

Blend dates in a strong blender or food processor until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine until well-mixed. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie pan and press the mixture evenly to the bottom and sides. Bake at 375* for 10-15 minutes or until browned.

Pumpkin Filling:

• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg (or 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice)
• 2 eggs
• 1 12 oz. can full fat coconut milk (too lessen the calories, substitute up to 3/4 of the coconut milk with almond milk)
• Sweeteners*

Combine the pumpkin, eggs, milk, sweetener (if using) and spices and beat until combined and smooth. Pour mix into crust and bake, uncovered, at 400* for 10 minutes. Then cover with foil and bake at 350* for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

*Sweetener ideas: I blended four dates with the filling in my food processor.  She also recommends using 1/2 teaspoon powder or liquid stevia drops.

Serve with Cinnamon Whipped Cream as a truly decadent Thanksgiving dessert.

**Instead of eggs (because I can’t have eggs right now) I used chia seed gel.  I used 1/4 cup to replace the two eggs in this recipe.

I couldn’t eat it all at once and Randy had real pie to eat.  So I froze individual pieces of this pie to eat whenever I’m craving something almost like dessert.  Enjoy!

Coconut Oil Chocolate…

This is the easiest “chocolate” to make without sugar.

Coconut Oil Chocolate:

¾ c coconut oil

½ to ¾ cup cocoa powder depending on how dark and chocolaty you like it

1 T raw honey

1 t vanilla extract

**add shredded coconut (unsweetened) and nuts (optional)

Gently heat your coconut oil.  Coconut oil becomes a liquid at 76 degrees F, so this needs to be done at a very low setting on your stovetop.  In a blender add everything (except shredded coconut and nuts) together and blend.  Pour into a bread pan lined with wax paper and put in the freezer.  If using shredded coconut and nuts sprinkle in bottom of pan before pouring blender mix on top.  This will make a nice sized chocolate bar to snack on whenever you get a hankering for chocolate.

Just FYI…The Raw Food World has their coconut oil on sale right now if you are in the market for stocking up.  This where I have started buying mine.

 

Enjoy!

Green Smoothies…

I am trying to add more greens to our diet and one way I have started doing that is by adding green smoothies to our daily routine.

Let me say I am neither a raw foodist or a vegan, however, I like to try new things and branch out a bit in life.

Below are some of the recipes I have tried from the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko or her website.

My personal favorite:

Valya Boutenko’s Green Smoothie:

Handful of spinach leaves

1 apple with core, no stem

1 banana

½ mango (peeled)

½ pear (cored)

Strawberries with tops

½ cup Water

Blend well.  Add kiwi and strawberry to edge of glass for garnish.

Sergei Boutenko’s Green Smoothie:

½ mango

1 banana

Couple strawberries with tops

5 kale leaves

Water

Blend well.

Kiwi Enjoyment:

Blend well:

4 very ripe kiwis (green or golden)

1 ripe banana

3 stalks of celery

2 cups water

Yields: 1 quart of smoothie

#13:

1 cup frozen blueberries

1/4 lb spinach

1 orange (peeled)

1 cup water

Blend well.

and this smoothie is from the Natural News website and was delicious too:

http://www.naturalnews.com/025752_superfoods_smoothies.html

Be sure to rotate your greens and don’t get stuck in a rut using the same veggie everyday.

There are a few of her “savory” smoothie recipes I would like to try.  I will post them here as I try them.

Give it a try!  They really are pretty good.

Oreo Cheesecake…

Absolutely unhealthy, but pretty tasty!

Oreo Cheesecake

4 (8oz) packages cream cheese

1 package Cool Whip

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter (melted)

Finely crush 2 rows of oreos.  Melt butter and mix with oreos to form crust in a rectangle casserole dish or 9×13 cake pan.  Coarsely crush 1 row of oreos.  Mix cream cheese, Cool Whip, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in oreos.  Spread over crust.  Chill.

Pickled Garlic…

I used the recipe out of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon to preserve some garlic cloves I bought in bulk.

Pickled Garlic

about 12 heads of garlic

2 t dried oregano (preferably organic)

2 t sea salt

2 T whey (can use 2 t of additional sea salt if you don’t have any weigh)

1)  Place garlic heads in the oven at 300 degrees until heads open and cloves can be easily removed.

2)  Place cloves in a wide-mouthed quart jar.

3)  Add oregano, sea salt, whey, and cover with filtered water leaving at least 1 inch headspace below the top of the jar.

4)  Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before placing in refrigerator.

It is winter here in Kansas and our house isn’t quite warm enough to ferment on the countertops.  So, I wrapped the jar in a tea towel and set it on top of our dvr to keep warm which actually seemed to work.

Now I can grab a couple cloves, crush ‘em, and toss ‘em into whatever dish I am preparing.

 

Smothered Round Steak…

I tried a new recipe tonight for dinner.  It went in the crockpot and so easy and delicious!

Smothered Round Steak:

• 4 Servings
• Prep: 20 min. Cook: 7 hours

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1-1/2 pounds beef top round steak, cut into 1-1/2-inch strips
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 large green pepper, sliced
• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 jar (4 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• Hot cooked egg noodles, optional

Directions

• In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Add beef and shake to coat. Transfer to a 3-qt. slow cooker.
• Add the onion, green pepper, tomatoes, mushrooms, soy  sauce and molasses.
• Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until meat is tender. Serve with noodles if desired. Yield: 4 servings.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Smothered-Round-Steak

I did make a few changes.  Instead of the bell pepper I used a can of green chiles (undrained), I omited the mushrooms, and instead of soy sauce I used coconut aminos.  I turned out really good…a little spicy since I used the larger can of chiles.  You could use a 4 oz can to decrease the heat.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies…

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar or sucanat

1 egg

2 t. vanilla extract

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour and baking soda and set aside.

In a large bowl combine melted butter and brown sugar.  Mix well, stir in egg and vanilla extract until well blended.  Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

For each cookie drop of heaping tablespoon of dough onto a cookie sheet leaving about 2 1/2 inches between them.  I buttered the pan, the original recipe didn’t specify greased or ungreased. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes or until edges harden and centers are still soft.

I can’t find the exact link, but I got the original recipe at this blog and made a few little changes:  http://homesteadblogger.com/thecfarm/

These are so easy and soft and chewy.  Not going to win any nutrition awards, but oh so good!

 

 

Ginger Cookies…

These cookies are sort of like themolasses cookies my grandma makes.  They are really good.  I got the recipe out of a Holiday insert in newpaper and tweaked it a little.

Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose, unbleached flour

2 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

3/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t cloves, ground

1/4 t salt

3/4 cup coconut oil or butter (the real stuff, not margarine)

1 cup organic raw sugar

1 egg

1 T water

1/4 cup organic molasses

4 T sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together flour, ginger, ,baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil (or butter) and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg, and then stir in the water and molasses.  Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture.  Shape dough into walnut-sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar.  Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreases cookie sheet.  Bake 10 minutes in preheated oven.  Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.

I noticed when I made these the cookies I baked on my stoneware didn’t rise.  They were my first batch, so maybe the oven wasn’t quite hot enough, or I didn’t cook them quite as long as needed.  However, the ones I did on metal cookie sheets were delicious.

 

Finally Some Cooler Weather…

 We had a few days of cooler weather and used our new grill to cook and spend some time out back with our dogs…and our llamas.

Due to the drought our grass is really short and since Lexus and Celia are pregnant and Sylvia is still growing we decided to let them on the backyard where the bermuda has gone crazy.  They loved it and spent most of the weekend out grazing on it.

The new grill has a temperature setting which allows me to bake on it…which I did.  I baked a couple loaves of banana bread on it this afternoon.

Randy put a homegrown chicken I had marinated in a lime marinade and baked beans on the smoker.  They were awesome.  We couldn’t believe how good everything tasted.  We had cut some mulberry wood that morning to use in the smoker and hopefully this winter in the wood cookstove we have on order.

I think Hank felt a little left out with all the girls on the backyard, so we let him out the gate so he could eat leaves off the elm trees and graze all the grass just outside the lots.  He was pumped.

The break from the heat was nice, but we are gearing up again for another hot streak.  Hope everyone stays cool.