Birthday cake-no dairy, no sugar, low gluten recipe

My daughter ,Tallyoop turned 3. I experimented with some recipes for her cake.  She really wanted something with  strawberries.  So I made an applesauce cake, cut up strawberries and drizzled with cashew nut cream. 
I liked it.  My kids liked it.  My husband didn't like it.  I guess you can't win them all but if you need to cut out dairy because of allergies, cashew cream is a great option and if you don't want to use sugar, applesauce cakes are always a good option.

Applesauce Cake

1 quart of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup agave nectar (don't need if you use sweetened applesauce)**can use honey or organic sugar.
3 eggs
1/2 c oil (I used coconut oil)
t tsp vanilla
mix together well

Add 2 cups spelt flour (or whole wheat, can use oat flour for 1/2)
1 T baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Mix together

Put in pans and bake at 350 for about 20 min (depending on pan size)

Cashew Nut cream

soak 1 cup of cashew pieces for a couple hours in enough water to cover the nuts
blend in blender
add 1 T of agave (I added too much and it wasn't as good)
add 1/2 tsp vanilla (if desired, I like it better without)

Cut up strawberries.

Voila!!! My baby's birthday cake.

Use FRESH HERBS

I use fresh herbs in my cooking.  It just makes food taste so much better.  I love using tarragon, sage, basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, peppermint, etc.  Of course, I love summertime when fresh herbs are accessible in my garden.  This year I clipped herbs and put them in zip lock bags.  I've stored them in the freezer.  They are easy to get to.  I also buy the little plastic boxes of fresh herbs and keep them in the freezer.  I think it's hard to always have fresh herbs because they don't last very long in the fridge.  (If you do store parsley in the fridge, clip the ends and put in a cup of water and then cover it with a plastic bag.)

Try storing fresh herbs and using them next time you make a meal. 

Best Chili recipe ever--well at least to my family

 My sister asked me to share my recipe so here it is.

I think what makes my chili taste so good is I use fresh herbs and I make everything from scratch.

I soak the beans overnight in my slow cooker filling it 1/2 full. I use half pinto and half black beans sometimes I'll use Kidney beans or white beans as well.

The next morning I'll rinse the beans and start cooking them in my slow cooker on high. Be sure you put enough water in it. Add 3 or 4 bay leaves. I just keep these in my fridge. Then I add 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. I leave it cooking all day.
(this is perfect on those days you go to work or have to be gone all day).

Beans are done when you can squeeze them in your hand. I add some salt and pepper at this point and keep the slow cooker on but then I turn it to low.

If you eat meat, you can cook the ground beef, drain fat. I saute 1 onion and 1 green pepper and 1 zucchini.

Add meat and veg to beans.
add 2 quarts of tomatoes (drained if you want chili to be thicker)
(I use crushed or diced because my family doesn't like huge chunks of tomatoes)
Add 1 C chopped fresh parsley
1/3 - 1/2 C chili Powder
2 tsp Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp or more pepper

Add all the ingredients to beans and cover. Let it steam and simmer for another 1 hr or so. Then uncover and let cook until desired thickness.

Serve with tortilla chips or cornbread. 

Organic greens or NOT

If you've taken my advice and started making the green drinks (aka hulk juice), you've probably become familiar with green leafy vegetables like Kale and Chard and Collard Greens, Spinach, etc.  If you haven't heard of these, I hadn't really either until a couple years ago.  I spoke earlier about the health benefits of Kale and Chard.  I did some research and found that nearly 10 of the 12 essential vitamins we need daily come from Kale and Chard.  Not only that, there are lots of minerals found in these 2 leafy green vegetables.  I've had people ask me if I buy organic greens.  I do for 2 reasons.  1) They last longer in my fridge. 2) No pesticides.  Whenever possible I'm looking for opportunities to cut out the amounts of sprays and chemicals going into my body.  Sure there are probably bugs found in the leaves but that's why I wash them.  I've tried buying non-organic chard and kale and it doesn't last but 2 days in my fridge.  Organic is a bit more expensive but worth it to me to know that I'm going to be able to use all the  leaves without it going to waste a few days later.  Sometimes I just can't find all organic especially as I'm looking for varieties.  If this happens then I'll wash the greens carefully and use them right away to avoid waste.

Grow your own GREENS

It's coming up to my favorite time of year when I get to garden. Last year I grew whatever I could but my absolutely favorite things to have in my garden were Kale, Chard, Collard Greens and Beet Greens. I loved being able to go outside and cut the fresh leaves for the Hulk Juice. I had a flower garden in the front yard of my house. I decided that instead of planting just flowers I'd mix it up and do all of the greens as well. It ended up being a beautiful garden because I did the Kale and Chard plants in circles around the flowers and then the beets around the chard. The plants flourished. I was a beginning gardener and all of the plants worked perfectly. I was sad because 1/2 way thru the summer last year I had to move. I couldn't stand the thought of leaving the plants so I decided that I'd just take my plants with me from the garden. My husband thought I was insane and pretty much everyone I talked to said it just wouldn't work out.  I ended up transplanting all of the greens and to my shock every single plant flourished again after making the move.

(my garden in front of my house.  Isn't it pretty? And edible)

The point is... It's easy to grow your own greens. You don't need a great big garden or even a green thumb. Instead of doing all flowers this year, grow some greens with it.

Rotate your greens

I posted earlier about HULK JUICE!! Hulk juice is a great way to add greens to your children's diets.  If you are making them regularly its important that you rotate the greens you use.  Instead of blending the same recipe over and over again, try mixing it up.  Did you know there are several different types of Kale leaves and several different colors of chard-red, yellow, and green (look for rainbow chard).  There's also collard greens, dandelion leaves, watercress, and many more green leafy vegetables. 

 

today's recipe was a good one.  We made a green smoothie by using frozen fruit.

3 frozen apricots
3 frozen strawberries
1 banana
1 frozen pear
 2 tomato
2 collard greens
4 carrots
 4 chard leaves-yellow
  4 red kale leaves
handful of frozen blueberries
filled blender 2/3 apple juice
blended very well

This is a big recipe that feeds 6 people 1 1/2 cups each.  I usually fill my blender 3/4 of the way full of greens.

This drink was suprisingly good.  I thought the kids would reject it because it had vegetables.  The pear was so sweet that i think I found my new favorite thing to add to shakes.  PEARS!! I never thought to try.

Remember you can use fresh fruits instead of frozen and then use ice.  Since I don't have an ice maker anymore I've been freezing my own fruit and using it for shakes.  Anytime my kids eat only 1/2 a banana or apple, I throw it into the freezer for shakes.

OH so BUSY!! How Do I possibly make good food?

The past 3 weeks I've been completely slammed with deadlines at work, studying/taking the GRE, and a million other things.  If I was okay with feeding my kids fast food, this would have been the time to do it for sure.  But since I can't stand the thought of processed foods I had to really be creative and organized.  Here's a suggestion for everyone.

Spend one day a week making food for the week.  I cooked on Saturday mornings about 4 or 5 meals to pull out of the fridge during the week for lunch or dinner.

Try making soups, lentils or beans, bread, rice, chili, stir fry, teriyaki chicken, or salad toppers to mix into a salad.  Every pan in my house was dirty but I spent about 3 hours cooking and cleaning up.  The great thing was I had food for the whole week.

 Instead of using the microwave, use a pan.  Nutrients are damaged when you reheat in the microwave.