Search results: gluten free

With Passover underway, I’ve gotten into serious cooking mode – well, I just get excited when cooking/baking for friends/family. Hint, hint…. Who wants to come over to my house for dinner?!

I made carrot “kugel” gluten free style – SO YUMMY

I found the recipe on Elana’s Pantry and adapted it to my liking – I figured this recipe would be delicious! So I got to cooking – it turned out wonderful. Unfortunately I didn’t make enough for everyone 🙁 but I knew that my grandmother was also making carrot kugel – although her version was filled with ingredients that I knew I wouldn’t be too fond of, so I brought my own!

It was a hit! – Thank you Elana!

We had 25 people at our seder and this went pretty fast – so just  be mindful of that when you decide how many carrots to use.

Here’s the recipe:

5-6 cups chopped carrots (approximately 2lbs)

¼ cup agave nectar

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cinnamon

4 egg whites

¼ cup blanched almond flour

1. Cook carrots in a steamer until soft, about 20 minutes

2. Blend carrots, agave, cinnamon, eggs and almond flour until smooth

3. Place mixture in a greased 8″ square glass baking pan

4. Bake at 350° for 1 hour, until browned around the edges and done in the center

5. Serve warm out of the oven, or allow to cool, then refrigerate overnight and serve cold

I want to express how grateful I am for my loving, supportive family. This weekend at my Integrative Nutrition course I encountered more people then I had liked who said that their families thought of them as the “odd one” or the “weird one” in the family. I kept thinking to myself how grateful I was that my family never made me feel that way.

See, at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition we are learning how to heal ourselves through food. To many people this seems like a strange concept, but to all of us students it seems just right. We’ve been living and learning from our food and how it affects our bodies, but now we are learning WHY it affects us the way that it does.

We are also learning how important it is to have our “primary foods” in order, not meaning the literal food that we eat, but the relationships that we digest on a daily basis.

Personally, I’ve had a pretty great support system, sure it took some explaining of what I was doing for them to fully understand me, but they’ve always been on my side.

Last night I was truly blown away – let me explain the events that unfolded:

We celebrated my grandfathers 93^rd birthday – I know, he’s an amazing man! – In any case, last week my mother explained that we would be going to my grandparents house in Fort Lee, NJ on Sunday and that there really wouldn’t be anything healthy that I would be able to eat, let alone everyone else. We decided that we would order from our favorite restaurant in NYC and bring it over to their house. First off, she didn’t have to do this! She could have said: “it’s one night and you can deal with eating what everyone else eats” but she didn’t! She understands the importance of eating healthy food on a daily basis and to that I am grateful!

This wasn’t the only amazing event to unfold – yesterday when I spoke to my mother she explained that we were bringing Babycakes cupcakes from the gluten free shop on the lower east side. What an incredible woman she is – not only could she have gone to the local supermarket to pick up any cake or cupcake filled with gluten and sugar, she chose to stick with the health kick and go all the way with the most amazing cupcakes on the planet!

My point here is this: for those of you who don’t feel like your family is supportive of whatever it is that you’re doing – have you tried explaining it to them – and I mean sitting them down and having a nice long talk for a good hour or two? If not, you should probably get on that if you feel that you need the support.

If this just simply isn’t possible then use your friends as your support network. I believe your key to success is to have the backbone to carry you through. It’s too hard to do it alone – so please, don’t try.

Hi blog friends! I’m back to my blogging habits, I missed it for a few weeks but I’m officially back!

I just walked in the door from a bit of a shopping spree at Williams Sonoma! I always have so much fun in there even if I’m not buying anything. BUT lucky me… I DID buy something – cake pans! Yes, I am moving on to cakes. I’ve always wanted to perfect the gluten free, no sugar, cake creation and now’s the time. Not to worry, I’ll be sure to post when I come up with some recipes that taste delicious. Stay tuned!!

If you haven’t been to Williams Sonoma, I suggest you take a mini field trip. All of their cooking utensils are top notch and it’s definitely worth the price. Enjoy!

I have found my gluten free baking savior! Yes, it’s true, I, like many of you are not always in the mood to whip up my dessert or meal for that matter. You can imagine that having a gluten free, dairy free and no refined sugar lifestyle that it may be quite difficult for me to eat out. Well you’re absolutely right! I find it almost impossible to eat out at restaurants because I’m constantly battling with eating too much and getting a stomachache from the ingredients that they use – so most of the time you will find me cooking in my own home.

When I find that one place to run to each time my belly craves something sweet (and I’m not making it myself) then I am so so so so thankful!

Babycakes is the name of the bakery.

It’s located in NYC on Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard.

Not only do they have gluten free, soy free, unrefined sugar baked goods but they are also vegan!

You would never even know that their goods lack gluten, eggs, dairy, soy and unrefined sugar. Everything and I mean everything tastes absolutely delicious.

If you’re down in the lower east side, I definitely recommend this place over any other bakery you may pass along the way – hold your crave for a babycakes treat.

Even if you don’t have a food sensitivity this place is STILL better then your typical bakery. Their ingredients are what you should be eating for a snack instead of the gluten bloating, sugar filled cupcake from any other store.

Give it a whirl, I guarantee you will be impressed.

It’s that time of year when lots of people are scrambling to find recipes for their thanksgiving and holiday dinners. This has now become my favorite time of year! I’m having so much fun searching through all of my cookbooks trying to find recipes that fit the needs of my special gluten free, no dairy and no refined sugar diet. I will definitely have to alter some of the recipes to my needs, but hey, it’s all part of the fun!

You wouldn’t believe how many great recipes I’ve found and don’t worry I will be sure to post them up once I try them out. My friends and family are lucky since they will be trying everything and letting me know if it’s worthy for the thanksgiving table or not.

Try not to get stressed over the holidays – they’re supposed to be fun! And it’s a great time to catch up with family and friends.

Enjoy it – cooking is fun! No one will judge if you order in or buy food already prepared BUT I’m just throwing it out there that cooking is so satisfying – (at least for me!) – I love seeing the end result of enjoyment and pleasure, it makes my day.

I hope you can find some recipes to try out – even if it’s only one – then you will have the opportunity to feel the satisfaction at the end. Try something new! Be adventurous!

Don’t let the rain get you down today – throw on some rain boots and get out and smell the fresh air. Someone once told me that the air is the freshest right after it rains – I believe it. Soak it in, literally.

Delicious Squash Cookies!

Last night I made Almond acorn squash teff cookies and boy were they good! I was recently assigned a health counselor by my school and I found this recipe on her blog. The cookies are different AND they taste delicious! Trust me! I had never heard of teff flour before this woman’s blog and I was surprised that it tasted so good – I didn’t even use eggs OR oil! The recipe is S I M P L E, just try it. I changed a couple of things in my recipe – I used a different type of squash other then acorn and then I steamed it instead of roasting it just to save some time.

For one batch of 6-8 cookies (depending on how big you make them) use these ingredients:

1 ½ cups teff flour (you can buy Bob’s Red Mill brand from your health food store or supermarket – it’s gluten free!)

½ cup steamed squash (I couldn’t find acorn squash at my market so I used a different kind of squash that looked similar to acorn – it still tasted great)

¼ cup maple syrup

1 cup almond butter

dash of salt

½ tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and blend well. Roll into a size that you like and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (Non-stick is the easiest pan to use – if you don’t have one I suggest you invest in one). Flatten each ball with a fork and bake for 13 minutes.

Hopefully you enjoy this recipe – I know my fiancé and my work friends loved them! It’s so satisfying when I make a dish or dessert that is gobbled up!

All the recipes that I make are meant to be shared, so please try them. I search for simple, tasty and nutritious meals so please take advantage of the great recipes that I bring to the blog community – you will feel great on the inside.

This past weekend I did something completely out of character… I baked a pie! Yep, you heard it here – I baked a sweet potato pie out of scratch. I was so proud of this pie that I barely ate any myself because I was too busy giving everyone else a piece to see how they liked it. Let me tell you something, it isn’t even hard to do and I’ll explain all the steps below. First I want to tell you that the hardest part wasn’t even making the pie, it was figuring out which pan I needed to bake it in – there were non-stick options, ceramic and all sorts of different pans.

Finally I chose a non-stick pan but have decided that I will buy a ceramic one as well so that I can have a choice as to how the pie will look in the end.

I also want to express how much I love sweet potato pie but haven’t been able to eat it with my new eating habits. Here is a much healthier version of the pie AND it still tastes SO delicious.

Sweet Potato Pie adapted from the Clean Food by Terry Walters cookbook.

Scrumptious sweet potato pie

CRUST:

1 ½ cup pecans

¼ cup chickpea flour

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

pinch of salt

FILLING:

3 medium sweet potatoes

¼ cup maple syrup (or a little bit less – depending on how sweet you like it)

¼ cup rice milk or almond milk

¼ teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon arrowroot (found in the health food store near the gluten free flour)

1 teaspoon agar powder (found in the health food store)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Setup your steamer with water and cut up the sweet potatoes so they fit nicely in the pot. Steam potatoes until they are soft all the way through – may take about 15 to 20 minutes given the size of the potato. While they are steaming start preparing the crust.

Chop pecans in food processor until they resemble fine meal. Add chickpea flour and process briefly to combine ingredients. Add oil, syrup and salt and process until it forms dough. Lightly grease pie pan, add dough and press to form even crust – about ¼ in. thick. Pierce several times with a fork and bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

When the sweet potatoes are soft and have cooled down begin to remove the skins. Place in cleaned food processor and add maple syrup, rice milk (or almond milk), vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, arrowroot and agar powder. Process until smooth.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust for about 50 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven. The top should be lightly browned but be careful not to burn the crust! Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack and serve at room temperature.

If you follow these directions you will definitely have an amazing pie. I wish you luck and please write any comments if you have any.

Blueberry, banana, gluten free muffin made to perfection

Moist and very tasty

Here’s what I’ve noticed about cooking and baking – It’s fun! AND if you have one machine like a food processor or a blender it makes the entire process so much easier! I’ve been having a great time in the kitchen recently – last night I made banana blueberry gluten free muffins!

They are amazing!!

Don’t be turned off by the “gluten free” because they are moist and delicious.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer and it was so painless that I definitely want to do it again. If you don’t have a mixer then you can do it by hand or however you see fit.

Makes 8 muffins –

– 2 cups of quinoa flour

– 2 tsp baking powder

– 1 ½ tsp cinnamon

– 1 cup berries of your choice (I used blueberries)

– 1 mashed banana (if you like)

– 3 tbls oil (of your choice I used olive)

– 6 tbls agave

– 1 cup almond milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix ingredients together in a bowl leaving the milk for last. The milk will help moisten the batter so it’s best to put it in when you’re finished mixing the rest of the ingredients. Mix well so that the batter is smooth and creamy.

Bake for 30-40 minutes and enjoy.

As you can see it is fully possibly to cook and even bake without dairy, eggs, gluten and refined sugar. So you wonder why don’t resaurants and chefs all around the country/world practice using these same ingredients? Well, personally I have no idea why but I wish there were more choices out there for those who choose to eat healthier.

Again, I’m not saying that you should make these muffins and eat the whole batch in one day or even one sitting, but it’s a great snack when your craving something warm and sweet. I say warm because they’re the best when you pop them in the toaster oven to heat them up before consuming. I hope you try this recipe because it’s quite easy and the outcome is great.

If you find that the quinoa flour is making the muffins taste somewhat bitter, try adding 2 tbs of vanilla. The recipe is fully adaptable, so if something doesn’t sit well with you then feel free to change it! Have fun.

The act of giving up certain foods is such a hard thing to do. I completely understand all those people out there who know they shouldn’t be eating something but they do it anyway because they think, eh what the hell… I’ll deal with the stomachache, or the bathroom situation later.

Well I’m here to say that it’s NOT a good idea to be doing that. If you don’t take care of your body NOW then later you may end up with a diseased body, which could have been completely avoided if you had just listened to your body and said no when you knew you should have.

I’m writing this because recently I have been noticing that when I eat foods with garlic my body bottles up so much gas that it doesn’t know what to do with it! I know… not something that you probably want to know about, but this is a serious problem. Do I really have to give up ANOTHER food item?! I already gave up gluten, dairy and refined sugar, am I really going to commit to not eating garlic too?

I haven’t fully decided this answer yet, but I’m going to try it out. That’s really all I can do at this point because I know that I need to take care of myself now and not later. Trying to eat garlic free along with all my other food choices will be quite challenging, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

If I know that I will feel better then that is what will keep me going. If you can relate to me then we should go through this together… we’re all in it together. Keep your health now and later on you will be so thankful that you did.

Wish me luck!

P.S. tonight we ate garlic free and so far so good!