Chocolate Cake

Yes, this really does taste, at least to me, like a thick chocolate cake or brownies.  (It does not fluff up like regular cake, thus I equate this more to a brownie.)  Since I cannot eat chocolate or regular cake, this does the trick for me.  The only problem is trying to make it last more than a day!  This is one recipe that DOES require a food processor in order to make it turn out right.  Thanks goes to Marylynn from the Louisiana SCD list for creating this delicious dessert!

Ingredients:

• 16 large Medjool dates
• 6 oz. nut flour (I use pecan or almond)
• 4 oz. melted cocoa butter (you can buy this at www.chocolatealchemy.com)
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 egg
• splash of legal vanilla (no sugar added, just vanilla and alcohol)

In your food processor add the nut flour, salt and pepper and pulse until mixed.

Cut the dates lengthwise, taking out the nut.  Add the dates slowly to the nut mixture with the food processor on until the dates are well chopped and blended.

Add the vanilla and melted cocoa butter to the food processor.  Blend well, scraping down the sides when needed.  You need to just let this mix, and after about a minute it will start to form into a dough.

Add the egg and baking soda.  Mix until well blended.

Take a pie dish, 8″ square, or other pan and butter it well.  Pour the batter into the pan, smoothing out the top.  Bake at 325 for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This dessert is great right out of the oven, but if you let it chill overnight, it has a richer chocolate flavor! Next time I make this, I’m going to add some almond butter on top and see if I can get a good chocolate/peanut butter flavor going on. 

 

Yogurt Treat

For almost 18 months my main after-dinner treat has been homemade yogurt with blueberries.  Thankfully, I still love it!  Yesterday though I realized I needed to eat up some bananas, and decided to try something different.  It turned out so good, my picky daughter even ate it!

This is what I did:

Take one banana, slice it up and put it in a bowl

Put about 1/2 cup of homemade yogurt on top of the banana

Drizzle honey (I put about a tablespoon) on top of the yogurt

Top liberally with toasted pecan pieces (I bought mine from Trader Joe’s)

This can work for a treat, or even for a meal if you add something else with it.  I call it dessert because I cannot eat regular ice cream or cakes or stuff like that, so this is a sweet treat for me.  Enjoy!

 

Apple Crisp

This is a very basic recipe that I just love!  I haven’t gotten it right yet, but the little tweaks needed are likely due to my oven.  Here is what I do, and you can adjust however you like!

In an 8×8 in inch pan I cut up about 5-6 apples into semi-narrow slices (I find that Braeburn, Gala, or Fuji apples have a great flavor for this, but any apples would likely work just fine).  I like my apple crisp to be deep, so usually I cut up apples until the pan in 3/4 full (the apples will cook down a bit).  I melt some butter and honey in the microwave, add some spices (I like cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or allspice) and pour it over the apples.  I’ve done this without flavoring the apples before, and it was a bit bland.  You can always add more or less spices/butter/honey depending on your taste.

I then mix up a batch of this master crumble and sprinkle it over the top:

http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/2009/10/master-crumbfruit-crisptopping-mix.html

I’ve found that in my oven I need to bake this at around 300-325 for 45-60 minutes, and watch it carefully.  The tendency for this recipe is for the top to brown quickly and the apples to not get done, so you’ll just have to play around with temperature and time.

Here is a link for SCD-legal whipped cream.  I made this the day before the apple crisp, and whipped it up the day of.  It stayed just fine in my fridge for those 3 days!  My daughter also loves it when I do a “berry parfait” with this whipped cream, alternating layers of frozen berries and whipped cream.  Yummy!

http://heal-balance-live.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-make-scd-whipped-cream.html

 

WFD: Vanilla Cupcakes

Yes, that’s right.  For dinner tonight I had Vanilla Cupcakes.  Now, before you go and shake a finger at me , hear me out.  It was my daughter’s 8th birthday party, and 15 minutes before the 7 girls were to arrive I realized that I had NOTHING that I could eat to keep me going through the 4-hour party.  I had a recipe from www.elanaspantry.com for Vanilla Cupcakes that I wanted to try and it looked super easy, so I put it together for my “dinner.”  I hoped that it would be a good “grab and go” food for the night, and I was not disappointed!

My first impression is that these are a cross between a muffin flavor and a cupcake.  Not a true cupcake in my mind because they just were not sweet enough.  Regardless, they were super easy to eat, and kept me going.  Each muffin had the equivalent of a 1/2 egg, plus honey and almond flour, so I figure I was eating pretty healthy. 

Here’s the recipe of what I did:

1/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 almond flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

6 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup-ish (add more for more sweetness) honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

I simply mixed this all together and poured it into my cupcake tin.  You’ll want to grease the tin very well, or use cupcake liners (papers?  little baking cups?  sorry….brain freeze on the name!)  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  I would think you could frost these with some sweet concoction, and they almost would make you think you were eating “real” cupcakes.  Regardless, they were a great treat for me tonight when I needed something to put in my belly. 

 

Fried dough!!!

Oh….My….Gosh….

I have not had a donut in over a year.  In looking through one of my recipe sources yesterday, I found one for fried dough.  Of course, I had to try it….

Basically you take a almond flour pancake recipe, and modify it a bit.  I added 2 tbsp honey to 2 eggs, and blended them well together.  Then I added 1/2 cup plus a titch of almond flour, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp baking powder.  Mix until well blended.  Then, I turned the pan on to medium (too hot will burn these), and added about 1/2 an inch of canola oil.  The dough was still pretty runny, but when I dropped a spoonful into the hot oil, it formed a perfect circle.  I fried them for just a minute or two on each side, and then let them drain on a napkin covered plate.

They reminded me of silver dollar pancakes, but fried.    This one recipe made about 20 (which are already gone…before lunchtime!).  I served them to my kids as “donuts” and sprinkled a bit of powdered sugar on top.  They loved them!  Each kid had four, and probably would have had more. 

This is something I will definitely keep in my file for a special treat.  They really remind me of donuts, and are oh so delicious.

 

Basic Almond Flour Cookies :)

Today I was craving something baked, warm, sweet, and bread-like.  Most of the recipes I have call for 4 eggs, and I didn’t have that on hand, so I decided to venture out on a limb and create something myself!  I’ve learned that most baked almond flour recipes have these ingredients in common:  almond flour, salt, eggs, baking soda, honey.  You can add vanilla too, which I often do because I’ve made my own recently and LOVE the taste of vanilla!  With this recipe, I wanted to work towards a cookie, and so knew the consistency I needed.  I’m sure there are ways to improve on this, but here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 baking soda
• 2 tablespoons honey (I like sweet stuff….add less if you want, or more!)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 egg

Preparation:

I have discovered that for any almond flour baked goodie to be light and have a good thick consistency (not runny), I need to whip them first.  So, I took the egg, and whipped it for about 2 minutes.  I then added the salt, baking soda, honey, vanilla, and butter and whipped them until well mixed.  I then added the almond flour and mixed until well blended.  The consistency was thick, and perfect for dropping on a cookie sheet.  I dropped them by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet and baked them for 8 minutes at 350.  This made a dozen cookies.

I will add a touch more vanilla and honey next time to increase the flavor.  These ones were good, but I want them sweeter.  Otherwise, I am very happy with the recipe.  The consistency and flavor are both what I was desiring today. 

 

Almond Butter Cookies

I needed something sweet today, and so made these really easy cookies.  The real test will be when I feed them to my kids after school.    Quick, easy, pretty cheap….and satisfying to my sweet tooth! 

Here is the website with the recipe:

http://thehealingfork.blogspot.com/2010/10/almond-butter-cookies.html

Enjoy!

 

Banana Ice Cream

This is a super easy treat to make, if you like banana’s.  If you are not crazy about them, well…..better stick with the real stuff. 

Here’s what you do:

Take your ripe banana’s and cut them into small pieces.  Lay them flat on a cookie sheet, and put them in the freezer for 1-2 hours.  Take the banana’s out and put them in your blender.  Blend well, scraping down the sides when needed, until a creamy consistency is achieved.  Voila!!!  Banana Ice Cream.

The first time I did this I added some frozen strawberries because it is a strong flavor.  That helped.  For my family I will sometimes drizzle Hershey’s syrup over the top, so it’s like a frozen chocolate banana treat.  The second time I did this I left the banana’s in the freezer for 2 days.  Waaaaaaaaay too long!  They were so frozen it was hard to blend, so stick with the 1-2 hour time frame.  I’m going to play around with adding different things each time to the base of banana’s, and see what kind of treat I can make!

 

Strawberry Cream Pie

Oh, this recipe is dangerous for me!  The first time I made it, I ate the whole pie in under 3 days, all by myself.    It is super easy, and tastes really great.  The last time I made it I didn’t have the nuts for the filling, and it wasn’t as good.  I like the little bit of crunch they provide.  My taste buds have changed though, I realize now!  I think this is very sweet, but those around me with a sweet tooth think….not so much.  Either way, I love it, and I think it is a great idea for these hot summer days. 

It is gluten and dairy free, and for those on a less restrictive diet, you could add a dollop of whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce on top to “sweeten” it even more (if it really needs it!).  The next time I make it I will probably just leave out the crust that I did.  You really don’t need a crust with this! 

I had to modify the recipe for me, as I’m not doing some of the ingredients yet.  Here is the original recipe:

http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2010/6/15/strawberry-cream-pie-gluten-free-and-dairy-free-blog

And this is what I did:

Crust:

• 1/8 cup melted butter
• 1/3-1/2 cup almond flour

Filling:

• 2 cups fresh strawberries
• 1 cup raw nuts, I used 1/2 pecans and 1/2 almonds
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 cup coconut oil, melted

For the crust, melt the butter in a pie plate.  Add the almond flour until it is not too wet and can spread around the bottom of the pan evenly.  For the filling, place all ingredients in a blender and blend until it is smooth and creamy.  Pour the filling slowly over the crust, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

This is such a wonderful dessert for me because I love strawberries, and it is so quick and easy to make.  Enjoy!