Month: May 2017

Applesauce Cake

This cake was so good that it was gone before I thought about taking a picture the first time. This time I remembered.  It has the look of a carrot cake or a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, minus the carrots…  Plus, it’s a great way to use up that applesauce that is just sitting around in your fridge.  This recipe is one that I used before I was gluten free and I was really hoping it would convert well because I remembered it being so moist and delicious.  I was not disappointed!

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 flour mix

1/2 c. gluten free oat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

dash salt, optional

1 c. raisins

1 c. chopped walnuts

1/2 c. non-dairy butter (I used 1 stick of Earthbalance)

1 flax egg (1 T. ground golden flaxseed mixed with 3 T. water)

1 c. granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 c. applesauce

 

Directions:

Combine flours, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a medium bowl.  Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the flax egg.  Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the applesauce, stirring after each addition.  Add in vanilla.  Add nuts and raisins and stir.  Pour into a greased and floured 9×13 pan (I used white rice flour.)  Preheat oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan.  Frost with my Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting.

Creamy Chicken Mushroom Spaghetti

2 T. olive oil

4 T. non-dairy butter

1/2 onion, diced finely

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1/3 c. white wine

2 tsp fresh thyme

dash salt

dash pepper

1/4 plus 1/8 c. brown rice flour

1/8 c. cornstarch or other thickener, optional

2 c. chicken broth

1 c. non-dairy milk, unsweetened

2 c. cooked, shredded or diced chicken

1 c. cheese (Use Parmesan if you can.  I added in Daiya cheddar cheese to each bowl of leftovers.  In this case, you need some sort of cheese. My husband used a pizza cheese blend in his bowl and liked it.)

1 pound noodles (I used HEB gluten free spiral noodles)

 

Directions:

Begin boiling water for the noodles.  Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet.  Add onions and cook until translucent.  Add a dash of salt.  Stir in mushrooms, wine, and thyme and another dash of salt and pepper and cook uncovered for about 8 minutes.  Remove mixture to a bowl or plate.

Now it’s time for the roux.  Melt the “butter” in the skillet over medium low heat.  Add in the brown rice flour and continue whisking while cooking for two minutes.  Add the chicken broth while continuing to mix.  Pour in the milk and continue to whisk while cooking on medium low heat for 5 minutes.  It should begin to thicken.  If you want it to be thicker, add 1/8 c. cornstarch.

Add the mushroom mixture back in along with the chicken and whatever cheese you are using (or you can have each person add their cheese later if some can have dairy and some can’t.)  Cook for another 4 minutes.

When noodles are cooked, drain them and add them to the mixture.  Serve with additional cheese, salt, and pepper available for people to season at will.

 

Original recipe:

https://www.chowhound.com/recipes/creamy-chicken-mushroom-spaghetti-31387

Chocolate Sheet Cake

My husband requested this for his birthday this year.  The original recipe was supposedly brownies, but what we experienced was a sheet cake.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!  I just might have to make it again soon…

 

Dry Ingredients:

1/3 c. sorghum flour

1/2 c. teff flour

1/4 c. potato starch

1/3 c. tapioca starch

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

 

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 c. nondairy butter, softened (I used Earthbalance)

1/3 c. coconut oil, melted

1 1/4 c. granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla (I used Mexican)

1 c. warm water

 

Mix-ins and toppings:

1/2 c. Enjoy Life Mega Chunk Chocolate Chips

1/4-1/2 c. Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips

1/2 recipe Vegan Milk Chocolate Frosting (but use all 7 tsp milk- see recipe re-written below)

1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans on top

 

Directions:

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a stand mixer, cream butter, coconut oil, and sugar.  Add vanilla.  Take turns adding the dry ingredients and warm water to the stand mixer until both are completely added, stirring briefly between each addition.  Mix on medium speed for 1 minute.  Add both types of chocolate chips.  Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Allow it to cool completely and then frost with Vegan Milk Chocolate Frosting (listed below).  Sprinkle nuts on top of frosted cake and gently press down so they stick in the frosting.  Eat and try to share ;-).

 

 

Vegan Milk Chocolate Frosting (1/2 recipe)

 

1 3/4 c. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 T. plus 1/2 tsp. butter (I used SmartBalance)

1 T. shortening (I used Spectrum.  You could probably use butter instead but it may not hold its shape as well.)

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 to 1/6 c. cocoa powder (depending on how dark you want the chocolate to be)

7 tsp non-dairy milk (I used Silk’s Original Cashew Milk but you could also use coconut or almond)

IMG_6914

IMG_6915
It was hard to get an even line for this picture because we kept getting one last forkful…

 

Original recipe:

Credicott, Tammy.  “Fudgy Brownies.”  The Healthy Gluten-Free Life.  2012.  306.  Print.

One Skillet Dinner- Beef, Sweet Potato and Kale

So, I tend to think of paleo things as not as good as normal food.  This may be an unfair assessment, but it’s my gut reaction.  I assume it will taste “healthy” instead of good.  If you enjoy a little bit of mockery all in good fun, JP Spears has a video on youtube about the paleo diet in his Ultra Spiritual series.  My husband and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  If you get offended when people poke fun at things you like, you might not enjoy it…

Anyway, I went into this recipe with pretty low expectations, but I needed to thin my kale, I had a sweet potato growing stems and leaves on my countertop, and my carrots were growing roots in the fridge.  It was time to use these ingredients.  Normally I don’t let things go that far, but well, what can I say.  This was one of the first recipes that came up and I decided to give it a try.  I actually went back for thirds and am glad there are leftovers for later :-).  I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Also, I changed a few things, so I don’t think it’s paleo the way I made it, but I’ll put the link to the original recipe at the bottom and you can look at that if that’s important to you.  Basically, I replaced the coconut oil with olive oil and the coconut flour with brown rice flour.

 

Ingredients:

2 T. olive oil

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

3-4 carrots, peeled and diced

2-3 garlic cloves, minced (I forgot to add this, so I sprinkled on garlic powder at the end)

1 to 1.5 pounds ground beef (lower fat preferred since you won’t be draining it)

salt and pepper to taste

2 T. brown rice flour

2 cups chopped kale- about 2 handfuls (this was my first harvest from my garden!)

 

Directions:

Dice the onion, sweet potato, carrots, and garlic.  Heat the oil in a large skillet.  Add the diced vegetables and garlic to the pan, stir, cover, and cook for 10 minutes on medium.  Add the ground beef and continue cooking uncovered while stirring the beef.  When beef is cooked, add salt, pepper, and brown rice flour.  Stir until combined.  Add the kale and cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring.

Taste and add more seasoning as desired.

 

Original recipe: http://fit4godonline.com/skillet-dinner-hamburger-sweet-potatoes-kale/