Date Sweetened Cinnamon Cookies (Gluten Free, SCD, GAPS friendly)

I just tried a little experiment and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I do quite a bit of baking around here and like to have cookies and baked goods to throw into the kids' school lunches but I don't want to load them up on sugar, even natural sugar or honey (which is all we're using right now).  Eva likes dates and has used date butter (just equal parts butter and dates processed together) on top of her occasional breakfast oatmeal but my boys don't care for them normally.  But I just tried two experiments with dates and both worked out well and are very popular with the boys!  One is peanut butter balls rolled in flaked coconut (containing peanut butter, dates, flaked coconut, coconut flour, and coconut oil) and the other were cinnamon cookies. 

The cookies are not very sweet but are tasty.  If you're kids are used to refined sugar and flour then these may not go over so well... Here is the recipe!

1 1/2 cup dates (loose dates, nothing added)
1 cup almonds (soaked and dried)
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup coconut flour
3 tbs soft butter or coconut oil
2 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
pinch sea salt

Preheat oven to 350.   Put all ingredients into food processor and process until dates and almonds are well ground and mixture is a dough consistency.  Shape into small balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Flatten with the heel of your palm (or you could use the back of a greased spoon, etc...).  Bake 12-14 min.  Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Win A Free Copy of Eat Well, Feel Well: More Than 150 Delicious Specific Carbohydrate Diet(tm)-compliant Recipes by Kendall Conrad

I got this cookbook Eat Well, Feel Well: More Than 150 Delicious Specific Carbohydrate Diet(tm)-compliant Recipes a few weeks ago and really really love it. I've already made the cucumber wrapped spring rolls with peanut sauce, french toast with bananas in honey caramel sauce, and more.  Every recipe I've tried has been excellent and the kids have loved it.  So I decided to offer it as a free gift to any readers who would like to enter my little contest.  I'm trying to help promote my friend Lydia's recipe ebooks so here's the deal:  If you buy her September edition for $7.95 and comment here and let me know, I'll enter your name 1 time in a drawing.  She is offering the August edition free with the September edition so you're getting a great deal.  Her recipes are amazing with pictures of every one and all the recipes I"ve tried are excellent and very healthy, gluten free, low carb, low natural sugar etc...

If you have already purchased her ebook this month that's fine, just let me know and I'll enter your name!  If you tell a friend about this contest and they buy a book you can have your name entered again, 1 for each friend you tell who buys a book.  If you buy a subscription, I"ll give you 5 entries, and 3 entries for your friend who buys a subscription.  All you have to do is tell me in the comment section and in one week, Sept. 23, I'll  do the draw and announce the winner.  I'll email you and get your info and have the book shipped to your door.  Either way you'll be winning because Lydia's recipes are amazing!!!!!!!

Click here to go to  her ebook page where you can view the table of contents, pictures, and make your purchase.

Good luck!

Best Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies (honey sweetened)

I've tweaked this recipe a couple of times and I think I will stick to this recipe.  They're very good and makes a large batch which for my family it's a waste of time making small batches of anything!   All the kids like them.  Here's the recipe:

2 cups natural peanut butter (I used smooth, crunchy would be good too)
1 cup softened butter
1 cup honey
3 eggs

Beat together very well.  Then add the following:

1 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda

Beat well, scraping the sides of the bowl.  Shape into small balls and place on cookie sheet, flatten with a fork in criss cross fashion.  Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 for 10-12 minutes until edges brown a little.  You may have to let them cool a bit before removing from the pan.


As soon as they're cool enough I wrap some up and throw them in the freezer so they don't all get eaten up.  That way I still have something for school lunches, which comes in handy if I get behind in baking or low in groceries etc...  If you are doing SCD or GAPS I would just omit the arrowroot and increase the coconut flour to 1 cup and add an extra egg.  The texture will be a bit heavier  but they'll still be delicious.

Oh, and a glass of cold and creamy raw milk would sure come in handy about the time you're taking a pan of these out of the oven!

Frozen Peanut Butter Pie (SCD, Gluten Free, GAPS friendly)

I'm not  a GAPS or SCD diet expert by any means, but this pie I whipped up yesterday is as far as a know compliant.  We are newly trying to follow the basics and so far I really like this way of eating, lots of room for creativity and yumminess.  This is a crustless pie but you could easily add a press in nut type crust, or even a baked coconut flour crust.  Cooking With Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife is an excellent resource and has several good pie crust recipes.

Here's the recipe for the filling:

1 cup natural peanut butter (no additives)
1 cup plain yogurt, NOT low fat (preferably homemade)
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
1/3 cup honey
4 egg whites
pinch of sea salt

beat the first four ingredients until light and fluffy
in separate bowl, beat egg whites and salt until stiff
fold the egg white into the peanut butter mixture in two parts (half at a time)
pour into buttered pie dish and smooth out, cover and freeze until hardened if you can wait that long! 

I served this with homemade vanilla ice cream and it was good.

An Excellent Article About Julia Child

I didn't know much about Julie Child until I saw the movie Julie and Julie when it came out in theatres.  I absolutely loved it, in fact I think I should watch it again soon.  She held similar passions as I do, especially as it concerns butter!    Anyway, I just found this gem of an article on the Weston A. Price Foundation Blog and thought I'd share it:  The Wit, Wisdom and Naughtiness of Julia Child .  Enjoy! 

If you haven't seen the movie, it is a must see.  Here is the trailer...

Kombucha Bottled! And Pickles!

Yesterday I bottled my first double batch of kombucha, thanks to the beautiful slimy 'mushrooms' Lydia gave me when we visited her last month.  I'm using 500ml mason jars with plastic lids (just to rule out any problems with metal ) and used 3 different flavors.  Blueberry, apricot, and almond.   I also added a bit of coconut sugar to them (except the apricot) to boost the second ferment and add a touch of sweetness since we're not accustomed to kombucha yet!    I've already stuck my straw into them today for little taste and it's pretty good! 

I can see how it will become somewhat addictive, I'm already thinking about having another taste.  I'm also  drinking beet kvass everyday , 2-3 times per day and am really starting to crave that.  And it's so funny to see Amilia grabbing for the glass and drinking it down!  Will have to get some pictures or video of that for sure.

You can see from the picture that I've got a jar of pickles fermenting as well.  This batch is cucumbers and onions, with pickling spice and garlic and a touch of coconut sugar.  In the future I'll use honey but I'm all out right now.  We cracked open a jar of pickled (lacto-fermented) carrots and peppers last night with my in-laws and they were a big hit. (I put dried dill and fennel seeds along with garlic cloves and celery tops  in that one.)   Wish I could say the same for the beet kvass haha, so far Amilia and I are alone in our enjoyment of that!  

Lydia at Divine Health has written about brewing kombucha as well.  You can also do a search on her site for even more info on it.  A quick google search will provide you with simple instructions for brewing your own (or follow directions in Nourishing Traditions).  And I found another excellent article discussing the history and the many health benefits on drinking kombucha tea, as well as suggestions on how much to drink and other tips.  That site also has much more information available, so be sure to check it out!

Beautiful Blueberries and Thinking About Back to School (already!)

It's blueberry time!  I've been out of frozen blueberries for a few months now and I'm determined to fill my freezer while I can.  We use blueberries in smoothies, tossed into yogurt,  the occasional batch of muffins, or dessert such as pie or my favorite, crepes with cream cheese filling and blueberry sauce.  Eva eats her pancakes with blueberry sauce too claiming that maple syrup hurts her stomach.  So far I've been picking 3 times for a couple hours each time and probably have a couple of gallons or so in the freezer. I want more!  I'd like to try my hand at blueberry wine and also freeze some blueberry syrup (lightly sweetened with a touch of honey).  We'll see how far I get! 

According to my family age-old wisdom, blueberries should NOT be washed before freezing.  Of course, I've been notified that some people do wash them, but I pick wild berries way back in the woods on my parents' land so washing is unnecesary. If you do wash your berries make sure they are very dry and then freeze first on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper before storing in containeers.  I  pick fairly clean to begin with, but later I also pick through lightly and pull out any twigs , leaves or bad berries I find.  Then dump into a container, snap the lid on and put in the freezer!  Simple!

Today I also made pancakes with coconut flour and buckwheat flour and they turned out really well.  Ben, my pancake addict, ate them up.  I also made some with mashed banana and am going to work on them until they make a really good school lunch snack.  I realize I'm going to have to be more creative this year to figure out how to incorporate all the changes I want to do with our diet.  For one thing, I may not have any bread to work with, or if I do it will be very different. 

Thankfully I've been able to talk with Eva  a lot already about the changes and why we're doing them. She's had a really great attitude so far and really seems to be understanding the basics of gut healing and nutrition.  I've already got a fair amount of homemade chicken stock in my freezer and she's looking forward to taking a thermos of that in her school lunches (she drinks it with a straw, I'm lucky she's always liked it so much).  As soon as my in-laws travel back home in a few days I'll be ready to really dig in, though I still have to order the GAPS book and read it!  I'm not sure if we'll follow it exactly or not until I read it all but I think we'll be following at least 90%  from I've read on their website.