Emerald Wraps

Emerald Wrap Ingredients

I found out recently that I am anemic, so I have been eating lots of iron rich foods. For this post I decided to do something a little fun and different plus it includes iron rich spinach, raisins, coconut, peanuts and even the orange marmalade has some iron in it. These Emerald Wraps make a tasty snack or you can eat it as an accompaniment to your lunch. I had them for lunch the other day along with an organic nitrate free chicken sausage (cured without sugar), chicken is another iron rich food.

I had a variation of these wraps at a restaurant several months ago (I made some adjustments to them to fit my dietary needs), I thought they were yummy and fun to eat. For this recipe I am not going to include any kind of measurements because it is best to just put everything in smaller bowls and on small plates. When it is time to eat, you wrap them up one at a time at your table. (Just put the ingredients in the spinach leaf then eat).

Ingredients:

Spinach - I buy a large bag of it, so I have a lot to use in different ways throughout the week, the bag that I buy has been thoroughly washed and is ready to eat.

Dry roasted peanuts - I only eat peanuts on a very rare occasion, I prefer other nuts plus other nuts are better for you however I make an exception for the peanuts at times like these.

Raisins - I just buy good old fashioned raisins in the bulk.

Toasted shredded coconut - I buy the large shredded unsweetened coconut in the bulk. I toast it in a cast iron pan with no oil, medium heat until golden brown.

Orange marmalade - I buy Smucker's brand "Simply Fruit", sugar free, fruit juice sweetened, fruit spread.

Directions:

Take a spinach leaf then take a small amount of the orange marmalade and place it onto it, then take a small amount of all of the rest of the ingredients and put them on top of the orange marmalade. Wrap the spinach leaf around all of the ingredients, pop it into your mouth and eat it!

Happy eating!

Brooksie

Pacific Rim Salad

Pacific Rim Salad with buckwheat noodles and jumbo prawns

This is the most popular dish that I make at my house, I usually quadruple the recipe (enough to fill a four gallon container) and it will all disappear in one day. This is also the first time I am posting it on my food blog however last February I did post it on my original blog: The World According to Art Deco Girl, this recipe is so good I felt that it deserved to be in the spotlight over on the food blog. Because it is a cold salad it is great to eat while the weather is still warm however at my house it is so popular we eat it all year around. 

The recipe originally came from New Woman Magazine 1996.

This salad can be made with shrimp, crab meat or chicken. I usually use jumbo prawns (big shrimp).

Ingredients:

1 bundle *buckwheat somen noodles or brown rice angel hair pasta (both are gluten free). If you have another type of gluten free pasta you prefer such as corn you can use that instead. *For people who are on a grain free diet try buckwheat noodles, buckwheat is not a grain it is from the rhubarb family (oddly enough).

*Note if you are allergic to any of the following veggies you can substitute them out with julienne slices of carrot, whole pea pods or celery just to name a few.

1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut in julienne slivers.

3 to 4 young scallions, cut into julienne slivers.

1/2 medium sweet red pepper, seeded, cut into julienne slivers.

1/2 small hot green chili pepper, such as jalapeno, seeded and cut in julienne slivers (this can be omitted for a very mild salad).

1 lb. large shrimp about 18, boiled, shelled, and deveined, or one 1 lb. cooked lump crab meat, or 2 large chicken breasts (8 oz.), poached, skinned and boned after cooking.

2 thin slices peeled fresh ginger root.

1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced.

1/2 tsp. coarse salt (I prefer coarse pink Himalayan salt).

1/4 Cup sherry vinegar, rice wine vinegar or plain white vinegar.

1/3 Cup toasted sesame oil.

1 Tbsp. Light, low-sodium soy sauce (I use Bragg's Liquid Amino's it does not contain preservatives and is made with non GMO soy beans and much better for you than soy sauce or if you have problems with soy you can always try coconut Amino's, I have not tried these myself yet).

Optional garnishes: 

Sprigs of watercress or small dark-green lettuce leaves; 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted in a skillet until golden brown (this is my personal favorite!); or 1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped roasted, unsalted peanuts.

Directions:

1. Boil noodles in 3 quarts well salted water until just tender (follow directions on package), they should be firm but not hard in the center. Drain immediately and rinse in cold water. Drain thoroughly on cloth towel.

2. In large bowl, combine noodles with vegetables and chili pepper  and toss lightly. Slice shrimp in half lengthwise (or pick over crab meat, or pull chicken into shreds with fingers) and add to bowl.

3. To make dressing, pulverize ginger, garlic slices, and salt with mortar and pestle, or in a bowl using back of wooden spoon. Combine with vinegar, oil, and soy sauce, adjusting each to taste. Toss dressing through salad ingredients.

4. Divide into portions and garnish.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings. Per serving (6 servings) with shrimp, 282 calories: 29% (22g) protein, 28% (10g) fat, 43% (33g) carbohydrate. 115 mg cholesterol; 325 mg sodium.

Enjoy!

Know the Truth About Your Food.

One of my friends posted this movie trailer on her social media page. This is for a movie by the name of Fed UP (that is out in theaters now, I have not seen it yet because it just came out on May 9th and I just heard about it this morning). Fed Up is about the growing epidemic of obesity in America. Doctors are now saying that obesity is caused from refined sugars, rather than fat and that people are highly addicted to refined sugar (after I had done my own research I found out that after sugar has been through the refining process it is not at all like its original cane form and is nothing more than a chemical and just like the movie trailer says it is in literally everything). For example sugar can be found in bread, mayonnaise, salsa, pizza dough and much, much more!. I know personally that I am highly addicted to refined sugar and is one of the many reasons I have cut it out of my diet. I truly believe that refined sugars are harmful to everybody on the planet and not just people with weight problems. This is something I have been saying for years.

I think there should be a refined sugar free movement (similar to the gluten free movement) where there are sugar free options in foods and at restaurants. Please note when I say sugar free I am not talking about substituting refined sugar for artificial sweeteners, because those I believe are worse than refined sugars, I am talking about either leaving the sugar out all together because in a lot of circumstances it is completely not a necessary ingredient. I know this first hand because I make these things at home without it. When a recipe requires some type of sugar I substitute it with an unrefined sugar that usually has some beneficial ingredients in it (because I am all about max nutrition). My personal opinion is this: the nation I live in is eating and eating but it is the wrong foods, so most people are constantly hungry because the foods they are eating contain a bunch of fillers, refined sugars and empty calories. So the people here continue to eat to fill those voids that should be filled up with whole foods, so in essence the people here in the United States are really starving.

Check out the trailer and see what you think: http://youtu.be/aCUbvOhttp://youtu.be/aCUbvOwwfWM

Honey Walnut Shrimp

Honey Walnut Shrimp

This is one of my very favorite and most delicious recipes. In order to get this meal just right I had to combine 3 different recipes and then I had to further adjust it according to my dietary needs. Another thing I will point out before I begin is that this recipe contains mayonnaise, I do not eat store bought mayonnaise because it has a bunch of ingredients in it that I do not eat, so I make my own from scratch (I make up a batch of it in small quantities I use what I need for this recipe and then I store the rest in the refrigerator to use another time for other things) I have included the mayonnaise recipe in this recipe, in case you are like me and prefer not to eat the store bought stuff.

Ingredients for the candied walnuts:

1/2 Cup walnuts
1/2 Tablespoon butter melted
1 1/2 Tablespoon light honey (I prefer raw)
Pinch of salt

Ingredients for the fried shrimp:

1lb raw peeled, deveined shrimp also be sure to pull the tails off
1/4 Cup arrowroot powder
3 Tablespoons of coconut oil

Ingredients for the sauce:

*1/4 Cup of mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons light honey ( I prefer raw)
1 Tablespoon of organic creamed coconut (I buy it at whole foods it is a little thicker than canned coconut milk) or if you are unable to get the organic creamed coconut, canned coconut milk works great too (just scoop a Tablespoon cream off the top of the can).

*Ingredients needed for mayonnaise:
Makes 2/3 of a cup

1 egg (I prefer to use organic eggs when I make mayonnaise)
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 Cup light olive oil or grape seed oil or some other very light tasting oil

First we need to turn our walnuts into candied walnuts. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Mix the walnuts, melted butter, honey and a pinch of salt together until well coated. Place nuts on a stick free baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until the nuts start to brown. When done cooking set them aside.

Next we will make the mayonnaise. Add the egg, lemon juice and mustard to your blender. Remove the small cap in the middle of the lid and turn on blender. Keep the blender running the entire time. Wait a few seconds then very slowly start dripping the oil into the opening. The mixture will begin to blend together, keep dripping consistently until the mixture thickens and looks like mayonnaise. Now you can start to add the oil a little bit faster, being careful not to break the emulsion. The whole process takes about 5 minutes. Take out a 1/4 of a cup of the mayonnaise and set aside for the Honey Walnut Shrimp recipe,  refrigerate the rest immediately.

Then we are going to get the shrimp ready to be cooked, take the 1/4 of a cup of arrowroot powder and put it into a shallow dish. Take each shrimp and lightly coat each one with the arrowroot powder. Take your coconut oil and heat on medium high, once heated fry shrimp in batches. Do not over crowd in the pan,cook a few minutes on each side until they are cooked through. Let shrimp drain on a paper towel covered plate, when shrimp are all cooked set them aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix the mayonnaise; honey; organic creamed coconut or coconut milk and candied walnuts. Then take your fried shrimp and mix into the sauce right after draining while they are still hot. Return all items to the pan that the shrimp were fried in and heat thoroughly. Serve immediately with cooked rice, I prefer Basmati brown rice but everyone in my family prefers Basmati white.

Enjoy!

Butter VS Margarine

"Pass The Butter ... Please.

This is interesting . .. .

Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back.

It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavourings....

DO YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

Read on to the end...gets very interesting!

Both have the same amount of calories. 
Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams; compared to 5 grams for margarine.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.
Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

Very High in Trans fatty acids.

Triples risk of coronary heart disease ...

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)

Increases the risk of cancers up to five times..

Lowers quality of breast milk

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here's the most disturbing fact... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC... and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT.

These facts alone were enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance).

Open a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

* no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)

* it does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic . Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?

An Interesting Article: A Year Without Sugar, One Family's Grand Adventure plus my own grand adventure that I will share!

I found this article: A Year Without Sugar, One Family's Grand Adventure. It is about a family of four (a mom, dad and two children) that went an entire year without sugar. I found the article very interesting so I thought I would share it with you all: http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/year-of-no-sugar-one-family-grand-adventure/

Rich and Creamy Chocolate Pudding

Rich and Creamy Chocolate Pudding with Fresh Whipped Cream and Raspberries

Here is another dessert to add to the collection of healthy desserts with more to come in the future. I got this recipe from the Fred Meyer booklet that comes out monthly and is found in the health food department (FM got the recipe from the Taste for Life test kitchen). I only made some minor adjustments to the recipe.

This pudding is made from scratch rather than a box and has no artificial sweeteners. There is no gluten, refined sugars or preservatives. I recently had a friend and her husband stay with us for a few days, I mentioned making some homemade chocolate pudding with no refined sugars, her husband asked me how can you make pudding without refined sugars? My friend answers him by saying this... you just go to the store and you buy the sugar free stuff in the box. My friend is about 20 years younger than me and was raised by her dad, so needless to say EVERYTHING food wise has come out of a box, can or package (mostly some sort of fast food) her whole entire life (this seems kind of sad to me).

I took the time to explain to them that I do not eat the ingredients, especially the artificial sweeteners (most artificial sweeteners are found to cause cancer in lab rats) that are found in the instant puddings that you buy at the store in a box and that I make everything from scratch. Boy they got an education in food and cooking during their stay, that is for sure!

25 minute prep time
serves 6

Ingredients:

1 (14 ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk for the pudding
1 cup chopped dark unsweetened chocolate (I used Hershey's)
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup honey (I use raw local honey)
1/4 cup 100% pure maple syrup
1/2 tsp of raspberry extract or 1 tsp of vanilla extract
whole raspberries for a garnish
whipped cream for a garnish or for a totally dairy free garnish use coconut milk (take the cream off the top of the can and whip it till it is smooth and creamy)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Arrange 6 small ceramic or oven-proof ramekins (I don't have ramekins so I use an 8 inch ceramic souffle dish) place the ramekins or the souffle dish in a baking dish or pan with sides at least 2 inches high.

3. Whisk coconut milk until smooth over medium heat. Add chocolate and whisk constantly. until mixture is smooth and combined. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. In a large glass bowl, whisk together egg yolks, honey and maple syrup until smooth. Pour milk mixture into egg mixture slowly, whisking constantly to combine the two. Add raspberry or vanilla extract and stir to combine. Pour into souffle dish or evenly divide mixture into the ramekins.

5. Place baking dish on middle rack in oven. Pour enough water in baking dish so it comes about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the outside of the ramekins. Bake custards approximately 40 to 45 minutes, until tops are set. (The inside will become more firm once chilled).

6. Remove ramekins from oven. Set aside to cool. When cool, place ramekins in fridge and chill for four hours or overnight. Garnish with raspberries and whipped cream.

Video: How cooking can change your life by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan the author of the book: Cooked has made a video which I found very interesting and enlightening, here is the link I thought I would share with you all: http://villagegreennetwork.com/watch-video-youll-never-eat-mcdonalds-french-fries/. 

A few of the things that stood out in particular to me in this video is how the potatoes that are used in McDonald's french fries are grown, particularly the pesticides used (I have not had a McDonald's french fry in years) also that corporate cooking is much more different than home cooking (which greatly confirms what I already knew) they use copious amounts of sugar, fat and salt in the foods which produces addictions in people, the corporations like to refer to the addictions to foods created with these items as "cravability" or "snackability" which is at best brainwashing. 

The other interesting thing I learned is studies show that a poor woman that cooks at home has a far healthier diet than a rich woman that eats at a restaurant for every meal. Home cooking has taken a back seat to eating out, processed foods and quick meals, since that has happened obesity rates have sky rocketed. Cooking at home seems to have become a lost art and modern day marketing has us all brainwashed into thinking cooking at home is so time consuming and difficult, all of this is a big reason why I had decided to start this blog in the first place along with sharing my healthy recipes with people.

Cooking at home for me is very enriching experience; I enjoy picking out the whole nutritious foods that go into my cooking along with the cooking itself. Doing so ensures me as to what exactly is in each and everything I cook. To me cooking has gone from a necessity to a hobby and is swiftly becoming a passion of mine. 

Strawberries and Coconut Cream

Strawberries and Coconut Cream

Today's recipe is dedicated to a sweetheart of mine from back in 2011. He grew up on a Strawberry farm up in Washington. He passed away on March 30th 2014, he was only 36. He loved everything strawberry, his Chapstick, lemonade, home made strawberry jam (made by mom) and even his gum! 

About mid day today I was hungry for something a little sweet, something fruity and a little bit dessert like but not to heavy. I had a container of big, juicy red strawberries in the fridge. I took some out and slice them up...

At first I thought this recipe was far to simple for my blog but in reality it is just perfect for it. I had been getting requests for quick, easy and simple ideas, especially for desserts and things to help out people with their cravings for refined sugars. So here we go, strawberries in all of their sweet simple glory with just a couple extra ingredients!




Ingredients:

7 - 8 Strawberries plus one extra with stem and leaves for a garnish
1 Tbsp Coconut palm sugar
A Dollop of coconut milk  
*I always keep cans of coconut milk on hand, it is a staple in my pantry 

Directions: 

Wash strawberries, cut off stems and leaves (set one aside with greenery for a garnish). Slice strawberries and put into a small bowl, add the coconut palm sugar. Take a fork and mash them up with the coconut palm sugar, just a little bit to bring out some of the juices and flavors. Open up a can of coconut milk and scoop all of the cream on top into a separate small bowl and whip until creamy with a whisk. Scoop out about 2 Tbsp of the coconut cream (or more if you would like) and put on top of the berries. Top with your garnish, right on top of your cream. (Take the left over coconut milk and cream, combine together in an airtight container and store in the fridge. The left over milk and cream works great in a smoothie).

*Makes one serving. 

Enjoy!

Cheddar Bacon Biscuits

Cheddar Bacon Biscuits

Hello everybody welcome back! I have recently had a request for some healthy desert recipes which I will be working on in the future here. However for now I present to you my Cheddar Bacon Biscuit recipe.

These delicious biscuits are packed with protein and loaded with so many healthy goodies they can even be a meal in themselves (they are very filling). I like to serve them for breakfast with a smoothie or for dinner as the entree with a side salad and fruit. I found this recipe in a magazine and I gave it an over haul from just a traditional cheddar biscuit recipe... now they do not contain gluten, cows milk, sugars or preservatives. I added bacon (because everybody loves bacon right???) for added protein plus I eliminated scallions and replaced them with green onions.

I love to take every day recipes and change out all of the ingredients I do not eat and replace them with ingredients I do eat, this is where the food experimentation comes in, usually it takes a couple of tries of a recipe to get it just right but this one came out perfect the first time around!

Prep time is 15 min.
Cook time is 30 min.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with rack in the middle.

Ingredients:

1 stick cold butter plus a little extra to grease the pan with (cut into pieces)
2 cups rice flour
2 cups almond flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
3 green onions sliced and chopped thin
1 Tbsp dried dill
2 1/4 cup rice milk
4 Tbsp raw shelled pumpkin seeds
2 eggs
5 pieces of bacon (the bacon I use is from New Seasons Market and is nitrate free and is cured with honey instead of sugar)

Directions:

1. Grease 10 cups of a large muffin tin
2. Cook the bacon
3. Mix the two flours together and work butter into the flours with your fingers; the consistency should be grainy, with some large lumps of butter
4. Add the cooked bacon, cheddar cheese, green onion, dried dill, rice milk and eggs, mix well. (Dough will feel a little sticky or wet and that is okay). Divide batter among muffin cups, evenly distribute the pumpkin seeds on the top of each biscuit.
5. Bake until biscuits are golden and a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
6. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Slow Cooked Maple Bacon Beans

Slow Cooked Maple Bacon Beans

·        These beans do not contain refined sugars, I have substituted the refined sugars with 100 % pure maple syrup and coconut palm sugar (palm sugar has a similar texture and look as brown sugar and is low glycemic), there is no gluten, preservatives or dairy in this dish. These beans make a great main dish with a gluten free bread, roll or muffin etc...or as a side dish. Also please note I use nitrate free bacon that is cured with honey as apposed to refined sugars (I buy it at New Seasons Market).

     Cook time: 8 hours

·         Yield: Serves 5-6 as a main dish or 10-12 as a side.

INGREDIENTS

·         1 pound (2 to 2 1/4 cups) dry white beans such as Navy beans or Great Northern beans (can also use kidney beans)

·         1/3 cup pure maple syrup

·         1/3 cup coconut palm sugar

·         3-4 Tbsp Dijon mustard

·         1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

·         3 cups hot water

·         1/2 pound bacon cut into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces

·         1 medium onion, (1 1/2 cups) chopped

METHOD

1 Place beans in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Soak overnight and drain. Alternatively, bring a pot with the beans covered with 2 inches of water to a boil, remove from heat and let soak for an hour, then drain.

2 Mix the pure maple syrup, coconut palm sugar, mustard, and ground cloves with 3 cups of hot water.

3 Line the bottom of a crock pot (or a Dutch oven if you are cooking in the oven) with half of the bacon (pick the fattiest pieces). Layer over with half of the drained beans. Add all of the onions in a layer, next top with another layer of beans and the remaining bacon. Pour the maple water mixture over the beans to just cover the beans.

4 Cover and cook in a crock pot on the low setting for 8 hours (or in a 250°F oven), until the beans are tender. Check the water level a few hours in, and if the beans need more water, add some. Add additional salt to taste if needed. Note that fresher beans will cook faster than older beans. Your beans may be ready in less than 8 hours, or they may take longer. The beans are even better the next day and can also be frozen in individual serving sizes too.

Nut Butter Balls Recipe



Nut Butter Balls

I had this recipe over on my vintage blog but I thought I would put it over here on my cooking blog to add to my recipe collection.

These Nut Butter Balls are one of my favorite things to eat and they are fun to make. I originally found this recipe online but I have greatly changed it and adapted it to my tastes. These nut butter balls are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, free of preservatives and they are vegetarian (with a slight change of sweetener of raw honey to pure maple syrup they could be made vegan).

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried coconut
(feel free to experiment with the ingredients above, switch out the seeds with nuts if you would like, you can use raw or roasted. Tailor them to your needs and your tastes, you can add chocolate chips or dried fruit cut up into small pieces, the sky is the limit to how these can be adapted).
1 T melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup honey
1 cup of nut butter of your choice, almond is always good, at home I have a nut butter maker and I like to take mixed roasted nuts (a no peanut blend) and I make home made nut butter. Also if you like your nut butter balls to have a more coconut flavor to them you can use a 1/2 cup of nut butter of your choice and a half of a cup of coconut butter.

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large bowl, mix all ingredients really well with your hands then roll mixture into balls and place onto a cookie sheet, refrigerate till firm.

When firm store in a container with lid in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Ginger Bread With Lemon Honey Glaze

Ginger Bread with Honey Lemon Glaze (with a Couple of surprise twists!)

Welcome all to my new blog, this is my very first recipe. For all of you that are new and may have missed my first post yesterday this is my new healthy cooking blog. All of my cooking and baking is gluten free, wheat free, refined sugar free, preservative free, MSG free, no preservatives, minimally processed and cows milk free ( I do however use some dairy products off and on just no cows milk).

As I mentioned above this recipe does contain a few surprise twists, one of them is cooking with tea (which is an art in itself) for added flavor and also cooking with essential oil which imparts an even more intense burst of delicious flavor (cooking with essential oils is a brand new and fun adventure for me). Typically cooking with essential oils is not recommended however I found a brand that is pure enough that certain essentials can be ingested, they do not contain anything but the pure essential oil itself, there are no other oils or fillers added. The brand is doTerra: http://doterrablog.com/tips-for-baking-with-essential-oils. Note this recipe can be made without the essential oils it is still wonderful but for full on flavor and other benefits please do check into their website.

I originally found this ginger bread recipe online (sorry I do not remember where) however I ended up adjusting it quite a bit (adding essential oils among many other things) to fit my specific food sensitivities and tastes. I also found the Lemon Honey Glaze recipe online which I only did minor adjustments too.

First we will start off with the recipe for the Ginger Bread and while the bread is baking you can work on the Honey Lemon Glaze.

Ginger Bread

Preheat over to 400

Ingredients:

3/4 C. coconut flour
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. of almond milk or other preferred milk
3 tsp. dried ginger
1/3 C. pure maple syrup
2 ginger tea bags
2 drops of ginger essential oil (doTerra essential oil)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a small sauce pan over low heat. Add milk and ginger tea bags, let steep for 5 minutes. Simmer but do not boil, set aside to cool.
2. Sieve coconut flour and ginger into a large mixing bowl (glass or ceramic is recommended if using the essential oils if not any type of bowl is fine) add salt.
3. In a separate large bowl (glass or ceramic is recommended if using the essential oils if not any type of bowl is fine) whisk eggs and pure maple syrup together. Then gradually add the milk and butter mixture at this time also add the 2 drops of ginger essential oil, whisk continuously until it is smooth, creamy and kind of a syrupy texture.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry, stir until you have a smooth batter. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan (glass is recommended if using the essential oils).

Bake at 400 for 45 minutes (until it is golden on top and when you put a tooth pick in it, it comes out clean).

Lemon Honey Glaze

Ingredients:

1/2 C. coconut milk (canned use the thick cream at the top).
2 Tbsp. coconut oil melted.
2 Tbsp. honey (I use raw local honey).
2 tsp. lemon juice.
1 tsp. lemon zest.
8 drops lemon essential oil (for a very lemony glaze).

Directions:

Mix it all ingredients together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Place in the fridge until bread is done baking. When bread is done take it out to cool, once cool slice and spoon glaze over bread (if glaze happens to separate just give it a stir) serve on a small plate with a fork because bread and glaze are both quite moist.

Enjoy!

Time to cook!

Time to cook!

So I have decided to start yet another new blog to add to my repertory of other blogs however this one is significantly different than the rest. This blog is devoted to healthy cooking that actually tastes good. In 2011 I had to dramatically change my diet due to certain food sensitivities, since that time I have been cooking without gluten, refined sugars, MSG, cows milk, preservatives and minimally processed foods. The biggest challenge was...what in the world do I eat??? Followed by...how can I make food that does not taste like cardboard?? Next question was when I go out where can I eat? I had time to get this pretty well figured out over the past 3 years.

During that time I have actually come to enjoy cooking quite a bit, one of my favorite things is cooking for others along with conducting food experiments in my home test kitchen. What I like most about cooking for others is when they tell me how delicious everything is and then when I tell them that there is no gluten, refined sugars, preservatives etc....the look of surprise on everybody face is priceless!

When I start off with a food experiment sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad, the people that I live with are my guinea pigs. By the time a recipe reaches the blog or a guest it has all the kinks worked out, it is thoroughly the bomb and has full on flavor! Over time I started having friends, family and strangers even ask for my recipes, which brings me to this blog and the reason why I started it. At first I did not relish the idea of starting yet another blog but I did need a better vehicle to deliver my recipes to the people that were asking for them. So after lots of time and consideration...I present to you: Time to cook - a healthy food blog.

Stay tuned for my next blog post which contains my very first recipe: Ginger Bread with Lemon Honey Glaze coming soon!