Category Archives: Gluten Free

Homemade Salad Dressing

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Olive OilThis recipe is very flexible.  It is probably most like a vinaigrette dressing. I will give approximate quantities, but feel free to be creative.  The basic concept is that you use equal parts of oil and vinegar, a bit of sweetener (I prefer local raw honey), herbs, spices and flavorings of your choice.  I will give measurements below, but just know that I NEVER measure anything.  I use the highest quality ingredients I can afford at the time.

  • ½ Cup EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
  • ½ Cup apple cider vinegar (or a mixture of ACV and balsamic vinegar, or just balsamic vinegar)
  • ±1 Tablespoon raw organic honey
  • 1-2 teaspoons plain yogurt (or homemade milk kefir)
  • 1-2 teaspoons prepared mustard with no HFCS
  • ±2 Tablespoons water (optional)
  • ½ teaspoon salt (Himalayan pink crystal preferred)
  • a few turns of ground mixed pepper (any pepper will do)
  • Choose some or all of the following options:  basil, cilantro, garlic clove, spring onions, baby tomatoes, avocado, etc. I only add tomatoes and avocados when I am blending it.

No blender version:  Add everything (chop garlic) into a suitable bottle and shake (like the EVOO bottle when it is finished).

Blender version: Add everything except the olive oil and blend until smooth. Add olive oil and blend minimally.

The salad dressing stores well in the refrigerator.  If it runs low, you can always just add a little bit of ACV and EVOO and give it a bit of a shake for a final round of goodness!

This has been a family favorite since 1980 when a Swiss couple shared it with us.  All of our kids love this salad dressing and make it themselves too.  It is a staple for the many different types of salads we make.  You can save yourself enormous amounts of money by making your own.  There is no salad dressing that will taste better or be better for you!  I just can’t see any reason why anyone would ever buy salad dressing when this is sooooo good and soooooo easy!

Quick Easy Chicken Butternut Curry

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IMG_0488For those of you who don’t always plan in advance as well as you would like (my hand is up), I thought I might share a very easy last-minute recipe you can make which will surprise you by how fast it is ready and how good it tastes.

It does depend on having a few things in your refrigerator on stand-by, which is a good habit to get into, especially if you try to figure out last-minute healthy meals like I do.  These quantities serve about 4, but you can add a bit of everything to serve more. Preciseness is not that important in most of my cooking, much to the dismay of some of my family members!  Prep time is about 10-15 minutes, depending on your chopping speed.  Cooking time is about 10-15 minutes too!  You can hardly go out and get fast food for under 30 minutes!  And this is WAY more delicious and healthy!

Ingredients & Method all mixed together:

  • 2 Chicken breasts (organic, if possible.  They can be frozen, so don’t worry if you didn’t thaw it out!).  If you are able and want to cut them into pieces, you can, but for a faster result, just use them whole.  If they are still frozen solid, then use them whole, and you can break them into smaller pieces somewhere along the cooking process!
  • Coconut Oil, 1-2 Tablespoons (depending on your budget and how much you have on hand, more is always good!)
  • Onions, chopped.  Either ½ onion leftover in the fridge, or a whole one, your choice.
  • Garlic, couple of cloves, chopped or pressed (I’m still chopping, though I am hoping for a Pampered Chef garlic press for Christmas!).

Throw all of that into a largish pan on a medium low heat (it can go in stages, whatever works!).  Cover and simmer on a low heat, turning the chicken occasionally to brown.  If frozen, this stage will take a little bit longer.  You can also use a firm wooden spoon to break the chicken breast into pieces whenever you are able to do so.  Wait until it’s cooked a bit, so that it is not a difficult thing to do). I never use metal on metal when cooking, just saying.

  • Curry Powder, 1-2 Tablespoons.  Add curry powder to the pan after the chicken has mostly changed color on all sides and stir everything around so it gets impacted by the curry powder.  The chicken does not have to be cooked through the middle. The curry powder likes to sauté with the other ingredients to share its flavor. I have been enjoying Simply Organic Curry Powder, which I think I buy from Kroger.  It is a staple in my cupboard. I will also experiment with different curry powders.  It’s great to get one with Turmeric, since it has so many beneficial qualities.
  • Butternut, chopped.  I chopped about ¾ of a butternut into small pieces (while the chicken mixture was browning).  I actually left most of the skin on, but it was cut small.  It was fine with the skin on, and it is a lot faster than having to peel it!  (I took the seeds out and put them in a glass dish (see picture) with coconut oil and salt to roast in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes – makes a wonderful snack for later! Once I figured this out, I was amazed about how I had been wasting butternut seeds for years!  Don’t worry about cleaning them, just dump all the insides in!)  If you don’t have any butternut, you could use carrots or any combination of vegetables that you have on hand, and change the name!IMG_0487
  • 1-2 Cups Chicken Stock.  This is a great thing to find in your fridge or freezer!  If I didn’t have any homemade chicken stock, I would have just added one cup of water
  • Ground Salt, Himalayan Crystal.  A few turns.
  • Ground Pepper, a few turns.

Allow to simmer on low for about 15 minutes.  Put some Quinoa or rice on to cook and it will be ready at the same time.

Optional:  cashews.  If you are a bit short on the meat, add cashews, or if you have an abundance of cashews, just add them for the taste!

While simmering, make a quick salad and Voila, a wonderful dish to delight the family – and they didn’t even guess I wasn’t prepared!  I promise I didn’t use any recipe for this, except what was stored in my head.  That doesn’t mean no one else gets any credit, I just can’t remember who I need to acknowledge for how I’ve learned to make curry.  I used to have no idea how to make a nice curry and asked a lot of people along the way.  It turns out, it isn’t really all that hard!  And it gets easier and better with a bit of practice!

I don’t think this curry was spicy at all.  If you want it a bit more spicy, add a chili pepper with the onions during the sautéing process.

 

Deviant Chocolate Mousse Cake

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Minolta DSC

Raw cacao powder – packed full of nutrition

deviant |ˈdēvēənt|, adjective, departing from usual or accepted standards, esp. in social or sexual behavior: deviant behavior | a deviant ideology.

Ingredients:

  • ½ Cup cacao butter
  • 1/3 Cup cacao powder
  • 4 Tablespoons honey
  • 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 2 eggs (organic)
  • zest and juice from one lime (organic)
  • pinch salt
  • almonds (raw, organic)

Method:

Add desired amount of almonds to a food processor, process until they are the consistency you desire. Dump all the rest of the ingredients except the cacao butter and process to blend.

Melt the cacao butter over low heat, or in a double boiler. Remove from the heat and add to the food processor and blend with the rest of the ingredients.

Oil a glass dish or pie pan with coconut oil.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  When it is done the top should be slightly cracked but the middle will still be soft and wiggly.   Allow to cool and then refrigerate overnight.  If you are very aware of presentation, you can decorate with sliced or chopped almonds and cacao powder on top before serving.

Commentary:

I doubled the recipe when I made this for Thanksgiving Eve 2013.  The cacao butter was REALLY REALLY hard, so I didn’t manage to use the full amount required. I added some coconut oil to make up for the lack of cacao butter. Of course, I didn’t measure anything (except the can of coconut milk, because that was really easy), so the results are only approximate! I doubled the recipe and processed it in a food processor half at a time.  I cooked it for longer at a lower temperature. After cooking, I put it outside to cool because it was about at freezing temperature where we were.  It didn’t have time to set overnight in the fridge, so when it was time for serving, it wasn’t at its peak.  The overall response was tolerable, but I enjoyed it.  It looked more promising than it tasted. A bit more honey (not sure I used the full amount) would have made it better for some of the less whole, natural food enthusiasts amongst us.  After tasting the batter, I must confess that I added some cream cheese, about 5 Tablespoons, to the double batch, because it seemed as if that might give the taste an umpph. Since there was some leftover, I enjoyed eating it the next day after it had set in the fridge. There weren’t too many takers for my Deviant Mousse Cake the following day, but it was also Thanksgiving with a lot of sweet treats around to choose from!

I would definitely make this again and may experiment with quantities.  I might also try to make a nut/date crust for the bottom.

I named this cake because I loosely based it on a recipe I found at http://spirithealers.blogspot.com/2013/11/gluten-free-chocolate-mousse-cake-with.html

but I deviated significantly from it.  It was also a big deviation from the rather mainstream types of mousse or cheese cakes which my audience was more familiar with.  The benefits of raw cacao, cacao butter and coconut are certainly deviant thinking for many of us!

What is your favorite healthy treat?