Tag Archives: Gluten Free

Festive Cranberry Sauce

Festive Crannberry Sauce

This is the Best Cranberry Sauce Ever!!! IMHO 🙂 Even if you don’t like cranberry sauce, you will like this one! It is that good!

It is bright, sweet, and tart, a gorgeous, gorgeous shade of berry, and the coconut sugar added at the final stage adds an earthy warmth like a cozy hug that can’t be described. After the sauce is poured warm into a serving bowl, it is sprinkled with toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts and chilled for the perfect accompaniment to your holiday table! It is definitely going on mine! Happy Holidays!

Festive Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 Pint of Fresh Cranberries

1/2 Cup Organic Apple Cider

1/2 Cup Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice

1/2 Cup of Honey

Zest of One Organic Orange

1/2 Cup Toasted Walnuts

Directions: In a medium saucepan, add washed, fresh cranberries, cider, orange juice, honey, and orange zest. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until the berries pop and the juices have reduced by about half.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350º degrees, and place the walnuts on a cookie sheet. After the oven has preheated, toast the walnuts for five minutes. Remove from the oven and cool, then coarsely chop them and set them aside for sprinkling on the top of the cranberry sauce when it is ready.

Place the warm, simmered cranberry sauce into a blender. Blend until smooth and emulsified. Pour into a serving dish and sprinkle while warm with the toasted, coarsely chopped walnuts. This allows some of the walnuts to sink into the sauce so they are throughout and on the top. Chill at least four hours. This will keep in the refrigerator and can be made in advance!

Makes 2 Cups

Eat Your Nutrients!

Oven Roasted Fennel, Carrots and Red Onion

Roasted Vegetables

My favorite way to eat vegetables in the colder months is oven roasting! Roasting vegetables in the oven brings out the natural sugars in the vegetables, and it caramelizes them adding even more layers of flavor.

If you have been following me for awhile, you have heard over and over to eat your vegetables and eat your nutrients. 🙂 Oven roasting makes it an easy way to do so! Yes! Some of the health benefits of Fennel is it contains Phytonutrients, Vitamin C, Fiber, Folate and Potassium. Red Onion is a source of Sulfur and Quercetin (cancer protective). Carrots are high in Vitamin A, and also contain good amounts of Biotin and Vitamin K. By eating these three all together, you are getting a powerhouse of beneficial nutrients!

This recipe for Oven Roasted Fennel, Carrot and Red Onion is an outstanding choice to serve at your Thanksgiving table. It is colorful, rustic and so delicious! I hope you give it a try!

Oven Roasted Fennel, Carrots and Red Onion

Preheat your oven to 375º degrees.

Ingredients:

2 Fennel Bulbs

6 Medium Carrots

1 Large Red Onion

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1 Teaspoon of Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

1 Teaspoon Black Pepper

Directions:

Wash and trim the fennel, and remove the stalks. Slice the fennel into 1/2 inch slices. Peel the carrots and slice. Peel the red onion and cut in half, then into 10 wedges total. In a medium bowl toss the prepared vegetables with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a parchment lined, rimmed baking sheet. Place in the preheated oven and roast for 30 to 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender and caramelized, tossing with a spatula after the first 20 minutes.

It is ready to Serve!

Enjoy your day!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Beef Paprikash on Spaghetti Squash Noodles with Sliced Avocado

If you are looking for a hearty meal to put on the table that you don’t have to slave over, is inexpensive, and lower carbohydrate, try a plate of Beef Paprikash! The Spaghetti Squash noodles are low carb. and hold all the juices, and the avocado goes well with the spicy beef sauce. It is delish!

This recipe uses a slow cooker, so it can be prepped the day before or in the morning, and then you can walk away until it is time to eat. I added some smoked paprika to the beef sauce to give it a smokey flavor that veers slightly away from the traditional recipe, and it is dairy free! It is the perfect cool weather meal that will leave you satisfied and nourished without adding to your waistline.

Beef Paprikash on Spagehtti Squash Noodles with Avocado

Beef Paprikash on Spaghetti Squash Noodles with Sliced Avocado

Ingredients:

1 Two Pound Chuck Roast

2 Tablespoons of Tapioca Flour*

1 1/2 Teaspoon of Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

2 Teaspoons of Black Pepper

2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

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1 Large Yellow Onion

2 Red Bell Peppers, Large Diced

4 Cloves of Minced Garlic (or 2 Tablespoons of Garlic Infused Olive Oil if you are eating Low FodMap)

1 Cup of Beef Broth

1/4 Cup Tomato Paste

1 Tablespoon of Paprika

1 Tablespoon of Smoked Paprika

1 1/2 Teaspoons of Caraway Seeds, crushed

1 Teaspoon of Dried Parsley

1 Teaspoon of Dried Dill

1 Teaspoon of Fish Sauce

1/2 Cup Full Fat Coconut Milk, added before serving

——————————————————–

1 Medium Spaghetti Squash

2 Ripe Avocados*

Beef Paprikash on Spaghetti Squash Noodles with Avocado

Directions: With paper towel, pat the chuck roast dry. Mix the Tapioca Flour, Salt and Pepper together with a whisk, and season the Chuck Roast. In a large heavy pan over medium high heat, add your olive oil, and brown the chuck roast for 5 minutes and then flip it over and brown it on the other side for 5 more minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the onion and dice the peppers, and place in the bottom of a large slow cooker. Whisk together the spices, tomato paste, broth, garlic, and fish sauce. When beef is browned, place it on top of the sliced onions in the crockpot. Pour the sauce over the top. Cook on low covered for 8 hours in the crockpot. Remove the Beef from the crockpot after 8 hours and shred it with two forks. Add it back to the sauce and stir in 1/2 cup coconut milk right before serving.

For the “noodles”, one hour before serving, preheat your oven to 375º degrees. Slice a medium sized spaghetti squash in half, and remove the seeds. Season the inside with salt and pepper. Place in a baking pan cut side down with 1/2 cup of water. Bake for one hour. Right before serving, remove from the oven, and cool for about ten minutes so it is easy to handle. (It should pierce easily with a knife.) Flip the squash over and run a fork along the inside of the squash, making noodles.

Slice two ripe avocados to serve with the dish.

Serve the saucy Beef Paprikash over the “noodles” and place the avocado on the side like the picture above.

Beef Paprikash on Spagehtti Squash Noodles

Beef Paprikash on Spaghetti Squash Noodles

*Omit if you are eating Low FodMap

Eat Your Nutrients!

Chocolate Cherry Energy Balls

These little Energy Balls are a great way to bust a craving, with benefits! The raw cacao busts an intense chocolate craving, which can actually be your body’s way of telling you it is deficient in magnesium. Raw Cacao is rich in it! The almond butter contains protein and healthy fat, walnuts contain brain boosting Omega 3’s, tart cherries are anti-inflammatory, the honey is a natural form of sweetness, and the sea salt gives our bodies trace minerals it needs. Just one of these a day can really help reduce cravings for sweets, or why not replace these with other sweets you might reach for that don’t contain clean, health promoting, ingredients? Here’s the easy recipe! They are delicious to serve at a holiday party as a truffle.

Chocolate Cherry Energy Balls

Ingredients:

1 Cup Almond Butter, no added sugar (I Used Artisana Brand)

1/3 Cup Raw Cacao Powder

1/3 Cup Dried Tart Cherries with no Added Sugar

1/4 Cup Raw Honey

1/8 Teaspoon Almond Extract

1/8 Teaspoon Sea Salt

3/4 Cup Raw Walnuts, Coarsely Chopped

Directions: In a food processor, or vigorously with a fork in a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the chopped walnuts. Form the mixture into 34 balls, and roll in chopped walnuts. Refrigerate in a sealed container, or if you like them firmer you can freeze them.

Apple Butter in the Crockpot

I love apple season! The apples are crisp and abundant in the Fall, and I believe everyone loves the smell of apples and cinnamon when they walk into a home.

Apple Butter in the Crockpot (No Sugar Added) in a Rose Chintz China Bowl

Do you love apple butter as much as I do? i didn’t grow up eating it. I learned about apple butter when I moved to a Southern state from Northern Michigan in my twenties. The town I moved to had an annual apple butter festival where they made it in large copper pots during the festival weekend, and the whole town smelled like delicious cooking apples!

The fact that this recipe is so full of flavor and natural sweetness from the apples themselves is very appealing from a nutrition standpoint. Naturally fruit sweetened apple butter contains vitamin C, phytonutrients, and fiber, and also small amounts of potassium and calcium.

Some of the ways I use apple butter is for baking, with pork, topping sweet potatoes, in cookies, muffins, apple pie, as a spread, and in smoothies, and honestly I like it plain by the spoonful. It is especially beautiful in this Rose Chintz china bowl that has been passed down through the generations in our family. 🙂

Apple Butter (Crockpot No Added Sugar)

This crockpot recipe means you can walk away and don’t need to stand over the pot stirring! It is thick and as good as the more labor intensive way, and your house will smell amazing!

Apple Butter in the Crockpot

In this recipe, I caramelized the apples on the stove top before adding them to the crockpot for a richer flavor, and to add layers and complexity to the apple butter, I included the zest of the lemon and a bit of salt.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Pounds of Apples (I used 4 Granny Smith and 4 Fuji Apples)

1 Tablespoon of Coconut Oil (You could also substitute Grass Fed Butter or Ghee)

1 1/4 Cup Fresh Apple Cider (No additives or sugar added)

Zest and Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Teaspoon Cinnamon

!/4 Teaspoon of Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Directions:

Peel, core, and slice the apples. Melt the coconut oil in a large sautee pan over medium high heat. When the coconut oil is melted, add the apples. Cook the apples in the coconut oil for five minutes, stirring only occassionally until the apples are nicely browned.

Sliced Apples

Add the remaining ingredients to the apples, and bring the apples to a boil.

Sauteeing Apples

Then, place the apple mixture in the crockpot and cook on high for one hour with the lid slightly ajar. After one hour with the lid ajar, place the lid completely onto the crockpot, and cook an additional three hours until the apples are mostly disintegrated.

Apples Sauteed and in Crockpot

With an immersion blender or food processor (you could also use a blender). Blend the apple butter until smooth. Place in glass jars and seal.

Makes approximately 2 1/2 Cups.

Eat Your Nutrients!

How to Make a Quick, Grain Free, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mug Muffin

It is a perfect time to enjoy this mug muffin! Find the full recipe here. That is Ming, Ming snorteling in the background of this video. If you look closely in the beginning, she is in the left hand corner!

Enjoy your day!

Sandra

Apple Pie Microwave Mug Muffin

My family loves my mug muffin recipes, and they have been asking for an apple pie mug muffin! I can’t wait to share it with you also! Mug muffins are so awesome…….they are fast, fresh, and cater to an individuals preference, because you make one at a time! You don’t have a whole batch to consume before they get stale, and if you feel like apple, pumpkin, berry, or whatever you have in the house, you get to choose.

This muffin takes two minutes in the microwave, and you can prep it and refrigerate it the night before if your morning is rushed. Then all you have to do for breakfast is pop it in the microwave for two minutes, and it is ready! Even so, they only take ten minutes to prep and two minutes to cook if you make it right when you want it.

It is a nutritious, grain free, guilt free breakfast or snack! I personally like to make one in the evening, and my children like to make them for breakfast. This Apple Pie Mug Muffin is sweetened with just a tablespoon of honey, has a healthy fat and protein rich egg in it, and the apple of your choice, which is a good source of fiber as well as the coconut flour! I used Fuji apple in the muffin pictured below. If you like an apple with more tartness, try a Granny Smith, but any kind will work! Use your favorite!

Apple Pie Microwave Mug Muffin

Apple Pie Microwave Mug Muffin

Ingredients:

1 Large Egg

1/2 Cup Chopped Apple (this is about half a medium apple, peeled and cored)

2 Tablespoons Apple Sauce

1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour

1 Tablespoon Almond Flour

1 Tablespoon Honey

1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

A Dash of Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except the apple. Fold in the apple, reserving a little bit for the top. Spoon the batter into a mug. Sprinkle with the remaining diced apple. Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Serve! Be careful, it is hot and delicious, and smells soooo good!

Enjoy your day!

Apple Pie Microwave Mug Muffin Ingredients

Eat Your Nutrients!

Creamy Italian Dressing

MMMmmm! Creamy Italian dressing that is healthy! It uses avocado oil mayonnaise, dried herbs that you should have in your pantry, a touch of honey, and a white balsamic vinegar to give it zing! There are no funky additives in homemade dressings. This recipe actually started one of my kiddos eating salads and liking them, but don’t limit it to the greens. It also makes a scrumptious dip!

Creamy Italian Dressing

The benefits of avocado oil are plentiful, including it is a source of essential fatty acids, is heart healthy, is one of the top five food sources of Vitamin E, and it is loaded with chlorophyll which is detoxifying! Read more about the benefits here.

Incorporating herbs into recipes gives us added vitamins and minerals in our diet. Each one has its own special properties and benefits. The whfoods.org database is a wealth of information if you want to dig further.

I don’t know about you, but I am planning to enjoy this dressing often!

Creamy Italian Dressing

3/4 Cup Avocado Oil Mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon Garlic Infused Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons of White Balsamic Aged Vinegar

1 Teaspoon Honey

1/2 Teaspoon Dried Organic Parsley

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Organic Oregano

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Organic Basil

1/2 Teaspoon Himalayan Pink Salt or Sea Salt

1/3 Teaspoon Black Ground Pepper

Directions:

Whisk all the ingredients together until completely blended. That’s it! Enjoy!

Eat Your Nutrients!

Ming in the Moon (The Autumn Moon Festival)

This weekend is the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is based on the lunar calendar and is celebrated on month 8 day 15. This year it falls on Sunday, September 27th. The moon is said to be the brightest and fullest it will be all year at this time.

It has been tradition for our family to have an Autumn Moon Festival dinner party every year since my daughters were adopted as babies from China. Ming’s roots are in China as well, as all pugs are. Pugs were companions to Chinese Emperors and are one of the oldest breeds of dogs. So, I thought, how fun to have a picture taken of Ming in the Moon!

As part of the celebration we eat Moon Cakes. These are sweet pastries filled with different fillings like red bean paste, lotus seed paste, or a nut filling. They often also contain a hard boiled salted egg yolk that symbolizes the moon. I prefer them without the yolks, as they are an acquired taste. The moon cakes are round like the moon and symbolize togetherness. We used to order our delicious moon cakes from a bakery every year in New York City’s Chinatown. Moon Cakes are beautiful! Read more about them here. Since becoming gluten intolerant a few years ago, I have made a gluten free version at home instead. The recipe I make can be found on Kirbie’s Cravings.

Gluten Free Moon Cakes

My older daughter, who is a nurse, came over today and spent the day with me in the kitchen prepping the dishes for the party. It will be a gluten free dinner using some of my favorite Paleo and Gluten Free Chinese Recipes, including the Chinese Five Spice Chicken Bites from my blog. Have you tried them yet? They are so easy and delicious.

Chinese Five Spice Chicken Bites

As part of the decorations, I made Crepe Paper Party Balls as a party favor for each guest. I found the idea on Martha Stewart’s website under Erin Furey’s craft videos. If you enjoy crafting, there are some great ideas there! I hope they are as fun to open as they were to make! After dinner we will go outside and see the full moon and release colorful Sky Lanterns. It should be a fun time, and Ming Ming will be right there also. She loves a good celebration!

Sour Cherry and Honey Shortbread Cookies

Warning! It is hard not to eat the whole batch of these! The good news is they are delicious, and it is a small batch.

These cookies are an absolutely delicious shortbread cookie treat recipe with the chewy tart bite of cherries!

They are delicate little bites with simple, whole food ingredients that come together in ten minutes.

The recipe makes a small batch of eleven cookies. Just short of a dozen. I have made the recipe several times to perfect it, and eleven is the perfect number.

I have this Moon Cake Mold Press that I used to imprint the tops of the cookies with a rose, but it isn’t necessary to make these cookies. I use it to make gluten free mooncakes during the Autumn Moon Celebration and have had great success with it for cookies. It just makes them fancier, and I am a gadget junkie.

Sour Cherry and Honey Tea Cookies

The benefits touted in regards to cherries are they are anti-inflammatory, enhance sleep, help with post-workout soreness, reduce stroke risk and more. See this article on cherries if you want to learn more. I love all these benefits, but I especially love the taste of them, and all the benefits are a bonus!

Honey has trace minerals in it and is one of my favorite natural sweeteners. My father was a beekeeper, and I used to help him in the bee hives when I was a child. Honey is truly miraculous. It is still a form of sugar to our bodies, but a little goes a long way! To make sure I know I am getting a high quality, pure honey, I buy it from a local beekeeper or farm market where a beekeeper is selling their honey. Local food co-ops are another great place to find a reputable honey source.

This cookie recipe only has seven ingredients, and each one adds flavor.

Sour Cherry and Honey Tea Cookies

Preheat your oven to 325º degrees F.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 Cups Superfine Almond Flour

1/4 Cup Coconut Oil

1/4 Cup Sour (Tart) Dried Cherries (I used an organic cherry with no added ingredients, just cherries)

2 Tablespoons of Local Honey

1 Teaspoon of Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice

1/2 Teaspoon of Pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 Teaspoon of Himalayan Pink or Sea Salt

Directions: Place all the ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until all the ingredients are incorporated and holding together with the cherries in small bits, but not completely pureed into the dough. You should still see bits of nice sized, but not whole, cherries.

Scoop the dough with a tablespoon cookie scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies two inches apart. Press the cookie with a round of the moon cake press or use fork tines to flatten the cookie to an inch thickness.

Bake in the preheated oven for just 9 minutes until the cookies are starting to brown on the edges. Cool completely.