Food Processor

Mama Birdie is stompin' with the big dogs now! I done got me a Food Processor! I had been without one for quite some time now, I have a Ninja food processor, but not the kind that has a shredder. This is going to save me sooo much time!  So I was so excited I made some plantain hash browns! They were really good! The boys loved them. But now my mind is thinking, what else can I make? Sauer Kraut? AIP chili? More Plantain bread? Maybe I can even try making Yuca bread? The possibilities are endless! Do you have a food processor? What do you use yours for?

Pumpkin Sunflower Seed Bars

Okay, so I keep saying I am going to get this blog up and going, so I am hereby challenging myself to write a blog post daily for 30 days! Yes, no if ands or but's. 
So the boys are still gluten, nightshade free, tree nut free, seafood and shellfish free. No changes there. But I did create an awesome snack for them last night! What can I call it? I think I will call it a Pumpkin Sunflower seed Nut bar! The recipe is pretty simple, it may need some revising just because I didn't think the bars were as hard as I wanted them to be, but that will give me an excuse for another post on another day :-)

Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups Pumpkin Seeds
1 cup Sunflower seeds
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconuts
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup sunflower butter
Parchment Paper
8x8 pan

This is what I did:
Preheat oven 350
Mix the first 3 ingredients together.
Heat the last 3 ingredients until stirrable...is that a word?
Then mix the sticky mixture with the Seed and shredded coconut
Put Parchment paper in pan with enough to cover the top of the mixture.
Press the ingredients in and press into place using the excess parchment paper
Cook for 10-15 minutes checking around 10 to make sure not to burn.
Take out, let cook for a while
Put in fridge for 30 minutes
Take out of Fridge and cut with a sharp knife.Should make about 12 bars. 

Gluten & Egg Free Plantain Rolls

I finally mastered the art of gluten and egg free bread making! Okay, well, I actually didn't master bread making but after many failed attempts and finally getting a recipe that works, it sure does feel like I mastered it! I even went the lengths and made dairy free cheddar cheese to go on the sandwich!  Woop Woop! Mama Birdie has been working it out in kitchen. Poor boys, they haven't had a good sandwich since....maybe April? My boys are ecstatic about having sandwiches in their lunches tomorrow.  I can picture them in the lunchroom at school now. Give them some good food and they will either start twirling or foot tapping and one of them is guaranteed to start humming his "happy tune".  I Wonder where they got that from...could it be from yours truly? 

Anyway, the boys have been doing awesome since I have put them on the Auto Immune Paleo Protocol, their skin has dramatically improved! I am trying add more healing/repair in the mix to help heal "leaky gut" which is said to be the reason behind food allergies.  Just taking food out of the diet is simply not enough to heal the damage that is in the gut.  The whole purpose is for the gut to actually heal and for me to try to re-introduce the foods one at a time that they are allergic to, in hopes they can tolerate them.  

Onto the bread, I found this recipe and added a few changes. I added nutritional yeast to give it a more savory, slightly cheesy taste. Nutritional yeast is an deactivated yeast that is used in a lot of vegan dishes as a flavoring, particularly to replace cheese. To me it tastes similar to unsalted parmesan cheese and looks like gold fish food. It can be found in health food stores and is sold the form of in flakes. This bread can also be used as dinner rolls, bread for dipping in olive oil and herbs. Get creative, add herbs to them Rosemary, Oregano, or Thyme. Try them out and let me know how it works for you!

Ingredients:

1 Green plantain

1 1/4 Cups Arrowroot starch or tapioca

2 tablespoons of coconut flour

2 Tablespoons of Nutritional yeast

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup Homemade coconut milk or canned

2 Tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Peel and grate Plantain set aside

3. Combine dry ingredients

4. Mix coconut milk and olive oil into dry ingredients

5. Add plantain to dough, mixing with hands, if needed add extra milk if too dry, or extra starch if too wet - one tablespoon at a time. Divide into 8 balls. 

6. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Dairy, Nut Free Cheese AIP

When the kids were younger a trip to the deli counter was a must when grocery shopping. My boys loved getting those cheese samples. The perks of being kids....cute kids :-)  They nibbled on that piece of cheese and made it last until the end of our grocery trip. It was always something they looked forward to. They were happy, I was happy to be able to shop in peace. 
  Who doesn't love cheese? Cheese is a staple food in most households. You can literally save a disastrous meal by throwing cheese in it. Ask me how I know? Then entered the diagnosis of "dairy allergy", that perk went out the window. No more cheese for my little guys and grocery shopping wasn't as exciting for them or easy for me.
 Since my boys have so many food allergies it wasn't feasible to try and buy the dairy free cheeses. There was always at least one or two allergens in it they couldn't have. Although a few years back I did muster enough courage to spend money and try one, I forget the brand name. Even with that brand, it took me a while to find one that was almost clear of all their allergens. It seemed okay but not worth purchasing again. I ended up finding a recipe and making my own cheese sauce for them. It was great recipe, they loved it. I had to put that recipe away because I recently learned that beans are an offending food item for them. Such a shame because beans are cheap, full of fiber, fill them up, easy to cook and the boys love them. They are on the AIP Leaky gut protocol now and hopefully one day I will be able to reintroduce beans into their diet. But that is another struggle, another blog post, another day...

I stumbled on a few of the "zucchini cheese" recipes on Pinterest.com. Mama Birdie loves her some Pinterest.com! I tried a few of the recipes as is and they were okay, but needed a little help. So of course, I had to kick it up a notch and "Mama Birdie-ize it. First off in this recipe I changed the main ingredient from zucchini to carrots. Why you ask? Simply put, I did not have any more zucchini on hand, but I had carrots.  And it worked well, particularly for someone who hasn't eaten cheese in three years and I like the cheddar cheese color. I will still use zucchini, but I will wait until they are in season, in over abundance, and free out of my garden. I also thought of using half zucchini half carrots just to give it the orange color. The great thing about this is you can change it up to however it suits you. I changed the lemon juice to apple cider vinegar - one of my sons has a food sensitivity to lemons. I figured that would be a good replacement for the acidity of lemon. The original recipe called for water, I used my bone broth instead, it added much more of a depth of flavor. The texture and taste of the cheese is similar to Velveeta and it easily melts. The Birdie boys absolutely loved it. I even made gluten egg free bread rolls so I could pack sandwiches for lunch. I overheard them talking to each other this morning saying they couldn't wait to eat lunch today. I'd be almost willing to bet money they danced while eating their lunch at school today.

This could work well also for vegans also, just substitute bone broth for either vegetable broth or water and gelatin for agar agar (vegan substitute for gelatin made with a combination of seaweed plants). I've read agar agar can be substituted for equal amounts of gelatin.  Not only is this Auto Immune Paleo (AIP), it also has great gut healing properties because of the bone broth and gelatin. So try it out, there are many variations that  can be made with this recipe, add chives, rosemary, parsley or even cayenne pepper flakes. Let me know how it works for you and what you've tried!

Ingredients:
2 cups canned carrots or 2 cups steamed zucchini*

1/2 cup homemade bone broth

2 Tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (ACV)

1 teaspoon salt 

2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast   

4 Tablespoons Gelatin - I use this brand

Directions:
1. Blend Carrots, bone broth, coconut oil, ACV and salt

2. Stir in nutritional yeast and gelatin, then blend. 

3. Pour into a plastic wrapped lined loaf pan. 
4. Let set for at least 4 hours

*I actually used yellow summer squash the first few times and I did not peel it but if you use the green zucchini you will want to peel it first then steam it. 

Red Russian Volunteers 5.5.15

Spring 2012 I bought a 4 pack of Red Russian Kale. Fall 2012- I was a bad gardener and did not clean up for the winter. Winter 2013 - one of the hardest winters we have had in years. Spring 2014 Despite the cold winter one of those Red Russian Kale roots shot back up and produced Kale for me. I was surprised. Fall 2014 - I didn't clean it up well and  it seeded every where...Result, millions of tiny Red Russian Kale volunteers. I LOVE GARDENING! These are my babies!

Spring Seed Starting 3.23.15

Okay, so we are so excited about this year's gardening. I have began starting my seeds. Initially I started with Roma Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Thyme, and Cress. The rest I was going to start outside  BUT then I got the bright idea since I purchased the greenhouse and have space I may as well go ahead and try to start mostly all of my seeds indoors except for things like carrots. I like to make sure that my seeds germinate so I use the paper towel method to germinate the seed. Fun project to do with the kids, they like seeing things grow. All you need is:

-Roll of Paper Towel or napkins

-Plastic bags

-Water

-Seeds

-Permanent marker 

1. Wet the Paper Towel, make sure it is moist, but not soggy wet.

2. Place the seeds in the paper towel and fold it

3. Put paper towel in bag and seal

4. Write the date and the contents (if you forget this you will be doing a guessing game when they germinate)

5. Check the bag every day and when you see a tail on it, this means it germinated, and now you can put the seeds in the ground! 

Doing it this way is an extra step but the benefit of doing it this way is this-you have a 100% way of knowing if your seed has germinated or not, and you don't have extra seedlings and won't feel like you are "aborting" the baby seedlings when you have to thin them.

Carrots are not a good candidate for this- I hear they grow crooked when you try to put them in ground. 

Happy Seed Starting!

About Me

"How do you write an "About Me" when your life seems to revolve around everyone else? My name is Katia,  I have 2 school aged boys a husband and I work full-time. I church full-time. I cook full-time.   My boys have multi food allergies and food sensitivities and my husband is diabetic.What do I like to do?  I love gardening and I love trying out and converting new and old recipes to "allergen friendly" recipes.  I am, what my oldest cousin tagged me when I was a little girl, "Nature GIRL".  I love all things simple, organic, homemade, and DIY.  My ideal life would be on a small scale farm growing my own vegetable, raising goats, chickens, maybe even a few rabbits, and  bee-keeping."