Transitional GAPS Twix Bars

I’ve been transitioning to other sugars now that we are branching out from strict GAPS, and while we generally use honey as our sweetener of choice I also add coconut sugar on occasion.  We are celebrating some fun in the snow with another family tomorrow and I decided to try my hand at a Twix-like confection for dessert.

I’ve made this shortbread before and reviewed it here.  I decided to use it as my base, subbing coconut sugar for half of the honey to see if that prevented overbrowning (and I think it did).  I doubled the recipe and patted the shortbread into a 9″ x 13″ foil pan lined with parchment paper.  Then I baked until light brown, sprinkled with Celtic sea salt, and cooled outside while I moved on to step two: this toffee.  I used half coconut sugar, half honey to make the toffee but otherwise followed the recipe.  Then I poured the toffee over the shortbread and put it back outside while I made the chocolate.  I don’t drink coffee so I never have any to add to this chocolate, but it is good without the coffee so that’s how I make it. :)  Then I topped with chopped crispy almonds and set back outside to cool.

We’ve tried all the components of these bars before but never all together!  I’m eager to see how it turns out tomorrow.

As you can see, you could totally make this GAPS-legal by using only honey as a sweetener.

 

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Semi-Review: Cheeseslave’s Brownies (grain free, dairy free)

I’m back!!  Vacation was great, my brain is now worthless, and I have ten gazillion things to do before I can even think about catching up.  Instead of tackling those ten gazillion things, however, I have decided to make brownies.  First things first, people!

I’me calling this a semi-review because I did not try these brownies as written.  (If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, this should come as no surprise!  I like to do things my own way.)  Here’s what I did:

• 40 Deglet Noor dates, processed in food processor with
• 1 1/4 cup coconut flour

This was how I chose to make my own date sugar.  Dehydrating dates and then grinding them to a powder as suggested in the original recipe blog comments was waaaaaaaay more work than I was interested in.  My method did not produce a fine powder, but the date pieces were small enough that I was content.  I also hoped that retaining the moisture content of the dates by processing them this way might result in a more moist and chewy brownie.  After the dates and coconut flour were processed, I whipped together:

• 1 cup soft coconut oil
• 1/4 cup soft butter
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 8 eggs
• 3/4 cup kefir
• 2 Tblsp honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp salt

Then I blended in the date mixture and whipped well in my stand mixer.  I greased an 8″ x 8″ pan and spread the thick batter evenly in the pan (the batter nearly filled the pan, by the way).  Then I put the pan in my Sun Oven, which was preheated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and let it cook while I did other things for 90 minutes.

I did not choose to make these brownies dairy-free.  I also added more eggs, some honey for uniform sweetness and extra moisture, and increased the cocoa a bit.  Since I subbed my own date sugar, the date pieces were large enough to notice texturally but I didn’t feel that they were unappetizing.  Cooking in a solar oven *is* different than cooking in a regular oven, so I’m not sure how a conventional cooking method would treat these brownies yet but they were very moist even after a long time in the Sun Oven.  I think there was far too much batter for an 8″ x 8″ pan, however – I will halve the recipe next time.  This batch seemed more like cake – a very dense cake – which is fine, but I wanted a brownie.  :)

Verdict:  I would make these again, halving the recipe and reducing the cook time though.  I think a cold glass of some sort of milk is a must with this recipe!

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Menu, week of Nov 12

It’s birthday week!  I don’t have my son handy to nail down birthday meals so I’ve left some things to be planned later.

Monday

• eggs & toast; broth
• taco stuff – ground beef, garden tomatoes, fresh cilantro, avocado, lettuce & arugula from garden, cheese
• turkey*!!, sweet potatoes, broccoli

Tuesday

• pumpkin custard; broth
• hurry curry
• beef roast, carrots, potatoes

Wednesday

• leftover pumpkin custard; broth
• stirfry (leftover roast, onions, zucchini, bok choy, green peppers from garden + rice for my son)
• brown bag – turkey sandwiches with arugula; bananas

Thursday

• eggs, sausage and toast; broth
• ? frozen lasagna?
• wings, broccoli, butternut squash? vanilla cream pie for dessert (non-GAPS)

Friday

• leftover pumpkin custard or eggs & toast; broth
• leftover wings etc
• ? guest? turkey casserole – reduce broth to make gravy; add frozen peas and pasta for kids or maybe white rice

Saturday

• ? guest? sausage and eggs; toast; milk?
• ? guest? pb & honey sandwiches?
• hmm.  leftover something probably

Sunday

• aack!!  think, J!  think!!
• burgers and…something
• turkey hash with turnips & squash

So.  During my grocery run today, I found turkeys for $15 off.  A $33 free range turkey with $15 off – this is affordable.  The cost ended up being around $1.75/lb, and with ground turkey of comparable quality at $4/lb on sale, this was a steal!  I bought two and then realized I don’t have a lot of freezer space yet.  Hence, the pre-Thanksgiving turkey on the menu.  :)  I’m hoping to snag a few more Wednesday night when we’re in town but I’ve GOT to make room in the freezer first.  I think I have some rice in there that I can take out but I’ll have to do some digging.

I bought fruit at Walmart this week.  Price-matching yielded 2 pomegranates for $0.49 each, bananas for $0.29/lb, and a pineapple for $1.29.  I may go back tomorrow for more bananas and another pineapple.  In some not-so-upbeat news, I paid over $4 each for a bunch of broccoli, a bunch of bok choy, 2 zucchini, and some Japanese turnips.  Ouch!!  And that will only get us through one week!  I am definitely going to buy a case of cauliflower and broccoli from Azure Standard this month.

Budget-wise, the cost of the meals above plus snacks will be around $85-90.  This includes extra birthday stuff (my son wanted some Breyer’s ice cream along with his pie, etc) and a turkey that will likely have plenty of leftovers for next week.  But really, those high-priced veggies are killing the budget!  Unfortunately, we are predicted to have several nights in a row with temps dipping into the 20’s, so I think that’s it for the garden this year.  :(  I brought in the pot of dill and a pot with a tomato plant and cut some arugula and all remaining cayenne peppers this afternoon, but all of those things must be eaten in moderation.  :)

Out-of-pocket expenses for this week were about $150 so far.  I don’t think we’ll get milk but we will need eggs, so that will probably add another $10 or so.  Then I’ll probably get more fruit while it is still cheap.  Azure Standard order deadline is Friday, and I plan to make a pretty big order so that will add a considerable amount as well.  After that we should be set for a while and I may not need more than milk & eggs to hold us through the end of November.

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Review: Zucchini Lasagna (The Food Lover’s Kitchen)

I’ve been wanting to try recipes that use “noodles” made from squash, but until recently I had no reliable method of slicing the squash.  I finally broke down and bought a Kuhn Rikon hand-held mandoline from Amazon for about $20.  Not only does it make incredible sauerkraut, but it killed the lasagna noodles for this recipe!  I am kicking myself for not buying the mandoline sooner and then for waiting so long to actually try the recipe.

So: changes.  Because you know I tweaked it.  Actually, the changes I made were mostly based on what I had/had not in my cupboards & fridge.  I ended up *kinda* doubling the recipe.  Here’s what I did:

• • 1.5 lb Ground Beef
  • 4 Green Bell Peppers, chopped
  • 1 cup Onion, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp Dried Basil
  • 1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
  • 1 Zucchini (a GIANT ONE! Probably 2 lbs), sliced thinly
  • 1 1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced
  • 28 oz Tomato Sauce, no salt added
  • 3 cloves Garlic, minced
  • 12 oz Tomato Paste, no salt added
  • 1 tsp Salt and Pepper, to taste

  For the 28 oz tomato sauce, I used a jar of organic pasta sauce that was nearing expiration and I couldn’t bear to throw it away.  It probably had sugar in it.  But it was gooooooooooooood.  If you are strict GAPS, you can totally spice up your tomato sauce without using a commercial pasta sauce; you just might want to add a touch of honey to temper some of that tomatoey tang.

  I cooked and assembled this almost as written, except I did not add the tomato sauce to the meat & spices.  I layered that separately.  I also used about 8 oz of shredded mozzarella (most of which went on top but some was on top of the meat layers).  I also cooked the mushrooms with the meat & veggies so that some of the liquid could be drained off before assembling.

  The tomato sauce mixture was thick.  Very thick.  I smeared it on the zucchini layers with a spatula without problem but I have to admit I wondered if it would be too thick.  It turned out perfectly and I would definitely do it that way again.

  As I made it, this recipe filled two 2.75 qt baking dishes.  We ate the first pan last night and most of the second pan tonight.  As the kids were eating the leftovers tonight, they both mentioned that they liked this lasagna as well as (and my son said maybe even better than) the traditional wheat pasta version.  However, both kids said that the meat and cheese were absolutely essential – and I agree; if I had made this without the cheese, it wouldn’t have been nearly as good.  I wouldn’t have made it without meat anyway so that’s a moot point.

  Verdict: Yum.  Yep…yum.  That says it all.  :)  We will definitely make this again.  Six thumbs up!

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Review: Homemade Honey-sweetened Dark Chocolate Bars (GAPS)

We are planning to camp later in the week and I decided that we’d go all out and bring the fixin’s for s’mores – all homemade, of course.  I decided to get a head start and make the chocolate today and then store it in the freezer.  I pinned this recipe from Homesteader Kitchen a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it a go today.

Right off the bat, I realized I was in trouble.  I had no Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate.  I did have cocoa powder though!  And since the container of cocoa powder said I could substitute 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder and 1 Tablespoon oil for each ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate called for, I thought I’d go ahead.  Then I calculated how much cocoa powder I’d need and boy howdy!  24 Tablespoons is darrrrrrrrk chocolate.

I wanted the chocolate to be thicker so it wouldn’t melt away during our camping adventure, so I used cocoa butter instead of oil.  At this point, I was melting

• 24 Tblsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 2 Tblsp cocoa butter

over low heat.  It seemed a bit dry, so I added another Tablespoon coconut oil.  At this point, the chocolate was nice and smooth; it looked like melted chocolate chips.  I turned off the heat and added

• 4 Tblsp honey

and mixed it well.  At this point I panicked because it was clear my chocolate was seizing up.  Not only that, but the 4 Tablespoons of honey did not a sweet chocolate make!  I added another

• 2 Tblsp honey

and

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

and at this point the chocolate was THICK and grainy.  I’m not experienced enough to know whether or not I could have saved it at this point, and I didn’t want to risk making things worse…so I left it.

We fashioned half the chocolate into nickel-sized patties and spread the rest in a pan to cut after they are cool.  I will freeze them and then package for travel before we leave.

Verdict: Hrm.  I think they will serve our purpose, but they are VERY dark, even with 50% more sweetener than the recipe calls for.  I am hoping the sweetness of the marshmallows will temper the bitterness of the dark chocolate.  I am also not impressed with the texture.  Now…it is probable that much of the difficulty lies in the use of cocoa powder rather than the Ghirardelli chocolate; however, looking at the picture accompanying the original recipe, it looks as though that chocolate had seized too.  I think I will look for another recipe that is sweeter and see if I can produce a smoother chocolate with cocoa powder.

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Review: Nourished Kitchen’s Grain-Free Carrot Cupcakes (GAPS)

We had a snack crisis Monday and I decided to make these grain-free carrot cupcakes for the first time.  Although we are not strict GAPS anymore (we had brown rice for lunch today, and I even ate a real chocolate chip cookie on Tuesday) I decided to omit the baking powder in these cupcakes.  I did not make the frosting for these cupcakes because I was short on time, but I will definitely try it in the future.

Verdict: MMrffmkpermf.  What’s that?  You can’t understand because my mouth is stuffed full of cupcake?  Sorry, I’ll try that again.  Yum.  A keeper.  Love.  Love.  Love.  These cupcakes tasted like…real cupcakes.  They were sweet, like real cupcakes.  The centers of the cupcakes fell during baking (I assume because I did not use baking powder) but if they were frosted, it would be no biggie at all.  If you like carrot cake and are looking for a nice GAPS birthday cupcake, look no further!  I wish I had found this recipe before birthdays last year!  My only complaints: the cupcakes were a bit oily and the recipe contained no cinnamon or lemon.  Next time I’ll try reducing the coconut oil by 25%.  I dusted the tops of the cupcake batter with cinnamon before baking and that was nice, but next time I’ll add the cinnamon to the batter.  A lemon flavor (lemon zest and/or lemon oil) would also have been very nice in this cupcake.

Straight out of the oven, these cupcakes were delightful!  And then we had them for breakfast the next day, and they were still delightful!  These cupcakes are going into our regular rotation.

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Review: Real Food Storage Peppermint Patties

I saw this recipe for peppermint patties several months ago but haven’t gotten around to testing the recipe until now.  We don’t currently have any “treat” foods on hand and after a rough week (which followed an even rougher summer) we decided we needed to indulge ourselves.  Enter: the Peppermint Patty.

I fiddled around with this recipe a little, adding vanilla extract and at least an extra teaspoon of honey (probably more like an extra tablespoon) and then adding extra honey and an egg yolk to the filling.  I also added a pinch of salt to both the chocolate mixture and the filling.  I had hoped the egg yolk would help emulsify the filling, as the honey did not blend well at all.  The yolk did help a little but I still had quite a bit of honey setting to the bottom of the mixture.  I did not heat either mixture, as my kitchen was warm enough to completely liquify my coconut oil.

I decided to use my silicone mini-muffin pan for the patties.  There are 24 cups in this pan, and each cup holds about one ounce.  The recipe does not state how much chocolate and filling to put into each cup and I found myself wondering how much I should reserve as I went along.  I ended up putting about half the chocolate in the bottoms of the cups (a teaspoon or less for each), then using almost all the filling as the next layer, and finishing with the last half of the chocolate mixture (and I had a small amount left that I spread in another pan).

Verdict:  I’d make it again, with changes.  The end result was a patty with about twice the filling thickness I’d like.  In fact, although I think the egg yolk improved the taste of the filling, I still was not a big fan.  The chocolate mixture was very nice but I felt the filling was too much like eating cold coconut oil.  If I make this again, I’ll just add the peppermint oil to the chocolate mixture and skip the filling altogether.  It will save me time and improve the taste, in my opinion.

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Review: The Nourishing Home’s Southern-style Strawberry Shortcakes (grain-free)

It is no longer strawberry season here but blueberries are available locally.  We needed a snack this afternoon and I decided to try these shortcakes, subbing blueberries for the strawberries (no extra sweetener with the blueberries,though…I just added them plain).  I made the recipe as written but cooked them in the Sun Oven since it was such a warm day.  Then it clouded over about halfway through the baking process and I ended up leaving them in to cook for about 2 hours.  I’ll have to try them in the gas oven sometime for a true test, but I thought these turned out well.

We used a Tovolo Mini Whip Cream Whipper to whip the cream.  It was our first time to use the whipper and we were in a rush to eat our shortcakes before my piano students showed up so we ended up stopping our attempt before we made it to true whipped cream status.  I poured the honey-sweetened cream over the shortcake and blueberries and we chowed down.

Verdict: a keeper!  Warm, straight from the solar oven, with fresh cream on top and fresh berries – I thought as I ate it, “I am totally not missing anything on this diet.”  Yum.

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Review: The Nourishing Home’s Sweet-n-Spicy BBQ Chicken

I decided to switch up our BBQ routine and try a new recipe this week.  Kelly at The Nourishing Home posted her Memorial Day menu at The Better Mom, and a recipe for BBQ chicken was included.  It looked like a GAPS-friendly recipe, with the exception of the coconut aminos (I don’t think coconut sap is GAPS-legal because of the sucrose content).  The idea of nightshade-free bbq sauce was also pretty intriguing.  I looked in my pantry and surprised myself by finding some apricot fruit spread; that sealed the deal.  I tossed some wings in the oven and mixed up the glaze.

I did use the coconut aminos because I had them – and with just 1 Tblsp spread out over so many servings, I wasn’t really that worried.  I think you could substitute apple cider vinegar for the coconut aminos if you want to make this recipe a little more GAPS-friendly.  I baked the wings without the glaze at 325 degrees until my carrot cake was done – so maybe 30 minutes?  Then I glazed them and baked another 30 minutes at 325 degrees.  (The sauce was nice and thick and I think it would stick nicely to meat on the grill; I went the oven route because it was already in use.  Plus I figured it would reduce the likelihood of me burning supper again.  Don’t laugh.)  Then I turned the wings, glazed the other side, and turned the oven up to 425 degrees to reduce the sauce a little.  I turned the oven off after 15 minutes and let the wings sit while I prepared the rest of our dinner.

Verdict:  Yummmmmmmm.  My son promptly declared that this was going to go on his birthday menu.  We all had seconds, which is a feat that few foods can accomplish.  This would make a yummy stir-fry sauce, too!  But at over $3/jar for the apricot fruit spread, it could be pricey.  This will go on our “special-occasion” rotation.  I managed to get a pic of the leftovers, with a cameo by my lamb stock and some sweet onions purchased this morning at the farmer’s market:

Yep, that was all that was left of 3 packages of wings.

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Cherry Cobbler (GAPS)

I picked another 3 pints of cherries this morning and decided to try out a revised version of a cherry tart.  I wanted to end up with a crisp topping and a juicy filling instead of the soupy mess I had previously made, so I flipped the ingredients for a cherry upside-down tart.  Genius, right?  heehee :)  Then, because it was rather warm here today and I didn’t want to heat up the kitchen, I decided to mess it all up by trying to cook in the Sun Oven on my first try.

I don’t like to post recipes that may or may not turn out the way I like them, but I don’t think I’ll have enough cherries to try again in the oven before the season is over.  I’ll post what I did and then fiddle with it when I have enough cherries in the future.

Cherry Filling:

• 3 pints pitted sour cherries
• 1/4-1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• dash nutmeg

Mix together in a 2-quart baking dish and bring to room temperature before topping with the cobbler.  (Since I seem to have so much trouble with the cobbler overbrowning, I might actually bake the cherries for a while before topping next time.)

Topping:

I used this shortbread recipe, adding an extra 1/4 cup almond flour and about 1/2 tsp cinnamon.  Then I patted the dough into a thin disc and set on top of the cherries.

Next I put the pan into my solar cooker and waited.  The Sun Oven didn’t get above 250 degrees for the first 2 hours, and the cherries weren’t bubbly yet so I repositioned the cooker and went inside to practice for tonight’s rehearsal.  Then I forgot about the Sun Oven for about 45 minutes, which was a bad idea because the temp rose to about 325 degrees during that time.  And the topping was overbrowned.  Again.  sigh…

My solar cooker provides a fairly moist cooking environment, as the steam cannot escape the cooker.  As a result, achieving a crispy texture is not common.  This cobbler, cooked in my Sun Oven, did not have a crispy topping.  We all really liked it, though!  And I feel confident that in a regular oven the top would crisp up nicely during baking.

I poured some fresh cream over each serving and we chowed down.  Both kids gave it a thumbs-up but I didn’t care because I was too busy falling in love.  I think an oven-baked topping and dollop of homemade ice cream would knock this one out of the park.

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