A lot has been going on here in my house! We’re trying to rent out our townhouse, making moving plans, and of course – there are three children who require my attention, and two are under two (yikes! )

However, my lack of posts has been due mainly to starting little Denise on the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet to naturally cure her eczema. It’s taken some time and effort, and I’ll be sharing more about all of that soon, but for now – here are some online resources that I’ve found helpful:

Health, Home & Happiness – Cara at Health, Home & Happiness provides a fantastic, comprehensive resource for those on GAPS, both on her site and in her ebook. I purchased her 30 Days on GAPS Intro Handbook when I started Denise on the diet, and it was very helpful! I was able to refer to it for my daily tasks and recipe ideas, and it made the whole process much less overwhelming.

Mommypotamus – Heather at Mommypotamus writes a wonderful blog, full of well-researched and cleverly written posts. She has her whole family on the diet, so there are GAPS-friendly recipes, as well as her family’s experience with the diet.

GAPS – a site run by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the author of the GAPS book, full of information – including where to find GAPS practioners. Particularly helpful are the FAQs on the sidebar.

GAPS Guide – a blog by the author of the GAPS Guide book. She is so knowledgeable, and is really helpful in her replies in the comment sections.

(photo credit)

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1. Weekend Reading List: Apple Cider Vinegar
2. Weekend Recipe List: Labor & Newborn
3. Weekend Recipe List: Homemade

We all know it’s important to get our daily serving of greens. The easiest way I’ve found to make sure that I can easily pull a salad together is to keep a jar of homemade salad dressing in the refrigerator.

Store bought salad dressings are expensive, and more importantly, full of yucky ingredients! Even the “healthier” dressings are made with canola/soybean oil, emulsifiers, preservatives, sweeteners, and many other unhealthy ingredients. Making your own salad dressing is extremely easy, more delicious, and so very healthy!

My homemade Creamy Salad Dressing is packed with probiotic goodness from yogurt (with live active cultures) and raw apple cider vinegar. To sweeten it, choose a local, raw honey to combat seasonal allergies and boost your body’s immunity! Of course, homemade yogurt is best, but either way – use a whole milk yogurt; the olive oil and whole milk yogurt will help you get the most nutrition from your greens by providing the healthy fats your body needs to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins available in your salad.

A jar of this in the fridge, ready to go, means that you can whip up a salad in no time – so getting your greens will take little effort! Isn’t it nice when a healthy change is so easy?

Creamy Herb Salad Dressing

1/4 c. Greek yogurt
1 tsp. dried lemongrass
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh pepper, to taste (optional)
1 tbsp. raw honey
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Whisk vigorously until very smooth. If necessary, season with more salt and pepper, to taste. Pour into a small glass jar and store in the refrigerator.

Note: I love adding chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme, etc. as well as minced fresh garlic. Use your creativity to adjust this to your tastes! Tell me your changes in the comments – I’d love to know!

I shared this recipe at Monday Mania, and Homestead Barn Hop!

Related posts:

1. A Waldorf Salad for Some Sweetness and Crunch
2. Cabbage & Carrot Slaw with Ginger-Garlic Dressing
3. Tomato Artichoke Salad

Some things are just better made at home – they’re tastier and more often than not, more cost effective! And the best part is you can take some time to make them more nutritious (like with the last two). This weekend, take time to enjoy these delicious recipes:

How to Make Coconut Butter at Mommypotamus

Top 5 Easy Homemade Cheeses at The Crunchy Chicken

Fermented Applesauce at Whole Foods on a Budget

Lacto-Fermented Hummus at GNOWFGLINS

(Photo Credit)

Related posts:

1. Weekend Recipe List: Homemade
2. Weekend Recipe List: Grain-Free
3. Weekend Recipe List: Labor & Newborn

Butternut squash has been a favorite around here for the past couple of weeks, especially for my little daughter Denise. She just can’t seem to get enough! She’s eating it in soups, in little cubes for snacks, and as a porridge for breakfast. The other morning, I sweetened my honey-cinnamon butternut squash mash with more honey, thinned it with coconut milk and added more cinnamon to make a quick breakfast for Denise. She loved it – and why not? It tastes like pumpkin pie filling!

This grain-free porridge feels like an indulgent breakfast, but it has all sorts of health benefits! A nice big helping of vegetables at breakfast is a great way to start your day – and butternut squash is a wonderful source of fiber, antioxidants, and potassium. And plenty of coconut goodness keeps your blood sugar level, increases your metabolism, boosts energy, fights viruses like the flu, and is great for your hair and skin! You can add more of these benefits by whisking in a few tablespoons of coconut oil as the porridge heats up.

The porridge is quick to make and perfect for preparing in advance. I recommend following the recipe, then allowing everyone to adjust each serving to their individual tastes – so keep some warm coconut milk or cream handy, more honey to sweeten, and a little cinnamon for extra spice. Enjoy!

Grain-free Breakfast Porridge
serves 4

4 c. cooked butternut squash
1 1/2 c. coconut milk
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 c. honey

Put the squash and coconut milk in a food processor and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides and add the cinnamon and honey, processing until combined. Heat in a saucepan over medium heat until desired temperature is reached, and serve.

I shared this at Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, Freaky Friday, and Friday Food Flicks!

Related posts:

1. Weekend Recipe List: Grain-Free
2. Berry Breakfast Smoothie
3. Homemade: Breakfast Options and Baked Oatmeal

Something that I love about being grain-free is that with the proper planning, meals can come together really quickly. I don’t have to wait for the rice to cook or the biscuits to bake – lightly steamed broccoli tossed in butter and salt is really easy and quick to prepare and if I’ve taken some time to plan, even the longer-cooking vegetables can be done in minutes!

I’ve started pre-cooking my vegetables in large batches to make dinner prep easier. I’ve talked before about planning for roasted vegetables, and these days, I’m also steaming them in advance. Then I can just heat them up with some butter, salt, herbs, and spices and they’re ready to go! Or, I can transform them into a delicious mash in minutes, as with my Honey-Cinnamon Butternut Squash Mash below.

Here are the simple steps I take to keep my vegetables at the ready:

1. Clean and cut vegetables into desired shape, making sure they are all the same size so they cook evenly:

• For quick cooking vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, summer squash: blanch (lightly steam) by putting prepared vegetables in a large pot of already boiling water for 1 minute. Have a large bowl filled with icy water beside the stove and place the vegetables in that immediately after draining off the hot water so that they stop cooking and keep a good texture.
• For longer-cooking vegetables, such as winter squashes, sweet potatoes, root vegetables: Cover them with water in a pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat until just able to pierce with a fork. Drain off the hot water.

2. Let the cooked vegetables cool to room temperature and store them in the refrigerator.

3. At meal time, you can prepare them as you’d like. Here are some of my go-to options:

• Gently reheat them in a pan (any will do) and toss with butter/olive oil/lard/etc. with a bit of salt and pepper.
• Melt a generous amount of butter (or preferred fat) in a frying pan over medium heat, add minced garlic and onion and saute, stirring often until the garlic is fragrant. Add your vegetables, increase the heat to medium-high and cook until lightly browned on the edges, stirring occasionally.
• Make a mash – this works well with root vegetables, winter squash and cauliflower. Gently heat the vegetables in a saucepan with a generous amount of butter and a bit of salt over medium heat. Once it’s hot, use a potato masher to mash the vegetables as they cook until the desired consistency is reached. You can season with different spices, add a bit of liquid (stock, buttermilk, etc.); if it’s a sweeter vegetable, a dash of maple syrup or honey tastes quite good.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes:

Honey-Cinnamon Butternut Squash Mash
Make it how you want – it’s really easy to adjust this to suit your family’s tastes! Add more/less cinnamon, some nutmeg or a touch of cloves. For a smoother consistency and added richness, add more coconut milk and/or butter. If you want it to be sweet, more honey and less salt.
Serves 4-6

4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. honey
1/2 tbsp. cinnamon (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. salt
4 cups cubed, cooked butternut squash
1/2 cup coconut milk

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter begins to sizzle, add the honey, cinnamon, and salt, whisking until combined. Add the squash and coconut milk and use a potato masher to mash all the ingredients together as they cook.  Once the squash mash is heated through, taste for seasoning and serve.

I hope these tips make meal time easy for you and yours! It’s amazing how a little bit of work and planning ahead of time can seriously cut down the stress level at dinner; and it feels great knowing that your planning is providing healthy options for your family. Enjoy!

I shared this at Monday Mania, Traditional Tuesdays, Tutorial Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits, Delicious Dishes, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Real Food Wednesday, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday,  Simple Lives Thursday, Freaky Friday, and Friday Food Flicks!

(Photo Credit)

Related posts:

1. Butternut Squash Bisque
2. Chicken and Rice Medley
3. Quick Sweet Potato Bread

These grain-free recipes are full of healthy goodness and look absolutely delicious! And the photo… well, it was just too cute to pass up Have a wonderful weekend! (Photo Credit)

Grain-Free “Looks Like Whole Wheat Biscuits” by Mommypotamus

Almond Orange Cookies by The Nourishing Gourment

Coconut Flour Bread by Nourished Kitchen

Flourless Blonde Brownies by Kelly the Kitchen Kop!

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1. Weekend Recipe List
2. Weekend Recipe List: Labor & Newborn
3. Recipe List for the Holidays

Are you wondering what you can do with the sugar sitting in your pantry? I know as people re-evaluate their diet decisions with the start of the New Year, sugar will be one of the first things to get thrown out - with good reason! Sugar is the source of all sorts of health issues - it throws the balance of your body out of whack, wreaking havoc on your intestinal tract and causes bad bacteria to proliferate - which can lead to a whole host of health problems. (Here's a great article on the dangers of sugar.)

Before you decide to toss out that big bag of sugar from your pantry, try one of my favorite alternative uses for sugar:

1. Depilation - I make a wax using sugar, water and lemon juice to remove unwanted body hair. This is a common body wax recipe used in Brazil (and Egypt, apparently!) that my mom shared with me years ago, and it works really well! It's super inexpensive to make, keeps well, and it's free of all those weird ingredients you find in store-bought waxes. Also, it can easily be washed off of anything it comes into contact with, so you can re-use the cloth strips, and if it gets on clothes or the bathroom counter, it's not a big deal.
2. Body Scrub - use sugar to exfoliate for soft, glowing skin! This sugar body scrub recipe can easily be made with a bit of olive or coconut oil.
3. Kombucha - as you know, I love making kombucha! This is a great way to get some health benefits from your sugar. Let those wonderful yeasts and bacteria from your kombucha culture eat up all that sugar and in return, they'll provide all sorts of wonderful nutrition in the form of a delicious fermented tea.

Do you have healthy, alternative uses for sugar? Please share your tips in the comments!

Photo Credit

I shared this post at Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, Fight Back Friday and Sunday School!

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I’m usually not really into desserts, but I do love a good cheesecake; and, of course, there’s nothing quite like a homemade cheesecake. However, I’m usually a little too lazy for the multi-step baking process involved in baking a crust and then baking the cheesecake. Taking the crust out of the equation means that I can just make a quick trip to the kitchen to mix the filling and let it bake. Once it’s done, with little effort, I’m left with a deliciously tangy, sweet and creamy dessert!

This crustless cheesecake is not only nice for any cooks that often feel lazy (like me!), it’s also a perfect dessert option for those avoiding flour/grains. I like to use evaporated cane juice to lightly sweeten it, which is less processed than refined cane sugar; if you would rather use sucanat, it would also work, but the cheesecake would take on a brown hue. I haven’t made it with honey, but I would estimate between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of honey would sweeten it quite well!

Crustless Cheesecake
This recipe can be doubled, just bake it in a 9 x 13 inch pan.
serves 6

1 lb. cream cheese
1/3 c. evaporated cane juice
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
butter for the pan

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Butter an 8 in. square baking dish. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on low speed until very soft. Add the sugar and salt, beating for about 4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated; then mix in the lemon zest. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake in a water bath until it’s just firm in the center, about 40-45 minutes – you can check by gently shaking the dish. Take the pan out of the water bath and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours before serving.

Budding Chefs can assist with measuring the ingredients, buttering the pan and all the work at the mixer!

I shared this post at Monday Mania, Traditional Tuesdays, Tuesdays Tasty Tidbits, Delicious Dishes, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Fat Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, Fight Back Friday, Friday Food Flicks and Freaky Friday!

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2. Coconut Cookies
3. Glazed Roasted Carrots

I got the idea for soaking the cornmeal in lime juice after reading about an tribe of super-athletes in Mexico whose main food staples includes a fermented corn dish that’s soaked in lime juice. I’ve been soaking my grains for over a year now, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that corn meal would need the same treatment – upon further research inspired by my recreational reading, I found that along with grains, seeds and legumes, cornmeal also requires soaking in an acid medium to break down the anti-nutrients that prevent us from digesting it properly. Glad I found that out!

I made this recipe the other morning and it made a beautiful, creamy bed for poached eggs. That night, after the polenta had solidified, I used a biscuit cutter to cut out polenta circles that I heated up in the oven as the rest of my dinner cooked. It was the perfect compliment to sauteed spinach and scallops! That was actually one of the quickest meals I’ve made in a while – I put the polenta circles in the 300 degree oven first, started the spinach sauteing with minced garlic and sliced onions, and quickly seared the scallops near the end. A delicious dinner in about 15 minutes!

Oven-baked Polenta
You can use a higher or lower ratio of liquid to cornmeal in order to produce your desired consistency – of course, more liquid means creamier polenta while less liquid will produce a more solid polenta.
serves 4 as a side dish

1 cup coarse cornmeal
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 c. chicken stock
3 c. whole milk
salt/pepper to taste

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal with the lime juice and enough water to cover by about one inch. Cover with a towel and let soak at room temperature for 12-24 hours.

When the soaking is complete, heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a medium stockpot and put in the cornmeal, stock and milk. Stir well to combine. Put in the oven, uncovered and bake for 40 minutes. Take the pot out and stir the polenta well, then season to taste. Put it back in to bake for 10 more minutes, then take it out and let rest for at least five minutes before serving.

Update (1/6/12): It’s best to use a whisk to stir the polenta when you take it out of the oven the first time – stir it vigorously to break up any clumps that may have formed – you want a very smooth consistency.

I shared this at Sunday School, Monday Mania, Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday and Pennywise Platter Thursday!

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