Back in December I posted a recipe for whole wheat blueberry muffins. Although my body does not tolerate wheat, my fiancé does not appear to have any issues with this whole grain so I find myself experimenting with whole wheat every now and then. These muffins quickly became a breakfast staple and I was thrilled because that meant fewer store bought granola and cereal bars. My fiance leaves for work fairly early in the morning to beat rush hour traffic so his breakfast needs to be easily transported.

Every time I was in the kitchen I saw these muffins. They looked so delicious, but I knew even one bite would make me miserable. After a few weeks I had enough. It was time to come up with a blueberry muffin recipe that was “P-friendly” (my fiance’s label for foods that agree with me).

This is what I came up with. I haven’t made any whole wheat muffins since. We both happily enjoy the “P-friendly” version.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa flour

3/4 cup tapioca flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/2 cup sucanat

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1 cup frozen blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease muffin pan

Combine all ingredients except for the blueberries in medium mixing bowl. Use an electric hand mixer to combine ingredients thoroughly.

Pour in blueberries and use a spoon to mix into batter.

Use a spoon to pour batter into muffin pan. Fill 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full. The batter will rise.

Bake until the tops are firm – about 24 minutes.

It’s that time of year! Baking time! No matter what holiday you’re celebrating this holiday season, I think we can all agree that we’re spending more time this month compared to other months baking sweets or eating someone else’s baked sweets. What a fun time of year!

Indulging during the holiday season is all fine and dandy, but if I’m going to be eating more sweets than usual, they at least have to be made with real ingredients like whole grains and natural sweeteners. Oh who am I kidding – that’s my rule of thumb year round.

Baking with ingredients that aren’t white flour and sugar took a little while for me to figure out. Let’s just say there were some issues with texture and consistency. It wasn’t pretty. But that was a few years ago. I’ve grown since then.

So why the change? Why was it important for me to upgrade the quality of my ingredients?

White flour is pretty much a big loser when it comes to nutrition and flavor. Sure, it’s great at holding stuff together and getting that texture just right, but that’s about it. The same goes for white sugar – it’s a shock of sweetness to your taste buds that doesn’t last long and only leaves you wanting more, and more, and more. The taste of honey or maple syrup – now that’s real flavor.

Here are some gluten free baking ingredients that I’m crushing on right now in a big way.

Quinoa Flour

Why I love it – it’s loaded with protein (all 9 of the essential amino acids), zinc, iron, calcium and other wonderful essential nutrients, is easy to digest, and gives a subtle and delicious sweet and nutty flavor to foods.

Tapioca Flour

Why I love it – It’s a starchy white flour with a sweet flavor. It helps baked goods have a good texture and consistency because it can be used to thicken batters and soups.

Sucanat

Why I love it – It is whole cane sugar. It’s minimally processed – the natural molasses is still intact, giving sucanat a deep brown color and natural molasses flavor. Why the weird name? Sucanat stands for Sugar Cane Natural.

Raw Honey

Why I love it – Great flavor and it’s sticky which is great for holding the batter together. The real stuff, not the highly processed runny honey that comes in the bear-shaped jar, is full of enzymes that aid in digestion, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.

Coconut Oil

Why I love it – It can withstand the heat of cooking, unlike most oils. An oil’s smoke point is the temperature that decomposition and oxidative damage begin. Refined oils have higher smoke points than their unrefined counterparts, but they’re also refined and highly processed, making them a poor choice anyway. Yes, coconut oil is made up of mostly saturated fat, but not all saturated fats are created equal. The fatty acids in coconut oil are mostly medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), not long-chain triglycerides found in other fats and oils. Research suggests that MCTs improve the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol so it’s actually health promoting. Coconut oil is also known for its hair and skin benefits. I love it for its sweet and delicious flavor.

Happy baking and happy holidays!

This chocolate chip cookie has great texture and a very subtle sweetness. I love the addition of quinoa flakes for a soft crunch!

Ingredients: (makes 2 dozen)

¾ cup quinoa flakes (I used Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes)

½ cup quinoa flour

½ cup tapioca flour

½ to ¾ cup sucanat

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 eggs

2/3 cup coconut oil

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 ounces high quality dark chocolate (I am currently loving Scharffen Berger 82% Cacao), chopped – size of chocolate chunks is up to you

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease cookie sheets

Combine all ingredients except chocolate in medium-sized mixing bowl

Use electric hand mixer to blend ingredients thoroughly

Add chocolate and use spoon to evenly distribute chocolate throughout batter

Use spoons to place dough balls on prepared baking sheet. Cookies will expand a little bit in the oven so allocate space on the baking sheet accordingly.

Bake until cookies are firm – about 20 to 25 minutes.

Thanksgiving was my first encounter with sugar in weeks. Now I find myself craving something sweet in the middle of the day or after dinner. Or both.

That’s the thing about sugar – it’s a slippery slope. A little bit can open the floodgates and leave you always wanting more.

Instead of reaching for something that comes in a box, I whipped up these subtly sweet cookies instead. They have just enough sweetness to satisfy without going overboard. That’s the cool thing about eating real food – your taste buds are so much more alert to flavor so a little bit goes a long way.

Ingredients:

3 cups gluten free rolled oats

2 eggs

½ cup coconut milk

½ cup sucanat

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¾ cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease cookie sheets

Pour 1.5 cups of rolled oats into blender and blend to create flour

Put wet ingredients into mixing bowl and mix well with spoon

Put dry ingredients except raisins into mixing bowl and mix with spoon

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well

Add raisins and combine

Scoop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet

Bake until cookies slightly harden – about 12 to 15 minutes

Most of the loved ones that I celebrated Thanksgiving with this year.

As far as non-Jewish holidays go, Thanksgiving is my absolute-favorite – Passover will always trump Thanksgiving in my book. What I love most about Thanksgiving is how pure of a holiday it is – it’s not about presents or “stuff”. It’s about family, good food and laughter. Thanksgiving is an annual reminder to reevaluate our priorities and to remember what’s really important – what we should be thankful for.

The last few years my family has asked everyone joining us at dinner to write a note about what they are thankful for and place it in a big woven basket before dinner begins. Between dinner and dessert the notes get passed around the table and read out loud. There are no names on the notes so no one knows who wrote what. It’s a sweet, but quick way to commemorate the holiday and I really enjoy hearing the kind words that my relatives share.

I hope you had a very happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s some of the delicious gluten free (except for the rosemary bread) and dairy free food that we enjoyed this Thanksgiving. I am so lucky for so many reasons including having a family that is incredibly supportive of my dietary limitations – although this meal hardly felt limiting to anyone.

Local turkey

Quinoa with herbs and pomegranates

Roasted veggies

Asparagus with mustard glaze

Whole wheat rosemary bread (recipe below)

Dutch Oven Bread

Ingredients:

6 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon yeast (active dry)

3 teaspoon salt

3 cups warm water

3/4 – 1 cup honey

6 twigs package Rosemary, stems removed and leaves chopped

Directions:

Measure out yeast in a bowl and add warm water. Stir until yeast dissolves.

Add in flour, salt, honey and chopped Rosemary.

Stir ingredients until flour is all mixed in.

Let flour rise overnight.

Grease Dutch oven.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with Dutch oven inside.

Put dough into Dutch oven and cook for 45 minutes. Take off lid and cook for 15 minutes.

To remove bread from Dutch oven, turn Dutch oven upside down.

Another shot of the bread because it was so delicious (so I heard).

Triple Chocolate Brownies (recipe by www.MyraKornfeld.com)

Triple Chocolate Brownies (recipe by www.MyraKornfeld.com)

Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 ¼ cups natural sugar – maple or succanat

1 cup silken tofu

1/2 cup coconut oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Line an 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

Melt the semisweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate together over a double boiler. Stir continually to prevent burning or hardening – about 5 minutes. Mix in the cocoa powder and remove the double boiler from the heat.

Blend together the sugar, tofu and coconut oil in a blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer to medium bowl, stir in the chocolate, then the flour, cayenne, baking powder and salt.

Pour the batter into the baking pan, making sure it spreads evenly. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until slightly puffed. You’ll know it’s done if a toothpick inserted at the center comes out with some crumbs.

Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 2 hours before cutting into squares and serving.

Banana bread

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour

3 very ripe bananas

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup raw honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease loaf pan

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl

Use electric mixer to blend ingredients almost thoroughly – I like it with a few banana chunks remaining

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake until top is brown – about 45 to 60 minutes

Allow loaf to cool for at least an hour before slicing and serving

I probably should have checked the weather forecast before I went to the grocery store this week, but when the temperature seriously dropped last week, I couldn’t get the idea of making chili out of my mind. There are several quintessential meals when it comes to my favorite season and chili is definitely one of them.

Between working and studying for my comprehensive exams that are just around the corner (eeeek!), I haven’t been able to spend as much time in the kitchen as I like to. Preparing meals in large batches that will feed us for a few days at a time is the easiest, healthiest and most inexpensive way I can think of to get through these long days. Cause they sure are long!

Sure, leftovers get a little tedious, but it really doesn’t bother me or the future mister – especially when I consider the alternatives – take out or processed stuff. On a regular basis – neither option is very budget friendly or makes my body very happy.

So this batch of chili is going to last a couple of meals, which is good because it tastes awesome. I was hoping to have time to make some cornbread too, but I didn’t. Oh well. May be I’ll make a loaf tomorrow to dress up the leftovers.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs grass-fed ground beef

1 onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1.5 cup black beans, cooked

8 ounces, sliced mushrooms

1 small head of cauliflower, chopped

1 large sweet potato, cut into ½’’ pieces

15 ounce can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1 cup vegetable or beef broth

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon red chili powder

1 teaspoons oregano

1 teaspoons pepper

Olive oil

Directions:

Pour a little olive oil (1-2 tablespoons) into a large skillet. Add onions and garlic. When onions are transparent, add ground beef and cook completely.

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Cook on low heat until potatoes are soft – about 5 hours. Contents will likely be almost overflowing in your slow cooker at first. Use a wooden spoon to mix things around as they start to cook down.

Serve with cooked dark leafy greens.

A few months back my friends threw a mac & cheese and wine pairing theme party where I brought a super delicious vegan and gluten free dish for the competition. Even though it went over really well with the crowd, I never made it again… until this week.

Now that it’s cooling off outside I find myself starting to crave heartier meals – like brown rice noodles in a thick and creamy sauce! For example. This time around, I had a better idea of what the sauce would look and taste like so I felt more comfortable making a few tweaks. I also threw in some veggies so that I wasn’t just eating a bowl of pasta. Not that there’s anything wrong with that every now and then, but I like to add something with color any chance I get. A colorful plate means a variety of health-promoting nutrients!

Here is my slightly modified recipe. It tasted just as good and I didn’t need the oil. It cost very little to make and fed my fiancé and I for the better part of the week. Even though he loves his dairy, he’s a big fan of this one. I have a feeling it won’t be another six months before this is in our bellies again!

Ingredients:

16 ounces brown rice pasta

1 head broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

1 head Swiss chard, stems removed, leaves chopped

Cheese Sauce:

¾ cups unsweetened coconut milk

1 cup nutritional yeast

½ cup GF tamari/soy sauce

12 ounce extra-firm organic tofu

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon paprika

3 tablespoons mustard

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to directions on package. When noodles have about 3 minutes left to cook, add broccoli to pot with brown rice noodles and boiling water. Stir in broccoli.

Just before you are ready to strain the pasta and broccoli, add the Swiss chard. As soon as it is wilted, strain pasta and vegetables. Rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Add cheese sauce ingredients to blender and process until smooth.

Mix the pasta and sauce in large pot and pour into casserole dish.

Bake until the top of the pasta looks slightly brown and crispy – approximately 15 minutes.

Tonight begins the Jewish New Year. If you celebrate, Shana tova! If you don’t, then Happy Wednesday!

Ryan and I are attending services tonight, but tomorrow night our friends will be joining us for dinner. I am very excited to celebrate our first holiday in our new home! Although my “free time” is extremely limited these days, taking the time to celebrate holidays and special occasions by getting together with friends and family and break bread is a huge priority.

I’ll share the rest of my recipes after I make them tomorrow, but today I took a study break and made this chocolate chunk banana bread. I had 3 bananas that were a day or two away from spoiling so I thought I’d try to turn them into dessert instead of putting them in the freezer for green smoothies. I debated between turning the batter into cookies or a loaf of bread. End of the story is that I’m very happy I decided on banana bread.

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas – should be pretty easy to mash them with a fork

2 cups almond flour

1 cup teff flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup sucanat

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate from chocolate bar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease loaf pan – I used a Pyrex 9 x 5 loaf pan

Peel bananas and place in medium mixing bowl and mash with fork

Add remaining wet ingredients and mix well

Add flour, sucanat, cinnamon and baking soda. Use electric mixer to combine well.

Fold in chocolate chips with a spoon.

Pour batter into loaf pan and put into oven. Bake until top is firm and brown on the edges – about 40 minutes.

Store any leftover in refrigerator.

Growing up my family almost always ordered Chinese takeout for dinner on Sunday nights. Another family always came over and the 12 of us (yes, they also had 4 kids) would end the weekend together. The majority of my meals were homemade growing up, but Sunday nights were special.

Even though I’ve been living away from home for several years, I still associate Sunday nights with ordering takeout. This isn’t a weekly tradition anymore, but a few years ago it was. These days I rarely eat food that I don’t prepare myself, especially since moving to Cincinnati, but last weekend I was out of town for my cousin’s wedding. I landed at the Cincinnati airport at 7:30pm on Sunday and still had a 30 minute drive before even getting home. I knew we didn’t have anything fresh to eat in the house and I didn’t want to start grocery shopping at 8pm.

Instead, I ordered my favorite takeout meal – pad thai – and picked it up on the way home.

I’ve always loved pad thai, but never tried making it at home. It always seemed too complicated – something that I could never do as well myself as the Thai restaurant I was ordering from.

This weekend, I decided it was time to try pad thai for myself. It was actually pretty easy. And I actually knew what I was eating. It was damn good too. Oh and instead of just noodles, tofu and sauce, like how it’s served in restaurants, my pad Thai had loads of vegetables too! And all the ingredients I used were gluten free. If you’re gluten free, make sure the rice noodles, soy sauce, fish sauce and broth (if not homemade) are labeled gluten free.

Ingredients: (4-6 people)

1 box of Pad Thai rice noodles – I used Annie’s Chun’s (GF)

1 container extra firm organic tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 head broccoli, florets chopped

5-6 baby Portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Sesame oil or extra virgin olive oil

2 eggs, whisked

2 handfuls shredded carrots

1 cup sprouts

optional: handful or 2 of spinach

Sauce:

Juice from 2 limes

4 tablespoons fish sauce

6 tablespoons broth (vegetable, beef, chicken)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Garnish:

3 scallions

couple of handfuls roasted peanuts, chopped

optional: 1 lime wedge per plate/bowl

Directions:

Cook rice noodles according to box directions. Set aside.

Pour 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onions. Cook on high heat for 5 minutes.

Add tofu and broccoli. Add more oil if necessary.

Once broccoli is tender, add spinach, sauce ingredients and noodles. Mix well.

Once noodles are warm, pour into serving dish. Garnish with peanuts, scallions and lime wedges.

Whenever I go to the grocery store I always try to make sure it’s somewhat recently after I’ve eaten. For me, grocery shopping on an empty stomach often results in purchases that were never on my shopping list – typically items that can usually be eaten right out of the box. Ok, lets call a spade a spade here – they’re processed!

In moderation, a little processed food here and there isn’t the end of the world. And of course some processed foods are better than others. Reading the ingredient list is the best way to really know what it is what you’re really eating. The marketing ploys on the front like “made with whole grains” can often be a load of BS.

So this week I went to the grocery store right before lunchtime and came home with one of my favorite special treats – Puffins. Whoops. My favorite is the peanut butter variety. They’re my reward when I get through another chapter of reading. I worked hard. I deserve a special treat, right? Well, I went through that box really fast. But they were my pat on the back, my incentive to keep on truckin’. Even though they’re gluten free and most of the ingredients are reasonable, my stomach was a little less than thrilled with my impromptu purchase.

Anyway, the Puffins are gone. And I refuse to replenish my supply. Puffins have been banned from my home! There I said it!

Instead I came up with this sweet treat. Real ingredients. Less processed stuff.

Ingredients: (makes 2 dozen cookies)

3 cups almond flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup sucanat

1 teasoon salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup honey

1 cup dried cranberries (unsweetened)

3.5 ounces dark chocolate

optional: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine almond flour, baking soda, salt, and sucanat in large mixing bowl.

Add vanilla, honey and eggs.

Use electric mixer to combine dough thoroughly

Stir in dried cranberries and dark chocolate

Grease baking sheets

Use your hands to roll dough into balls – about 1 inch diameter

Place balls of dough on baking sheet and lightly press to slightly flatten

Bake until cookies are brown on edges – about 25 minutes

Cool for a few minutes. Use spatula to transfer cookies to cooling rack.

My fiancé’s birthday was yesterday. I’ve heard of people celebrating their birthday for the entire week or month of their actual day of birth. While I honestly can admit that this is not a concept I can relate to personally, I do think it is important to celebrate life whenever possible, and that definitely includes birthdays.

That doesn’t mean the celebration has to be big or expensive. For me, it’s important to celebrate by doing something that I wouldn’t necessarily do on just any day. I know some people that always take the day off from work. Others go to a fancy restaurant for dinner. For Ryan, he celebrated by leaving work “early”, which meant getting home around 6pm. I finished my workday around the same time and prepared Ryan’s favorite dinner to celebrate – flank steak – local, grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone-free. We ate in the dining room, which we never do unless we are entertaining.

To go with the steak, I made a spicy plum salsa sauce, southern-style greens and simply steamed broccoli. For dessert I made chewy chocolate chip cookies so that Ryan and I could enjoy them together. To make dessert a little different for Ryan I took a few spoon-fulls of his favorite ice cream from the freezer, smashed it between two cookies and popped it back in the freezer for a somewhat homemade ice cream cookie sandwich. Sure, it’s not your typical birthday cake or cupcake, but then again, I guess I’m not very typical either.

How do you celebrate birthdays? Do you have a special birthday meal or dessert?

Flank Steak Marinade

Ingredients:

16 ounces flank steak

1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce

1/4 cup gluten free Worcestershire sauce

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon paprika

1 tablespoon ketchup

Juice from 1 lemon

Directions:

Mix all ingredients except flank steak in large baking dish or Pyrex container

Add flank steak. Use spoon to cover meat with marinade.

Cover and put in refrigerator for two to five hours.

Heat grill and cook meat evenly on both sides.

Slice and serve.

Plum Salsa – Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens – it goes well as a “sauce” or a salsa dip.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon gluten free soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 plums, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, chopped

Grapeseed oil

Directions:

Dribble a little grape seed oil in a medium skillet and apply medium heat.

Add onions and jalapeno and cook for about 5 minutes.

Add plums, soy sauce and honey.

Cook until plums are tender and onions are transparent – about 10 minutes.