Cheesecake!

Cheesecake! Yes, cheesecake, as long as you can have cultured milk products, nuts, coconut, and honey. We'll wait and see if I can.


Winner winner chicken dinner...err...dessert. OMG it was heavenly and even non-GAPS people gobbled it up so you know it's good.


You first need homemade cultured sour cream and cream cheese. Basically make homemade yogurt and left sit extra-long in an incubator for sour cream (24 hours) , and then use your leftover yogurt for cream cheese; Alton Brown has a good recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/yogurt-cheese-recipe.

Cheesecake Crust:

 1/4- 1/2 c pecans - put in food processor to make into flour. Almond might work too but almond hates me.
2 c coconut, I use a super-fine unsweetened coconut.
1/2 c honey or to taste (I used a little less)
1/4 c oily mix- I mixed ghee and coconut oil

Mix in food processor until it resembles graham cracker crumbs.

Use muffin cups/liners or lightly oil (coconut oil) muffin tin - 12 total muffin cups.

Press in the "crust" on the bottom, you will likely have leftovers- enjoy, it's a good snack!

Pre-bake 325f  3-5 mins

yummmmm

Filling

Soften cream cheese- I had about 8oz or so
Add tablespoon or so of sour cream
add tbsp honey
add a few zesyts of lemon
put in mixer and mix until creamed, high speed, about 1 min. Add....
1 egg.
Mix slowly for 10 sec. and increase speed to high, mix 2-3c min until well mixed.

Spoon onto crust

topping:
Lemon Curd!
Follow any recipe you find online, but what I did was...
heat 2/3 c lemon juice
1/2 c honey
splash vanilla extract
over medium heat, not until boiling, just warm and well mixed. Add barely-a-pinch of salt and stir.

Whisk...
3 egg whites plus 1 egg and 1/4 c honey, until the color changes and it is well mixed.

Very very very slowly drizzle or spoon in the lemon mixture...do not curdle/scramble your eggs!

Add back to saucepan, cook on medium low stirring often until it coats the spoon without too much dripping off. Let sit and cool to room temperature, it will thicken

Dollop lemon curd on top of cheese mix on the crust, stir gently.

Cook 325 10-20 min, really it depends on your oven. As soon as the cakes are not jiggly, take them out before they cook too much and crack.
Let cool on counter 1 hour, place in drudge at least 2 hours before serving.

Kadoo Bourani or Afghani/Indian "Hamburger helper", GAPS friendly

As you can see, my kids had hamburger helper for dinner, at left. I never exactly loved hamburger helper, but cheesy-gooey-noodley-wheat-goodness looked appetizing, since I cannot eat it. I made an alternative, at right.

So...

I googled recipes for ground beef, and settled with using ground turkey in my recipe instead, but ground beef would work just as well.  I just wanted meaty-goopy-goodness.

Kadoo Bourani is the pan at right.

Adjust cayenne to your liking...I like it HOT!


1 lb ground turkey or ground beef 
splash coconut oil (enough to coat the pan)
1 onion, chopped
1-2 gl garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

1 ~14oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste

1 1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp garam masala
cayenne- I added a tsp but most will want much less spice.

1 cup cubed raw pumpkin or butternut squash
2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp of a mix of curry powder and smoked paprika
pinch salt 

1/4 c homemade yogurt  (or full-fat coconut milk)
a few mint leaves (or 1/2 tsp or so of dried mint flakes)


Heat oven to 400. Put foil or parchment on a baking sheet. Mix squash, 2 tsp coconut oil, the curry-paprika mix and salt. Mix up and put on the ban and bake 15-30 min until tender.

Meanwhile, add onion, coconut oil to saucepan. Cook until translucent, add garlic, cook 1 min. Add ground beef or turkey, cook until cooked through, add salt and pepper.


Add tomato products to the meat mixture and mix well. Add turmeric, garam masala, cayenne.  Mix and cook about 3 minutes. Add water if it gets too dry.

Add the baked squash/pumpkin to the meat mixture and stir, cook an additional 5 minutes to let flavors meld.

Let cool about 5 minutes. Drizzle with homemade yogurt and mint.

Enjoy!

cheesy cauliflower "rice"

Here's where we see if I can stomach aged cheddar! I sure hope so.

So I tried cauliflower "rice" once before, with some broth and herbs and...ok...yes, I ate it. Did I like it? No, but I ate it cause I had worked hard to make it.

So I'm at Costco and my husband sees pre-riced cauliflower and buys it. I was not going to lose out on fake-o rice because I love love love rice and like cauliflower, despite my barely-edible first cauliflower rice attempt.

So this is one of those I-didn't-measure-a-thing recipes because it was a total experiment I figured would go horribly awry. And it....turned out tasty!

1/2 bag costco riced cauliflower, or one head cauliflower, riced (food processors work well)
1 tbsp ghee, use most to coat a baking dish (I used a 9' round one)
1/2 cup aged white cheddar or regular aged cheddar
spoonful homemade yogurt
salt and pepper, to taste
pinch garlic powder
scant pinch cayenne (optional)
splash chicken broth.


Heat oven to 400f.

oil up the pan using about half the ghee or so, until coated.

In a mixing bowl, combine all other ingredients except broth, reserving a bit of cheese. Mix well so the yogurt mixes in. Sprinkle remaining bit of cheese on top. Add a splash of chicken broth, just enough to coat the baking dish just barely. Too much broth = cauliflower soup, too little=burnt dinner.

Bake, covered first 10 mins,  stir gently, bake uncovered for 10-20 more minutes, until cheese is melty and cauliflower just gets a little golden-brown in spots...this adds a nuttiness.

And...serve!

OMGhee

A great way to make roasted acorn squash, and it is GAPS friendly...

Cut squash in half.

Place on a baking tray and set oven to 400f.

Place in each half a squash the following:

1 tsp organic raw local honey
2 tsp homemade ghee
pinch salt, pepper optional

Roast 45 min or so until desired tenderness.

These are so much better than regular old butter and brown sugar.

GAPS spaghetti and meatballs

** if eggs and tomatoes bother you, don't eat this. Also, you can add parmesan if you can have it. I'm not "there" yet.


I love Italian food. It was my favorite cuisine as a child and I could eat pasta every day. Ok, in college, I did and gained 30 lbs, and then went on a daily diet of pizza.

I miss those foods. Enter much sorrow and crying here ____.

Eggplant-
Cut eggplant into 1'4" slices. Sprinkle with salt and let sit on a rack or plate with paper towels 15 minutes. (Meanwhile make sauce and meatballs) Then rinse  eggplant well, Cut into noodle ribbons.

Boil water and cook..
1 carrot, chopped, until soft. Strain.
Drizzle olive oil in a pan just to coat.
Dice...
1/2 red onion
3 cl garlic
sauté until translucent. Add carrots.
Add salt, pepper, italian seasoning to taste.
Place in food processor until saucy.
Add sauce back to pan, add bay leaf, cook slowly.

MEATBALLS
In a food processor, mix up..
1/4 red onion (if large..1/2 if small)
1 cl garlic
handful or less parsley (to taste)
pinch salt and pepper
pinch italian seasoning

Add the mixture to 1 lb organic ground beef.
Add 1 egg.

Mix mix mix by hand.

Heat a pan, add oil if the meat is very lean. Cook up the meat balls, turning to cook evenly.

Add meatballs to sauce,

Heat saucepan and just barely coat with olive oil.
Add eggplant noodles and cook, medium heat, 30 seconds to 2 minutes until desired consistency, tossing often.

Pour sauce, meatballs over eggplant noodles. Garnish with parmesan if you can.

Muesli

Many years ago I spent a month in Austria in a home built in the 1600s stop a hill. There was a lady who came in daily with homemade  Kaiser rolls, cold cuts, cheese, and muesli  for breakfast.

I fell in love with muesli.

Here is a GAPS friendly recipe but measurements are approximate.

1/2c or more homemade yogurt
1/2 tsp + raw honey
1 tsp + unsweetened fine coconut
1 tsp+ finely chopped nuts (whatever your body can handle )
Pinch cinnamon

Mix and enjoy.

Ghee

A 9oz jar of Ghee at my local store is around $10or so... A dollar an ounce.

And have you ever had ghee? If not, have you ever had clarified butter? Ghee is even better. It also has a high smoke point so it's good for frying/oven dishes etc. And it is solo rich. You can even make little butter desert balls out of ghee. And it makes Indian food fantastic.

Seriously, you haven't lived until you've had ghee.

A 1 lb box of butter runs you $2-6 depending on the manufacturer, coupons, etc.

That means 15-16oz of ghee for $2-6. What a steal of a deal!

All you need to make ghee is...

GHEE  `8oz recipe

A slow cooker
Butter (duh)
Cheesecloth
A sterilized mason jar

Funnel (optional but works well)

Just starting my ghee

Lid or even just some plastic wrap and a rubber band

Decide how much ghee you want. 8oz butter = just barely less than 8oz ghee...3,400 pounds of ghee would = you guessed it, nearly 3,400 pounds of ghee. So make sure your jar/jars are a good size for your soon-to-be-ghee. (Hey that rhymes!)


Turn on your slow cooker to the low setting. Add 2 sticks / 8oz butter, salted, unsalted, whatever you like. I prefer salted.

Put the slow cooker lid on but slightly off, or with a chunk of foil on one side to let steam escape.

Cook ~2 hours. you will see things separate and smell good smells. Don't let it burn though, but golden colors and even a tan color is ok.

Turn off slow cooker.

Grab some pot holders.

Warm your mason jar in warm water so it doesn't break when you add in your super-hot butter liquid. Make sure you dry out the jar, after warming, before adding butter.

a not-so-pretty photo of my straining butter 

Use a funnel lined in cheesecloth (or get hillbilly crafty and use half a plastic water bottle, but that isn't really advised) and place over your jar/s.

Grab your potholders to grab hold of the crockpot. I prefer to pour the butter into a pyrex measuring cup and then the funnel/jars because it means butter is less likely to pour all over the place. Plu if it lured on your hands or something, I bet it would not be very pleasant. Ghee is wonderful on your tastebuds but not so lovely burning-hot on your skin. Anyways...

So I pour the hot butter into my cheesecloth funnel, this strains out any chunky solids. Plus if you used salted butter, those solids might smell like fresh baked cookies, caramel, hugs and sunshine but they taste like those salt licks you give to cockatiels.

Once strained, put a lid on your jar. I've heard ghee is shelf-stable but I don't trust it and keep it in the fridge, plus then it is more butter-texture-like and I know it will be "shelf stable" in the refrigerator.

About Me

I am a mom and wife. I am a "country mouse", raised by hippies and who took on some of those tendencies...but then again who wants monosodium glutamate and preservatives in their food, etc etc? I'm a stay-at-home mom and an introvert who recently ran for office, has a total passion for education, and I homeschool....I am a published author (www.amazon.com/author/gretchendavies)  and self-professed "foodie". I enjoy making art, writing and reading, gardening (although I've got a black thug), amateur genealogist, and travel-lover.

Why do I have a food blog?

I was lactose intolerant as a child and dabbled in food insecurity on and off throughout life. In my early 30s I became gluten-intolerant to the extreme. I am also severely allergic to raspberries (anaphylaxis, anyone?!?!) and get migraines from monosodium glutamate. Basically I have to be that annoying guest at a potluck or restaurant, scrutinizing every ingredient. I don't mean or intend to, but I have to. This causes a love-hate relationship with food.

What foods do I love, despite any of my intolerances?
Sushi
Pizza
Eggplant
Smoked/BBQ foods
squash of all kinds
fresh blackberries
fruit tarts
hummus
Anything Indian
salsa
guacamole
Carne Asada
Yogurt with cinnamon apples
anything spicy

Anyway, I was raised by hippies as stated, so I was not allowed to eat top ramen or kraft mac n cheese (but I always had it at friend's homes) because it wasn't "real food". However, my mom didn't exactly go to the extent of "homemade" as I did.

In college, I gained the Freshman 30, because I decided to go vegetarian. The College meats were all slimy and actual prison-grade, no joke. Plus as a kid I didn't care much for meats. We never had fish or lamb, beef was either burgers or boiled beef (literally beef in water with 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 potato)n which ended up as shredded beef tacos days later, or well-done under-seasoned prime rib for holidays, or chicken with bottled french dressing on top. So it was easy to go vegetarian, but this meant....PASTA. and pizza. My parents weren't fond of either and with unlimited dinner amounts (plus cookies!) I gorged on carbs.

I never liked food with unpronounceable ingredients, though.

When I got pregnant with my first child, I became very gluten intolerance which came and went for a few years and then stuck to where even a bite made me suffer. Potlucks, restaurants. etc became the enemy. I mean, who puts wheat in hash browns, chili, cheese sauce, and meat rubs, to name a few? Well I found out who.

I went fully gluten-free and began to cook at home basically exclusively aside from a visit to some Mexican place, as tacos on corn tortillas were generally safe. Oh, and Chinese...I wasn't sensitive to soy sauce which con taints wheat....but now I am.

I live rurally so all we have to eat is Subway, McDonalds, Pizza, a sandwich/fried Chicken type restaurant, and sub-standard, wheat in most everything Mexican. So...I ate at home.

And then....

Well I have a "t.m.i." post in this blog as to what happened but let's just say I went to the bathroom and was not pleased with the results.

So I went on the GAPS diet.

So far so good, but my system is finicky. I've had food poisoning probably 10+ times, including times when I lost consciousness, didn't want to open gifts from Santa, and ended up with major parasites where I could barely eat for months.  I think all this damaged me.

So with all this, even prior to GAPS, I wanted to make real food at home. Why buy ketchup with corn syrup or...whatever with freaky ingredients when they can be made without?

Now, with GAPS, everything, even broth, is made from scratch. I've been on GAPS almost three weeks as of this posting and haven't opened any cans or jars or anything.

It is expensive. I can bake a whole chicken, with a side of asparagus and side of spinach, and spend $21 or I can go to Mcdonalds and get 2 big macs, 2 cheeseburgers, 10 nuggets, and 4 french fries for $10. What. The. Hell. Why is it a salad costs $6 but a burger, fries, coke, and other fried delight cost $5? Why does my grocery bill week up to a thousand, when others can spend 1-2 hundred? Oh, because frozen pizza, bread, cereal, mac and cheese in a box, etc are cheaper. Anything factory made seems to be half or less the cost of homemade. Even soda often costs less than water....and soda is made of water (and then some). Something ain't right here. I don't know how to solve that issue but it bothers me.

I will continue to shell out far too much money to eat healthy and eat at home, making food from scratch like people did 100 years ago. I feel 1,000 times better this way (and it hurts me that people often can't afford to eat healthy). I find a certain zen in creating my own mayonnaise or smoked meat or pickles the old-fashioned way. I enjoy getting my hands dirty in making my food, because I know exactly what went into it - love, and real ingredients.

I hope my blog inspires people to try "real" food, or to explore natal diet-based cures for what ails them. I'm not a doctor, no-sir-ee, but I believe food plays an important role in health. I also believe there is no one diet for everyone, as we are all unique creations of God, with different dietary needs and wants.

So...embrace real food. Listen to your body. Fall in love with your kitchen again.

Salmon, egg salad, spinach and aioli

At first, I looked with yearning towards my husband's sushi lunch. Oh rice, how I miss you, and how cauliflower rice is an evil lie.

But then....

Let's just say on the GAPS diet I cook. A lot. Dot my eyes and call me Mary Jo Pioneer girl cause that's how I feel....homemade broth, homemade mayonnaise... I can't recall the last time I used something from a box/can. Yesiree, I live in a rural community, attend church a few times a week, homeschool my kids, and churn my own butter.

Anyway...

You can find my recipe for smoked salmon. I made 4 lbs or something crazy and have far too much leftover, and it doesn't freeze or keep well. And since I can't have lox and bagels or salmon hash or even creamy salmon bisque... I'm getting creative.

I made aioli yesterday because store bough condiments have soybean oil and corn syrup and a whole slough of things no one should put in their bodies (well, my opinion), and to get "real" versions at the store cost you a pretty penny.

Aioli is so easy to make and so versatile. Here is my recipe for garlic aioli, omit garlic to have a sort of mayonnaise, add other ingredients to suit your fancy.

My recipe is form The Heal Your Gut Cookbook by Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett. Seriously, this cookbook rocks.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NQ5U5RY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Here goes...

Garlic aioli

2 egg yolks
1 tsp dried mustard
1/2 lemon, juiced/ 2-3 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c coconut oil **
1/2 c olive oil
2 cl garlic, pureed or finely diced
splash of apple cider vinegar with mother or fermented veggie juice (optional, I didn't use it)

**you can also just do 1 cup olive oil.

Mix egg, mustard, salt, lemon, garlic in food processor until mixed and kinda syrup-y.
Melt coconut oil juuuust to melting and add olive oil and let sit just a few minutes so it isn't hot-you don't want to end up with scrambled egg aioli, yuck!

slowly drizzle in oil. It will fluff up into a mayonnaise texture. Chill, cover, serve.

Add dill to make dill-garlic aioli.

And for my spinach? I just added a splash of olive oil to a pan and threw in a bunch of spinach, pinch of salt and pepper, squeeze of lemon and cooked it. Then I added my salmon on top with a dollop of aioli.

Deviled egg salad-

6-7 eggs, boiled and chopped up
salt and pepper to taste
pinch paprika
dollop or two pf garlic aioli, enough to moisten/to taste.

homemade yogurt

There are 1,000,000 ways to make yogurt, some of which I may experiment with, but for now I'm sticking with the easiest-safest one using what I have on hand. Plus, it tastes really good. I mean it.


You need milk, well, duh. Unpasteurized is best but you can use regular old milk. I did. And you need some plain old plain flavor yogurt. Sure, you can use yogurt culture starters and I may in the future but my grocers doesn't carry it and I wanted yogurt that moment! So buy whatever plain yogurt you like best, but that also has lots of probiotics. You only need a small container.

yogurt...right before I taste-tested it.

You will also need a sterilized jar and equipment sterilized too- spoon, ladle, stainless steel pot, candy thermometer, measuring cup and tablespoon...all sterilized for safety's sake. I know, out in say Mongolia a hundred years ago no one sanitized a thing. But us Americans have super sensitive and weak tummies (which is why probiotics from yogurt are helpful) so let's not play mad pioneer scientist and end up in the hospital. Sterilize!

You need ingredient wise...
4 cups whole milk
2-3 tbsp favorite plain yogurt

Yep. That's it.

Pour milk into stainless steel pot. Why stainless steel? It heats the most evenly and at the right intervals for milk. Others will burn it. And if you're not careful, you can still scald or burn milk in stainless steel, it's just the nature of milk.

Warm the milk and stir stir stir. Keep stirring rather often (not constant, but probably a few good swishes every 30 seconds) and if your thermometer isn't the typical kind that self-hangs into your food, take the temp often. Either way pay attention to temperature, scalding, etc. DO NOT BOIL!

While cooking, prepare an ice-water bath that your pot can fit into. A sink works well.

"Cook"  your milk to 180f.  Turn off the heat and move your pot of milk to the ice bath. Stir gently and keep notice of the temperature.

meanwhile, scoop 2-3tbsp yogurt into a larger receptacle (as in a 2 cup thing. I used a pyrex 4 cup measuring cup.)

When the milk is 110f, s remove from ice. Scoop/ladle about a cup out and into your yogurt. Stir to combine, but don't get all super-agitated with it, just fold and stir to mostly combine. Add this milky yogurt back into your 110f milk and again gently stir to combine.

Now you can pour the runny yogurt stuff into a jar. If your jar is very cold, warm it with lukewarm water so it won't crack. My pot was huge and jar narrow so I poured it into my pyrex first and then the jar.

Cover your jar with the lid (do NOT seal, just loosely cover) or with some foil kind of scrunched around the lid area/jar mouth.

Place in your oven on bread proof, 100f.  (Some use lightbubls and heating blankets....I use my oven. It's simple).

DO NOT AGITATE. Do not stir or move around. Just let it sit.....

Let it sit FOREVER....or so it seems. Anywhere from 4-10 hours. At 5 hours I carefully opened the lid and just barely, slowly tipped it to see it was sheer liquid.

Wait, why should we not agitate it? Agitation can break up the little bacterias or whatever and render your yogurt useless.

My first batch "fermented" in the oven, 100f, for 7 or 71/2 hours (I never set a timer.) Upon gently placing a spoon in, it was not quite yogurt texture, more like heavy whipping cream, but it was bedtime so I put it in the fridge overnight.

ice bath

Next time I will let it ferment/warm/whatever you call it, maybe 9 hours?

(UPDATE: Bought an actual yogurt incubator and it says 7-8 hours but I usually do 10-12 hours).

The result? Thicker than yogurt drinks, but not quite Greek Yogurt thick. More like Yoplait? Well kind of, as they use starch and gelatin to make it more "together". Let's say its just at my limit of thinness, but it can be scooped up so it is firm enough, with a gentle sweetness and tartness.

It totally needs some honey and fruit, both which I cannot have, but being currently sugar-free (not even the fake stuff, not even fruit) I really detect the sweetness and enjoy it plain, out of the jar,

adding yogurt starter

pouring yogurty-mik into jars

putting into incubator

GAPS friendly chicken piccata

Here is one of those "measurements are approximate" recipes, but it is GAPS friendly.

1 lb chicken breasts. (You can make boiled ones or lightly sauté in ghee....which is tastier! add a pinch of salt and pepper to them.)
2 lemons
2 tbsp ghee (some to sauté chicken, some for the sauce)
few tbsp broth/bone broth
(if you can handle wine, a splash of wine really sets it off, but it isn't necessary)
spoonful of capers
handful parsley, chopped
2-3 cl garlic or to taste, chopped
1 shallot, diced, or equivalent amount diced red onion
zucchini noodles ** you can use a "zoodle" spiralizer or just use a peeler and sloooowly peel lots of zucchini noodles, using 3-4 zucchinis.

saute or boil chicken. set aside. cut into slices or bite sized pieces.

Saute in ghee, onion/shallot, garlic, parsley, capers. add juice of 1-2 lemon (depending on taste) and some zest. Add broth,  (and optional wine) because the ghee sauce will turn to not-sauce quickly. Add back in chicken. toss to coat. Once everything is warmed through and coated, turn off heat.

Add "zoodles" and put a lid on the pan for 2 minutes. Dump pan contents into bowl and toss to coat noodles and mix everything up.

My take on zoodles....
I love zucchini and so it turned out very fresh and light and summery and healthy. However, zoodles aren't noodles. you don't get that salty al dente starchy tasty mouth feel noodles give, but it you can't have noodles, so be it.