Blueberry-Lemon Tea Bread

Growing up, my mom used to make a delicious blueberry lemon bread called "Blueberry-Lemon Tea Bread".  I LOVED. that. bread! It was another of those recipes that got put in the back of my recipe folder since it no longer measured up to our new, healthy standards.  Recently, I have been SERIOUSLY craving this bread, so I decided to hop on the internet and see if I could find a good base for my version.  I am so pleased to pass this bread on to you! It is just as good and maybe better than the original (Tim says it is!).  We were especially surprised at the texture of the bread! Brown rice flour is known for being a bit crumbly and grainy, but THIS was NOT!

So without further ado:

Blueberry-Lemon Tea Bread

2 cups flour (I used brown rice flour)
2 tsp xanthan gum (optional)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Scant 1/2 cup of honey
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup milk
1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 9"x5" loaf pan.

In medium bowl combine dry ingredients.

In large bowl, beat honey and butter together.  Add eggs and beat.

Add flour and milk.  Mix and add lemon juice.  Mix until all is well combined.  Fold in blueberries and put in greased pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes--until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool for 5 minutes in pan (make glaze while it's cooling) and put out on a cutting board or plate.

Lemon-Honey glaze:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup honey (warm and runny--I put my jar on the back of the stove when I put the bread in and that was sufficiently warm)

Mix in a liquid measuring cup or small bowl until honey is incorporated into lemon juice.  Poke top and sides of bread all over with a toothpick.  Brush on the glaze--I know it looks like a lot of juice, but just trust me on this! Before you know it, the glaze will have disappeared into the bread!

Gluten-Free Naturally Sweetened Apple Crisp

With fall comes real apples! I'm not talking the waxed and polished things you can get in the grocery store all year round (of course you can make this with those, too--it just won't be as tasty)! We go to a local farm that sells fresh produce to get our apples and you just can not even compare them to the grocery store apples! 

Gluten-Free Naturally Sweetened Apple Crisp

What you'll need:

About 10 medium size apples

3/4 cup of butter (1 stick and a half)

1 cup of brown rice flour (or other flour of your choice)

1 Tblsp cinnamon plus extra for sprinkling on the apples

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

1/3 cup of honey

Apples:

Preheat oven to 350.  Wash, peel, core and slice your apples into a casserole or baking dish (I use a glass 13"x9").  Grease your pan with butter.  Layer the apples in and as you get one layer in, give a nice sprinkling of cinnamon on each layer.

Topping:

Melt the butter.  Mix dry ingredients.  Add honey and melted butter.  Mix well and spread/drop on cinnamon sprinkled apples.  Bake for 45-60 minutes.  Top with whipped cream or just eat and ENJOY!

Chocolate Bean Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

This recipe started out as Healthy Indulgence's recipe, but I've tweaked it enough to our needs and tastes that I think that I can safely call it my own version. 

My recipe makes a very thin 4 layer cake.  The layers are wafer-like and rather "fudgey" when refrigerated! It is DELICIOUS! People will never believe when you tell them what it is--unless of course you're weird like me--then people really WILL believe you that you made a cake out of black BEANS! ;)

What you'll need:
2 - 15 ounce cans of plain black beans or (3 cups cooked beans)
1 1/4 cups of Passionate Homemaking's Flaxseed Egg Substitute (you'll need to double her recipe, at least--see below note on using eggs)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup butter (12T)

2/3 cup honey

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda


Preheat oven to 325.  Drain and rinse your beans off.  Put your beans, egg substitute, vanilla and salt in blender or food processor.  Mix very well, stopping to scrape the sides--remember you want the beans to be completely non-bean-like ;)!



In small bowl: mix cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder.
In large bowl: Cream butter and honey together.

Add bean mixture to butter mix and combine.  Add cocoa mixture and mix well.




Grease a 9" round cake pan (or heart shaped pan, like I use :)).  Dust it with cocoa powder.  Place parchment paper in the bottom.  Divide the batter between your pans and bake for 35-45 minutes--it's going to depend on your pan and oven.  A toothpick is not going to come out "clean" from this, but it will not be really-really gooey. 



Note on using eggs: if you wish to use 10 eggs instead of the flaxseed binder, you can, BUT it is going to be much puffier so you'll probably want to halve the recipe and do a 2 layer

 Peanut Butter Frosting
1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whip ingredients together and spread on completely cooled cake (works best to refrigerate the layers).

After you have frosted the cake, refrigerate it for at least 12 hours (overnight or a couple days is best).  You CAN eat it right away, but it is beyond compare when it is refrigerated!! This is very RICH so ENJOY it with a glass of milk or cup of coffee! ;) You can also easily halve the recipe for a 2 layer cake.

Honey-Sweetened Whipped Cream

I thought that I would give my whipped cream recipe it's own post so that it would be easier to find.


Whipped Cream
1 pint heavy whipping cream (organic and raw is best)
1 tablespoon honey (raw is best)
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla

Whip cream and rest of ingredients together until desired consistency.  Eat straight or top a tasty dessert with it! ;) ENJOY!

Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes and Cheese Cubes

This recipe was inspired by my sister, but I made some changes to accommodate my tastes and what I had on hand.  This is my version:

 Balsamic Cherry Tomatoes and Cheese Cubes

 Wash your tomatoes off and de-stem them if needed. 

  

 Cut the tomatoes in half (my sister quartered her's).

 

Then cube up some cheese (I used cheddar and my sister used curds).

Then throw in some minced garlic (Sis used garlic powder).

Now add salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to suit your taste (and proportions).  Mix up and ENJOY!

Enjoying Summer!

Hello friends,

I am just enjoying summer and not motivated or inspired to blog in the slightest at the moment :) I hope all of your summers are going splendidly and are all well!  The reason I am blogging in the first place is to post a recipe for a friend who asked for it :) So enjoy if you so desire.

Gluten-Free Naturally Sweetened Chocolate Chip Strawberry Shortcake

Chocolate Chip Cookies or Bars (they're also really good on their own)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted or softened
1/2 cup of honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups of chocolate chips (I use 90% Lindt dark chocolate chopped in my food processor)

Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together honey and butter (or mix if you'd melted the butter).  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients (minus chocolate) in small bowl.  Add to butter mixture.  Fold in chocolate.  Drop onto a greased cookie sheet or spread the whole batch out on a greased 16"x10.5" jellyroll pan.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Strawberries
1lb strawberries (organic is best)

Hull and chop strawberries to desired chunkiness.

Whipped Cream
1 pint heavy whipping cream (organic and raw is best)
1 tablespoon honey (raw is best)
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla

Whip cream and rest of ingredients together until desired consistency.

Combine together in order that you like.  For instance; I like: cookies first, then strawberries, then finally cream but DH likes cookies, cream, strawberries ;)).  To each his/her own!

ENJOY!

Wheat-Free Chicken and Biscuits

I have not perfected the portions (as far as gravy to biscuits) yet, so you may have to tweak them a little.

What you'll need:

Gravy:
9 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons potato starch (or other thickener)
3 cups milk
3 cups chicken broth
6 teaspoons of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

8 cutlet chicken breasts (3 or 4 regular breasts) or whatever part of the chicken you'd like to use

Biscuits:
3 cups flour (garbanzo bean flour makes a really good biscuit)
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
3/4 cup lard (butter probably would work)
1 cup milk

Cook chicken. I prefer to just cook it in some lard in the pan I make the gravy in, but you could bake it, too. Set aside.

Make biscuits. Preheat oven to 425F. Mix dry ingredients together and then cut in lard. Add milk and mix. Form biscuits, put on baking sheet and bake for 12-20 minutes.

Cut up chicken into bite sized pieces.

Melt butter over medium heat (be careful not to burn the butter). Stir in potato starch/thickener. Whisk in milk and broth. Whisk frequently until thickened and hot. Add chicken.

Place biscuit on plate and ladle chicken and gravy over it! Add a vegetable (we like green beans!) and ENJOY! :)

Cinnamuffins: AKA Snickerdoodle Muffins

These muffins I nicknamed Snickerdoodle muffins, because they remind me of the snickerdoodle cookies that I used to make as a pre/young teenager. These are very easy to make up and we make them regularly.

What you'll need:
1/4 cup olive or coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (or whatever your favorite flour is)
1/2 tsp. soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup raisins

What to do:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees.

In medium bowl, mix oil, syrup and applesauce together:In small bowl, mix dry ingredients (excluding raisins):
Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix slightly. Add raisins:
Mix well:
Grease muffin tins (I like to use butter wrappers that I save in my fridge). Fill tins up:

Bake for 18-20 minutes:Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then take out and let cool on a wire rack (or if you can't resist, grab one and slice it in half and slather butter over it! ;))

ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are a fairly recent addition to our "regular havin's", but they are SOOOO yummy!!

What you will need:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup applesauce
3 eggs
1 Tbsp olive oil

2 1/2 cups brown rice flour (or whatever flour you'd like to use)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of cream of tarter
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tsp baking soda

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350F

Put liquid ingredients in a bowl

Cream together

Add dry ingredients

Mix until combined

Make into balls and place on cookie sheet

Then criss-cross with a fork



Bake for 11 minutes (makes about 2 dozen cookies, total)

ENJOY!! :)

'Garlic Lovers' Garlic Knots

This is new recipe that I just came up with. We used to get these awesome garlic knots at a restaurant that we used to go to every other week. We stopped going because we started avoiding wheat and that's pretty hard to do in an Italian restaurant! Tim and I got talking about them one day and how much we missed them and then I said, "well, duh! I could make them!!" So I did and here's the result!

For this recipe I'll be using a Chebe breadsticks mix, but you can use whatever breadstick/dough recipe that you want.

You will need:

• Chebe mix or other dough recipe
• About 1 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 cup minced garlic

Here's how:

First, pre-heat your oven to whatever your dough recipe calls for--375 if you're using Chebe mix.

Then take a measuring cup and put about 1/2 cup or so of minced garlic in.


Then take your olive oil and fill it to the 1 cup line. Stir it and set it aside.

Now make your dough. Take your completed dough ball and divide it into 12 equal balls. Roll them into a strip and then tie them in a knot and place them on a baking sheet. Make sure to use a pan with a lip around the edge. ;)


Throw in the oven for about 15 minutes (this will again depend on your recipe). Pull them out and drizzle your olive oil and garlic over them. This will kind of happen in two stages; you'll drizzle the olive oil first and then kind of 'plop' the garlic on. If your meat (or whatever you're eating these with) is done you can eat them right away, if its not, turn off your oven and throw them back in the oven until the rest of the meal is done.



ENJOY!!

Roast Potatoes

Here's a very tasty side dish! We especially like it with seasoned chicken. Enjoy!

Set your oven to 400F.

Grab about 12-14 potatoes (less if you're using Russets).

Wash them off and cube them up and put them in a large bowl.


Pour 3/4 cup of olive oil on top. Put 1/2 cup of minced garlic in.



Add 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) or salt and 4 tablespoons of Italian seasoning. Mix well.


Throw it in a 13"x9" pan (a jelly-roll pan works, too)


Put pan in oven and bake for 60-90 minutes.


These are a little on the "rare" side of things, I like them a bit browner, but to each her own ;) Enjoy!