What We Have Been Eating Every Night....

 

If you missed our big announcement, you can check it out here.

As I mentioned, our little tater tot has had me completely worn out for the past 8 weeks or so. I would wake up tired, go through work exhausted, come home, lay on the couch until about 7:00 PM, when I would then get ready for bed and I was out of the rest of the night.

I’m not sure if all pregnant women get this amount of exhaustion, but I think that this is the worst pregnancy symptom I’ve had. I am so lucky to have escaped the non stop vomiting and nausea.  I did have some slight nausea and some strong food aversions, but for the most part, my stomach behaved itself quite nicely!

During my first trimester, I absolutely dreaded the thought of cooking and making dinner every night. Most food smells were too strong for me to handle, and I was so worn out I didn’t want to move.

This being the case, we had breakfast for dinner, like every. single. night.

I tried to switch it up by making gluten free pancakes, omelets, eggs sunny side up, tater tots, bacon, or whatever combination of breakfast food I had in the house. Thank God for sweet husband, who LOVES breakfast food and was happy to eat it every night.

Eggs are a great source of protein, especially for a momma that gags at the site of any kind of animal protein (that is still me.) They also have a very low odor and can be prepared a number of different ways. They have definitely been a life saver for me the past two months!

I am happy to report that this week has brought about new energy, and my stomach is much more relaxed than it was. I have been able to cook again and enjoy a lot of the foods I did previously. I have a lot of new recipes coming soon (including a pumpkin muffin recipe that is to die for!)

Also, just for fun, here are a few pictures of my sweet niece, Madalyn  who is 4.5 months old. She is such a sweet, lovely baby! Totally chunky and adorable!

Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Smoothies

Summer in Seattle always seems to start at the very end of August and linger into September. While it isn’t a long season, it’s truly one of the most beautiful places in the world to be during the few short months of sunshine.

One of my favorite breakfasts to make during the summer is this indulgent Peanut Butter Smoothie. It’s rich, creamy and a total treat! This would make a great desert as well!

I got this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers and adapted it to make it dairy free. 

  

Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Smoothies

(makes 2)

Ingredients:

1 Cup Coconut Milk (I have found other dairy free milks are too thin for this recipe. Coconut really is the best choice here)

¼ Cup Organic Peanut Butter (peanuts are extremely high in pesticides so I highly recommend organic peanut butter)

1 Tbps Cocoa or Carob Powder

1 ½ Tbps Honey

2 Frozen bananas, chunked

Okay, here is where it gets a little complicated:

Throw all the ingredients into a blender, and mix until smooth and creamy.

Whew!  I hope you were able to follow those complex directions.

Enjoy this delicious treat any time of the day!

Gluten Free Corn Dog Cornbread Muffins

Monday night is our Salad/Stirfry night. While my husband and I both LOVE salads, sometimes a salad just isn’t enough to fill my husband’s appetite.

I decided last night to try and adapt Laura from Heavenly Homemakers Corn dog Muffins into a gluten free dairy free muffin that would work for our family to have for dinner.

Oh.My.Goodness. These are officially my favorite gluten free baked good I have never made or tasted! They are amazing! So moist, flavorful and filling! These would make a great breakfast, snack, or addition to any meal! These could easily be just cornbread muffins, by leaving out the hotdog!

I made a double batch of these muffins, so you are more than welcome to cut this recipe in half if you want only 1 dozen. These muffins freeze really well (and are delicious) so I encourage you to make a double batch (twice the payoff for half the work!)

Corn Dog Cornbread Muffins:

Dry:

2 Cups Cornmeal

1.5 Cups Sorghum Flour

1 Cup Tapioca Starch

2 Tsp Guar gum (or xanthan gum)

2 Tsp Baking Soda

3 Tsp Baking Soda

2 Tsp Salt

1 Cup Sucanat

Wet:

4 eggs

1 Cup plus 1 Tbps Olive Oil

2 Cups Water

8 hotdogs. Each hotdog should be cut into 3rds. (I used All Natural Uncured Beef hotdogs from Trader Joes)

Preheat oven to 400

Add dry ingredients into a bowl. Combine until well mixed.

In a separate bowl, add wet ingredients. Whisk wet ingredients together until well combined, about 1 minute.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix by hand until batter is formed. Should be thicker than cake batter.

If not using a demarle pan, line your muffin pan with paper liners

Use a 1/3 Cup measure to pour batter into muffin cups

Then, drop one piece of hotdog into each muffin cup. 

Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or throw them in the freezer for a later date!

I'm sharing this on Tuesday Twister!

Blueberry Muffins and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Ever since I have started getting into baking, I have been seeing muffin and cupcake recipes everywhere that I have wanted to try. However, I surprisingly didn’t have a muffin tin! So, I have been muffin-less, until now!

My wonderful mother-in-law got me a Demarle muffin pan for Christmas and I am now a muffin makin’ machine! This not only excites me, but my husband is pretty ecstatic as well! Last night he actually asked me to “make dozens and freeze them”. I’m going to have to find the time to make dozens before I can commit to that!

Below are my two favorite muffin recipes thus far.

Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen)
 

These are so moist and delicious, and very filling. They are great for breakfast or for a snack!  

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sorghum flour (or you can use brown rice flower)
1 cup almond meal flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon guar gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1/3 cup melted virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups blueberries

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (or if you have Demarle, you can skip this step)

Mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. 

In a separate bowl add the eggs and whisk. Then add the remaining wet ingredients. Blend well. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together well. Then, lightly mix in the blueberries. Use a 1/3 cup measure to pour batter into muffin cups.

Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove muffins from pan and let cool

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins (or Lime Poppy Seed)

These muffins are lighter and airier than the previous muffin. They are also much sweeter. These make a better snack or dessert than breakfast!

Ingredients
8 Tablespoons dairy free shortening. (I’m sure that coconut oil would work too, make sure its softened)
1 cup Turbinado
2 egg
1 teaspoon lemon extract (or lime)
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 Tablespoon lemon juice (or lime)
2/3 cup tapioca starch + 1/2 cup superfine rice flour + 1 teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk (I used coconut)

Lemon syrup ingredients:
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons sugar 

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (or if you have Demarle, you can skip this step)

In a large bowl, Cream together butter and sugar. Add remaining wet ingredients, minus the milk,  and blend well

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour(s), baking powder, salt, and almond flour.

Add dry ingredients to creamed sugar/butter/egg mixture, mix well. Add milk, mix well 

Fill muffin cups/paper liners w/ a ¼ cup measure and bake for 16-20 minutes

While the muffins are baking, mix together the sugar and lemon juice for the lemon syrup and set aside.
 

Puncture several small holes in each muffin (6 or so). Spoon the lemon syrup over the top of each muffin.

Allow the muffins to sit for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Coffee Cake

This weekend we had the opportunity to have a wonderful family lunch with my parents and my mother-in-law! We try and have Sunday lunch at least twice a month with all of us! It is such a wonderful time to fellowship and spend time together. We take turns hosting and brining dishes too, so it makes it more enjoyable for everyone!

This week, my mother-in-law hosted and made us a feast! She had homemade potato salad, bratwursts, tri-tip for me (the bratwursts had wheat in them!), grilled veggies AND baked beans! Needless to say, we all ate like kings! I was asked to bring a dessert.

I had been craving coffee cake for awhile now, and decided to try this recipe  from Spunky Coconut . This is one of my all time favorite blogs! The cool thing about this recipe is the main ingredient…BEANS! But look how moist and flakey the cake was? No one could believe I made this out of beans, and they were so excited about how “healthy” this dessert was!

Coffee Cake:

Add to food processor:
2 cups cooked white beans, room temperature, so they don't cook the eggs (I used Great Northern Organic White Beans, Navy Beans or other white beans could be used!)
6 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Creme liquid stevia
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Puree well.

Add:
1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder

Puree well.

Pour batter into large rectangular greased pan.

Crumble Topping:
3 cups of walnuts (I didn’t have walnuts, so I used cashews, I think walnuts would have been better, and I found 3 cups was WAY too much, I would recommend 2 cups)!
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup sucanat
1 tbsp cinnamon

Put all ingredients into food processor, puree until crumby texture is achieved.

Spread the crumble over the top of the batter.
Using a fork or knife, really swirl the topping into the batter.
Then pat the topping down.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Healthy Snacks

Healthy Snacks

This past weekend, my husband and I both went out of town camping. I went to see Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker in Concert with 9 of my best girlfriends

All of us girls before the concert this weekend

Mike went camping with 10 other guys for a friend’s bachelor party.

Mike and his friends camping

Because most of our friends don’t share in our allergies, I wanted to be sure we had healthy, safe snacks and treats for our camping weekend, so we wouldn’t come home feeling miserable! I made quite a few recipes, some turned out some didn’t! So here are a few of our favorite weekend snacks:

Homemade Trail-Mix:

½ Cup Cashews (or nut of your choice)

½ Cup Almonds (or nut of your choice)

¼ Cup Sunflower Seeds

¼ Cup Pumpkin Seeds

¼ Cup Cranberries (or raisins or prunes, ect)

¼ - ½ Cup Dark Chocolate Chunks

Mix together in a large bowl.

Because my nuts and seeds are unsalted, I lightly drizzled my trail mix with honey, then salted the batch. This added great flavor. However if you buy salted nuts, you can skip this step!

Homemade Protein Bars: (Our favorite!!!) (adapted from Passionate Homemaking!)

2 cups almonds
1/4 cup chai seeds (ground in a coffee grinder or blender)
1/2 cup raisins
½ cup unsalted peanut butter
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup coconut oil (melted)
1 Tbsp honey
2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract
a few squares dark chocolate, less than half a bar needed for thin layer (I melted about 1/4 bag of chocolate chips in a small saucepan for the topping)

Place almonds, Chai meal/seeds, dried fruit, peanut butter and salt in a food processor. Pulse briefly for about 10 seconds.

In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. Remove coconut oil from stove, stir sweeteners and vanilla into oil.

Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste.

Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens.
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat, stirring continuously. Spread melted chocolate over bars; return to refrigerator for 30 minutes, until chocolate hardens.
Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve.

Chewy Granola Bars: (adapted from Heavenly Homemakers)

(Side note: While these are gluten free, my body had a very hard time digesting the oats in these bars. If you have sensitive digestion, this may not be the best snack for you)

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut oil (or another oil of your choice)
1 ½  cup oats
1 cup total of any combination of:  sesame seeds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, mini chocolate chips
In a medium sized saucepan, melt together peanut butter, honey and coconut oil.

Remove from heat and add one cup of oats.  Choose your favorite combination of coconut flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dried fruit and mini chocolate chips, to equal a total of ONE CUP.  (I just got out my one cup measuring cup and poured in the ingredients until the cup was full.)  Pour in and stir well.

Stir well, then spread mixture into a 8×8 or 9×4 pan.

Chill for two hours, then cut into bars.

Green Protein Shake

The shake isn't the prettiest looking breakfast ever!

I am a creature of habit. If I find something that I enjoy eating (and is healthy) I will eat it happily everyday. Our green protein smoothies just so happen to be one of those things that we eat every morning and love! They are incredibly healthy; they keep our tummies full, and are delicious!


We use NUTRIBIOTIC SPECTRUM, Unsweetened Vanilla Rice Protein Powder in our shakes, as it is gluten and dairy free. These shakes would be just as delicious without the protein powder, or you can substitute for your preferred protein powder (try and avoid soy based powders and powders high in sugar).

I have tried to “guesstimate” the best I can on measurements, as we usually just throw things into the shake. Feel free to experiment and find what you like the best.


Green Protein Shake:
(for 2 shakes)

1 Cup Filtered Water
1 Frozen Banana
1 Cup Frozen Blueberries (or any berry – raspberry, strawberries, blackberries)
1 Peach (this is optional, peaches are in season right now so we have been adding them!)
1 ½ cup Spinach (well packed)
2 scoops protein powder
2 Teaspoons Chai or Flax Seeds

Put all ingredients in blender. Blend until well combined, about 1 minute. Enjoy!