Squash Brownies

No really, they're fabulous.

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup palm oil shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar (or honey or maple syrup, etc)
1/2 cup pureed squash/pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp tapioca starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 tsp sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Melt shortening
3. Stir in cocoa until well mixed
4. Stir in sugar/sweetener
5. Stir in squash & vanilla
6. In a separate dish, mix rice flour, tapioca starch and sea salt
7. Add flour mixture to cocoa mixture, stirring just until all dry ingredients are wet
8. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 glass pan
9. Bake for 30 or so minutes at 350*F (you will know it's done when a knife or toothpick poked into the center comes out clean)
10. Enjoy

Coconut Ice Cream

Here is a link to a fabulous ice cream recipe. We made it just by putting it in a bowl in the freezer and stirring intermittently. We just got an ice cream maker (brand new from a thrift store for $5!!) so we will try that tomorrow. After 10 months of no ice cream of any kind, it was heavenly. Even Dave, who has had ice cream in recent times, said it was really good. Time to experiment. I will report back.

5 minute quinoa veggie soup

Everytime I roast a chicken or cook any chicken cuts with bones, I make homemade bone broth. I have 2 quart- and 6 pint-sized jars of stock in my freezer currently. And a chicken carcass in the fridge waiting to be turned into broth (should yield roughly 3 quarts, total). I put bone broth in everything I can, since it is such an easily assimilated source of calcium, gelatin and protein. It's great for healing a damaged gut, as well. Therefore, at any given moment, I have soup ingredients on hand. The other day, the kids were hungry and ready to mutiny. I felt like I had "nothing" in the house for lunch (translation: no left overs, or anything easy or ready-made). I pulled a jar of bone broth, grabbed some veggies & quinoa flakes and we had a lunch in 5 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pint of bone broth
• veggies - we had broccoli & cauliflower
• sea salt
• coconut oil
• 1/2 cup quinoa flakes
• juice of 1/2 lime
• fresh cilantro
• fresh minced ginger, about 1 tsp
• thinly sliced onion stalks
  
• coconut milk, a few tsps in each bowl

DIRECTIONS:

1. in a saute pan, saute ginger & veggies in coconut oil with sea salt.
2. add bone broth, bring to boil.
3. add cilantro leaves and steams.
4. add quinoa flakes, turn down heat and simmer for several minutes - quinoa will thicken.
5. add sliced onion stalks.
   
6. remove from heat and allow to cool.
7. pour in a little bit of coconut milk into each bowl and stir.
   

Yield: lunch for two hungry kiddos and their mama. obviously, very easy to double, triple, etc.

ALTERNATIVES:

• try onions or other aromatics in addition to or in place of ginger.
• add chicken meat.
  
• use pre-cooked grains (buckwheat, quinoa, millet, rice, etc) instaed of quinoa flakes.
• use pre-cooked rice noodles instead of quinoa flakes.
  
• try various veggie combinations.
• spice it up with cayenne pepper or minced hot peppers.
  

Tortilla Strata

Our brown rice tortillas fill a nice niche. They allow us to have taco-esque meals with a modicum of normality. Just a scootch, however, since they will. not. roll. At least, not without breaking. As stated before, Dave just gives up and eats them with a fork. Lily rips them up and makes "mini tacos." I somehow hold them together at the perfect tension until the last few bites when they fall apart spectacularly.

I like the ease of having a "convenience" food available to us (there are so few), so that I'm not stuck cooking every single ingredient from scratch every single night. In theory, I'd love to do that. In practice, some evenings, the kids just are just glued to me and every second spent in the kitchen is torture to them. Or so one would assume from the constant, blood-curdling screams. Or that could just be my kids.

So, while I like their convenience, I do not like their uncooperative nature. The enchiladas helped by softening the tortillas, but I still had to roll them first (which, of course, resulted in breakage). Also, I think I would like to make a better enchilada sauce next time. In the mean time, I thought I would work with the round shape of the tortillas instead of trying to convince them to bend smoothly. I decided that layering tortillas and filling in a round cake pan would do just the trick. And it worked!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package (6 count) brown rice tortillas
• 1/2 cup bone broth or water
  
• onion, diced
• 2-3 bunches kolrabi greens (from my garden!)
• 1 large zucchini, diced
• 2 large tomatoes, peeled & seeded
• cilantro
• olive oil
• sea salt & pepper to taste
  
• handful of paprika
• handful of cumin
  
• large pinch of coriander
• small pinch of allspice
  
• small pinch of clove
• black olives
• 1 avocado
• shredded (raw) cabbage
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute onions in olive oil, with sea salt.
   
2. Add tomatoes, zucchini, broth & spices, including cilantro.
   
3. Simmer for a few minutes, until tomatoes & zucchini are soft.
   
4. Add kolrabi greens, simmer until they turn bright green and soften.
   
5. Blend everything in a blender or food processor until smooth.
   
6. Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of a round cake pan (or square casserole dish larger than the tortillas).
   
7. Place the first tortilla in the pan.
   
8. Add 2 or 3 spoonfuls of sauce and spread around to edges.
   
9. Repeat, layering tortillas and sauce.
   
10. The last tortilla will set on top. Spread with a little bit of olive oil.
    
11. Garnish with olives & cilantro leaves.
    
12. Bake at 350*F for 15 or so minutes.

We ate ours with shredded raw cabbage, diced avocado, and black olives. If we'd had fresh salsa ready, we would have eaten that, too.

Yield: 8 slices. Enough for our family of four. If there was another side, it would easily serve four adults.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add meat or grains or beans or potatoes.
  
• Try different greens.
  
• Add mushrooms.
  
• Add broccoli or peppers or other vegetables.
  
• Serve with shredded lettuce instead of cabbage.
  
• Serve with salsa.
  

Fried Zucchini Slices

So, it's late summer. That means: zucchini. And lots of it. Creative, allergy-friendly, non-boring zucchini dishes are always welcome in our repertoire. Since I found an allergy-friendly bread crumb at the co-op the other day, I thought I'd try my hand at fried zucchini & pattypan squash slices. They were a hit!

INGREDIENTS:

• a few medium-sized zucchini
• several pattypan squash
• 1/2 cup (ish) palm oil shortening
  
• a few pinches of sea salt
• a few handfuls of bread crumbs
• a few handfuls of nutritional yeast

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl mix sliced zucchini & squash with bread crumbs, salt & nutritional yeast.
   
2. Heat up a skillet of shortening (you can pretty much use any frying oil you want - we made it last night with palm oil shortening, but this afternoon we used rendered chicken fat).
   
3. Pour bowl of zucchini into the skillet. Let it fry for a few minutes and then stir while frying a few more. The bread crumbs and yeast will brown and the zucchini & squash will get tender. Don't over cook, or your veggies will get soggy & mushy.

Yield: easily serves four as a side dish.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add spices to the bread crumbs: basil, oregano, rosemary
  
• Add some aromatics: onions, garlic, ginger
• Serve with some chicken and/or baked potato wedges for a full meal
  

coconut-molasses stir fried veggies

We have hit harvest time, the time of abundance. Fresh veggies are coming out our ears, so it seems. What better way to enjoy lots of veggies at once than a quick & easy (and of course, delicious) stir fry.

We just had this for lunch. Lily just told me that she's "not really a big fan of this stir fry." When I asked her what didn't she like, she said the "taste of all of it." Well, then. Aevryn and I thought it was great. Aevryn is also currently eating a wedge of lemon. Make that, Aevryn is currently spitting out a wedge of lemon. So, perhaps her palette is suspect. Lily and I just had a conversation about when you don't like something, the cook isn't going to jump right up and make you a brand new meal. I offered to let her forage in the fridge for a meal or she could try her stir fry again. Guess who's decided the stir fry is good after all (once we took out the onions)? Gotta love my houseful of negative first responders.

INGREDIENTS:

• Whatever veggies you have on hand. We used: cauliflower, broccoli, onions, green onions, cilantro, left over shredded cabbage, left over shredded kolrabi
• roughly 1/2 cup or so of bone broth (we freeze ours in pint-sized jars so that we always have broth on hand). You can easily sub water.
• roughly 1/4 cup coconut milk
• coconut oil
• juice of half a lemon
• sea salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup or so nutritional yeast
• 1 TBSP molasses
• I would have added ginger, were it in the house. I thought it was when I started gathering my ingredients. Oh well. Blame it on the kitchen gnomes.
  

I feel compelled to make it known that I really don't measure out my ingredients. I do pinches and handfulls and drizzles and squeezes. My measurements here are really just approximations.

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute onions (& ginger).
   
2. Add bone broth, veggies (including herbs), coconut oil. Season with salt & pepper.
3. Simmer until veggies are tender. (When the broccoli turns bright green, you know it's done!)
   
4. Add molasses, coconut milk, nutritional yeast. Stir well.
   
5. Simmer until liquid is mostly absorbed and a thick sauce remains.

Yield: lunch for one adult (with an admittedly healthy appetite) and two small children.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Serve over rice or rice noodles.
• Add seafood or chicken or beef.
• Try honey instead of molasses.

Cultured Veggies - Dill Pickle Slices

You know me and my fermented foods. I love them. Well, I'm growing to love and appreciate them. Food enzymes useful for digesting said food are destroyed when exposed to the heat of cooking. Eating fermented foods with your non-raw meals are a way to naturally supplement enzymes to help digest your food.

You can also take enzyme supplements in the form of fizzy powders and capsules. We currently do a capsule of digestive enzymes with any meal containing meat or grains. I would love to eventually stop taking the pills and to rely solely on fermented foods. Just a 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of fermented veggies (sauerkraut, salsa, pickles...) can help your digestion immensely.

Fair warning: at first, you may experience gas or bloating as your body gets used to having more (enough) digestive enzymes to completely break down the food. Your bathroom habits may change as well (for the better in many cases).

And a final clarification: there is nothing magical about the cabbage in sauerkraut or the peppers in salsa or the cucumbers in pickles. It's the fermentation process (sitting at room temperature for roughly 2 or so days) that creates the lacto-bacteria that help your gut. Going to the store and getting a jar of sauerkraut or salsa or pickles will not afford the same benefits.

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 "baby" or pickling cucumbers
• handful of fresh dill
• 1 Tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 Tbsp sea salt
• juice from one lemon
  
• water
• 1 quart- or 2 pint-sized canning jars with lids
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut cucumbers into 1/4" slices.
2. In a large bowl, mix cucumber slices with dill, salt, mustard seeds & lemon juice.
3. Spoon mixture into jar(s).
4. Cover with water.
5. Smoosh cucumbers down, so there is an inch or two between cucumbers and the top of the jar.
   
6. Let sit at room temperature for roughly two days before storing the fridge.

Yield: 1 quart-sized or 2 pint-sized jars of pickled cucumber slices.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Slice cucumbers length wise into spears.
• Use larger cucumbers cut up in various ways.
  
• Add garlic or onion or hot peppers.
• Experiment with other herbs and spices - parsley, black peppercorns.

"Butter Cream" frosting

I love frosting. I grew up in a house where it was perfectly acceptable to eat it out of the fridge with a spoon (as long as no one caught you, that is - but we all did it). In particular, I love chocolate butter cream frosting. Believe it or don't, but I have come up with VEGAN butter cream recipe that you would never guess was dairy or soy free. The secret is in the palm oil shortening. Spread the word. Palm oil shortening is also good for making french fries in a cast iron skillet. Versatile and delicious. And super allergy-friendly. Yay for palm oil.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup palm oil shortening, slightly chilled is best
  
• 1/4 cup rice milk
  
• 1 cup cornstarch-free powdered sugar*
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

* or make your own: put one cup of white cane sugar and 1 tsp cream of tartar or tapioca starch in blender or food processor. Mix on high until sugar is powdered. Voila!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cream shortening and rice milk with a hand mixer.
   
2. Slowly add powdered sugar until you get a nice frosting consistency. If it's too stiff, add more rice milk. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar.
   
3. Add vanilla and mix well.
   

Yield: enough frosting for a batch of brownies, the top of a sheet cake or a batch of cupcakes.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Add 1/4 cup cocoa powder to the frosting for chocolate butter cream.
  
• Use cold coffee or espresso instead of all or part of the rice milk for coffee butter cream. You can also sub out vanilla and sub in coffee extract.
  
• Use coffee AND cocoa for mocha butter cream.
• If you can do nuts, sub out vanilla for almond extract.
  

Easy One Bowl Brownies

Not only did we recently re-lose eggs, now we are finally addressing the lingering chocolate issue. Namely: I love it and really don't want to give it up, despite a potential reaction. I am in serious denial here, but we really need to find out.

So, vicariously, I am posting this fantastic brownie recipe. It's a little crumbly as is, but if you can tolerate eggs, that helps immensely.

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 cup safflower oil
• 2 Tbsp flax meal + 6 Tbsp water heated in microwave = flax meal gel
• 1 cup cane sugar
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1 cup sorghum flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix flours, salt, soda & cocoa.
2. Add sugar.
3. Add oil.
4. Add flax meal gel.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Pour batter into a greased & lightly floured 9x13 glass pan.
7. Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes or so. Edges will pull away from sides of pan & knife tip will come out clean when pushed into center.

Yield: Double batch. For us, that means 24hrs, 48 max. For other, more will-power endowed, it will last longer.

ALTERNATIVES:

• Eggs instead of flax meal, will help it hold together better.
• Try adding chocolate chips, dried coconut, or dried fruit, like cherries.
• Use coconut oil to grease pan.
  
• Make a chocolate "buttercream" frosting and frost like a cake.
  
• Pour into muffin tins for brownie "bites".