GF Sourdough Bread

 

My brother's daughter gave me some of her gf sourdough starter. I didn't know how to make sourdough bread and I didn't have a recipe. So last night, I researched and found the blog from Curry Girls Kitchen that goes into great detail on feeding the starter, making a sponge, proofing, and baking the bread. 

Here is the link:  https://currygirlskitchen.com/gluten-free-sour-dough-bread-wow/

The bread is super yummy! I think I could have proofed it just a wee bit longer. I did 4 hours. The inside is just a bit moist, but it has a nice soft crumb with a nice crunchy crust. Totally yummy!!! It taste good plain, topped with orange marmalade, or with a hearty lentil stew. 

The Best Vegan Lasagna

I have combined three different recipes from three different sources to make the best vegan lasagna that even a nonvegan loves--that will be my husband.

Here's the recipe:

Make the Vegan Spinach Dip from Nora's Cooks

Ignore the preheat oven for now.

 

Set that aside for assembly. 

Make the guts of the Vegan Wellington from Vegan Huggs.

You will not need the puff pastry; so, ignore that and the grapeseed oil isn't need to saute veggies. 

 Ignore the preheat oven. 

Don't worry if this mixture is too wet since it will help with cooking the soften noodles. 

Set that aside for assembling.

Make the Tofu Ricotta from Forks Over Knives

Set aside for assembling.

Cook gluten free lasagna pasta for 5 minutes in boiling water to soften.

In bottom of lasagna pan use 1-2 cups of favorite Marinara sauce.  Place one layer of noodles on top of sauce. 

Cover those noodles with a layer of spinach artichoke dip and then a layer of ricotta. 

Place another layer of noodles over that. Cover those noodles with the Wellington guts and ricotta.

Final layer of noodles with remaining ingredients from dip, Wellington guts, and ricotta. 

Pepper the entire top with pepper or nutmeg or both. 

Bake 375 for 1 hour. Let rest for 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Practicing Wedding Cakes

 This was my surprise cake for daughter when she came to visit in October. 

This was a "Cake Doctor" Vanilla Cake using Betty Crocker cake mix with Earth Balance vegan butter and oat milk. Icing was Chelsweets's vegan buttercream icing with Earth Balance butter and vanilla.

 

Healthy Brownies

 Black Bean and Oat Brownies

1- 15 oz. can of drained and rinsed black beans

3/4 cup of flat oats

1/4 cup date syrup

1/2 cup maple syrup + 2-3 Tbps.

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup of walnuts

1/2 cup chocolate chips

In food processor, mix black beans, oats, vanilla, and syrups until well mixed. Add cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda and mix well. Stir in by hand walnuts and chocolate chips.

Bake 350 for 35 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. 

Natto

Natto, fermented soy beans, is extremely healthy for us. Research shows it is high in K2. K2 is a vitamin that we sometimes are low in or lack. K2 is needed for preventing cardiovascular disease, forming strong and healthy bones, brain function, and healthy skin. Also found in natto is nattokinase, which isn't found in soy beans or tofu since it is produced by the fermentation process used to make natto.  Nattokinase is an enzyme that helps prevent cardiovascular disease. It has been used in Japan for centuries to control cardiovascular disease. It works by preventing blood clots, strokes, high blood pressure, and many other diseases.

Here is how one can make Natto. There are many YouTube videos on how to make it as additional reference.

Natto Recipe

1.    Wash 400 grams/ 16 oz. (one bag) of organic dried soy beans, rinse three times.

2.    Soak beans overnight for 12+ hours until start to see foam starting on top of water.

3.    Drain water, place beans in pressure cooker steamer basket, place in pressure cooker. Add 3 cups of water. Close lid, set to #2, heat on high heat until pressure pin goes up (pressure formed), lower heat to medium, and cook for 45 minutes. Take off heat, let site 5 minutes before releasing pressure, and let sit for 10 minutes before opening. Test to see if beans are cooked by smashing bean between index finger and thumb.

4.    Sterilize (boiled hot water) container and spoons while beans are cooking.

5.    Mash one container natto and add 1-2 tbps of water from cooked beans and mix well. Then add natto mixture to cooked beans and mix well.

6.    Take plastic wrap, place on top of container and then poke holes to wrap to make air vents. Take off container and place loosely on top beans. Place paper towels on top of containers.

7.    Place in heated 100F oven for 24 hours or in styrofoam cooler with light warms or shoe warmer for 24 hours. Keep temperature around 100F.

8.  After 24 hours the beans will look lighter in color and have thin sticky threads, like spider webs.

9. Refrigerate for 3-4 days to get the umami flavor. 

You only need a 1-2 tablespoons to get the benefits. 

Think of it as a condiment to eat with rice. Enjoy!

Vegan Pho

Simple and easy meal to make.

I found this veggie broth at Walmart Market Place. It sure does make prep time faster. All I had to do was prepare the rice noodles, cook some tofu and veggies. I added cabbage, bok choy, carrots, string beans, mushrooms, and cilantro.

A good comfort food for a cold night. I made this on our recent winter RV trip to New Melones.

No Coconut Oil For Me!

The Best Vegan Gluten Free Brownies

•  ¼ cup almond butter
•  2/3 cup maple syrup 
•  2 Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer eggs 
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
•  1/4 teaspoon salt
•  1 cup blanched almond flour
•  1/3 cup arrowroot starch
•  1 teaspoon baking powder
•  1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake in 8-inch baking dish.
2.  Mix together the almond butter, syrup, egg replacer eggs, and vanilla.
3. In cuisinart, blend the cocoa powder, salt, almond flour, arrowroot, and baking powder. Blend the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined.  Stir in walnuts. Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. 

Going Plant-Based

At the end of June I came across Plant-Based Nation on YouTube. After watching the video, I jumped totally into the plant-based diet. I decided to make myself a guinnea pig to see for myself if this diet would improve my blood pressure and help me to drop at least 5 pounds in order to lower my blood pressure. Yes, I read numerous books and websites on the benefits of plant-based diets. I was positive that this would work since many others were able to change their health by eating plant-based-- and for all that stayed on the diet, it saved their life.

Plant-based is different from vegan. One does not consume meat, fish, dairy, eggs, oils, and processed foods . Only plants and whole grains. "If it has a face, then don't eat it" states Dr. Esselstyn.

Well, after being on the diet for almost 4 months, I have lost 16 pounds and lowered my blood pressure to the normal range. I have more energy than I have had in years, and I no longer get out of breath on my hikes.

Yup! I'm staying on this diet for the rest of my life. So the title of my blog is changing to Plant-based and Gluten Free. And I challenge any reader to go plant-base for at least two to three weeks to improve their health too. One can start with Rip Esselstyn's challenge and Facebook support group!

Almond Avocado Brownies

These gluten-free, moist brownies are super yummy and totally easy to make!

Ingredients:

3 extremely ripe avocados
2 eggs
1/2 sugar
1/4 cup dark chocolate cocoa
1 tsp. baking power
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup almond flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 chocolate chips

Directions:

Mash avocados with eggs. Incorporate dry ingredients to mashed avocados and egg mixture, mix well. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips, then pour into an 8X8 greased baking pan.

Bake 350F for 25-30 minutes. Cool and serve.

Another way to use overly ripe avocados.

Gluten Free Bread

This is the best gluten free bread recipe! My sweet husband found this recipe for me. http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2013/03/finally-gluten-free-bread-that-doesnt-suck.html  I give this gal two thumbs up for her wonderful recipe! I love this recipe since the bread tastes so good. Simply the BEST!

 The Best Gluten Free Bread Recipe

Brown Rice Flour Blend

• 1⅓ cups brown rice flour
• 1⅓ cups tapioca flour/starch
• 1⅓ cups cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon potato flour

Bread Recipe

• 4 cups Brown Rice Flour Blend
• 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon gluten-free egg replacer
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ cup powdered milk
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• ¼ cup butter at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• ⅓ cup honey
• 1 package (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast (not INSTANT dry yeast)
• 2 cups warm water

Mix the yeast, a tablespoon of the honey, and 2 cups of warm water to temper the yeast.

Mix the flour blend with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Mix the eggs, butter, honey, and vinegar. There will be small lumps of butter-that's okay.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients until well blended.

Slowly add the yeast mixture to the batter and mix at medium to high speed for at least 4 minutes.

Pour into 2 well grease bread pans and let rise in warm oven (115 F) until dough is about an inch above pan rim.

Bake a 375 until internal temperature is 200 F, about 55-60 minutes.

Let cool in pans for 10-15 minutes and then remove for final cooling.

Pork Tamales

I recently took a trip across southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. While traveling through Tucson, I stopped at Tucson Tamales (http://tucsontamale.com/) for their tamales. These tamales are so fresh and delicious! Once I got back from my trip, I researched tamale making and recipes. After hours of watching youtube videos, I found one that I liked, Amanda's South Texas Pork Tamales: http://how2heroes.com/videos/international/south-texas-pork-tamales.

So, naturally I made my own tamales. I followed Amanda's recipe, but I added more spices in the pork and whole corn. I followed the folding technique that the Tucson Tamale Co shows on their youtube video since I like their method of folding. I made over 40 tamales. This photo was taken while stacking the tamales into the steamer. These are so yummy! Although not as fresh as the Tucson Tamales since they use fresh corn daily, but still good enough to satisfy my cravings.

Kinako Ice Cream and Macarons

I made kinako ice cream and then had to make kinako macarons to accompany the ice cream. Kinako is roasted soy bean flour that is used in Japanese desserts as well as some Korean desserts. I found the recipe from this blog, http://icecreamdaily.blogspot.com/2013/05/day-9-black-sesame-kinako.html. I just substituted the black sesame to kinako.

The macarons were made by following this recipe http://www.chow.com/recipes/28339-french-chocolate-macarons-with-chocolate-ganache. I just substituted the cocoa powder for the kinako. As an ice cream sandwich, this combination is so much better than a ganache for the filling of a macaron- totally delicious!

New Year's Resolution- Cinnabon

I know that this is the time of year when folks are looking for ways to lose weight, but I just had to make these yummy gluten-free Cinnabons. And yes, I gained weight just by looking at the pie of Cinnabons.

The non-gluten-free dieters of my family loved devouring these yummy buns.
Recipe can be found here:http://recreatinghappiness.com/breakfast-recipes/gluten-free-cinnabon-copycat-cinnamon-roll-recipe-updated-and-now-easier-to-make/

Enjoy and eat them while they are still warm!

Homemade Yogurt

My new toy is a yogurt maker. I asked for this as a Christmas gift after deciding that I want to make my own yogurt. I consume yogurt daily in my morning smoothies. Since I like to use Greek yogurt in my smoothies, it is much cheaper to make my own yogurt.

About a mouth ago while researching how to make yogurt, I came across the SCD website and information on Elaine Gottschall. In reading her book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle, I discovered the benefits of incubating the milk for 24 hours to produce a yogurt free of lactose. All of the medical information on benefits to eating lactose free yogurt can be read on the SCD site or in her book.

One can make yogurt within 4-6 hours, but I figure if I'm going to make my own yogurt then I would go the extra hours to produce a yogurt that is lactose free and healthier to the gut.

This yogurt is so yummy! It hasn't gone through the process of straining the whey, and the yogurt already tastes much better than the Greek yogurts found at the grocery stores. The taste is still sour, but has a sweeter flavor than found in the commercial yogurts.

Well, all of the yogurt research also lead me to new information and sites on how to make mascarpone, http://realfoodrealdeals.com/2013/04/17/homemade-mascarpone; and at the same website, how to make ricotta cheese and ghee. I was curious on how to make mozzarella. Mozzarella is also a very easy process. But for now, my next project will be making homemade frozen yogurt.
 

The Yule Mouse

My Yule Log or Buche de Noel cake had a mouse popping its head out of the log this year all thanks to the creativity of my daughter. I used my favorite gluten-free chocolate sponge cake recipe, http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/seasonalandholiday/r/gfbuchedenoel.htm, for the cake. The icing was mascarpone, some powdered sugar, and chocolate.

One trick that I do to prevent cracking in the cake when rolling the cake into the log shape is to roll up the cake while warm in a cloth towel that is covered with a coating of powdered sugar. Let the cake cool before filling, then unroll cooled cake, fill with soften ice cream or favorite filling, and roll up cake. If any cracks do form, they can easily be covered with icing.

Betty Crocker to the Rescue

The Betty Crocker's gluten free cake mixes are so tasty!

This marble cake was made with Betty Crocker's gluten free yellow cake and gluten free chocolate cake mixes. The cake was decorated with chocolate mascarpone icing, English toffee bits, and white truffles.

One would never know that the cake is gluten free.

Apple Pies

...are so yummy!  I have always enjoyed working with a flour dough to make pies crusts for scrumptious pies.  In late summer, my one and only apple tree produces apples that only taste good after the apples have been cooked. Every summer, I use the best of the apples that drop to the ground to make apple pies.

This summer I tried a couple of gluten free dough recipes. This one was my favorite since it was the easiest to work with in forming a pie shell. It's the gluten free Land O'Lakes pie shell recipe. I just double the recipe.

This pie was given the thumbs up by husband and son.

Nectarine Tart

I found this recipe in a non gluten-free cookbook. I just substituted the 1/4 cup flour with my rice flour blend to make it gluten free. I substituted peaches for nectarines in my last cake -still very yummy!

Tart
90 grams butter (3/4 of a stick of butter)
1/2  superfine sugar (or regular sugar)
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal
1/4 flour or gluten free flour blend
1/2 tsp baking powder, but I used 1 tsp with the GF blend.

2-3 nectarines (or peaches or apricots) slice.

Oven 320 degree Fahrenheit 

Mix butter and sugar.
Add eggs and blend well.
Add almond meal, GF flour, and baking powder, and mix well.
Spread into 9x9 pan. Top with fruit slices.

Bake 40 mins. to 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.
Cool in refrigerator for a couple of hours.
Serve with cooled orange syrup.


Orange syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
1/8 cup orange liqueur
1/4 cup superfine sugar

Boil for 15-25 minutes then cool.
Pour just a little bit of the cold syrup over slice of cake.

Yummy Brownies

These are easy to make gluten-free brownies.

Ingredients
 6 tbps. butter
 8 oz. semisweet chocolate
 3/4 cup sugar
 2 large eggs at room temperature
 1 tbps. cocoa powder
 3 tbps. corn starch
 1 cup chopped nuts


Preheat oven 350, grease 8" square pan, bake for ~ 30 minutes.

1. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave.
2. Put chocolate mixture into mixer and add sugar, mix well.
    Add eggs one at a time.
3. Sift together cocoa powder and corn starch, then add to mixture.
    Beat well so that batter is smooth, about 2 minutes.
4. Mix in nuts and then pour into greased pan.

Enjoy!
 

Gluten Free Apple Cake

This cake is yummy and pretty!

I have lots of apples from my apple tree this year. I made two apple pies with some of the apples, and I gave away a couple of bags full of apples. Well, I wanted to make an apple cake this weekend, but I had a difficult time finding a gluten free apple cake recipe from other folks' blogs that looked good enough to try. I tried one cake that had buckwheat and brown rice, but that wasn't very good-nor did it look anything like the posted picture. I then saw this gal's post: http://coryographies.blogspot.com/2012/12/recipe-gluten-free-apple-almond-cake.html. I thought could this be true; it looks too prefect. So, I tried her recipe.

Ingredients:
3 chopped apples (I used 4 apples since my apples were small-medium)
Juice of 1 lemon
300g golden caster sugar
8 eggs
325g ground almonds
sliced almonds for top

Directions:
In a pan, cook apples with lemon juice and a bit of the sugar.  Mash them when they are soft enough, but leave them a bit lumpy for texture.

In another bowl mix the eggs, and then add the ground almonds, rest of the sugar and lemon juice, and the apple mash.

Grease a spring form pan and pour in the mixture, sprinkling the sliced almonds on top.

Bake 350 degree oven for 40-60 minutes or until done. At 30 minutes cover top of cake with foil.

Yes, it looks just like the gal's cake. Yes, the cake is easy to make and delicious!