Tory’s Kickass BBQ Sauce (Low FODMap)

on November 12, 2017 by teechur in Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Since being diagnosed with Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency I have had to exist on a low FODMap diet in order to be able to eat without IBS-like symptoms. Before this started, I was making my own BBQ sauce, so I just changed that recipe to make it FODMap free.

Tory’s Kickass BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:

Look at all of those beautiful spices!!

1 cup 100% Tomato sauce (225gm)

1/2 cup white vinegar (120ml)

1 cup coconut sugar (50gm) (can sub white sugar)

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp asafoetida powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

8 oz Water

5 Tbs molasses

1/2 Tbs black pepper

2 tsp mustard powder

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs smoked paprika

1/2-1 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 Tbs arrowroot

Instructions

I like a good kick, so I add extra chipotle smoked paprika.

Instant Pot: Add all ingredients to your Instant Pot and whisk together. Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, and let release on natural release.

Crock pot: Whisk together all ingredients and cook on high for one hour, then reduce to low or warm and cook for 4-5 hours.

Pour over BBQ pork spare ribs, chicken, eat with a spoon. Seriously. This is awesome.

Creamy Roasted Tomato Red Pepper Soup

on October 18, 2017 by teechur in Recipes ⋅ 1 Comment

Seriously, this is the BEST soup. I’ve been eating low FODMAP now for about eight weeks and I have been wanting tomato soup. I also have a bunch of tomatoes in my garden, and a beautiful red bell pepper plant that actually grew. This is a miracle. So I decided to go searching for a low FODMAP gentle soup recipe for my tummy that both of us would like. Roy, obviously, does not need to eat low FODMAP, so I wanted him to enjoy it as well.

This turned out amazing, and made so much I later turned it into the base for an amazing Southwestern Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Creamy Roasted Tomato Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients

3 lbs tomatoes fresh, or 2 15 oz cans roasted diced tomatoes (no onions or garlic)

1-2 med red bell peppers

1 cup lite coconut milk

1 small bunch basil

4 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1/2-1 hot pepper, depending on your taste

4 Tbs olive oil, split (2 for roasting the veggies, and 2 for sautéing)

1/2 onion for sautéing and removing

2-3 garlic cloves for sautéing and removing

Instructions

Chop and de-seed (unseed? Take out the seeds from?) the bell peppers. Put onto cookie tray (covered in parchment or Silpat mat or oiled) and drizzle with 1 Tbs olive oil. Put under broiler or at 450 for 15-20 minutes to roast.

Chop the tomatoes and do the same as with the peppers, but they will not need quite as long under the broiler. They also don’t need to be chopped as small, nor seeded.

In the meantime, turn the Instant Pot onto sauté and put 2 Tbs in the bottom. Slice onions into rings and garlic, but don’t make it too small as you’re going to remove it. Sauté in oil to flavor the oil. Remove the onions after they are caramelized and set aside. Sauté the garlic, remove and throw away. Turn off Instant Pot. Add rest of ingredients and set to manual for 10 minutes.

When the IP finishes, allow for a 10 minute natural release, then release (with a towel over to catch any soup off-steaming) the rest of the pressure. Open and mix the soup with an immersion blender.

Serve immediately. I served mine with Baked Mochi instead of croutons, and green onions as a topper.

Make Your Own Fuel for IBS Runners

on October 7, 2017 by teechur in Recipes, Running ⋅ Leave a comment

I haven’t posted in forEVER because I haven’t been loving life much lately. When I don’t love life, I don’t feel very motivated to post. Really, that is when I should post the most because blogging is a good outlet, even if no one reads.

One of my issues is

This is one batch, with a few missing that I had to taste. Roy doesn’t like ginger (he says they are mortal enemies), but he likes them. He doesn’t like the tincture either, but he said that not only did he not taste it at all, but we did some pain tests and he went from a 12 to a 10 in 15 minutes, and an 8 in 30 minutes.

that starting in May I started getting IBS-like symptoms. Everything I ate would cause discomfort almost every time I ate. In June it got worst. By July it was so bad I was starting to lose weight a

nd it was impacting my running. By August I was losing weight really fast and my running was down to 2-5 miles at a time before I would have too little energy to move on. My stomach would start cramping between 3 and 5 miles and I’d be so uncomfortable I’d have a hard time continuing. I’m down from 128 to 111 pounds since May. I haven’t been this small since right after I had my Whipple.

Here it is now October. I have a marathon in two weeks and my mileage is down to being able to run about half of that, so right now my plan is to start the Marine Corps Marathon and see how I do. I can manage about 13 miles because I can run about 10 miles without fuel, then I can fuel and within a mile or so I am in so much stomach pain, I have to stop to walk. I get bad cramps and bloating in response to whatever I take in.

So my goal with these gummies was to create something that I could fuel with and that would help with my IBS issues. I call them IBRunning. Honestly, I don’t know yet what is wrong with my digestive system. I see a specialist this week, but I don’t have any qualms that he’ll fix me this week, so I’m taking things in my own hands.

These will not replace electrolytes so you would need salt tabs or salt sticks to add to this. This is my first iteration of the recipe. I want to add turmeric and black pepper and see if that will further help since bother are anti-inflammatories and black pepper aids in the body’s absorbtion and bioavailability of turmeric. (It helps the body make use of the turmeric.)

IBRunning Gummies

1 cup fresh sliced organic ginger

1 cup water

1 cup organic pure cane sugar, From Hawaiia

1 Tbs Teacher’s Pet Tincture (Optional)*

1/3 cup water

4 Tbs Organic Gelatin (or 4 packets plain gelatin)

Directions

Prepare your gummy bear silicon molds. I got mine at Amazon. You can also line a pan with parchment and use that and cut into squares. I put my molds on a tray so they are easier to transport to the freezer for setting.

In a saucepan bring sugar, water, and ginger to a low boil over med/high heat. Let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Strain out pieces of ginger. Note, if you peel them (which is not necessary if they are organic) they make great candied ginger.

I figure one of these blocks will be a serving size. I will cut them and put them into snack bags for the race.

Add tincture then slowly whisk in gelatin, adding a little at a time. Alternatively, you can mix water and gelatin together separately and mix that mixture in. Bring to a low boil and stir constantly for 10 min.

Using a dropper, fill your molds and tap them once gently to remove any air bubbles. They will settle as they cool, so top everything off one more time before putting them into the freezer or refrigerator.

Freeze for 5 minutes or refrigerate for 15 until they are firm. Remove from molds. They will last for 1 week refrigerated or indefinitely frozen. They may melt on a hot race, but they hold up fine otherwise. Since there are no preservatives, they do need to be refrigerated, though.

I have used gummies to dose for my head and IBS in the past, so I’m going to see how this will work on the race.

*My Teacher’s Pet Tincture is a secret ingredient, but you can get legal tincture anywhere or leave it out if you just need comforting ginger for your tummy. If you want to know what is in it, contact me and I will be happy to share about it.

Summer is here and shrubbing is fine

on June 24, 2016 by teechur in Health Benefits, Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Shrubs have been my latest obsession. What is a shrub, you might ask? Well I am going to tell you. A shrub is a delightful and refreshing drink and best of all, if you make it right, it is clean!

Shrubs have been around for a very long time. They were originally “invented” as a way to preserve the flavors of fresh fruit and have also been referred to as drinking vinegars. They are sinfully easy to make and as super refreshing. They are also a great way to get certain family members to drink things that are good for them like turmeric or apple cider vinegar, in a way that tastes super good!

Right now my favorite shrub is probably the easiest one to get started with. It’s a simple raspberry shrub. You can make this with white sugar, if you’re askeered of doing it with a demerara sugar or turbinado sugar. You can also use honey, and then you refer to it as a “switzle” instead of a shrub. Why? I don’t know why, because. That’s why.

I’m currently making a ginger vanilla shrub and a turmeric spice shrub.

Simple Raspberry Shrub

2 cups fresh raspberries washed and picked over

2 cups sugar

2 cups vinegar*

Sterilize a quart jar and pack with raspberries and sugar. With fruit like raspberries, you can just toss them with the sugar and they’ll release their juices, but if you’re using another fruit you want to mash them down (like strawberries, kiwi, cherries, etc.). Let it sit for a little while until you note that the fruit has become somewhat liquified. At that point add the water, mix well. Don’t worry about the sugar dissolving. It will.

Let that sit for about 5 days. I don’t put it in the fridge. I just keep it covered with a rubber band an a cheesecloth or paper towel and check it. It’s fine if it slightly ferments, we are actually going for a fermentation process when all is said and done.

After five days, add the vinegar. You can go for white vinegar, but I actually like to go with some more interesting vinegars. For this I use a raspberry vinegar because I love the fresh raspberry flavor. I also have tried white wine and red wine vinegar and like the white wine better. You can actually leave the vinegar out and add it when you go to mix it with your drink if you’d like, but the mixture won’t last as long. (Not that it lasts very long because it tastes so good!) That way you can sample different vinegars and decide what you like best.

To drink, you add about 2 ounces of your mixture to a 6-8 ounce glass with some ice and some seltzer. Because I love it so much, I actually purchased a seltzer bottle off of Amazon. I figure it’s a lot more environmentally friendly and cheaper in the long run. I looked a lot of them, and bought this one. It was the cheapest. I had picked up an even cheaper one at first that was a $14 Hamilton Beach one that came with 10 chargers, but no other chargers fit it and the refill chargers are WAY expensive, making that an overly priced “cheap” toy. So this one with the Leland (there is a link to the Leland chargers on that same page) makes it so that each drink is about 25 cents or so. Pretty cheap, plus less sugar! If you wanted to, you could even use less sugar or Agave, although Agave is actually not super clean. It’s pretty processed. But remember, we’re leaning into clean here so you do what works for you.

Fresh raspberries from Biringer Farms, a local farm that has stands all over town right now. Somehow I missed the strawberries. Poop!

Wash the berries well, even if they are organic. Who wants bug footprints in their shrub? You don’t know where those bug feet have been!

I used organic pure cane evaporate sugar, but you can use white sugar as well. You want a neutral flavor to really taste the raspberry. For other fruit coconut sugar might work, but I don’t like it with raspberry.

Pour the sugar in and mush together (technical cooking term, probably Latin).

In the foreground you can see a shrub I’m drinking. It’s blackberry. I haven’t mixed it yet so you can kind of see a gradient. Mmmm.

On the left if blackberry. I added red wine vinegar. To the raspberry I will let it sit about 48 hours then add white wine vinegar. I also added about 5 leaves of fresh basil from my garden. I'm adding photo later so I can let you in on a secret, it tasted AH-MAY-ZING! The basil was just enough of a hint that it was off the HOOK!

On the left is blackberry. I added red wine vinegar. To the raspberry I will let it sit about 48 hours then add white wine vinegar. I also added about 5 leaves of fresh basil from my garden. I’m adding photo later so I can let you in on a secret, it tasted AH-MAY-ZING! The basil was just enough of a hint that it was off the HOOK!

Here are some other recipes I love:

Cherry Anise

2 cups bing cherries

1 Anise seed pod

2 cups sugar

2 cups apple cider vinegar

Use the cold shrub recipe above, but smoosh those cherries well because they don’t like to give up their juice. With cherries they aren’t very flavorful so they need something with it. You could also try some ginger, cloves, or maybe allspice. By the way, use good ACV with the mother. The healing properties alone are worth it.

Ginger Ale

1 cup fresh ginger

1 vanilla bean

2 cups water

2 cups sugar

2 cups apple cider vinegar

This is going to use the heated process. First peel the ginger with a spoon (just scrape the spoon against the ginger) and then slice very thin. Put into a non-reactive pan with water and sugar and bring to a simmer. Add vanilla bean. Turn off and let it cool. Strain the ginger out and add the vinegar. You can store in or out of the fridge in a clean quart jar.

If you want to just make a ginger ale, without the vinegar you can keep the vinegar separate. That way your family members who say “Ew ick! Vinegar!” can just have ginger ale. I’m not sharing with them anyhow, so I’m adding the vinegar.

By the way, because of the recipe that follows I needed fresh turmeric. I bought it off of Amazon previously so that next time I went to buy it I found this mixture of one pound of ginger and one pound of turmeric and I got the most beautiful combination of fresh ginger/turmeric. Way better than anything I’ve ever bought at a grocery store.

For the ginger ale I add 3 ounces of the mixture (or so) to a venti sized cup. So refreshing and completely clean! The ginger has a bite that is perfect. The vanilla takes a tiny bit of the edge off. Even my husband, who claims that him and ginger are bitter enemies, liked it!

Turmeric and Ginger Shrub

1/2 cup fresh turmeric

1/3 cup fresh ginger

2 allspice

6 green cardamon pods

12 cloves

3 half cinnamon sticks

4 cups water

2 cups sugar

3 cups apple cider vinegar

Since this is going to make a very orange syrup, I don’t bother peel anything. I just slice everything really thin so slice the turmeric and the ginger (you might want to wear gloves for the turmeric because it will stain your skin). Crack the cardamon pods. Drop in everything except the vinegar. Bring to a simmer and then simmer for about 30 minutes to extract all of the wonderful properties of the turmeric. Let cool and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Add vinegar and store in a cool dry place or in the fridge. I try to make my husband drink this because there are some studies that link turmeric with being beneficial with people who suffer with arthritis. He has bad arthritis in his knees.

By the way, I get all of my whole spices from Amazon as well. Just follow those links. You can get them a lot cheaper buying in bulk without having to use bulk bins. Sorry, I’ve seen way too many kids up to their armpits in bulk bins to want to buy out of them. *shudder* As soon as I open them I store them in glass jars to keep them fresh.

I can’t wait to make more shrubs this summer with fresh fruit! I plan strawberry, peach, nectarine, kiwi, etc. The sky is the limit!

Pear Applesauce with Bonus Apple Pear Jelly!

on September 8, 2014 by teechur in Jams and Jellies, Personal, Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Okay folks, this is so easy it’s sinful and you may need to ask for absolution. You have been warned.

We have a pear tree. I mean we have a HUGE pear tree and fortunately both the squirrels and the dog (Perdita) spared us more than enough pears to make pear butter and pear sauce this year. I love home canned apple sauce, but alas I do not have an apple tree, I have a pear tree. I love pears, but do not love pear sauce, however I have found that adding just a few apples to pear sauce makes a HUGE difference (pear is just too mild) and makes it delicious.

Crockpot Pear Applesauce

Ingredients

lots of pears, organic (I use nothing on my plants)

1 cinnamon stick

2-4 apples, organic

Directions

I cut up my pears and apples and tossed them all into the crock pots. I have two because I use one to make yogurt because it works better than the other one so I’ve held onto it. Do not bother to peel or core the fruit because you’re going to use a food mill later, and that leaves you with more nutrients. That’s part of the reason the sauce turns out darker. Since we use only organic fruit, there are no insecticides or anything to worry about. Pop in the cinnamon stick with the pears and apples. I did not add water. Pears are full of water so you don’t need it. Put the crockpot on low (for the one with a timer, I set it to 10 hours). The other one doesn’t have a timer so it just went to low.

The next day (see, easy) after I ran a 10k but before I went to get a tattoo. Oh wait, there goes my June Cleaver image you’ve built up of me. Dammit. Anyhow, I used a food mill to mill the pears and apples. Be sure to take out the cinnamon stick, though. If everything was relatively ripe (most of my pears were) you probably don’t need to add sugar. I did not add any sugar to my pear applesauce. I just love the fruit flavor to shine through! Compost the peels and seeds and stuff.

I noticed as I was ladling out the fruit that there was a LOT of juice and I don’t like my applesauce TOO saucy so I said to myself, “Self, why don’t you make some pear/apple jelly out of all that beautiful juice?”

Myself answered back, “Well that is a delightful idea, Self!”

“Thank you! I thought so, myself!”

So I dug around for my jelly bag and was amazed that I found it (I used to use it for yogurt, but now I have something better) and ladled the sauce into the bag and let about six cups run out of beautiful, cinnamon flavored pear/apple juice! Oh Nirvana!!!! I added 3 cups of sugar, low sugar pectin, and popped that liquid gold into my bread maker. Yes, you read that right, into my bread maker. If you have been thinking “Oh, I don’t want to get a bread maker because I don’t like single-use appliances, and while I would love to make my own bread I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to get it.” I am giving you another reason. Bread makers make amazing jams and jellies without you having to stand over a steaming boiling pot of liquid magma just waiting to pop out and boil over your skin and burn you into oblivion. (Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but I’ve had a jelly burn and dayum, it hurts like a mo-fo. Crap, there goes my image again.) So while it heated and stirred my jelly I water bathed my pear applesauce and prepped for the next crazy thing I wanted to make.

When it was finished, I ladled it into 2 half pints and 2 pints (because I was out of half pints, but I am definitely making more so I will go grab more half pint jelly jars) and put it to water bath, set the timer, told my husband to take them out when the timer rang, headed out to grab my friend, Jacquie, and went to get my tattoo!

Milled pear applesauce. It looks so dark due to the cinnamon and the long cooking time. It’s delicious! Notice how much liquid, though, and there is still a lot left in the crock pot.

Golden pear/apple juice. I considered making it without sugar, but I didn’t think it would jell enough, plus I like jellies a little sweeter than jams. It turned out perfect!

It’s so hard to see much, but on the left is the sauce and the right is the jelly.

Here we go! So gorgeous! I have to say, myself is pretty pleased with myself!

Oh and I suppose you want to see the tattoo. Okay, let me explain. Last summer I got a tattoo on my forearm that starts on the inside of my wrist that says “defy” and the y turns into the flight path of a dragonfly. Roy designed it for me and helped me pick just the right word. I chose it to remind me that I am a person who defies a lot of things. I have twice defied death. First, a CT scan for kidney stones illuminated a pre-cancerous pancreatic tumor that lead to a number of surgeries and a not very happy year, but saved me from pancreatic cancer. As a member of the Whipple Warriors (that’s the name of the main surgery I had), I have seen so many pass on in the last 11 years. It’s heart breaking. Second, I had my brain explosion (subarachnoid hemorrhage) which is, apparently, a VBD (very big deal) and lived through that.

I also lost over 100 pounds and defied those odds. Depending on statistics, 85-95% of people who lose weight will regain it within 5 years. I have kept it off for 11 years, even through two major health crises. I am a girl in a male industry-not a teacher, but IT. I teach my boys to respect women in IT. Not only can I fix your computer, resolve your network problem, but I can also quote Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dr. Who (really turns my husband on). At the same time, I can also can, bake, and churn butter.

I chose a dragonfly for a number of reasons. First I’ve just always loved them. We see a lot of them in the summer in the Pacific Northwest. They are like water nymphs that dance through summer reminding us how magical summer is. I also shared a very special moment with my nephew, Ryan, when he was four years old and a dragonfly flew into the house frightening him. I taught him that dragonflies are our friends and they live very short lives, so always tell them “Have a nice day!” because it would be sad if they did not because they are such good bugs. Dragonflies represent change and adaptability. I have undergone so many changes in the last 11 years of my life. Not all of them have been good changes, but I have adapted to all of them and I have kept a good spirit about it (most of the time). They also represent happiness and joy and I am very blessed in my life and overall a very happy and joyful person. My family, such as it is, of dogs and my amazing husband bring me so much joy. Dragonflies can also represent speed and while I am not speedy, I am a runner and I keep on going!

So after last year’s beautiful tattoo, I decided to add to it this year and continue with the same artist. I wanted simplicity and beauty and more color just continuing to represent another year of joy, adaptability, and accomplishment. I recently completed my 100th marathon so originally I wanted one to represent that, but then decided I just wanted something to overall represent my life of continual change. So three more dragonflies joined the first. Each one is a different color that graduates into the final one that is red and orange. I love it!

It’s a little blurry, but this is the original tattoo from last year.

And my first dragonfly. I chose the colors because they are also the colors of my business, Journey Fitness.

The wing of the one orange guy looks funny, but it’s not. It is just the angle.

Clarified Butter

on September 7, 2014 by teechur in Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

I’ve been making my own butter for over a year. It’s super hard to do if you live on a farm in 1754. Fortunately if you live in a house with electricity and a food processor in 2014, it couldn’t be easier. Plus you know where the cream came from, there is little chance that someone with dirty hands is going to infect you with salmonella (unless they sneak in and stir it while you’re not looking). I buy my cream from a local dairy so I know it’s not been hanging out in a fridge (except mine) for 16 days after a long trip across country. It was simply delivered by the milk fairy on Wednesday morning and then I made it into butter, like magic!

So what is clarified butter? Well it is butter that has had the milk solids and water removed from the butter, giving it a longer shelf life and allowing it to be used for higher temperature frying or baking without burning. If you let it go a little longer and turn it amber it makes ghee (which is what I was going for) which is used in Indian foods.

I started my clarified butter (or ghee) from butter, but left the butter photos out. Pretty much to make butter you make whipped cream and then keep going until the solids turn solid and the butter separates from the “buttermilk”. I save the buttermilk for bread making. Then you rinse the butter in very cold water, kneading well to get as much of the buttermilk out as possible. If you don’t, it’ll go bad faster. However, clarifying it will keep it from going bad. It will have a shelf life of 3-6 months clarified in the refrigerator or cupboard. With homemade butter I keep out only what we’ll use in a week (which isn’t much) and then keep the rest in the freezer. If I keep it out too long and it starts to go bad I save it for bread making in the freezer, as long as it isn’t rancid. The tartness won’t matter in the bread.

So let’s get to clarifying! Start by taking your butter and putting it into a small saucepan over low heat. I have an induction stovetop so I put it on one and found it might have been even a bit hot so I moved it to the side in later in the process.

Isn’t my pot pretty? I bought it on Amazon to work with my induction stovetop. I went into Williams and Sonoma and then after I woke up, decided there must be a better option that wasn’t $150 (I am not making that up). This was way less and I love porcelain on steel pots. It reminds me of when we were first married and all we could afford, new was camping pots. We used them for years and then retired them to our camping dishes and replaced them with more expensive stuff that wasn’t nearly as pretty or functional.

Since I was clarifying I didn’t bother to rinse the butter too much. I knew the water would cook off. Melt the butter down.

What looks like “froth” is the milk solids boiling to the top of the butter.

Bring the butter to a rolling boil over low heat. Notice the solids that have come to the top.

I think a regular spoon would work better, but I grabbed a slotted spoon.

Skim the solids off the top. You will do this 3-5 times to get most of them off.

It may look like it’s burnt on the bottom, but that’s just a bit of caramelization. It actually adds a little flavor to the butter, but you do have to watch and not let it burn. There is a very fine line so be careful. Don’t throw this away, by the way. Save it for toast! In India they mix it with sugar and flour and cook it and give it to the children.

Here you can see the milk solids are almost all the way taken off. The butter has started to caramelize on the bottom. At this point you can remove it from the heat and strain it into a glass container through several layers of cheesecloth of muslin to catch the rest of the solids.

Clarified butter hot out of the pan. Golden and delicious!

Delicious and beautiful!

So what will I do with this? Well it’s great for frying and using in Indian food. I love Indian food, but my husband does not (he has wimpy, Norwegian tastebuds). It can be used for frying at high heat without burning. You can use it like butter in recipes, but it won’t have as much moisture in it (it will harden up to an extent) so you’d need to adjust, and the butter taste is intensified. Don’t toss the skimmings, either. I currently have some bread rising and I’m using it on the first slice along with jam I made this summer.

Speaking of jam…I’ve not been posting, but I have been cooking! A friend gave me a HUGE box of peaches so it’s been peach bounty at my house:

Peach butter

Individual peach cobblers made with almond flour. Oh my gosh, so delicious!!

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Peach bounty!! From left to right: peach butter, canned peaches, peach and pluot jam, peach plum jam, and you can’t see the peach jam and peach ginger jam.

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Beautifully canned peaches. All were made with low sugar.

Clean and Awesome Dark Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

on September 22, 2013 by teechur in Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Pretty zucchini!

So I planted two zucchini plants and then I spent all summer ignoring them. They apparently love abuse so they returned the favor by birthing giant mutant zucchini. I took one today and ground it into a large bowl.

I stared at that bowl. What to do. What to do. I thought of zucchini cake I used to make in my formerly flabulous days. Then I remembered my figure in those days and decided that I needed to go a little slimmer, a little trimmer.

I set about looking for a recipe, and as I usually do I found one that looked good, but wasn’t quite right, and another that looked good but wasn’t clean, so I adapted and this is the outcome!

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons flax seed meal
2 tablespoons Chia Seed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar (pure dried cane)
1/2 cup coconut oil
3 large eggs

1 tsp real vanilla
1 cup plain fat-free yogurt
3 cups zucchini, shredded
10 ounces dark chocolate

Directions

If not using dark chocolate chips, break up the dark chocolate into small chunks.
Shred the zucchini and set aside and allow to drain a bit.
Mix the dry ingredients together except sugar.
Cream together eggs, sugar (note, you can use white sugar but I prefer organic dried cane sugar as it not only is minimally processed, but it adds an amazing flavor like a light brown sugar), and coconut oil. Canola oil or butter can be substituted.
Add the yogurt and zucchini to the creamed mixture and then slowly mix in the dry.
Last, add the chocolate and mix by hand.
Put into prepared muffin tins. Be sure to grease them well!
Bake at 400 for between 18 and 23 minutes. Watch them because they go from almost ready to ready very fast.
Remove from muffin tins within five minutes and allow to cool on a rack or they stick to muffin tins.
Share with friends.

Got out my grinder to grind my flax and WTF? I haven’t even used it! Fortunately I am strong like bull and put it back together.

: Ready to grind the flax! You need less fat if you use flax, plus it’s high in Omega 3s!!

Flax meal! Two tablespoons of seeds made more than two of meal so I threw it in with the bread I was baking.

Whisking together the dry stuff!

: Dry stuff all together. I actually added the sugar and forgot to cream it with the oil and eggs, but it was fine.

Coconut oil has been used for centuries in many cultures and is making a resurgence here. It is not, as some will tout, a miracle food but it is a decent healthy fat when used as part of a healthy diet.

Three of my little beauties! I wanted 24 reasonably sized muffins, not 12 giant nearly 500 calorie muffins. Why? Well because for 500 calories I can have a cupcake and these are chocolaty and rich enough that they don’t have to be huge. Besides, they’re still pretty big!

The inside of the muffin with the glistening gems of dark chocolate. Yup, they turned out just as I hoped they would! Nom-a-licious!

Blueberry Blackberry Crisp

on August 19, 2013 by teechur in Mealtime, Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Took Dot and Roy to the farmer’s market today and picked up some nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, and corn. Then we went to the Food Truck Expo and guess what? Lumpia is awesome…and no, it was not clean so I might have been leaning a bit AWAY from clean eating for a bit, but it was worth it and maybe soon I will create my own clean recipe (which should be pretty easy). Maybe not, though because I’d have to eat ALL of them and then I would be back to my “before” photos. That would NOT be cool.

One of the most awesome parts of the day was sitting outside, enjoying our Lumpia and music was just floating our way. Downtown Everett has an art project going on right now involving pianos. Local artists painted upright pianos and they have been placed around town. A man was playing the most beautiful music. Our little funky family (or part of it, at least) was enjoying lumpia, the wind was blowing, the warm sun was on my shoulders and it was such a blessing. I said a prayer of thanksgiving for such a lovely moment.

…and then I went home and made crisp.

Ingredients

4 cups blueberries
2 cups blackberries
1/4 cup sugar, organic cane sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour, organic
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Topping

1/4 brown sugar, organic
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cups rolled oats, organic
2 tablespoons coconut, unsweetened organic
1 tablespoon hemp hearts
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Directions

Clean the berries, removing all stems from the blueberries.
In a small bown lix together flour, sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon
If using frozen berries, add another tbs cornstarch.
Toss berries with sugar/flour mixture to coat.
In separate bowl, mix topping ingredients (dry) together then cut in softened butter until crumbly.
Sprinkle over berry mixture.
Bake in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the topping is crisp.
I like to make individual servings in silicon muffin “tins”. In this case, I cook down the berry mixture for 10 minutes in the microwave and then spoon into the silicon cups. Top with topping and bake for 15 minutes at 350. I would do the same with ramekins because blueberries bake down so much.

Nutrition information is on my food.com page: <a href=”http://www.food.com/recipe/blueberry-blackberry-crisp-clean-506018?oc=linkback”>http://www.food.com/recipe/blueberry-blackberry-crisp-clean-506018?oc=linkback</a>

Mmmm…topping all mixed up

Ready to go into the oven. I made six mini crisps and two 2-3 serving crisps. I’ll send one over to the in-laws.

Mini crisps in silicon muffin cups. I learned from the mini pies that they need to be in the muffin tin so they don’t get all funky shaped.

All baked up!

Mini crisps. Oh so beautiful!

Fresh Milled Rye and Wheat Bread

on August 4, 2013 by teechur in Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

Been getting the itch to make more fresh milled bread! I bought some rye berries when I was in the giant grocery store I hate a few weeks ago. (Seriously, I feel like I need to set GPS waypoints so I don’t get lost.) Been really wanting to try rye bread, but Roy made his “rye bread face” when I asked him if he liked rye bread. (His rye bread face was in response to, “Why are you making that face?” “It’s my rye bread face.” “Is that anything like your miso face?” “Kind of, but not quite as ick.”)

Like I said, I am married to a silly silly man.

So obviously I am not going to eat two loaves of rye alone, and I suspect that if I sent it to his family that they too might make a rye bread face. I decided to make a wheat bread with added rye. I looked for recipes and again, found a few that looked great. I really liked one that was actually made FOR fresh milled grain, by an experienced bread maker, but apparently NOT an experienced recipe typer because her directions were so confusing. There were things like, “Add all of the dry ingredients except the salt.” Followed by, “Now mix the water with the apple cider vinegar and the yeast.”

Uh…you just told me to mix all of the dry ingredients in. Yes, I thought that was odd but hey, she said she was experienced.

Then a few minutes later, “Add the yeast/milk mixture to the dry ingredients.” Uh, you had me make a water/yeast mixture.” And then again later on, “Add the water to the dough”.

Finally I thought, “Okay, this recipe has good solid bones, I will do what I think is right, and hope it doesn’t fail.” I did start and have to throw away some of it because of her confusing instructions. I also went a bit rogue and put the honey with the yeast (because isn’t that what the sugar is for, to feed the yeast?) and replaced some of her ingredients with some tried and true of my own. Wa-la it worked!

Ingredients:

5 cups flour, fresh milled hard winter white
2 cups rye flour, fresh milled
1 Tbs caraway seeds, whole
3 Tbs Vital Wheat Gluten
1 Tbs Yeast
2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, warmed to 110 degrees
3 Tbs honey, raw
3 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 cups water, warmed to 110 degrees

Directions:

Mix together the flours, caraway, vital wheat gluten in a large mixing bowl. Because rye takes a longer knead, I decided to use my Kitchenaid mixer rather than the dough setting on my bread machine.
In a glass measuring cup, mix together honey and buttermilk. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let it hang out for about 15 minutes. It should get nice and bubbly and frothy.
Pour the milk and yeast mixture into the flour, add the water slowly while it mixes. Finally add the oil and the salt.
If it is too wet, add a little more flour, if it is too dry add a little more water. Go slow and test. This dough is a little more sticky than wheat only.
Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
If you are doing this by hand, warm up so you don’t pull a muscle and turn the dough out onto an oil. Knead for 8-10 minutes until it is nice and smooth. It definitely takes on a sheen when it’s at the right point. It does not stretch as much as wheat only dough, so don’t worry too much.
If you’re using magic aka the Kitchenaid Mixer, use the dough hook and knead it for 5 minutes, being sure to push the dough back down as it tries to crawl out. When it is smooth and shiny, transfer to a large oiled bowl and cover with a towel. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
Note: It will rise right out of the mixing bowl, so when I say large bowl, I mean large.
After an hour, punch it down and split into two or three depending on the size you want the loaves to be. When working with one, keep the rest covered.
Form into a round or into a loaf (if using a pan). It was here I folded in the caraway in two of the loaves.
Cut a slash into the bread so it does not tear while rising.
Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, about half an hour or so.
Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.
Remove from oven and brush with melted butter for a softer crust.
Note: This bread does NOT brown like wheat only. It also will not rise in the oven (called an oven rise) so don’t think you did something wrong if this is your first fresh milled bread. I happen to like smaller pieces of bread so I made three loaves, but if you like the more “normal” sized slices, do only two.
Remove from the bread pan after a few minutes so it doesn’t get soggy, then let cool on a clean towel.

As you can see it turned out AWESOME!!!!

Before baking…so pretty

Fresh out of the oven! So pretty!

Slashed this one a bit deep. Still awfully pretty.

Clean Chicken Enchiladas

on August 4, 2013 by teechur in Mealtime, Recipes ⋅ Leave a comment

I’ve just been in the mood for chicken enchiladas lately. I don’t know why. The only enchiladas I’ve ever had have had sauce out of a can, but I wanted chicken enchiladas and I wanted to make them myself and I didn’t want sauce from a can.

Part of it is because I am being stubborn. We were grocery shopping yesterday. My husband is really not 100% buying into our clean leaning. We picked up most of our things we needed from the perimeter of the store. He needed relish, so he grabbed it and I said, “Wait!”

“What?”

“First let’s see if there is organic?” No organic, so he grabbed the familiar jar, “Okay wait, check the ingredients. See. Corn syrup. Remember how we decided to replace our staples with healthier versions?” He argued, somewhat validly, that he eats like two tablespoons a month, but I found a jar with all ingredients I could recognize and put that in the cart. He grumbled because it was three times the price, but I reminded him it lasts a long time. We went through the same with soup. I won because Pacific makes an awesome organic roasted red pepper and tomato soup, although he did declare that “nobody likes butternut” so he wouldn’t eat butternut squash.

We have pasta a few times a month so I grabbed the whole wheat pasta and he went for the sauce. I said “Wait, I think I can make a really good pasta sauce.” He looked at me skeptically and put the jar back and said, “But I like the stuff in the jar!” “I can make it.” A few other items were similar, “Really, Roy, I can make that.”

I finished up what we needed and he headed over to grab toilet paper. I got a text from him a few minutes later that said, “We need toilet paper, or do you want to make that too.”

Everyone is a comedian! Really most of his whining is silliness. He has been enjoying the way we eat. I think the one thing he is still having issues with is that we agreed that he would not buy soda for the house, but he could get it when he was out if he wanted. Well it’s amazing how many sodas a man can hoard from a class he took where they served cans of diet cola throughout the day. He is cutting down, though.

So at any rate, I decided to make a homemade enchilada sauce and he declared it “A little hot, but really good.”

SCORE!

Onto the recipe! Usually I make my own tortillas out of masa and water and a little salt, but for this I was afraid they’d fall apart so I bought ones from the store. They were not organic. Sue me. I’m leaning, remember?

Clean Chicken Enchiladas

I made a half recipe because we’re leaving on Thursday for Disneyland. YEAH baby! Two was actually a bit too much for me.

1 1/2 cups water
1 (6 ounce) can organic tomato paste
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon organic cane syrup sugar
1/4 cup masa harina flour
1/4 cup water
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
8 large corn tortillas
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 medium sweet onion
3 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup fat free sour cream (there is a Simply Sour Cream with one ingredient, milk)
3 cups lettuce, shredded

Directions

You can cook the sauce on the stove or in the microwave. I used the microwave. So —
In a 4-cup microwave safe bowl, add 1.5 cup water and tomato paste. Stir to mix together.
Add chili powder, paprika, garlic, cumin and sugar. Cook on high about 4 minutes.
While the sauce is beginning to heat, mix together 1/4 cup cold water and 1/4 cup masa to make a paste.
Take the sauce out and stir in the masa/water paste. Return to microwave and cook 4 more minutes. When it is done it should be nice and thick and AWESOME smelling.
Slice the onion VERY thin (I use a mandolin).
Shred the chicken (if you haven’t). Easiest way is to take two forks and use them to pull the chicken apart.
Mix about half the sauce in with the chicken and the onion.
Prepare the tortillas by warming them. I like to put them in the microwaves with a SLIGHTLY damp paper towel over them and heat for about 30 seconds. Take one tortilla at a time off of the stack and then cover the stack so they don’t dry out.
Place 1/8 of the chicken mixture on the edge of the tortilla and roll. Do not overfill. Less is more.
Place the enchilada seam side down into the pan.
When all 8 are ready, pour the remaining of the sauce over the enchiladas and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Sprinkle half of the cheese over the enchiladas, return to the oven for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, the remainder of the cheese, and the sour cream.
You could also add peppers, olives, maybe even beans to the chicken mixture. You could use extra lean ground beef rather than chicken, or ground turkey. You could add extra garnishes like olives, green onions, etc. I might try them with a black bean mixture with some lean ground beef next time.

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