Jul 1, 2015
We had a pile of fresh rhubarb and fresh strawberries in front of us and we knew we wanted a dessert, but a crisp didn’t sound good. I looked at my husband and told him to figure out a compote style layer with the fruit and I would figure out the other layers. I right away grabbed my spring form pan, lined it with parchment paper and whipped up a almond flour (which was on sale this week at EarthFare) and coconut flour crust (it’s a common recipe that floats around in the paleo baking world). While that was baking, I started tossing chocolate and coconut milk in a pan to cook to make a chocolate cream layer. I tossed in Grassfed gelatin into the chocolate layer and into the compote layer to help it thicken up. We use grassfed gelatin for it’s gut healing properties, but any type gelatin would work (our favorite is Vital Proteins, but I also like Great Lakes Brand).
Our first time making this, I just threw some gelatin into the cooking fruit. I know better, but I did it anyway, resulting in clumps of gelatin. So we threw the whole mixture into our blender to fix that. What I envisioned as a “compote” layer of cooked fruit, became more of a smooth gelatin like layer, which ended up working perfectly. Our last minute, randomly thrown together dessert, ended up being a wonderful combination of flavors and has been made more than once this summer and was even made for Fathers Day to share with my family.
strawberry rhubarb – chocolate tart (paleo, gluten free & dairy free)
- For the Crust:
- 1.5 cups of almond flour
- 3/4 cup of shredded coconut
- 2 Tbsp. of melted coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp. of maple syrup or honey
- pinch of sea salt
- For the Chocolate Cream Layer:
- 1 can of full fat coconut milk
- 8 oz dark chocolate chips (for dairy free, make sure you check them)
- 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
- 2 Tbsp. grassfed gelatin
- For the Strawberry Rhubarb Gelatin Layer:
- 4 cups strawberries, chopped
- 2 cups rhubarb, chopped
- 1 cup of water
- 2 Tbsp. maple syrup
- 2 Tbsp. grassfed gelatin
- Preheat oven to 350
- combine almond flour, coconut, coconut oil, maple syrup and sea salt in a food processor and pulse together until it begins to clump.
- press dough into a spring form pan that has the bottom lined with a piece of parchment paper.
- Bake for 12 -15 minutes until the crust is slightly browned.
- Remove from oven and let cool.
- move on to making the chocolate layer, by warming the coconut milk up in a pan on medium heat.
- When the milk is warm, whisk in the cocoa powder, maple syrup and the chocolate chips.
- Remove from heat and sprinkle the surface with your gelatin, add it slowly and let it absorb in off the surface and whisk it in before adding more. *you do not want to just dump it in, or you will end up with clumps* **if you do get clumps, just run the chocolate mixer through your blender.**
- Once the gelatin is incorporated, pour the chocolate layer into the crust and place in the fridge.
- Then move on to the strawberry rhubarb layer.
- On medium- low heat, start cooking down the strawberries, rhubarb, water and maple syrup.
- I let it cook down for about 20 minutes, until the fruit was starting to break down.
- slowly add in the gelatin and then pour entire mix into your blender and gently blend until mixture is smooth. I let cool for a about 15 minutes in the blender.
- Pour fruit mixture on top of chocolate layer and place back into the fridge to set up. I let mine sit for at least 2 hours.
- When it is chilled, release the spring form pan and cut into slices.
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May 29, 2015
I have never been a huge fan of sloppy joes. I would make them occasionally, but if I had ground beef to use, it would rarely be my first choice. Now we make what we call “loaded sloppy joes” all the time. It started with me having some celery that need used up, so I diced a bunch and tossed it in, and the next time I added zuchinni, until slowly, our sloppy joes became about 3/4 veggies to a 1/4 meat. I am always looking for shortcuts, for one pot meals, and this is a simple way to get a lot of vegetables in the main course.
Last summer when farmers markets/and our garden produce was ample, I made sloppy joe veggie packets and froze them. So literally, I could just grab the vegetables out of the freezer, sautee, brown the meat and make a quick sauce….super simple dinner. Even though our garden isn’t producing yet, we were craving this simple meal this week and our EarthFare just had grass-fed beef on sale, so I had some on hand. The vegetable options are endless, but we typically use: onions, carrots, zuchinni, bell peppers, and celery.
You can also serve the finished dish in a variety of ways. Sometimes, I use gluten free bread, sometimes lettuce wraps, and other times, I serve it over rice. Use your imagination, there are a lot of ways to serve this quick, veggie loaded dish! I also use plain tomato sauce as my base, because I don’t like it super sweet, you can always substitute ketchup, but take that into account when you are adding your maple syrup in.
Loaded Sloppy Joes (an evolution in veggies) – gluten free
Recipe Type: Main Dish
Author: The Sprouted Life
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 cups chopped carrots
- 2-3 medium zucchini, diced
- 2 bell peppers, diced (we like red and yellow)
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 – 2 lbs of ground beef (you can also use ground chicken, turkey or pork
- 1 – can of plain organic tomato sauce (15 oz)
- 2-3 Tablespoons of dijon mustard
- 2-3 Tablespoons of maple syrup (add more if want a sweeter dish)
- salt & pepper to taste
- Dice all your vegetables into small chunks (if kids are picky, dicing smaller helps hide them in the sauce)
- Sautee your vegetable combo, garlic and olive oil in a large skillet, until vegetables soften
- Add in ground beef and brown
- When beef is browened, drain off any extra grease
- Add in tomato sauce, maple syrup and mustard (adjust maple syrup for desired sweetness)
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Serve over lettuce wraps, toasted bread or rice.
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May 1, 2015
I am one of those people who loves spring. I barely survive winters in Indiana and can not wait for green grass, blossoms on trees and signs of life spouting out of the ground. Along with spring and early summer comes an over abundance of two of my favorite foods – strawberries and rhubarb.
We grow strawberries along the side of our house (below are some pictures from last years harvest). They are obviously not ready yet for this year, but there has been a lot of really tasty strawberries on sale recently at our local Earth Fare. So I picked up some fresh strawberries and rhubarb to satisfy my early spring cravings.
If you have read previous posts on my blog, you know I create a lot of crisps, because they are so easy to make and you don’t have to be exact. Typically in gluten free baking, being exact really matters and honestly, I don’t really like to measure things. This recipe is a simple combination of pecan pieces, gluten free rolled oats, tapioca starch and coconut oil. Many celiacs can not tolerate oats, but I can in small amounts as long as they are not cross-contaminated. I use Bob Red Mills certified gluten free oats in my baking. This recipe is also pretty tart as I like to highlight the rhubarb and keep my sugar content lower.
Pecan Oat Stawberry Rhubarb Crisp (Gluten Free)
Author: The Sprouted Life
- 8-10 cups of strawberries (cut is halves)
- 4 cups of chopped rhubarb
- 1/8 – 1/4 cup evaporated cane sugar (depending on desired sweetness)
- 1 1/4 cups gluten free rolled oats (I grind to coarse in my Vita Mix)
- 1 cup chopped pecan pieces (finely chopped)
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil or butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- later chopped strawberries and rhubarb in a 13 x 9 pan
- sprinkle with an 1/8 of cup of evaporated cane sugar
- in a different bowl, mix together coarsely ground rolled oats, pecans, tapioca, coconut sugar stir.
- slowly pour in coconut oil and vanilla and incorporate until topping starts to clump.
- sprinkle topping evenly across the strawberry rhubarb layer.
- bake for 10-15 minutes at 400 (watching to make sure it doesn’t burn topping) and then reduce the heat to 300 and bake for about 45 minutes, until topping is lightly brown and strawberry rhubarb layer is bubbling.
- **you can increase sugar amounts if you do not like the tartness of rhubarb.
- **you can also add in additional add ins, like chia seeds, ground flax seed or even coconut. if you do you may need to increase the coconut oil slightly so everything is fully incorporated
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two of the notes that I put in the recipe:
**you can increase sugar amounts if you do not like the tartness of rhubarb.
**you can also add in additional add ins, if you do you may need to increase the coconut oil slightly so everything is fully incorporated
I change up our crisp recipes all the time, sometimes I toss in some chai and flax seed, especially if I am going to give it to my kids as breakfast, (I want the higher fiber content) or add coconut, or almond flour etc. You can be pretty flexible.
I can’t wait to see what this year’s garden harvest of strawberries brings!
Mar 31, 2015
Finishing up some more of our favorite winter recipes, I thought I would share my cabbage hash. This is actually what we had for dinner tonight because I had a half a head of green and half a head of red cabbage left over from this weekend in which we had fish tacos and a pulled pork/cumin cole slaw tacos (I will share both of those recipes later). This dish is inspired by traditional Polish Golumpki…which are a stuffed cabbage roll… I have made them once, and then just realized that the effort to make cabbage rolls is more time than I typically want to spend on dinner, so I created a “one pot” hash version. We eat a lot of cabbage over the winter months, so finding different ways to prepare it helps with variety in our weekly meals.
It’s a pretty basic dish, with ground beef, cabbage, tomatoes (I add tomatoes with green chilies because we like the extra spice) onion, and rice. I typically use Earth Fare’s grassfed ground beef for this dish when they have it on sale, but many times I will split half beef/half ground pork, since their grassfed beef is so lean.
Cabbage Hash (My Easy Version of Polish Golumpki) – Gluten Free
Author: The Sprouted Life
- 1/2 head of green cabbage
- 1/2 head of red cabbage
- 1/2 a small yellow onion
- 2 lbs of ground beef (or half beef/half pork)
- 1 can of tomatoes with green chilies
- 1 can crushed tomatoes
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 1/2 cups of white basmati rice
- 3-4 cups of water
- Finely dice the yellow onion and brown the onion and ground beef in a large dutch oven
- Drain off any excess grease
- Roughly chop the cabbage
- Add cabbage, cans of tomatoes, basmati rice and 3 of the cups of water to the pot and simmer on medium heat (with the lid on for about an hour)
- Stir every 10-15 minutes and add the additional cup of water if it is starting to dry out
- Dish is done when the rice is tender (approximately an hour)
- Add salt and pepper to taste
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Mar 27, 2015
Finally, winter is coming to an end finally here in Indiana! We are looking forward to garden fresh veggies and lots of grilling, but since we keep having cold weather spells randomly, soups are still in our regular recipe lineup. Potato soup is one of our family’s favorite. We have gone through periods in time when some of our household is dairy free and overall we keep our dairy intake pretty low. So I make my entire soup dairy free, and then people can choose whether or not they want to add cheese. It’s a simple alternative to the traditional dairy based potato soup, that is both hearty and filling and since organic potatoes have been on sale at our Earth Fare for less that $0.70/lb, it is pretty budget friendly.
I typically use my own homemade bone broth as my main base, but when I am out, I use Pacific brand (which is gluten free).
Loaded Potato Soup – Gluten Free (Optional Dairy Free)
Recipe Type: The Sprouted Life
- 1 carton of organic chicken broth or 1 quart jar
- 2 cups of water
- 2-3 cups of unsweetened flax milk or almond milk
- 1 bunch of celery
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 2-3 pounds organic potatoes
- salt & pepper to taste
- browned bacon, shredded cheese and chopped green onions as garnish
- Dice potatoes into little square chunks and boil until tender, but not mushy (I add a generous amount of celtic sea salt to water to help season the potatoes)
- While potatoes are boiling, dice up celery and onion into little pieces and sautee in olive oil until tender.
- When celery and onions are tender, pour chicken broth and water into the pot and bring to a simmer
- Ladle out a few cups of celery/onion/broth and puree in a high speed blender to help thicken.
- Return to pot and pour in drained potatoes and 2-3 cups of flax milk and heat for a few more minutes, while adding salt and pepper to taste.
- Don’t over cook/boil or the potatoes will get mushy
- Serve! and top with bacon, chopped green onions and shredded cheese if you want
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