Kumquaty Stuffed Tomatoe & Eggplant June 2, 2013

It’s only the beginning of june and it’s already time to break out the crockpot and clothes drying line because it’s HOOOT!!!! This dish would have probably been much prettier if cooked in the oven but it’s just as tasty out of the crock pot and doesn’t heat up the whole house.

Kumquaty Stuffed Tomato & Eggplant

10 italian tomatoes
6 indian eggplant ( so cute and small 🙂 )
3 lbs italian bulk sausage
1 bell pepper diced
1/2 onion diced.
salt
garlic powder

Cook sausage through breaking it up into small pieces. Once halfway cooked add bell pepper and onions and cook til softened. Set aside and let cool. Cut a hole in the top of the tomatoes and pull out seeds and flesh and put into bottom of crock pot. Set aside cored tomatoes. Cut stem off eggplant and cut a “x” in the bottom of the eggplant 3/4 way through. Cut out some of the flesh of the eggplant and put in bottom of crockpot. Sprinkle a little salt and garlic powder over tomato and eggplant in crock pot. Place tomatoes and eggplant into crock pot alternating cut side up. Fill with cooled sausage mixture. sprinkle any remaining sausage that won’t fit into tomato and eggplant cavities overtop. Cook on low in crockpot for 4-6 hours.

Kumquaty Homemade Hot Italian Bulk Sausage

3 lbs pork
2 tbs bacon grease (room temp to making mixing easy)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp italian seasoning mix (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Combine.

Pumpkin Pie (grain free/ fruit sweetened/dairy free) May 13, 2013

Pumpkin doesn’t taste like pumpkin pie to me unless it’s a little sweet otherwise it just tastes like squash. So I did some research on the internet to try and figure out what fruit or fruit juice I could use to sweeten my pumpkin pie. Apple sauce sounded to grainy, apple juice sounded not quite right either…and then I came across the idea of using dates and I thought that it would be a good complement to the pumpkin flavor making it taste rich.

Kumquaty Pumpkin Pie

5 dates
1/2 cup hot water
1 can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tbs cinnamon
1 tbs vanilla

Soak dates over nite in hot water (I did this in the food processor to save on cleaning up an extra bowl and it also gave me a chance to pulse the dates a few times to make sure they were fully submerged). The next day I added the can of pumpkin, 3 eggs, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla and blended til well combined. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then pour the mixture into a greased pie dish and bake for 40 mins or until it’s not jiggly anymore.

Kumquaty Coconut Porridge (grain free/dairy free/sweetener free) May 4, 2013

Mmmm. Something warm and comforting? and as white as a new born baby lamb? I was cleaning my pantry and found some coconut flakes and milk and had a sudden craving to try to make a coconut porridge. I saw recipes for flax porridge so why not. This is flavored with indian ingredient….you could just as easily sweeten it a little with a mashed banana, dates, or cut up fresh fruit

Coconut Porridge

2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups water
Seeds from 1 cardamom pod
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
Splash rose water
Sprinkle cinnamon

Put coconut into food processor and pulse until it is finely chopped. Put into a pot and add coconut milk, water and cardamom pod. Cook on medium. Once it comes to a bubble add the vanilla. Put the eggs into a bowl and scramble with a fork. Add 2 ladles of the hot coconut mixture to the eggs and stir in well to temper then pour the egg mixture into the pot (this is to avoid having scrambled eggs strings in your porridge). Stir for a few minutes until the egg is cooked thru then turn off the heat and add a splash of rose water. Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Grain free “Burrito” April 4, 2013

Mmmm layer beefy burrito from taco bell… I made myself a copycat version in the past but this time since I’m cutting out the wheat I decided to try it as a hash with potatoes.

My regular copycat 5-layer beefy burrito recipe:

Large flour tortilla
1 jar nacho cheese
1 can refried beans
Taco bell beef (recipe below)
Sour cream

My taco bell beef recipe I use is from another website and it tastes pretty authentic.

Taco bell beef:
1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 cup flour (replace with corn flour/gluten free flour)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
dash garlic powder
1/2 cup water

Of course to be grain free I omitted the tortillas in this case I choose to use potatoes. Not top in the healthy category but not terrible. So then I just boiled the potatoes chopped them. Put the beef in the cast iron pan with the flour substitute and spices and mush them all together on medium heat and poured in the water continuing to mush until cooked through. Then I added the refried beans and potatoes cooked for 25 minutes until the flavors melded with the potatoes. Topped with nacho cheese and sour cream (or whole milk yogurt). FYI if you are using real good chili powder don’t get so excited that your lean over the pan and breath in deeply my nostrils burned for a little while….dum dum dum 🙂

Kumquaty Red Velvet Cupcake February 26, 2013

I have some leftover beet pulp from making my CAB juice and wanted to make a red velvet cake…and then I realized I didn’t really know what a red velvet cake was other then red. So I went to a website that I knew would be full of cake recipes to compare

Red Velvet Chocolate Cake from Martha Stewart

2 1/2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 teaspoon salt
4 tbs cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canola oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup red food coloring
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons white vinegar

Martha Stewart Traditional Red Velvet Cake

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), sifted, plus more for pans
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 one-ounce bottles liquid red food coloring
3 tablespoons lukewarm water
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Martha Stewart Chocolate Cake

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups hot water

So the difference between a chocolate red velvet cake and a traditional red velvet cake isn’t much, only a difference of 1 tbs of cocoa powder and the traditional uses butter while the chocolate red velvet uses vegetable oil…..Now the difference between the chocolate cake and the red velvet chocolate cake is ALOT more chocolate in the regular chocolate cake 1 1/4 cups more cocoa powder. I thought there wouldn’t be any buttermilk in the regular chocolate cake but this regular chocolate cake uses buttermilk too. The other difference I see is the addition of vinegar in both of the red velvet cake recipes.

The all knowing wikipedia states

“James Beard’s 1972 reference, American Cookery,[1] describes three red velvet cakes varying in the amounts of shortening and butter, also vegetable oil. All use red food coloring, but the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa and keeps the cake moist, light and fluffy. ”

So I think I can skip the vinegar since the main point of it was to make the chocolate look redder…I think the beets will do enough. And buttermilk makes a very tender traditional cake though I don’t know if it would really make much of a difference seeing there is no flour in my recipe and coconut flour makes a pretty tender cake by itself.

Kumquaty Chocolate Red Velvet Cake

1/2 cup coconut flour
3 tbs cup cocoa powder
pinch sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tbs of flax seed (ground)

4 large eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup beet pulp
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs of sweetener (molasses, agave, whatever sweetener you prefer. I didn’t use any sweetener in my recipe and the bitterness from the cocoa was a little too intense)

Preheat oven to 350. Stir together dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredient until no dry streaks. Put 1/4 cup into lined muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 mins.

Kumquaty Deviled Eggs February 23, 2013

This is based off of my MIL’s potatoe salad which is DELICIOUS

Kumquaty Deviled Eggs

12 hard-baked eggs
2 tbs homemade baconnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 pickle diced
1/8 small onion diced
10 green olives diced

Peel the cooled hard-baked eggs and slice in half. Gently squeeze yolks into seperate bowl. Add baconaise, mustard, diced pickle, dice onion and diced green olives to egg yolks and stir til smooth. Carefull spoon or use a homemade pastry bag to pipe filling into empty egg white “cups”.

This post is on Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday

Kumquaty “Mexican” Turkey Casserole….and a poblano gone wrong February 15, 2013

So I love poblanos and really wanted to make some sort of chili rellnos. Of course this is the week….this is the ONLY week that they had not a single poblano… grrrr… the grocer said the shipment would come in 3 days. I returned and still no poblanos! But in the meantime I did a google search to find out which dried pepper in the international section equalled my beloved poblano and the answer is….passila? so technically I found out that a pasilla is not a poblano but it gets mislabeled in America as such. So I swiped a big bag of pasilla peppers. Online I saw that at least one other person has tried making chili rellenos out of rehydrated pasillas and it looked pretty good, so what could go wrong? Well as you can see by the title of this post I did not get the end result of a chili rellnos 😦 Rehydrating went fine, stuffing came out fine, the problem came to filling the rehydrated chilis with the stuffing….these were the tiniest poblanos in the world! and I just ended up making a big mess of the first four….so I decied to make a casserole….and it tastes great! I didn’t want to name it a turkey casserole because that brings to mind for me a can of condensed cream soup and I didn’t really want to name it a mexican casserole because I’m not mexican…..so I guess I call it my pasilla turkey casserole??

Kumquaty Pasilla Turkey Casserole

3 cups cooked turkey or chicken (I had leftover turkey that I made awhile back)
8 oz pepper jack cheese sliced thin
1 large jar of green salsa
6 pasilla peppers
1 head brocoli
6 oz “mexican” cheese blend shredded
boiling water
Sour cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Soak pasilla peppers in boiling water for 10 minutes (you may have to weigh them down to make sure they all stay submerged under the water. Cut the brocoli into small florets and steam. Once the peppers are rehydrated cut a slit in the peppers and pull out the seeds. In a casserole dish lay the fileted peppers in a single layer. Chop up the turkey into bite sized pieces and stir together with the steamed brocoli florets, mexican shredded cheese, and green salsa. Put on top of the peppers in the casserole dish. Cover with the sliced pepperjack cheese. Put in oven for a minimum of 30 mins or until cheese if browned and bubbling. Serve with sour cream.

[image of poblano from chilipeppermadness.com]

Kumquaty Carrot Cupcakes (grain free/ gluten free/ dairy free/ sweetener free) February 13, 2013

Very loosely based off of Elana Amsterdam’s Vanila Cupcake recipe in the book Gluten-free Cupcakes. Wow! why would anyone make cupcakes with almond flour this cupcake had a luxious mouthfeel and crumb I assume due to the oils in the coconut melting as you eat it…yum

Kumquaty Soft Moist Carrot Cake

(makes 10 cupcakes)

1/2 cup coconut flour + 2tbs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger powder

1 cup carrots (shredded or leftover from juicing)
1/3 cup coconut oil melted
1 tbs vanilla
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Stir together dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir til combined. Put 1/4 cup of batter into each lined muffin tin. Bake for 25- 30 mins.

Serve with cream cheese icing or if you are forgetful like me and never remember to let out your cream cheese to softened just smear with some cream cheese and pour a little maple syrup on 🙂

Kumquaty Cheddar Broccoli Soup- with Turkey (grain free) February 7, 2013

Kumquaty Cheddar Broccoli Soup (with turkey)

1/2 onion diced
2 tbs olive oil
2 lbs broccoli chopped
1 carrot shredded
1 quart low sodium chicken broth
8 oz heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
6 oz mild cheddar
6 oz sharp cheddar
leftover turkey shredded (or other meat can be used like a roasted chicken or some baked ham….yum)

It’s been pretty cold out and the idea of yet another egg filled week sounded a little monotonous so I decided to make soup tis week. First I had to look up how to thicken without a roux and saw that my best options for this recipe was veggie puree and heavy cream since they didn’t include adding any ingredients that weren’t already in my recipe. It seems to have turned out pretty well. 🙂

Heat up olive oil in soup pot. Add diced onion and cook til soft. Add shredded carrot, broccoli and chicken broth. Once up to a simmer spoon out some of the broth and about 1/3 of the broccoli into a blender and let cool for a bit. Blend til smooth and add back to soup pot and stir. Add heavy cream and cheeses. Stir til cheese melts. Add turkey salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low until all flavors merge (about 30 minutes). This got a thumbs up from the husband yay!

Kumquaty Peanut Butter Muffins (Grain free/ Dairy free) February 6, 2013

My absolute FAVORITE traditional muffin is Paula Deen’s Peanut Butter Muffin’s…..so good. SO needed to make a replacement…it smelled delicious baking mmmmm peanut butter.

Kumquaty Peanut Butter Muffins
makes 12 muffins

1 cup almond flour
1 cup ground flax seed
1 cup organic creamy peanut butter
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 30 mins. Stir together eggs, vanilla, coconut milk and mashed bananas til smooth. Add the dry ingredients and stir together til you can’t see the dry ingredients anymore. Line muffin tins and fill with batter evenly in all cups. Bake for 30 mins. Eat with raw honey, organic no sugar added jam, or a sprinkle of cinnamon. Num! Tastes just like a regualr PB&J on wheat. smiles all around.