Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe does really have tortillas-- you can certainly add them...I just didnt so it would be healthier. I did top it off with a few corn tortilla chips though. I made this soup in a crock pot but, it can be made on the stove cooked at a low temperature.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2/3 cup fresh salsa
1/4 cup tomatilla sauce
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup oil (your choice)
1 medium sized onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 can chicken broth
salt pepper to taste

Place chicken breasts in crock pot and cover with water. Add whole can of chicken broth and turn crock pot on high. Chop onion and garlic and add to pot. Add the remaining ingredients and cover pot. Let cook for 2 hours and taste-- if too spicy then add more water or spice accordingly. Remove chicken, chop and place back in pot. Let cook for another hour and serve. Crumble a few tortilla chips on top and enjoy!

Banana muffins

I made these muffins to have with my yogurt in the morning. They are really good and easy to make. They are high in fiber, sugar, grain, and dairy free. Make some extra and freeze them so you have a muffin every day with your coffee.

Ingredients
15 oz can white beans
2/3 cup flax meal
2 eggs
1 1/2 bananas
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped walnuts* optional
2 tablespoon stevia
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place beans in pot with 1/3 cup of water and heat. Mash with potato masher and boil until mixture becomes a paste. Pour beans into bowl with almond butter and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Grease muffin tins and pour batter into tins. Bake until knife comes out clean. Let these sit for a good hour, to let them set, otherwise they can be mushy and fall apart. Viola!

Beautiful Beet Pancakes

I made these Christmas morning and they were delicious! The beets and almond flour replace unhealthy carbs. They are sugar free, dairy free, gluten free and grain free.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 large beets
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup of almond flour (if batter looks too runny add more)
1 tablespoon stevia
1 tablespoon honey/ agave

Grate beets into a large sauce pan. Add 1/3 cup of water and bring to boil. Sprinkle stevia over beets and stir. Boil until all liquid is absorbed and beets are tender. Wait until beets have cooled-- then add eggs, and the remainder of the ingredients. Place batter in food processor or blender and blend until beets pieces are no longer visible. Grease pan and fry like regular pancakes. These will keep well in the fridge for left overs! Enjoy!

Cuban Banana Chili

I LOVE bananas. They have such a versatile sweet taste; unfortunately it is usually eaten during breakfast. This recipe puts a Cuban twist on a traditional American dish. You can eat it with corn bread or over a potato. I ate it over cubed celery root.



Ingredients:
1 can black beans
3 bananas
3 chili peppers
1 1/2 tomato
1 tablespoon tomatilla sauce
cayenne pepper to taste
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450. Peel bananas and mash with fork. Drain the can of beans and add to bananas and mix. Chop chili peppers, tomatoes and add to mixture. Add tomatilla, pepper, salt and cayenne. Place in baking dish and bake for 20 minutes on 450.

Cinnamon Cayenne Truffles

These are easy and delicious-- they will impress! They are very allergy friendly with no gluten, sugar, grains, or eggs. You can flavor them any ways that you like, get creative! I used cinnamon and cayenne to make a spicy truffle. I make a second flavor with cashews to make a creamier flavor. My recipe makes a small batch of about 6-8 truffles so double the recipe if youre cooking for a group (its just me over here).

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of prune puree (i use baby food prune puree)
1 tablespoon almond butter
1/2 cup of coco powder
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil (or butter)
1/2 tablespoon stevia powder (use 2 tablespoons honey if you dont have stevia)

Flavors:
Cinnamon, cayenne and cashews to your taste



Place prune puree and almond butter in bowl and mix. Slowly add coco powder to mixture. Add the rest of ingredients and taste batter to see if it is sweet enough for your taste-- if you prefer it sweeter add more stevia or honey. Place bowl in the fridge for about an hour so that the batter can harden and thicken. Chop cashews and prepare ingredients for flavors. Remove the bowl from fridge. For the cinnamon cayenne truffles add cinnamon and cayenne to batter and stir. Spray your hands with Pam cooking spray so the dough does not stick to your hands. Roll dough into small balls for the cayenne truffles I rolled them in coco powder for a finish. Next the cashew truffles: roll chocolate balls in cashew pieces until covered. Place all truffles back in the fridge to harden and store until serving.

Grainless Pumpkin Porridge

This is DE-licious, low calorie, high fiber with a little protein too. You can swap out the pumpkin for bananas to mix things up a bit, they are both really good.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup egg whites
1/3 cup milk (soy, almond, etc.)
1/2 tablespoon honey
sprinkle with cinnamon and raisins

Combine ingredients in a glass bowl and mix evenly. Microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on the microwave and how thick you like your porridge. Take out of the microwave and mix. The porridge should be creamy you can add extra milk if its too thick for your taste.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies contain no dairy, sugar, grains or butter. I use white beans and almond butter for or the base with chocolate chips and stevia to sweeten them. I had intended on them to be simply chocolate chip cookies but i added the chocolate chips to warm batter and they melted...thus chocolate chocolate chip cookies. To make regular chocolate chip cookies just eliminate the chocolate powder. Preheat the oven to 350 and keep in mind that you have to bake these cookies a while as they are rather moist. Let cool on the baking sheet so they can harden. This should make about 25 cookies and there are about 70 calories each and 2g of protein each.--amazing!

Ingredients:

15 oz can of white beans
1/2 cup almond butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon stevia
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoon flax meal
1/3 cup coco powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup of apple sauce
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar


Put beans in pot with 1/3 cup of water and mash beans with potato masher. Bring to a boil and stir until liquid is dissolved and beans make a paste. Place bean paste and almond butter in bowl and mix. Add apple sauce, vanilla, stevia, honey, baking soda and apple cider. Add coc0 powder and chocolate chips and mix well. Batter will be more runny than most cookie batters. Grease cookie sheet and place small amount of batter on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes almost until they burn. Cool 15 minutes. You can add almonds, dried cranberries etc. if you like.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Macaroons

This is a nice treat for the holiday season-- or for just every day use! They are very easy to make and taste very rich. Make sure to use unsweetened coconut to reduce sugar and calorie count.

Ingredients:

2 cups of coconut flakes (unsweetened)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of powdered stevia (add more honey if you dont have stevia)
1 tablespoon of honey
2 tablespoons of almond butter (use flower if you dont have)
1/2 cup of dried cranberries
1/3 cup of dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup of almond slices



Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until liquid is evenly distributed. The mixture will be moist but not as moist as some macaroon batters. Grease cookie sheet and spoon out 1-2 inch balls of dough, making sure the dough is compact-- so the cookies dont fall apart. Try to flatten the dough because they will not flatten out in the baking process like other cookies do. Cook for approximately 15-25 minutes on 250 heat. The cookies should appear a light brown color when they are cooked.

Chocolate Bacon Rice Krispy Treats!

I am a big lover of bacon; I truly believe that adding it to just about anything makes the dish better. This recipe combines sweet and savory with two of American's classic ingredients. To make this recipe gluten free make sure you use gluten free rice cereal. I used Envrio Kids chocolate rice krispy cereal.

Ingredients:

3 table spoons of butter (or substitute)
1 10oz package of Marshmallows
6 cups of chocolate rice cereal
10 pieces of bacon

Place bacon in frying pan and fry until crispy. You want it crispy enough that you can break the pieces apart into dime sized pieces without it being chewy. Place marshmallows and butter in large bowl and microwave for 45 seconds, the stir and microwave for another 45 seconds and stir again (repeate this until marshmallows are a gooey liquid. Add the cereal to marshmallow mix and stir, then add bacon and stir until an even consistency is met. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish and refrigerate until solid. I added peanut butter to the top as a frosting....it was good:-)

Banana Apple Curry!

For desert the other night I made a lovely dessert. Apple, banana curry. I ate it plain but it would be perfect over some ice cream You will need Cinnamon, coconut milk, apple and banana.

Ingredients:
1/2 banana
1/2 apple
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 to 1/4 cup of Coconut milk
butter
honey
cinnamon

Peel the apple and microwave it for 1 minute. Place the apple and sliced banana (slice like coins) into frying pan, turn on medium heat. Put a small amount of butter in the pan too, so they dont stick. wait until the banana becomes soft and squishy then lower the heat and add coconut milk. You can add as much as you like or as little. Add Cinnamon and honey and let simmer for about a minute. Remove from heat and add sliced almonds or you could serve over ice cream.

Peanut Butter and Beet Sandwhich!

This sounds like a strange combination but it is really good! This is also 100% SCD and a healthy lunch.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup Almond Flour
1 egg
1/3 cup beets
Peanut butter

Boil a beet so that it is soft (I buy some that are packaged in water, so I can skip this step). Then thinly slice and place on a baking sheet with no oil. Cook at 350 for about 20-30 minutes, before they are crispy but you dont want them too soft. I used almond flour pancakes as bread. To make these scramble one egg then add almond flour (you can use almond butter too). Mix well, add salt and pepper to taste. Then cook them on a frying pan just like you would a pancake. One egg should make about 4 pieces of bread. Once your beets are ready let them cool a bit, so they get a little tough around the edges. Put peanut butter on warm almond bread and add beets. DELICIOUS!

Garlic, Veggie Quiche

This is simple but good. Cut and peel half of a carrot and half a zucchini. Place in a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. This helps them get soft, otherwise they will be crunchy in your quiche. chop one garlic clove and 1/8 of a cup of onion. Mix all of the ingredients together and add two eggs. Pour into a well greased oven safe dish. Top with your favorite cheese (I used Brie) and bake at 400 for 15 minutes and you have a delightful dinner!

Eggplant compote with butternut squash curls

Ok this looks like dog food-- BUT its not and it tasted really good.

Ingredients:
1/2 med. Eggplant
Whole Butternut squash
1 tablespoon Garlic
1 tablespoon almond meal
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Start with half an egg plant, cover with olive oil, salt and pepper, then bake until the center is soft. Scoop out center of egg plant leaving purple shell. Combine eggplant (the soft part) with one clove of garlic, table spoon of almond flour and cook like a pancake. This wont hold it's form but will help cook the garlic into the eggplant and make it thicker.
For the butternut squash: cut very thin slices and bake at 350 with very little olive oil. After about 20 minutes they will become crispy. Lay flat on plate and place the eggplant compote on top!

Beet, Celery root and Squash chips!

When i get back to the US the 2 things I am buying are a juicer, and a deep fryer. Yesterday I made some chips using beets, celary root and butternut squash. I sliced them very thinly and put them in a pan with about half an inch of sun flower oil. Make sure you over the peices with the oil and that the oil is hot enough. Cook each peice for about 3 minutes, the beets may take longer. If you dont cook them enough they will be mushy and not crunchy-- so use your judgement. Once you take them off the pan, place on paper towel, to remove some grease and add sesonings. The best thing is that you can make these go with any meal by choosing your falvoring. I used sage, salt and pepper so it would go with my chicken soup. You could use rosemary, or spicy peppers for somthing different. Now all i need is some gaucamole and then I can make nachos :-) I'll save that for next week!

Coconut Latte

As part of the Specific Carbohydrate diet I am not allowed to eat lactose or soy. This has been one of the harder parts of the diet for me, because it is hard to find a substitute. The diet works in steps, so until now I have not been able to introduce coconut or coconut milk. Last night I tried coconut milk for the first time. It must be pure 100% coconut milk with no additives. I got wonderful idea...
I have worked hard to get used to drinking coffee black and now do it on a daily basis. Being in Paris is does make me a little sad to see all of the yummy lattes being drank. SO I decided to try to make a Coconut milk latte. It was DE-Licous! I used a french press with more coffee grinds and only poured 3/4 of the way full with water. Then I heated up my coconut milk in the microwave. There was a 3:1 ratio of Espresso to Coconut milk. I added a little honey and some cinnamon and it was really great!
Coconut milk is really good for you despite the bad name it has gotten for having high fat content. The fat is "good" fat, meaning it is easily converted into energy and therefore is not converted to fat or contribute to high cholesterol. Additionally it has a high level of anti-biotic properties and is often used in treating chronically ill patients with diseases like AIDS and Cancer. SO drink up!