Pumpkin Spice Cake: gluten free and delicious.

I mean honestly, you can't even tell it's gluten, grain & refined sugar free. It's that good. I wanted to make a pumpkin spice cake for turkey day that I could actually eat and love (I'm eating gluten-free, sugar-free and *sigh* low-carb because of this adrenal burnout issue).

I practiced with cupcakes early in the week, which is something that I never do. Usually I launch into a new recipe on holidays or for parties without care for the fact that it may totally flop. But this time I smartened up. I knew that I'd have to combine and adjust a couple of recipes to get it right. I based it on Elana's pumpkin spice muffins and Comfy Belly's pumpkin bread (almost cake). 
(my recipe is below the photos)

We ate it with a toasted nutmeg ice cream (modified-- I subbed xylitol and stevia for sugar and coconut milk for some--not all-- of the dairy). Yum. That ice cream is sooo good.

Here's what I did: note: I'm not a recipe writer-- so bear with me

Pumpkin Spice Cake
(makes enough for a double layer cake--but you could make this as cupcakes, muffins or even a loaf, just adjust the cook time and maybe cut the recipe in half)

 Ingredients
2 cups of pumpkin puree (homemade or canned-- I used canned this time)
1 cup of coconut nectar (you could also use honey, agave or maple syrup)
1/2 tsp Stevia clear liquid*
1/2 tsp Vanilla creme liquid stevia
6 eggs

1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt

spices--(not exact-- sorry!):
2 Tablespoons cinnamon
almost 2 Tablespoons ground ginger
1/2-3/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp of cloves

4 cups of almond flour**
4+ tsp coconut flour (yes, teaspoons-- a little goes a long way with coconut flour)

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine wet ingredients and blend well (I used an immersion blender, but a mixer is fine.
Add in rest of ingredients (if you want, you can mix the dry separately and then add in gradually ;)
Bake in two well-greased round cake pans-- I buttered, lined the bottom with parchment and then buttered and floured.
Bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I think it took about 35 minutes?? Whoops. See. I told you that I'm not a recipe writer. Next time I'll get it right. Set the timer for 30 and you should be fine.

*if you don't want to use stevia (or want it to be officially paleo) sub another cup of your choice of liquid sweetener and a bit of vanilla--- but in this case you may need to leave out an egg or two to get a similar texture... You could also use just plain liquid stevia.

**I love Honeyville blanched almond flour, but this time I used Bob's Red Mill I whirled it in the food processor to make a bit finer.

I almost forgot!-- I made a frosting of cream cheese, butter, tiny bit of cream and powdered 'sugar' that I made from xylitol... i think i added stevia to that too...

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving sides & such: gluten free

illustration: Rebekka Seale

I'm already getting excited for Thanksgiving... I'm not hosting this year, so it will be easy-- no spatchcocking or setting up a minute by minute plan for the cooking (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but as you probably know, the logistics take some coordination--even with the fun, small group we had last year).

This year, we get to go to my cousin's house. His amazing Aussie wife specializes in over-achievement far beyond my pre-adrenal burnout days. She is also an organizer extraordinaire. I love the fact that even though I live 3000 miles from home I still have some family here. My mom's sister --a transplant from Rhode Island--- lives next door to my in-laws and raised her kids here in this small town.
The hosts:  cousin, Aussie wife, 2 kiddos
The guests: My aunt and uncle, another lovely cousin & her 2 boys, friends of said lovely cousin (I think they are a couple and a toddler), the amazing Aussie's mum (all the way from Oz), and the amazing Aussie's aunt and daughters (who also live here in town), and finally--the four of us.

What I'm bringing:

1. Sweet potato & sage butter casserole: this was a hit at last year's feast. I Highly recommend it.

found on The Bitten Word. Photo: Martha Stewart Living

2. A Festive cocktail: I'm thinking.....either the ginger bourbon fizz (illustrated above) or a version of this classic whiskey smash (maybe made with ginger syrup instead of simple syrup and possibly subbing another liquor):

from Bon Appetit

A gluten free stuffing/dressing-- I think I'll go the cornbread route (I came up with a tasty GF cornbread recipe based on others but of course didn't document it. I'll post it when I figure it out again).  Here are two cornbread dressings that look yummy: 1) Cornbread dressing with smoked bacon & pecans (from Southern Living) :

Photo: Iain Bagwell; Styling: Heather Chadduck

 2) Cornbread, sausage & pecan dressing (from Bon Appetit):

Photograph by Christopher Testani

Toasted nutmeg ice cream from Saveur (also a winner from last year-- I changed it a bit but will figure that out later):

Credit: Todd Coleman

Some sort of gluten free dessert: I think I'll turn this butternut squash cake gluten free:

 
somehow crossing it with this pumpkin spice cake:

 

That's all for now... What are you cooking?

Finn is Four. and where am I?

I can, indeed, believe that it's been a month since I've visited the good life here in cyberworld. I've been an on an unintentional hiatus, otherwise consumed with the good life off-screen, engaged in activities like finding mold in our rental and staying temporarily at our in-laws. Yes, mold. yuck. A couple of dear family members have passed away after tough battles with the big 'C'.

I was diagnosed with complete 'adrenal burnout' and told to stop running (not that I was doing much of that) and to start lying down flat as much as possible during the day! Ha! (It feels reeeallly good to do it...but nearly impossible to do more than once a day with two crazy boys). I'm supposed to pretend I'm on perpetual vacation, stop eating all fruit and forms of sugar, eat meat at every meal, and re-mineralize myself. More on that later.

In the middle of it all, my sweet little bull, Finn, turned four! I can hardly believe it. He's still challenging as ever, but also hilarious. Here are some moments I did manage to capture....

 Fish cake-- Finn's choice. Template from Martha. I've never made a meringue butter-cream before and also never used turmeric to dye frosting-- so that was super fun. The cake is my tried and tested Vanilla bean cake  (grain free) from Kelly at The Spunky Coconut.

He had a bit of "Too Much Birthday" (Berenstein Bears reference)-- The poor guy was exhausted.

Finn's 95 year old great-grandmother (J's grandma) and his second cousin made it!

My cousin's lovely children showing off their party tattoos.

After a few good nights' sleep, Finn was back in action....(after 10 REALLY tough days!).

 Four just sounds too old. I had such a good cuddle with him tonight before bed. He was cracking me up talking about his 'bones'....pointing to various parts of his body, "This is a bone, right here. Elbow?! That's not a bone!"...etc. Too cute. It's so fun to see him learning this stuff and being thoroughly fascinated by it.

Last week in food. (gluten free)

The Bitten Word's photo-- I didn't get any food photos this week!

We've been enjoying the unseasonal warmth and sunshine up here in the mountains. It's a bit scary that we haven't had precipitation since November and the ski resort where my husband works has laid off 30  100+ seasonal employees and had all full-timers take a 10% pay cut. Ouch. We have to look at it as a kick in the butt to get going on other projects and sources of income.

I love a creative challenge. And eating healthy on an extremely low budget is very much a challenge. Here are some of the recipes (some new, some not) that I used last week and loved. I know that it sounds like a lot of chicken, which I'm usually bored by...but it didn't get too tiring because the flavors in each meal were different and flavorful.

• Roasted chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and veggies (we call them sweet potato 'fries' and both boys love them.) I made stock from the chicken carcass to use in the other meals of the week.
• Coconut & chicken curried soup -- this recipe was just okay until we added extra Sriracha to our bowls--then it qualified as yummy. I served it over brown rice.

• Pad Thai (I used this recipe from the latest issue of Everyday Food, but subbed honey for brown sugar, almonds for peanuts and left out the tofu. I added a bit of leftover chicken. FYI it looks nothing like the photo in this link, not sure why that photo is there!)
• Chicken Tinga Tacos--these were seriously awesome. (more leftover chicken & served with a purple cabbage salad in an orange vinaigrette)
• Scallion meatballs with soy ginger glaze from Smitten Kitchen. Amazingly delicious. I subbed beef for turkey, honey for sugar (reducing the amount), and served them with kale "chips".
• Curried Squash & orange soup--with bacon & sage.Yum-- and different than the typical butternut squash soup. I served it with almond flour biscuits.
• Lentil & walnut pate (how do I add in an accent mark?) on almond flour herb crackers with leftover soup and other random leftovers.

And this week? No plans so far... What's cooking in your kitchen?

Easy Paleo dinner: oven 'fried' chicken and salt & vinegar kale chips

Finger-lickin' good!

Today was a serious day. Finn had some extremely loud and physical complaints about Bodhi touching his stuff. I nearly lost my mind with frustration. We made it to the park after Bodhi's first nap, thankfully, because I broke all candida diet regulations and downed the remaining dark chocolate chips that I had squirreled away in the freezer in a desperate attempt to boost my serotonin. The outdoors is a far superior neurotransmitter adjustment for me.

I decided on a simple dinner and it was tasty. I make this a lot. It never fails to please and is gluten and grain free.

Oven "fried" chicken (based on this recipe)
1 package of 6 organic chicken drumsticks (I actually like it better with the 'drummettes')
1/3 cup of almond flour
2 teaspoons paprika
2 1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon curry powder (I've made it without paprika and only curry too--yum)
2 teaspoons herbs du provence
1/4 cup butter (tallow actually works better here if you can get grass-fed beef tallow--I order it here.)

Preheat oven to 450. Mix up the almond flour and spices in a large zipper bag (think shake & bake).  Line a 9x13 pan with foil or parchment. Put the butter or tallow in the pan, put in oven to melt. Put the drums or drummettes (3 at a time for the big ones) in the bag and shake. Place chicken in pan. Bake for 30 minutes then flip and bake for 15-20 more minutes.

Salt & vinegar kale chips. Based on Elana's recipe --actually it is Elana's recipe except that I decided to bake them at a lower temperature (this time at 275) to get closer to a raw food effect. I'd like to truly dehydrate them next time. Finn LOVES these--and so do the rest of us. Bodhi even ate a couple.

1 head kale, chopped

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon celtic sea salt

1. Place chopped kale in a large bowl
2. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, then sprinkle with salt
3. Massage above ingredients into kale with your hands
4. Spread out kale on 2 parchment lined baking sheets, so that pieces of kale do not touch
5. Bake at 275°  until dry and crispy (it takes 13 minutes at 375...I'm thinking it took 25 minutes? Sorry! didn't time, just kept checking.
6. Cool 10 minutes and serve

 (I'm trying beet chips tomorrow!)