Gluten and Sugar Free Pumpkin Cookies

These are delicious. They have a muffin like consistency, and a gingerbread-like flavor.

I used fresh pumpkin that I grew and then baked. If you want to make fresh pumpkin this season for pie, cookies, etc... 

Cut small sugar or cinderella pumpkin in half. Remove seeds and strings. Put oven side down in a baking dish that can handle adding 1-2 inches of water. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 min, or until you can easily pierce the skin with a fork. Make sure the water never fully evaporates. Scoop the insides out, and use within 3 days of freeze for later.

OK

Now to the Cookies!

4 cups Pamela's Gluten Free Muffin Mix

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups butter, softened

2 cups coconut sugar

1 cup coconut syrup

2 cups pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl, then add coconut syrup, eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin.

Gradually add flour mixture.

Drop cookie dough onto cookie sheets with baking paper.

Cookies will spread so leave them room.

Bale 12 minutes. They will be very soft coming out of the oven. cool a bit before serving.

Puerto Rican/California Fusion Pinto Beans and Steak with Grilled Onion

This whole meal was inspired by an amazing restaurant that I went to this week.

Pink pinto beans:

Ingredients:
- a half pound of dried pinto beans
- one yellow onion
- two red tomatoes
- two yellow potatoes
- 5 cloves garlic
- half of a green bell pepper
- one Anaheim green chili pepper
- cilantro
- salt pork
- salt
- pepper
- cumin
- chicken broth
- fresh oregano
- coconut vinegar
- coconut oil

Directions:

Soak beans in water overnight. Drain and rinse. Boil beans in a generous amount of water for one hour. Drain and put aside.  In a pot, brown salt pork completely, add coarsely diced onion, saute until clear. Blanche the skins off of the two tomatoes, ad the insides to the pot, bring to a boil.

Make a blended concoction of chicken broth, both types of green peppers, garlic, and cilantro. Add to pot and keep boiling. Peel and cube potatoes and add to pot.  Add seasonings to taste. Add back in the beans.  Finely chop a generous amount of oregano (or tie the sprigs together with string and remove later). Add a tablespoon of vinegar or citrus juice.

Simmer for an hour. Remove oregano stems and salt pork before serving. Serve over rice.

Steak:

Thinly slice a beef tri tip. Marinate in a mixture of:
- Molasses
- garlic
- olive oil
- coconut vinegar
- salt and pepper
- Dried red pepper flakes

Grill and serve with grilled onions over the top.

Salad:

Use a light, crispy lettuce. Cover in a dressing of 1/4 coconut vinegar, 1/4 lime juice, 2/4 olive oil and salt to taste.

Mmmmm Potato Salad

Summer is....not here...it's on a vacation. In honor of June, it's potato salad season! If you use homemade Mayo- this is ok for the Candida maintenance stage. (recipe coming later)

Ingredients:

3 red potatoes
2-3 Yukon gold potatoes
2 stalks green onion
1/3 cup minced Parsley
Half cup Mayonnaise
2 tsp apple cider vinegar or coconut vinegar
Salt to taste

Directions:

You can peel or leave the potato skins on. Cut potatoes into 4ths and boil until just soft (not to soft or you
ll have potato mush).  Drain and let cool completely. (For fast cooling, put them in a strainer in the sink and cover with ice cubes.) Dice Green Onions and Parsley.

Put cooled potatoes in a bowl and add mayonnaise and Vinegar.  Mix well, and cut each potatoes into smaller pieces with a spoon as you mix. Add greens and salt, mix.

There is another slightly spicier version I made recently:
Substitue potatoes for about 15 red russian fingerlings, boiled whole.
Dice and add 2 Tablespoons red onion and one carrot diced, along with the green noon and parsley.

Vegan (or not) Tamale Dinner

We made this delicious meal out of random ingredients in the kitchen. It could be made a variety of ways, but this meal can be dairy, sugar, and gluten free.

We did add cheese to the tamale, as you can see in this picture. We didn't have any, but sour cream would also be a good addition.

What you are looking at is a green chile tamale, with the sweet corn salsa (see previous blog for recipe), "mexican" rice, and mixed vegetables.


Corn and Green Pepper Tamale:

I bought these, from a local company called Primavera:

http://www.primaveratamales.com/index.php

Somewhat expensive, but good.  If I were planning ahead I would make them myself (tamale blog to come).

I steamed the tamales while I made the rice and vegetables.

Vegtables:

Since I was using what we had around, the veggies are stir fried green beans, zucchini, fresh corn from the cob. I cooked them in coconut oil, and added a touch of Braggs Aminos.

Rice:

Dice one tomato and half an onion.  Fry in 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil.  Add 1-2 tablespoons of Cumin. Add 2 cups water (two parts water to one part rice) bring to a boil and add 1 cup rice.   Keep at a boil, if water evaporates before rice is done add more water and bring to a boil.  This would also be good using one part water and one part chicken broth.

I generously heaped the sweet corn salsa over the tamale.  Add cheese or sour cream if you eat dairy.

Sweet Corn Salasa

This is a great tomalley topping, dip, or stand alone salad.  This recipe is sweet and not spicy.

Ingredients:

1 ear of raw corn
1 large tomato
1/2 sweet yellow onion
3 Tblsp fresh diced cilantro
2 cloves garlic
Salt to taste
Dash of lemon or lime juice

Dice all ingredients, shear corn off cob, and combine.

I used this as a tamale topping:

Chocolate Tapioca Pudding

This recipe is definitely for the maintenance stage.  If you buy the "Let's do Organic" instant tapioca, there's a recipe on the back made with coconut milk. I am sure it's good, but I haven't tried it yet.  What I made today is chocolate almond milk with xylitol. You could make this with any instant tapioca. (You could also use vanilla unsweetened almond milk for a more traditional pudding.)

Ingredients:

3 cups unsweetened chocolate almond milk
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup instant tapioca (the original says 1/4, but I like my pudding thick)
1 Tbsp or more Xylitol
1 tsp vanilla suspended in glycerin

In a saucepan, simmer almond milk, tapioca and salt for about 15 minutes. (Until the tapioca pieces expand and turn clear.) Remove from heat and stir in xylitol and vanilla. Refrigerate to room temperature.

By the way, for those of you who can have sugar, the "Let's do Organic" gummy bears wonderful.

Taco Salad

This recipe is one of the most flavorful, warm and filling dishes I have yet to make for the early stages of the candida diet.

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1 onion
"Simply Organic" Southwest Taco seasoning (does not contain black pepper)
Half of one green or red cabbage
Refried beans (I like Amy's organic with green chilies)

Optional:
Salsa
Cultured Sour cream
Avocado


Saute beef and minced onion in one skillet. In another skillet saute the cabbage (And some onion-optional) in coconut oil.  Heat of refried beans in a pot.  Follow the directions on the taco seasoning- add to beef when cooked thorough.

When cabbage is cooked to desired constancy- I like mine a little crisp still, put a layer of cabbage on your plate. Top with beef mixture and beans. Add salt to taste.  If you wish, add salsa, sour cream, or avocados. Enjoy.

You could do the same with lettuce instead of cabbage.