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GAPS Sauerkraut

Aside from bone broth one of the most nourishing and healing foods for GAPS is sauerkraut. It is recommended right from the start…starting with just the juice and then adding in the vegetable itself. So I figured I better try some 🙂  This recipe comes right from the GAPS book. Very simple. And only takes 5-7 days to ferment. I made mine even more simple since I didn’t have any carrots in the house…and they bother me anyway. So it’s just cabbage, water and salt. That’s it. It does take a little elbow grease to get the cabbage broken down. But still very easy to make.

I tried my first bite yesterday. It was pretty good. I only took one small bite…start slowly. So I can’t say if it had any impact on me or not. I’ll have to update again sometime. And I probably should be starting with just the juice anyway 😛  As I’m getting more into the GAPS diet I’m realizing that for now I don’t need/can’t handle tons of veggies. I always wanted to load up on them before…that’s how you get rid of constipation, right? When in reality all of the fiber aggrivates your gut when it’s not healed/not able to digest properly. And I think that’s why I’m finding so many veggies bother me. Until I get my gut sealed and healed I need to stick to only food that is very easy to digest…like broth, very mushy veggies, probiotic foods, etc. I can’t handle much fiber right now. The opposite of what I was told for years. No wonder I had so many problems! Slowly but surely I’m figuring this out 🙂  My goal is to start having a little of the juice and/or the cabbage with most meals. Hopefully that will help with digestion.

And not related to sauerkraut, but something else I’m finding…I think it may be the coconut flour that’s been bothering my tummy lately. Same issue…too much fiber for me to handle right now. Coconut flour is particularly high in fiber. So sad. Since it’s so good!! But all in good time. Until I’m doing better I’ll keep my grain free baked good intake to a minimum and stick with nut flours. I handle those better at the moment.

Anyway, here’s the recipe. I only made a small batch…one small head of cabbage. It made 1 quart.

GAPS Sauerkraut

1 medium size white cabbage or combo of red and white cabbage
2 shredded carrots
water
1 – 2 Tbsp. unrefined sea salt

Slice cabbage thinly. Add carrots. Add salt. Knead mixture well with your hands until a lot of juice comes out. If it is not juicy enough add a little water. Put the mixture in a glass jar for fermentation. Make sure the cabbage is covered with liquid and that there is at least 1 inch of headspace in the jar. Cover loosely with lid. Let ferment in dark place for 5-7 days. Check periodically to make sure the cabbage is submerged in liquid.

Grain Free Breakfast Cookies (gluten free, GAPS-legal)

I hadn’t intended to do much baking this week. But Sunday I was looking at some grain free blogs and came across a recipe for breakfast cookies on Comfy Belly. And I had to try them! I’ve loved breakfast cookies ever since I made them the first time. But sadly have not been able to eat them for a while. So I was very excited to see a grain free version. They taste very similar to my other recipe. So good!!! And super easy to make. I didn’t follow the measurements exactly…I was trying to use up what I had on hand. But they still turned out great! My plan was to make a half recipe…but it was kind of 1 1/2. I used 1 cup of my homemade almond-pecan meal and about 1/2 cup of boughten almond meal. I still used 1 egg, but only 1/4 cup of honey. Still plenty sweet. As usual I left out the baking soda and used stiff egg white instead. For add ins I used crispy sunflower seeds, raisin, coconut and a few chocolate chips. I know the chocolate chips aren’t really on the approved list. But like I said, I was trying to use a few things up and I had a small amount left in a bag. I made my cookies a decent size. I got 12 out of this batch. Another great, easy breakfast to have in the freezer! Love it. Serve it with a kefir smoothie and you’ve got one very nourishing, tasty breakfast!

These can be dairy free if you don’t use butter.

Grain Free Breakfast Cookies

2 1/2 cups of almond meal or almond flour (any nut flour will work really)
1/4 tsp. of salt
8 Tbsp. of unsalted butter, melted (or 1/2 cup of coconut oil or vegetable shortening, melted)
1/2 cup of honey
1 egg, separated
1 Tbsp. of vanilla
about 2 cups of nuts, dried fruit, seeds (or anything else your heart desires)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and blend with a spoon. Add the wet ingredients (except the egg white) and blend it well with a spoon.

Beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Fold into dough.

Drop mounds of batter on the cookie sheets (I used parchment paper lined sheets). Space them about 1 inch apart.

Bake for 12 to 20 minutes (depending on how big you make them…mine took almost 20 minutes), or until they are starting to brown around the edges.

If you want them slightly crunchier (these are on the soft side), leave them in the oven at 200 degrees F for another 15 minutes or so, or in a dehydrator on a fairly low temperature for about 2 hours.

Cool and enjoy. Store in a sealed container

Apple Cinna-Muffins (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

Another new grain free muffin attempt today. I found this recipe on Cooking GAPS. I modified it slightly – used coconut oil instead of ghee and did the egg yolk/white trick so I could eliminate the baking soda. They turned out well, but fairly crumbly. I think that’s because I used some of my homemade almond-pecan flour…which is quite coarse. And the quantity of apple made them not hold together as well. I’ll have to experiment a little to get them just right. Or maybe add an extra egg next time. The dough was very thick. But overall a great recipe. Very good flavor. Next time I’ll use muffin liners, too. That will help keep the muffins together. I’ll post the recipe the way I made it. This made 11 muffins.

Apple Cinna-Muffins
10-12 muffins

2 cups almond flour (I used 1 cup crispy almond-pecan flour, 3/4 cup almond flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted (or ghee at room temperature)
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 large or 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch pieces

In a medium bowl, mix the almond flour, salt and cinnamon. In a small saucepan melt coconut oil. Add honey and vanilla. Add egg yolk to dry ingredients. Beat egg white until stiff. Add oil mixture to dry ingredients. Fold in egg white. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin pan and bake for 25-35 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.

Grain Free Peanut Butter Brownies (gluten free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

Yesterday was a cold and rainy day (with thunderstorms and hail…at the end of April…yuck!), so Rebecca and I decided to bake. I saw a super simple recipe on Grain Free Foodies recently for peanut butter brownies. We gave it a try. It was very simple. Only 3 ingredients! The verdict…ok. Honestly they don’t have a ton of flavor. I think I’ll add a little more honey if I make them again (I used about 1/3 cup). They would definitely be better with something chocolate in them 😛  They got a little dark on the edges. I think that might be from the palm shortening I used to grease the pan. Rebecca really likes them. So that makes this a great recipe…not very sweet and GAPS legal…and Rebecca likes them. Score 🙂  The original recipe uses baking soda. I left it out. The texture is really good. I think I just still have a big sweet tooth. Hopefully at some point that will change and these will taste sweet to me 🙂

Grain Free Peanut Butter Brownies

1 cup peanut butter (or any kind of nut/seed butter)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda (not GAPS-legal, it works fine if you leave it out)

Thoroughly mix all ingredients (an electric mixer works well). Pour into a generously greased 8″ x 8″ baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Do not overbake- these are so moist and chewy but get dry if baked too long.

Grain Free Strawberry Muffins (gluten free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

I continue to experiment with grain free baking. This morning I tried a new muffin recipe from Organic and Thrifty. The original recipe is for blueberry muffins. I made strawberry since Rebecca has been requesting some. I also made a few other modifications to the recipe. I used mostly my home-ground crispy almond/pecan flour. It’s much coarser than the almond flour I buy in the store since I use a food processor to grind it (don’t have a coffee grinder). And I omitted the baking powder to make it GAPS legal. To do so I separated the egg yolks and whilte. I beat the whites until stiff and folded them into the batter. Seemed to work quite well. I also didn’t make a full recipe, so I scaled things down a bit. Overall these were really good! They didn’t hold together as well as some muffins, but I think that’s because of the strawberries. They made them very  moist. A different fruit or maybe even just baking them a few more minutes would change that. The last few muffins hardly had any berries in them, and they held together nicely. The coarse nut flour worked fine. There were just a few nut chunks in the batter. Yum! I will for sure make these again and experiment with different flavors. And of course they are better with lots of butter on top 🙂  I’ll post the recipe as I made it.

Grain Free Strawberry Muffins

1 1/2 cups of almond meal, almond flour, or hazelnut flour (can be made by grinding crispy nuts in a coffee grinder or food processor. I used almond pecan flour.)
2 large eggs, separated
1/4 cup of honey
1/4 tsp. of sea salt
1 Tbsp. of vanilla extract
1 cup strawberries (or any other berry/fruit/dried fruit)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare muffin tins with liners or grease with oil or butter.

In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside. In separate bowl mix all other ingredients (except berries/fruit) until smooth. Fold in egg whites. Fold in berries/fruit. Fill muffin cups.
Bake for 35-45 minutes. Makes 9 muffins.

Grain Free Apple Raisin Bars (dairy free, egg free, GAPS-legal)

I tried another new grain free snack yesterday – apple raisin bars. I got the recipe from Nourished and Nurtured (a great blog with lots of yummy-looking recipes!). These are so easy to make. I made them while I was making dinner 🙂  It is noisy to do all of the processing, but doesn’t take long at all. I used my crispy pecans instead of just soaked pecans. Still worked well. We haven’t actually eaten any bars yet, but I did taste a few chunks…very good!! They are a bit messy/soft even after a while in the fridge. So I stuck them in the freezer. We’ll have them for breakfast tomorrow and I’ll give a better verdict then. So far they seem like a very healthy, easy snack/breakfast. I patted the “dough” into a rectangle and cut it into 8 pieces (kind of like when I make scones).

The verdict…we all LOVE them! Rebecca has scarfed one down two days in a row for breakfast now. She’s requesting them. I guess I’ll have to make more dried apples so I can make more of these to have on hand. I love how healthy and easy they are. There isn’t even any added sugar. Awesome! We eat them straight out of the freezer (give them 1-2 minutes to soften).

Apple Raisin Bars

1 cup pecans (I used crispy pecans and skipped the soaking step below)
1 cup dried apples
1 cup raisins
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
unrefined coconut oil, for greasing your hands

Soak pecans in water with a pinch of sea salt for 12-24 hours. Rinse and drain well. Pulse nuts in a food processor until ground pretty well (but not too long or they’ll start turning into nut butter). Dump nuts into a bowl. Then place apples, raisins, salt, and optional spices in food processor and let it whir until well-combined and chopped. This will take longer than you think, but just let it keep going around and around. Then add back ground nuts and whir until well-combined. Dump it all onto a piece of wax paper. Then rub a bit of oil onto your hands to keep them from sticking to the mixture. Use your hands to do any last mixing necessary to get a consistent mixture, then form the mixture into a mound. Refrigerate for a couple hours, and then cut into pieces.

You can also vary the nuts and fruit to make other types. Lemon blueberry is delicious (made using almonds, dates, and dried blueberries with a little lemon zest).

Peanut Butter Fudge (grain free, dairy free, egg free, GAPS-legal)

I also made a batch of grain free fudge yesterday. I saw the recipe on Grain Free Foodies and knew I had to try it! It is so simple to make. And it is AWESOME!! Only a few minutes to prep. Then put it in the freezer for a bit. Then enjoy 🙂  A great treat, and a great way to get more coconut oil into my diet. I only made a half batch to try it since 1 cup of coconut oil is pretty expensive (don’t want to waste that if it didn’t turn out). I will for sure be making this again when I need to have a safe treat on hand. Rebecca and I both love it!

This is linked to the Gluten Free Recipe Parade at Heavenly Homemakers.

Peanut Butter Fudge

1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup peanut butter
honey to taste (I used about 3 Tbsp. for a half batch)
dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt the oil in a saucepan on very low heat. Pour the oil and remaining ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Pour this mixture into an 8 x 8 pyrex dish (or similar glass dish) (I greased mine), and place in the freezer.

This fudge is best stored in the refrigerator or freezer.

Nut Butter Bread (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

I’m trying to do more grain free baking to have easy stuff on hand for myself. Yesterday I tried a new bread recipe from Grain Free Foodies. It sounded odd…making bread without any flour…just use nut butter. Would that work? But I gave it a shot…and it worked!!

This is really good (especially with lots of butter or homemade almond butter on it). And it’s a good base. I went for the sweeter version, although it didn’t turn out very sweet. I’ll have to add more honey next time. And maybe some cinnamon and raisins. Mmmm. I’d like to try a savory variety too. Either way this is very good and so simple to make.

I just mixed it by hand in one bowl. It only took a few minutes to throw together. I used natural peanut butter. Worked very well. I’m glad to have an easy, grain free snack for myself…and a way to get more butter in my diet 🙂

*Edited 4/20/11 – I made a cinnamon raisin version today. YUM!!! I’m sure this loaf won’t last long 🙂

*Edited 5/30/11 – I made a chocolate chip version last week (had to keep myself from eating it all in one sitting!). And I made a garlic version today. First savory version. Turned out well. I just cut out the honey and added extra salt and some garlic powder. I have also updated the recipe to be baking soda free so that it really is GAPS legal.

You can turn this into grain free pumpkin bread by replacing half of the nut butter with pureed pumpkin.

Nut Butter Bread

1 cup nut butter (or seed butter)
1/4 cup honey
3 eggs, separated
Pinch of salt
1 T vinegar or lemon juice

Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside. Combine nut butter, honey, egg yolks and salt. Fold in egg whites. Add the vinegar or lemon juice (and any other add-ins) and mix well, then pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake about 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven. It is done when a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

For a sweet bread, increase the honey to 1/2 cup and add cinnamon and whatever other spices you like, such as nutmeg or ground cloves. Adding more honey will extend the baking time so keep an eye on this. Cinnamon and raisins are great in this!

*To make it savory, reduce or omit the honey, and add a little more salt as well as crushed garlic, onion powder (if it is SCD-legal), and other savory spices such as thyme.

*To make pumpkin bread replace half of the nut butter with pureed pumpkin.

Navy Bean Hummus – Another Way to Sneak in Eggs (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

I’m just starting on my GAPS journey. And trying to figure out what I can/can’t eat. I LOVE beans…all kinds. And eat them all the time. I think I ate them every single day during my last 2 years of college 😛  I’ve always figured they were good for me…tons of fiber, right? Well, turns out that in reality most beans are very starchy…which is why they are so hard to digest…and so hard on my tummy. Most beans are not GAPS-legal. I was very disappointed to read that. Thankfully there is one kind of bean that is allowed – navy beans. It’s not a bean I’m used to eating. No particular reason why, just never really have. But over the past couple weeks I’ve been using them more. A couple weeks ago I tried making hummus with navy beans and chickpeas…a transition. It was very good. Justin didn’t even know I had used different beans. So this week I tried making hummus from just navy beans. The verdict…excellent!! I use my usual, basic recipe…even more scaled down/simple now. So easy to make. And so good. Just beans, EVOO and salt.

So, I have a safe, tasty hummus. But then I wondered if I could use my hummus as another place to sneak egg yolks into my diet. I tried it today. Tastes great! I couldn’t even tell it was there…aside from the color of course. Actually adding the egg yolk makes it look more like regular hummus 🙂  I only took a picture of it with the egg yolk added. So glad I tried this. It makes a very healthy and easy snack or lunch for me. Just pair it with some veggies and I’m all set. I think I’ll be making hummus quite often now. Protein, safe fiber and now eggs too. I just did one egg yolk in a samll dish of hummus this time. Maybe next time I’ll try 2 yolks. See how it goes.

I make a big batch without the egg. Then just add an egg yolk into the portion I’m eating at the time. I never actually measure anything. Just keep adding oil until it’s smooth. Then season to taste. I served it today with raw peppers and avocado. Sometimes I use slices/chunks of cheese for dipping. I also eat it plain.

This is linked to the Gluten Free Recipe Parade at Heavenly Homemakers, Grain Free Tuesday at Hella Delicious and Fat Tuesday.

Navy Bean (and egg) Hummus

2 cups cooked navy beans (soaked in water w/ whey overnight, then rinsed and cooked)
1/4 – 1/3 cup cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
unrefined sea salt to taste
(garlic or organic garlic powder to taste – optional)
raw egg yolk (optional)

In a food processor combine beans, salt and part of the oil. Blend, adding more oil until desired consistency. Check seasoning and adjust to taste.

Stir in raw egg yolk when serving for added nutrition.

Honey Roasted Peanuts

Back in high school and college I ate honey roasted peanuts all-the-time. Like every single day. I haven’t had them in a long time now. I know any kind of nut in a jar from the store would kill my tummy (MSG anyone?).

But this week I was making some crispy peanuts. And I thought it might be fun to try to make honey roasted peanuts. They turned out well.

This is another fun grain free snack to munch on that is GAPS friendly. They would also be good mixed in with regular popcorn, caramel corn or kettle corn.

Honey Roasted Peanuts

2 cups crispy peanuts
raw honey to coat (2-3 Tbsp.)
sea salt to taste (1-2 tsp.)

Mix nuts, honey and salt. Spread on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 250 for 10-15 minutes (check on them to make sure they don’t burn). Let cool completely. Break apart. Store in sealed container.