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BLAT Salad With Creamy Bacon Dressing (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

Last night for dinner we made grilled pizzas and BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) salads. It was kind of 2 meals combined since I had to adjust meal plans this week. Justin and Rebecca had pizza and a small salad. I had a big salad. I LOVE BLTs. Always have. The taste of bacon and tomato together is amazing. So this salad is a favorite for me. It combines all the flavors of a BLT into a salad. Plus I always add avocado to my BLTs these days. It pairs so well with the flavors. This is a simple salad. And you can really add anything extra you like. I added cucumbers and chicken in addition to the bacon, avocado and tomato. The dressing is also very simple. Since a BLT is traditionally made with mayo, I used my homemade mayo as the dressing. But I added some of the bacon grease/drippings. I think I could eat this just about every day 🙂  A wonderful end of summer meal when fresh tomatoes are in season. This is more of a concept than a recipe, but I don’t want to forget about it. So I’m posting it as a recipe.

BLAT Salad

Lettuce (whatever kind you like…we had green leaf and romaine)
Diced tomato
Cooked bacon, crumbled (grease reserved)
Diced avocado
Any other salad toppings you like (cucumber, chicken, crispy nuts, cheese, croutons, olives, etc.)

Put lettuce in serving bowls and add desired toppings. Top with bacon dressing.

Creamy Bacon Dressing

1/4 cup homemade mayo
1/8 – 1/4 cup bacon grease/drippings
salt to taste

Combine all ingredients and stir until blended well.

Zucchini Cakes (grain free, dairy free, GAPS-legal)

Everyone is posting zucchini recipes these days. And everyone is looking for ways to use zucchini right now…myself included. I recently saw a post on A Mom On A Mission for Zucchini Cakes. Looked easy and GAPS legal. I tried them last night. YUM!! I love them. Justin liked them too. As I expected Rebecca managed the one bite she was forced to try…too stringy for her 😛  No they don’t really taste stringy. She just has issues with it. These are super easy to make and so healthy. They are packed full of zucchini and eggs. Plus I fried them in lard…good way to get more healthy animal fat in my diet. I hope to make these again soon. They are a great snack to have on hand for me. And they would even work as a bread substitute. They would be great topped with pesto or spaghetti sauce. Very versatile. I used almond flour since I’m sensitive to coconut flour. So I increased the flour amount (coconut flour is much more absorbent than almond). Still worked great. I only did about 1/3 of a recipe and got 5 cakes out of it. 3 cups of drained zucchini takes a lot of zucchini 😛  I got about 1 cup from a few small zucchinis. I’ll post the recipe the way I made it. We used this as a side dish with ham and egg muffins. You could easily eat it as a main dish. It’s got protein, fat and veggies. I had the leftovers cold for breakfast today. So good!

Zucchini Cakes
~ 4-5 cakes

1 cup zucchini, shredded with water squeezed out
1 egg
1/4 – 1/3 cup almond flour (or 1/8 cup coconut flour)
Seasoning to taste (I used sea salt and garlic powder.)
Oil for frying (I used lard.)

Shred/grate zucchini (I used a microplane and grated it into a strainer). Squeeze with hands to get out as much liquid as possible until you have 1 cup of packed zucchini. Mix zucchini with remaining ingredients (adjust flour amount get the mixture thick enough). Heat oil in pan (I used a cast iron skillet). Scoop a glob of mixture out of bowl and flatten in pan. Repeat until mixture is gone. Fry until golden on each side. My mixture was quite moist, but they still fried up very nicely. The egg sets when they are fried.

Fresh Pea Soup (egg free, dairy free, grain free, GAPS legal)

Now that I’m doing GAPS I’m trying to get more creative with soups since eating chicken or beef and veggie soup all the time gets pretty boring. So recently I started doing pureed soups. Wish I would have done it sooner! So good. Last week I made cold beet soup. Yesterday I made beet, carrot and zucchini soup. I also made fresh pea soup for dinner. I used Ina Garten’s recipe as my base for ratios. But since I can’t have onions (for me or Abram) or dairy and don’t have mint my recipe is just peas and broth 😛  This is about as easy as it gets. And we all liked it. Even Rebecca. She ate her whole bowl!! That is really saying something. She gags on split pea soup. And doesn’t like many pureed foods. Definitely something I’ll make again. It’s a great, light summer soup. You could easily stir in some cooked chicken for more texture/to make it more filling. I added some avocado chunks to my bowl. Next time I think I’ll try pureeing some avocados right in to make it even creamier. The other nice thing is that you can prep this ahead. I made it about an hour before dinner (when I had a few minutes while Abram was sleeping), then just heated it a little more right before serving. I served it with grilled cheese (for Rebecca and Justin) and grain free zucchini muffins. The muffins went really well with it. This would make a great cold soup as well. Make it when you have time and stick it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat! I made a small batch…enough for our dinner and one leftover bowl.

Fresh Pea Soup

2 cups homemade chicken broth
1 (16 oz.) bag organic frozen peas
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Cook peas in broth in medium pan for about 5 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender in the pan or in a regular blender of food processor. Season to taste. Serve warm or cold. You may stir in sour cream or creme fraiche or top with avocado.

Pummus (grain free, dairy free, egg free, GAPS-legal)

Pummus | Homemade Dutch Apple PieI love both pesto and hummus. And I eat quite a bit of both lately…great snacks that keep me satisfied and away from sweets. I’ve even recently started eating them for bedtime snack. Last night I had this with sliced cucumbers.

After having to make pesto without cheese I wanted to find a way to boost the nutrition and flavor.

Then I thought…why not combine the two dips I love into one? So I did…YUM!!! Pesto hummus…pummus 🙂  So good, so healthy and so easy to make.

I’ve been using peas lately to make my pesto since they are easier on my tummy than raw spinach (plus raw spinach has oxalates). And I like the bit of sweetness from them. You could use any combination of greens you like. Maybe next time I’ll add some of our basil. You can use any kind of nuts. And you could even leave the nuts out. It depends if you like to have more of a pesto taste or a hummus taste. This is so versatile.

This is great to have on hand for snacks. It is a great way to get more vegetables in your diet that are easy to digest. And even better, its a great way to get healthy fat in your diet. You can even mix egg yolks into pummus for more nutrition.

Do you like pesto? Do you like hummus? Put them together and try a batch of pummus!Pummus | Homemade Dutch Apple Pie

 

Pummus (Pesto/pea-sto Hummus)

3/4 cup peas/spinach/basil (any greens you like)
1 cup navy beans (soaked and cooked)
1/2 – 3/4 cup cold pressed EVOO (depends how thick you like it)
unrefined sea salt to taste
garlic powder or fresh garlic to taste
1/4 – 1/2 cup crispy nuts (optional)
(egg yolk)

Combine all of the ingredients (except egg yolk) in a food processor or blender and process until well blended. Add more seasoning and EVOO to get desired taste/texture. Add egg yolk to individual serving if desired.

Fermented Vegetables (GAPS-legal)

I finally got around to making some fermented veggies yesterday. I followed the directions in the GAPS book. It doesn’t give quantities, but it tells the method. I used cabbage, beet and carrot. GAPS also suggests cauliflower, but I’m avoiding that right now. I hope I do ok with the carrot in this form. It was super easy to do. I made 3 quarts. It takes about  week to ferment. I’m anxious to try this when it’s done! This is a great probiotic food that will aid in digestion. The veggies and liquid should be added to your diet gradually because of the probiotics.

Fermented Vegetables
makes ~ 3 qts.

1/2 large green or red cabbage
2 large carrots
1 large beet root
cauliflower (I didn’t use this)
salt
garlic (I just added some garlic powder)
3/4 cup kefir whey
water

Chop veggies into bite size pieces or shreds. Season with salt to taste. Add chopped garlic or garlic powder. Mix. Distribute evenly between 3 wide mouth quart jars. Add 1/4 cup whey to each jar. Fill with water so that all of the veggies are submerged. Seal jar. Let ferment on the counter for 1 week before transferring to the refrigerator.

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.

Tater Tots

I also made tater tots for dinner last night. It’s a recipe I saw recently on Heavenly Homemakers. I grew up eating tater tots a lot. But I haven’t had one in many many years. And this sounded like a fun finger food to go with our chicken nuggets. These are pretty simple to make. And they turned out quite well. We all liked them (I tried to be good and only had 2…since I’m avoiding potatoes…but I at least had to taste them). This was the first time I used palm shortening for frying. That worked really well! Gives a great flavor. I’ll have to do that more often. My potatoes didn’t really shred in the food processor. It was mostly mush. But it still worked just fine. Next time I’ll try to cook the potatoes sooner so that I can refrigerate them for a while before shredding. I made a pretty big batch. We ate some with dinner, and I froze the rest. I’ll be serving some for dinner tonight. I’ll see how it goes to bake them in the oven after being frozen. Overall a great recipe. And yet another healthy convenience food to have on hand. I love that my daughter has never had a chicken nugget or tater tot out of a box. She doesn’t even know they exist 🙂  If it comes from the freezer…it’s still homemade. And you can serve them with fermented ketchup to make them even healthier!

 

Homemade Tater Tots

3-4 medium russett potatoes (I used our red skin potatoes from our garden)
Oil of choice (Palm Shortening or Expeller Pressed Coconut Oil)
Sea Salt

First, scrub and bake your potatoes. Allow the potatoes to cool. Peel the potatoes.

Chop the peeled and cooled potatoes and throw them in a food processor to shred finely. I’d recommend using the “pulse” setting if you have one.

Next, heat some oil in a skillet (medium heat). You just need enough oil to barely cover the bottom of the skillet.

Use a small cookie scoop and pack in the shredded potatoes to make a nice firm ball. (If you don’t really pack it in, the potatoes will just fall apart when you place the ball in the skillet.) Gently set the ball into the skillet. Allow it to cook thoroughly on one side before carefully turning it over. Press the ball down slightly when you turn it. Each side takes about 3-4 minutes to cook.

Remove tater tots once they look nice and crispy and golden brown. Sprinkle with desired amount of sea salt.

Serve right away or cool and freeze on baking pan.

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

One of the first recipes I “posted” on my blog was beer bread. I guess I never actually posted the recipe…just a picture and a link to my cousin’s wife’s blog. Her blog is now by invite only, so that doesn’t do much good 😛  I haven’t made this bread in a long time because it uses white self rising flour. Not something I use anymore. Then the other day I thought it sounded good and wondered if I could modify it to make it healthier. So last night I gave it a shot. And it worked!! All 3 of us loved it. It is one of the easiest breads you can make. Rebecca practically made it by herself…and she’s 2. So glad I gave it a try. It tastes great and it’s nice to have a recipe on hand for bread that you can throw together in 5 minutes. I’ll post both versions of the recipe. I’ll definitely be using the whole wheat version from now on. The dough is very sticky and takes a little work to stir. I also sprinkle some sea salt on top of the dough before I bake it. I love that little salty bite of the crust. Any kind of beer will do…but it will alter the flavor. When we have beer in the house it’s usually a dark beer. We’ve also used Woodchuck cider before. That was good. I have yet to attempt making it with root beer. Not sure if that works or not. And maybe at some point I’ll experiment with soaking the dough or using sourdough. But for now at least I have a whole wheat version.

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

(white flour/non-NT version)
3 cups self-rising flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 bottle/can any flavor beer
——————————————
(whole wheat version…the one I use)
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 1/2 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
3 Tbsp. cane sugar or sucanat
1 bottle/can any flavor beer

Mix all ingredients until dough forms. Add dough to a buttered medium loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 min. at 350 degrees until golden brown and baked through.

Green and Yellow Deviled Eggs (Packers Eggs)

Since my husband is from WI and is a huge GB Packers fan…and they were in (and won!) the Super Bowl  yesterday I wanted to make something fun for the occasion. I decided to make yellow and green deviled eggs. I made regular deviled eggs for the yellow. And I added avocado for green. Again, I didn’t really measure anything. I’ll try to give a rough estimate. I only made 4 eggs total. You can increase the recipe for a large group. I ate leftovers for breakfast this morning. Yum! Deviled eggs are good any time of day 🙂

Green Deviled Eggs

2 hardboiled eggs
1/4 – 1/2 ripe avocado
1 Tbsp. mayo (preferable homemade)
salt to taste

Yellow Deviled Eggs

2 hardboiled eggs
2 Tbsp. mayo (preferably homemade)
1 – 2 tsp. mustard
salt to taste

Split eggs in half. Put whites in a serving dish. Put yolks in a food processor (I use a mini processor for such small quantities). Process for a few seconds. Add remaining ingredients. Blend. Adjust to taste. Fill egg whites with yolk mixture. Chill.

*Note – the green eggs will turn color after a while because of the avocado. So don’t make them too far in advance.

Grain Free Salmon Cakes

Yesterday I wanted something light for lunch since I knew we’d have a bigger, snacky dinner. And I’m trying to get more seafood into my diet right now. So I decided to make salmon cakes. I’ve made them before…but a recipe that takes some extra work and prep ahead. I wanted something easy. So I threw these together using what I had on hand. Simple, quick, healthy. And delicious!! All 3 of us liked them. And I’m excited to eat the leftovers. I cooked a couple salmon filets to use in these. You could used canned salmon. I didn’t measure anything. But I’ll try to give rough estimates of what I added.

My daughter LOVES these (and she can be picky about fish). So if you are trying to get your kids to eat more healthy seafood give these a try.

Salmon Cakes
makes ~ 7 cakes

2 (6 oz.) salmon filets, cooked OR 1 (14 oz.) can salmon
1 egg (optional)
1/4 cup mayo (preferably homemade)
1/2 – 1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1/2 – 1 tsp. sea salt

1/4 cup – 1/2 cup almond flour and/or coconut flour

Crumble salmon in a bowl. Add egg, mayo and seasoning. Mix well. Form into balls. Roll in flour and flatten slightly. At this point you can cover and refrigerate them (helps to firm them up/hold them together before cooking. and allows you to prep them ahead) or cook them immediately.

To cook, heat a large skillet and add butter, coconut oil, palm shortening and/or lard. Cook salmon cakes in oil/butter for about 5-7 min. per side.

Serve plain or with tartar sauce (homemade mayo mixed with a little sweet pickle relish).