The World In A Pot

Complete Protein Raspberry Muffins (Maximum-Plant-Protein) Gluten Free and Dairy Free

2013-03-04T23:10:00.002-08:00

Finally, this muffin recipe has been a long work in progress so I'm thrilled to unveil it! This is a COMPLETE PROTEIN muffin folks, not just high protein but a complete one. Many of us are misguided when it comes to protein. Some of us think that only meat provides us with the protein we need but this is untrue. It is true that meat gives us the most protein in one sitting, but it's not necessarily our only options. I've come to realize that I'm a protein-per-meal kinda girl, you know, like those Paleo folks, without the quack theory behind it. Yep, I think it's a quack diet, philosophically, but I do agree that proteins are essential, and are so at every meal. But here's the thing, I'm not going to consume animal flesh at every meal, how sustainable is that? We're not here to eat the planet out of all of the animal, can you imagine if everyone ate meat at every meal? That would kill all of the animals pretty quickly.

There is a solution: plant proteins. They have gotten a bad rap because they aren't 'complete' but you actually don't need to 'complete' them at every meal, they only have to complete each other throughout the day. Personally, I'd rather make sure that I'm eating complete proteins at every meal. Here's how: Nuts, legumes and grains, eaten in combinations together creates a complete protein. Most of us don't know that. It's as simple as eating a small handful of nuts along with a small bowl of oatmeal in one sitting. "Boom", your complete proteins are consumed! But, grains these days have also had a bad rap, and I agree, mostly. Grains are slightly poisonous eaten 'just as they are', but with some soaking, and sprouting, they become digestible, and healthy! Now most grain flours are not soaked but by heating these foods, most of your evil lectins and phytates (the bad guys) are roasted and gone. (Not all of them are gone, but a good majority are). I still restrict myself to only two grains: occasional rice and oats. I love oats, I simply can't get enough of them, maybe because they have the tiniest amount of gluten in them that most celiacs can eat them without any repercussion. Now that's an awesome grain. No gluten and I'm in love! So, combine my love of complex carbs of oats, with some high protein nuts and you've got yourself a complete protein muffin for snacks. Add in some raspberries and oh la la, I'm a happy lady.

Complete Protein Raspberry Muffins (Maximum-Plant-Protein) *Gluten Free and Dairy Free*
By Suzanne

1 and 1/4 Cup Almonds
1/3 C. Coconut flour (You will not be able to taste this in the recipe)
1/2 C. Oat flour
1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Powder OR 1/2 tsp Baking Soda*
1/2 tsp Himalayan/Sea salt

In a seperate bowl, mix:

3 Eggs
1/2 C. Honey or Maple Syrup
1/3 C. Coconut oil, melted
1/3 C. Coconut milk, full fat (or greek yogurt or sour cream for dairy options)
3/4 C. frozen raspberries or strawberries or any berry you like!
1 tsp Vanilla

*If using Baking Soda, add 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-27 minutes.

Notes: -Not suitable for omitting frozen berries as they add moisture to the recipe. I'm working on a chocolate chip recipe that will be posted later.
           -I like to ground whole almonds in my blender rather than buying almond flour, so if using store bought flour, make sure to pack it in your measuring cup. You will get course meal in your blender but if you like the bran texture, you'll like it.
           -Scoop 1/4 Cup of dough into each cupcake liner.
           -Store muffins in air-tight container on counter. They will get more dense in the fridge.

This recipe makes 1 dozen large muffins!!

ENJOY!!

Ladybugs and Strawberries, It's a Birthday Party!

2013-01-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

I love making birthday cakes! Correction- I love decorating birthday cakes. Baking is not so much fun, but decorating makes my blood come alive. This cake took me about four hours to decorate, mind you I do take my time! It's great to have a plan for each layer but do just go with the flow because it never will end up how you planned it.
For instance, I did not plan on making pink rosettes to frame the bottom of the cake, I did this to hide the big gap between the green icing and the cake from the plastic wrap that I had placed on the cake stand to protect it from getting too messy. You have to improvise when you're an amature.
Here are the steps to making a three layered birthday cake:

Bake all four layers of cake the day before the party.

Start in the morning! I baked two 9 inch round cakes for the first layer with my Lucky Vanilla Cake Recipe. DO NOT DOUBLE THE RECIPE! Bake cakes individually and separately. Always do this when baking from scratch. The cake chemistry changes when you double, in other words, it ruins them. I still had to serve it to my friends unfortunately, but hey, I'm learning more and more every time!

I baked one recipe of my Lucky Vanilla Cake for a deep 6 inch round cake pan (I used a cheesecake pan) for the second layer.

I used the remaining batter from the second 6 inch layer cake to make the ladybug cake. I formed a slightly smaller circle shape with aluminum foil inside of my 6 inch cheesecake pan.

Make all icing the night before the party! And color all of your icing. Measure at least 3 cups of icing/buttercream for green, 2-3 cups for pink, 1 for red. A tiny bit for white and I bought a disgusting pre-made tube of black icing for the ladybug details.

I layered the cakes with fresh strawberries and jam the night before and wrapped my cakes thoroughly with plastic wrap and left them on the counter overnight. Do NOT refrigerate~ at least that's my opinion anyway. It makes the cakes denser, I like it fluffy.

Measure your dowels the night before to be ready to assemble your cake first thing in the morning. Plan for four hours before the party to focus on the cake, otherwise, do it the night before.

I made a sugar free icing for the cake that I'm pretty proud of, but it's not quite ready to go public yet..it will come soon!

It was such a fun party and I loved organizing it!

Here are a few other things I did for the party:

Cake Pops!!! Is it a toddler party without cake pops? Honestly, I hate them, I hate making a million of them, but they're cute after all.

And Ladybug pins- These were really cute and it was fun to make with my mom and friend. I don't think I would have made them without their entertainment and help. I also made some ribbons that my daughter really liked.

And of course, it's not quite a party without a few decorations. I made these while watching a movie, so it didn't seem to take much of my time. Gluing the letters on ribbon with hot glue was really fast and easy. I will probably do this again.

Well, I'm glad to be back after such a long absence. I'm looking forward to all of the wonders that 2013 has to offer~ Happy New Year!!

Butterfly Cake Decor on Lemony Hell Cake

2012-09-05T13:54:00.002-07:00

Decorative Cake Decor on Lemony Hell Cake

I call this the lemony hell cake only because it was pure hell trying to make a lemon flavoured italian meringue buttercream. I will probably not make this icing again, but aside from this, this cake was fun to make!

My sister loves butterflies so I decided to use it as the cake motif for her birthday.

Decorative Cake Decor- homemade!

-Draw the butterfly/image you want to make on regular paper with a black marker.
-Place a piece of wax paper on top of the image.
-Melt about 1 cup of wilton's white candy melts then put the chocolate mixture into a piping bag with a medium sized round tip.
-Squeeze the liquid candy melt onto the wax paper, tracing the image. Do it quickly.
-As soon as you are done, let the white chocolate solidify slightly, but not too much, just enough so you can bend it without breaking and without having the chocolate drip. I waiting maybe 10-20 seconds before placing it inside a hard covered book to let cool completely.

Let sit for a good 10 minutes, then gently peel off waxed paper (be careful, it breaks easily)- and then Voila!

For a nice lemony flavoured cake follow my Lucky Vanilla Cake recipe and add 2 tbs squeezed lemon juice. Reduce vanilla to 1/2 tsp. For best results, wrap cake in plastic wrap and airtight container overnight on counter. I prefer to not refrigerate this cake, it looses it's spongeness in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Lucky Vanilla Cake and a First birthday Party (Gluten-Free)

2012-06-25T15:39:00.009-07:00

I promised myself I would make birthday cakes much simpler ever since my Elmo cake saga. Though this experience was simpler, it still was A LOT of work. But I keep learning and every time I make a new creative cake, I learn ways to make it easier for the next time. This time around, I finally made a cake frosting I can be proud of, a sugar-free birthday cake buttercream frosting!! The icing you see here, in this picture is completely sugar free. It's made with honey and stevia and NO, it does not taste like bitter stevia nor does it taste like the distinct honey taste. It's sweet and smooth, just like your ordinary American buttercream frosting. I also finally, after a year of trial and error, nailed my gluten free vanilla cake. So, this post is special. Two special recipes to share with you. Although I might post my buttercream frosting recipe in a couple of weeks when I have more time to show you more examples of what it can do.

I made this vanilla cake so many times. Like 30 times. Maybe more. Some people call it perfectionism, some call it dedication and others call it straight out CRAZY. (husband M). I tend to agree with all of these, especially the latter one since sometimes it takes a little dash of crazy to make things work out, right? So after making Elmo, I was going to call my vanilla cake recipe Lucky 18 Vanilla Cake because I had made 18 cakes at the time, but now it's more like 33, and Lucky 33 Vanilla Cake doesn't sound good. But both are better than my original title F*cking Vanilla cake which was actually my first choice after throwing out x amout of expensive failed cake attempts.

I also have to mention my son. Smiley baby has just turned one, so he's now Smiley Toddler and my other toddler is now a kid, Kid N.
These kids grow up fast.
And what a nice little party we had for Smiley Toddler. I love kid parties! I love getting all our friends together to catch up on life and watch our little ones play (and sometimes) fight together.

Life is good.

Please read recipe and all instructions thoroughly.

Lucky Vanilla Cake (Gluten Free)
by Suzanne Laird

Dry ingredients:
1 cup white rice flour (powdered flour from asian market)
1/2 cup potato starch
1/3 cup coconut flour*
1/4 cup tapioca
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xuanthum gum
1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup and 2 tbs organic sugar
4 large eggs, seperated
1/4 cup oil of choice (not olive)
3/4 cup milk (or 1/2 cup coconut milk with 1/4 cup water)
1 tbs vanilla
2 tsp **glycerin (optional, but well worth it)
1/4 tsp Stevia (glycerin based, NOT alcohol based)

Beat egg whites until they form peaks then stream oil into it, while whisking. Set aside. Beat softened butter until fluffy, add sugar. Add egg yolks and beat mixture until batter is smooth. Add milk, vanilla, glycerin and stevia. Beat for a solid 10 minutes to dissolve sugar. Add dry ingredients a spoonful at a time, incorporating slowly (you don't want to flour to puff up into the air). When all ingredients have been blended, beat batter until well mixed. Add egg whites and oil mixture and beat on low setting until smooth.

Outline and cut a circle out of parchment paper then line 9 inch round pan with it. Pour batter and smooth with spoon.
Bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes, depending on your oven.

Remove when springy in the middle and golden brown. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then remove cake from pan. Let cool on wire rack with clean dish towel covering the entire cake.
Wrap with plastic wrap once cooled and place in fridge for frosting. Will keep for a good 5 days in the fridge.
*UPDATE: I prefer not the refrigerate this cake as it becomes dense when cold, I prefer it light and fluffy so instead I wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it on the counter.

*Do NOT substitute another flour for coconut flour! The amount of coconut flour in this recipe is undetectable in taste. It's a beautiful flour that will give this cake a great taste and texture without the strong coconut taste. I promise, anyone who hates coconut will NOT taste it in this cake. Also, you should know that coconut flour is difficult to cook with, all measurements are made to suit the proper ratios of this cake using coconut flour and any changes can result in a Bad cake. Every ingredient in this recipe has been tested so trust me that this recipe works. Also do NOT substitute Agave or liquid sugars for the granulated organic sugar. It will not work.

** Glycerin is an option, but a nice one. You can buy it at Michael's. Make sure it's vegetable based and edible. Ask a clerk to make sure you are buying the right product.

This was such a cute cake to make. I made a 2-layer cake as the base for the bear then place a single long dowel in the centre of the cake base to pierce through the bear to hold it in place. A few notes about this cake:
Release this cake from the wilton cuddly bear pan was tricky. Half of the back of the head detached itself because it was stuck to the pan. It was easily remedied with frosting used as glue, then the entire bear was sealed with plastic wrap, returned to the cake pan then frozen in the freezer. Then next day, when I had defrosted it in the fridge, I cut a piece of bbq squewer and placed it in the back of the head to pierce the glued-on (with frosting) pieced of broken bear head to the intact bear. It stayed in place as was perfect for the party! I kept the bear in the fridge for as long as possible to prevent the frosting from melting and thus having the bear fall apart.

Also, if using the wilton bear cake pan, bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes and double the recipe. Don't use all of it, follow instructions and use 7 cups of batter.

I also made one chocolate layer of cake for the cake base, since everybody loves chocolate. I used my I Love You Chocolate Cupcake recipe and added 1/2 Cup sour cream.

Do not double the recipe- bake separately.

This wilton bear cake requires 3 cups of buttercream frosting to cover entirely and the 2-layer, 8 inch cake base Cake requires 3 cups of frosting if using a crumb coat (which I highly recommend!). A crumb coat is a thin coat of frosting applied on the refrigerated cake to prevent crumbs from appearing on the final coat of frosting. You can see a picture of a crumb coat on my Elmo post here.

Here's a close-up of my new American icing/buttercream frosting. I will post it as soon as I have more pictures of this delicious sugar-free frosting.

It was a blast making this for my one year old son. I hope you enjoy it too.

Lots of love,

Suzanne

I've submitted this cake for the birthday Cake challenge over at Daily Dietribe. Check it out!

Gluten Free Cheesecake and Chocolate Cake Pops for a Wedding

2012-05-28T23:07:00.002-07:00

I made these cake pops for a wedding. It was my first large-scale cake pop making so I was a bit nervous, but I'm so glad I did it. The experience was worth it all.

It was a crazy Sunday when I was thinking up crazy schemes. This particular Sunday I decided that making cake pops as a side business would be a great idea. I then thought of the wedding I was going to a month later and what gift I would get. I put those thoughts together and out came my idea. Make cake pops for their wedding! It would give me experience making a lot of cake pops for someone else and it would be a nice gift since I knew they would appreciate gluten free cake pops. To my lucky surprise, the bride went for it! Ask, and you shall receive I tell you! 100 cake pops, here I come!

So on went the saga of making gluten free cake pops from scratch, for a super elegant event. Yikes! I was in over my head but with some test batches and an eye, or mind for baking, it was pretty straight forward. The hardest part of it all was coating them with the chocolate candy coatings and making the stripes. Once I figured that out it seemed easy as pie. It's not complicated making cake pops but it is very time consuming when making everything from scratch. And if you're making it for someone who has Celiac disease you have to make sure you do make everything from scratch and to read your labels! I thought it would also be nice to make it all from scratch for a wedding because there's something more 'classy' when making it that way rather then from a tub of crappy frosting with 30 unknown ingredients. So off the the chocolate shop I went...

For the Chocolate Cake pops: (I made two cakes to ensure I had extras)

-2 cakes of my I love you chocolate cupcake recipe. I added sour cream to the batter to make it more moist. (about 1/2 cup per cake). Bake the cakes, let cool completely then crumble with your hands or electric mixer.

-Since taste was of utmost importance (being a wedding and all), I made and ol' fashioned American Icing. I then added about 2 cups of icing to the cooled, crumbled cakes.

- I melted a dark chocolate bar of high quality from a health food store, making sure it was not made in a wheat facility. Like Green & Blacks for example. I poured it into the cake pop mixture and blended it by hand.

-Scoop 1 tablespoon of the dough then roll into a ball. Do that 50 times. Or however many you want. Remember that 1 cake will make about 45-55 cake pops. I only doubled the recipe to ensure I had enough to make plenty of mistakes! So if you want to make half the recipe, remember to also cut my icing and melted chocolate amounts.

-Refrigerate until ready to dip.

-Melt you chocolate waffers in a hot water bath or double boiler. I prefer this over microwaving it. Also, I prefer to get waffers from a specialty chocolate shop over the wilton brand candy waffers. I find the coating to be smoother with the higher quality products.

-Dip the end of your lollipop sticks into the chocolate then poke it in your cake ball about 3/4 of the way. I like to measure a stick to my freshly made cake pop to see how far into the cake ball it's in. I made the mistake of making 50 cake pops too shallow. The balls fell off the stick when I tried to coat them, so make sure to put them in 3/4!

-Refrigerate for about 10 minutes, not too long. Dip balls into your chocolate, then rest into a foam block (poke bottom of lolli stick in foam so the ball is straight up to dry). If you want your pops to rest straight up, place your almost dry pop on parchment paper (on top of cookie sheet) to mold a flat bottom.

And voila! you're done. Unless you have sprinkles or other decorations you want to make.

For more detailed information on making cakepops, go to Bakerella's website. She's the inventor of these cute little party favours.

I wish I took pictures during the making of this baking project, I was just too busy and my battery was dead. It would have been nice to show you pictures of them all in rows on the cookie sheets. Anyway, this is what I have for you, the finished product.

I also made a cheesecake cakepop, which was my favourite one. It was covered in white chocolate coating. I first tried using only cheesecake filling like other recipes have mentioned but I found this to not work at all. So I decided to stablelize the cheesecake filling with spongecake which worked like a charm. I added graham cracker style cookies to make the cakepop taste like you have the whole cake in your mouth in one bite. Here's how I make it.

For the cheesecake cake pop: (makes 100 cakepops, easy).

-make a 9" gluten free cheesecake without the crumb bottom.

-make a gluten free white cake. I used my infamous vanilla cake that i've yet to post...

-crumble 10 S'moreables (Gluten-free) and about half the white cake into the frozen cheesecake filling. blend all with your hands and roll into balls.

-Refrigerate, then coat with chocolate.

I'm thinking of possibly starting a little side business, like I mentioned before, but i'm not sure if it's worth it yet. It took so much time making this. Of course, I was figuring things out but still, it might not be worth my time for the money these little suckers are worth, but i'm thinking about it. If you're ever looking for someone to make you some gluten free cake pops in the Vancouver area, send me an email. I might just want to take it on.

It was really nice to have Husband M and I working together. Sure I did almost all of the work but he was a great helper. Especially with tying little white bows.

And of course, I wish all the best to the beautiful couple who had an amazing wedding. They definitely were radiating the love all night and I know they will have an amazing future filled with love, happiness and adventure, cuz life is nothing but a crazy ride.

Suzanne

Dairy health, myth or fact?

2012-04-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

I am absolutely determined to have a better day today. Yes, it's early. A little too early but that's okay because Smiley Baby is still sleeping and Lovely Toddler is playing somewhat not-too-noisely by herself. Awesome. This is a really good start to my day. Yesterday was not so good. I woke up to two screaming kids wanting to get out of their jailhouse rooms. My god I can't stand that wake-up call. But today is better, I can feel it! I might take a day off of obsessing about food and just enjoy what the day has to offer. Hmmm. Now I have Lovely Toddler whining for my attention. Gotta go! So to write this up quickly:

Here's what I thought I should share with you today. The Big Milk Myth. I came across this and need to share it. Why? because I've been suspicious of milk pretty much my entire life. I never cared for it as a child, teen or adult. And as an adult who does research in the health food world you'll see that almost every single Naturopath and associated websites will say it's not good. Some people can tolerate it, but most of us can't. Research shows that countries who consume less milk than countries that do have less cases of osteoporosis. (Now that's a mouthful of consonants!) Also, if you've seen the movie Food Inc. you might want to think twice before drinking milk from those cows who just aren't in the best physical and mental shape. I've read a lot of supporting research but I never collected them so now I'm left with my opinion with no back-up ready for you, except for this one article linked below. It's easy to find information on the internet, but this is the one that I wanted to share with the skeptics..

I just never liked milk and I don't care to push it onto my children either. I much prefer to give them unsweetened Almond Milk, or water. I sometimes will buy organic Cow's milk, but not often. I tried to give Lovely Toddler some cold herbal tea but it didn't go over well but that was over a year ago so maybe I should try it again. Also, Trader Joe's also has a new coconut milk in carton so I will have to try it out (assuming other ingredients are healthy). And now that Lovely Toddler is growing up a little, I'm also starting to occasionaly give her some not-from-concentrate, no-sugar added,organic blueberry juice. I do give her lots of yogurt, yes, it's dairy, but it has loads of beneficial bacteria for the gut and a lot of people who are lactose intolerant can tolerate yogurt. And I love cheese. Damn it's so good. I wish it wasn't soooo tasty. I eat it. BUT, me and my hunky husband M are soon going on a 'leaky gut' diet to try to heal some of our symptoms so cheese will be cut right out as it should be but I do need to have that goal in order to sacrifice such a delicious food. I can cut out chocolate easy, but cheese and tomatoes are almost impossible! Anyway, to get back on track...

This is a huge topic and I know I'm not covering it well, but here's the article I wanted to highlight: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/harvard-to-usda-check-out-the-healthy-eating-plate-201109143344

What I think is amazing is that there's someone credible out there ready to say "Milk is not necessary" for a healthy diet. Now I have to say, not everyone can tolerate all those grains either, but hey, it's a good start!

What do you think?

Deviled Easter Eggs and a Late Lunch

2012-04-08T22:37:00.003-07:00

Deviled Easter Eggs

I love Easter but every year, a week before Easter, I forget that. Then about two nights before the Big Day, I'm reminded how I love to stuff plastic eggs with fun sugar-free treats, wrap them in crepe paper, tie and curl ribbon, stuff baskets and hide it all. It's sooo fun! And super rewarding. It might be a lot of work to wrap all 20 eggs, but hey, my kid is only going to be two years old once. I stuffed the eggs with what ALL toddlers adore: stickers. I also stuffed a few with strawberries and wrapped some dried fruit bites in coloured candy wrappers. I added markers and small toys in the baskets. My grandma and mother both sent a box of puzzles, cuddly toys and balls for the kids so I wrapped them up too and added it to the loot. (I'll post about alternative egg hunt ideas in further detail next year.)

After a super morning, my In-laws and friends (well my cousin and her boyfriend to be exact) all came over for a mid-late afternoon Easter Lunch. It was sooo much easier to prepare a cold lunch than hot turkey dinner, and almost just as enjoyable. I prepared my platters the day before except for my fruit and veggies. Not pictured are the sandwhiches and spreads I prepared. Here are a few pics of the days edibles:

Simple yet effective veggie and fruit platter.

Gluten-free Tinkyada Veggie Spiral Noodles in a Pasta Salad

Deviled Easter Eggs.

I was colouring eggs with my Lovely Toddler when this idea struck me, real easter eggs, deviled. How fun! These are coloured with natural dyes that you can buy at your local health food store or online. Follow your favourite deviled egg recipe and add colouring. Make sure to use white eggs instead of (healthy) Organic Free Run eggs for a whiter palate for your food colouring. This is a rare occasion where I suggest using a food that's not the best choice in order to achieve the look. I'm sure you could use the free run eggs, just note that the yolks will be darker so your end results will be darker. I love these! It's definitely a new party trick I'll be using more often.

I simply added about 1-2 big soup spoons full of mayonaise, a small squirt of mustard, one chopped green onion, salt and pepper. Easy.

Mmmm...I've also been tinkering in my kitchen with new raw chocolate recipes and decide to serve my guests with my latest test batch. I still haven't mastered my recipe yet so i'm not ready to share it but I will as soon as i'm confident in my experiment. It's been a real pleasure playing with chocolate, I mean a bad batch is never really THAT bad, all chocolate is edible after all :-)

I bought these cute molds at the chocolate shop and will keep using them all year. Chocolate bunnies are yummy and cute anytime of the year.

I also wrapped a few in colourful foil.

Again, Easter is fun!!

Hope you had a great one this year!

Suzanne

(Raw) Chocolate Dessert Bars

2012-03-27T21:28:00.002-07:00

I'm sitting here finally at the computer (Husband M is away) and I thought it would be a great time to catch up on some blogging. But I can't do it without eating a treat so tonight it's a raw vanilla ice cream. I made it about 6 months ago (seriously!) and it's still sitting in my freezer. It was too sweet when I first made it but I couldn't bring myself to throw it out, I mean it's raw which means expensive nuts. Plus, it was just a little too sweet, nothing really horribly wrong with it. I just haven't wanted to eat it all these months. But tonight I was desperate. And holy it is good! The sweetness has faded in all these months and it's just perfect. Of course I had to scoop the freezer burnt top off. I guess you can freeze raw nuts for awhile after all. And all this goodness is leading me to finally post this little dessert treat that has become a favourite around this house. It's kind of like a Nanaimo bar and kind of like haystacks, and kind of like brownies. If you mix it all up, you get this. And it's healthy :-)

So i'll just cut to the chase.

Chocolate Dessert Bars (Raw)

Raw Chocolate Crust:

2 Cups Almonds

1/2 Cup Walnuts

12 Medjool Dates

3 tbs cacao/cocoa powder

1 tbs Maple Syrup

2 tsp water

Filling:

6 Medjool Dates

1/4 Cup water to blend with dates

1 Cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut

1/2 Cup raw cashews

3 tbs Maple syrup (or honey or Agave)

1 tbs Coconut butter (Artisana brand)

2 tbs Coconut Oil

6 drops Stevia

Mochalicious Chocolate Sauce

1 Cup raw cocoa/cacao powder
*1/2 Cup organic pure Maple Syrup
2 tbs water
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch himalayan or celtic salt
1/2 Cup melted coconut oil

*3 tbs Coconut Milk

*1/2 tsp Decafeinated Fine ground coffee
Stevia to taste

* All starred ingredients are NOT raw. I altered my Simplicity Raw Chocolate Sauce to suite my taste and I have to say this recipe is awesome. If you want a truly raw sauce follow instructions below or alter ingredients: Maple syrup- agave, coconut milk- water, omit coffee.

Directions:

Raw Chocolate Crust

Mix nuts in a food processor first then add dates. Blend well, then add other ingredients. If you have a small food processor, you might have to blend half then blend the other half of the recipe then mix together in a bowl. You will have to also take the cover off and move ingredients down with a spoon if you find your 'dough' isn't blending anymore.

When it all looks like top soil, your dough is ready.

Sprinkle some shredded coconut on your pan to prevent crust from sticking.

Gently press your crust dough into an 8" by 8" square pan.

Refrigerate.

Make filling:

Blend pitted dates in a blender with water. Blend until smooth. Blend all other ingredients except for the shredded coconut. You may have to pulse a few times to get it going. Add the shredded coconut to the runny mixture after blending. Pour filling onto crust and set in fridge for a couple of hours.

Add a top layer of chocolate sauce.

You can use Simplicity Raw Chocolate Frosting and just add 5 tbs water, or, as I did, add 2 tbs water, 3 tbs Coconut milk (not raw) and 1/2 tsp of decafeinated fine ground coffee to the base of Simplicity Chocolate frosting. I also reduced the sweetener (I used 1/2 Cup Maple syrup) and added a few drops of stevia. Yumm!! It should set quickly since the bottom layers are going to be cold but I find that it is best to cut the bars one day after making this dish. You can cut it sooner, but I find the top chocolate sauce to set better after a full night in the fridge, and is good for 3 days. Should be gone by day 4, it starts to taste stale by then. (but it's still edible and we loved it till the bitter end.)

I hope you'll enjoy this one. It's a recipe from my heart~

Leftovers

Holiday Sugar Cookies (Gluten-Free)

2012-03-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Holiday Sugar Cookies (Gluten-Free)

These cookies are great for any occasion. I made them into heart shapes for Valentines, but you can make any shape of cookies with this recipe.

So. Want to see stress? i'll give you stress. It comes in this form:

This is my staircase. I have trouble walking on the first landing because it is so cluttered with half clean clothes and half dirty ones. Some are in baskets, some are not. There's an air mattress that's been there for two weeks.

And that really stresses me out.

I hate housework.

I hate a messy house.

For some reason, I just can't seem to get it all done, all at once. I just wish little fairies would sneak into my house late at night to dust the house, organize my crap and fold laundry. You know, all the stuff I hate to do or hardly ever get around to doing. Lately I've felt like a lousy mom, wondering how come everyone else has clean houses ALL the time? Then I realized that there are a lot of people like me. I realized this when Scary Mommy (with her blog) posted pictures of her messy house. Finally! the Martha Stewards can come clean once and for all and announce that we just don't exist. It's the start of real living, and this post is all about that.

Yes, I blog about food and I find time in my crazy life to write about it, take photos and even create my own dishes. But my house is not always clean, the laundry hardly ever folded, my hair hasn't seen a straightner or hairspray in months and my mascara is the only makeup presently being used. I am disheveled most days and I don't exercise. (I'm going to! I just haven't found the motivation yet, but I will start soon..) So it's time to give it up and just enjoy what I do have: great food, uber cute kids and toys in every crevice of this house. Some people have impeccably clean homes but eat boxed food, some make meals from scratch and have not-so-perfectly clean homes (me!) and others work full time, bring kids to tons of activities and are leading P.T.A members but their tubs are dirty and cars are a mess. Some look devine but don't read a single book and others exercise but don't bother socializing. My point is, while we excel in some areas of our lives other areas suffer just a little. Things must be sacrificed. Because that is just the way it is. so I better just accept that i'm not a laundry folding kind of woman. And that's okay.

So here's a recipe I'm really happy to share.

Holiday Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies
by Suzanne of The World In A Pot

Adapted from Land O' Lakes wheat sugar cookies recipe.

Cream:
1 Cup unsalted Butter
3/4 Cup Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar
1/4 Cup Xylitol
*1/8th tsp Stevia

Add:
2 Egg yolks
1 and 1/2 tsp Vanilla

In a separate bowl, mix together:
1 and 1/2 Cup powdered White Rice flour (from Asian market)
1/2 Cup Potato starch
1/4 Cup Tapioca flour
1 tbs Millet flour
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp Xuanthum gum

*There will be no Stevia aftertaste with this amount, but it will be sweet. I received a lot of compliments on this recipe, so I figure people like their sugar cookies sweet! If your sweet tooth is milder than mine, reduce amount of Stevia or omit.

Add the wet into the dry. Beat well. Form the dough into a ball and let cool in the fridge for about 1-2 hours. Roll out a third of the dough on a dusted surface (rice flour) to about 1/8th of an inch or make them thicker if you like. Place cookies on parchment paper, on cookie sheet.

This recipe makes a ton of cookies. 3-4 dozen depending on size of cookie cutters. I made about 45 cookies with a 3 inch cookie cutter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to cooling rack. Let cool completely. Frost if desired or sprinkle sugar (natural dye like India Tree) on cookies before baking. (I will soon post my new recipe for buttercream frosting!)

Store in an air tight container. These are great for about 3 days left out at room temperature. I used xylitol to reduce the amount of sugar in this recipe, but it makes the cookies a bit softer on day 2. Regular sugar would keep the cookies crisp longer.
Xylitol is amazing, it's super low on the glycemic level (lower than milk and lentils!) and actually helps your teeth stay strong and healthy. It may cause gas and digestive disruption for very sensitive people like those suffering from IBS. Google it for more information.

Enjoy!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup (Vegan and Gluten Free)

2012-03-02T17:13:00.004-08:00

Let me recap my morning.

I'm getting the kids ready for a play date, they are nicely dressed (well they're wearing clean clothes and *gasp* matching socks) and breakfast has been eaten. So the last step is for me to get ready and look presentable. Like kids, that means clean clothes, fixed hair, touch of makeup (although mom doesn't get the matching socks today). So I'm getting ready upstairs leaving my kids alone for 10 minutes. They can handle it.

WRONG! It looks like Lovely Toddler had other plans for me. She decided it was long overdue that I scrub every inch of the kitchen floor. She justifiably got me to wash my floor by smashing 8 eggs, a tub of yogurt and Smiley baby's breakfast on the floor. She's no fool though that smart one, she made sure to stomp around the egg mess with a pair of pink rubber boots and a spatula at hand whacking the egg shells to bits. She was unharmed and untouched by the sticky stuff while I paraded around the kitchen at a louder-than-usual tone of voice getting unmatched socks soaked in egg, yogurt and mashed prunes. grrrrr.............

After a match of angry talk and pulling the bathroom stool out for a useless session of time-out, Lovely Toddler ended up in her crib while I finished shinning my floors. Smiley baby decided he was tired and ready for a nap. This play date is already not starting out so well.

Well all was cleaned and sorted, we headed out for our play date, about 30 minutes away. Since I've only been to my friend's house with my hubby, and he usually drives, I didn't know how to get there myself so I googled directions out for the Langley visit.

40 minutes go by and we're now literally in the middle of a farmer's field. Crap. Okay time to turn around and GO HOME. We'll have to try it out another day. I'm done. Just as we start heading back home I notice the gas light coming on. Oh this is such a great day. And rain, did I mention it was pouring out?

Well at least the kids are deep in an afternoon nap now and I get to sip at my warm Cheesy Broccoli soup. It's time to turn this day around. It can't get worst can it?

I'll just start filing my taxes now.

Cheesy Broccoli Soup (Vegan and Gluten Free

2 tbs organic canola oil or avocado oil

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stick, chopped
3 tbs coconut flour

3 cups water

1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 vegetable, vegetarian bouillon cube
2 to 2 and 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
2 broccoli floret heads
1/2 to 2/3 cups Thai Kitchen's Coconut milk

I should mention that I looked at 3-4 recipes to find out that the secret ingredient to a vegan cheese soup is nutritional yeast. The rest is, well, soup.

This recipe takes about 30 minutes to make, 20 to prepare.

Add ingredients in order listed above to a cooking pot on medium heat.

How to: Add garlic, celery and onion to oil and let brown slightly. Then add flour to absorb oil. Add water to flour quickly, do not let burn. Add remaining ingredients and let cook until broccoli is soft enough to eat. Fill one Magic Bullet with soup and blend, then re-incorporate into soup.

Enjoy!

Note: this soup is quick to prepare if you chop all vegetables before starting your soup.

And not only is this soup great any day, It's especially nice for those on a cleanse.

Support your BC Teachers! Please Read!

2012-03-02T08:46:00.013-08:00

This is not a food blog post- It's a letter written by Tiffany Wainwright, a teacher in BC. The new legislation of Bill 22 in British Columbia will affect the education of all students living in BC and I feel it's important to share this letter with as many parents and soon to be parents as possible. Please read and support your teachers!!
thanks,
Suzanne

"I’m a BC teacher who’s concerned about the direction our province is taking with regards to public education. Media attention has been focused on teacher salaries, ignoring the fact that we are discussing a wide range of issues at the bargaining table. The issues being discussed in this round of negotiations will impact your children and the future of public education. Do we care to be informed of these issues, or just to accept the media’s oversimplified interpretation?

Do you care that the government has stripped away class size limits?
That means that children may be in classes of thirty-five, forty or higher. There are no class size limits. Currently 3,627 classes in B.C. have over 30 students in them. How much individual attention or individualized learning programs can teachers realistically provide to student in increasingly large classes?

Do you care that the government isn’t respecting their own School Act which stipulates a per class limit of three students who need special assistance?
Currently there are 12, 240 classes in B.C. with more than four children who need special assistance.
What does this mean for our children?
If you’re a child who needs special assistance, you’re probably not getting the time you’re entitled to. If you’re a child who doesn’t need additional support, your class is being disrupted by students acting out because they aren’t getting the support they need to be successful. If you’re a teacher, you’re spending a lot of energy and resources managing your class’s behavior dynamics. This decreases the time you spend teaching curriculum. This is a lose/lose/lose situation.

The number of special needs students is growing while seven hundred and thirty-eight special education teachers have been cut in the last five years. Currently, there aren’t enough student assistants to support the children with special needs.

Do you care that the number of students who need English language support has increased by over two thousand in the last five years, while three hundred and thirty-eight ESL teachers have been cut?
Who’s filling these gaps?
No one at the moment. Teachers will do their best to meet the needs of the students, but realistically, when the needs of the class are very diverse, it becomes extremely difficult for one teacher to serve those needs effectively.
Do you care that the percentage of annual provincial GDP dedicated to education is steadily decreasing in BC?
Compared to 10 years ago, we’ve seen a .4% decrease which equals 800 million dollars per year gone from the education budget.
Why does government values education less than it did 10 years ago? Other provinces that have experienced declining enrolment have used the opportunity to improve educational services. Projected enrolment is increasing again yet the government continues to cut the education budget
BC ranks seventh in the country in terms of the percentage of GDP it spends on education. BC is below the national average.
Why have negotiations have been so onerous and unproductive to date?
In 1994, the bargaining process was changed. Prior to 1994, teachers bargained with their local school districts. Now, the diverse needs of all school districts are lumped together and negotiated at the provincial level . The BCTF represents all BC teachers and the BCPSEA represents the province. Since 1994, every contract negotiation, save one, has ended in government legislation. With the stick of legislation in hand, what would motivate the government to listen to teachers’ concerns? Without a negotiation procedure that works, the government and teachers miss the opportunity to engage in a much needed intelligent and flexible dialogue about the state of education and learning conditions.

Now, imagine for a moment, a class of thirty-eight teenagers, with five students who need special assistance, two students who don’t speak English fluently, one student assistant, and one teacher.
Are these optimal or effective learning conditions for our children? A class like this is highly possible under the terms legislated by our government.
If you care about any of the issues raised above, please call or email George Abbott or Premier Christy Clark and ask them :
-why funding for education as a percentage of provincial GDP is shrinking
- why they think it’s a good idea to have bigger class sizes with fewer assistants to support the students who need it
-why they’re cutting counselors, teachers, librarians, and special needs teachers
Compare Christy Clark’s net-zero mandate for education to premiers in other provinces.
Alberta’s new premier, Alison Redford committed to “restore the education cuts made in the 2011-2012 budget within 10 days of being sworn in.”

Manitoba’s premier Greg Selinger committed to cap class sizes in order to address teachers’ concerns. He stated, “investing in smaller class sizes is an important step we can take toward ensuring our kids learn in the bet possible environment.”
Clark’s government is telling us that there is no more money for education. How we allocate our provincial tax dollars is a choice. If there is no more money for public education, it’s because we’ve decided to spend it elsewhere. The allocation of government funds can be influenced by public pressure. If public education is a priority for you, send a message to Premier Clark letting her know that you value public education and that you want more tax dollars allocated to it. The above issues are what the teachers are bargaining for. If you support these issues, please let Premier Clark know that you support the teachers. "
Premier Christy Clark Geroge Abbott – Minister of Education
Room 310 West Annex
Parliament Buildings Parliament Buildings
Victoria, BC Victoria, BC
V8V 1X4 V8V 1X4
Toll Free: 1.877.771.7557 Phone: 604.775.1003

****information sources referenced:
BCTF. (2010) Education Funding: A brief to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government services
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. (2011) K-12 Funding Problems in Context..from http://cupe.ca/updir/CCPA__Education_Funding_in_Context.pdf
BCTF. (2010)2010-2011 BC Education Facts. Available at http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/2011EdFacts.pdf

Raw Brownies with Simplicity Raw Chocolate Frosting (sugar free and Healthy!)

2012-02-14T08:10:00.003-08:00

It's Valentine's Day, my kids are running around wild and I'm in pijamas. It's 'heart's party' Day for my daughter so I better get ready for the big day. But I didn't want to leave you empty handed on this fun, loved-filled day. Here's my treat to you, a guilt free, healthy piece of chocolately goodness. Enjoy. xo

Raw Brownies with Simplicity Raw Chocolate Frosting

Raw Brownies

inspired by Better than Brownies from Eat Raw Vegan

1/3 Cup whole raw almonds
2/3 Cup raw walnuts
3/4 Cup pitted dates or 6 medjool dates, pitted*
6 Tbs raw cocoa powder
1/2 tsp flaxmeal
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs organic pure maple syrup
2 pinches himalayan or celtic salt
2-6 drops Stevia**

optional- 1 tsp fine ground decaf coffee (note-this is not raw!)

* I've used honey dates (cheaper) while trying out this recipe and it broke my food processor. They were too tough. If you use these, make sure to soak them until pliable. The medjool dates are better for processing and taste like caramel. Totally divine. Store in the fridge and leave out at room temperature before using, or soak in warm water for a few minutes before blending, make sure to dry them off with a clean cloth before placing them in food processor.

**This recipe doesn't require Stevia, but you may find that it's not sweet enough. Use 1-2 drops at a time until desired sweetness. You will NOT taste an aftertaste when used with other sweetners, it will give that extra sweet kick you're looking for and will not change the texture of the recipe. Love it!
Place all ingredients in Food processor and blend until its the smooth consistency of top soil. Put in a small square container (5-6 inches) and pat down with fingers. Don't pat it down too hard, you want a little air in your brownies, not a power bar.

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Frost with Simplicity Raw Chocolate Frosting, recipe below.

Simplicity Raw Chocolate Frosting
Adapted from Heather Pace's Raw Chocolate Sauce from her blog Sweetly Raw. I love this blog!
This frosting is pipeable! use to decorate as you would with a conventional buttercream icing.

1 Cup raw cocoa/cacao powder
3/4 Cup organic pure Maple Syrup
2 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch himalayan or celtic salt
1/2 Cup melted coconut oil
*Stevia
* Add to sweeten. Start with 2 drops. (I don't always add Stevia, it depends on my mood, this frosting is sweet enough without it.)

Add all ingredients into a blender or magic bullet except for the coconut oil. Blend, then add oil at the end. Store in the fridge until firm, then keep in fridge or counter for the week. Leave at room temperature before spreading on your brownies or other baked (or unbaked) goods.

Melt frosting and add a couple of tablespoons water to use as a chocolate sauce for ice cream or mousse. Enjoy! xoxo

Serenity Hot Chocolate (Vegan, dairy-free and sugar-free)

2012-01-25T13:22:00.000-08:00

"Serenity Now!"

Today is definitely a "Serenity Now" kind of day. Actually, it's been a "Serenity Now" kind of week. If any of you are as much of a Seinfeld fan as me, you'll know what I mean. Yep, I've already burst and exploded a few times this week and there's more to come. And as each night passes I lay in bed reflecting on ways on how to soothe these turbulent days. My kids are great. Nothing wrong there, but when one little Chatty Baby is absolutely, completely bunged-up and the Lovely Toddler needs tons of attention that I simply can't always give her, it becomes a challenge. It's not always so easy-as-pie staying at home with the little ones. But that's not all. Oh no it's not. There's a lot cooking up in my kitchen, and not just food and blog stuff. Nope. There's TONS more cooking up in this household, lots of creating, thinking, scheming going around in here and I can't tell you what it is, but there's more to come from me.

And when it's busy-busy all day long, I definitely need little warm fuzzies to slip down my throat and make me all warm inside. There's nothing better for the ol' nerves than a good Hot Chocolate. Especially when it's cold outside and stormy inside. Husband M doesn't tolerate milk all that much, so I try to eliminate it as much as possible. And so this little concoction turned out to work wonders for the family. Unfortunately, my poor friend R was the first to try my first batch, which was terrible. I know, you're thinking how the hell do you screw up hot chocolate. Well, you can when you burn the cocoa and still serve it. Oops. Like I said, poor R. She was nice though and drank it. But now I have a much better version, one that Husband M said was blog worthy. And I sometimes need that vote of confidence.

Serenity Hot Chocolate (dairy-free, sugar-free)

Melt in a saucepan:
1 tbs coconut oil

Add:
3 tbs *pure honey or pure maple syrup (or agave for another vegan option)
1/4 Cup cocoa powder
Mix well until it becomes a beautiful chocolate sauce. Stir constantly and do not burn! keep on low heat.

Add:
1/3 Cup Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
2 pinches himalayian salt or celtic salt
1/4 tsp vanilla

Increase heat to medium, then add:
2 Cups water

Bring to a simmer, or low boil.
Add 3-5 drops Stevia, according to taste. Do not add Stevia if using Agave.

*make sure your sweetners are 'pure', otherwise they may be blended with corn syrup or other nasty products.

Let cool a little, stir then serve.

Makes 2 servings.

Keep in mind I like my hot chocolate thick and sweet. Adjust to your tastes.
ENJOY!!

Peace and love
xo

Souper à la japonaise (Ginger Salmon with Balsamic Reduction and Wasabi Butter)

2012-01-12T20:18:00.000-08:00

I went out with a great friend of mine in late November that I don't often see. The conversation was flowing, our energies high and the food delicious. We caught up on a couple years' conversation over great sushi, without any little persons under the age of 30. Thank God, because I definitely needed a night out. Husband M is great at putting Chatty Baby to sleep so I could spend a few hours without worry. It was such a great night, can't wait to do it all over again.

One dish that particularly stood out was a sushi roll drizzled with a wasabi sauce. It was amazing. I tried reproducing it, but I couldn't get it right. So, I thought. And I thought. Hmm..that creole dish Husband M had a few months ago was out-of-this world delicious, it had this great butter on top. Maybe I could put the wasabi in the butter intead of sauce! And there she was born, my Souper à la japonaise.

Okay, so this is not a great photo. But it's the best I could do at the time and I just don't have the time to recreate the dish during the day and make it all pretty. But it gives you an idea of what it can look like, if you have more time, dress it up with some mango and drizzle the sauce in a more artistic way.
This goes well with either salmon or chicken, but I have to say I surprisingly enjoyed it better with the chicken. But both works.

So here goes:

Souper à la japonaise (Ginger Salmon with Balsamic Reduction and Wasabi Butter)

4 Salmon Steaks or boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbs minced ginger
2 tbs honey
Mix ginger and honey in a small saucer, then pour over thawed meat. Bake in oven at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes. I bake them in a dish with lid.

While this is cooking, make your Balsamic Reduction:
1/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
3 tbs agave syrup
1 tsp liquid Amino Sauce (Bragg's is gluten free)

Bring all ingredients to a boil for about 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring often. You don't want to burn your reduction. Reduce heat and let simmer on low heat for about 10-15 minutes, until vinegar is reduced by half. Take off of heat element before serving for a few minutes, it will thicken as it cools slightly, but you want to serve it warm, not cool.

I added the amino sauce (soya sauce) to give it that sushi taste. If you want to use it in other recipes, I would omit it.

Wasabi butter
You can make this from scratch or make with already-made butter. Obviously making it with already made butter will be much quicker, but there's something quite amazing about making your own butter. And of course, it tastes fabulous.

1/2 Cup whipping cream (from carton- not cool whip!!)
1-1/2 tsp wasabi powder
pinch of himalayan salt or celtic sea salt

Whip ingredients in medium bowl for a good 5 minutes, or until fat seperates from the liquids. Squeeze the fat into balls. Place butter balls in fridge until ready to serve. Wrap with plastic wrap if keeping for a few days.

(what whipped butter looks like)

OR

1/2 Cup unsalted butter
1 tsp wasabi powder
salt to taste

Mash wasabi powder into soft (room temperature) butter. Place in fridge to harden then form into balls before serving.
These wasabi butter balls are made to taste very mild. If you like it really hot, add another 1/2 tsp and adjust according to taste. Please take note that it will taste hotter once cooled.

Serve dish with sliced avocadoes and mango. Drizzle balsamic sauce in a zigzag shape and enjoy your creation!

I couldn't help but reminisce. It's been 6 long years since i've been to Japan and I still think it was one of the best places to visit. Well, they're all great places, but Japan sure gave me a great first impression. I was only there for 8 days, but it was an awesome 8 days. I'd wake up early every day, soak in a public bath and head off to palaces, view some beautiful cherry blossoms and eat weird stuff. Here's a pic of the weird stuff.

I still have no idea what I ate. Some kind of snack at a tea house. Some of it was edible.
For me, Japan was the France of Asia, total romance. Just look at this sight:

And the cherry trees! I couldn't get enough of them.

I was way cooler back then. What a difference 6 years + 2 kids can do to someone. It's kinda depressing looking at my momma ponch right now and then looking at these.
And I just had to post a youthful version of me. In the good ol' travel days.

One day I'll be brave and show you my current face, but today is not that day.
Take care and enjoy that wasabi!
xo

Happy Heart Smoothy

2011-12-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

We all need a healthy heart, a happy heart. One way we can do that is by nourishing our bodies with healthy fats. There are different sources for getting these essential fatty acids and one of the best is Cod liver oil. But that's just not sustainable. If everyone started to drink Cod liver oil, we'd be all out of our precious fish..so flax it is! Flax is also one the best sources for unsaturated, heart healthy fats, so get yourselves a bottle of Barleum's and drink up! Here's my favorite recipe for drinking some good ol' flax oil. I try to endulge in flax and or hemp hearts every day, that's why I love my smoothies and drinks. This drink is truly delicious and no one would even now there's flax oil in it, it's well disguised with yogurt and sweetner. So here it is folks, enjoy and let your heart smile.

1/2 C frozen organic blueberries

1/3 C plain unsweetened yogurt
1/3 C organic cashews (roasted or raw)
1/3 C water (add more water for a milk consistency instead of a smoothy one)
3 tbs hemp hearts
1 tbs flax oil (Barleum's)
Stevia- sweeten to taste. I use 4 drops. It will also depend on the sweetness of your berries.

*optional- add 1/2 a banana with 1/2 tbs flax seeds or ground flax seeds (to slow down the digestion of sugars in the banana. Berries are low on the glycemic level, so they don't need added fiber.)

Add water after blending all other ingredients.

Any drink loaded with Essential Fatty Acids is a happy heart kind of drink. According to Dr. Budwig, flax oil is best absorbed mixing it with yogurt. For further information about this go here. I've decided to add the yogurt for this purpose, and even if it ends up being bogus, the yogurt still makes it taste good, and good healthy gut bacteria is a must-consume for anyone who cares about their digestive health. Which is also SO important. A happy gut makes for a happy heart. It may be the most important organ. Who knows. Anyway, load up and drink flax oil, and like I mentioned in the recipe, use Barleum's since it's in a black container and the procedure the company uses to keep the oil pure is The Best.

Sweeten with stevia because that is the healthiest sweetener found in nature, if you can't handle sweatleaf stevia (no aftertaste) than use xylitol (love it) or whatever other sweetner you fancy (for now, stay away from refined sugar- I'll keep the sugar talk for another post).

Hemp hearts are amazing for their health benefits. They are a super source of protein and essential fats. One of the best things you can consume along with Chia seeds.

Blueberries are very low in the glycemic index compared to other fruit, so it is a wonderful fruit to eat without affecting your sugar levels. Cashews are just simply awesome. And they're a good source for unsaturated fats as well. Eat 'em! Hope you'll enjoy this little drink in taste as much as in health benefits.

I Love You Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten-Free)

2011-12-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

I woke up late this morning, my Lovely Toddler allowing me to sleep in. What a lucky momma I am. I knew she was safe in her bedroom so I drifted back to sleep. When I woke half an hour later, I went to get her from her room and Oh MY God. The curtain was ripped off and the lamp shade was on the floor. The light bulb was smashed all over the room and books were scattered everywhere. Her diaper was off and poo was smudge here and there. The Vicks container had also been opened and emptied on my nice oak hope chest my grandfather made. What a disaster. It is definitely a day for cupcakes. Chocolate ones.

And I still love her of course, I always will.

This recipe was really easy to make, all I did was convert my Lucky 18 Vanilla Cake recipe (which i've yet to post!).
There are two types of Gluten Free recipes in our world: A gluten-free recipe, substituted for wheat, then there's healthy gluten-free. This one is simply gluten-free, a great substitute for any craving of the Real Thing. It passes for a wheat cake, so I think.

Try it, it's lovely. Light, subtle, not over-the-top chocolaty. Just your chocolate cupcake.

And just like the Lucky 18 Vanilla Cake recipe, this too is a picky recipe. It may fail if you dare to deviate. Just a warning.

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients:

3/4 Cup brown rice flour

1/2 Cup cocoa powder
1/2 Cup tapioca flour
1/3 Cup coconut flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp xuanthum gum
1/2 tsp celtic/Himalayan salt

In seperate bowl cream together:

1-1/4 C granulated white sugar

1 C butter
Add:
2 Large eggs
1/2 Cup Thai Kitchen coconut milk *
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 Cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp liquid stevia

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing for a few minutes, making sure all ingredients are well blended. Since there is no gluten, feel free to mix cupcake recipe for a long time, unlike your regular wheat recipes.

Bake for 27-30 minutes for 18 large cupcakes, filled 3/4 to the top. Bake for 24 minutes for medium, regular sized cupcakes. Will make a lot!

*Thai Kitchen coconut milk has a thick, fatty consistency. Please use this brand only for this recipe, I can guarantee a good outcome only with this brand.

A Step by Step Guide: How to make a 3D Elmo Cake (also Gluten-free!!)

2011-12-01T21:27:00.004-08:00

Elmo Cake with Lucky Vanilla Cake (Gluten Free)

Building this cake was an amazing and frustrating experience. After making an insane amount of cake to fine tune my recipe, i've learnt a lot about baking cake. I've also learned a lot about frosting, rice crispy squares to sculpt and how to use food coloring. There were more failures than successes, but the success at the end was very well worth it all. So here's what I learned:

First start by finding or cutting a cake board. I just grabbed some leftover plywood from our renos and drilled a hole where I thougth my Elmo would sit. (I actually got Husband M to do it since I was really busy, but it's easy, anyone can do it.)

Then cover your board with tin foil, or buy the fancy stuff. I didn't, but next time I might. Tape it on the underside so it doesn't snag on anything.

Flip your board then run your finger along the drilled hole to poke your 12" dowel. Put some wood glue in the hole before putting the dowel in. Let sit overnight.

Find a vanilla recipe you like. This was the longest and hardest part of the Elmo process. I started with a few recipes online, but I didn't like them enough to bake for friends and family. So the journey began, and it was a long one. 15 Cakes and cupcake recipes later my recipe was found by experimenting with every single ingredient. I made 3 more cakes for the Elmo cake. I used my Lucky Vanilla Cake recipe. I baked them all 4 days ahead of the party, cooled and froze them for one night. I would suggest making them 3 days ahead of time, 4 is not necessary except when you decide to experiment with frosting (don't!!) Check out my recipe!

Your gluten free cake should look like this:

Take your frozen or chilled cakes and cut the domes off. I suggest drawing a line with the tip of your knife at the edge of the dome and cake wall. Then use that line to guide your knife as you cut in a circular motion, keeping your knife pointing towards the centre of the cake. I tried cutting from one side to the other and I found that method to be more difficult. Therefore, I like to cut to the centre while turning my cake.

Now you'll need to cut your cake into two layers like this.

Trace a line with the tip of your knife again, making sure your line is evenly in the centre of the cake wall. Cut using the same method as the cake dome. It's okay if your cakes are uneven or slightly broken or cracked. Stacking them will hide imperfection.

Grab your cake board and put one layer of cake through the dowel, right in the centre of the cake. I just eyeballed it, it's okay if not perfect, you will be trimming off the sides of the cake anyway. I suggest using your best cake layer on the bottom (no cracks).

Add a big layer of buttercream frosting then repeat process. You could easily put all 6 layers of cake together without a divider, but it makes for one huge slice of cake. You have to think about how you will also put it apart. I decided to place a piece of cereal box carton covered in tin foil to mark my fourth layer. If I do this again, I will probably just buy a clean piece of thick paper/carton because I accidentaly ripped a piece of foil and served it along with a piece of cake! woops!

Add remaining two layers and two cake domes.

In the picture, I only have one cake dome. I added the other one after I started cutting it because I felt it needed more height. Don't worry about filling the top few layers right to the edges because you'll be cutting the sides off.

Grab a clean serrated knife and start cutting!

I started by cutting my first top layer in the shape of a circle the size of the neck. about 2-3 inches diameter. From there, rest your knife flat on the edge of the top layer in a diagonal line and start cutting the rest of your stacked cake in the shape of a big Elmo belly.

Frost with crumb coat.

Slowly remove as much frosting as you can with the dull side of your spreading knife. This will keep the crumbs from falling and will also seal the cake's moisture when refrigerating or freezing. You can now refrigerate. It's a good idea to chill cakes with a crumb coat before frosting to make it a smoother and easier experience.

I decided to frost my cake with a tasty buttercream frosting after chilling my cake with the crumb coat and before frosting with the Elmo red coast because I know the Elmo red frosting would not be edible. It's not edible when you need an entire vile of concentrated red#40 dye which taste disgusting and is very unhealthy. I bought natural food coloring from Baking Supply House or you can by IndiaTree brand in the States, which I didn't use for the Elmo cake. I wanted too, but I soon discovered that it wasn't going to work for the concentration of colour I needed. I will gladly use them though for cupcakes and cookies I will be making for the holiday season. It's a good idea to remind party guests not to eat the red frosting. I made sure to wrap the tasty frosting with plastic wrap to keep it fresh. I then chilled the cake some more.

Next up: making the head, arms and legs out of Rice Crispy squares. Make a batch for the head alone, then make another batch for the legs and arms. It cools fairly quickly so I wouldn't recommend making a big batch to make all pieces at one time.

Here's a picture of the arms I made. I sculpted the arms when warm and still very pliable then I put them through a cleaned coat hanger that I measured and shaped. Keep shaping your rice crispy limbs till they've cool enougth to leave alone to dry and harden. I didn't use a wire for the legs, I simply shaped them to be resting flat on the cake board. When making hands and feet, make them seperately (from the limbs) then stick together when still warm and sticky.

Make the head in a football shape and leave to harden on your counter. I make the mistake of refrigerating it after it cooled and it stayed a little flexible. You don't want your head to droop on the birthday day once it's on the dowel, so I would dry overnight till it's hard. BUT make sure to pass the head onto the dowel of the cake board to make the hole before it hardens too much.

Make eyes and nose seperately. I make the eyes about the size of golf ball the the nose a little bigger and longer. Make the nose flatter on one side. Leave to harden.

Frost eyes and nose and leave in freezer. Don't worry about the smoothness of the frosting, you'll have to take them out of the freezer once frozen and smooth the edges with your warm hands.

Assemble arms and legs, then start making your red Elmo frosting. I suggest making the frosting at least 4 hours before the party, but not days in advance. You will need at least one to two hours for the color to mature to it's true color. I was nervous at first because I couldn't get the right red for elmo when I was mixing my frosting. It was more like a tangy salmon pink. But about 2 hours later it was the perfect red colour.

Use Decorative Frosting for the red Elmo frosting. Use 1 vial of red-red wilton color. Use half a bottle of regular (unconcentrated) yellow color. I also added 2 drops of burgundy wilton concentrated colouring.

Assemble head, eyes and nose. Cut BBQ skewers 1/3 of the length and use to place eyes and nose in place. Make sure you've smoothed you frosting over with your hands. Apply black frosting to eyes and mouth. I suggest drawing a black line with frosting first before filling. Use a knife to smooth it out, or dont' (like I did). I bought the black frosting because the store I went to was out of black coloring.

Chill your frosting slightly before decorating with the red frosting. I used a star shaped end.

Start at the feet and work your way up. Always work from the bottom up, that way the fur will look for realistic. Also, it's nice if you can move the furs direction from time to time. Make one layer of fur then make another layer on top.

Also make sure to decorate the entire front the Elmo before moving to the back in case you run out of frosting (like I did) if you know you won't have time to mix more. Remember, it will take a couple of hours for the colour to set, so if you start decorating the cake a couple of hours before the party and you run out, you won't be able to fix it. If you finish the front and happen to run out of frosting for the back, use what you have left by spreading the frosting on. It will still look red, it just won't have the nice details. If you've made lots of frosting, or you're decorating elmo the night before than you are much better than me! Now I know to make this cake ahead of time, but sometimes life happens and you just can't prepare it earlier.

A complete 3D Gluten-free Elmo!!

Click HERE for my Lucky Vanilla Cake recipe. It's a good one, so give it a try!

I also made a smaller round cake to place between his legs for the candle. Also make sure to clean off your cake board.

And of course...

ENJOY!!

Gluten Free Sunday Crepes

2011-11-01T22:33:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, gotta love a lazy Sunday morning. The best way to top it off? why waffles of course! So this morning, I tried my pizza dough recipe that had flopped and used it for a waffle recipe. Did not pan out. hmmm...maybe pancakes? nope! well, all I can do now is add a bit of milk and voila! Crepes!!! Okay, so it's not normally on the top of my list, but now that I've had these, I have to say, they're my new favorite Sunday morning crepes.

Everyone needs a good Sunday breakfast, and since I still haven't found my waffle recipe, then crepes come in as a close second. These are gluten free and dairy free. Try them with strawberries like I have pictured here, or in a pinch, cook up some apples and cinnamon and your crepes will be delish.

Makes 10, 6-7 inch crepes. Enough to feed 4 normal adults, or 3 really hungry ones. Depends on the toppings.

Sunday Crepes

3 eggs- separated

3/4 Cups rice brown rice flour

1/2 Cups whole almonds
1/2 Cups tapioca flour
1/4 Cups ground flaxseed/flaxmeal
2-3 tablespoons honey (sweeten to your taste, I use 2)
1/4 Cups grapeseed oil
2 Cups almond milk (or sub water)
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
2 tsp baking powder

My Sunday mornings are really lazy. I've been in the habit of making my doughs in the blender, and why not, it's less mess! But here's the thing, if you use a blender, the order of things changes a bit. You can make this the traditional way, mixing the wet into the dry ingredients etc. But if you do it my way, then this is how:

Separate your eggs into two small mugs, or dessert bowls, the yolks in one, the whites in the other. Put your egg white into the blender and whip until frothy. Pour them back into the original bowl/mug, set aside.

Place whole almonds and grind in blender. You'll have some chunks and it won't be super fine, but that's okay, almonds get nice and soft when cooked. You could use almond meal if you prefer, but I only make this recipe with whole almonds since it's more affordable. Once your almonds are ground into a gritty flour, add:

brown rice flour, tapioca, flaxmeal, egg yolks, honey, oil, liquid (almond milk) and salt.
Take a spoon and mix lightly so your milk will pour to the bottom of the blender.

Start blending! When the dough is smooth, add baking powder and blend more. Add egg whites at the very end, and mix lightly. I like to add the baking powder at the end so it doesn't start it's magic too soon.

Now you're ready to pour your batter into the hot (over medium) skillet. The other wonderful thing about making these in the blender is you automatically have a pouring mechanism for your dough, one less thing to mess up.

I always make these on a non-stick skillet, so I don't need any oil. Use your judgment.

The method to make these is easy, but hard to explain with words. I have to say, Husband M has trouble making these, but I find them easy. Pour enough dough to cover about 4 inches diameter of the skillet in a circle at the centre of the skillet. The second you return your blender to the counter return your hand to the skillet super quickly. Lift the skillet and turn it so that the dough turns in a circle covering the surface of your skillet, about 6-7 inches diameter. The dough should be thin, but thicker than your wheat crepes.

Let cook a few minutes until bubbles surface. Use a spatula to lift your crepe just enough to see the color of the bottom of the crepe. If it's a medium brown then it's ready to flip. Now make sure to scrape the side of the entire crepe (in a circular motion) to loosen before bringing your spatula to the center of the crepe. The entire crepe needs to be gently loosened before flipping. If you put your spatula under the middle of the crepe and lift before loosening the sides, it will tear.

This is what it looks like on side 1

Flip. Cook another couple of minutes. When it seems edible, it's ready!

Side 2

Spread butter on it. And all other toppings you desire. I love to drizzle a little maple syrup on it, then throw on a big spoonful of chopped strawberries, with a dollop of organic whipped cream. Spread unto entire surface of crepe then roll!!

Enjoy.

Breakfast In A Cup

2011-10-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

Nap times are so important for My Lovely Toddler. Well, not so important for her, but for me. I need nap time to come around like my Husband M needs his bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids to the bone, every molecule of my soul loves them, but they wear me OUT. Anyone who has spend 5 minutes with a two year old will know this universal truth, that nap time is the golden time for any parent.

After getting the diapers changed in the morning, and a Lovely Toddler's breakfast fixed, and a Chatty Baby-squirming-and-crying-and-settled-back-to-a-happy-place, with another dirty diaper, and a water drink spill, clothes changed, and another Chatty baby-squirming-and-crying-and-settled-back-to-a-happy-place followed by snack time and a dirty hands and face wash and a replace shirt and a not-listening-to-mom insident and a must-deal-with-Lovely Toddler, with another dirty diaper, there's not much time for a Mom-eat-your-breakfast-already time. So that's why I have my favorite morning drink just so I can eat something. Or in this case, just drink something. It might be lunch time by the time I get around to drinking it, but it's my morning meal i'm catching up on. So here it is. My Breakfast-In-A-Cup drink.

Did I mention this is raw, vegan, dairy-free and sugar-free?

Breakfast In A Cup

1 1/2 Cup water

1 medium ripe banana
1/3 Cup cashews
1/4 Cup pitted dates
1/4 Cup hemp hearts
1 tbs milled flax seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch celtic sea salt
4-8 drops stevia (sweeten to taste)

How to:

Put all ingredients in a blender except for the water. Put only 1/2 Cup water to start. I find that the wetter it is, the harder it is to get the dates to puree. Add the rest of the water after blending all other ingredients.

Hemp hearts are ridiculously healthy, they are loaded with essential fatty acids, amino acids, they are a complete protein and are full of vitamin B's, C, D, calcium and more. I highly recommend eating them every day. Especially if you're not one to pack in the protein in other foods.

Flax seeds help slow the digestion down, so it's great to eat them with foods that are higher in the glycemic index, like bananas. Bananas are high in sugar, even if they don't taste as sweet as other fruit with a lower G.I. like apples and strawberries. So please don't forget to add in the flax, it's not for taste, but for health- and you won't even notice them.

This is a power-house drink, it's really high in GOOD calories. I know, I mention calories and most of you will run off. People don't always understand that calories are important, and getting your minimum of 1200-1600 (women) is very important. Not eating enough calories to lose weight is unhealthy. But eating bad calories or empty calories like refined sugars, wheat etc is not good either. So, make sure to eat up, especially with those healthy calories. I don't have time to eat 3 meals a day when I'm alone with my kids during the day, most days I don't eat till noon. So I need to have something that will fill me up and replace all of those calories I missed out on in the morning. This drink is uber-filling with around 550-600 HEALTHY calories. It's almost half my daily amount! But if my day is anything like today's, or the previous days, this drink saves me from shrinking into bad health. I'm not saying it's a great thing skipping breakfast, but if your lifestyle is so hectic that you must, then please, indulge in a Breakfast In A Cup!

Momma Loves This Greek-Style Easy Chicken

2011-10-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Yay! i'm so excited, this is my first post. I didn't come up with this recipe entirely. Nor is it genius by any means, but this simple recipe is yummy. I went on allrecipes.com to get inspiration for a craving of greek chicken that I had tonight and came across a recipe that called for balsamic vinegar and lemon. So I took those two ingredients and threw in other yummy greek-style ingredients and made this marinade for chicken although I didn't actually marinate this chicken. I'm usually deciding what we'll eat for supper an hour before it's time to eat so marinating is not my thing.

That's just me, never planning ahead of time and usually trying to find something great to eat that requires very little effort. And this is one of them, very easy and very much worth the effort if you don't want to drive out and spend money at a greek restaurant. I made this tonight for my husband M and for my gong-show parents. I call them a gong-show because whenever they come to visit (they're from out of province) they have the funniest-shake-your-head-at-them stories of how they went from point A to B in my Big city. Yes, they're from a Small town, so watching them navigate the Big city is quite funny, and cute. So this is my Momma loves this Greek-Style Easy Chicken because after a long day at the Aquarium with my two little ones I made a quick supper that ended up as this. And my momma loved it, and so did I. So here it is.

2 big skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tbs grapeseed oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
1/2 - 1 squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp thyme
2 tsp garlic puree
1/2 minced sprig of rosemary
big pinch sea salt
big pinch black pepper

How To:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and spices into a medium sized bowl. Cut meat into 1-2 inch cubes then place the meat into the bowl mixture. Mix everything together and marinate for a few hours in the fridge or if you're like me and you never plan ahead of time, then pierce the meat on the skewers and cook right away. Add some onions and other veggies if you want to dress up the skewers. Place skewers on a square cake pan so that they rest on the edges of the pan so that the meat doesn't touch the bottom. Place cake pan with skewers in oven at 425 degrees farhenheit. Should be cooked in about 20 minutes. Could be 30, so check your meat after around 20 minutes. Always cut your biggest piece of meat in half to see if it's cooked throughout. Enjoy with your favourite tzatziki sauce and yummy lemon potato wedges.

Makes 5 skewers, feeds 3-4 adults.