Normally I don’t do a lot of baking for my family. I am just not to confident in that department. My kids do go without dessert a lot of the time. It is time to polish up this skill because I have a lot of homegrown apples that I need to use up. This is the first year that we have had a decent crop of apples off of our trees and they also taste good. They are not sweet apples and rather tart and good on a low carb diet. It is also hard to overeat tart apples as they make your mouth pucker up even when picking them off the tree!

This recipe tastes great and is a very healthy. It is also very aromatic and will make your house smell delicious!

Nutty Apple Crisp

2 cups of chopped tart apples (peeled and cored)

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 cup of ground almonds (preferably soaked and dried to remove anti-nutrients)

1 cup of chopped pecans (preferably soaked and dried to remove anti-nutrients)

1/2 cup of dessicated sugar free coconut

1/2 cup of butter

1 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

2 tsp of vanilla

4 drops of NOW non bitter stevia

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

Peel your apples, core and chop into small pieces. Drizzle lemon juice over apples.

Mix in a bowl ground almonds, chopped pecans, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, stevia and vanilla. Add butter to the bowl and work it into the “crumb” ingredients.

Take half of the crumb mixture and place it into a 9″ square baking dish. Add apples and top with the remainder of the crumb mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until apples are soft.

Enjoy!!

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There is nothing more that my kids love to eat more than their grilled cheese sandwiches. That is their favorite lunch food. Before I decided to give up grains due to Candida Yeast issues, grilled cheese sandwiches were one of my favorites as well.

The other day, i was watching the Rachel Ray Show and she was making a grilled cheese sandwich out of Tomato Slices. Her recipe used grain flour so I had to improvise a bit. Let me tell you how excited I was about this recipe!

Garlic Basil Grilled Cheese Sandwich

1 Large tomato

1/2 cup of ground almonds (or almond flour)

1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese

small handful of fresh basil (about 1/3 cup)

1 clove of garlic

1 Pasture raised free range egg

Cheese Slices

Salt and Pepper to taste

Butter for frying

Grind your almonds until they have a flour like consistency. Place into a medium mixing bowl. Add your Parmesan cheese and mix well.

Core and thinly slice your tomato (reserve the end pieces for a salad if you like) I got about 4 slices which would make 2 “sandwiches”.

Wisk your egg in a small bowl.

Finely chop your basil and garlic.

Warm up your skillet and melt butter for frying. Dip your tomato in the egg mixture. Then drag your tomato through the almond and Parmesan mixture. Make sure it is well coated. It will be a bit sticky. Do this for all your tomato slices.

Fry your tomato slices in butter. Once browned flip to the other side. This will take 3-5 minutes per side on low to medium heat.

When your tomatoes are nice and crispy top *half * your tomatoes with cheese slices and garlic basil mixture. To make a “sandwich”, place the remaining tomatoes on the garlic basil cheese. Cover your skillet with a lid and let the cheese melt.

Add salt and pepper to taste!

This recipe will make two delicious grilled sandwiches!

Recipe note: Fresh basil tastes very different from dried. You may substitute a good quality pesto if you do not have fresh basil.

Enjoy!

This recipe is submitted as part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop.

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Well, its that time of year again when zucchinis are growing in abundance and garden growers are trying to sneak them into any meal. That is one great thing about this abundant summer squash – it is so sneakable!

Here is a great tasting zucchini pancake recipe that has a bit of a kick to it:

Spicy Zucchini Coconut Pancakes

1 med. zucchini grated and squeezed

4 green onions

3 tablespoons of coconut flour

3 organic pastured eggs

3 tablespoons of coconut oil or butter (melted)

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne ( feel free to adjust to taste)

pepper to taste

Coconut oil or butter for frying

Grate zucchini and give it a good squeeze too drain the water. Chop green onions.

In a bowl mix dry ingredients: Coconut flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and cayenne. Mix well. To the bowl add melted coconut oil, eggs, zucchini and green onions. Mix well again.

Melt coconut oil in a skillet and spoon 2 tablespoons of pancake mix into it. Cook pancakes until golden brown. Flip pancake and do the same on the other side.

Makes about 10 pancakes.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly The Kitchen Kop

Enjoy!

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I love experimenting with new foods. Tongue is something that I remember eating as a kid because it was so different. It is a traditional food as our ancestors ate all parts of the animals. I took pictures of my cooking adventure so If you don’t want to know anything about pork tongue then you don’t need to read any further.

I googled how to cook it and am glad that I started out with pork and not cow! Cow tongue happens to be huge and very ugly. Pigs tongue is much smaller and less intimidating.

Here is my chronicles of cooking pork tongue. Unfortunately I did not do anything to make this recipe exciting.

Pork Tongue

Raw Pork Tongue

Boil Pork Tongue for 3-4 hours

Cooked pork tongue

Peel the skin off the tongue and chop into slices.

I just put on some home made garlic and herb butter and salt and pepper. I did not make the garlic and herb butter but I believe there is garlic, parsley and chives in it.

This was a great tasting meat! I happen to really like it. It is soft and has a great ability to become a meat salad that you can flavour in any way you like. You can sauce it up, dress it up, or just eat it plain.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by CHEESESVE

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I am extremely excited to share with you a great link to a book I have just discovered (it is a scanned “ancient cookbook” published in 1869). Sometimes in life we may need some grandmotherly guidance and wisdom. It seems since the invention of televisions and just over scheduled lives, the art of housekeeping and cooking have been lost. We don`t spend time in the kitchens with our mothers or grandmothers anymore.

A lot of us just don’t have any  kind of motherly resource and just end up lacking. We may learn the hard way with trial and error or never learn these necessary skills at all. I don’t know about you, but I was thrust into marriage and parenthood without knowing how to cook and sew and once my girls arrived I needed some major help!

If you have a close grandparent, I encourage you to find some of their old cookbooks. You will be shocked at how different the recipes are compared to today’s cookbooks. A lot of traditional ways have been lost in the modern age of convenience.

So here are some ancient recipes that you won’t find in a modern cookbook from Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers.

How to Boil A Calf’s Head

How to Brown a Calf’s head with the Skin On

How to Bake a Beef’s Heart

How To Cook Rabbits and Squirrels

How To Make Brain Cakes
(We are of Polish Heritage and my mother said that eating Brain was a delicacy in her youth!)

How To Make Giblet Pies and Soups

There are 5 pages dedicated on how to eat oysters (just keep hitting the *next* button at the top of the page)

How To Make Milk Yeast

Blackberry Cordial
“This is valuable medicine for children in summer”

How to Make Vinigar

And how to pickle, preserve, make catsup (just keep hitting the *next* button at the top of the page)

How to make liver sausage and head cheese

How to Render Lard and Tallow

The rest of the book deals with how to keep house, herbal and medicinal food remedies (butter oil was used for soothing the stomach for violent vomiting and dysentery)

Take note at all the simple and plain recipes there are in this book. Yet they are so extremely nutritious and loaded with fat, milk, eggs, gelatinous stocks, brains, liver and feet. I also saw tongue amongst the recipes but did not link. I remember having had cows tongue as a kid and it being extremely chewy but tasting good nevertheless.

There are recipes in there that are good for the “delicate persons”. These recipes are high in fats from “rich milk” and eggs, butter and highly gelatinous from boiled pig’s feet. Calf’s foot gelatin with cream is “nice for the sick person”. And note that this milk and cream would be raw and unpasteurized.

Spend some time exploring this book and hopefully try out some recipes and remedies.

Note what ingredients are not included in this book:

1. Canola oils, corn oils, soy oil and other “new” industrial vegetable oils.
2. Skinless, boneless chicken.
3. 1% and 2% milks.

Animal fats, bones and organs where used for medicine and good health. This is how our great grandparents and grandparents ate before heart disease, cancer, and obesity became epidemic.

Share your thoughts!

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays hosted by Food Renegade.

To your health,

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Here is a Low Carb Recipe that you have to try. These Coconut Herb buns are extremely light and yummy. They also contain flax and from what I have read the oils in the flax do not get destroyed when baked.

These buns go great with tomato and cheese.

Low Carb Coconut Herb Buns

1/2 cup of dessicated unsweetened coconut

2 tablespoons of golden flax

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of dill

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/2 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon tarragon

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of bakins soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup of melted butter or coconut oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together coconut and golden flax in a coffee grinder until the mixture is well mixed and finely ground. Put the coconut/flax mixture into a bowl. Add the herbs (garlic, dill, oregano, thyme, basil, tarragon). Add salt, baking powder and baking soda to the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add melted butter and eggs to the dry ingredients. Mix well again. Grease a muffin top pan or a muffin pan. I used a muffin top pan that I got at the grocery store. Place about a tablespoon and a half of mixture into each cup.

Place in the oven and bake for 17 min or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Let me know what you think! This post was submitted to the Real Food Wednesday Blog Carnival hosted by Anne Marie aka CHEESESLAVE. To get more real food recipes check out her blog.

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There are lots of people that just can’t give up bread. I know that I was one of those people once upon a time. I still am this way when I am trying to feed my kids lunches and run out of our Ezekiel sprouted grain bread that they eat. Slowly my children are getting used having healthy bread alternatives. As much as I don’t like it (but they do!), they come over to my plate and sneak my food.

This is a list of *healthy* Low Carb bread alternatives. I also share with you my very favorite comfort food that has replaced bread and sandwiches.

I love bread like most people but I have found that grains feed candida yeast. Slow cooking bone broths contain gelatin which heals and strengthen the gut wall. Gelatin also helps with the digestion of food in the gut because it is a “hydrophilic colloid” which means it attracts and holds liquids. They absorb the gastric secretions and reduces irritation.
“Low Carb Breads” are franken foods and should not be consumed. I wrote a blog post about the dangers of these low carb foods and why you would want to avoid them.

Stick with REAL FOOD for optimal health.

To your health and wellness,

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Yesterday I was cleaning up after dinner and I had some leftover ginger that I just did not want to compost. It was already grated and would not keep in the fridge. Ginger is a very healing spice and is great for digestion and nausea as well as a great for detoxing the liver. Candida Yeast sufferers would benefit from this tea because the pathogenic yeasts do release many toxins.

I decided that I would make a tea out of the extra ginger. Originally when I started to eat ginger I did not love it. But it is slowly growing on me as I use it more in different recipes.

I know I am not the first to invent the lemon ginger combination but this is what I came up with last night.

Lemon Ginger Tea

2 cups of boiled water

1 tsp of grated Ginger Root

Squeeze of Lemon

Place Ginger Root in a tea infuser and let steep in hot water for 10-15min. Squeeze lemon to taste. You can add stevia to this if you don’t find it sweet enough. Some lemons are tart and some lemons are sweet.

You can also cool this recipe and add carbonated spring water to this and make a yummy soda pop!

Note: I really enjoyed this tea! I drank it slowly and savored the aftertaste. It cleanses the palate after a meal and is very refreshing.

To your health and wellness,

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In the winter I really missed my hot creamy oatmeal that I used to have. Porridge can be a great comfort food especially on the cold, damp or snowy days. I have been experimenting in my kitchen to get a good morning Low Carb hot cereal substitute. This recipe is quick and easy. It is ready in less than 5 minutes. It tastes good too!

Low Carb Faux Oatmeal

¾ cup of warm whole milk (or cream and water, or coconut milk)

2 tablespoons ground golden flax

4 tablespoons sugar free desiccated coconut

1tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 drop of liquid stevia

½ teaspoon of nutmeg

Combine warm milk, flax, coconut, stevia and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir well and let sit for a few minutes until the “oatmeal” thickens.

Optional: you can add some nuts or low sugar berries to this recipe.

Enjoy!

This is a breakfast that I like to have daily. It is great for constipation if you are having trouble with that. It also contains healthy coconut and flax.  Flax is important because it contains lignans that have been shown to be effective for cancer treatment. It also aids immune health, fights inflammation and is great for brain health.

You can add Coconut Oil to this recipe and it would be a satisfying meal that can keep you full for hours.

Edit Note (May 5, 2009): This morning I sprinkled cinnamon on top and added 1 crushed clove to this. It tasted pretty awesome!

p.s. Check out my daily menus at www.healthyfitmomlowcarbmenus.blogspot.com.

p.p.s. Join Ann Marie on Real Food Wednesdays and enjoy some great recipes sharing and meal ideas.

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Today was my very first attempt at cooking duck. I had tried it a few years ago and thought it was delicious. However it was not a low carb recipe as duck is usually made with a sweet sauce. Making a sweet sauce was out of the question so I had to think of another way of preparing this duck.

I looked around for a good recipe, asked for advice and came up with my own little yummy delight. The duck tasted awesome. However it was a very tough bird and my kids would not eat it. I had just roasted it like a chicken, but a bit longer and I had basted it a few times during its two hour of roasting in my oven.

Then I checked with the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and they recommend cutting the duck up in pieces and trimming the fat and skin off. The duck pieces are then marinated in the juice of 4 lemons.

So I cooked my duck wrong! Next time I will marinade it first.

Nevertheless, I will share my yummy spice combination.

Low Carb Roast Duck Spice Rub

Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon of Thyme
2 teaspoon of Paprika
2 teaspoon of Salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
Cayenne to taste

1 whole duck

I combined the spices in a bowl and rubbed my duck with the mix. I then drizzled the lemon juice over the whole bird. My duck was almost 8lbs and I roasted it in the oven at 375 degrees for two hours. I basted twice and covered my duck when the skin looked like it was going to burn.

There are some better duck roasting cooking tips and instructions at e-how.

But the spice mix is great for duck and would be very yummy for chicken as well.

Enjoy!

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