Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

So it may seem like I am on a gluten free kick. Well I guess so. My husband has become more open minded to going gluten free and I have stopped buying him ezekiel bread. He is also eating alot more raw food. Since doing this he has become exceptionally hungry and goes from cupboard to fridge searching for something to eat. I had to slowly transition away from certain foods and I need to help him do the same, but everything I've ever bought at Whole Foods that is gluten free has been horrible and I'd rather go hungry. I know that making things homemade can produce a much tastier result so I have been experimenting to find a good bread for him. My first couple tries were less than desirable, so I was so elated when this recipe worked. I almost did cartwheels! Soft, fluffy, yummy bread! I got it off of Gluten Free Mommy's blog, and altered it slightly to what I had on hand. I have since made almond butter, jelly sandwiches, garlic bread, and honey bread with it! Sooo yummy!


Here's her site, she has lots of gluten free recipes but this is the only one I've tried:
http://glutenfreemommy.com/baking-gluten-free-bread-millet-oatmeal-bread/


GLUTEN FREE MILLET OATMEAL BREAD RECIPE
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup certified gluten free oat flour (you can pulverize oats in a food processor to make oat flour) *If you are sensitive to oat flour, try quinoa flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup arrowroot starch* you can substitute cornstarch if you need to (I used cornstarch)
1/3 cup sweet rice flour (I just used buckwheat flour here)
1/4 flax seed meal (you can’t taste it and it adds fiber)
1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
3 eggs
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 packet active dry yeast+ 1 tsp granulated sugar for proofing yeast
1 Tablespoon molasses
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 Tablespoons butter or butter substitute, melted
1/4 cup plus 1 cup heated water (I heated my water to 120 degrees to proof the yeast)

Here's her directions:

DIRECTIONS:
Make sure all your dry ingredients (and eggs!) are at room temperature. Grease the bottom of a 10 inch loaf pan or two 8 inch pans. Heat the oven to 200 degrees and then turn off. In the bowl of your stand mixer (I used my paddle not my dough hook for this recipe), sift together the dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, mix eggs, molasses, vinegar, and melted butter together. Heat your water for proofing the yeast. I recommend 120 degrees. In a small prep bowl, stir together your active dry yeast and one teaspoon of sugar. Add 1/4 cup of the heated water to the yeast mixture. Let the yeast sit for 10 minutes. It should be foamy and active! If not, start over with another packet of yeast. Once your yeast is ready, add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Then add the yeast mixture. Then slowly add your water (should still be warm) to achieve the right consistency in your batter. Since different brands, flours, measuring techniques act different I do not recommend just blindly dumping in the rest of the water but adding gradually instead. The dough should be like very stiff cake batter. I beat my dough on high for about 15 minutes in my stand mixer. If you accidentally add too much water simply add a little rice flour until you achieve the dough consistency you are after. Put the dough in your prepared pan and place in oven to rise for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. You can put plastic wrap or a towel over the pan. My house is much too cold right now so I put mine in the oven so that the dough can rise. Once the dough has risen to the top of the pan, bake the bread for 40 minutes at 350 degrees or until internal temperature reaches 190 degrees. As you can tell, I am big on thermometers.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

My hubby wanted to go get frozen yogurt at Yogel's the other night. I said why don't we just get some organic ice cream when we go shopping later. Then when we got there and we looked at the ingredients we decided we didn't want to do that either. He said, "how about we make chocolate chip cookies?" I puckered my lips and said "hmm, how about gluten free cookies?" He said, "okaaaay," in a hum hawing voice. Now the challenge was to figure out how to do this without buying a package, and it took me a day to get to it.

I have been saving the nut pulp from our nut milks for awhile now. I dehydrate it and grind it into a flour and then put it in the freezer for freshness. I never know what to do with it. They sell almond powder in small packages for a hefty price, so I knew I should keep saving it, especially since mine was from RAW organic almonds and nuts. So here's what I threw together. It's not perfect, BUT it is better than any of the alternatives and is just one more step away from all of the terrible snacks that tempt my family. It's also not raw, but I would have been completely satisfied eating the dough. It was good! In fact that's what I ate. I'm also not a huge fan of the agave anymore, but it's all about transition and if agave helps then we will use it for awhile. I use dates for most everything and I love them. I will probably try them in this recipe sometime.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cups Almond Flour (mine was a combination of almond, hazelnut, brazil nut, and macadamina nut)

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup raw agave syrup

5 tablespoons coconut oil or 5 tablespoons organic melted butter if you don't mind dairy*

1 teaspoon organic vanilla

1/2 cup organic dark chocolate chips (use raw cacao if you are just eating the dough)

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl
Combine wet ingredients in a different bowl
Mix wet ingredients and dry together
Form balls and press onto an oiled baking sheet (They need to be smashed or they will hold the ball shape)

Bake at 350° for 7-12 minutes
Cool off and serve with some cold nut milk

Makes 12 cookies

OR

even better leave out the baking soda and eat it raw! Whip up some raw ice cream and put some cookie dough crumbles in. MmmmMMmmm, pure heaven.

*If you haven't switched over to buying organic food I recommend starting with your butter and cream (this includes ICE CREAM!) Butter is from the fat of the cow's milk and is where alot of the pesticides and antibiotics the cow is exposed to end up. If you simply switch your butter purchasing habits you will largely eliminate the amount of pesticides you are exposed to.

Stay tuned for my gluten free bread recipe too!

What a beautiful raw day!

I made a new breakfast today: Goji berry sunshine cereal with brazil nut milk. It was so good I had to take a picture, and so started my idea to document everything we ate today. On a normal day we usually start off with a green smoothie, but they have been getting bored with them lately. I've been switching them up with different fruits, but they still wanted something to crunch on. I make raw granola which they love, but I wanted something new and exciting, and I certainly got what I asked for. Tomorrow I've promised to make coconut breakfast cakes, and I hope they turn out as yummy!

For lunch we took a picnic to the park. It was a warm but slightly cloudy day and ended up being perfect. I brought a quart of green smoothie, this one had blueberry, spinach and banana. We also brought grapes, 2 nectarines, flax chips and guacamole. Our third course consisted of a raw almond butter and fresh smashed blueberry sandwich on ezekiel bread. To wash it all down we had refreshing H20. Everything organic of course. I didn't have any sandwich, it's just to help them in transitioning.

Stealing a nectarine, then on to the smoothie. I don't really feed him food yet, but these were adorable moments.

I love how the juice is all over him. The park is where I let loose and let them make a mess. I brought a wet washcloth for the imminent messes.

Dinner was simpler. Just romaine lettuce today with organic raw cheese, organic olives from a jar not a can, avocado, and a vinegar, olive oil dressing.

For snack they had chocolate brazil nut milk popsicles. YUM! I didn't have time to take a picture. I had to get them to bed early since they missed nap time.

Now I leave you with a message from my tea bag: Let love elevate yourself to excellence.

Got Greens Bags

It's official I've sold my first produce bags! So here they are, my Got Greens bags:

$8 per set of 3

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

I am having a weak moment today and think I'll make some cookies. I searched through pages and pages of my Facebook looking for this recipe that I made a couple months ago. I had experimented a few times and was extremely happy with this final result, so I wasn't willing to start over again.

1 cup Organic Peanut butter (not a health food, unbalanced omega's, but I didn't want to cook my raw almond butter)

1/2 cup of following:
buckwheat flower
organic brown sugar
organic sugar
1/4 hazelnut (or other nut) milk

Mix together roll into balls and cook for 18-20 min at 325

Here's another version that is gluten free, but not vegan:
1 cup organic peanut butter
1 cup organic sugar
1 egg

Bake at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes.

No Pooing

First let me say that I can't stand the name of this procedure. How about no chem-hairing or something more pleasant to the ear the first time it's said. Next, let me say that this procedure has had no allure for me at all since I heard of it. Or maybe you're wondering what "it" is. Well Simply put, the number one procedure I've found was 1 Tbsp Baking Soda in 1 cup water massaged into hair and rinsed followed by 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar to 1 cup water massaged through hair and rinsed.

So why in the world would I try it? Because my research on eczema provides that many people are allergic to the harsh ingredients in the many cleaners we use on our bodies. Not to mention the many toxins that come in contact with our skin. I have been so extremely pleased with the switch over to coconut oil for lotion and have often questioned why I never realized sooner that the amounts of toxins I slathered on my dry skin we taxing my system. So this would be the next logical step for me, right? I mean, I have transitioned away from aluminum laden deodorant (not a pleasant task), stopped using fluoride toothpastes years ago, switched to expensive toxin free sunblocks, only use all natural chemical free soaps, and changed over to toxin free nail polishes as well. So I thought I would skip the step of organic shampoo and conditioners and go right to the finish line where all the hippies are, and no poo my hair.

I hardly ever shampoo my boys hair and when I do I use the all natural California Baby soap. I'd like to say this was all me, but it was John who would chew me out when he would see me shampooing them. "Why do you want to put all of those chemicals on him, he doesn't need it?" After realizing it wasn't worth arguing about it I quit shampooing them. They have beautiful shiny, silky hair, so I knew that there could be something to the no pooing.

So for my first time I am not thrilled. Lack Lustre is the phrase that comes to mind. I am not giving up though. I have color treated hair, and I guess I am missing the extreme shine that the conditioner provides. I was shocked at how easy it was to comb through though. I thought it would be difficult without all the assistance from the conditioner, but it wasn't. My hair needs a chance to recover from all of the years of build up being put on it and I know that. I also know that if I delve into a couple sites that there are plenty of things for me to experiment with to get what I want. Plus I saw pictures of others who no poo and their hair was beautiful, even color treated. However none of them were bleach blonde's, so only time will tell.

I'm not sure if I will no poo for my next shower, but I will keep trying again in the future.

Our almost hike

We had a nice escape to the cooler weather for a day. We had to wait in our car for the storm to clear so we could enjoy it, but once it did we got to run around in a little snow. We had planned to hike but it was too cold for Triton to be in it for a long period of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urgjpfAI-2c