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Apple Fennel Salad Stack – Gluten-free w/ Vegan Option
This time of year, as excited as I am for all the comfort food, the hot meals, soups and stews, pumpkin baked goods and halloween candy – I do find myself missing all the fresh produce of summer. For me, there is nothing as satisfying as a healthy, crisp and light salad made from what is currently in season. I get so much enjoyment out of creating fall and winter salads, where the options are a bit more limited.
This simple and beautiful Apple Fennel Salad Stack is so quick to make and the finished result is so elegant and colorful. If you are vegan, feel free to leave off the cheese on top, it isn’t necessary at all, it just brings another layer of flavor that compliments the apples so well. Read the rest of this entry »
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Grain-Free & Vegan Apple Cobbler In A Jar
Even if you were unaware of the dropping temps and earlier sunsets, given all the pumpkin and apple recipes floating around online right now, it’d be hard not to notice that fall is on its way! I just love fall and all of the yummy comforting food that comes along with it. Spiced apple anything is a pretty surefire way to get me into an autumnal mood! The smell wafting through the house while anything apple-spiced bakes is probably one of the best smells in the whole entire world. These single-serve grain-free vegan apple cobblers in-a-jar are so simple to make, and they are a lovely healthy alternative to the usually heavy-on-the-butter and grain-containing original. Plus, these are great for those of us with restricted diets.
If you follow a paleo diet, I think just swapping the maple syrup out for honey should make these more paleo friendly. If you can’t have nuts, try using sunflower seed flour in place of the almond flour. If you like butter and you aren’t vegan, swap out the coconut oil with some good local grass-fed butter.
One bite of these amazing little treats will have you in the fall state of mind, as quick as can be! What’s your favorite fall food?
This recipe was originally shared on the Free People Blog BLDG 25.
[print_this]Grain-Free & Vegan Apple Cobbler In A Jar
makes 2 servings
Apple Filling:
- 2 large apples, peeled and diced small
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 teaspoons arrowroot starch (or other starch, corn, tapioca, potato, etc.)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Cobbler Topping:
- 3/4 cup blanched almond flour (I use Honeyville brand)
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot starch (or other starch, corn, tapioca, potato, etc)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey)
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil or butter
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- dash of salt
- additional coconut oil for greasing jars
- coconut sugar or regular sugar for the top, plus additional cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375ºF
Lightly grease two half pint-sized jars with coconut oil*
In a medium mixing bowl, mix all of the cobbler topping ingredients together. Make sure all of the ingredients are incorporated very well. Get your hands in there, if need be.
Form the dough into two equal sized balls using your hands and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place it into the fridge while you prep the apples.
Once the apples are peeled, core them and cut them into small thin slices or small cubes, place them in a bowl and add the remaining filling ingredients.
Take the dough out of the fridge — it should be a bit firmer now — and roll it out between two pieces of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Don’t press too hard, just enough to flatten it out into circles the size of the jars (it helps to use the lid).
Carefully cover the apple filling with the cobbler dough, cut a small slit in the middle and sprinkle a little cinnamon and sugar (of your choice) on top.
Place the jars on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes. The topping should be browned and the filling should be bubbling. Serve warm and, if you’d like, add some dairy-free ice cream or whipped coconut cream to the top.
*I used two 12-ounce sized jars but there was a little bit of extra room — that’s just the size of jars that I happen to have. If you use a half-pint sized jar they should be nice and jam packed with apples! [/print_this]
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Kalamata Olive & Goat Cheese Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes – Gluten-free
If you follow my Facebook page, you probably have seen the excessive amount of tomatoes coming from my garden. It is crazy. I am having to get really creative over here with all of them. It has been quite fun, actually.
These simple to make Kalamata Olive & Goat Cheese Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes are super simple to make and they make a great appetizer for an end-of-summer BBQ or picnic. If you don’t love olives, simply leave them out, this will still be super delicious. For a different variation, if you are vegan or avoid all dairy, try stuffing your tomatoes with some mashed avocado with cilantro, or a homemade guacamole. That’s equally as delicious.
I have been experimenting more and more with enjoying small amount of goat milk and sheeps milk cheeses and yogurt, I tend to not notice any issues when I eat it, so I do it very sparingly and in small amounts. I think for many people, this seems to be the case, outside of those with serious intolerances or allergies. At any rate, I have missed cheese a bit, so it has been a nice addition to my life. Do you have issues with dairy? Is it all dairy or just some?
This recipe was originally shared on the Free People Blog BLDG25 as part of my ongoing Restricted Diet serie.
[print_this]Kalamata Olive & Goat Cheese Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes
- 24 heirloom cherry tomatoes (about 1 pint), washed and dried
- 4 ounces goat cheese
- 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, chopped finely (optional, if you don’t like olives, you can leave them out)
- 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, roughly chopped (fresh basil would be great, too)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Dash of sea salt
- 1 tablespoon fresh chives, sliced thin
Slice the top off of cherry tomato, about 1/4-inch. Gently scoop out the seeds using a small spoon — I find a 1/4 teaspoon works perfectly. Drain off any juice that accumulates in the shells. (If your tomatoes are rolling around, you can slice a tiny sliver off the bottom of each so it will sit without rolling.)
In a bowl, mix together the goat cheese, Kalamata olives, fresh oregano, black pepper and sea salt together. Get it stirred up really well so it is creamy — I found a fork works perfectly. You may want to add just a small splash of water to get it moving.
Gently spoon the mixture into the tomatoes. Arrange on a serving platter, top them with the fresh cut chives and serve immediately.
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Heirloom Tomato and Avocado Salad (Gluten-Free + Vegan)
I get really excited as different fruits and veggies come into season. Whether in my garden or a neighbors’, at the farmers market or in my weekly CSA box. Tomatoes, especially the beautifully vibrant heirloom varieties, that is my favorite time of the season. If those don’t feel/taste like summer. I don’t know what does.
This vibrant and fun vegan take on the traditional caprese salad celebrates all that is great about summer! Instead of mozzarella, I substitute creamy avocado, which works so well with these flavors. I had some beautiful basil from my garden, some red onions from my friend Dan’s garden plus some beautiful heirloom tomatoes and an avocado from the local farmers market. It doesn’t get much more fresh than that.
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Curried Sweet Potato Chips – Gluten-free + Vegan
Oh gosh, what is it about crispy potato chips that are so satisfying? These delicious baked sweet potato chips are the best alternative to store-bought bagged chips that you could ever find. They are light and crispy and full of so much flavor from the curry powder. I have no shame in admitting that store-bought kettle style crispy potato chips are definitely one of my biggest weaknesses. I never buy them or have them in my house, for fear that I would sit down and eat an entire LARGE bag in one sitting.
These simple-to-make chips really satisfy that craving for me and the best part is, you can play around with the flavors. Besides the curry powder, which is one of my very favs, you can also just add salt and pepper, or maybe some smokey chipotle powder or even a sweet mix with a little cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. The possibilities are endless.
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Restricted Diets: Focus On What You CAN Eat, Not What You Can’t
This post was originally shared on the Free People blog, BDLG 25.
Restricted Diets: Focus On What You CAN Eat, Not What You Can’t
Many of you know this from following my blog over the past few years, but due to health reasons I was forced to give up gluten in 2005. Since then, I have also willingly removed dairy (with the exception of goat’s milk occasionally) and processed foods from my diet and I maintain a conscientious omnivore diet, with a focus on nutrient-dense whole foods, which means TONS of veggies. I generally avoid refined sugars and processed and refined carbs (though I am not perfect, obvi). One of the number one questions I receive from people when they first meet me and hear of all of my restrictions, is “what else is left” or “so what DO you eat then?”. This question always makes me laugh for the pure fact that I feel like the possibilities are endless and the weeks are not long enough for all of the foods I love to eat to make it into a meal.
I decided a while back instead of focusing on the long list of things I cannot eat, to instead celebrate the never-ending list of those that I CAN. It has been freeing to not only discover new foods that I never even knew existed, but to also get creative with some of the old standbys that pop-up often.
Having so many restrictions, some self-inflicted and some for medical/health purposes, may seem like it leaves very little for me to eat. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Restricting my diet has actually allowed me to find more foods and ingredients than I ever even imagined existed. There was a time when I first went gluten-free that all I could do was think about what I couldn’t eat. Cookies, pizza, cake, pasta, sandwiches…the list goes on and on. I was so sad over what I could no longer eat, that I couldn’t even focus on all of the many things there still were, and many that I didn’t even know about, yet. I began eating anything that I knew was gluten-free and even just closely resembled the food I had been missing so dearly. I gained weight and I felt terrible. It was all over-processed, filled with preservatives, and lab created junk made to make you think you were eating it’s gluten-containing counterpart. It all tasted terrible, was expensive, and I was even more unhappy. That is when I decided to take control of my eating and get adventurous and explore a little.
There had to be more out there and I was ready to find it. I discovered there are so many amazing gluten-free grains that I never even knew existed until I went searching (some of my favorites are pictured at the top of this post). Amaranth, millet, buckwheat, so many various rices – just to name a few. I also decided to start focusing more on fresh and whole fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds. After I decided to go dairy-free, processed and packaged food-free and eating very little meat, I really had to get creative with what I was eating. I have discovered so many fun things – for example:
– Using nutritional yeast in a recipe can give a cheesy flavor to vegan pasta sauces.
– Use ground flax seeds with hot water to replace eggs in many recipes to make them vegan.
– Psyllium husks give a great texture to gluten-free breads and baked goods that I had never found before.
– Make absolutely delicious baked goods totally grain-free by using almond flour – you would never know there isn’t a single grain in there.
– Make a delicious flatbread with literally just chickpea flour, water and oil.
The list of my discoveries just goes on and on! Instead of looking around and seeing all of the things that everyone else can have and I cannot, I now think about all of the creative ways to play with all of the amazing ingredients I have discovered. One of my favorite things to do is to go to the farmers market each week and with each trip I challenge myself to find and buy a food I have never heard of before or have never cooked with and get creative with it. It is so exciting and it keeps me on my toes.
This same philosophy can work for you, whether you are gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free, paleo, corn-free, sugar-free, nut-free, soy-free, grain-free, etc. Get out explore the rows of food at your farmers market and your local grocery store. Buy something you normally wouldn’t (as long as it is safe for you) and play. You might actually surprise yourself and learn to love a food you never even knew existed. Focus on the long list of amazing fresh and healthy foods that you can eat, instead of dwelling on the list of things you cannot. It is so freeing and inspiring!
