Plum Cake sounds better than Prune Cake

I made this spicily re-vamped version of a coffee cake recipe for my hubby today. He liked it, and I was pleased because and it's a  healthy dessert and moist enough for the lunchbox.

Yogurt-filled Plum Cake

Grease an 8x8 baking pan with butter

Combine filling ingredients, then set aside:
1 cup strained (Greek-style) yogurt (or plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 tsp xantham/guar gum to thicken)
1 egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup raw/natural/brown sugar

Mix dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour (I used spelt flour)
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ginger

Cut in:
1/4 cup soft butter
Stir in:
1/2 cup prunes, snipped

Mix wet ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk (or sour milk, or room temperature milk mixed with vinegar/lemon juice)
1 egg, beaten in
1/4 cup raw/natural sugar or honey

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix till combined. Pour half the batter into your greased pan. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon. Top evenly with yogurt filling. Top with remaining batter. Sprinkle with walnuts, cinnamon or additional raw sugar crystals if desired. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or till puffy and golden brown.

Macobella

To eat Nutella with a spoon is one of the special pleasures of women in the free West - unless one happens to be allergic to chocolate and sugar, in which case she only imagines that it must be scrumptious to do so. Eating almond butter with a spoon is a pleasure less exquisite and can even tend to make one morose and non-conversant.

Enter maca-laced carob-infused almond butter, aka "Macobella". This buttery dark brown treat is not only free of sugar (and chocolate and peanuts and other troublesome things) but it is tremendously satisfying and energizing, full of protein and healthy fat. I would encourage anyone who does not usually like carob to give this a try, because the rich, buttery texture brings out the best of the carob flavor (more than many recipes in which carob is substituted for cocoa and ends up tasting like mildly sweetened dirt). The carob is used mostly for the natural sweetness it contributes.

This recipe is for one or two servings, because for some reason it seems more appetizing freshly made than if it were made in a big batch and dipped from a jar. It's a great healthy snack for those cravey times of the month, and an out-of-this-world dessert topped with frozen berries and coconut milk. I would post a picture, but that I just ate the photo subject again and am composing this post in the energy of it. 

Macobella

1 tablespoon almond butter

1 tablespoon sesame butter (or another of almond butter if you don't have sesame butter)

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 heaping teaspoon carob powder

1 heaping teaspoon maca powder 

Optional additions:

1 heaping teaspoon flaked coconut

1 teaspoon flax meal

Dash of coconut milk if your mixture is too dry.

Mix everything in a small glass dish until smooth and dough-like. Eat now or later. A handful of frozen blackberries or raspberries and coconut cream poured over top are a recommended indulgence.

Cauliflower Chowder

Cauliflower is wonderful. From the  to the great nutritional benefits to the extraordinay potential for crunchy, chewy, creamy, buttery, fluffy foods that can be derived from it, it's clearly one of God's gifts to mankind. Today I made cauliflower chowder. I usually blend my cauliflower soup to a smooth creamy texture, but this one I just stirred to a really fine consistency, maintaining some of the chunkiness. You could try blending the first section of ingredients before adding the second section and it might just be good. I added part of this to some freshly cooked-in-butter flounder for a fish chowder, but I think the recipe deserves to stand on its own with the fish as an option.

Cauliflower Chowder

Cook over medium heat in a large saucepan:
1 medium cauliflower head, cored and chopped
2 tsp. minced dry onion or 1 tsp. onion powder or 1/4 c. raw onion
1 tsp. minced dry or fresh garlic or garlic powder
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. dry thyme
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. sea salt

Stir occasionally, breaking cauliflower into smaller bits. When cauliflower is very tender, add

1/2 c. sesame tahini
Juice of half a lemon
Bits of chopped uncured ham or bacon (optional)
Chopped parsley

(For yummy, non-dairy fish chowder, pan-fry any mild white fish fillet in butter with salt and pepper until flaky and add to your cauliflower chowder after the first step.)

Enjoy in a bowl.

Spaghetti Squash Pie

This morning I wanted something eggy and bakey and healthy for breakfast. (Most people would label my breakfast choices as lunch-like, so take this as a lunch idea if you are normal.) Cooked spaghetti squash was my base. (Oh, and here's the idea - buy huge spaghetti squashes and cut them in half and bake them on baking sheets filled with a bit of water. Scoop out the squash noodles and use for several meals, since the squash keeps for days in the fridge, or even longer frozen.Then you will have cooked spaghetti squash lying around as inspiration to make yummy, carb-less entrees.)

This is an approximation of my recipe. I am making it bigger than my single-serving stovetop experiment.

Spaghetti Squash Pie

1.) Cook together in large cast-iron skillet on medium heat. You wants lots of nice little brown meat crumbles.

1 tsp. olive oil

1/2 lb. turkey burger 

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. ground fennel (optional)

dash of dry cayenne pepper and/or additional seasonings of choice (oregano,onion powder, rosemary...)

Spread the crumbles around evenly in the skillet. This is your baking pan. 

2.) Turn on the oven - 350 F.

3.)Combine...

3 cups cooked spaghetti squash 

4 eggs

1/2 cup crumbly soft cheese (like feta or romano or cottage curds - I used goat cheese)

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dry basil 

1/2 tsp. dry parsley, or 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh

1/2 tsp. salt

Grab a fork and mix everything together in a dish. (Like the same one the spaghetti squash was in.) Stir until the eggs are well mixed in. Dump or pour the pie batter over meat crumbles in the skillet. Bake in the oven until puffy and dry through the middle. I made my small version on top of the stove with the skillet covered. It got a little bit brown on the bottom. Baking is better, and also necessary if you're making a two or three-serving version. 

Serve in wedges alongside a nice green salad of spring mix with Brianna's dressing.

Pictureless Pomegranate Salad

This healthy salad is a delicious addition to holiday or winter meals. The fact that it was consumed before photographs could be taken should not prevent my recording the recipe, but it is rather pretty. I made it to suit my dietary needs - no sugar, no dairy, no apples, and lots of nutritious health benefits. For those with high non-sweetened tolerance, the honey and cinnamon can be omitted, and it tastes quite zingy and delicious. The walnuts help to cut the acidity of the lemon, and also add crunch to the sometimes unpleasant chewiness of the pomegranate seeds.

Winter Fruit Salad

Toss fruit:
- Seeds of one pomegranate, precipitated into a dish
- One navel orange, peeled and chopped across sections into bite-size bits
- 1/2 cup walnuts, pieces or chopped

Mix dressing:
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon and/or ginger (optional)

Pour dressing over fruit and nuts and toss again. Chill or serve immediately. Serves 2-4.

Fermented Grain Applesauce Snack Cake - Gluten Free

{No pictures, I know. Picture a thick moist spice cake without sugar or frosting}

Because I've considered experimenting with gluten-free yeast bread too time-consuming and high in the sacrifice of fiber for fluffiness and gluten-freeness, I've been experimenting with soaked/fermented grain quick bread. It's time-consuming if you count the soaking time, but not if you count what you actually do. Plus, there is only one wait-time between initial preparation and preparation to dump in the pan. The last batch of this cake-like bread that I made turned out addictively moist, grainy and delicious - as well as easy to digest, thanks to its hearty soaking.

It is unfortunate that I am an unprincipled dumper when it comes to cooking and baking. I smell, feel, look and jiggle and taste and, for the most part, hopelessly fail to measure. But I tried to keep track of some important things in this last and most-successful cake of moistness and tender, glutenless crumbs.

So here is the recipe!

STEP 1 - Before your all-night or all-day soak.

In large glass measuring cup or mixing bowl, combine

2 cups of gluten-free grain flours:
 (I used - 1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
 - 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
-1/4 cup fine buckwheat kasha)
You could use brown rice flour, sorghum, teff, oats or oat bran (if you can) millet flour etc. - just make sure to use a combination of several, since most gluten-free flours have a flat, distinctive flavor when used alone. Coarse flours like cornmeal, oats and fine kasha lend a nice chewy texture, and a small amount of starch like arrowroot or tapioca adds softness and springy-ness).
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put on stove or in microwave to heat till hot - near but not fully boiling:
1 1/2 cups water

While the water heats, add on top of the mixed flours, but do not stir yet:
1/2 cup natural (un-sweetened) applesauce, or cooked 'seconds' apples (and/or prune baby food)
1-2 tsp. dark (blackstrap) molasses 
1 T Bragg's apple cider vinegar

Add hot water to flour and apple sauce and stir together till nice and batter-y. Add more flour or water or applesauce if it looks too dry or too wet. Cover with a plate or something and let sit over night, or all day , or all day and all night (or until next week if you are adventurous or have ADD). Feel free to stir it whenever you walk through the kitchen, but make sure it has time to soak - at least 8 hours, or longer if your kitchen is cold. You want the batter to sour and ferment a little. It might begin to smell 'spoiled' depending on what flours you used, but that's okay - the baking will take care of it.

STEP 2 - Before baking:

Grease an 8x8 baking pan with butter.

Uncover your wonderful smelly grain goop and add, stirring heartily with a fork or whisk after each addition,
2 eggs, or 2 egg-yolks and an egg
1/4 cup softened/melted butter, grapeseed oil, coconut oil or other desired fat
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves (and/or of nutmeg, ginger too - whatever you like)
1/2 tsp. buffered Vitamin C powder (optional!)
1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder or baking soda, or half of each

Pour batter into pan. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, or cinnamon or nutmeg, or coconut flakes, or nothing; or drizzle with rice milk and gently swirl with knife for an extra-moist bread. Bake at 350 - 375 F (I did 365) until set in center and brown at edges. (20 minutes? I didn't time it - it's too appetizing to forget about). Let cool in pan 10 minutes before eating. (Ha, as if I did that). Enjoy!

Refrigerate if any remains overnight, or it might start fermenting again. Not quite yummy. If you leave it out and that does happen, simply crumble the remainder of the 'spoiled' bread into your next batch for even better flavor. I often do this if there's some old stuff left when I want to make a new batch. No need to eat the old, stale bread when you can just crumble it into the new.

If anyone tries this recipe, let me know how it works and what you tweaked.

Rooty Fruity Hotdog Hash - GF, Grain-Free, Nightshade-Free

Today I made lunch like I do almost every day. Begin with a cast-iron skillet and a fridge of leftovers and end with something that no one in the world has ever eaten before. Sometimes it is quite tasty - today, tasty enough to write down the recipe.

We had leftover roasted parsnips in the fridge - not everyone has those, but they should since they make things so tasty. Just add some extra scrubbed and olive-oil slathered parsnips to the bottom of your next meat roast and see if you are fortunate enough to have any left for yummy hashes.

So here is the recipe...

Rooty Fruity Hotdog Hash - 1 serving

Add to well-buttered skillet:

- 1/4 cup sliced cooked parsnips
- 1/2 cup cooked beans (I used azuki beans. One could use cooked navy, northern or red beans)
- Nitrite-free turkey hotdogs - 1 or 2 sliced (I buy these for a reasonable price)
- 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. ground fennel seed
- dash of black pepper and salt to taste

Saute on med-high until hotdogs begin to sizzle and warm through. Add a splash of chicken broth or unsweetened coconut milk if mixture begins to stick or become too brown. Peel and slice a mango. When mixture is done, turn off burner and chop desired amount of fresh mango into the mixture. Stir slightly, serve and eat.  (Any remaining mango may be eaten for dessert with fresh yogurt or coconut milk.)

I found that the spicy sweet tastes of parsnip and mango go very well together and complement the saltiness of hotdogs and blandness of the beans wonderfully. The fennel and ginger just give it more spicy delight. Try it sometime - try it with variations. It's great for people who like the convenience of hotdogs but can't eat buns or ketchup!