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Recipes
I don't have time to cook fancy foods. I make time to prepare nutritious, simple meals.
I am gluten, sugar and lactose intolerant, which makes a delicious diet challenging, but not impossible!
About once a week I make a container of my Great Grains (recipe below) and leave it in my refrigerator without seasoning. This way I can use it to compliment a piece of fish or chicken, a curry dish or marinara sauce, as breakfast food or even dessert!
Once you get into the habit of cooking easy to prepare healthy foods
you'll be eating healthy foods every day!!!
Great Grains
Grab a large stainless steel pot and put in 3 cups of water along with 1 cup of black or brown rice and bring to a boil for 20 minutes. Then add a cup of "little-alkaline grains; quinoa, amaranth & millet" and boil for another 15 minutes. This makes a weeks worth for myhusband and me.
If you want a larger quantity or more grains, simply add more water and any antique grain will do. DO NOT SEASON until you are ready to serve. When it's time to prepare you can make it savory (curry, stir fry, etc.) or sweet (almond milk, black strap molasses, nuts and raisins) or tangy (add nuts, seeds, berries, olive oil, peanut oil and vinegar) and you have made a fiber and protein filled dish. Share and enjoy!
Curry Anything
Simply choose your desired stir fry pan, mine is a cast iron skillet, and drop a dollop of coconut oil in it, or sesame oil, or sunflower oil. Once the oil is warm start adding ingredients. If I am making a meat curry the meat or tofu would go in first. Once that is nearly cooked, I usually toss in some hard veggies first, a couple of sliced carrots, broccoli stalks, cabbage. Then finish with the heads of broccoli or some spinach to wilt and some sprouts. The last few just want to be warmed. Of course, I need some Great Grains with this, so I throw them in just after the quickly cooked veggies. I don't think I have met many foods that CAN'T be curried, and Turmeric (with curcumin for inflammation) is the main ingredient in curry. So, eat, enjoy and be healed!
Special Spices
I discovered I use many of the same spices in most all of my savory meals so I decided to save myself some prep-time by combining a variety of them in an empty glass spice bottle. Turmeric, Curry, Cumin, Basil, Himalayan Sea Salt, Oregano, Cilantro, Parsley, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, etc.
You name the spice and I can find a list of healthy benefits ingesting it will cause! We love the side affects of these tasty morsels. Herbs and spices are our gifts from Mother Nature. Use them ALL!
Just Desserts!
Healthy desserts can be simply delicious and very easy to prepare.
One of my favorite is a raw apple sprinkled with cinnamon! Or how about lightly cooking the apples and throwing in some of our Great Grains, some raisins and maybe some more cinnamon and a drop of Stevia? Or if you want to add some more protein whip up a couple raw eggs and pour some almond milk into a custard pot and bake. Instead of thinking about the things you "can't eat" invent new things you can!
Beets in the Oven
Ingredients:
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6 beets, scrubbed & sliced
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2 tablespoons coconut oil
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Sea salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Place beets and butter in glass pan with lid after rubbing them with butter; season as desired Cover and bake for 30 minutes, or until beets are very tender. Allow beets to cool about 5 minutes before serving.
Any vegetable can be roasted; yams, beets, onions, garlic, squash, asparagus, celery, etc. Simply adjust cooking time. Use coconut oil or organic butter, both are good for you!
Enjoy them, peeling and all!
Spices - The sky is the limit on what to add for spices but I always add cinnamon. I usually add a little nutmeg, a lot of cloves and maybe a dash of vanilla extract. I love "kicking it up a notch" with a couple of dashes of cayenne (great stimulant for our livers and other organs.
STIR FRY VEGGIES
Ingredients:
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1 tbsp coconut oil
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1 small yellow onion, sliced into strips
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4 heads baby bok choy chopped
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6 fresh shiitake sliced mushrooms
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Sesame seeds
Directions:
Heat oil in a frying pan. Add onion, turn heat down and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shiitakes, bok choy, mirin and tamari. Cover and cook 3 minutes.
Serve while hot!
DELICIOUS SMOOTHIE
Ingredients:
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1 cup of almond milk or rice milk (or dilute w/ 1/2c water)
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1 frozen banana (doesn't have to be frozen;)
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1 tsp coconut butter or oil (makes blender hard to clean)
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1 peach
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1 apple or a handful of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.
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1 carrot
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1 stalk of celery
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1 peeled avocado with pit if your blender can handle it.
Notes:
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Nearly anything you want to add works except cabbage and broccoli
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When adding a beet it will make a green smoothie red-and it will stain your clothes!
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When fresh fruits are on sale I buy larger quantities and wash and freeze them.
Directions:
Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Chew the liquid in your mouth to get FULL nutritional benefit! Sip on it throughout the day!
Yummy Gluten Free Granola
Ingredients:
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4-1/2 cups rolled oats
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1/2 cup oat bran
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2 cups plain puffed rice
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Any grain you want
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2 cups coconut oil
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1 cup butter
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1 cup maple syrup
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1 cup honey
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2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
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3 cups raisins, Goji Berries, or any dried fruit
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1 cup almonds or walnuts
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1 cup raw pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Directions:
Combine your oats, oat bran, rice and grains in a large metal or Pyrex mixing bowl. You are going to toast these babies for about 20-30 minutes at 200 before baking. Toasting grains first makes the granola crunchier (and oatmeal cookies divine. Never toast flax, it breaks down the oil in it and decreases shelf life.)
Combine your oils and sweeteners in a saucepan and bring to a boil allowing the mixtures to combine and cook together. Pour your extract in about a minute before removing from the stove top.
Mix the grains and the liquids together and bake at 200 degrees for about 45 minutes, remove from oven and stir in nuts and fruits and bake 20 more minutes. Watch it closely so it doesn't burn cause oven temps can vary! Shut off oven and open the door and allow to cool. I do not stir it before it cools because I like it chunky. Store in refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container. It keeps for 2 months at room temperature, but I prefer to keep it in the refrigerator to preserve the oils in the food, and truly, it never lasts more than a month;) You can increase the liquids (oils and sugars) in your next batch if you want it to be crunchier and sweeter. I prefer the dryer ratio.You can use liquid cane sugar in addition to the honey and maple syrup.
It's your creation-have fun with it!
MEXICAN OR ITALIAN NIGHTS
Whenever I purchase meat it is free range, no antibiotics, no hormone, no steroid diet-Be careful not to buy the no anti-hor-steroid "added" stuff cause this means the animal consumed it but they haven't added it to the meat. Good grief!
Anyway, when I buy a package of "happy-healthy ground turkey or chicken" I cook it all, sauteeing it with cumin and a bit of turmeric, and put half of it away in the refrigerator so I can make 2 different dishes with the protein.
I use gluten free wraps in a variety of dishes, from burritos filled with beans and ground turkey to thin-thin crust pizzas topped with black olives and wilted spinach.
For my Mexican night I take the cooked meat and put it on a wrap. My husband loves his cheese, so I lay a couple of slices on his wrap and cover with the meat, add some spinach and roll it up and toast it in a hot pan.
For pizza I cover pan with olive oil and lay the wrap on it and tp it with some Classico Spagetti Sauce and olives and my husband's half with cheese and bake till crispy. I wilt my spinach on the stove and add after baking and sprinkle with celery salt.