Christmas eats: Pumpkin biscuits and pumpkin pie

Here follows a couple of recipes with pumpkin as the star ingredient. Pumpkin biscuits and a pumpkin cream pie. Hope your Christmas is ultra delicious!

Recipe: Pumpkin Biscuits

Ingredients

1/4 cup of coconut oil or butter

1/3 of a cup of pumpkin puree (steamed or baked)

3 eggs

Stevia

Vanilla

1/2 cup of coconut flour

1//4 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a baking sheet with baking paper.

Combine wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Combine dry ingredients in small bowl.

Blend or whisk dry ingredients into wet, making sure no lumps remain.

Let batter sit for a couple of minutes to thicken. Dough should be soft but hold its shape when scooped.

Scoop dough onto parchment-lined sheet, about 1″ scoops. Cookies will not spread much during baking.

Bake 17-20 minutes. Cookies will be set and very lightly browned..

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie

Use the recipe for Coconut Berry Pie but instead of the berries add 1 cup of pureed roasted pumpkin.

Recipes for the christmas season: Coconut berry pie

Leading up to christmas I will be sharing a few recipes I have been knocking together in the kitchen which are not only amazingly delicious but very healthy too. Hope it gives you some inspiration to get creative in the kitchen!

Here is a recipe for coconut berry pie, it is devine! It fits well into my diet sans allergens, intols and pro inflammatory foods, hope it will be suitable for you also.

Recipe: Coconut Berry Pie

Ingredients

Crust

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/2 cup of shredded coconut unsweetened

1/4 cup of melted coconut oil

2 eggs

Stevia

Cinnamon

Pinch of unrefined salt

Filling

2 cans of coconut cream

3 egg yolks

1 tablespoon of pure bovine gelatin

1 tablespoon of coconut flour

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

stevia

vanilla

Pinch of unrefined salt

berries

Method

Crust

Combine coconut flour and coconut shreds (I blended them a bit in the food processor as the shreds were large.) Combine the rest of the ingredients mixing well. Add the coconut flour and shreds. Mix well. The mixture should be like dough and slightly pliable. Roll into a ball and flatten out onto a piece of baking paper. Roll and mold it out into a large circle (that will fit your chosen pie dish.) It does tend to break if rolled with a rolling pin but just continue to mold with fingers. Grease pie dish with coconut oil. When the round of crust is achieved place the pie dish upside down on top of the dough and carefully flip over so the crust is in the pie dish. Then mold it into place.

Place into a preheated oven at 160 degrees celsius for about 15 minutes. Cool on bench.

Filling

Place 2 cans of coconut cream in a pot and heat until simmering, simmer for about 10 minutes whisking constantly. Whisk 2 egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add one quarter of the coconut cream to the egg yolks whisking constantly, then add the rest of the coconut cream as you continue to whisk it into the yolks. Add the mixture back into the pot and onto a medium hot plate, simmer for another 10 minutes whisking continuously. It will begin to thicken. Add the gelatine, coconut flour, coconut oil, stevia, vanilla and salt still whisking.

Take off the heat and place in an ice bath or into the freezer to cool whisking every few minutes. When thicker take one quarter of the coconut custard and blend roughly with 1/2 a cup of your choice of berries. Pour plain coconut custard into the pie crust. Pour the berry and custard mixture onto the top of the pie crust and swirl around with the custard. Place some more berries into the top of the pie.

You can serve it slightly warm, place it in the fridge for an hour and it will be cool or leave it over night in the fridge and the filling becomes very firm, a bit like cheesecake! Yuum.

Recipe of the week: My Sweet Omelette

Introducing my lovely breakfast sweet omelette. Packed full of goodness and tastes like dessert. You can mix it up with adding either pumpkin or sweet potato as a base, as well as the addition of your choice of berries.

Recipe

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of coconut oil plus a teaspoon for frying

1/3 of cup of steamed or baked sweet potato or pumpkin fresh or left over from dinner

Cinnamon and/or nutmeg

Stevia

Unrefined salt

Berries (I used blackberries.)

Method

Steam or bake sweet potato or pumpkin or gather leftovers from dinner.

Seperate egg yolks from whites

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.

Combine pumpkin or sweet potato with egg yolks, melted coconut oil, stevia, cinnamonand/or nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Blend well with a stab mixer to a creamy consistency.

Mix beated egg whites into the pumpkin or sweet potato mixture, carefull to not over mix the whites.

Heat pan with coconut oil, place berries in the middle of the pan. When oil is hot pour omelette mixture into pan over the berries. When cooked on one side place under a grill to cook on top.

Carefully remove from pan with a spatula, it is quite soft.

Top with yogurt or coconut kefir yogurt and cinnamon if you please.

Enjoy x

The Fermentation Series Recipe: Fermented Sweet Potato

This recipe is for a traditional food Fermented Sweet Potato which I discovered recently. I was reading the book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel (no I don’t have tooth decay but still very good book and covers TMJ jaw disorder) and they mentioned fermented sweet potato, I then discovered a recipe for it in my Nourishing Traditions book by Sally Fallon.

The end product is so delicious and so nutritious, a great snack food and a superfood for the gut. The sweet potato contains prebiotic fibers which feed the good bacteria in the gut and the addition of either yogurt or kefir to ferment the sweet potato makes it a strong probiotic. This snack or condiment is perfect for the Vata dominant type in Ayurvedic terms because of its sweet, slightly sour, unctuous, heavy characteristics.

Recipe

Ingredients

You can halve or quarter the recipe if you like

1 kilo of sweet potato (I use the sweeter type gold sweet potato)

1 tablespoon of unrefined sea salt

4 tablespoons of coconut kefir or natural yogurt

Method

Peel potato, chop into large chunks and dry bake for around 45 minutes.

After the sweet potato is cooked place into a bowl with sea salt and blend well with a stab mixer. Add in coconut kefir or yogurt. Blend well.

Place mixture into large glass jar with a lid with room for it to expand. Leave in a warm place for 24 to 48 hours then place in refrigerator.

Best served chilled with some more yogurt or kefir.

There you have it fermented sweet potato. When made with coconut kefir as I do it actually tastes like apricot slice, I have no idea why!

Enjoy x

My top 8 picks for convenience, packaged snack foods.

I am pretty content with making the majority of my snack foods from scratch at home from whole foods, but sometimes you just want something different, convenient, tasty and healthy! Here is a list of products I have found that still offer the body real food, nutrients, amazing taste and don’t give you a nasty rise and fall in blood sugar. There are no copious amounts of processed sugar, soy, grains or dairy here.

1. Raw Coconut Butter

This is just pure 100% raw, ground coconut and it is divine! You can purchase the Artisana brand from iherb and Tropical Traditions also makes an equally amazing one you can purchase here. If you are lucky enough it may be stocked in your local health food store.

2. Kelp Noodles

Not exactly something you can just eat straight from the packet but after a quick soak or a blanch you can add some salad veg and/or some canned salmon etc for a snack. Get them off iherb or from other retailers.

3. Activated Nuts and seeds

Activated nuts and seeds are raw and have been soaked in purified water, salt and sometimes whey to activate them, then dehydrated at low temperature to retain all the enzymes and nutrients. This is an ancient, traditional preparation technique. Nut, seeds, grains and legumes are all essentially seeds and within them they contain various enzyme inhibitors which protect them from mold, insects and animals (including humans) until they have what they need to grow into a plant. When they are given plenty of water they release these toxic substances into the water and begin to sprout. The activation process neutralizes enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of vital minerals is significantly reduced. I don’t know about you but if I have raw nuts I get a stomach ache and they taste slightly bitter.  Activated nuts are amazing! There are quite a few companies producing these now including Loving Earth and 2Die4 Live Foods.

4. Organic sweet potato chips

Organic sweet potato chips are AMAZING! One of my favourites. There are a few brands producing these all pretty much identical content these include Thompsons Chipman,  Absolute Organics and now Woolworths has one in the Macro range.

They are all organic and contain organic sweet potatoes, organic palm olein oil and sea salt. Palm olein oil is heat stable meaning the chips are not covered in rancid, damaged oil and there is not a bombardment of disease amplifying, aging free radicals that pose a challenge to the gastrointestinal tract and the immune system.

5. Sprouted/activated crackers

Raw crackers are delish and made from an assortment of sprouted seeds, sea vegetables, spices and vegetables. They are dehydrated to retain enzymes and nutrients. You can find some here and on iherb.

6. Raw Macadamia nut butter

This raw macadamia butter by Hand ‘N’ Hoe is so creamy. It is best to consume nuts and seeds that have been pre soaked/activated but if there is one you don’t occasionally make it the macadamia it is lower in enzyme inhibitors and has the best fatty acid profile. Find it here or google it for other retailers.

7. Kale Chips

Kale chips make a tasty nutritious treat. They are dehydrated at low temperatures to retain all the vitamins, minerals and enzymes and paired with a variety of flavours. I sometimes make these at home myself in the oven. Loving Earth produces these and iherb also stocks similar products.

8. Raw chocolate

Have you tried raw chocolate? If not, you have to give it a go. My favourite so far is the Loving Earth brand which just melts in your mouth, you would never guess how good it is for you. It contains organic raw cacao butter, org raw cacao, raw agave, Himalayan salt and vanilla bean. I can find this brand in a few of my local health food stores. There are other companies that produce similar products such as Rawganic,  Rawlife and Conscious Chocolate.

What are your favourite packaged treats?

Have you tried any of the above?