St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Not quite the typical St. Patrick's Day fare, but it'll do :) At least there's some green in it ;)

Do you know who St. Patrick was? I didn't until our kids got a Veggie Tales dvd that had his story on it. Wiki says:

Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints.

If you'd like to know more, watch the Veggie Tales Sumo dvd or read more on wiki ;)

We had cubed steak, fried with salt and pepper, steamed/fried asparagus with hollandaise sauce (I used coconut oil instead of butter), and baked sweet and russett potatoes. Yum!

Fruit Juice Gelatin

It was really good.

We added blueberries.

E1 enjoyed it.

E3 also enjoyed it.

E2 enjoyed it so much that she ate it all before I got a pic.

I got the recipe from Kimi's The Nourishing Gourmet site. Check out all her awesome recipes. They're seriously delicious.

I used Apple Juice and organic blueberries. I made some without blueberries for the baby, since she's newly allergic. Sigh.

Raw Popcorn...oxymoron?

Kind of. It's actually cauliflower with nutritional yeast, salt and cayenne pepper. I was out of Cayenne pepper, so I just used salt and nutritional yeast. It gives it a cheesy, nutty flavor, like the cheesy stuff that's on cheetos - only nutritional yeast is nutritious for you! It is a complete protein, has B vitamins as well as other vitamins, and is low in sodium. I'm excited to try it in some scrambled eggs!

I made the Raw Popcorn today, and the girls and I enjoyed it. E1 wasn't too sure, but he's not that open to new foods, so we'll keep trying.

Refried Beans with Coconut Oil

Yummy. I love refried beans. I don't love the additives and preservatives.

I haven't had much success cooking beans from dried, but my Whole Foodigans friends were talking about soaking and cooking beans, so I thought I'd give it a whirl again.

I soaked pinto beans, probably a pound and a half, in water with a splash of lemon juice overnight. Mid morning, I drained the soaking liquid out, then put them in a pot with more water on the stove. Cooked them for several hours, checking every couple or so to see if the beans were done. I drained them, let them cool, then put them in the fridge. 

Tonight, I heated up some coconut oil, threw some of the cooked pinto beans in, added chili powder and salt to taste, and used my Pampered Chef Mix N Chop to smash them up. If you don't have a Mix N Chop, buy one now. I'm not even joking, one of the best inventions ever. It's original purpose was for chopping up the  ground meat, when you're browning it, but it works for so many other things!

Mix N Chop

Amazing Gluten Free Bread!

I can't believe how amazing this bread is. It tastes like glutinous bread, and isn't expensive to make!
I was thrilled to come across this recipe from glutenfreegoddess. She has a lot of really great recipes, check out her blog!

Here's my version of this yummy bread: you can leave out the oil for an almost sourdoughy type taste!
3 cups sorghum flour
2 cups tapioca starch
1 1/2 cup millet flour
2 Tbsp guar gum
1 1/4 Tbsp fine sea salt









2 Tbsp coconut flour
3 Tbsp Date Sugar (dehydrated, granulated dates)
3 Tbsp Red Star Active Dry Yeast (not nutritional yeast, as my hubby found out)
2 Tbsp Chia seeds


In seperate bowl:
3 3/4 cup warm water (not boiling, as my hubby also found out)
9 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (just under 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
4 whole local, free range eggs


Mix the dry ingredients together first, including yeast.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
Mix together.
Pour into three greased pans lined with parchment paper and place in a warmed oven (turned OFF after warming) for 30 minutes.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, until the bread sounds hollow when thumped. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. Slice off end and eat hot.

It turned out quite well, and the kids and I eat the loaf in a day. The baby LOVES it :)

ETA: This made great toast for when I was sick. I'm so glad I had a safe option.

Perfect for dipping in Creamy Tomato Soup

Turkey Salad Wraps

I saw somewhere that someone used some Boston living lettuce to wrap up their food. I happened to come across some Boston lettuce not too long after, so I snagged it.

Mix leftover roast turkey or chicken with mayo, mustard, relish, and optional onions, celery, in the food processor.
Put in cleaned leaves of lettuce.
Enjoy

Faux Frosty for breakfast? Why, yes, thank you!

A group of friends and I started a blog called Whole Foodigans. It's about whole foods, but not only real foods, DELICIOUS real, whole foods!

Anyway, mid morning snack - Faux Frosty! No sugar. It has Dolomite powder in it, which adds calcium. Delicious. Try it!
My picture is not as pretty as my friend's on the WF blog.