Gluten Free Gingerbread Men

'Tis the season for homemade gluten free gingerbread cookies. Our simple cookie recipe is made with freshly ground ginger! Ginger boosts immunity and has anti-inflammatory compounds called gingerols. It can reduce muscle pains and soreness due to these anti-inflammatory benefits. It can help with digestion and improve brain function through the use of it's antioxidants and bioactive compounds. We included the spices nutmeg and cinnamon. Cinnamon has anti-fungal, antibacterial and anti-parasitic properties! We also pre-soaked our flour for 24 hours prior to baking in order to release the enzyme inhibitors in processed flour. Enjoy!

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'Find patience in the breath of life'

Quote by: Ryunosuke Satoro 

Our indoor cherry tomato plants are coming along real slow. They appear healthy but are not growing very tall - just yet. Unfortunately we lost our basil plants that we were also growing indoors. Something went wrong and they're all gone. We'll be planting some seeds soon and trying again.  At least we haven't lost any of the tomato plants and still hope to harvest some cherry tomatoes in the near future.
Below: Our updated tomato plants photos.

Below: A couple of tasty meals - a dairy free pizza with a thin crust (gluten free), homemade tomato sauce, onions, garlic, spinach, yams and oyster mushrooms AND a breaded eggplant dinner with a side of French green lentils, spinach, asparagus, onion and garlic! We can't get enough of that pizza! Yummy... 

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Dairy Free Mushroom and Beets Pizza

We enjoy making our own tomato sauce from scratch - our main ingredients are tomatoes and carrots. We find that the sweetness of the carrots give the acidity of the tomatoes a good balance in flavor. For Friday's dinner, we wanted to make another thin crust pizza but didn't have any carrots for the tomato sauce. We used red beets instead of carrots and also added some hot peppers for spice. The results were amazing! Very tasty! Red beets are healthy - they provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support.

Below: Gluten free thin crust pizza made with brown rice and green pea flour! Our toppings were spicy homemade tomato sauce, leeks, garlic, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, sliced red beets and 2 happy chicken eggs! (click here for pizza crust recipe).

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Dairy-Free Zucchini and Yam Thin Crust Pizza

We love pizza! But it's hard to make when you are on a dairy-free diet. It's not the same without the cheese, specially because the toppings don't stay on! Today we created a delicious thin crust pizza recipe with an excellent substitute for cheese. Since we love the sweetness of yams, we made a zucchini and yam pizza with a healthy gluten free crust, homemade tomato sauce, spinach, leeks, garlic and the main ingredient to bring it all together - happy free range chicken eggs! If you are on a dairy free diet you should give this recipe a try. The egg acts as a binding agent (like cheese) and adds more flavor to your pizza. (see recipe below)

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Making Yeast Water

While researching the internet for information on creating yeast, we came across an amazing blog that shows you how to make yeast water. We decided this was going to be the method for making yeast that we will use in our first gluten free bread loaf recipe. We're very excited! We placed dried figs, dried prunes and some honey in our glass jar. Hopefully the results will be successful!

Below: Our latest addition to our fermenting family - dried fruit yeast water!

7 hours later... The figs began to float to the top of the jar. According to Wao, the fruit should begin to rise during this process. So far so good!

And later on... we are officially addicted to fermenting and decided to also try Wao's tea leaf yeast water! We only had organic red rooibos tea leaves available, so that's what we used. Hopefully it works out. (see image below)

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Zucchini and Shredded Coconut Flatbread

We haven't baked any gluten free bread loaves (except for flat bread and buns) because we don't have organic yeast. Since we love fermenting food now, we'll be making our own yeast tomorrow to finally bake some loaves. For now, enjoy our recipe (below) for gluten free zucchini and shredded coconut flat bread. For dinner, we toasted some of the bread and then blended it to use as bread crumbs for our Fish and Chips! (see image below). We also added some more fermented veggies on the side. Yummy and healthy!

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Grilled Green Pea Egg Sandwich

Green pea flour is a high protein flour that is gluten free. We recently purchased this flour and tried it out for the first time to make bread. There were many ingredients added to our recipe because we were unsure of how it would taste. Our organic green pea bread recipe included organic rice flour, organic walnuts (pre-soaked), organic shredded coconut, organic coconut flour, organic black chia seed powder, organic hemp seeds, organic quick oats, water and happy chicken eggs. The results were tasty! Next time we will try a dessert recipe with the flour. (see bread recipe below)

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Double Decker Veggie Burger

The nutrients in eggplant include fiber, manganese, potassium, folate, vitamin k, copper, vitamin B6, Vitamin C and magnesium. Lentils are a great source of B vitamins. B vitamins are important for the healthy function of the nervous, digestive and immune systems. 

Below: A double decker organic eggplant and lentil veggie burger with organic red onion, garlic, cumin and a happy free range chicken egg! MMMMmmmmm... tasty and very filling!

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Healthy Buns

We make our own coconut milk, here at home, by juicing the coconut meat in a juicer. When we make it ourselves, we save the shredded coconut left from the juicer because it still holds about 20% of the milk/liquid. We store the shredded coconut in the freezer and use it for baking. Gluten free buns with hemp seeds, shredded coconut and pumpkin seeds are easy to make! (See recipe below)

Recipe

Makes 4 large buns 

Ingredients:  

1 cup of organic gluten free white rice flour 

2 tbsp of organic almond flour

2 tbsp of organic white chia seed powder 

3 tbsp of organic hemp seeds

3 tbsp of organic shredded coconut 

3 tbsp of organic pumpkin seeds (pre-soaked overnight)

1/4 tsp baking powder 

sea salt 

1/4 cup of fluoride free water

1 large happy free range chicken egg

2 tbsp of organic coconut oil (melted)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 325 degrees F. 

2. In a large bowl, mix white rice flour, almond flour, white chia seed powder, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut, baking powder and sea salt. Mix really well. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, beat the egg and then add the water and coconut oil and continue beating. 

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix them together. The texture will be like dough but will appear crumbly. You may need to add a little water.

5. Using your hands, knead the dough and break into four separate (even) pieces.

6. Make pieces into 4 balls.

7. Hold dough in hand and press down slightly, moving around the dough. 

8. Place on a baking tray and repeat process. (You can choose to sprinkle shredded coconut on top of the buns)

9. Bake for 20-25 minutes! 

10. Let cool and enjoy! 

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Rice Flour Buns With Hemp Seeds

Rice flour is gluten free and contains insoluble fiber which aids in digestion. It contains a good source of protein, however brown rice contains a higher level of B vitamins than white rice. Hemp seeds contain many nutrients such as iron, calcium and vitamin D and can also be incorporated into baking. They are a complete source of protein and are more balanced and digestible than soy. We baked some white rice flour buns with shredded coconut and healthy hemp seeds. Very rich in flavor! You can eat them with some tasty organic peanut butter or use them for sandwiches. To learn more about hemp seeds click here. 

Rice Flour Buns With Hemp Seeds Recipe

Makes 4 large buns 

Ingredients:  

1 cup of organic gluten free white rice flour 

2 tbsp of organic white chia seed powder 

4 tbsp of organic hemp seeds

4 tbsp of organic shredded coconut 

1/4 tsp of organic baking powder 

pinch of sea salt 

1 large happy free range chicken egg

1/4 cup of fluoride free water 

2 tbsp of organic virgin coconut oil (at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 325 degrees F. 

2. In a large bowl, mix white rice flour, white chia seed powder, hemp seeds, shredded coconut, baking powder and sea salt. Mix really well. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, beat the egg and then add the water and coconut oil and continue beating. 

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix them together. The texture will be like dough but will appear crumbly. You may need to add a little water.

5. Using your hands, knead the dough and break into four separate (even) pieces.

6. Make pieces into 4 balls.

7. Hold dough in hand and press down slightly, moving around the dough. (see image)

8. Place on a baking tray and repeat process.

9. Bake for 20-25 minutes! 

10. Let cool and enjoy! 

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Meditating After Lunch

In under 30 minutes you can bake fresh gluten free rolls with pumpkin seeds and create a spinach and mushroom bruschetta! Yummy. (see recipe below). Pumpkin seeds are a good source of zinc and contain anti-inflammatory benefits for arthritis. They are a very good source of magnesium, manganese and phosphorus, and a good source of iron, copper and protein. There are studies that find pumpkin seeds may promote prostate health. However, more research is needed to determine if this is true. You can read more about pumpkin seeds here.

Recipe

Serves 2-4, Makes 4 buns

Ingredients:

For bread: 

11/2 cups of gluten free flour 

3 tbsp of white chia seed powder 

1 happy free range chicken egg 

3 tbsp of organic extra virgin olive oil 

1/4 cup of fluoride free water 

pinch of salt 

1/2 tbsp of organic baking soda

1/4 cup (or less) of organic pre-soaked pumpkin seeds

For bruschetta topping: 

4 organic garlic cloves

hand full of organic spinach leaves (washed) 

7-10 organic shiitake mushrooms 

2 organic shallots

2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil 

sea salt

organic pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. In a large mixing bowl, add gluten free flour, white chia seed powder, pumpkin seeds, salt and baking soda. 

3. Mix dry ingredients together. Set aside

4. In a small bowl, add egg, water and oil and beat ingredients together.

5. Add egg mix to dry ingredients.

6. Mix everything together until you get a doughy texture. It should not be sticky. (Add more flour if necessary).

7. Make dough into 4 separate balls.

8. Roll out dough balls in hands and flatten slightly, rounding the edges, to create a bun roll. (click here if you want to see an image)

9. Place each bun roll on a cookie sheet.

10. Put in oven and bake for 15 minutes.

11. Chop garlic and shallots. Let sit for 5 minutes for health benefits.

12. Chop mushrooms and spinach. Set aside.

13. Heat a frying pan at low heat and add extra virgin olive oil.

14. Add shallots, garlic, mushrooms and spinach.

15. Lightly fry all ingredients for about 5 minutes. Set aside.

16. Once buns are ready, remove from oven and let cool for 3-5 minutes.

17. Cut buns in half and top with spinach, garlic, mushroom and olive oil mix, adding sea salt and pepper for added flavour.

18. Eat and Enjoy!

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Below are some photos from today's walk in the park after a yummy lunch. It was a serene atmosphere, no sun but plenty of animal and plant life. The first critter to appear was a baby chipmunk playing under the leaves (2nd last photo).

"Silence comes when thought has understood its own beginning, the nature of itself, how all thought is never free but always old. To see all this, to see the movement of every thought, to understand it, to be aware of it, is to come to that silence which is meditation, in which the `observer' never is. - Jiddu Krishnamurti 

So meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus or walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the singing of birds or looking at the face of your wife or child. - Jiddu Krishnamurti 

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A Brunch to Remember

We are starting the month off with more new healthy recipes. Below: apple, orange, lemon and gold Inca berry smoothie sprinkled with cinnamon. And two happy free-range chicken eggs (poached) on a freshly made (gluten free) pumpkin seed bun, topped with a tomato and a zucchini, broccoli and ginger spread, that was also made fresh this morning. It's a brunch to remember - lots of enzymes to energize you and great flavor!

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Parsley - It's Not Just a Pretty Face

Parsley is the world's most popular herb used as a table garnish, but it's not just good for decorating a plate. Parsley is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A (notably through its concentration of the pro-vitamin A carotenoid, beta-carotene). It has been shown to function as an antioxidant and helps prevent oxygen-based damage to cells. Parsley is also a good source of folic acid - a critical nutrient for proper cell division. Read more about the benefits parsley here. 

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Jam Goodness

Sweet Strawberry Jam that we made two days ago, raw with active enzymes and unheated! Strawberries contain heart healthy nutrients such as fiber, Vitamin C, potassium and folate. They are among the top three fresh fruits that provide a healthy antioxidant boost. Strawberries pack 10% of our daily iodine needs. One cup of fresh organic strawberries has approximately 13/mcg of iodine. It is important to have a sufficient amount of iodine in the body, so you don't take on radioactive iodine that may be present in the environment.

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Simple Sunday Brunch

Healthy free-run vegetable grain-fed chickens (free of antibiotics) are a good source of protein, Vitamin B and selenium. Selenium is important to human health because it is an essential component of thyroid hormone metabolism, antioxidant defense system and immune function. For centuries, chicken soup has been used to cure a cold because of it's anti-inflammatory and mucus thinning effects.

Tasty oven baked chicken on a gluten-free bun ingredients: Free-run vegetable grain-fed ground chicken, organic gluten-free buns (see recipe page), organic onions, organic tomatoes, organic cucumbers, organic black chia seeds and sea salt and pepper for flavor.

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