better than mashed potatoes

My poor blog has been so neglected lately. Unfortunately, grad school is interfering with all my grand plans for new recipe creation. However, I have quite a few things that I'd like to try, so hopefully soon I'll have lots of new things to post!

I rarely post recipes that are not my own, but I recently bought some parsnips on a whim, came across this recipe, and it was so yummy that I had to share it with you.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I give you something better than mashed potatoes:

Mashed Parsnips

Ingredients

1 pound carrots, coarsely chopped
1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup butter, diced and softened
pinch ground nutmeg
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add carrots, cover partially, and simmer 5 minutes. Add parsnips, and cover partially. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 minutes. Drain well.

Return vegetables to saucepan, and stir over medium heat until any excess moisture evaporates. Transfer to food processor or in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Add butter, and process or whip until smooth (it will still have just a little texture if you use a stand mixer). Season with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

They're not starch free, and just barely qualify as low starch. However, it's a nice treat and much better than a serving of mashed potatoes, which has roughly 40 grams of starch per serving.

Make 4 generous servings, with approx 10 grams of starch per serving.

My recipe is a slightly modified version of the recipe found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/whipped-carrots-and-parsnips/detail.aspx

Fries.

I really wanted french fries. You know that feeling, you really want something and you KNOW it isn't good for you, but you want it anyway.

So, I decided to make some. And in case you're in need of a french-fry fix, I'll share my method with you. (sorry, it's not a recipe, exactly)

Green Bean French Fries

Gather together:
1 cup oat flour (you won't use all of this)
1 lb green beans (my local mega mart sells them in already prepped 1 lb bags)
1 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt (use as much, or as little, as you like)
oil
4 eggs, beaten

Prepare:
Heat your oil over medium heat. When a little piece of bread dropped in the oil instantly starts to sizzle, it's hot enough. One of my kids broke my kitchen thermometer when it was mistaken for a sword (a hydrometer was lost in the same incident, sadly) but I'd estimate that the oil temp should be around 360°.

While the oil is heating, combine the flour and the seasoned salt in a bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Make sure the green beans are completely dry, dust with flour, dip in egg, coat with flour. When oil is hot, drop the fries in the oil, and fry for about 3 minutes or until all golden-y delicious.

Continue frying the fries in batches- place the completed fries in the oven on a cooling rack. Serve with ranch or the dipping sauce of your choice.

This makes approximately 4 servings of fries, with approximately 12 grams of starch per serving. The starch amount will vary based on the age of the beans (older beans are more starchy) and the amount of oat flour used (I had about 1/3 cup remaining after coating the fries)

Better than Sweet Potato Casserole

We love sweet potato casserole. Not the one made with mini marshmallows, but the one that appeared in a previous post (originally it was made exclusively with sweet potatoes). mmmm, sweet potatoes....

Recently I created- mostly by accident- a new casserole that will absolutely be a Thanksgiving sweet potato stand-in, and I expect it will appear on the table at other holiday meals too. The kids loved it, I loved it... it's fantastic. I hope you love it too! Best of all, this has only about 3 grams of starch per serving, and no maltose.


Sweet Squash Casserole

3 acorn squash (or squash of your choice
2 bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup flaked coconut (optional, but highly recommended)
2 tablespoons oat flour
2 tablespoons butter, softened


Roast the acorn squash at 350° until tender. I like to simply stick them in the oven in a pan until done. Let them cool for a few minutes, then cut open and remove seeds. Peel skins off squash (they will come off very easily).

While cleaning the squash, roast the bananas at 350° for about 10 minutes until skins are black and bananas are done. You can roast them in the same pan to save time in clean up.

Smash squash, banana, white sugar and egg together until mostly smooth. Place mixture in a 8x8 (1.5 quart) casserole dish. Combine remaining ingredients and sprinkle topping over casserole. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes or until topping is browned and squash is slightly bubbly on the edges.




Easy Sunday Dinner Version:

This version uses just four ingredients of the casserole, and is super yummy with less prep time.

3 acorn squash
2 bananas
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup coconut

Roast squash the same as above. While cleaning the squash, roast the bananas as above.

Smash the squash together with the banana. While you are doing that, toast the coconut in the oven. You can use the same pan, and watch it carefully as it will only take a minute or so to toast.

Add the toasted coconut and the brown sugar to the squash/banana mixture. Mix well, serve.

"Sweet Potato" Casserole

We love this casserole, especially at thanksgiving, but sweet potatoes (yams) are quite high in starch. By substituting pumpkin for most of the sweet potato you can still get the essence of sweet potato casserole without all the starch.

I'm calling this "low starch" but it is still a treat with 7 grams of starch per serving. I also cook my own pumpkin because that cuts down on the starch content- if you use canned pumpkin or canned (drained) sweet potato just try to get close to 4 cups of pumpkin and 1 cup of sweet potato. This recipe also works really well when substituting Stevia instead of sugar.

There are about 780 mg of maltose per serving, so this is definitely a treat if you are on a low-maltose diet.

If you choose to use fresh pumpkin, and if you plan to make pumpkin pie, you can use a larger pie pumpkin and reserve some for the pie.


"Sweet Potato" Casserole

* 1 large sweet potato
* 1 small-ish pie pumpkin (don't use a jack-o-lantern pumpkin from your local mega-mart)
* 3 tablespoons butter, softened
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1 cup chopped pecans
* 1 cup flaked coconut (optional, but highly recommended)
* 1/3 cup oat flour
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Poke holes in the sweet potato with a fork, arrange the sweet potato and pumpkin on a cookie sheet. Grease an 11x7 inch glass baking dish.
2. Bake sweet potato (and pumpkin, if using) for 1 hour. Let cool, remove skins and seeds, and mash in a large bowl. There should be approximately 1 cup of mashed sweet potato and 4 cups of mashed pumpkin.
3. Combine softened butter with brown sugar, nuts, coconut and flour; stir with a fork. Set aside.
4. Combine sugar, eggs, milk, orange peel, butter, vanilla, salt with the mashed sweet potatoes. Beat the mixture with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the brown sugar-nut mixture over the top of the mixture.
5. Bake for 35-45 minutes.

Roasted Root Vegetables

This is a great side dish for just about any fall or winter meal, and one of the kids' favorite winter veggie dishes. The turnips add a negligible amount of starch to the dish, and can be left out if you are on a strict no-starch diet.

Roasted Root Vegetables

4-6 medium beets, peeled and quartered
3-4 medium turnips, peeled and quartered
3-4 carrots, peeled and cut into 1" lengths
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
salt and pepper to taste (I prefer a garlic-pepper blend instead of plain black pepper)
1/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare veggies, place in a single layer on one end of a long sheet of aluminum foil (about 24" long). Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with spices. Fold other end of aluminum foil over, crimp ends and sides to make a packet. Place packet on a cookie sheet, and bake for 40-60 minutes, or until done.

Witches Fingers

These are fantastic party favors for any Halloween-themed party. They are based on Cheese Crackers, and everyone- including starch and gluten will ooh and aah and love these! There are about 1.7 grams of starch per "finger".




Witches Fingers

6 ounces butter
4 eggs
10 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated (white or orange)
½ cup oat flour
½ cup coconut flour
1 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Pepperoni slices or sliced almonds
½ teaspoon rosemary (optional, for a more grown-up version)

Preheat oven to 300°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Beat butter in a stand mixer until soft. Add oat and coconut flour, beat on medium speed 1-2 minutes. Add eggs, beat until fluffy (at least 2 minutes). Add almond flour, salt, baking powder, and cayenne if using. Mix on medium another 1-2 minutes, add cheese and mix another 1-2 minutes. The slow incorporation of ingredients and the long mixing time really helps to ensure that the crackers aren’t dense, so it is important not to skip these steps.
Take 1 tablespoon dough and roll it loosely into a finger shape. Don’t roll it perfectly because real fingers have knuckles, of course. Take 1 slice pepperoni and cut it into sixths, place a sliver of pepperoni onto the tip of the “finger” as a fingernail. Or, you can take slivered almonds, dye them red with food coloring, and use those as the "fingernail". Place a few leaves of rosemary on the knuckle if making the grown-up version. Bake 15-17 minutes or until done, make 3 dozen fingers.

Cheese Crackers

Long ago, my kids and I discovered a recipe for cheese crackers that were shaped like Pac-Man, and having to give up these (and other) crackers was very sad when we had to eliminate starches from our diet. After all, things like cheerios and goldfish crackers are practically a staple for small children! Although these crackers aren’t shaped like Pac-Man or a goldfish, they are so tasty that any kid (or grown-up) won’t care. There are about 1.7 grams of starch in each cracker.



Cheese Crackers

6 ounces butter
4 eggs
10 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated (white or orange)
½ cup oat flour
½ cup coconut flour
1 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, for a more grown-up version)

Preheat oven to 300°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Beat butter in a stand mixer until soft. Add oat and coconut flour, beat on medium speed 1-2 minutes. Add eggs, beat until fluffy (at least 2 minutes). Add almond flour, salt, baking powder, and cayenne if using. Mix on medium another 1-2 minutes, add cheese and mix another 1-2 minutes. The slow incorporation of ingredients and the long mixing time really helps to ensure that the crackers aren’t dense, so it is important not to skip these steps.

Drop small mounds of batter onto pan, about 1 tablespoon’s worth for each cracker, flatten slightly. Alternately, use a #50 ice cream scoop. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until done, makes 3 dozen crackers. Try this with tomato soup... delish!!!