What to Tell People You Eat

What do you tell the other mom about okay breakfast foods when Kiddo is going for a sleepover? What do you tell the babysitter if she wants to give the kids a snack? What do you tell Sister-In-Law when you are planning Thanksgiving dinner together?

While one option might be to simply hand-carry your own meals everywhere you go, sometimes it's helpful to have a list that you can just hand out, for other people to keep for a reference. Below is a link to the list that I have created for these types of things; I hope that you find it helpful!

Please note: for my kiddo, he can "cheat" with a little bit of starch from time to time. Some people might be able to tolerate more, some people might be able to tolerate less. Feel free to change, or omit, that section as it applies to you.
Foods Containing Starch and/Or Maltose

mmmm, peanut butter

What do you get when you take THIS:



plus THIS?


You get THIS.


Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins
Ingredients
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup light cream
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup peanut butter chips
peanut butter

Method
Beat eggs until thick and light-colored. Whisk in coconut flour. Add butter, almond flour, light cream, vanilla, sugar, and baking soda. Whisk well to blend. Add peanut butter chips.

Place a scant 1/2 cup of batter into muffin tins. Place about 1 teaspoon of peanut butter on top of each muffin, and press lightly into the batter. You just want to push it down a tiny bit so that it doesn't slide off when it hits the heat of the oven, you're not pushing it all the way into the batter.

Bake at 350° for 15-18 minutes or until done. Makes approximately 18 muffins, with about 1 gram of starch each.

Starch Free Fauxtmeal

This recipe is totally cool, mostly because it's not a recipe. But it has a great photo, so there's that, at least.




Fauxtmeal (faux-t-meal)
TVP (plain, non-flavored)
Milk (whatever kind floats your boat)
sugar (or stevia or agave or whatever you like)**
cinnamon or other spices
fruit, perhaps, or raisins, or anything else you can think of**


Combine equal parts TVP and milk. Add sugar and spice(s) and fruit to taste... all of this is completely optional. Add whatever you like!!! Place the whole lot in a cake pan or a pie plate or a 9x13 pan or any pan that you like. The only important part is that your mixture should be somewhere around an inch thick.

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes, or until done. Add extra liquid when serving if you prefer your oatmeal to have that "soupy" quality.

That's it, and that is a non-recipe recipe if I ever saw one! Oh, and it's starch free.

*remember, honey has maltose, so don't use that if you're maltose-intolerant
** don't be silly and add potatoes or taro with your raisins, 'cause then it's not starch-free anymore

-----------------------------
After I posted this recipe, it occurred to me that some people might not know what TVP is. For this recipe, it's important to get the Plain variety, because it can come in different flavors, and I don't imagine that chicken- or beef-flavored oatmeal would be very tasty. I get mine in the bulk bins of my local WholeFoodMart, but Bob's Red Mill sells it in ~1lb packages.

Here is a linky to Bob's TVP on their website:
Bob's TVP

Coconut Easter Cookies

Here are some yummy cookies just in time for Easter! If you prefer, you can replace the jelly beans with dried fruit, or leave them off altogether.



Coconut Macaroon Easter Cookies
Ingredients
6 eggs
2 1/2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
~3 cups sweetened coconut (I used the whole bag)
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda

jellybeans, optional

Method
Beat eggs until light thickened. Whisk in coconut flour, add remaining ingredients except jelly beans. Beat well.

Place small scoops of batter onto parchment-lined pans. Press the centers down to make small depression. Bake at 325° for 15-20 minutes, depending on size, or until done. Remove to a cooling rack and top with jelly beans (you can anchor them with frosting if you prefer).

Makes about 2 dozen small cookies with less than one gram of starch each.

Apple Fritters, yo!

So I was at the store getting some milk...isn't that how all good love stories start?

...Anyway, so I was at the store getting some milk when out of the corner of my eye this unassuming little package beckoned. Bedecked with a garish orange sign, it was proclaimed that Apple Fritters Were on Sale!!

I picked up the package. Mulled it over, put it back. Thought about it some more, picked it up...

oh, I really wanted some apple fritters!

Then it occurred to me that I could just make some. And while they wouldn't have a shelf-life of at least a week, with any luck and a bit of skill that wouldn't matter. I grabbed my milk and high-tailed it out of the store and into the kitchen and Apple-y Frittery Heaven.

Apple Fritters

Ingredients
1 1/2 qts oil, for frying
3 cups chopped apples, use a good mix of sweet and tart
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 teaspoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Cinnamon Sugar

"Powered" Sugar Glaze
bakers or superfine sugar
vanilla extract
milk

Method
Beat eggs well. Whisk in coconut flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Mix in almond flour. Stir in apples. Let batter rest 5-10 minutes before frying for best results.

Heat the oil to 350-375° Using a scoop or some other implement, place 1/4c to 1/3c dollops of batter into the oil. Don't crowd the pan or the oil temp will drop too much and they'll be greasy. Fry about 5 minutes or until they are the dark golden (well, light-ish brown) and cooked through.

Remove cooling rack and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, glaze, or both.

To make the glaze: To about 1 cup of superfine sugar add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla (or to taste) and enough milk to make a thick glaze. Use a spoon to drizzle over the fritters, if desired.



This recipe makes about 2 dozen, depending on size. I'm not sure because I ran several "quality checks" and I lost count.

They are totally- no kidding, totally- starch free.
*see this post regarding possible starch content in the apples.

Starch Free Granola Bars

Commercial Granola Bars are full of... Granola. Which is made of oats. Which is full of starch (and often gluten too).

Bummer.

But my kids kept asking, and I persevered, and so I present to you....

Starch Free Granola Bars!!! Which, granted, aren't granola bars because they don't have any granola, but I'm a baker and not a namer-of-things.

Before you start, be sure to read the recipe through carefully, and do ALL the prep work ahead of time.




Starch Free....Bars

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

12-16 ounces of mixed nuts
24 ounces of dried fruit (I used apricots and cranberries)

1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional

butter or oil

Method
Coarsely chop the nuts and fruits, place into a large bowl. Measure out the chocolate chips, set aside.

Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.

Butter a cutting board, or a the backside of a smaller sheet pan. Set aside.

Get a large bowl scraper or spoon, set aside with the parchment-lined pan.

Place the first 5 ingredients into a 3 qt pot. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature, and cook to 300°. Watch carefully and do not go above 300° (soft crack stage). Remove the thermometer.

Working very, very quickly, pour the fruit and nuts into the sugar, stir well, and pour onto the parchment-lined pan. Press flat with the buttered cutting board.

If desired, sprinkle chocolate chips over the bars, and press again with the board (no need to butter it again).

Let cool about 5 minutes, no longer, and cut into bars with a pizza cutter or a sharp knife. Let cool completely, and store in an airtight container.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Hi Blog! Long time no... well... write, I guess. I know that's completely my fault. There's been this annoying thing called a thesis that has been taking up all my time, and also a bit of the flu. Anyway....


There is no actual pie in these muffins. There isn't any oatmeal either. There is pumpkin, and there are raisins.... and effectively no starch.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal Raisin Muffins

Ingredients

6 eggs
1/2 cup ground flax seed/meal
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon *each* allspice, nutmeg, ground cloves
4 cups almond flour
1 15ounce can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups raisins
1 teaspoon baking soda

Method

Add eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer (a hand mixer also works, but it may take longer). Using a whisk attachment, beat at high speed for at least 5 minutes, or until the eggs are lighter, foamy, and have doubled in size. Add flax meal, beat another 2 minutes or so. Add sugar, beat another 2-5 minutes. **

Add pumpkin, beat a minute or so, then add almond flour.

As soon as the almond flour is completely incorporated, add the butter, and vanilla. Then add the raisins. After the raisins are completely incorporated, add the baking soda and salt. Beat just long enough to incorporate the last two ingredients.

Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until done.

**It may seem like nothing is happening, but all this whisking time is adding air to the batter, helping to ensure that the muffins are nice and light.