"Granola" Bars

1 lb (approximately 1 1/3 cups) honey**
8 ounces sesame seed
6 ounces golden flax seed (whole seeds, not meal)
2 ounces hemp seed
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/8 teaspoon orange extract
6 ounces dried fruit (I used a "berry blend")

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a work surface.

Combine honey and orange peel in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil (the longer you boil it the more firm the bars will be). Add seeds stir well- as soon as it returns to a boil stir in orange extract and pour onto parchment. Spread it out until it is approximately 1/4" thick, sprinkle dried fruit over top and press it into the seed mixture. Be careful it's hot- use a silicone spatula or some other tool for this.

Let cool to room temperature. Leave on parchment and cut into pieces. Peel off parchment when you serve it.

Variations- you can leave out the fruit, or change the seed ratio, or add other "toppings" like chocolate or peanut butter chips. You can also change, or omit, the peel/extract combo, or use a strongly flavored honey to change the flavor. There are as many variations as you could imagine!

Here are some ideas:
Replace fruit with 1/3 cup each peanut butter, semisweet, and white chocolate chips

Omit extract, replace fruit with 1/3 cup each cranberries and chocolate chips.

Omit extract and peel. Add 1 teaspoon "apple pie spice". With seeds, stir in 6-8 ounces chopped dried apple. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup caramel chips.

**While this is starch free, it is very high in maltose. If you have difficulty with honey or maltose, agave syrup is a good substitute.

Cheesy Chickeny Casserole

This is just another variation of a million cheesy casseroles that are floating around the net. But it's yummy, and sometimes it's nice to have a recipe that you don't have to modify.

Cheesy Chickeny Casserole

~ 1 lb broccoli, cut into florets (use more or less as you like)
~ 1 lb cauliflower, cut into florets (ditto)
2 lb chicken
1 can GF cream of chicken soup or cream of mushroom soup**
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup oat flour
1/2 milk (adjust amount as needed)
12 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded or cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, to taste
salt
pepper
olive oil
GF croutons or crackers, if desired
1 tablespoon butter, if using crackers or croutons

In a medium saucepan, combine 2T butter and onion. Soften over medium heat, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, cook an additional minute. Add oat flour, cook for 1-2 minutes. Add cream of chicken soup and milk, whisk well. When sauce is hot, add cheese. Cook over medium heat, uncovered, stirring frequently until cheese is melted.

Meanwhile, heat a saute pan over medium heat, add 1-2 T olive oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper and Italian seasoning. Brown slightly on each side. You will likely need to cook the chicken in batches; set aside as they are cooked. If you have cubed your chicken, or if your chicken breasts are thin, do not cook them completely but leave them slightly undercooked so they won't overcook in the oven.

In a casserole dish, combine uncooked broccoli and uncooked cauliflower. Add chicken. Cover with cheese sauce.

Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and casserole is hot. If using croutons/crackers, combine with about 1T of melted butter, and sprinkle over the top of the casserole about 5 minutes before done.

Starch content:
The starch content of the soup will vary depending on brand and variety. Of course, avoid "common" brands such as Campbells as they are not GF. Also, adding any kind of crackers or croutons on the top will raise the starch content considerably. But without any kind of topping this casserole contains 10-13 grams of starch per serving.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program

My son, the reason for this blog, was "diagnosed" with some food allergies last fall. No nuts, no corn (now including syrup and sugar), no fin fish, no shell fish, in addition to all the "No"s he already had. Well, that was great. Just hunky dory. And it was also fantastic timing, given that it was right before Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Ironically, he was pretty much left with fruit, veg, and meat. The title of this blog also became his menu for a while (figuratively, at least). To be honest, it was more than a little disheartening. I was looking at his previous restrictions as a challenge, but this seemed insurmountable. After all, there is only so much that one can do to a Brussels sprout or a carrot stick.

I didn't really cook much for a month, forget about inventiveness. Most of the recipes here had already been created, but when I ran out of them I really lacked the motivation to create anything new. Thus, this poor blog has been a little bit lacking for the last few weeks.


However.....

Last week I came up with my first new recipe in a long time (which I will post shortly) and even better, we got some good news. It appears that the "no nuts" ban will be lifted(it looks like it might have been a false positive). It is my hope that it will be, and he will get nuts back, and I will be able to create some yummy new things once I have something, anything to work with.

In the meantime, go buy some mascapone cheese and some strawberries. I have some yummy almost-starch-free crepes to tell you about.

Clam Chowder

On a cold winter day, sometimes the best remedy is a hot bowl of soup. Clam chowder is often highly starchy because it's full of potatoes and uses a roux for thickening.

This clam chowder is incredibly good, and is very satisfying. However, there are only 7.5 grams of starch per (generous) serving.

Clam Chowder

4 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams, drained with juice reserved
1 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced carrots
4 cups water
1 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon minced parsley
2-1/2 cups peeled and cubed jicama
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup oat flour
4 cups heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon white sugar (just omit if you can't have sugar)
1 tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar


1. In a large stockpot add clam juice, onion, carrots, water, celery, and parsley. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
2. Add jicama and simmer 20 more minutes. At the same time, start cream sauce.
3. In a Dutch oven melt butter and add flour; blend until smooth. Slowly pour in cream, stirring constantly. DO NOT BOIL! When smooth, transfer to the stockpot.
4. Stir in clams, salt, pepper, sugar and rice wine vinegar. Simmer, never let boil, until smooth and slightly thickened, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Pear "Pancakes"

Looking at the ingredient list, one might think that this is really an omelet. However, though it doesn't taste like a Bisquick-style pancake it tastes more like like a pancake than anything else. While it's in a category of its own, it's delicious and I hope you'll love it as much as we do! It is also delicious made with a granny smith apple (our most frequently served version) and I think it might be really yummy made with plums as well.

Pear Pancakes

1 pear, slightly under ripe
2 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract


Grate pear, and squeeze all the juice you can out of the grated pear, discard juice. In separate bowl, beat eggs well. Add the remaining ingredients, beat well. Stir in grated pear.

In a large heavy saute pan, heat a small amount of oil over medium heat(if you are using a non-stick pan you need just a scant amount). Pour in egg mixture, and pat/press mixture into an even layer about 1/2" thick. It will be about 7" in diameter.

Cook over medium heat 3-4 minutes or until nicely browned. Flip, carefully, and cook another 3 minutes or until browned on the other side. Serve with syrup, jam, sour cream, or just plain.

Chicken "Noodley" Soup

My littlest guy has declared this to be the Best Soup Ever. I usually make this with homemade chicken stock, which I plan ahead to make when I roast a chicken. However, it's still quite yummy with commercial chicken stock. This soup is supposed to be hearty, with a lot of veggies/meat in comparison to the amount of stock. If you like a lighter soup, simply add more stock and adjust the seasonings accordingly.

Chicken "Noodley" Soup

2 quarts chicken stock
4 cups cooked chicken (light or dark meat), cubed
3 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 cups mushrooms
2-3 cups shredded zucchini
olive oil
1-2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat. Add a small amount of olive oil and onion, saute until they begin to soften, about 3-4 minutes. Add carrots, cook 2-3 minutes. Add celery, cook about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms, cook 2-3 minutes more.

Add stock and seasonings, simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or until veggies are quite soft. Add zucchini and chicken, cook another 10-20 minutes. Check seasonings and adjust, if necessary. Serve over steamed plain TVP if you like a soup with more body (it will be more like a stew) though it is great just as it is.

Tamales. Yes, Tamales.

We love Tamales. By "love" I mean "I make at least 15 dozen at a time and they rarely last a week unless I hide a few in the freezer". However, if you can't have corn or you can't have starch or you can't have gluten tamales are out, right?

Nope. This recipe is for almost-starch-free tamales. It's difficult to estimate exactly how much starch is in each tamale, since the amount of "masa" in each one is somewhat variable. But based on how I make them, there is less than 1/2 gram of starch in each one, so they are almost effectively starch free. The last time I made them I made regular tamales (with corn masa) and served them during a party. I had wrapped them with color coded strings, but most people didn't pay attention and no one (even myself) could tell the difference. They were that good- and that close to the original. It's really important to use almond and oat flour- the two together approximate the nuttiness of the corn masa really well.

Finally, this recipe makes a lot. You can either divide the recipe and make less, or freeze some of the meat (cooked and shredded) and broth for later use. Since tamale making is a serious investment of time, this might be a good option.

Nearly Starch Free Tamales

For the meat filling:

Ingredients

* 4 teaspoons chili powder
* 1 tablespoon freshly toasted and ground cumin seeds
* 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 2 teaspoon dried oregano
* 2 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 10-14 pounds pork butt or shoulder, trimmed
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil, divided
* 1 onion, finely chopped
* 6 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 serrano chile, seeded and finely minced

For the wrappers:

* 2-3 packages dried corn husks or parchment paper if you can't use corn products

For the dough:

* 6-8 cups almond flour (use more as needed)
* 1 1/2 cups oat flour
* 1 1/2 cups flax seed
* 2 tablespoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons baking powder
* 12 ounces lard, approximately 1 1/2 cup
* 6 to 10 cups reserved cooking liquid, more as needed (may use chicken broth if cooking liquid is not sufficient)

For the meat filling:

Using a large stockpot, add a couple tablespoons of oil and sear pork on all sides. Add chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, black pepper to the pork and add enough water to completely cover the meat, approximately 2 1/2 quarts. Cover, place over high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the meat is very tender and falling apart, about 3-4 hours. Add water as needed, but if possible avoid adding water during the last hour to allow the flavors to concentrate. Remove the meat from the water to a cutting board, and set aside to cool. Leave the cooking liquid in the pot, once cool remove to a large bowl or other container. Once the meat is cool enough to handle, shred discarding any skin, bones, cartilage and excess fat. Return stockpot to stove over medium heat and add the remaining vegetable oil. Once shimmering, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is semi-translucent, approximately 2 minutes. Add the garlic and chili and continue to cook for another minute. Add the meat and 2-3 cups reserved cooking liquid and cook until heated through and the liquid has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside until ready to assemble.

For the wrappers:

While the meat is cooking, place the husks in a large bowl or container and submerge completely in hot water. Soak the husks until they are soft and pliable, at least 45 minutes and up to 2 hours. If you find that they like to float to the top, as I do, place a large heavy dinner plate over the husks to help submerge them. If you are using parchment, cut into several dozen 8" squares.

For the dough:

Place the almond meal, oat flour, flax seed, salt, and baking powder into a large mixing bowl and combine. Add the lard and using your hands, knead together until the lard is well incorporated into the dry mixture. Gradually add enough of the reserved cooking liquid to create a dough that is like thick mashed potatoes. The dough should be moist but not wet. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set aside until ready to use. You may find that the texture has changed with a resting time, add more reserved liquid or chicken broth as needed.

To assemble the tamales:

Remove a corn husk from the water and pat to remove excess water. Working in batches of 6, lay the husks on a towel and spread about 2 tablespoons of the dough in an even layer across the wide end of the husk to within 1/2-inch of the edges. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the meat mixture in a line down the center of the dough. Roll the husk so the dough surrounds the meat and fold the bottom under to finish creating the tamale. Repeat until all the husks, dough and filling are used. Tie the tamales, around the center in groups of 3 with kitchen twine or cotton yarn.

To steam the tamales:

Place a steamer basket in the bottom of an 11-quart pot and add enough water to come to the bottom of the basket. Stand the tamales close together on their folded ends and lean them in towards the center, away from the sides of the pot. Bring the water to a boil over medium heat, then cover and reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Check the water level every 15 to 20 minutes, and add boiling water by pouring down the side of the pot, if necessary. Steam until the dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. If you are using parchment, be extra careful that the tamales do not rest in standing water.

Serve warm with enchilada sauce, hot sauce, any other condiment of your choice or even just plain. Store leftover tamales, still in their corn husks, in ziploc bags in the freezer, for up to a month (if you can hide them that well, of course). To reheat, remove the plastic wrap and steam until heated through.